Which way is up? Saints season and franchise seem lost.

Wherever Brandon Browner is on the football field, a yellow flag seems to be nearby. (Photo courtesy NOLA.com)

It isn’t even Thanksgiving, but for all intents and purposes the New Orleans Saints’ season is over.

Yes, the Saints still have six more games, but the hope and optimism that existed for the franchise before the season began is long gone.

The boys in black and gold have been one of the NFL’s greatest disappointments.  The Saints are 4-6 and staring at missing the playoffs for the third time in four seasons.  Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan was fired this week; all he did was preside over a unit that currently ranks last in the league in points allowed, yards allowed, passing touchdowns allowed, and passing yards per attempt.

It was easy to point a finger at the defense.  Just by looking at the passing numbers posted against the Saints defense you’d think the team had faced a Hall of Fame signal caller each week, but the Saints have been torched by rookies Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota (578 yards, 5 touchdown passes, 1 touchdown rushing), and journeymen Sam Bradford and Kirk Cousins (657 yards, 6 touchdown passes).

The pass rush has underachieved, producing only 22 sacks.

Against the run, the defense is only slightly better and that’s probably due to how little resistance New Orleans offers to the pass. Opposing rushers have averaged nearly five yards per carry and teams are putting up more than 130 yards per game.

And then there are the penalties…

The Saints have been penalized 82 times for 718 yards, fourth most in the league.  No player has gotten flagged more often than defensive back Brandon Browner with his 19.  Teammate Delvin Breaux is tied for fourth in the NFL with seven.

New Orleans’ defense is both bad and undisciplined.  Maybe the change to Dennis Allen at defensive coordinator can fix one of those issues, but there’s not enough talent in that looker room to make a real difference this season.

 

The disaster on defense and the occasional brilliance of Drew Brees have masked what has also been a disappointing year for the Saints offense.

It’s easy to be fooled by the lofty rankings, but the offense has been unbalanced and inconsistent.

There’s been no commitment to the run as was promised in the offseason.  Mark Ingram continues to display the ability to be one of the league’s better backs but he’s gotten at least 20 carries in a game only two times this year.  Khiry Robinson has already been lost for the year with injury and free agent signee C.J. Spiller has contributed little outside of his game winning touchdown against the Cowboys.

It seems strange that a team with a defense as bad as the Saints would rely so heavily on the pass, even with Brees being the guy doing the passing.  However, New Orleans chucks it more than 62 percent of the time.  Only 11 teams in the league have a higher percentage of pass plays called.  Of those 11, just New England and Denver have winning records.  In fact, only five of the top 20 teams in passing attempts have winning records.

But the Saints keep throwing.

The Saints are a volume offense now, not an explosive one.  They amass huge numbers because they are on the field so often, because the defense gives up so many points.

The big play is a bigger part of the offense than it was last season, but the Saints are not explosive.  The Saints have 51 plays of 20 yards or more this season, but they rank 18th in the league in big play percentage.  New Orleans hasn’t ranked in the top ten since 2011.

In the Saints’ six losses they’ve scored fewer than 20 points per game and only two of those were against winning teams.  That’s not a juggernaut.

As I said to SportsNOLA’s Ken Trahan during the Washington game via Twitter, the Saints are a really bad team that occasionally masquerades as an entertaining one.

This is a team that could easily be 1-9.  Take away the miracle finish against Dallas, the one good half against Indy, and the special teams blunder by the Giants that put the Saints in field goal range, and that’s what they probably would be.

As we look ahead to the final six games, there are no “gimmes”.  The Texans just knocked the Bengals from the ranks of the unbeaten. Carolina hasn’t been slowed yet this season.  Tampa Bay is always a tough place for the Saints to win, and who knows which Detroit team will show up to the Superdome.  New Orleans should be favored against Jacksonville, but what does that mean at this point?  The Falcons could be playing for the postseason in Week 17, what will the Saints be playing for?

It looks like another lost season Saints fans, and the path that the franchise is on seems to be taking it further and further away from contention and relevancy.

Anybody out there know the way back?

 

 

Gentry is the right choice to keep the Pelicans moving forward

Alvin Gentry becomes the sixth head coach in the history of the New Orleans Pelicans. Gentry has a career record of 335-370 in 12 seasons with two playoff appearances, including a trip to the Western Conference Finals in 2010.

Somewhere an eyebrow is surely raised.

Anthony Davis, owner of the world’s most famous uni-brow since Frida Kahlo, has to be excited about the announcement that Alvin Gentry will be pacing the sidelines of Smoothie King Center this fall.

Gentry, made himself very familiar to New Orleans Pelicans fans as he helped the Golden State Warriors sweep the Pels in the opening round of this season’s NBA playoffs.  The Warriors were able to overcome significant deficits throughout the series and played each game with high basketball intelligence.  They’ve been just as impressive since dismissing New Orleans on their path to the NBA Finals, where they will look to claim that franchises first championship in 40 years.

While the lion’s share of the credit has to go to league MVP Steph Curry and head coach Steve Kerr, league insiders have raved about the work that Gentry has done in turning a Golden State offense that ranked  last season into the NBA’s highest-scoring (110.0) , fastest paced (98.3 possessions per 48 minutes), and second most efficient (111.6, second only to the Los Angeles Clippers).

He’s been one of the hottest commodities in the league for the past two off-seasons, serving as Doc Rivers’ top lieutenant before joining Kerr this year.  He’s no stranger to the big chair, having led the Miami Heat, Detroit Pistons, the Clippers, and the Phoenix Suns.  In 2009-10 he rode Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudemire to within two games of the NBA Finals.

At first glance Gentry looks like a retread, not the big-name hire that many fans were hoping for.  However, upon further inspection none of the other names mentioned seemed like the right fit for the Pelicans:

Tom Thibodeau left Chicago unceremoniously, with reports of Bulls personnel escorting him from the building.  Notoriously silent owner Jerry Reinsdorf went as far as to send out a detailed press release addressing his issues with “Thibs”.  His inability to coexist with management for whatever reason and his penchant for playing his stars heavy minutes (Jimmy Butler led the NBA in mpg in both 2013-14 and 2014-15) had to have been red flags for Dell Demps.  Protecting Anthony Davis, who has never played more than 36 minutes per game in his career and has shown so problems avoiding injury himself, is clearly the franchise’s priority.  If they have a chance of signing him to a lucrative extension this summer, Thibodeau wasn’t the guy to make that pitch with.

Scott Skiles sparked some interest, but his eyes were never on New Orleans as he is headed to Orlando as the next head coach of the Magic.  Another intense personality like Thibodeau that has a strong track record of winning some games but burning out his teams.

Vinny Del Negro.  I have no understanding how he even made the list.  Del Negro wore out his welcome in Chicago and got fired by the Clippers after leading them to the most wins in franchise history in his final season in L.A.  The Clippers plateaued with Vinny on the sidelines and no team has made him a serious candidate since.  Dell Demps  decided kicking the tires on him was worth it, I guess.

Jeff Van Gundy was probably the first choice of many, including some in the New Orleans media.  I’m a big Van Gundy fan.  He led the Knicks to the NBA Finals as an eight seed in 1999.  He was unafraid to stand toe-to-toe with Phil Jackson or his mentor Pat Riley.  He held the Houston Rockets together through injuries to Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady.  Now, as a commentator he has proven to be more insightful and engaging than anyone could have imagined.  The issue with JVG would have been his poor track record of developing young talent.  Van Gundy can make a team better, but he tends to rely on older, more experienced players.  While the Pelicans are not a collection of rookies, they are in need of fine tuning.  There is no Charles Oakley to keep the Pels’ locker room in order and I think Van Gundy would have struggled to reach this group.

I can’t criticize the Pelicans for landing on Gentry.  There was no Brad Stevens-type coming from the college ranks after Billy Donovan signed with Oklahoma City.  There are only three active coaches with championships on their resumes (Gregg Popovich, Rick Carlisle, and Erik Spoelstra), so trying to find the one to lead you to the promised land is always a risk.

In Alvin Gentry, New Orleans gets one of the best offensive minds in the league.  If Anthony Davis can play the role that Amar’e Stoudemire did in Phoenix, getting baskets off of his movement without the ball, while still being the most disruptive force in the league defensively; this could be a match made in heaven.  A healthy Jrue Holiday and a slashing Tyreke Evans both have the potential to shine leading Gentry’s attack.  Eric Gordon should find more space to shoot and maybe Omer Asik can develop into another Andrew Bogut-type controlling the painted area.  If everything works out, the Pelicans have a chance to be better even if they can’t upgrade the roster between now and the season opener in October.

With no first round pick this season and little cap flexibility to speak of, winning with this group as presently constructed had to be as much of a consideration as anything.  Alvin Gentry seems suited to do that, with a little help from the front office, and more.