Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
Without digging in too deep, the main issue that really plagued us for a large portion of Favors missed time was Gentry/Bzdeliks desire to play with a big up front. Before the season started they stressed this multiple times in interviews that, contrary to prior years with AD and co, Gentry wanted a more aggressive defensive style that pulled the big out of the paint forcing them to recover when the paint was driven on.
With Favors at least, that's fine. Favors is a smart, experienced get with plenty of defensive instinct. The game is perfectly within his understanding to the extent that he can do that. However, with Hayes, this isn't the case. Hayes is a talented defensive prospect but he's not there yet and the speed of recognition required to run a bigs-out strategy is beyond him right now. For more than a dozen games, Gentry stuck with using Hayes as if he was Favors and it left him out of position far too frequently and gave up open layup after open layup.
At some point around Favors return, the Pelicans switched defensively back to using a drop coverage. Not only is Favors fully capable of running that too, but it also gives Hayes a split second more time to read the play as it develops and make a decision. It's a small time difference but one that can matter in a game played at NBA speeds. Frankly, it's the right move to make. It's more conservative, will probably force fewer turnovers, but defending the rim should always be priority number one on any team.
What's interesting is why this change has been made. I've heard recently (although it was on Twitter so I cannot attest to the veracity of the claim: could just be random people talking nonsense) that Gentry approached Jrue and Favors and asked them what they believed was causing issues in the defense and that he took their preferences into account. If this is true, it would explain us switching towards a style that's slightly more in Jrue and Favors' wheelhouse, but it may not be true at all. This is just a rumour. If it's true, it's the kind of thing you could see as a positive or a negative depending on your outlook. Either it's a positive because Gentry is getting communication going in the locker room and adjusting his schemes to suit his personnel, which is good. Or it's a negative because Gentry basically needs the players to coach the system and design the scheme themselves.