Week 3 Recap: Bad Basketball
Pelicans have lost 5 straight and the hits keep coming
Apologies to esteemed readers of the subby for the delayed edition of the weekly recap. The contents of this were written prior to the Pelicans trouncing Dallas on Tuesday night and reflect my thoughts on the previous week.
The Pelicans are in turmoil as they continue to drop game after game. The current 5 game losing streak features 4 blowout losses and 1 blown lead in the last moments of the game against the Rockets. The Pelicans are down bad and their stars have not held up their end of the bargain. To make matters worse, every week there is seemingly a new injury to announce. Larry Nance, Jr. has been diagnosed with a fractured rib and is out for at least 10-14 days.
Let’s dive right into some of the most pressing issues.
Zion is Trying To Buy In
After Sunday night loss to the Dallas Mavericks, Zion Williamson made airwaves as he shared with media how he is “trying my best to buy in” to the system and team. I already had one eyebrow raised when hearing this, but what he said next was even more perplexing.
“I’m taking a little bit of a back seat right now.”
Allow me for a second to point out how ridiculous these statements are. It takes one glance at publicly available stats to see that Zion has been at or near career levels in touches, shots, time of possession, and usage. Virtually any metric that might measure how much Williamson has the ball indicates there is no back seat being taken. Moreover, “I’m just trying my best to buy in” has thus far manifested itself in the form of lazy defense, pouting to officials, a lack of rebounding, and of course, a distinct lack of fitness. Zion is not in shape despite having a summer where he “took his profession seriously” in the words of David Griffin. Where exactly is the buy in?
Understandably, buy in is a process, and habits are hard to change. It may be true that Zion is making an effort and the results just haven’t caught up yet.
It is, however, unclear to me what Zion is referencing when he mentions he is taking a “back seat”, but I wonder if he is looking over at his fellow max player and seeing an egregious departure from team oriented ball. If Ingram is being held to different standards when it comes to on-court expectations, Williamson may feel there is a double standard at play.
The Ball Is Sticking With Ingram
As jarring as it has been watching Zion loaf about on defense, it has been equally disconcerting watching Ingram pound the ball aimlessly and settle for difficult shots. The normal fast paced, ball movement, player movement oriented offense grinds to a halt when Ingram receives the ball. Too often he spends eight seconds at time sizing up the opposition with gratuitous dribbles while other Pelicans’ players stand around and watch.
Ingram, on average, receives 57 passes a game. He returns the favor to his teammates only 39 times. This differential is second worst in the league amongst players who have played at least 100 minutes this season, and it is not a new story for him. Ingram has routinely found himself among the league’s most ball dominant players. He averages 4.68 seconds per touch, which is far beyond any other player on the Pelicans’ roster. For reference, Zion is at 3.14 seconds per touch
Neither Ingram’s scoring output, nor his playmaking capabilities warrant the blackhole nature of his play.
If Zion is making snide comments about “taking a back seat”, this is the first place to look. There is no “point five” basketball being played when Ingram is on the court, and neither are the precious rim and three attempts being generated. Ingram is 3rd percentile in percent of shots from three, 14th percentile in shots at the rim, and 100th percentile in percent of shots from long midrange. This is an incredibly broken process for a player who struggles to hit league average efficiency.
Yet similar to how Zion might be eyeing the treatment Ingram is getting, Ingram might be watching how the franchise is dealing with Zion. Ingram has been there for the post season pushes while Zion has not. Ingram was brought by Willie Green to watch the NBA finals, while Zion was not present. This might be a duel of two personalities for control of how the team runs. Either way, the real losers in the battle are those who have to watch two stars play bad basketball.
The Pelicans Need More Offense From Back Up Bigs
It is unfortunate that Larry Nance, Jr. suffered an injury, but the Pelicans need to consider if “hurt” is now the default state for the versatile forward. Nance has not had a double digit scoring game since February 10th of last season. He has appeared in 28 games in that time, averaging 3.6 points per game. It is abundantly clear that Nance is not healthy and has not been healthy for months. Even prior to the season starting, he received an injection to facilitate healing in his ankle, and this caused him to miss the entire training camp.
Nance’s offensively devoid play has tanked the Pelicans offense this season. The Pelicans are scoring 98 points per 100 possessions with Nance on the court, and 111 when he steps off. No other Pelicans rotation player has a greater negative impact on the offense. Switchable defense from an undersized center is only valuable when those units can score on the other end.
Nance has been a fantastic proof of concept for the front office and coaching staff. Beyond his obvious leadership qualities, the small ball units with Zion and Nance terrorized opponents last year. Nonetheless, Nance arrived hurt in New Orleans, has been hurt throughout his stay, and is hurt yet again. This has unfortunately been the story for his career, and he has never once reached the 70 games played mark. I don’t foresee this situation improving as Nance enters year 31.
The Pelicans must find a way to improve upon the Nance concept. The new forward must be able to shoot or rebound, and preferably both. There are a few targets out there I am keeping an eye on such as PJ Washington and Dorian Finney-Smith. In the mean time, Pelicans fans will be treated to the nifty two-way signing in Jerimiah Robinson-Earl. JRE has put up double digit points in 2 of his 3 appearances, and is grabbing 5 rebounds to boot. I’m not betting the farm on JRE just yet, but cost controlled role player acquisitions such as these will allow the Pelicans to get more aggressive in other areas.