Guard Driven League and why Herb/Dyson is best way forward.

The NBA use to be the league of the big man and sometime back in the early 2010's it switched to the league of the 3pt shooting guards. Since then, we really have extended the range of shots made well beyond the 3pt arc which requires a new type of modern NBA defense.

This brings me to the Pelicans, where they may have stumbled upon the knife to kill the proverbial golden geese.

Here is a great point from PPT last night:

LINK

quote:

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Dyson Daniels doesn’t need any help on James Harden ????

James Harden last night:
37 MIN
2-8 FG
1-6 3 PT
3 TO’s
8 PTS

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In todays guard driven league you need to either match up offensively or shut down defensively. However, somehow the Pelicans have stumbled into a way to do both. Whether by design or by fortunate luck the Pelicans have found a pair of NFL corners to defend the wings and have finally got both of their stars to play together in the PnR to garner a certified baller status OTRG.

Over the course of the last 5 games the Pelicans are now 8th in OTRG (119.6) and 6th in DEFRTG (108.4) going 4-1 in those games with the one loss being one point to the Timberwolves (a game we had in hand and let get away).

I think the biggest challenge is how do we integrate key core pieces that are going to be coming online here more than likely after the road trip. Here are my thoughts:

Inc: CJ and Trey
Down the Road: Matt Ryan

This team needs another players meeting to get the point across that starters are in name only (not that I dont think they know this but just to really enforce that idea).

I think you absolutely have to trot out whats working right now. At least until Trey has his game legs back.

JV
Zion
BI
Herb
Dyson

For some reason now we have so much talent from 6-11 that hard discussions will be needed as their are only so many minutes to give. It's almost as if we will be sellers at the trade deadline or look to move a few of these guys for a final big man for a playoff run.

I do think once CJ is completely healed you send him back into the starting lineup. However watching post game someone made a great point that the rotations seem to be trying to get to where one group rotation is Zion's style, the next BI's style. So my rotations will relect the same.

Assuming all of our players are healthy:

Starting 5 min of game:

JV
Zion
BI
Herb
CJ

At 6 min mark of 1st Quarter (or indictive of how other team is defending):

BI's Team Unit:

JV
Trey
BI
Herb
Dyson

This grouping allows BI to do his midrange thing with strong defensive backup and rebounding. You still also maintain the 3pt shooting threat with Trey.

Zion's Team Unit:

Zion
Trey
Hawk
CJ
Jose

Zion gets shooting galore, CJ small windows of ball handling. The idea here is we dont miss often and therefore dont need a bonafide rebounder. This still would require Zion, Trey, and Hawk to be the primary rebounders.

Closing Game:

Zion
Trey
BI
Herb
Dyson/CJ

Notice Trey didnt start the game, but he damn sure is there to end it. I think over the course of the next 4 years this is the real core of the Pelicans moving forward (assuming we pay BI a contract).


Tradable Assets:

Larry
Naji
Kira

Im reluctat to put JV in the tradeable asset category as he is by far our best big man but we need another BAD.