Breaking down the New Orleans Pelicans Offensive Sets

Hey Pelicans fans, I made a video breakdown taking a look at the Pelicans offensive sets from one of their games. They run a bunch of clever sets that get them good shots.. Thanks for watching and let me know what you think of their offense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp30JbrW5Ks

Just watched it. Thanks for making the video. NBA offenses look like they can get very complicated very fast.

Awesome work. That had to be a lot of work. Great job breaking it down for us. I hope you keep doing these. It'd be interesting to see how our offense changes against certain teams and how it evolves through the season. Funny how many good looks we missed. Interesting to see who plays are designed for. In the heat of the action sit is difficult to see what the play was, how it was defended, who was moving off-ball and all that fun jazz.

That said, we have, what, 90+ "Fire Monty" threads yet this has been up for half a day with no response? Everyone has been claiming that Monty is ruining our offense and not calling sets, yet here we can clearly see what plays are called, who they are called for, where the options are, and how our players are executing it and all anyone wants to do on here is debate if a college team can beat an NBA team, which move our GM made in the past was the worst one, debating which free agent we should sign even though we won't be able to, and arguing about stats. This is the actual game and how it's played. But you can't kick and scream about it and not many people can talk around the water cooler about how to run different pick and rolls so I guess it makes sense. It just sucks that so many sports fans aren't interested in the game and how it's played but in creating meaningless narratives to debate with other people.

Very interesting video. Great job ! It would be very to see analysis of other game, especially when Asik is on court, where the offensive philosophy is very different. For example, I noticed plenty of variations of the horn sets on certain game. Also, earlier this season, there was some sets designed to make AD free under the basket with a back-door cut, I really liked this play and I have to say I'm overly disappointed to have see it disappear in the last few games.

Regarding the offense move I really like is the double screen with Anderson and Davis. It's unfortunate to see Ryno shot off lately because this 3-man play with the combination of the roll and the pop could be unstoppable. They could even create some counter with Davis on the pop and Anderson on the roll, just to take by surprise the opponent. I also like the use of off-ball screen, I think they are underused in the league right now and a very simple way to create early separation.

Your video show also one thing: the offensive execution is still a work in progress, some screens aren't effective enough, some play recognition not as good as it should be. On the bright side, I like the fact that we use simple sets and I think that's one of the reason why the team doesn't commit lot of turnovers.

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Originally Posted by Jabberwalker

Awesome work. That had to be a lot of work. Great job breaking it down for us. I hope you keep doing these. It'd be interesting to see how our offense changes against certain teams and how it evolves through the season. Funny how many good looks we missed. Interesting to see who plays are designed for. In the heat of the action sit is difficult to see what the play was, how it was defended, who was moving off-ball and all that fun jazz.

That said, we have, what, 90+ "Fire Monty" threads yet this has been up for half a day with no response? Everyone has been claiming that Monty is ruining our offense and not calling sets, yet here we can clearly see what plays are called, who they are called for, where the options are, and how our players are executing it and all anyone wants to do on here is debate if a college team can beat an NBA team, which move our GM made in the past was the worst one, debating which free agent we should sign even though we won't be able to, and arguing about stats. This is the actual game and how it's played. But you can't kick and scream about it and not many people can talk around the water cooler about how to run different pick and rolls so I guess it makes sense. It just sucks that so many sports fans aren't interested in the game and how it's played but in creating meaningless narratives to debate with other people.

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The reason this is one of the few sports site I come back to despite a lot of the pettiness and overreactions is because there are posters like this that raises my level of understanding of the game even higher than what it is now. Great work.

Great job man. I love when people take time out of their day to do this for free for everyone else.

Thanks for posting.
To the naked eye the offense sometime seems to have no cohesion, but breaking it down
like this you quickly learn if you are off by a few steps poor shots are magnified.
It's all about repetition. They will eventually get it.

My only concern is are all our ball handlers smart enough to realize a break down and seek the alternative?
From this video it seems Jrue and Gordon are.....Rivers and Evans not so much.

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Originally Posted by Jabberwalker

Awesome work. That had to be a lot of work. Great job breaking it down for us. I hope you keep doing these. It'd be interesting to see how our offense changes against certain teams and how it evolves through the season. Funny how many good looks we missed. Interesting to see who plays are designed for. In the heat of the action sit is difficult to see what the play was, how it was defended, who was moving off-ball and all that fun jazz.

That said, we have, what, 90+ "Fire Monty" threads yet this has been up for half a day with no response? Everyone has been claiming that Monty is ruining our offense and not calling sets, yet here we can clearly see what plays are called, who they are called for, where the options are, and how our players are executing it and all anyone wants to do on here is debate if a college team can beat an NBA team, which move our GM made in the past was the worst one, debating which free agent we should sign even though we won't be able to, and arguing about stats. This is the actual game and how it's played. But you can't kick and scream about it and not many people can talk around the water cooler about how to run different pick and rolls so I guess it makes sense. It just sucks that so many sports fans aren't interested in the game and how it's played but in creating meaningless narratives to debate with other people.

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Great post.

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Originally Posted by da ThRONe

The reason this is one of the few sports site I come back to despite a lot of the pettiness and overreactions is because there are posters like this that raises my level of understanding of the game even higher than what it is now. Great work.

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For real!

Excellent work drk. Looking forward to more of your videos.

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Originally Posted by drk3351

Hey Pelicans fans, I made a video breakdown taking a look at the Pelicans offensive sets from one of their games. They run a bunch of clever sets that get them good shots.. Thanks for watching and let me know what you think of their offense.]

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I'd love if you could do an analysis on that Portland game in the fourth quarter collapse.
I think we would see why Holiday and Evans missed the shots that they did.

It wasn't all just hero ball, but more the defence Portland put on AD in the paint.

Great stuff man! One big thing that shows up on that video is our lack of solid picks. We need to commit better to the screen, and I think it will open our sets up better.

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Originally Posted by nolaslim213

Great stuff man! One big thing that shows up on that video is our lack of solid picks. We need to commit better to the screen, and I think it will open our sets up better.

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That's one of the few departments AD can drastically improve in.

And thanks to the OP for the great breakdown of our offensive sets. It's good to know that amongst the chaos is a certain level of organization.

Glad you liked the video. I am a general NBA breakdown channel, so I never get to enough teams or games, meaning I probably won't be able to to 2 straight pelican videos.

But there will be more Pelicans videos in the future!

Thought I'd bump this just so anyone who may have missed it could see it again.
I know it's not some off the wall earth shaking improbable trade.
I know it's not going to show us who is to blame for our team's struggles.
It may not be something that we can use to argue with each other.
But it is a breakdown of our team playing the actual game of basketball.
Maybe we can learn from it.

Everyone on this site should really watch this. It's actually worth talking about.

Davis is horrible at setting screens. Lol

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Originally Posted by kclaboy504

Davis is horrible at setting screens. Lol

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David West-esque.

It is very cool to see a fan do this for us. I have a ton of respect for him. I watched it first when he posted it and then again the other day.

This is the sort of thing I would love to see our local sports shows or the pre-game show, who seem to mostly do fluff interviews and talk about stats, spend some of their show on. I mean the only people that really tune in to those shows are the hardcore fans, so make the show something the hardcore fans will really enjoy and get something out of.

There's nothing earth shattering about this. This team doesn't pass, not side to side, not skip not drive and kick. Anything. What's there to discuss? You can't have a great philosophical conversation about our product on the floor because there is nothing to discuss. They don't DO anything after two hand offs and 1 lazy pick and roll. Why they don't is the philosophical question.

Thanks for sharing .

I think one of the biggest issue is to get AD in optimum positions . Even he has huge numbers right now , he doesn't get the ball where he can be much more effective . Monty needs to place him more close to the paint

I also agree on screens . Bigs have to do a better job . Even I'm a huge Asik fan , his screens on Houston were far better than NO . Same with AD . He doesn't put his body + weight enough .