For much of the second half of last season, Anthony Davis began seeing several unconventional defensive tactics thrown at him, including a few teams who matched up with small forwards. Those wing players, such as Houston’s Trevor Ariza and Sacramento’s Rudy Gay, gave up length to Davis, but tried to make up for it by neutralizing the All-NBA power forward’s quickness and athleticism. Early in 2015-16, opponents are still mixing up their defensive coverages vs. Davis, but there’s also one consistent strategy that should never again surprise anyone, according to New Orleans first-year head coach Alvin Gentry.
“You’ve got to understand that as long as he’s out there, if we throw him the ball in the post, (the defense is) going to double him,” Gentry said. “That’s what we’re going to see and now we’ve got to figure out a way to play out of that, because I don’t think there’s anybody that’s just going to play him straight up (with a single defender). So he’s going to get doubled and triple-teamed… He’s going to see it most of the year. We’ve got to figure out how we can still get him involved in the offense and still have an offensive flow, without having the ball stick and become an isolation team.”
A week into the regular season, New Orleans (0-4) is trying to adjust to playing without several key contributors, including penetrator/slasher Tyreke Evans, the team’s second-leading scorer (16.6 ppg) from the ’15 playoff squad. In the meantime, the Pelicans need their other offensive weapons to be productive and efficient, but Davis, Ryan Anderson, Eric Gordon and Jrue Holiday are all shooting below 40 percent from the field. Davis, one of the NBA’s most prolific and efficient scorers during his second and third seasons, is at just 37.9 percent in Year 4. Making it more difficult for the two-time All-Star, defenses are able to sag toward him even more when the other Pelicans aren’t making shots. Excluding Davis’ own 4-for-11 shooting from the three-point arc, New Orleans is 33 of 98 on treys. The Pelicans are shooting 40.9 percent as a team from the field, ranking 23rd in the NBA.
“We’re just missing shots,” Davis said after Tuesday’s 103-94 loss to Orlando. “Guys got great looks, but we’re just missing shots that we normally make. That’s really it.”
Davis and Gentry both noted that New Orleans needs better ball and player movement. Davis registered seven games of five-plus assists during the second half of 2014-15 – after none prior to that – showing his improvement as a passer. Early in 2015-16, however, he has a total of just seven assists through four games, averaging 1.8. He’s still averaging 20.8 points, 10.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks, but he’s getting fewer easy baskets compared to the recent past.
“I’ve just got to find the (open) guy, try to make the right play, which I’m trying to do,” Davis said. “Then it’s on the guys to knock down the shots. Once they do that, then (the defense) can’t double and triple-team as much, because we have guys who can shoot the ball.”
“AD needs space,” Holiday said. “Every time he touches the ball, he’s going to have at least three guys on him.”
“Some of the guys that can help him are not healthy yet, so that has a little bit to do with it,” Gentry said after Tuesday’s loss, alluding to the injury absences of Evans, Quincy Pondexter and Norris Cole, all key pieces of the 2014-15 team. “But we still have to get into a rhythm offensively. The missed shots don’t bother me as long as they’re good shots, but some of the shots we’re taking are not very good shots, and that’s leading to transition chances for (the opponent).
“I didn’t think we had any rhythm to what we were doing (against Orlando). It’s the second night where I think we’re holding the ball, we’re not getting movement on the offensive end, we’re not getting cuts, we’re not getting ball movement, we’re getting the ball stuck on one side of the floor. We’ve got a lot of work to do. There’s no easy way to put it. We’ve got to get things corrected.”
