Why are the New Orleans Pelicans so inconsistent?
By Will Osgood
The Mentor and Model
Williams’ primary coaching mentor is the man who just last summer won his fifth NBA Championship ring, Gregg Popovich. Pops, as he is affectionately known, was once a stubborn defensive-minded head coach who refused to let his team run, and insisted on playing slow.
He won a couple championships that way. But Pops also recognized a couple of things. One, the game itself was changing. As the rules began to favor a more up-tempo game, so too did the onslaught of freakishly athletic players.
But the Spurs were also committed to analytics thanks in large part to general manager R.C. Buford, who just last week was awarded a lifetime achievement award at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
And the data captured from those analytics caused the Spurs to change from a slow-paced team to one of the quickest offensive teams which now famously relies offensively on corner 3s and shots at the rim, while defensively doing everything it can to keep opposing teams from shooting any 3-point shots.
The result has been that the Spurs have been in the top-10 of both offensive and defensive efficiency the past few years. The Spurs have built their roster with more athletic players–Kawhi Leonard being the prime example–and 3-point gunners, Danny Green being the best example in that category.
And Popovich has altered his strategic approach to play to his team’s strengths. Sure the results have been iffy for Pops’ team in 2014-15, but sound analytics-minded teams in basketball and football (Ravens and Patriots come to mind in the NFL) also take an approach that the most important thing is just to get to the postseason and work to play their best ball in January or April through June.
All of that information is the backdrop for this nugget: though Williams’ mentor taught him a defensive-minded game, Williams appears to have missed the most important lesson Popovich gave him–adaptation to personnel.
For if he had learned that, the Pelicans, a team built to run and shoot threes, would not be second to last in PACE.
Next: The Final Point