As basketball fans everywhere witnessed throughout the 2016-17 regular season and playoffs, defense has perhaps never been more challenging than it is in the modern NBA. Not only was the past campaign the most efficient offensively for the league overall since 1977-78, but the proliferation of three-point shooting is making the court much better spaced and more difficult for a defense to cover.
Partly with that in mind, New Orleans Pelicans players Cheick Diallo, Quinn Cook and Axel Toupane have spent much of their time in recent weeks working out together in the team’s Metairie practice facility, focusing on the less glamorous end of the floor.