The New Orleans bench ranks 30th in the NBA in points per game (20.6), but in fairness to the team’s reserves, it is also just 28th in minutes played, meaning Pelicans subs have had less of an opportunity to contribute than every
second unit in the league other than Chicago’s and Toronto’s backups.
The group made a positive step forward in a narrow home loss Wednesday, when it totaled 28 points and shot 12/22 from the field, holding a statistical edge over a very deep Atlanta bench (25 points, 8/28 shooting). Jaxson Hayes and Trey Murphy III scored eight points each, while guards Garrett Temple and Kira Lewis Jr. tallied six points apiece and gave New Orleans a big first-half spark, prior to Temple being sidelined by an ankle sprain. Naji Marshall was scoreless,
but notched six rebounds, four assists and a steal in 19 minutes.
“I thought the bench was great,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said after Thursday’s practice. “Garrett was sort of finding his rhythm, his playing time was going up, which we expected. I thought our bench did a really good job of coming
in, playing hard, playing the right way, keeping the game simple.”
Some of that effective simplicity was evidenced by a 7-4 bench assist-to-turnover ratio against the Hawks. At point guard, Lewis experienced a rough, four-turnover game at Minnesota on Saturday, but otherwise has set up teammates well and avoided mistakes.
Performances by the bench like Wednesday’s outing might allow Green to reduce how much some of his starters are playing early in 2021-22. Brandon Ingram (37.2) is ninth in the NBA in minutes per game, while Jonas Valanciunas is No. 22 at 34.8.
“Kira was doing well, Jaxson was doing well, Trey was doing well, GTemp was giving us great minutes,” starting guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker said of the unit’s play vs. Atlanta. “There is no one coming in the game that I don’t feel
confident with. Everyone is heading in that right direction. We’ve just got to piece it together.”