For two of the players from the New Orleans Pelicans participating in the Team USA tryouts this week in Las Vegas, this isn’t new. Anthony Davis was a member of the 2012 team that won a gold medal at the London Olympics and Jrue Holiday played for the USA select team that helped prep the Olympic squad last summer.
Ryan Anderson averaged a career-high 16.2 points per game for New Orleans in 2012-13. (NBA.com photo)
But for forward Ryan Anderson, this is his first experience in the elite world of playing for a spot on the national team and, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, it’s been a stressful one for one of the game’s prototypical stretch 4s.
Anderson had a terrific debut season in New Orleans in 2012-13, scoring a career-high 16.2 points per game while shooting 38.2 percent from 3-point range in his first season for the then-Hornets after coming over from the Orlando Magic as part of a sign-and-trade deal for Gustavo Ayon.
Anderson averaged a career high in scoring despite losing some minutes in the transition from Orlando to New Orleans. His playing time dipped from 32.2 minutes a night with the Magic in 2011-12 to 30.9 minutes last season, when he came off the bench for 59 of his 81 appearances.
His potential role for Team USA would be the same as it is for the Pelicans—come off the bench to stretch the defense and provide long-distance shooting.
Pelicans coach Monty Williams, who is an assistant to Mike Kryzyzewski for USA Basketball, said he can tell the difference between the approaches of Davis and Holiday as opposed to Anderson’s.
“Jrue is used to this because he was here last year and A.D. is used to it,” Williams said. “Ryan is probably more on edge because he wants to do well. What I try to tell him is, ‘You’ve already done well by getting here, now you’ve just got to play.’”
Pelicans assistant coach Randy Ayers, who works with the New Orleans bigs, is also in Vegas to lend his support.
“Ryan’s been working on his movement a little more, trying to be more of a creative scorer,” Ayers said. “But you know what you forget about him, and Monty brought this up the other day, he’s a good post player, which he did a lot of in college. He can post the ball up. So you may want to give some thought to that next season. With a combination of (Jason Smith) and Ryan, or whoever, down in that spot … he can score the ball down low.”
Anderson’s emergence as a post threat could be important as New Orleans tries to improve from last season’s 27-55 record.
The center position is a big question mark for the Pelicans after incumbent starter Robin Lopez was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers as part of the three-team deal that brought Tyreke Evans from the Sacramento Kings and the rights to Jeff Withey from Portland.
Withey was taken in the second round after a standout career at Kansas. His draft stock suffered because of a perceived lack of physicality, particularly lower body strength, according to DraftExpress.com.
Withey was the No. 1 finisher in college basketball, however, in non-post-up situations, hitting 79.2 percent of his attempts when taking the ball to the basket. But as a traditional center with his back to the basket, Withey was much less effective, in part because his lack of lower-body strength made it difficult for him to hold his position.
Here is Withey’s pre-draft scouting report:
The other option in the middle is free-agent acquisition Greg Stiemsma, who averaged four points and 3.4 rebounds per game in 15.9 minutes as a backup with the Minnesota Timberwolves last season. Stiemsma had a player efficiency rating of just 10.5 for the Timberwolves, with an offensive rating of just 95 (points per 100 possessions), so any offense in the post may have to come from the power forwards.
Anderson, for his part, wants to take advantage of the opportunity afforded just by being at the camp.
“It’s fun to build relationships with these guys, but really to take some little new, different things from each player and maybe add that to your game,” Anderson said. “I know I’m going to add a lot to my game this week.”
NBA-TV’s David Aldridge and Dennis Scott discussed the possibilities for Team USA moving forward to the FIBA Basketball World Cup next summer in Spain and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: