When the New Orleans Pelicans signed Tyreke Evans to a four-year, $44 million contract in summer 2013, the basketball world wondered how he’d fit on the perimeter alongside Jrue Holiday and Eric Gordon. Though Evans struggled while coming off the bench when both Holiday and Gordon were healthy, last season still hardly gave us an answer – the trio played just 257 minutes together in 28 games due to a rash of injuries. With fortunate health in 2014-2015, though, it seems we’ll finally get a definitive read on the viability of a Holiday-Gordon-Evans triumvirate.
Via Nakia Hogan of The Times-Picayune, head coach Monty Williams said that the team’s starting small forward job is Evans’ to lose.
“Tyreke right now in my head, that’s where he is going to play (at small forward),” Williams said. “Playing Tyreke at the three for 30 or 35 minutes doesn’t benefit him to go down there and bang with 6 (feet) 8 or 6 (feet) 9 guys who can go down there and post him up. Conversely those guys have to guard him in transition and in pick and roll.
“Do we have a prototype three? No. But we have some guys who can play that position. And we are still trying to see who can back up Tyreke at that spot and be effective with the second unit.”
After Evans suffered a strained hamstring in the week before training camp, Williams was non-committal when it came to his fifth starter. With competing candidates Darius Miller and Luke Babbitt struggling during the preseason in Evans’ absence, though, it appears Williams has made a decision.
We asked Evans about starting when we talked to him early last month from his charity eye care event in his hometown of Chester, PA. Even before his injury, Evans’ answer made it seem as if New Orleans really was undecided on a starting small forward:
D: You already touched on this a bit, but you guys lost Al-Farouq Aminu in free agency this summer, opening up a starting spot on the wing. Are you anticipating starting this year? And how much does starting or coming off the bench matter to you personally?
TE: I mean, it’s just gonna be what coach decides in training camp, you know? Just what he wants. He might want us all on the floor at the same time or he might want one of us to come off the bench. I haven’t exactly heard what’s gonna happen, but I got to be ready and hopefully my team is ready, too. So really I’m just looking forward to getting back in training camp with those guys.
It makes sense why Williams was apprehensive to go with Evans in a starting role. He’s talented enough for that distinction, of course, but there’s a reason the former Rookie of the Year played his best basketball down the stretch of last season with both Holiday and Gordon out of the lineup: Like those teammates, Evans is most comfortable with the ball in his hands.
Will there be enough of it to go around in a starting quintet that features Holiday, Gordon, Evans, and franchise player Anthony Davis? It will take major adjustments from the Pellies’ perimeter triumvirate to make it work, but early results were encouraging in 2013-2014. New Orleans scored 111.9 points per 100 possessions with Holiday, Gordon, and Evans on the floor, a mark that would have led the league. Conversely, they allowed 113.3 on the other end – a truly putrid number.
There’s an adage in basketball that “the best players will play.” We don’t necessarily agree with it, but that’s the direction Williams is going by starting Evans. There are major questions to be answered on both ends of the floor and from the bench as a result, but at least New Orleans can begin to answer them now that it has some rotational clarity.
Do you think Evans should start?
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