Small Ball Talk Dominates Day 2 of Pelicans Training Camp

Musings on small ball theory plus chatter from around camp

Herb says he can do it. CJ says it’s a way to get your best players on the court together. Willie Green remains surprised how much the game has changed from when he first entered the league. Small ball was the topic du jour for the third day in a row. Esteemed readers of this subby ( I will never let that word die), are aware the rebounding will be the key to making these units work, but I wanted to touch on a few things since the team is very clearly preparing to play small in larger doses.

• This team has spent a significant amount of assets on the center position between Favors, Adams, Valanciunas, and Jaxson Hayes. The costs have outweighed the returns on this so far. Now these are and should be treated as sunk costs when it comes to decision making, but the Pelicans themselves said acquiring rim protection was a big priority this offseason. At some point the team will need to figure out how to balance the front office’s desire to improve the center position and the coaching staff’s desire to move away from it.

• It’s no secret that the team has pursued Jarrett Allen from the Cavs. I have also heard they have placed calls on Robert Williams now that the Time Lord finds himself in Portland. Investing further assets in bigs who cannot shoot seems to fly in the face of what the staff wants to accomplish. That being said, both candidates allow the Pelicans to play an aggressive style of defense without compromising on size. When it comes to winning the possession battle - size will matter. The team cannot afford to lose the math game from three (which they will on most nights) and lose the battle for the boards. Let it be known, on the record, I completely support going “big”. Even if it costs assets.

• The idea of Dyson Daniels remains a tantalizing fit with the Pels small ball group. Dyson doesn’t need to be a knock down shooter. What he needs is to be at least Marcus Smart level in both attempts and percentage. Smart has shot 33.6% from three the past four years, but on just a shade under 6 attempts per game. The playmaking, rebounding, and defense are already snug fits in what the Pelicans hope to accomplish by going small.

• Let’s go back to asset management for a second. What if the Pelicans didn’t pursue yet another center, but rather big wings or forwards who would help them double down on the “small” identity? There are two forwards in Toronto right now that I can think of, and the Pelicans have been linked to both of them in the past.

• Another way to mitigate the “small” issue is by being big across the board. The name of the game is getting as much size on the court as possible without sacrificing in skill. Can you say point Ingram? This brings us to our next segment.

• Early murmurs out of camp point to the team leaning into the idea of Brandon Ingram as the primary initiator. Willie Green is excited about the possibilities of using Zion as a screener for Ingram and cited Ingram’s size as an advantage in making reads. I’ve advocated for moving Ingram to the full time “point guard” position and believe this is a great way to balance his touches in conjunction with Zion. This is not going to spell the end of Zion as an initiator, and in theory, this will make Zion’s job easier. Assisted buckets are generally less taxing than unassisted buckets.

• If the Ingram at point experiment is a success, this dramatically changes how they can build the team. Suddenly the idea of starting Trey Murphy along with Herb Jones (though I still think Dyson snatches this spot eventually), Brandon Ingram, Zion, and a “ big” might be coming sooner than we think.

• Rebounding Rebounding Rebounding. I know I touched on this yesterday, but I will continue to bang this drum. The players themselves seem acutely aware of this necessity. Nearly all of them brought up games last year in which second chance points cost them, with Willie Green noting the OKC play-in game specifically. Regardless of what you think of small ball as a concept, teams need to be able to rebound.