If everything goes as planned, the New Orleans Pelicans may not need 24-second shot clocks in the Smoothie King Center this season. Led by new head coach Alvin Gentry, the Western Conference’s No. 8 seed last season expects to play at a super-charged pace, which would be a notable change this decade – the Pelicans have not ranked higher than 22nd in the NBA in tempo, via Basketball-Reference.com.
“I don’t think we’ll ever be up against the shot clock anymore,” Pelicans guard Eric Gordon said. “(Gentry) is all about possessions. We talked about how limited we played and how slow we played (91.