Gentry ready to speed up Pelicans
— -- Every NBA team that has changed head coaches this offseason is looking to follow the Golden State Warriors' playbook. With largely the same roster but a new coach, Steve Kerr, the Warriors improved by 16 games this season and enter the NBA Finals as favorites. That's the dream outcome from any coaching change, and the New Orleans Pelicans have decided to hire a coach who played a big role in Golden State's season: Alvin Gentry, Kerr's associate head coach.
To achieve the same kind of results in New Orleans, Gentry will have to strike the difficult balance the Warriors found this season: successfully defending while playing at a fast pace.
Offensive potential
Certainly, Gentry's teams have been stocked with talent, particularly at point guard. Aside from one season -- not coincidentally, the one in which his Suns finished below average offensively -- he has worked with All-Stars Steve Nash, Chris Paul and Stephen Curry.
Gentry won't have that kind of playmaking from point guard with the Pelicans, but there is plenty of talent here -- the kind that could make sense in his system. New Orleans does boast a pair of capable ballhandlers in Jrue Holiday, an All-Star with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2013, and Tyreke Evans, who effectively filled in for Holiday when the starter was sidelined by a stress reaction in his lower right leg.
Of course, the Pelicans' centerpiece is budding superstar Anthony Davis, who has the tools to be a devastating roll man in Gentry's spread pick-and-roll offense. Like Amar'e Stoudemire, who thrived under Gentry in Phoenix, Davis has the explosiveness to finish above the rim and the skill to put the ball on the floor and make a play when opponents pack the paint. He is probably already a better midrange shooter than Stoudemire, with the potential to eventually extend his range on pick-and-pop jumpers beyond the 3-point line on a consistent basis.
New Orleans finished ninth in the league in offensive rating the past season, and the team's pick-and-roll attack was a big part of that. The Pelicans were fourth in the NBA in the percentage of plays (shots, trips to the free throw line or turnovers) finished by a pick-and-roll, according to Synergy Sports, and ninth in points per play on those opportunities.
If New Orleans is going to improve offensively, it will mostly be in transition. Under former head coach Monty Williams, the Pelicans played at the league's 27th fastest pace, and they ranked 22nd in the percentage of plays finished in transition situations, according to Synergy's classifications. That figures to increase dramatically under Gentry, whose Phoenix teams never finished outside the top 10 in pace. With a young, athletic roster, New Orleans should be able to outrun opponents for early opportunities.
The challenge will be pushing the pace while also improving defensively.
Defensive questions
Gentry's defensive track record isn't nearly as strong, and historically, he has associated more with the offensive end (he effectively served as the Warriors' "offensive coordinator" this season). While the fast pace sometimes overstated the Suns' defensive woes, Phoenix never finished better than 19th in points allowed per 100 possessions in Gentry's tenure as head coach.
Typically, fast-paced teams struggle to also lock down at the defensive end. Golden State stands as a giant exception. As Insider Tom Haberstroh noted midseason, the Warriors became the first team in modern NBA history to lead the league in both pace of play and defensive rating. Gentry can draw on that experience, but he also needs defensive expertise on his coaching staff, as Golden State has with veteran assistant Ron Adams, Gentry's counterpart on the defensive side of the court. Until we know who will fill out his staff, it's hard to properly evaluate the decision to hire Gentry.
Impact this summer
Evans and Holiday together might prove the trickier fit, given that both are most valuable with the ball in their hands and Evans in particular is not a good enough shooter to space the floor around the pick-and-roll. It's possible New Orleans will look to move one of the two for an upgrade on Quincy Pondexter at small forward. But Holiday's recent series of stress injuries makes counting on him difficult, and Evans can run the team's second unit from the sixth man role he played at times the past season.
Expecting the Pelicans to make a Warriors-style leap next season with a similar roster isn't realistic. The West is too deep, and New Orleans' core is not good enough. With incremental improvement on offense and a step forward on defense, however, the Pelicans could reasonably target a 50-win season that would ensure another trip to the playoffs -- and a longer stay than their sweep at the hands of Gentry and Golden State this spring.