Under Maintenance
We deeply apologize for interrupting your reading but Vendetta is currently undergoing some important maintenance! You may experience some layout shifts, slow loading times and dififculties in navigating.
Report: Pelicans plan on starting Herb Jones at center
Report: Pelicans plan on starting Herb Jones at center
The New Orleans Pelicans may have drafted Yves Missi with the No. 21 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, but the team is clearly looking to move in a different direction at center to begin the 2024-25 season without Jonas Valanciunas and Larry Nance Jr.
According to ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania, the Pelicans are expected to play extra-small ball–essentially position-less–by starting 6-foot-5 forward Herb Jones at center.
“I’m told Herb Jones is essentially going to serve as the starting center for the Pelicans,” Charania said on the Pat McAfee show earlier this week. “You look at CJ McCollum, Dejounte Murray, Brandon Ingram, Herb Jones and Zion Williamson, a lot of people are like, ‘Oh, Zion Williamson‘s playing the five.‘
“[Head coach Willie Green] came out the other day and said, ‘[Zion’s] not the five… We’re not talking about fives, we’re talking about (playing) position-less. I do think there’s some credence to that, but at the end of the day someone’s going to have to guard the other centers, and it’s going to be Herb Jones a lot of the time.“
While it may be a completely accurate representation of his position, through three seasons, Basketball Reference has tabbed Jones at center in just two percent of lineups for his career–plus 33 percent at small forward and 65 percent at center.
It’s often difficult to slap “numbers” on certain players and label them as positions because there’s a gray area with certain players’ roles. But it’s also completely fair to suggest that Jones hasn’t actually played center. That’s never been his role—especially when Valanciunas and Nance were in the fold, among others.
This also creates more problems than it solves for New Orleans in certain lineups. How will he hold up defensively against bigger, stronger 5s more consistently? Jones can hold his own against bigger players, but there’s a wear-and-tear aspect to it that needs to be accounted for.
Will Williamson, Brandon Ingram, Jones, CJ McCollum and Dejounte Murray all be collectively better at rebounding the ball? They lose a lot of functional size with Valanciunas and Nance, and it’s not as simple as placing Jones–and all-worldly defender–at center and calling it good.
Of course, Daniel Theis and Missi should play roles at some point, though I’m surprised Willie Green isn’t at least experimenting with one of the two in general. Jones significantly improved as a (corner) 3-point shooter last year, knocking down 41.8 percent of his 3-point attempts, and Theis and Missi aren’t necessarily floor spacers, either.
The Jones-Williamson frontcourt duo, in all fairness, was a plus-11.5 points per 100 possessions together, according to Cleaning The Glass. Though most of those combinations included Naji Marshall (now with Mavericks) and Trey Murphy, who’s currently injured. With Murray and McCollum assuming primary ballhandling responsibility alongside Ingram, I’m intrigued to see how this unfolds in a larger sample.
***
Subscribe to Vendetta’s Twitch
Subscribe to Vendetta’s YouTube
Check out the Vendetta Shop
Click here for more NBA content
