It was the kinda revolutionary trade that begins the ascent of a franchise yet nearly a month later, the pairing of Anthony Davis and Demarcus “Boogie” Cousins haven’t quite lit up the league like most expected them to.
An otherwise demure All-Star weekend was upstaged by the blockbuster trade that brought two legitimate NBA top-15 talents and the best big men in the game into the same front court. Demarcus may not have liked the manner in which the Sacramento front office handled the business – assuring him he wouldn’t be traded before going behind his back to do just that – but he must have been more than grateful for a chance to finally get some All-Star level help in the form of Anthony Davis. After 6 1/2 years as a member of a dysfunctional Kings organization that lacked any legitimate star besides him, there was an allure of new beginnings.
The start of the partnership however has not yielded the kind of results many were quick to predict. There were widespread expectations that the Pelicans would make a late strong push for the 8th seed in the West buoyed by the acquisition of Boogie and set up a tantalizing first round showdown with the Warriors in the first round. This has however failed to materialize and the Pelicans are even further away from a potential postseason than they were before the interlude. Barring some freakish disaster in the run-in out West, it’s safe to say the Pelicans will not be in this year’s playoffs. It’s been up and down – more down than up – for New Orleans and it’s pretty obvious they’re still trying to work the kinks and form an identity around the Twin Towers.
They’ve won just 3 of the 9 games they’ve played (since he’s joined) and were outscored by 30 points on Cousins’ debut against the free shooting Houston Rockets. They’ve been outscored by an average of 11 points in their 6 losses but have managed to outscore their opponents by 12.7 points in the 3 wins. In that same sequence they’ve played two games that went to OT, pushing Spurs down to the wire before losing by 3 and then hanging on against the Hornets to win by 3 thanks to a vintage performance by Anthony Davis. The games have come thick and fast against the best – 5 of their 9 games were against playoff teams – and the adjustment period hasn’t been as smooth as either the organization or Cousins would have liked it.
There have been some positives though. Demarcus Cousins provides the Pelicans with a stronger interior presence than the lethargic Alex Ajinça or Omer Ašik. The Pelicans are giving up less points in the paint (42.0 from 44.2) and are giving opponents less second chance opportunities resulting in a drop in second chance points (11.4 from 12.4). Boogie and Davis have also shown glimpses of what the partnership can be on a few occasions. The pair have combined for 55 points or more on four occasions and have tallied 25+ boards thrice.
Individually, Cousins’ numbers have taken a hit – that’s the tax for playing with an All-star – and in the 8 games he’s played with the Pelicans, he’s averaging 20.8 points, 12.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 0.9 blocks while shooting .423 from the field. It’s a far cry from the otherworldly numbers he was posting in Sacramento, but him more than anyone will be grateful to have someone else who the team can rely on night in night. His usage rate is down to 31.6% since the break and his PER (player efficiency rating) has fallen out of the super stratosphere it once occupied to a paltry 18.6.
Despite his seemingly above average stats, the circumstances surrounding the Pelicans’ wins since they acquired the All-Star centre may be a cause for concern. The first win came in a game in which he was suspended thanks to his league leading 18th technical foul. He was in foul trouble throughout the second win and eventually fouled out, managing to play only 31 minutes but the third win was even more controversial (or not, depends on who you ask). Boogie (already on 5 fouls) sat out the last 10 minutes of the game, including Overtime allowing Anthony Davis to unleash a 46 point-21 rebound night against the struggling Hornets. It may still be early days but questions are being asked and doubts being raised about the ability of Boogie to win games for his team rather than just aimlessly stuffing the stat sheet.
What’s especially unsettling, even more than Boogie becoming some sort of Bogeyman is what happens to the Pelicans when the Twins Towers play together. The duo nicknamed “Fire and Ice” seem to be quenching each other out when they play together. In fact, the Pelicans’ offensive rating with Cousins and Davis on the court at the same time makes for one of the 10 worst scoring offenses in modern NBA history. This is by no means an exaggeration; New Orleans scores 10 fewer points per 100 possessions with its Big Two than this season’s worst offense, the Philadelphia 76ers, who are atrocious in their own right. The Pelicans struggle regardless of which three players (Alvin) Gentry puts around his big-man tandem. When Cousins and Davis are on the court together, the Pelicans’ spacing collapses into a black hole, sucking everyone and anything into the middle of the court.
Therein lies the first significant issue for New Orleans. While either Davis or Cousins is capable of working as a rim-destroying force on the inside, the other is stuck as a glorified stretch-four when the Pelicans try to run a pick-and-roll. This is further compounded by an utter lack of perimeter shooting that would otherwise create space in the paint for the big men to go to work and a severely shorthanded roster. Jrue Holiday was playing at a very high level prior to the All-Star break but the balancing act of making sure the superstar duo get theirs while he gets his may be one circus act too many as he seems to be struggling since the break.
He’s impressed in their wins however and they’ll continue to need him to step up if this trade is to pan out like most of us hope. Beyond JH, the Pelicans might as well be team in the NCAA tourney. The rest of the players simply aren’t making meaningful contributions that can elevate the team and if the franchise wants to become the perennial Playoff contender they envisioned when they traded with the Kings, then major moves must be made this offseason to upgrade the roster.
The most infuriating part, though, has to be how well the Pelicans play when they have one big man or the other on the court, flying solo.
With Cousins on the bench, New Orleans looks like the squad we knew before the All-Star break. The offense is simple: Give the ball to the Brow and let him go to work wherever he wants. Whether that means facing up a defender in isolation, sitting a jarring screen and soaring for an alley-oop, or backing down a smaller defender on the block, Davis is too skilled to be stopped one-on-one when he has room to operate.
Even more striking is the Pelicans’ offense when Davis sits and Cousins takes over. New Orleans becomes the reincarnation of Steve Nash’s Seven Seconds or Less Suns — a never-ending blender of pick-and-rolls, 3-pointers (including from Boogie) and ridiculous passing.
Those individual skills illustrate some of the larger problems when the two play together. Davis wants to roam and find the weakness in an offense, then attack. Cousins wants to use his versatility to facilitate the flow of the offense. And when those two tendencies try to play out simultaneously, the outcome is paralysis by indecision.
Either way, the Pelicans outscore their opponents by 16 points per 100 possessions, five more points than the NBA-best Warriors when Davis or Cousins is on the court without the other. When they both play? The Pelicans are outscored by more than eight points per 100.
The combination of athleticism, versatility, and length that the duo of Davis and Cousins provide is incredibly mouth-watering and despite what it looks like, it’s only been a few games in so they’re well within their adjustment period. Boogie and the Brow will have to learn to complement each other not just in theory but on the court as well. They’ll need time to learn each other’s tendencies and Gentry will need to create a scheme that works in the offseason. With each passing day, both players will get a chance to improve this partnership and it remains to be seen how far the Pelicans can go with Demarcus Cousins.