New Orleans Pelicans: The Best Interior in the NBA?

It’s only one game. That’s the mantra that must be repeated while attempting to analyze what transpired on Tuesday, October 28.

It’s also something that shouldn’t be over-utilized when a team has built a unit worthy of the praise.

Thus, the question beckons: do the New Orleans Pelicans have the best interior group in the NBA?

The Pelicans opened up the season with a 101-84 destruction of the Orlando Magic. It was a balanced defensive victory that was fueled by 26 offensive rebounds and 64 points in the paint.

At the heart of that dominance was a trio of big men who flashed just how dominant they can be as a collective unit.

New Orleans’ starting front court consists of All-Star Anthony Davis and the established elite defensive presence Omer Asik. Backing them up as the sixth man is power forward Ryan Anderson, who won Most Improved Player in 2012.

If you want to branch out to the perimeter, Tyreke Evans is a dynamic playmaker at small forward who put up 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists in the season-opener.

Against the Magic, Davis was all-world with 26 points, 17 rebounds, two assists, nine blocks and three steals. None of those statistics are typos.

According to Basketball-Reference.com, Davis was Hakeem Olajuwon good.

The scariest thing about Davis’ performance: he wasn’t the only player on his team with at least 17 rebounds. Or five blocks.

Davis and Asik became the first teammates to reach those marks in the same game since Tim Duncan and David Robinson on March 10, 1998.

Asik finished with 14 points, 17 rebounds, two assists and five blocks in 34 minutes.

Anderson, unwilling to be outdone by his teammates, came onto the floor and put up 22 points and nine rebounds on 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. Those are very impressive, but the totals aren’t the key statistics.

What matters is the efficiency: Anderson put up his 22 points and nine rebounds in just 22 minutes.

Collectively, Anderson, Davis and Asik accounted for 62 points, 46 rebounds, 23 offensive rebounds, 14 blocks and three steals.

After a historic night, many are buzzing about what this could mean for the future of the New Orleans franchise. Many are telling people to slow down, and rightfully so, as those statistics simply aren’t consistently replicable.

Beyond the gaudy numbers, however, is something that’s beginning to escape subjectivity: the Pelicans have one of the best interiors in the NBA.

Elite Defense

When the New Orleans Pelicans selected Anthony Davis No. 1 overall in the 2012 NBA Draft, it signaled a change of the guard. There were many skeptics, but in New Orleans, the general consensus was that the franchise player had been found.

So far, so good.

Davis finished the 2013-14 season with averages of 20.8 points, 10.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 2.8 blocks and 1.3 steals per game. He improved in every one of those statistical categories, as well as field goal percentage, 3-point field goal percentage and free throw percentage, from his rookie year

According to Basketball-Reference.com, Davis was the first player to average at least 20.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 2.5 blocks since Dwight Howard in 2008-09. He was the first player to tack on at least 1.0 steal to those numbers since Elton Brand in 2005-06.

Before Brand, it hadn’t been done since Alonzo Mourning, Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson did it in 1995-96.

Asik won’t put up the same statistics as Davis, but he’s been one of the league’s elite defensive players for multiple seasons. He earned that respect as a backup with the Chicago Bulls in 2010-11 and 2011-12, and he solidified his status in 2012-13 with the Houston Rockets.

2013-14 was a down year as Dwight Howard’s backup, but Asik is undoubtedly a top-tier rebounder and a respected presence in the paint.

According to NBA.com, Asik held opponents to 46.8 percent shooting when he met them at the rim in 2013-14. Davis checked in at 48.8 percent and was the league’s leading shot-blocker.

Together, they form a legitimately dominant interior force. One game against the Orlando Magic unequivocally proves nothing, but gaudy statistics aside, it’s a sign of things to come from a tandem that will control the glass and the paint.

What separates New Orleans from the pack is the third player involved: Ryan Anderson.

The Ryan Anderson Factor

One of the most underrated moves in recent memory was the New Orleans Pelicans’ decision to trade for power forward Ryan Anderson. Anderson had just won the 2012 Most Improved Player award after serving as the floor-spacer for Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard.

In New Orleans, Anderson is a front-runner for Sixth Man of the Year.

In 2012-13, Anderson averaged 16.2 points and 6.4 rebounds in 30.9 minutes of action. He shot 38.2 percent from beyond the arc and 84.4 percent from the free throw line in a reprisal of his role as a floor-spacing big.

Most importantly, he was No. 2 in the NBA with 213 3-point field goals made. He led the league in that category in 2011-12.

Anderson can flat-out shoot.

The 26-year-old missed all but 22 games in 2013-14 after undergoing surgery on his neck. This could become a lingering issue, but as it presently stands, he’s back in uniform and ready to resume his elite shooting ways.

In the conversation of the best interior forces in basketball, Anderson helps round out something that few other teams can claim to have: the complete package.

The Complete Package

With Omer Asik and Anthony Davis, the New Orleans Pelicans have a combination of genuinely elite defensive players. With Ryan Anderson, the Pelicans have one of the best shooters in the league, who happens to stand at 6’10” and provide a respectable impact on the boards.

Throw in Davis’ 20 points per game and all three members’ ability to crash the offensive glass, and you have the complete package down low.

Anderson and Davis aren’t elite low-post players, but they’re strong enough in their ways to eliminate that as a weakness. Asik isn’t a polished offensive player in any sense of the word, but he’s a quality pick-and-roll finisher and a terror as an offensive rebounder.

The same can be said for Anderson and Davis.

What this group almost perfectly combines is athleticism, defensive prowess, offensive efficiency and general versatility. There’s an enforcer in Asik, a do-it-all defensive playmaker in Davis and an offensive game-changer in Anderson.

Davis’ offensive evolution elevates this group to an entirely new level.

Davis’ jump shot is a work in progress, but he’s improved it at every stage of his career. He’s a player without a glaring flaw in his game, and the weaknesses that do exist are often masked his ability to contribute in any number of areas.

The key to this trio’s success is a simple: if you subtract one away via injury or rest, the remainder is still one of the best interiors in the league with any combination of Anderson, Asik and Davis.

That type of depth is possessed by only a select few teams. The Chicago Bulls with Pau Gasol, Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah, and the Los Angeles Clippers with Blake Griffin, Spencer Hawes and DeAndre Jordan are the best comparisons.

Griffin, No. 3 in MVP voting in 2013-14, pairs with a Defensive Player of the Year front-runner in DeAndre Jordan and a versatile 7’1″ sharpshooter in Spencer Hawes. Anderson is the superior shooter, while Hawes is the better rebounder, post player and facilitator.

Jordan and Asik essentially wash out.

In Chicago, the Bulls have a superior post presence and, arguably, the two best big man passers in the NBA with Gasol and Noah. Gibson and Noah, the 2014 Defensive Player of the Year provide an elite defensive punch that’s comparable to Asik and Davis.

Davis has the shot-blocking edge, but it evens out in general defensive prowess, while Chicago’s experience and the enigmatic presence of Nikola Mirotic once again even things out.

What this inevitably comes down to is personal preference. That’s not a source of finality, but it goes to show how far New Orleans has come.

Anderson spaces the floor like few other big men, while Davis has the two-way brilliance that neither Griffin nor Noah or Gasol presently match. Asik is a proven commodity in his own right.

There are comparisons for to pick and choose, but here’s the reality: the fact that New Orleans’ interior is mentioned in the same breath as the Bulls’, the Clippers’ or even the Cleveland Cavaliers’ is a sign of how great this unit is.

As the best or otherwise, the Pelicans are elite down low.