For 69 beautiful seconds in the 4th quarter last night, the Pelicans line up featured the three-headed monster of Davis, Anderson, and Asik… at the same time. The gigantic lineup included Gordon and Evans at the two guard spots and resulted in a steal, 2 trips to the line, and a turnover.
All right, fine! Not a lot happened during that little more than a minute of play, but it was an interesting wrinkle. It immediately makes sense on offense. Evan penetrates off a screen from Davis or Asik, and he looks for Ryno or Gordon in the corner, passes, or goes to the hoop. Or whatever. The point is that you have a guy that can penetrate, two guys who can shoot from 3, and Anthony Davis. The offense will work out.
Defense was the more interesting side of the ball as the Pelicans ran a 2-3 zone. Obviously, zone defense isn’t something you see often in the NBA, and I doubt we see this line up because of that limitation. However, young and/or bad teams tend to struggle adjusting to the zone. The Dallas Mavericks had a nice zone defense package they ran with some success a few years back. What did you guys think when you saw all 3 bigs on the court? Is it just a gimmick, or do you think it has potential to be a standard part of the playbook?
5 responses to “Pelicans Go BIG Against the Magic”
I hope we see it more with time. Maybe 4-6 mins per half. Take those 10 Salmons minutes away and give it to the three big lineup.
Asik was great in his Pelicans season debut last night, and Davis with a huge game in his MVP campaign this season. Only 1 block away from a trip-doub, don’t see how anyone will have a better first game of the season then that. Only problem last night was with Davis and Asik on the floor, the offense seemed a little cluttered. Hopefully they will fix that as the season goes on.
I think this is a very strong lineup. Zone defense might look like an issue but I don’t think so. Omer grew up playing a lot of zone defense. Davis is very quick and versatile on defense. Ryno’s side might be the weak side but He may stay a little closer to his guy because Omer and Davis has quick feet to cover the gaps easily. As the ball goes from one side to another around the perimeter, both Davis and Omer may slide easily. Omer might get closer to Ryno’s side if needed and Davis may get closer to the middle. Davis has such long arms that He may leave some space with him and that corner 3 player and He still can reach him in time to prevent an open 3 pointer. When you play more the you are more susceptible to open 3’s because the defense has to rotate around that may leave opposing 3 pointers alone. But, if you have Anthony Davis, I do not think that wil be such a big issue for Pelicans defense. I really like this lineup. It worked really well in the preseason game against Wizards! Ryno was very effective attacking the offensive glass for boards and easy layups/putbacks too. They have to work on this a whole lot more to make it one of their signature lineups giving a nightmare to opponents not only on offense but also on defense!
No more PELICANS WIN articles??? :(….
Hopefully it won’t be news… Better to focus on why…
Plus ca change…