Digging deeper the warts begin to show. ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus ranks Faried 80th among 94 power forwards defensively last season. Two years ago he ranked just three spots ahead of Ryan Anderson. According to NBA Stats the Nuggets have been worse defensively with Faried on the floor in all five seasons he’s been in the league. In four of the last five seasons (2014-15 is the exception) Denver has been worse overall with the Manimal on the court than off.
Kenneth Faried is efficient offensively, largely by avoiding jump shots at all costs. About 10% of his shot attempts come beyond 10 feet according to Basketball Reference. Synergy Stats reflects the nature of his offensive output well; 21.3% comes from putbacks, 20.8% from cuts (think dump off passes), 16.2% as the roll man, and 13.3% in transition.
While Faried is energetic and prone to producing highlight worthy dunks he’s nearly Ryan Anderson-bad defensively with a long trail of making his team worse when he’s on the floor. Imagine if you gave Omer Asik really good hands and explosive leaping ability. As a trade off, Asik has to shrink about five inches and lose the vast majority of his defensive impact (rim protection via height) and acumen (basketball IQ). Sure, the offense would improve with Faried diving to the rim with a surer set of hands. Defense, on the other hand, takes a huge step back.
More importantly, on the fit with AD and Faried, is it requires Davis to move to center nearly full time. That slides Omer Asik out of the starting lineup (creating some locker room tension) and puts Davis at a position he prefers not to play (probably not the best idea). Further, the Pelicans sit on two big contracts for Asik (nearly immovable) and Alexis Ajinca at the center position.
http://www.thebirdwrites.com/2016/8/...licans-defense