As the first full month of the season comes to a close I'm going to start some early season team reviews. First up is arguably the newest team in the NBA-The New Orleans Pelicans:
First let's take a look at some stats:
18th in points allowed at 100 pts per game
15th in rebounds per game at 42.6 rebounds per game
13th in assists per game at 22.1 per game
13th in points per game at 100.7
Starting lineup
PG Jrue Holiday - 14.0 ppg, 7.3 apg,
SG Eric Gordon - 15.2 ppg, 36% from 3PT
SF Al Aminu - 4.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg
PF Anthony Davis - 19.4 ppg, 10.6 rpg, 3.9 bpg
C Jason Smith - 10.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg,
Sixth Man Tyreke Evans - 10.9 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 3.6 apg
Thumbs Up:
The new-look Pelicans have one of the most athletic teams in basketball and on paper they have a lot of good pieces. They have three guards (Gordon, Evans and Holiday) than can finish on a break by themselves or make a nice pass to a teammate. Davis is having a breakout season and has proven he can do everything from being the devastating opp to an alley or step out and hit a midrange jumper in the half court. Also, Davis has been able to provide an interior presence on the defensive end with almost four blocks a game.
Thumbs Down:
Due to the Pelicans athletic and offensively adept personnel there is, and has been, the temptation to fall into one-on-one ball. In addition to guys like Gordon and Evans, the Pelicans have other offensive weapons such as Ryan Anderson and Austin Rivers (although Rivers is still learning the game at the NBA level.) These offensive weapons have the tendency to look only for the basket. If they can learn to move the ball a bit more and not have guys look at the basket before their teammate, the 6-8 Pelicans might find themselves with one of the final two seeds in the West this April.
