Eric Gordon’s finger injury sums up the New Orleans Pelicans’ lost 2015-16 season.
The New Orleans Pelicans‘ abhorrent, injury-riddled season became harder to endure as starting shooting guard Eric Gordon suffered an injury Tuesday night against the Timberwolves. Gordon reportedly suffered a finger injury that will require surgery, sidelining him for four to six weeks.
It wasn’t supposed to be this difficult for new head coach Alvin Gentry. A year removed from the team’s first playoff berth since 2011, the Pelicans’ 114-99 victory Tuesday over the reeling Minnesota Timberwolves was a glimmer of hope that came a little too late to be considered a breakthrough.
At 14-27, the Pelicans are in reach of eighth place in a watered-down Western Conference. Just 4.5 games back from the Utah Jazz, who’ve also dealt with their share of season-altering injuries, it’s paramount for New Orleans to make a push for the playoffs.
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However, it’s a pipe dream to expect the inconsistent unit to trade punches with the West’s heavyweights late in the season. The Pelicans, based on basketball-reference.com’s simulations for the remainder of the season, have only a 3.3 percent chance of making the playoffs. The Gordon injury only complicates their quest to regain relevancy.
The 27-year-old’s production will have to be replaced somehow from the shooting guard spot, despite encompassing the notion of a high-volume shooter. With declining athleticism packed into a 6’4″, 215-pound 2-guard, Gordon’s propensity to shoot jumpers has become a staple in his offensive game in recent years.
Despite his low-efficient looks, Gordon does provide scoring (14.9 PPG) to complement Anthony Davis on the perimeter. Like a plethora of other Pelicans, Gordon can put the ball in the basket multiple times per game. This season, New Orleans has a higher ORtg (Offensive Rating) with Gordon on the court and opponents have a lower ORtg when he’s playing rather than sitting.
The Pelicans’ chances of getting assists with him on the floor are higher as well, which is rare for players who position themselves outside of the paint on offense.
Now Gentry will slide point guard Jrue Holiday to the starting shooting guard role, exposing some of the weaknesses that have led to New Orleans’ underwhelming campaign.
Pelicans list Jrue Holiday starting at shooting guard for injured Eric Gordon on Thursday vs. Pistons.
— John Reid (@JohnReid64) January 20, 2016
While Gordon was sneaky-good defensively, the team from the Bayou has been abysmal defensively. The Bird Writes’ Isaac Constans explains how the defensive futility has been a product of the Pelicans’ systemic approach and why it’s hindering the teams’ ceiling.
"A run-and-gun team is not average in offensive rankings. The Pelicans are paradoxically both. A run-and-gun team is generally lacking defensively, but one that works is not [Golden State]. The Pelicans are lacking defensively and can’t even score. When you’re not good defensively and not good offensively the system has failed."
On the surface, New Orleans is tied for 25th in points given up in the association (105.2 per game). Dig a bit deeper, and it’s easy to see the culprit of the Pelicans’ struggles. New Orleans traded for 7-foot center Omer Asik in the 2014 offseason-which looked like a questionable and surprising move then.
Compounding matters by giving him a five-year, $58 million deal last summer, New Orleans hasn’t got the return on its huge, both literally and figuratively, investment.
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He’s a modern-day rim protector, paid for the amount of errant shots the opposition takes near, or at the rim, and his block totals. The Pelicans are paying the Turkish giant more than $9.2 million this season for 3.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 0.38 blocks per game. Futility at its finest.
Opponents are shooting 60.8 percent from six feet and in on the season, and Davis alone can’t be the lone source of defensive deterrence in the paint.
The lacking production around him has been a source of his declining effort and statistics across the board. For every Gordon, there’s an Asik. For every Ish Smith–now on the Philadelphia 76ers–there’s a Norris Cole, who’s shooting a career-worst 37.5 percent from the floor in addition to his 7.6 PER.
Last season, Davis looked the part of leading the NBA’s new generation of superstars. He’s still a game-changing two way big, averaging 23.1 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game without the assistance some of the other rising stars in the league get from their teammates.
Across the board, his numbers have suffered in the 2015-16-troubling for a team unable to find the missing teammates necessary to amplify his effectiveness.
A primary factor in Davis’ being unable to evolve in the 2015-16 season is the rust that point guard Holiday has played with.
Holiday, whose career in the Big Easy has been anything but easy, was expected to be the floor general of the present and future for New Orleans.
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However, Holiday has yet to play more than 40 games in a season, due to a stress fracture in January 2014 and aggravating a leg injury that sidelined him for 41 games in 2015, and now provides Alvin Gentry with a secondary ball handler at the 2-guard position for the Pelicans.
Like Gordon, Holiday has played effectively, despite boosting their primary figure. He might never reach his All-Star form of 2013, but he’s still a dynamic floor general, averaging 13.7 points and 5.0 assists per game in a vastly decreased role.
Per 36 minutes, Holiday is averaging the most points per game in his career, but management is limiting his role due to his importance as a healthy member of the starting lineup.
Health isn’t just the only suspect in the struggles plaguing New Orleans, it’s the roster that general manager Dell Demps constructed. He’s flopped on the Tyreke Evans sign-and-trade, whose had his dealings with injuries, Asik–badly–and the deal for Holiday that provided Philadelphia with a rim protector in Nerlens Noel.
Staying on the topic of defense, only one player outside of Davis produces 0.5 Defensive Win Shares, per basketball-reference.com. While it isn’t indicative of individual performance as much as it is based on team performance, the stat is still tied to the Pelicans only mustering 14 wins so far in the season.
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This season may be the necessary route in order to find an identity, as fighting for the lower seeds with a pipe dream of national recognition hasn’t panned out so far for the Pelicans. Accepting reality might be difficult for the willing-to-compete franchise, but the offseason should provide a cheaper route at finding starters to play effectively next to Davis.