When Dell Demps acquired Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans in separate summer transactions, expectations shot through the roof in New Orleans. Alongside a revitalized Eric Gordon, the Pelicans were supposed to be an upstart team in the West.
Instead, New Orleans is sinking quickly in the unforgiving Western Conference, and it's time to start questioning whether such heavy investment in a single area was a misstep.
It's easy to blame the Pelicans' 15-22 record on the litany of injuries they've had to deal with, and that fact certainly can't be discounted. Both Evans and Holiday are currently nursing ankle injuries, with the latter expected to miss around a month due to stress fractures.
But injuries alone aren't the sole reason the Pelicans are floundering.
Where's the D?
Overloading at the guard position has had major effects on the Pelicans defense.
Currently, they have the second-worst defensive rating in the league, clocking in at a gruesome 109.8. If Monty Williams didn't have his team playing at a deliberate pace—the Pelicans rank 21st in this ...
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Article written by Kyle Neubeck
Revisiting the Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans Experiment
January 14th, 2014 by Kyle Neubeck Leave a reply »
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