The New Orleans Pelicans Most Likely Won't Experience Any Further Team Success This Season
Coming into this NBA season, many people within the NBA mainstream media are expecting the New Orleans Pelicans to take the next step in order for them to become permanent contenders in the near future. As last year Anthony Davis became one of the best players in the NBA and was able to carry the New Orleans Pelicans to the playoffs for the first time since 2010-11. But there is real possibility that the Pelicans aren’t going to be able to take that next step due to health concerns. When it comes to the Pelicans roster, most of their core players have been plagued with injures ever since they started playing for the Pelicans franchise. Two examples of this are Jure Holiday and Anthony Davis, Jure Holiday since being traded to the Pelicans two years ago has only played 45.1 percent of the Pelicans regular season games due to stress fractures in his lower right leg. On the hand, Anthony Davis has missed at least 15 games in each of his three season due to a number of injures which include sprained right shoulder, sprained MCL, fractured left hand and many other injures.
In order for the New Orleans Pelicans to take the next step under Alvin Gentry, Jure Holiday and Anthony Davis need to be on the floor for 80-85 percent of the Pelicans games. Due to the fact that Alvin Gentry’s offensive system has a good amount of pick and roll or pop between a big man and ball handing guard. For example the ball handing guard has the ball behind the three point line he called for a screen once the screen is set he goes over top of it if there is an open lane to the basket he will attack the basket if not the big man will roll if there is an open lane to the basket if his defender is defending the paint or trying to stop the ball handing guard from attacking the basket, he will pop for a mid range jumper or three pointer this is one of the reasons why Alvin Gentry told Davis to start shooting three pointers. Since Tyreke Evans will missed the first 6-8 weeks due to knee surgery, the Pelicans will need Holiday to stay healthy in order for this offense to run smoothly.
Ultimately Anthony Davis most likely wont be able to lead the Pelicans to any real team success unless the Pelicans are able to acquire another big time or he can stay healthy for full seasons. Even though the Pelicans signed Davis to 5 year / 145 million dollar extension this season the Pelicans may decided or be forced to trade Davis within the 2-3 seasons.
