In Monty Williams’ first season as head coach of the New Orleans NBA franchise the team’s MO was defense. That slow grind it out style led to a playoff berth, a 6 game series against the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers, and a defensive ranking of 10th in the league.
Since that 2010-2011 season, though, the defense has continually regressed. The following seasons, in order, have yielded a defensive ranking of 15th, 28th and 27th. Yikes. So, what happened? Two areas, that go hand in hand, particularly stand out for this decline.
Defensive Rebounding
In that 2010-11 season the then-Hornets ranked 2nd in defensive rebound percentage, grabbing a strong 76.2% of all opponent missed shots. The next season that number dropped to 73.1%, followed by 74.4%. This season the Pelicans posted a defensive rebound percentage of 73.8% which ranked them 21st in the league. Allowing opponents to grab offensive rebounds is going to lead to easy points for the opponent. But it’s compounded by another problem.
Opponent Shooting Percentage
During that 2010-11 season teams shot 45.7% against the then-Hornets. It was good for 13th in the league. The next year that same stat dropped to 44.4% and the same 13th ranking. But then it gets bad. In 2012-13 it ballooned to 47.1% which ranked 26th and this season teams shot 46.5% against the team and a 24th ranking.
This adds up to be a team that allows opponents to shoot well against them, and when their opponents do miss they don’t grab the misses.
Because of the slower paced offense the team consistently allows very few attempts to be taken against them (ranking in the top 5 ever year) under Monty Williams. If the team can cause more disruption on the perimeter and contest shooters there is potential to be an absolutely suffocating defense that allows very few points. Part of the reason for the decline, in both areas, has been the absence of Jrue Holiday (a strong perimeter defender) and Jason Smith (an underrated defensive rebounder). Another reason for the high opponent shooting percentage is something Ryan has written about before: The Pelicans allow the opponent to take smart shots.
Towards the end of the year Monty would pair Tyreke Evans and Anthony Davis with three floor spacing shooters. Evans is already a weaker defender and pairing him with the likes of Morrow, Babbit, Roberts, Rivers (though his defense has improved), and Miller made it tough to stop opponents for long stretches. Sub out one of them for Holiday, a guy who can hit a catch and shoot 3 and pressure opposing ball handlers will be vitally important next season.
Bringing in another disruptive perimeter defender this offseason will be a priority as well. A guy who can space the floor will allow the offense to continue to put up points while shoring up the defense. It’s a move that could vault the Pelicans into the playoffs.
Do you have a certain player in mind? Let us know in the comments!
10 responses to “Looking at the Pelicans’ Defensive Decline”
A pre-injury Eric Gordon would fit the bill! /suicide
As far as unrestricted free agents go, Luol Deng is an option. Sefalosha is another, though he has been declining IIRC. Then there is always post-contract-year Ariza! lol
After that, it gets pretty dire in free agency. I don’t remember much about Brandon Rush but maybe he’s worth taking a flyer on? I dunno, we can’t get Deng for cheap, cheap, cheap, I would rather look overseas or manufacture some type of trade.
P.J Tucker would fit nicely,but he’s a restricted free agent. …meaning the Suns could match any offer.
I wouldn’t mind ariza coming back. What do y’all project a fair contact vs what these guys will receive to be?
I’d say 2-3 mil for us, but I suspect Ariza probably could get at the least 4-5 mil on the open market. ….
No Ariza!
C.J. Miles? Jordan Hamilton? Chris Singleton? Nick Young? All should be reasonably priced. They each have various combinations of 3 pt shooting and defense.
504ever If I had to choose I would go Miles then Hamilton….Singleton is an unknown and Young aka….Swaggy P………His basketball IQ is suspect…..
He will get more than that. 6-8 mil per. I wouldn’t want to pay that
Gallinari simply fits the bill….young vet with deadly outside shooting….I don’t know what we can offer to denver to make the trade work and make an offer again to greg oden.
The difference is probably David West’s tough presence on the low block. Do you think it’s some kind of miracle that Indiana is #1 in the L on the defensive end? No. They have a physical player down low in West who works hard defensively and rebounds. It’s not rocket science to uncover this correlation.
I don’t know if that’s as much David West as it is the entire defense. Guy like, you know, Roy Hibbert and Paul George play excellent defense. West is averaging just 7 rebounds per game. Yes, in Monty’s best season he was on the team but they also had Chris Paul causing havoc on the perimeter. I don’t think the correlation is DWest specific.