New Pelican Tyreke Evans hopes to be Manu 2.0

Tyreke Evans was traded by the Sacramento Kings to the New Orleans Pelicans this summer. 

 

The 6'6" combo guard was drafted by the Sacramento Kings with the fourth pick in the first round of the 2009 NBA draft. In his rookie season, he came out blazing with a 20.1 PPG, 5.3 RPG, and 5.8 AST average. Pretty impressive stats for a rookie.

 

As a Sacramento King, Evans was used primarily as a shooting guard, but also played the point guard position as well as small forward at times.

 

However, in his four years in Sacramento, his stats steadily decreased from his breakout rookie year. Last year he was at 15.2 PPG, 4.4 RPG, and 3.5 AST, but those numbers came with Evans playing six less MPG than in his rookie campaign. He did however increase his shooting percentage from .458 in his 1st season to .478 last year. He also had increases in three-point shooting from .255 to .388, and FT percentage of .748 to .775.

 

It has been reported that coach Monty Williams plans to bring Tyreke off the bench in a likely sixth man role with the Pelicans at the start of this season, with Jrue Holiday and Eric Gordon in the starting guard positions.

 

In a recent interview with Hoops Hype, Tyreke commented on how he sees his bench role playing out.

 

Well, you've said you'd be OK if you started the season off the bench. What responsibilities would you like to have if that's the case? What kind of role?

 

TE: A Manu Ginobili kind of role. Stepping on the court, being aggressive, helping run the team and staying there at the end if the game is on the line. Something like the Spurs did with Ginobili.

 

So while it seems that Tyreke sees himself playing the role Manu Ginobili has with the Spurs for so long, it certainly remains to be seen if he can perform in that role as well as Manu has. 

 

So what do you think Spurs fans? Can Tyreke mold himself into a 6th man extraordinaire like Manu did for the Spurs? Or do you feel it's all just wishful thinking?