The best New Orleans Pelicans lineup might surprise you

The New Orleans Pelicans came back from a double-digit deficit to beat the lowly Detroit Pistons last night behind another solid effort from Brandon Ingram.

With Kira Lewis Jr. out, coach Willie Green tightened up his rotation and primarily used nine players, which is what I think we’ll see now that Kira is out for the season.

The Pelicans are still searching for the right combination of players and have used eight different 5-man lineups for at least 30 minutes this season.  But the bulk of the minutes have gone to three different groups.

The 5-man lineup that has played the most minutes (129) together this season is Jonas Valanciunas, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, Devonte’ Graham and Herb Jones.

I think this is the Pelicans’ best lineup without Zion Williamson, but their net rating is just +2.4 overall.

Best and worst New Orleans Pelicans lineups

The best lineup of those that have played at least 50 minutes together is this five-man group, which has a +9.4 net rating, including a team-best 99 defensive rating:

• Jonas Valanciunas
• Devonte’ Graham
• Brandon Ingram
• Nickeil Alexander-Walker
• Herb Jones

This group has played 93 minutes together, second-most of any lineup for the New Orleans Pelicans. There are a couple of surprising things about this: First, rookie Herb Jones is part of the two most-played lineups this season. This is a great sign for the Pelicans, as he is the type of lockdown defender who can impact the game without needing many shots, which is ideal for a complementary player around Zion and Ingram.

The second is the inclusion of Nickeil Alexander-Walker, as he has shot poorly all season and I would have guessed that Josh Hart, not NAW, would be the guard in their most effective group.

The next most used lineup at 86 minutes has a -4.5 net rating and includes Garrett Temple, Jonas Valanciunas, Josh Hart, Devonte’ Graham and Nickeil Alexander-Walker. This five-man group has a terrible 108.4 defensive rating, which accounts for their poor rating.

If you want an even worse one, flip Devonte’ for Tomas Satoransky and you have the Pelicans’ worst lineup that has played at least 30 minutes together, as this group has a -23.1 net rating and should probably never see the floor together again.

It’s becoming clear that Satoransky should probably not be in an NBA rotation and a lack of productivity from the 7th-10th guys on the bench has hurt the Pels.

It also shows that the Pelicans might have something if Nickeil Alexander-Walker can get things going consistently, as he is a part of their most effective defensive lineup but has to contribute better shooting.