Lowe on Team USA/Davis

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7. Davis looks great in Thibodeau’s scheme, which is more conservative than the system Monty Williams has run during Davis’s two seasons in New Orleans. Depending on the circumstances — the identity of the screener, whether Davis is nominally at power forward or center — Williams will sometimes have Davis chase ball handlers out beyond the 3-point line on the pick-and-roll.

Davis has the speed for that, but it’s a hard pursuit for any young player to master, and it takes perhaps the world’s best shot-blocker away from the hoop.

Thibodeau keeps things simpler. Davis and the other bigs are dropping back against almost every pick-and-roll, corralling ball handlers near the foul line, and stonewalling any little guy who dares drive to the rim.

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Davis can cover giant swatches of territory with one dribble. Picking up the rock after one bounce means Davis sometimes has to lunge really far to get into layup range, forcing him to fling up awkward floaters as he descends to the floor. But Davis has a knack for hitting those shots. “For us, it’s weird,” Williams told me in April. “But for him, it’s natural.”

The Pelicans have grand visions of Davis as an offensive hub in the mold of a springier Dirk Nowitzki, and for Davis to assume that sort of centerpiece role, he has to become more comfortable dribbling into the center of the floor, creating different shots for himself, and dishing to shooters around the floor.

Kevin Hanson, a Pelicans assistant who works most closely with Davis, told me in April he spends a ton of time running Davis through these two-dribble moves. The practice work is starting to trickle onto the court.

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