toney douglas

Pelicans.com

NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Pelicans today announced that the team has waived guard Toney Douglas.

Douglas, 6-2, 185, appeared in 61 games (18 starts) for the Pelicans during the 2015-16 season, holding averages of 8.7 points, 2.6 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals. Originally signed by New Orleans on February 4, 2015, Douglas appeared in 73 total games for the Pelicans, averaging 8.0 points, 2.5 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 19.7 minutes per contest.

Originally drafted 29th overall out of Florida State University in 2009 by the Los Angeles Lakers, Douglas has appeared in 370 career regular season games with New York, Houston, Sacramento, Golden State, Miami and New Orleans, averaging 7.8 points, 2.3 assists and 2.2 rebounds per game.

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Pelicans Waive Toney Douglas

Pelicans.com continues its look back at the 2015-16 season with player-by-player analysis of the team:

2015-16 OVERVIEW
During his brief stint with New Orleans early in the season, Nate Robinson referred to himself as “an emergency brake” that NBA teams can use when they’re in a pinch roster-wise. Robinson’s unique description actually may be even more fitting as it applies to fellow point guard Toney Douglas and the New Orleans Pelicans. On three separate occasions over the past 14 months, the Pelicans have signed the veteran, in order to create much-needed backcourt depth.

Douglas did not enter October ’15 training camp with New Orleans, but was waived by Indiana just before the regular season began. He re-joined the already-injury-depleted Pelicans on Oct. 30, then poured in 17 points the next night against Golden State. That performance was a sign of things to come for the Florida State product’s season overall – he wasn’t expected to log major minutes, but ended up playing far more than he has in recent years and was quite productive.

Fast forward to the end of ’15-16, and Douglas was in the New Orleans starting lineup for 18 of the final 19 games, delivering some of the best performances of his seven-year NBA career. The Georgia native reached double digits in scoring 15 times over that 18-start span, including tallying 23, 21 and 22 points in the final three games vs. Phoenix, Chicago and Minnesota, respectively. It was the first time Douglas had compiled three consecutive games of 20-plus points in the NBA.

Unlike the previous season – when Douglas played in several critical wins, leading to a Pelicans playoff berth – New Orleans couldn’t overcome its injury woes in ’15-16. However, the Pelicans were generally competitive down the stretch, including a 4-3 span with Douglas starting.

“It’s difficult any time you have eight or nine players injured,” Douglas said. “You want to get into a rhythm with the starting five, the role players and the bench. (But) at the end of the day, it’s part of the game. Things happen and you’ve got to adjust. I think we did a good job adjusting, even though we had a lot of adversity this year. Hopefully next year we don’t have these type of injuries again. Some of the stuff just happens on the floor. You can’t control it sometimes.”

Despite being an in-season pickup, Douglas nearly played as many minutes (1,262) as he has in a season since 2012-13, when he logged 1,289 split between Houston and Sacramento.
“I always expect to play,” Douglas said, when asked specifically about his increase in role. “No matter what. I’m a competitor. Being a pro, if you don’t play, you still keep your body in shape and stay working. It’s a long season – you’ve just got to seize every opportunity, every moment.”

For the third time in the past four summers, Douglas will be a free agent. He is open to returning to New Orleans, one of the six NBA teams he’s played for since debuting as a New York lottery pick in ‘09.

“I have no problem being back here. I feel like I can contribute to this team,” he said. “On the offensive and defensive end, I feel I can make a difference. That’s not my call, though – I’m the player. We’ll see where that goes. I like it here with the coaches and I’m familiar with the players and their games.”

#3, Nov. 10: New Orleans 120, Dallas 105
Douglas figured prominently in the Pelicans’ first win after an 0-6 start, going 5/7 from three-point range, part of a 17-point night off the bench. NOLA’s reserves combined for a whopping 79 points.

#2, March 31: New Orleans 101, Denver 95
A 20-point, 10-assist game represented the first double-double for Douglas since March 18, 2011, when he was a second-year guard with New York. The Pelicans were plus-13 with Douglas on the floor.

#1, March 20: New Orleans 109, L.A. Clippers 105
One of the best all-around games of Douglas’ career, he delivered 15 points, seven rebounds and nine assists (his career high in dimes is 11), sparking the Pelicans to victory. New Orleans only had nine healthy players available.

39.9: Career-high three-point percentage for Douglas, ranking second among Pelicans who spent the majority of the season on the roster.

84.8: Shooting percentage from the foul line for Douglas, an excellent free-throw shooter. He’s at 82.4 percent over his seven-year NBA career.

18: Starts for Douglas in 2015-16, a new career high. His previous most was 17 with Miami in 2013-14; that Heat team reached the NBA Finals, losing to San Antonio.

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Season in Review 2015-16: Toney Douglas

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Gallery: Toney Douglas Season in Review 2015-16

On ending the season on a tough loss:
"We were just overmatched. They have a good, young, athletic team and future multiple All-Star guys. I thought Shabazz Muhammad came in and played great. They overpowered us. We tried to play two small guards and they overpowered us. They have two guys that are going to be great players in this league for a lot of years."

On how the team handled the game:
"I think they are competitive so they got real frustrated with it. We tried to throw a zone out there, but we couldn’t get people rest, the necessary rest in rotation. So once again we have Dante Cunningham playing, and I took him out of the game. It was out of control, so there was no reason to have him in the game."

On Kendrick Perkins’ three-point shot:
"Our guys were really happy he made his three. They went to the table and changed it. That was about the lightest side of the whole night really."

On the upcoming draft:
"We will start preparing right away, as a matter of fact we have already started to prepare. We have a lot of video on a lot of guys that we will start to take a look at. We will start to meet as a staff with basketball operations to discuss things, and look at all the guys that are available. Obviously there is pre-draft camp and some other things that we will attend, and start the process."

On the game:
"They're a young team and they're going to be a pretty good team in the next year or two. They're young, they played on both ends of the court tonight, give credit to them."

On having seven players tonight:
"We were fatigued… we've only got five out there, we've got to go out here and compete. You can play with five, so at the end of the day… when we step out on the floor, we still have to compete and play hard."

On the message going into next season:
"Compete and play hard, being in shape, that's the main thing."

On sharing the ball:
"I think the last couple, 15 games, we've had like 25 or more assists in a game. We move the ball, everybody gets involved and we have a lot of players in double figures. That's how we've got to play. Hopefully come back next year into training camp and keep establishing our identity."

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Pelicans-Timberwolves Postgame: Locker Room Quotes 4-13-16

On tonight’s loss and if fatigue was a factor:
"I think that’s the main word (tired). We basically played five basketball games in seven days now. It’s just we don’t have enough depth to take guys out and even at the end, when we wanted to take Dante (Cunningham) out, we have no more perimeter guys. He and Luke (Babbitt) were both struggling, but you know we only have who we have so it was just tough. I do think they (the players) give us everything that they have. This team (Phoenix) right here is very good, offensively. Although their record is not anywhere close to what they’d like it to be, they’ve had injuries also. They’re very good, offensively. They’re very good offensively and they can put the ball in the basket. (They’ve) Got good three-point shooters, they can play big, they can play small, and it just took its toll on us, really."

On an increasing number of turnovers over the past few games:
"Well, but we only had eleven turnovers so that’s not a ton, but I think they come at inopportune times. They kill rallies or they extend rallies for them. We’ve got to do a little bit better job with that. That too, I think, is a byproduct of the fatigue factor, mentally. We just couldn’t get anything going."

On if playing 4 games in 5 nights wore the team down tonight:
"Most definitely. That’s definitely a big part of it, but at the end of the day we don’t want to make excuses. We lost tonight, we have to learn from it and get ready for Monday against Chicago."

On what was most difficult about this season:
"It’s difficult anytime you have eight or nine players injured. You kind of want to get in a rhythm with the starting five, the real players, the bench, and you have players coming in and out, but at the end of the day it’s a part of the game. Things happen and you have to adjust, I think we did a good job adjusting to it even though we were facing a lot of adversity this season. We just have to move forward and hopefully these next two games we stay injury free. I hope we don’t have these types of injuries again."

On the difficulty of playing 4 games in 5 nights:
"It’s tough but it’s the NBA. There’s going to be games and series like this when you have to play four games in five nights, or five games in seven nights. That’s what the summer is for, to prepare yourself for this. Unfortunately we didn’t get the win tonight to make it a two game sweep."

On playing in the second half:
"They jumped out on us in the third quarter, and got it up to twenty, and they got easy baskets. I don’t know what they shot from the field, but I know they shot better than we did. They shot great three-point shots, and we made mental mistakes which gave them easy looks."

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Pelicans-Suns Postgame: Locker Room Quotes 4-9-16

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Pelicans-Suns Postgame: Toney Douglas 4-9-16

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On his thoughts of the game:
"I thought we did a good job, we played hard, we competed like crazy, we got down but kept plugging away and found a way to get the game tied and continued to make a couple of plays at the end to get us over the hump."

On the team's turnovers:
"It was a big number. We started out throwing the ball away early. I don’t know if they were so much forced turnovers, but we didn’t execute and do what we were supposed to do. They’re a good basketball team. They are great at forcing turnovers, they get into you. I thought in spite of that we played a good basketball game and put ourselves in a position to win in the last 3 minutes. I’m happy with the effort, I’m not happy with the turnovers, but I’m happy with everything that we tried to do."

On the Celtics third quarter punch:
"I think the big thing is there is no quit in these guys. As long as there is time on the clock I think you’ll see them continue to compete. Was a couple of tough plays that didn’t go our way, then we really kind of crushed the issue a little bit and had a shot to cut it to 2, a layup under the basket, they made a great block on it. They’re a good basketball team, I love watching them play. I told Brad (Stevens) that his team plays like we want to play; with a toughness and attitude about them. That’s who we want to be. When we get healthy and get all of our guys to me that’s who you want to be."

On the team's effort tonight:
"We played 48 minutes. We felt like if we kept our turnovers down we may have come out with the win, but we competed, played hard and never gave up and still had a chance to win the game."

"From the first guys out to the bench, everybody made good plays at some point in the game and kept us in the game. We had a lot of balance going tonight and its hard for teams to guard that and you got to make sure you watch everybody before and not just one or two people."

On his injury status:
"I feel good. I twisted it pretty bad but I’m just going to get treatment, that’s what trainers are for. Get treatment and be back ready to go on Friday. We have 5 games and I’m not going to miss anymore."

On the effort tonight:
"Credit to Boston, they are a playoff team and they got great pieces all around; score outside, score inside. We got a great team as well. We continued to fight and cut the lead down and we got it down to one. Credit to them, they were able to continue to make runs and they made the last run so they won the game."

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Pelicans-Celtics Postgame: Locker Room Quotes 4-6-16

Pelicans-Celtics Postgame: Toney Douglas 4-6-16

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