Alvin Gentry describes the New Orleans Pelicans’ frequent shuffling of lineups and ongoing efforts to find the right on-court combinations of players as “training camp in the middle of the season.” It’s far from an ideal situation, but injuries and other circumstances have made it unavoidable.
Now that the Pelicans are nearly at full strength, however, Gentry hopes to be able to at least find a consistent starting lineup and rotation. Starting Friday and potentially at least for the next several games, New Orleans (4-15) plans to go with a first string of guards Tyreke Evans and Eric Gordon, forwards Alonzo Gee and Anthony Davis, along with center Omer Asik. As a result of the change, Jrue Holiday will now come off the bench after starting each of his 14 appearances this season.
“We’re going to try to stay with that lineup for a little while and see if we can get some consistency,” Gentry said of trying to find some game-to-game continuity. “Now that we’ve got some healthy bodies back, we’re going to try put guys back in roles they’re comfortable with.”
With Holiday under a 25-minute restriction and not cleared yet to play in back-to-back games, the new lineup will allow the Pelicans to not have to alter the first unit based on Holiday’s availability. New Orleans’ next back-to-back is Dec. 11-12. Gentry added that Holiday teamed well with Cole in the backcourt during the tail end of last season, a factor in moving Holiday to the reserve group.
“He and Norris played well together last year, so that’s another reason we thought it might not be a bad idea,” Gentry said of the alteration.
“Usually it’s something that you would do in October,” Gentry added of trying to find the right mix this deep into the regular season, “but we’ve got to figure it out.”
