The New Orleans Pelicans lean heavily on Anthony Davis, but it’s Tyreke Evans who will be the difference between making and missing the NBA Playoffs.
Filed under things nobody saw coming, the New Orleans Pelicans can thank the basketball Gods for being in the Western Conference. At 10-21 (after a horrific 1-11 start), the Pelicans are only four games back of the No. 8 seed and are starting to find the chemistry that enabled them to win 45 games a year ago. While Anthony Davis has been terrific, it’s the continued rejuvenation of Tyreke Evans that has made all the difference.
Evans missed the first 17 games of the season, as he recovered from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. Since his return, the Pelicans are a respectable 6-8, winning four of their last seven. Evans is averaging 15.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 7.2 assists and 1.2 steals per game on a shooting line of .418/.415/.857. Only one other player can boast averages like those — Russell Westbrook.
Evans has impacted the Pelicans in some very key metrics:
First 17 Games (w/o Evans)
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101.5 points per game
108.9 points allowed per game
44.1/34.4/79.0 FG/3P/FT
41.4 rebounds per game (minus-4.7 to opponent)
Last 14 Games (w/ Evans)
102.7 points per game
104.7 points allowed per game
45.3/37.8/80.2 FG/3P/FT
42.1 rebounds per game (minus-1.9)
To recap, the Pelicans score more, give up less, shoot better from every area and have closed the rebounding gap.
The Pelicans have put together solid wins against playoff teams, such as the Cleveland Cavaliers, Washington Wizards and Houston Rockets since Evans return.
EVANS BRINGING NEW OFFENSIVE WRINKLES
Since entering the league back in 2009-10, we’ve always known that Evans can slash and score. What we didn’t know is how much of a 3-point threat he would become. For the first time in his career, Evans is attempting more than 20 percent (23.2) of his shots from beyond the arc. After shooting an abysmal 22.1 percent in 2013-14 and a slightly better 30.4 in 2014-15, Evans is lighting it up this season, to the tune of 41.5 percent.
The ability to keep the floor spread is something that the Pelicans covet, so that Anthony Davis can do his work. When Evans is on the floor, the Pelicans shoot 46.6 percent from the field and 40.1 percent from 3 as a team — both marks represent the best of any player on the roster.
Nobody had thought of Evans as a Kyle Korver-like spot-up shooter, but he’s been terrific early this season. He’s averaging 1.30 points per possession with an effective field goal percentage of 61.9 percent — placing him in the 96th percentile, just ahead of Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry.
WORKING BACK INTO THE DEFENSE
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Now that Evans should be in regular season shape, he can start focusing on getting back to being the perimeter stopper that he’d developed into last season — when he was one of the premiere isolation defenders in all of basketball. In 2015-16, he’s working off of a small sample size, but in his 14 games he’s only allowing 0.57 points per possession and a score frequency of 28.6 percent, which would place him in the 88th percentile.
It’s not all roses, though — as Evans has struggled defending in other spots, such as defending the pick-and-roll. According to NBA.com, against the ball handler, Evans allows 0.95 points per possession on 55.2 percent shooting. That’s the 16th percentile, and he’s in that spot 32.6 percent of the time. Woof.
As a whole, he’s allowing his opposition to shoot 6.1 percent better than their season average overall and a whopping 11 percent better from three. For some contrast, he allowed 1.5 percent better overall and just 0.9 percent better from three in 2014-15.
ON THE WAY UP
Surprisingly, Evans is the only Pelicans player to have a positive on/off net rating for the season (he’s at plus-1.7). Over the team’s last five games (three wins), the Pelicans are a plus-2.6, with Evans at a whopping plus-10.2. Should we expect him to continue his torrid pace from three? No, just like we shouldn’t expect him to continue getting lit up from there.
Injuries happen to everyone, but this team has been in flux from the jump this season. Through the first 12 games of the season, they used 12 different starting lineups. Is it a surprise that they’ve struggled to find some continuity? Their most common lineup of Omer Asik, Davis, Evans, Alonzo Gee and Eric Gordon have started 11 games together (including the last seven games), going 6-5 overall.
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It’s reasonable to assume the team will continue to build chemistry — especially on defense — and since the Pelicans are in the right conference in the right season, they’ve got every reason to believe they can make the playoffs again.