The New Orleans Pelicans are slowly improving in their quest to not waste the prime years of Anthony Davis’ standout career.
Davis, still just 23, has made the playoffs just once in his first four full NBA seasons, which is essentially a basketball crime for a player who has an identical career Player Efficiency Rating (26.4) to Shaquille O’Neal (albeit in a much smaller sample size).
But New Orleans finally gained some salary cap flexibility last offseason and attempted to rejigger its core a bit around Davis. Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon left for Houston, with incredible results for the Rockets, but their poor defense dragged the Pels down. NOLA finished 26th in scoring defense and 27th in points allowed per 100 possessions last season as the team went 30-52.
The Pelicans are up to 20th in scoring defense this season, and a strong sixth in defensive efficiency. What’s bringing the team down is now its offense, which is 22nd in points per game and 29th in points per possession. The team is hoping that the signing of seven-foot center Donatas Motiejunas will help with that.
Motiejunas, 26, has had an interesting calendar year, to say the least. Houston tried sending the struggling Motiejunas to Detroit via trade last year, only to have the deal voided because of medical concerns over the Lithuanian’s back. After months of stalled negotiations with the restricted free agent, Houston matched Brooklyn’s four-year, $37 million offer sheet only to see that contract ultimately voided. The Rockets ultimately renounced Motiejunas’ rights, and he signed a one-year deal with New Orleans to try to recoup his value.
There’s no question that Motiejunas can help jumpstart the Pelicans’ offense if healthy.
“It gives me the opportunity to get out on the floor and roam,” Davis told reporters earlier this week. “I’ll be able to step out and shoot the ball or be able to attack more. He brings a lot to our team.”
A recent adjustment by Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry has brought more of the spacing and versatility the team needed to escape their offensive rut. Lumbering big men Alexis Ajinca and Omer Asik were benched in favor of a more agile starting lineup in Davis, Jrue Holiday, rookie Buddy Hield and rangy forwards Dante Cunningham and Solomon Hill. New Orleans is 3-2 with that starting unit over its last five games.
Motiejunas shot 36.8 percent from three in 2014-15, his last full healthy season. That healthy marksman is the guy New Orleans hopes will help stretch the floor, hit threes and open up the interior to give Davis more room to operate as the center alongside the power forward Davis.
Things have been looking up for New Orleans, now just two games behind Sacramento for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, since Holiday returned to the floor from caring for his wife Lauren, the U.S. soccer star, who had surgery to remove a benign brain tumor. After starting the season 2-10, the Pelicans are 12-10 when Holiday is on the floor.\
Hield — the rookie sharp-shooting guard from Oklahoma and the sixth overall pick in June’s draft — overcame a slow start to earn the conference’s rookie of the month award for December, when he started 14 of the team’s 16 games and shot 47.8 percent from three.
In addition to helping Davis and the Pels’ backcourt, a healthy Motiejunas would also help out the team’s depth. When Davis isn’t on the court, New Orleans is being outscored by 8.4 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com. But that’s not to say NOLA hasn’t had some good bench play.
"You leave @buddyhield open, you are going to pay." #Pelicans https://t.co/nRoW6wBZGl
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) December 19, 2016
Terrence Jones came over from Houston in the offseason and is averaging over 10 points and nearly six rebounds per game while playing strong defense. New Orleans is 5-3 and free agent signing E’Twaun Moore has shot 51.9 percent from three since taking his permanent role on the bench. And Baton Rouge native Langston Galloway is shooting a career best 37.8 percent from three off the bench after coming over from New York in the summer.
Having said that, the team still isn’t scoring enough to consistently win. Over the next two weeks, New Orleans has an important stretch against some beatable Eastern Conference squads. It has two games against Brooklyn, games at Boston, New York, Indiana and Chicago and a home date with Orlando.
If headway can’t be made over that span, the Pels may have to look to the trade market in order to end its playoff drought. After Atlanta dealt Kyle Korver to Cleveland on Thursday, New Orleans emerged as one of the teams interesting in trading for Hawks All-Star Paul Millsap, according to Basketball Insiders. Its offer could include its first-round pick this year and Philadelphia’s second rounder.
New Orleans is hoping that Motiejunas will help the team enough that a big move for an upcoming unrestricted free agent like Millsap won’t be necessary to leapfrog the Nuggets and Kings for that eighth spot. Another season in the lottery wouldn’t look good for Gentry and front office executives Dell Demps and Joe Dumars, not too mention the optics of yet another year where a transcendental player like Davis is unable to get his team into postseason play.
