While the Pelicans parted ways with franchise stalwart Jrue Holiday last season, the team’s mini roster overhaul, including the head coach, brought in a stronger defensive identity.
At the helm, new head coach Stan Van Gundy has a history of building strong defenses. In his final season at Detroit, the Pistons finished 10th in defensive rating despite a 39-43 record overall.
On the court, Eric Bledsoe brings a strong defensive identity after All-Defensive team honors in each of the last two seasons. Steven Adams, who also came in as part of the Holiday trade, does not have the All-Defensive team recognition but does have the reputations as one of the toughest big men in the league.
Add those pieces to the ones in place with the Pelicans, like Lonzo Ball, and the Pelicans look primed to improve upon last season when they finished 21st in the league in defensive ratings. Simple improvement, though, is not what JJ Redick has in mind for the defense this season.
“Defensively, I think we’ll be one of the better defensive teams for the simple fact that we’ll have great discipline, we’ll have great rules, we’ll drill the [expletive] out of everything,” he said on Friday.”I think we’ll be great on that side of the ball, I really do because we also have the personnel. As you saw last year with Lonzo, he’s such a disruptive defender and Eric was on the number one defense in the league last season so having those two guys at the point of attack will be huge.
“Having Steven Adams just as a body back there, we were really good at times with (Derrick Favors) on the court as a five (last season). I think with the personnel we have and Stan, we’ll be a much better defensive team.”
As Redick points out, when Favors was on the court last season, the Pelicans did have a stout defense. The team’s defensive rating of 107.9 with Favors on the floor would have ranked just ahead of Oklahoma City for the seventh-best defense in the league.
The biggest issue with Favors last season was health. Swapping Adams, one of the NBA’s iron men, for Favors, who left for Utah during the off-season, won’t solve all of the team’s issues but it certainly won’t hurt. And if the Pelicans are looking to take a leap toward the playoffs, a stronger defensive effort will be needed this season.