Alvin Gentry: ‘We’re bucking the trend’ with Cousins-Davis Frontcourt

Entering the season, everyone accepted as fact that the Warriors were good. Same for the Rockets, the Cavaliers and the Spurs. The prevailing assessment of the Pelicans, however, was that they would be good — if it were 1986.

While the rest of the league is pivoting to sharpshooting guards and swingmen, the Pelicans have turned back the clock and are trying to win games an old-fashioned way — with two very big men in the frontcourt, Cousins and Anthony Davis — making their performances this season a major point of intrigue for N.B.A. fans.

“It really has become a guard-oriented league,” the Pelicans’ coach, Alvin Gentry, said during an interview in his office at the team’s practice court. “Look at Washington’s backcourt and Portland’s backcourt. We’re bucking the trend and seeing if we can start a fad of our own by playing big guys and trying to take advantage of mismatches.”

Source: Malika Andrews of The New York Times