National Basketball Association

Pelicans need more from Austin Rivers to become playoff contender

Published Dec. 5, 2014 6:27 p.m. ET

Jeff Caplan

Austin Rivers does not lack for confidence. When you're the son of an All-Star point guard and championship coach, recruited by Coach K and taken 10th in the NBA Draft as a one-and-done, confidence is usually the least of your concerns.

And so it is with Rivers, even as his transition to the pros has been less than smooth. The New Orleans Pelicans' 22-year-old combo guard is quietly in his third season, and now the final year of his contract after the team chose not pick up his fourth-year option before the start of the season. That grants Rivers a rare, early career venture into unrestricted free agency next summer.

But to make it matter, Rivers' production has to start matching his still-brimming confidence on a nightly basis. And especially now, after starting shooting guard Eric Gordon was lost indefinitely with a torn labrum in his shoulder, Rivers' play off the bench is critically important to the young Pelicans' chances of contending for the playoffs in a ruthless Western Conference that is already threatening to distance itself.

"It's just another opportunity for me to be even more aggressive and assert myself on both ends of the floor," said Rivers, second on the team in behind minutes behind Ryan Anderson. "This is a big opportunity for me to become a good player. So I'm just focused and I'm excited and I'm ready to go."

Only, since Gordon went down, the Pelicans are 1-4 -- now 8-9 overall -- and maybe not terribly coincidentally, Rivers is 7-of-30 shooting in those games. He went 1-of-13 in the two games coach Monty Williams started him, quickly ending that experiment as forward Luke Babbitt has been inserted into the starting lineup.

"With any other team I would love to start, but with this specific team, to be honest, I would rather come off the bench because it fits me better," Rivers said. "I have my own unit, I have the ball in my hand and I get to go out there and play free and I have a better rhythm."

Rivers got off to a nice start to the season, but a recent slump has dipped his scoring average to 6.6 points a game, down a full point from last season. He's shooting just 39.4 percent overall and 32 percent from beyond the arc,disappointing considering he hit 36.4 percent from deep last season.

Since Rivers went 8-of-9 for a season-high 17 points against Minnesota on Nov. 14, he's made just 12 field goals in the last nine games.

Last season did provide hope for a frustrated player who was not off to the kind start to a career that the No. 10 pick would hope. He described his injury-riddled rookie season that limited him to 61 games as a "dark time." He said he came back too early on his surgically repaired foot and his game suffered because of it.

Then the Pelicans' front office went to work, trading for Philadelphia's All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday and Sacramento's combo guard Tyreke Evans. With Gordon also already in the fold, the moves could only be read as the organization not having as much confidence in Rivers as he had in himself.

"I finally got 100 percent [healthy], I focused better, I was ready to have my first real year as a sophomore, and then we bring in two guys and it was, wow, it was tough, but that's part of the business," Rivers said. "And that's where my my dad was like, 'Listen, you can't feel sorry for yourself, it happens, you have to use this for motivation to get better and you've got to be ready and you've got to be patient.

"It really made me mature. It turned me from a boy to a man in the blink of an eye because I had to become professional, I had to be ready at all times."

Rivers, whose father is, of course, Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers, is carrying the most responsibility of his young career. At 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, he's at his best when he's attacking on the offensive end. His field-goal percentage on drives rises to 51.2 percent, ranking sixth among players who log 22 minutes or less and have played at least 15 games.

He ranks fifth among that group in total drives (75) and fourth in points per 48 minutes on drives (7.7). More than half of Rivers' points per game are coming on drives, 3.5, which ranks second behind Atlanta's Dennis Schroder.

The Pelicans don't need Rivers to become a scoring machine. Anthony Davis, Evans, Holliday and Ryan Anderson are capable of keeping up on most nights. But they do need Rivers to be a smart and steady contributor at both ends for 20 minutes or so a night.

"I could be very valuable, and I try to say that as modest as possible because Eric goes down and he's a primetime player," Rivers said. "If you have someone step up, it just adds another dimension to the team. I really think -- I'm not even going to say if -- when I do that, it can help this team so much because it's going to make us deeper off the bench. Me and Ryan have had really great chemistry together.

"If we continue to grow and get better we can add a strong, strong aspect to this team. I think it would be huge for us. It's a great opportunity for us."

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