Watch New Orleans (16-26) play enough and you’ll occasionally see the bane of many basketball coaches’ existence: A possession in which only one Pelicans player touches the ball, because he fired a contested jumper with only a few seconds expired on the 24-second shot clock.
During his Wednesday pregame comments to the media, Pelicans second-year head coach Alvin Gentry pinpointed shot selection as one element that’s contributed to the team’s underperforming offense, which ranks 27th in the NBA in efficiency (101.1 points per 100 possessions). Gentry has periodically desired better ball movement throughout the season, which can go hand-in-hand with improving the decisions on which shots to take.
“We have one guy take a bad shot and another guy take a bad shot, and next thing you know we’ve had eight bad possessions,” Gentry said of how a series of decisions can compound into ineffectiveness. “A lot of those shots become almost like turnovers. We’ve got to get guys to understand that we have to pass on those shots, because they just put us in a real tough situation.”
Other notes from pregame in the Smoothie King Center:
Gentry expressed urgency in relation to the team’s six-game homestand that begins tonight. Following the game vs. Orlando, the five visitors are Brooklyn, Cleveland, Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Washington. The Pelicans are two games out of eighth place in an extremely jumbled race for the final playoff spot. With seventh-place Oklahoma City (25-18) already 6.5 games ahead of eighth-place Denver (17-23), realistically it looks like only one spot will be available among a handful of West teams.
Adding to the importance of this homestand is that New Orleans plays seven of its final nine games prior to the All-Star break on the road; the Pelicans are just 6-15 in away contests.
“As the season goes longer, you have a smaller margin of error, so any time you play at home, you’ve got to try to win the games,” Gentry said. “It doesn’t matter who the opponent is. Because it’s so difficult to win on the road. We have six games and very tough teams in it. The world champions, Cleveland, are in it. San Antonio. Oklahoma City. You’ve got to have a good homestand and find a way to beat those teams.”