Alvin Gentry might be right: Less of Anthony Davis is “best” for Pelicans

NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Pelicans didn’t play Anthony Davis against the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night.

The official reason was “rest,” for a 25-year-old, healthy world-class athlete who had played a mere 19-plus minutes at Indiana a night earlier and a mere four minutes in the All-Star Game during the previous week.

Before Saturday’s game in the Smoothie King Center against the team Davis hopes to play for next season, Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry said the organization chose to sit Davis because it was the second game of a back-to-back set.

“If you’re looking along the lines of having any significance because we’re playing the Lakers that had nothing to do with it,” Gentry said. “If we were playing the Baltimore Claws we would sit him out that game too, OK?”

It’s unclear where the Baltimore Claws rank on Davis’ list of preferred employers, but we know they rank ahead of the Pelicans.

Gentry was asked why the organization had chosen to sit Davis on the back end of back-to-back when most able-bodied NBA players are capable of working on consecutive days.

“It gives us an opportunity to minimize the minutes that he’s going to be playing and as a team we think that’s best for our franchise right now,” Gentry replied.

Gentry was asked why minimizing the minutes of the team’s best player was in the franchise’s best interest.

“Because we feel like that’s what we need to do for our franchise,” Gentry said.

It turns out, he might be right.

It makes as much sense as anything else in this farce.

The Pelicans out-classed LeBron James and the Lakers 128-115 just as they had out-classed Russell Westbrook, Paul George and the Oklahoma City Thunder after Davis left the Smoothie King Center because of a minor shoulder injury suffered in the last game before the All-Star Break.

Under normal circumstances and over the long haul, New Orleans would not be a better team without Davis than it is with him. No team would.

But under these abnormal circumstances and over the short term of 21 more games this season, the Pelicans are a better team without Davis than they are with him.

On Saturday night, Davis sat in street clothes as seven of his soon-to-be-ex teammates scored in double figures in one of the most efficient offensive performances of the season.

Davis says he doesn’t want to play for the Pelicans beyond his contract, which he can opt out of next season. He would prefer to already be elsewhere. But in the meantime he says he wants to play.

The Pelicans don’t want to play him, but would rather play him than pay the seven-digit fine the NBA would impose on the franchise if it were to shut him down the rest of the way.

So Gentry and the Pelicans are left to pick their spots.

They try to identify which games are OK to sit Davis. (Don’t be surprised if he suits up against Philadelphia on Monday, having had time to recuperate from his exhaustive workload of late.)

And they try to manage his minutes.

How weird has this situation gotten since Davis requested a trade late last month?

Try this:

The one thing that hasn’t changed for Gentry is that he’s still trying to limit Davis’ minutes.

The difference is that he used to try and keep them south of 40 per night in order to save wear and tear on his star player while still giving his team the best chance to win and now, by the coach’s own admission, “minimizing” Davis’ minutes is “best for the franchise.”

It’s starting to look like Gentry is right.