Brow beaten? Davis, Pelicans taking their lumps duing 0-4 start
Coming into this season, the level of excitement surrounding the potential of the New Orleans Pelicans couldn’t have been much higher. And there were a few very good reasons for that.
Anthony Davis was coming off of a season where he led the league in blocked shots and earned first-team All-NBA honors. And while many believed he had already become one of the league’s top three players, there was a sense that he’d continue to improve, because his ceiling seemed almost limitless.
An offseason coaching change provided even more reason to be optimistic. The Pelicans brought in Alvin Gentry, who was fresh off guiding the Warriors to the league’s second-best offense as an assistant under Steve Kerr. Gentry has a reputation of playing an up-tempo style that stems from his time as an assistant under Mike D’Antoni during his days with the Suns, and as the head coach in Phoenix, where he guided the team to the Western Conference finals in 2010.
Add in the fact that New Orleans expected to be healthier this season, and many predicted the Pelicans to make a leap in the standings, even in the ultra-competitive Western Conference.
Things haven’t gone as planned through the first four games of the season, however, and honestly, the team couldn’t have gotten off to a rougher start.
The Pelicans are 0-4 and rank near the bottom of the league in both offensive and defensive efficiency. Why? Injury issues are evident once again, as Tyreke Evans and Norris Cole are both out, starting center Omer Asik is just making his way back, and Jrue Holiday is on a minutes' restriction. This is causing continuity problems on defense, where Gentry has installed a less-complicated system, but one that still requires all five guys being dialed in to the plan that is in place.
It’s worth pointing out just how steep the talent drop-off is on this Pelicans roster. Ish Smith is a fringe player who’s been on nine teams as he begins his sixth NBA season, and was just signed during the final week of training camp. He’s averaging 23.5 minutes per game and shooting just 36 percent.
Toney Douglas has played well, but he too is a journeyman, and he appeared in just 12 games for New Orleans last season. He was signed during the first week of the regular season after the Nate Robinson experiment failed, which means he got zero time during the preseason to learn his new coach’s systems. Yet he’s averaging 21 minutes per game.
Alonzo Gee and Dante Cunningham are similar talents, averaging 17.8 and 25.3 minutes, respectively. Then there’s the corpse of Kendrick Perkins, who was forced to start three games with Asik still sidelined.
That lack of depth is why the injuries have been so damaging to the Pelicans in the early part of the season. It helps to explain why the defense has lacked any type of cohesiveness and why everyone looks lost. The offense, however, might be even worse.
Davis is being double- and triple-teamed relentlessly, because the Pelicans haven’t been able to knock down shots. The team ranks 25th in the league in field-goal percentage, with Davis, Holiday and Eric Gordon each shooting below 38 percent. The overall result is Davis averaging almost four fewer points per game than he did a season ago, while shooting worse from the field by almost 16 percent.
Speaking to reporters after practice on Wednesday, Gentry said he believes improving his team’s spacing will help provide space for Davis.
“The whole idea behind spacing is that you want to put the defense in a situation where they have to help and you can take advantage of that,” Gentry said. “They are going to have crowds around [Davis] because their whole deal is to not let our best player beat them. So what we’ve got to try and do is get him on the move, get him in situations where he makes quick moves, or he just has to make the play. Because they are double- or triple-teaming him.”
Unless these fringe players can start knocking down shots, that lack of spacing isn't going to change anytime soon. Help is coming, but it’s still a ways away. Both Evans and Cole are about four weeks from returning. And while Asik did play 10 minutes in a game against the Warriors, the team sat him against Orlando with a calf strain. It’s clear he’s nowhere close to being 100 percent.
There’s an ominous statistic: Of 11 teams in the Western Conference which have started 0-4 over the past 10 seasons, only one has made the playoffs. New Orleans has to hope it doesn’t dig too deep of a hole while waiting for help to return, and while learning the new systems that Gentry is attempting to put into place.
“I know it’s a little bit discouraging,” Gentry said. “We didn’t expect to be 0-4. Mentally, it takes a little bit out of you but we’re going to stay the course. We’re not going to change anything, and we’re not going to panic and overreact. We’re going to continue to stay the course, continue to try to improve, and we’re going to get some guys back, some real vital guys to what we’re trying to do, eventually. And that’s it.”
