Demarcus Cousins Finishes His First Week As a Pelican

After a shocking deal between the Kings and the Pelicans at the end of NBA All Star Weekend, Demarcus Cousins is now a New Orleans Pelican and Buddy Hield, Langston Galloway and Tyreke Evans are now Sacramento Kings (although Evans is actually returning to the Kings as he played for the franchise from 2009-2013).  Of course, Sacramento also received a first and second round pick in this year’s draft, and New Orleans also received Omri Casspi, who they waived after he broke his right thumb in his first game as a Pelican.  Today marks exactly 1 week since Cousins debuted as a Pelican against a strong Houston team led by MVP candidate James Harden.  Despite dropping 3 of the first 4 games with Cousins on their roster, the deal for the league’s best big man might actually work out in New Orleans’ favor.

Since the first week of the Cousins/Davis era the Pelicans have lost games to the Rockets, Mavericks, and Thunder and have one 23 point win versus the Detroit Pistons.  The Anthony Davis/Demarcus Cousins front court, despite these losses, has been extremely successful.  The two have combined for 179 points over the last 4 games, including their recent win vs the Pistons where Cousins was suspended for picking up his 18th Technical foul of the year vs Oklahoma City.  The two All-Star big men have completely dominated the paint on both ends of the court against every team they’ve played so far, even shutting down drives from James Harden and Russell Westbrook, who are easily the two best players in the league this season, with ease.  However, this insane presence simply isn’t enough to secure much needed wins for the Pelicans.  The Pelicans all season have tried to win games without any significant 3-point shooters.  At the moment, New Orleans’ “star” Point Guard is Jrue Holiday, who isn’t really the most threatening player beyond the arc. This lack of talent in 3-point territory has been the Achilles heel for this Pelicans organization, and it is the reason why they’ve only won 25% of their games since adding Cousins.  Especially playing against teams like OKC and Houston, who have a plethora of phenomenal Guards and Forwards who can hit from down town, it’s nearly impossible for the Pelicans to keep up with their opponents when they can barely guard the perimeter, or even answer back with solid 3 point shooting.  Their loss to a rebuilding Dallas team was definitely inexcusable, but it’s way too early to call this trade a bust, especially when the Pelicans have never really had phenomenal outside shooting.  I personally hope that New Orleans finally gets a solid Guard to add create a solid backcourt and the Pelicans adopt the two big men style of play the OKC showcased in the Western Conference Finals last year to create the greatest big man duo the league has ever seen.  Also, I cannot wait to see Demarcus Cousins play in his first playoff series in his career.  It definitely won’t be this season, but if the Pelicans can just bring in one more key piece, they could be in position to make a solid playoff run before Boogie becomes a free agent.

New Orleans’ problems further continue in their backcourt with their excessive amount of turnovers.  In their last four games, the Pelicans have committed 63 turnovers, with 21 of these coming from starting Point Guard, Jrue Holiday.  In fact, Holiday has led the team in turnovers in each of these games.  It seems like any progress the Davis/Cousins duo makes during the game is instantly ruined by a poor performance in the Pelicans’ backcourt.  However, it is still only the first week of the Cousins/Davis era, and despite trading away picks in this year’s Guard heavy draft, New Orleans can still sign at least one notable guard to help turn things around from 3 point range.  I still believe that bringing Cousins to New Orleans was a great move for the franchise, but they won’t begin to become a significant threat in the Western Conference until they can add a stellar Point Guard to their roster.  However, once they do add this last missing piece, the New Orleans Pelicans will become one of the most feared teams in the league.

Written by Erik Clark