After making the playoffs for the first time in the Anthony Davis era, the New Orleans Pelicans didn't make many changes to the roster. They did, however, change the identity of the team by hiring Alvin Gentry, fresh off his ring as an assistant with the Golden State Warriors, as the new head coach.
New Orleans Pelicans 2015 roster: A new coach could make all the difference
Alvin Gentry inherits a team that made the playoffs last season and made few roster changes. Can he make them a part of the West’s elite?
Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Gentry is an offensive mastermind, but the Pelicans were pretty good offensively last season, ranking ninth in efficiency. It's the defense that needed the most help -- they ranked just 22nd in defensive efficiency. But Gentry did what good leaders do, bringing in Darren Erman, one of the league's most highly regarded defensive minds, as an assistant. Pairing Erman with Davis should have Pelicans fans excited.
Any team that has Davis is a threat, and this version of the Pelicans is no different. No, they didn’t make many roster changes from a team that was barely a playoff qualifier, but with a new identity New Orleans threatens to enter the West’s elite this year.
LAST YEAR
RECORD: 45-37 (eighth in Western Conference)
PLAYOFFS: Lost to the Warriors, 4-0, in the first round
OFFENSIVE EFFICIENCY: 105.4 (9th)
DEFENSIVE EFFICIENCY: 104.7 (22nd)
ROSTER
No. | PLAYER | POS | HEIGHT | WEIGHT | AGE | COLLEGE |
| 1 | Tyreke Evans | SG | 6'6 | 220 | 26 | Memphis |
| 3 | Omer Asik | C | 7'0 | 255 | 29 | Turkey |
| 8 | Luke Babbitt | SF | 6'9 | 225 | 26 | Nevada |
| 10 | Eric Gordon | SG | 6'4 | 215 | 26 | Indiana |
| 11 | Jrue Holiday | PG | 6'4 | 205 | 25 | UCLA |
| 20 | Quincy Pondexter | SF | 6'7 | 220 | 27 | Washington |
| 23 | Anthony Davis | PF | 6'10 | 253 | 22 | Kentucky |
| 30 | Norris Cole | PG | 6'2 | 175 | 26 | Cleveland State |
| 33 | Alonzo Gee | SF | 6'6 | 225 | 28 | Alabama |
| 33 | Ryan Anderson | PF | 6'10 | 240 | 27 | California |
| 42 | Alexis Ajinca | C | 7'2 | 248 | 28 | France |
| 44 | Dante Cunningham | PF | 6'8 | 230 | 28 | Villanova |
| 47 | Sean Kilpatrick | SG | 6'4 | 210 | 25 | Cincinnati |
| 99 | Kendrick Perkins | C | 6'10 | 270 | 30 | High School |
| 55 | Chris Douglas-Roberts | SG | 6'7 | 210 | 28 |
Memphis |
Coach: Alvin Gentry
Assistant coaches: Robert Pack, Darren Erman, Fred Vinson
OFFSEASON CHANGES
IN: Alonzo Gee, Kendrick Perkins
OUT: Jimmer Fredette, Jeff Withey
The Pelicans didn’t overhaul the roster this offseason, as their biggest moves were on the sidelines with Gentry and the new coaching staff. They did bring in Gee as a backup at the small forward position and Perkins to mentor Davis.
DEPTH CHART
POINT GUARD | SHOOTING GUARD | SMALL FORWARD | POWER FORWARD | CENTER | |
STARTER | Jrue Holiday | Eric Gordon | Quincy Pondexter | Anthony Davis | Omer Asik |
RESERVE | Norris Cole | Tyreke Evans | Dante Cunningham | Ryan Anderson | Alexis Ajinca |
RESERVE | Sean Kilpatrick | Alonzo Gee | Luke Babbitt | Kendrick Perkins | |
RESERVE | Chris Douglas-Roberts |
THE KEY QUESTION
How does the new coaching staff make the same players better?
When a team’s players are underused, they will fail to achieve anything close to their level of potential. Simply put, Monty Williams’ strategies did not fit his personnel. Thus, the schemes deserve the majority of the blame, not the existing roster.
The offense, while remarkably efficient on paper, never looked to take advantage of situations earlier in shot clocks given the squad’s age and athleticism. In general, they need to make opposing defenses work a lot harder. Too many possessions ended poorly because a Pelicans ball handler wasted precious seconds pounding the ball into the court without seizing any advantage. Good teams always keep defenses on their toes, but New Orleans managed to give opponents a rest break and then allow them to send reinforcements to stop an obvious point of attack.
The defense was a mess throughout the season for a host of reasons, and one major deficiency was players found themselves consistently out of position. Rotations were late, or sometimes they failed to come altogether. Remember how many times we were left scratching our heads as to why Anthony Davis was late to help at the rim, or worse, would refuse to leave his man, even if his assignment was a pitiful excuse for an offensive option?
In the first game of the playoff series against Golden State, the Warriors burned the Pelicans for a number of easy scores, mainly on a number of backdoor cuts. Blame a lack of communication, awareness by the players or anything else you see fit, but after an 82-game season, that was an unacceptable showing.
This is specifically why so many members of the team are now excited by Darren Erman’s simpler concepts, and another example why more followers should be excited by the team running it back. Round pegs like round holes.
-Oleh Kosel, The Bird Writes. Read the full preview here.
PREDICTIONS
BEST CASE: Anthony Davis becomes even more otherworldly and the Pelicans mesh offensively under the guidance of Gentry, while the defense thrives under the system of Erman. They enter the West’s elite and make it out of the first round of the playoffs.
WORST CASE: The rest of the West improves drastically while the Pelicans remain in a similar situation to last season, and they miss the playoffs despite slight improvement.
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