James Borrego creates a four-layered recipe to help the defense

The numbers are ugly, the film is worse, and the results are sinking in a promising season. Zion Williamson’s New Orleans Pelicans Proud they know their defense has been a glaring vulnerability all season, a leaking dam that threatens to wash away any NBA Play-In aspirations. Herb Jones he can only do so much on his own. Fortunately, the interim head coach James Borrego has a four-layer blueprint that starts with the simplest fixes and builds up to the more complex habits required for a functional NBA defense.

However, Borrego he didn’t mince words about where he is immediate repair must begin. The Pelicans are 28th in defensive rating (119.7) for a reason.

“Well, the low-hanging fruit for this team defensively is the number one transition defense,” the 48-year-old began. “Can we get our defensive set and not give up the rim, dunks, layups and wide open threes in transition, period? Like, that’s low-hanging fruit to me. That’s unacceptable if we give that up in transition.”

This is shorthand for coaches for lack of effort and discipline. Easy baskets before the defense gets organized and is a demoralizing, game-breaking sin. For Borrego, fixing this is not a strategic nuance; it’s a non-negotiable requirement for professionalism and hustle. Until the Pelicans stop giving away uncontested buckets, any discussion of systemic improvement is meaningless.

Assuming they manage to set up, Borrego points to the jump as the next immediate point of failure. Zion Williamson could do a lot of reputable repairs just by consistently cleaning the glass. The Pelicans rank 22nd in total rebounding (42.9) as a team, 28th in defensive rebounding (30.3).

“The other is the board,” Borrego said. “Like, if we can take care of the easy stuff, clear the boards, second-chance opportunities and give teams just one shot, that’s another layer.”

Defensive stops are not complete until the rebound is secured. Allowing extra possessions through offensive rebounds is another form of self-sabotage, breaking the spirit of a defense that only worked for 24 seconds.

Zion Williamson’s Pelicans were bullied

Borrego sees these first two layers as interconnected for these young Pelicans, the basic building blocks for a competent defense.

“Those two areas, if we could just improve those two areas,” Borrego believes, “we’re going to see an increase in our defense.”

Shifting from whole team effort to individual pride and responsibility is part of the recipe.

“The third layer, I would say, is just a one-to-one drive,” Borrego emphasized. “In this group right now, there’s a responsibility to guard the ball one-on-one. And if you’re not, there’s a responsibility to do that. Everyone knows how pumped you are or doing a great job on the ball. There’s a clarity to that.”

This is a direct challenge for the Pelicans’ perimeter players. Schemes to hide a defender who is constantly beaten on the dribble do not exist. Borrego applies a system of clear, visible responsibility. Film sessions and metrics leave no place for bad defensive players to hide. After all, too many teams still rely on the pick-and-roll.

“The fourth layer would be our pick-and-roll defense, which has been a very poor area for this team all season,” Borrego admitted. “We’re trying to clean up pick-and-roll defense, one-on-one defense, transition defense and then limit teams to one shot. If we move the need in all those areas, we should be a much improved defense.”

The pick-and-roll is the foundation of modern NBA offenses. Chronic breakdowns here indicate poor communication, schematic confusion, or a lack of cohesion between the bigs and keepers. Fixing this requires not only effort, but also intelligence, trust and repetition. It’s a four-step program that begins with sheer effort, moves through individual pride, and culminates in collective execution. For a team that was among the league’s worst defensively, the bar for improvement is mercifully low.

Sprint back to stop the easy stuff, hit someone to secure the ball, stand on the perimeter and finally, perform the coordinated dance required to thwart the NBA’s bread-and-butter action. It is the scaffolding that builds from effort to execution. Whether the Pelicans have the collective will and focus to follow the road map will determine whether their season has a pulse or whether their abysmal defense becomes its final epitaph.