Tonight you saw the true impact of Eric Gordon being out of the game. Now, before you get all excited and say things like “Have you seen Gordon play this year?” or “We’ll really miss his 4 baskets and 1 rebound a game!” hear me out.
What we saw tonight, particularly in the fourth, was a team trying to put together new offensive sets while missing one key ingredient: the decoy. Gordon hasn’t been great, but he’s been a key ingredient in every non-simple pick and roll. He’s either moving to a flare position as a threat, or he’s one of the primary guys running through a series of screens to get a defense bending one way. Tonight, we saw a really vanilla pick-and-roll offense as the team used Rivers, Miller, Fredette and Ryan Anderson all in unfamiliar roles.
In the fourth, in particular, the team would run a single play, and whomever ended up with the ball – that guy was shooting whether his shot was good or not. Lots of bad jumpers resulted, when the team needed better shots. It was the difference.
- The Pelicans tried the Asik-Davis-Anderson line up in the fourth and it generated jack while being very, very easy to penetrate. The guys obviously hadn’t practiced that line up a lot, and they didn’t really use it to spread the floor like you’ld expect. Of course, a lot of that was because Tyreke was frequently barreling to the basket during that stretch. Monty tried it, it got burned, he gave up and pulled Asik hoping for some offense, and then Cousins went off, then he tried doing offense-defense subs, and it didn’t much help either.
- I have only recapped losses this season. I am annoyed. Gimme something happy to write about, guys!
- Miller was not good. Offensively, neither was Rivers. Defensively, Rivers was really good when he could stay on guards, and pretty overmatched when he was forced to switch on the wing and guard Casspi.
- Cousins kept the Pelicans in the game in the third as he got tired of battling Asik and started taking mid-range jumper after mid-range jumper. He’s a handful, but Asik can do a really good job on him. It was really only when Anderson was on him that Cousins started scoring.
- 3-17 from the 3-pt line tonight. Thing is, the Kings did a really good job defending the three, and only about 4 of those were open. It would help if the Pelicans hit the ones that were open though.
- Miller had one nice pass, lots of turned down shots, and major struggles defensively against Casspi and Thompson when he was on him. Not a strong night. Not that Salmons helped much.
- Withey had a strong game again. He probably deserves to get those minutes over Ajinca at this point. He at least protects the rim.
- Evans was finally hitting his layups tonight. That was good to see. He also jacked three horrible three pointers. I’m torn on that. How do you feel?
- Rivers missed a streaking Davis in the third. You could hear the crowd swelling with excitement as Davis out-sprinted Cousins towards the rim, put up his hand, and Rivers never even looked at him. The crowd groaned audibly. Rivers missing guys rolling to the hoop on pick and rolls was a theme tonight.
- Jrue’s foul trouble hurt badly in the third, but he still needs to be more assertive.
- Lastly – I want to ream the team for not getting the ball to Davis, but he wasn’t very successful in making himself available tonight. Part of that was the team going vanilla offense and Davis not getting the ball in attacking position off the more clever plays like he usually does. Part of it was the guards not looking for him. Part of it was he couldn’t get open from Thompson or free himself when was single covered in the post. Hopefully as players settle into their new roles a bit more, the offense will return to its better sets.
Next game is Friday for the first night of a back to back versus Atlanta followed by Washington on Saturday.
24 responses to “Observations on Kings v Pelicans”
Poor play design / hero ball has been a late game staple for us this year. We did miss Gordon, mainly because the dropoff was so huge going from Gordon to any SF.
I think it would take a very crafty coach to make the rotations work and develop specific sets with our limited depth. I think it’s a safe bet at this point to expect neither from Monty.
I personally have 100% made up my mind that he isn’t the coach for this team. At this point, I’m dumbing down analyzing what’s right/wrong in the coaching department and just focusing on player development when following sub stories in the game. It’s much more enjoyable than letting Monty drive me nuts during games.
HawnitsFanatic
Completely disagree. The difference in the game was shooting, from 2 (48% to 41%), from 3 (36% to 17.5%), and from 1 (83% to 69%). Did Monty’s offensive play calling affect both teams’ free throw shooting, too? How about the Pelicans’ defense? No and no. The Kings got hot (it happens) and we are adjusting to an injury (give it some time).
Oh, and have some realistic expectations for our team. We are 5-5 in conference which is amazing. Phoenix, which has two more wins than us, also has two more games against the (L)Eastern Conference. That’s not a coincidence. Games against quality Western Conference teams will be tough wins the entire year. You going to fault Monty after every loss to a quality Western Conference team?
Seriously not one mention of how slow and lethargic we looked from start to finish, save the stretch in the second when he came back to tie????
msise22 Hey look, an internet comment. Outraged opener followed by ordinary statement that could have been expressed in a non-douche way, followed by excessive punctuation.
HawnitsFanatic Hero ball has been a late game staple, agreed. It’s also why the Pelicans have one of the lowest total pass numbers per game in the league.
It’s also pretty frustrating because I disagree wholeheartedly with poor play design. Monty has some excellent sets and misdirection plays. When the team isn’t doing “Basic PnR for Random Guard X” they have a nice offense.
ryanschwan msise22 Hey look, a typical beat writer getting upset that someone called him out on something. If i had a nickel for every time one of you got upset over the Casspi crap buzzing on twitter last night, I’d prob have like 35 nickels. Take a chill pill, realize we aren’t bashing you, and just address my thoughts on some of our issues last night….laziness and sluggishness.
msise22 ryanschwan Yeah, Ryan – get your laziness and sluggishness meter out and start measuring!!
I never get this claim, made by fans after a home loss usually. What’s the implication here – that they didn’t want to win? That they didn’t care? That the coach told them not to try? Maybe their personal chef prepared a meal that left them sluggish and unable to play and he/she is to blame?
Please somebody explain this to me.
Michael McNamara msise22 ryanschwan So this is how I noticed it…Jrue comes out of the tunnel and looks sluggish. Then all the careless passes, missed free throws, and missed shots. It was just sluggish. Their legs look tired. I never said anything about desire or coaching.
Man you guys read so far into things. Recognize that fans can have opinions that are not based on illogical or irrational thinking. I was at the game, and I saw the team looking sluggish. I’m throwing it out there bc while I don’t think an NBA player should be tired from 4 games in 8 nights, it WAS a long west coast road trip, and it COULD HAVE had an affect on their legs.
Look, people respect your opinions. Just give them and stop letting the banter bother you so much.
504ever HawnitsFanatic Agree 100%. We shot poorly and did not try hard for offensive rebounds for most of the game. One and done. 17.5% from 3 won’t win unless we get some second chance points.
However, the reason they shot so well from 2 (and so many from 1) was the number of breakdowns on drives by McCallum and Casspi. I can understand Cousins getting his versus Anderson, but Casspi isn’t nearly as good as we made him look.
I’d say this is Davis’ first poor game this season, from an efficiency and leadership standpoint. He was a leader in the sluggish category, missed some free throws, and couldn’t convert his jumpers for the most part. As someone mentioned, he did not seem to provide the leadership we need.
I’m glad to see Withey returning to form. He makes a better substitute for Asik than either Ajinca or Anderson, from a defense and rebounding standpoint. Against small lineups I like Anderson there, but against Cousins and Atlanta and Washington I’d rather see Anderson slide to the 3 with Davis and Asik/Withey in the 4 and 5 spots. I’s also rather start Fredette in place of Gordon for offense, keeping Miller/Salmons/Babbit on the bench more. If we get torched, put Rivers in.
504ever
I’m not pinning this loss on Monty. I’m simply stating that enough is enough. This is year 4 now, and I honestly see very little progress. Hence the wide scope of how I talk about him. I am 100% certain that Monty is a below average coach at best. There is no sugar coating that or statistically defending him. There’s excuses and that’s about it.
The reason we lost last night was because Anthony Davis looked like a “pretty good” player instead of bordering “godlike”. It’s that simple. We aren’t going to win many games with Davis playing at that level.
Let’s stop looking at Monty’s body as crediting for wins/losses and taking it as a whole. I don’t think people realize just how much AD is saving his butt right now to be honest. If he isn’t playing at literal “best in the league” level, it’s not unfathomable to see us as a 3-10 or 4-9 team. There are national writers starting to question him heavily, one going so far as to offer up 25k if he scores “average” on an IQ test. Grantland recently said he wasn’t the right coach in their podcast. Now that AD is relevant and the media cares about our team to an extent, don’t be shocked to see the momentum build on this one. Yes, we are all fans, but we watch Pelicans basketball more than the experts by quite a vast margin. Discredit our opinion all you want because we have “no knowledge of playing at that level”. The fact is the amount of Pelicans information we absorb compared to the average national talking head is the equivalent of us reading novels and them reading a 2 page magazine clipping.
I simply can not wait for the day we move on from Monty only for the fact that will be the day this franchise truly turns the corner.
EricHargrove 504ever I like H-bob, but i’m not calling him a national writer. He’s a gambler that writes and has more on these games than I’ll prob have in my child’s college fund when he’s 18.
EricHargrove 504ever
I lost you at ‘little progress in 4 years’. The team has been entirely retooled, and we are on pace for a significant increase in wins this year over last year and in the playoff hunt.
And you base your ‘100% certainty about Monty as a below average coach’ on the negative articles about Monty? (My favorite is the a guy that says Monty has an average IQ. Has he ever talked to Monty? Know he graduated from Notre Dame?)
If you thinks Monty is so bad. Please back it up with your own arguments!
The issue is not your opinion or expressing it. The issue is the baseless and unwarranted insults, implied or otherwise.
You said yourself you called him out. How about just adding your insight without much preamble?
“You didn’t mention sluggishness or lethargy, but I thought that was a big factor.”
Hmm?
504ever EricHargrove
What? How do you deduce that I base my opinions on negative articles about Monty? I stated that we as fans (not singling myself out here), in my opinion, have a greater understanding of our team than most of these writers. That’s a pretty empowering statement to our fanbase in my opinion.
These writers are a means to an end that might actually get Monty fired is the ONLY point I made.
ryanschwan HawnitsFanatic
There are some very good play designs, but I feel like every time this blind squirrel finds a nut, we spotlight the living crap out of it. Even crediting him as a great coach when it comes to designing plays, he still has a VERY VERY basic offense for the other 90% of the game. It relies on 2 things. The first being our guards having the ability to penetrate. The second is the pick and roll, a product of that seeming to be meaningless passes around the perimeter to get the PnR set up. It’s as if he thinks he’s throwing misdirection as to which guard and which big are going to run the PnR. The thing is that these perimeter passes and hand-offs don’t result in defensive switches. So we are wasting time and energy on nothing. It is all so simple.
Also, Monty’s set plays have NOT been working lately. Late last game, we ran Ryno through multiple screens and the Kings gobbled that up, resulting in a long 22 foot 2 after running 17-18 precious seconds off the clock.
Monty’s set plays have become some sort of mythological creatures at this point because it’s the only friggin thing he does average – above average compared to other coaches. Do you not think that most coaches in the league have some very gorgeous set plays out of timeouts?
EricHargrove 504ever
I continue to believe that whatever coach AD wants is the coach I want. If AD wants Monty coaching him the next 15 years in New Orleans, then keep Monty for 15 years. If AD asks for a coaching change as part of his max extension, then we should make that happen.
I believe that Eric Spoelstra is an average coach, no better than Monty Williams. He won a few championships because he had the right talent and ridiculous depth and used it effectively. If AD can attract some additional talent at a discount like Wade did in Miami, then we have a chance no matter who is coaching the team. I have yet to hear which coaches other than Poppovich and Phil Jackson the fire-Monty crowd think would be able to take our talent and significantly improve our results. Stan Van Gundy is 3-11 in the Eastern Conference and he has Drummund, so I’m skeptical of his magical abilities.
NOEngineer EricHargrove 504ever
#HireKarl
Davis did say he was under the weather a lil bit after the game, maybe that played a part in it. Now I’m not overreacting over a November loss, just as long as we right these wrongs and start beating some western conference heavyweights. Not to mention the teams we (on paper) should handle. Hopefully we don’t need an super-hero type of performance from AD game in and game out to win games. Maybe Holiday or Tyreke can carry us once in awhile. If EG is out for the season, can we get an exemption to sign a competent SF? I’ve supported Miller for so long, it’s starting to become obvious that he’s nothing but a fringe role player. Salmons? My God, isn’t Dante Cunningham available. Bring back Christmas or give a D-leaguer a shot. Miller showed zero aggression. None. The author was right, one nice pass. End of story. Kings came out hungry after we beat them on their floor, guess the Pels thought they’d lay down on ours and not put up a fight. Cousins is a monster. Bounce back time for us in the Atl and the nation’s capitol.
msise22 Michael McNamara ryanschwan So you thought he looked sluggish. Okay, now what? This is what I said I wanted explained to me. How do we analyze that or measure that? How is it provable and how do we even begin to deduce what the cause may be if true?
Explain that to me, and maybe it will be in a future recap.
Michael McNamara msise22 ryanschwan It’s kind of like using your eyes to tell if the sky is blue or gray. It may not be as easy as that, but there was clearly a difference in the way we passed, ran our sets, attacked the rim, etc. If you ran full speed one day, I’d think you’re fast. If you ran half speed the next, I’d say you were sluggish. I don’t need tools for that. I need my eyes and my brain to put the two together.
Maybe I overreacted on him a little bit, but that doesn’t change that you guys have taken one little comment to a completely unnecessary level.
One thing is for certain, you guys make a great team.
Jason, let’s get one thing clear….I’m never going to try to insult someone, bro.
42 challenged me to produce commentary, and I don’t see a spot on the page for guest blogs that I can find.
ShamelessPel’s Guide for the Pelicans Offense
– Less PnR “drive or bust”. I’d like to see a little more probing once they have their defender out of position on the PnR. There is just simply cleaner passing lanes when you aren’t moving full steam towards the rim. The window for lobbing it to AD is much bigger. Any shooters at the corner/top arc are still viable options that disappear when the ball handler is at the rim. This works if guys are providing better passing lanes on the perimeter. This is accomplished by making sure you are moving off the ball into empty space. As the ball and pieces like Davis move, it will leave natural “gaps” on the floor. The other thing that’s more instinctual to the player than the scheme is to have the ball handler “drift” towards another defender. This provides more opportunity for the other defenders to help on the ball handler. This is especially deadly if you have guys cutting backdoor after drifting towards the baseline.
– More “pick and pop” for Davis. Run him to the basket less (ESPECIALLY with Asik in the game) and make sure to get the ball to him quickly off the PnR. It makes more sense with Ryno as if the other big decides to drop down This should be THE staple to our offense. We need to get him the ball in space with room to work instead of posting him up as much. Davis should be averaging ~4 assists/game off these opportunities. Our single best opportunity to create havoc on offense is having the ball in Davis’ hands with room to work.
– Dumb it down. We need to stop trying to fit square pegs into round holes. We have a decent number of below average basketball players with very specific skill sets. I’m exaggerating, but Jimmer Fredette should not step foot inside the 3 point line unless he is running through the lane to get to another spot beyond the 3 point line. Ditto with Luke Babbitt watching film of 2010 “pump into the 17 footer” Trevor Ariza. Let them fly. Run specific plays to attempt to get those guys 3 pt. opportunities. It’s not as if the other team game plans for those 2. We HAVE to get production out of them off the bench. There is too much pressure on Rivers and Anderson to play 2 on 5 basketball on that end. Rivers isn’t capable of handling it (this coming from a huge fan of his). Making it a point to get Jimmer/Babbitt going from the outside will at least keep the defense respectable.
Email to “articles” here.
I’ll publish this for you.
Thanks.
msise22 Michael McNamara ryanschwan Well, I personally try to stick to things I can prove, quantify, or justify. Something as generic as “they looked sluggish” holds no value to me. It can’t be proved or disproved, and without access to every moment of their life, the reasoning for it can’t be found even if I did see it the same way as you did.
Thats where this all stems from. You want us to type things like that for some reason. We likely will not in the future. I hope you can get some value from our writing even without analysis like that.
Michael McNamara msise22 ryanschwan There’s absolutely zero harm in saying that someone looked tired or sluggish. I’m sure there’s been times when you thought the same about your players.
Now, I have learned that AD was sick, and clearly that had a factor in his game. Seeing that the team always feeds off of his energy, maybe this is the reason I saw sluggishness, maybe not. But ignoring it completely, regardless of being able to quantify it, is a mistake.
Publicly, I’m squashing this here. If you want to continue the discussion, dm me on twitter. I’m available for podcasts as well 😉