Dell Demps startles awake as he screams himself from dream-land to reality. He looks around-- his sheets are drenched in sweat, his hands are shaking, his covers beaten to oblivion by his midnight thrashings. He looks to his alarm clock: 2 A.M. He wipes the sweat from his brow and goes to pour himself a glass of milk. Did it happen again? His wife's words echo from the adjacent living room, the only sanctuary from Dell's night terrors. He nods. It's routine.

This is the haunting of Omer Asik's 5 year, $58 million dollar contract. To fully understand the true horror of it, we must look at its history.

When Asik came to the Pelicans in 2014, Demps was already "all in" on his trade-the-future-for-young-veterans strategy. He had matched the Suns behemoth offer to Eric Gordon, he had traded 2 first round picks for Jrue Holiday, and he had signed Tyreke Evans to a hefty 4 year deal. Trading another first round pick for Asik was the proverbial unbuckling of his rolex, throwing it ontop of his pile of chips, and taking a shot of bourbon. Are you sure Dell? He takes another shot of bourbon. Yeah, and I'll take Jimmer Fredette while we're at it.

So when Asik averaged 7.3 points and 9.8 board a game in his first year as a Pelican, a pivotal piece in the Pelicans first playoff berth in their brief franchise history, Demps took a chance. He saw Asik at his best: A big boddied, plus defender, who brought down boards like a construction worker. Perhaps Demps thought with Gentry at the helm, Asik could be what Andrew Bogut was for the Warriors when Gentry coached there; a defensive stopper, who could distribute from the post and slam home open dunks.

After the 2015-2016 season, we have now come to see Asik at his worst, a symbol of the new look Pelicans: an oft injured, defensive liability, who has no place in the fast paced Gentry offense. Gentry clearly sees him the same way, as Asik has gone from nearly 27 minutes a game to 17, barely seeing any playing time in the 4th quarter. Perhaps though, New Orleans has been too quick to condemn the Turkish Delight to the dark shadow-land of bench world.

Down the stretch of close games, Gentry has been using a front-court of Davis and Jones. They are the front court that has ended just about every close game this season, including the last Celtics win. The common idea behind the Pelicans early season struggles is that the offense is the reason we are losing games, and for good reason: we rank in the top 10 in league defensive rating, and the bottom 10 of team offensive rating. Taking this into consideration, there is no doubt that Terrence Jones is better on offense than Asik, a man with literal stones for hands. So playing 2 good offensive players is better for your offense than playing just one, right? Not necessarily. Lets look at both Terrence Jones and Omer Asiks on/off the court numbers this season, via basketball-reference.com.

Asik:

On Court NOP 198 .472 21.5 80.2 50.6 62.2 6.8 10.0 13.3 101.0 .468 19.8 78.5 49.4 64.9 7.4 7.3 14.2 98.0 +.003 +1.7 +1.7 +1.3 +61.5 +6.8 +9.9 +13.2 +3.1 Off Court NOP 340 .475 16.4 76.2 45.0 58.2 9.1 10.6 13.4 101.0 .534 23.8 83.6 55.0 60.1 8.6 5.8 14.3 114.2 -.058 -7.5 -7.5 -10.0 +57.6 +9.0 +10.5 +13.2 -13.2 On − Off NOP 37% -.003 +5.1 +4.0 +5.6 +4.0 -2.3 -0.6 -0.1 +0.0 -.066 -4.0 -5.1 -5.6 +4.8 -1.2 +1.5 -0.1 -16.2 +.061 +9.2 +9.2 +11.3 +3.9 -2.2 -0.6 +0.0 +16.3 View Original Table

Generated 11/16/2016. Provided by Basketball-Reference.com Generated 11/16/2016. 2016-17 Regular Season Table

Jones:

Team Opponent Difference Split Tm MP eFG% ORB% DRB% TRB% AST% STL% BLK% TOV% ORtg eFG% ORB% DRB% TRB% AST% STL% BLK% TOV% ORtg eFG% ORB% DRB% TRB% AST% STL% BLK% TOV% ORtg On Court NOP 226 .463 15.4 76.5 44.4 62.0 8.8 10.4 11.8 98.3 .513 23.5 84.6 55.6 61.6 7.7 6.3 15.0 108.6 -.051 -8.1 -8.1 -11.2 +61.4 +8.7 +10.4 +11.7 -10.3 Off Court NOP 312 .482 20.5 78.6 49.1 58.0 8.0 10.3 14.5 103.0 .507 21.4 79.5 50.9 61.9 8.6 6.3 13.8 108.3 -.025 -0.9 -0.9 -1.7 +57.3 +7.9 +10.2 +14.3 -5.3 On − Off NOP 42% -.019 -5.1 -2.1 -4.7 +4.0 +0.8 +0.1 -2.7 -4.7 +.006 +2.1 +5.1 +4.7 -0.3 -0.9 +0.0 +1.2 +0.3 -.026 -7.2 -7.2 -9.5 +4.1 +0.8 +0.2 -2.6 -5.0 View Original Table

Generated 11/16/2016. Provided by Basketball-Reference.com Generated 11/16/2016. 2016-17 Regular Season Table

As you can see, when Jones is on the floor, the Pelicans have an offensive rating of 98.3, lower than the teams numbers when Asik is on the floor, which comes to 101. Jones is clearly the better offensive player, how is this possible?

The answer to this question is really the answer to all Pelicans questions: Anthony Davis. Here is the magical graph of Davis's numbers when playing with Asik and Jones:

Per 100 possessions, Davis averages almost 12.5 LESS points per game with Jones on the floor. He averages +.7 points per game more while Asik is on the floor. This could be for a couple of reasons, including the fact that Davis has to do more work on the defensive end when the undersized Jones is in the game, having to guard bigger centers. It could also be because Jones has a similar playing style to Davis, in the sense that he likes getting the ball on the block and going to work.

What we lose on offense with Jones on the floor, we also lose on defense. If you look back at the above chart of Jones vs. Asik, you'll see the opposing teams Offensive rating when Jones is on the floor: 108.6. 108.6. No that's not a typo, I typed it twice on purpose. Because it's really bad. When Asik is on the floor, the opposing offensive rating is 98. 98. I wrote that one twice because it's phenomenal.

Jones is the sexier player-- he gets more steals and blocks than Asik, and definitely slams home more dunks. Asik, though, seems to be better for the rest of the players out there on the floor. Clearly his 3.5 points and 6.4 rebounds a game is not living up to his huge contract, but maybe New Orleans was so quick to condemn Asik because of his horrific season last year, and, lets face it, what might be the ugliest game in the NBA, that we fail to see his role in the Pelicans approach.

He's slow, he always looks like he just woke up, he gets blocked more than just about any other player in the NBA, and maybe, JUST maybe... he's exactly what this team needs?