Pels had a losing record with bad defense with these three. Effect on the Lakers?
David Grubb:
"I don’t think people understand just how dramatic the change for the Pelicans was once DeMarcus went down in 2017-18. The Pelicans were 27-21 with a +/- of 0.4 on Jan 26., when he tore his Achilles. They were 22nd in DRTG and individually, Cousins ranked 28th among centers in Defensive Real +/-. The Pelicans hardly noticed the difference whether he was on the court or off of it, he just didn’t make an impact other than on the box score. Over the final 34 games, the Pels went 21-13 and ranked sixth in the NBA defensively with a 105.8 DRTG. When Cousins went down, the Pelicans offense wasn’t as dynamic, but it wasn’t leaking so profusely on the defensive end, which made up for it."
Pelicans top five before injury:
Player ORTG DRTG
Anthony Davis 109.4 104.7
Jrue Holiday 110.0 105.6
Rajon Rondo 109.1 112.8
DeMarcus Cousins 108.5 106.6
E’Twaun Moore 108.7 108.8
Pelicans top five after injury:
Player ORTG DRTG
Anthony Davis 109.1 103.8
Jrue Holiday 108.4 102.9
Rajon Rondo 106.0 101.2
Nikola Mirotic 108.4 104.7
E’Twaun Moore 108.7 102.0
"As you can see, there was a slight offensive down tick, but there was tremendous defensive improvement. Rondo went from a negative contributor to a major positive. But now you’re talking about a Cousins, two years and two leg injuries later, and a 33 year old Rondo who finished 77th defensively among point guards last season. So betting on them to help the Lakers stop anybody is probably unwise."
Is anyone convinced yet?