Why are the New Orleans Pelicans so inconsistent?

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Despite possessing one of the most dominant players in the NBA, the New Orleans Pelicans struggle to gain any consistency and are stuck in ninth place in the Western Conference.

New Orleans Pelicans head coach Monty Williams has received plenty of flak locally and nationally this season for leading a team stuck in ninth place in the tough Western Conference, despite having one of the NBA’s most dominant players.

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After a hard-fought 88-85 home win against the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night, the Pelicans improved their 2014-15 record to 33-28.

It was Anthony Davis’ (read: the player mentioned already as one of the league’s best players) return to the floor after missing five straight games with a shoulder injury he suffered on February 21 in a road win at Miami.

Davis left that game midway through the first quarter, so in reality, he missed the majority of the past six games.

Yet strangely, the Pelicans went 5-1 in that stretch, including winning that game in Miami (which also saw Ryan Anderson leave the game with an injury in the second quarter; he is yet to return to action).

Not surprisingly the two-time All-Star forward was jacked to return to the floor on Wednesday night.

Anthony Davis on his 1st game back for Pelicans. pic.twitter.com/1mSeXRMWdo
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) March 5, 2015

Nobody questions Davis’ heart, passion, energy or love of the game of basketball, just as no one is ignorant to the fact that in just his third year in the league he is already one of the game’s most exciting and dominant players.

But…there is a funny predicament which seems to play out in lieu of Davis’ presence on the court. The Pelicans seem to play better without him.

Or, what is probably more fair to Davis, Williams and the entire Pelicans franchise, is that the team seems to play better when the odds are stacked against them.

Some of that is not completely quantifiable. Some of it is merely an observable energy level which seems to be present when New Orleans is not at full strength, or better said the further away they are from full strength. This was observable all the way back to when the team was the Hornets.

In 1 B.A.D. (Before Anthony Davis), the then-Hornets had lost Chris Paul when they traded him to the Clippers. The main prize they received in return was on-the-rise star guard Eric Gordon.

But in Gordon’s first season in The Crescent City, Gordon played in just nine, yes nine, regular season contests before bowing out for the season with an injury–which would quickly become a New Orleans NBA tradition, like The Master’s, that is “unlike any other”.

Yet without their lone “star” post-Chris Paul and pre-AD, the Hornets scrapped and bruised and though they finished the lockout-shortened season 21-45, and earned the draft’s No. 1 overall pick via a horrible record, that team did it the right way.

They did not tank. They never threw in the towel. Heck, by the end of the season, Monty Williams’ team looked scary. And so the NBA gods, or possibly a rigged lottery system (let’s just be honest), rewarded the New Orleans NBA franchise with the rights to select one of the few can’t-miss prospects to come along in quite some time.

That offseason the Pelicans infamously matched the Phoenix Suns’ offer sheet for Gordon, the restricted free agent, hoping to pair him with Davis to make up one of the best duos in the NBA.

That hasn’t quite happened, as Gordon has played in just 145 of the Pelicans’ 225 games since the start of the 2012-13 season, averaging right around 15 points a contest. Like AD, but on a much smaller scale, Gordon has had his moments in the sun (no pun intended) as his first career game in New Orleans saw him hit a game-winning jumper in Phoenix.

But as already noted, Gordon has missed around 40 percent of his team’s games since signing the max deal of four years, $58 million in the summer of 2012.

That deal is arguably one of the things most in the way of the Pelicans ever ascending to the top of the Western Conference. And it isn’t wholly because Gordon is not worth it–though that obviously doesn’t help. It’s because that move ultimately hamstrung general manager Dell Demps.

With Gordon’s injury history, he is an untradeable asset. And so Demps has had to tailor a roster around Gordon, and not AD.

The corresponding moves in the summer of 2013 to trade for point guard Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans, who would then sign a a four-year, $44 million deal, were made to try to acquiesce to Gordon’s talents and preferences.

But because Gordon and Holiday have both missed large portions of the past two seasons, the Pelicans have never really been able to figure out if that trio is capable of playing together efficiently.

Per nba.com/stats, that trio has only played 169 minutes together total spanning just 11 games–when combined with Davis and starting center Omer Asik.

That unit — which is supposed to be the best five New Orleans can trot out on any given night — has an exemplary 110.5 ORtg (110.5 points per 100 offensive possessions) and has held opposing teams to under 100 points per every 100 possessions.

But…there is a funny predicament which seems to play out in lieu of Davis’ presence on the court. The Pelicans seem to play better without him.

But in those 11 games where that lineup has been used, the Pelicans are just 6-5.

The other “best lineup” the Pelicans can feature–at least on paper–is the same five substituting Ryan Anderson for Asik. In just 98 minutes together (but over 14 games), that unit is scoring an outrageous 120 points per 100 possessions, but the defense is atrocious, giving up almost that many (116).

And in the 14 games those five have seen action together, the Pelicans are a disturbing 6-8.

So one thing is clear: the two best possible lineups the Pelicans have–at least based on salary–have not been very good in limited opportunities playing together.

Next: What is the Pelicans' best lineup?

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