New head coach Stan Van Gundy has made it an extra point of emphasis in New Orleans to focus on the defensive side of the ball. A weakness of last year’s team, Van Gundy is focused on building a stronger defense this season for the Pelicans and has spent much of the preseason on that side of the ball.
On Monday in their preseason opener against Miami, the team showed off its new defense for the first time and, after a slow start, put up a strong effort. After allowing 30 points in the first quarter, New Orleans did not allow more than 23 points each of the remaining three quarters.
“I think it got better as the game went on,” Lonzo Ball said after practice on Wednesday. “Guys were giving effort. Obviously, we just trying to learn a new defense this year and it starts with effort. The second thing is talking. I think we did a lot than we’ve been doing in the past.”
Van Gundy was pleased with the defensive improvements but still wanted to see more from his side moving forward, specifically in communicating on that end of the floor.
“We’re still not doing a great job communicating what we want defensively so that’s got to really, really pick up as we go forward,” he said. “Then a lot of little things (like) our pick and roll defense has to get better. The communication will help in all those other areas.”
Ball has been a standout for the Pelicans during training camp with his communication on both ends of the court being one of the reasons why. Ball has a ways to go to be considered one of the better communicators on the floor with Van Gundy signaling out Josh Hart, JJ Redick and Sindarius Thornwell as the best communicators.
Ideally, though, Van Gundy would like to have one of his big men be the team’s most vocal player on the floor, pointing to Dwight Howard during his time in Orlando as an example.
“I have found that when you really get good defensively, it’s your bigs, your centers, who can play a huge role in that because, generally, they’re the ones who can see the action and direct traffic,” Van Gundy said. “If they are great communicators, then I think your teams has a chance to be really, really good defensively…Our guys are all working at it. I have no doubts that we’ll get there but if we’re talking about our priorities in terms of what we need to work on, that’s certainly a big one.”
On paper, the addition of Steven Adams, one of the more established big men in the league, would fill that desire for Van Gundy. Eventually, he could fill that role but on top of learning a new system, Adams is learning a new franchise and new teammates after being traded to New Orleans this off-season.
All of it will remain a work in progress for the Pelicans as a short preseason allows them just one more warm-up game before the regular season starts. If Monday’s game is anything to go off of, though, the Pelicans are on their way to marked improvement from last year.