Halo

In case you've taken up residence under a rock since the 2014-15 NBA season began, here's a quick update: Anthony Davis is really, really, really, really good. Heck, at this point, you could save yourself all those extra characters and just call him great.

The third-year forward out of Kentucky ranks third in points (25.5), fourth in rebounds (11.4), ninth in field-goal percentage (.579), first in blocks (3.9) and second in steals (2.3).

But while Davis may be morphing into a basketball god incarnate before our very eyes, the New Orleans Pelicans appear to have surrounded him with a roster replete with mere mortals. And in the cutthroat Western Conference, that might not be enough to put one of the game's elite players, regardless of age or position, into the postseason come 2015.

To be sure, this year's Pelicans are far better off than the ones with whom Davis (occasionally) played last season. Jrue Holiday and Ryan Anderson have both returned from devastating injuries. Tyreke Evans and Eric Gordon have yet to succumb to any of their own. Even Austin Rivers, once the butt of every other draft-bust joke, is starting to resemble a bona fide NBA rotation player.

Omer Asik, whom New Orleans acquired from the Houston Rockets over the summer, has looked like the on-court equivalent of manna from heaven in the Crescent City, particularly for Davis.

His obvious statistical merits (nine points, 10 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, 60.9 percent shooting) aside, Asik has taken up the task of defending bigger, stronger centers, thereby liberating Davis to unleash his full potential as an all-court, shot-swatting menace.

Anderson has served a similar role in relation to Davis but on the offensive end. The seventh-year stretch 4 out of Cal has hit a personal-best 41.1 percent of his threes to date—a level of accuracy rendered all the more remarkable by the harrowing emotional trials Anderson had to overcome in addition to a career-threatening spine injury.



Anderson's ability to knock down perimeter shots opens the door for Davis to dominate the middle of the floor. According to NBA.com, 73.7 percent of Davis' shots have come in the paint when he's shared the floor with Anderson this season as opposed to 52.9 percent when Anderson sits. When Davis is converting shots in the lane at a 70 percent clip, you'd best let him get as close to the cup whenever possible.

The only concerns Pelicans head coach Monty Williams should have about his frontcourt rotation are the health of his three primary bigs and the combinations in which he uses them.

The Davis-Anderson pairing produces points at an astronomical rate (118.7 points per 100 possessions) but yields them fairly frequently (106.7 points allowed per 100). New Orleans can still score plenty when Davis plays with Asik (105.3 points per 100) but sees its greatest dividends from those two on the defensive end (96.5 points allowed per 100).

Where Williams really has his work cut out for him is in getting his guards to play in a way that's optimal alongside Davis and, to a lesser extent, Asik and Anderson. Case in point: the Pelicans' 102-93 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday.

Davis had himself another doozy of a game (31 points, 11 rebounds, three assists, three steals, three blocks) but garnered just five shots, hitting two, in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Evans and Holiday combined to miss all 14 of their attempts in the final frame, and Gordon didn't get up a single shot therein. As NBC Sports/Bleacher Report writer Sean Highkin noted on ProBasketballTalk:

None of those other scorers came through on Monday night, and a dominant night from Davis ended in a loss. But he’s going to have many more nights like this. He’s already become a player that you have to make a point of watching on TV, or better yet, seeing in person. The hype is real. The future has arrived.

Davis was well-aware of his teammates' shortcomings, though he stopped well short of pointing fingers at anyone in particular. "We had good looks. We just missed our opportunities," Davis said to The Associated Press after the game (via ESPN). "We've got to play better with the lead. We were kind of forcing up shots instead of settling the ball down."

That wasn't the first time this season the Pelicans ran into this problem either. They had a golden opportunity to down the Dallas Mavericks in the second game of their season only to see the visitors storm back down the stretch as Evans, Holiday and Gordon shot 2-of-11 while Davis garnered just two attempts of his own.

All told, the Pelicans have been patently awful closing out games. According to NBA.com, only the Philadelphia 76ers and the Detroit Pistons have fared worse in fourth quarters than has New Orleans, which has been outscored by an astounding 19.8 points per 100 therein. No team in the ultra-competitive West can afford to stink it up down the stretch to that extent if it hopes to finish among the top eight.

Giving Davis greater say in the outcome would seem a smart way to counteract those woes. It's a testament to Davis' talent and understanding of the game that he doesn't need the ball in his hands to be as effective as he is, though he can certainly do a ton of damage with just a dribble or two.

According to NBA.com, Davis can't so much as sniff the league's top 50 in touches per game (56.6) and won't be found among the top 100 in time of possession per game (1.6 minutes).



The fact that Davis is able to do what he does without the rock is phenomenal, if not downright freakish, and makes his would-be record-setting player efficiency rating of 36.1 plausible, even if it seems impossible.

But there's a downside to all that off-ball brilliance. It leaves Davis to rely on New Orleans' collection of talented but troubled guards to set him up properly and frequently and take care of business when the team's superstar is either out of the game or entirely smothered by opposing defenses.

So far, the Pelicans' perimeter players haven't proved to be the most reliable stewards.

Evans has been piling up assists at a career-high clip (seven per game on 30.5 percent of his teammates' baskets) but has turned the ball over 2.6 times per game while using up nearly as many possessions (26.4 percent) as has Davis (26).

That is far from ideal when Evans is shooting an abysmal 38.7 percent from the field, including an underwhelming 43.2 percent within three feet of the basket.

At least Evans has fared better than Gordon. Then again, just about everyone has. Gordon's field-goal percentage (.382) would place him among the bottom eight players who are statistically qualified to contend for the title in that particular category.

Holiday, on the whole, has easily been the best of this trio. His three-point percentage (.294) has dipped considerably, though he's shooting a passable 43.7 percent from the floor overall, despite missing most of last season with a broken leg.

When it comes to scoring in the fourth quarter, though, Holiday has been far and away the worst of the three to this point.



And, yes, Davis as been phenomenal in final frames, knocking down 63.3 percent of his 3.3 tries therein.

Clearly, then, Davis' ball-handling teammates should do anything and everything they can to get him the ball throughout the game but particularly in crunch time. Just 25.4 of Davis' 56.6 touches (44.9 percent) have come off passes from the Pelicans' top three distributors. That still beats the 6.5 passes per game for which the rest of Davis' teammates have combined but nonetheless shows the extent to which his true potential remains untapped.

Doing so could work out well for them individually, assuming Davis proves capable as a passer under pressure. Gordon has been a black hole in just about every instance, but Holiday, Evans and Rivers have all thrived off setups from Davis in the early going.



The solution to the Pelicans' problems, then, appears to be a simple one: get Davis the dang ball. He probably won't demand it; he's no Keyshawn Johnson after all.

This isn't to suggest that New Orleans' non-Brow contingent should defer to Davis on every crunch-time occasion, be it for him to score or pass it back. Coaches are smart enough to recognize that Davis is a destructive force and figure to step up their efforts to keep the ball out of his hands.



There will be times, then, that Evans, Holiday, Gordon and (to a lesser extent) Rivers will have to make plays at key moments.

To their credit, they've all shown flashes of such capability. Evans torched the Sacramento Kings, his former team, for 11 points (including eight free-throw attempts) and three assists in the fourth quarter on Tuesday. Gordon scored seven points of his own in that frame.



Holiday has come up big under pressure, though largely during his days with the Philadelphia 76ers. Rivers has to reach back to his time at Duke for his.

For now, these all more closely resemble anecdotal evidence than reliable trends. The Pelicans' mere mortals will have to prove they belong on Mount Olympus with the Brow God before they can be trusted to lead New Orleans against the Titans of the West.

Until then, it would make sense for the members of Davis' supporting cast to keep it simple: Get the ball to their best player, let him do something with it, and if they can't, take what the defense gives them, just as Davis does. In truth, the Pelicans don't need anything fancy from Holiday, Evans, Gordon or any of the other role players.

They just need enough to allow Davis to be great.



Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.

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