Pelicans Offseason Report: Players vs Coach?

From all the teams in the league, the Pelicans are the most intriguing team for me after the different moves that they made during this offseason. Jrue Holiday, Tyreke Evans and Anthony Morrow join Eric Gordon, Al-Farouq Aminu, Anthony Davis and Ryan Anderson to form a very young team and with a lot of explosiveness that combines very well with Head Coach Monty Williams's system. Well, the last part is a joke of course because the Hornets/Pelicans with Monty have always ranked at the bottom in the pace factor: 

2012-13 ranked #30 w/ 90.86 Pace Factor
2011-12 ranked #30 w/ 90.67 Pace Factor
2010-11 ranked #29 w/ 90.89 Pace Factor

New Orleans is coming from back to back seasons where they were the slowest paced team in the league and according to MySynergy numbers, only Chicago and the NY Knicks had a smaller volume of transition plays during the past season. New Orleans had just 10% volume on transitions, but the truth is that they were #3 in the league in effectiveness with 1.18 PPP (Points Per Possession). It wouldn't be smart at all for Monty Williams not to take advantage of the roster's speed and mobility, but this goes against his offensive system, so it will be curious to see how the Pelicans' offense will play next season.

The Pelicans were the second team in the league with more pick and roll ball handler plays with 16% volume, with Greivis Vasquez being the primary ball handler with 0.76 PPP (#97 in the league, according to MyS). Even though Vasquez is now gone, Jrue Holiday had 0.78 PPP (#80) last season on this kind of play, while Tyreke Evans had 0.84 PPP (#47), so in theory Monty will have two players who can be an upgrade to Vasquez on this kind of play that is the most important one for Monty, who had Chris Paul as his primary ball handler on his first season as the Hornets' head coach.

Offensively, Monty will have a lot more tools this season than he had last season (no more Austin Rivers handling the ball), but the truth is that the Pelicans will need a reboot on their offensive scheme. On the other hand, I believe the Hornets will also need to do some major changes on defense, as they were the third worst defensive team in the league, only in front of Sacramento and Charlotte.