Sam Amick

USA TODAY Sports

In NBA A to Z Diaries, Insiders Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt will provide insight, analysis and revelations from around the league in a free-flowing attempt to make sense of this 2016-17 season. The latest looks at the early stages of this transition for the New Orleans Pelicans as they pair Anthony Davis with new big man DeMarcus Cousins.

The pressure was coming either way, no matter how luxurious the private jet was that carried DeMarcus Cousins from Sacramento to his new NBA home in New Orleans on Tuesday.

Pelicans general manager Dell Demps and coach Alvin Gentry traveled more than 1,800 miles to make the former Kings big man feel welcome, then went the proverbial extra mile by opting for the charter route after landing him in the Feb. 18 blockbuster trade. Cousins was the superstar they’d been waiting for to pair with Anthony Davis, the MVP-caliber talent who could take their team to the playoffs and perhaps even offer some much-needed job security for all involved.

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But he was also the league’s most temperamental talent, the fire to Davis’ ice whose agents had warned teams not to trade for him as they tried to land the $200-million plus contract this summer that only Sacramento could have provided. This could have been a Southwest flight, in other words, and their ears still would have been popping.

That’s the tricky thing about trying to ascend.

Now three games into the Boogie-Brow era, the pressure rises still. After getting routed by Houston on Thursday night in Cousins’ Pelicans debut, then falling 96-83 to Dallas on Saturday night, New Orleans fell to 0-3 with Cousins on board at Oklahoma City on Sunday night, 118-110. They’re now 23-37: 3 ½ games behind the Denver Nuggets (26-33) for the eighth and final playoff position, a spot they can hardly see with the Kings (25-34), Portland (24-34), Dallas (23-35) and Minnesota (23-36) in the way. There are only 22 games left to go, the next coming on Wednesday night against the Detroit Pistons.

For all the focus on how the Pelicans landed Cousins for the ‘Wanna Get Away’ fare – Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway, a first-round pick and second-round pick in 2017 – they’re well aware that this whole trip will end with a crash and burn if they don’t man the controls. Cousins’ agent, Jarinn Akana, is already on record saying that an extension this summer is a non-starter, and free agency looms in the summer of 2018.

Getting to the playoffs would be the perfect way to ensure a smooth flight – at least here at the start.

“We’re going to try to make it work quickly,” Gentry told reporters at the introductory news conference on Wednesday. “That may not be the case, but we don’t have a whole lot of margin of error right now.”

But these first three games – small sample size and all – couldn’t have gone much worse in terms of Cousins’ impact on the collective group. Behold the before and after …

Pre-Cousins: 102.3 offensive rating, i.e. points scored per 100 possessions (27th in the NBA, per NBA.com/stats); 104.7 defensive rating, points allowed per 100 possessions (eighth).

With Cousins through three games: 95.8 offensive rating (27th in that span), and 112.9 defensive rating (26th).

While Cousins showed out in his Pelicans debut (27 points, 14 rebounds, five assists, five steals, four blocks, and one turnover), he had just 12 points (three of nine shooting) against the Mavericks to go with 15 rebounds, six assists, three steals, seven turnovers, and a minus-15 rating. The nine shots were the fewest he has taken since a Dec. 28, 2015, game against Golden State (also nine shots), and the third time he has taken single-digit attempts in these past three seasons. Davis took 34 attempts, his most since New Orleans’ season-opening loss against the Denver Nuggets on Oct. 26 (also 34).

Yet after their showing against the Thunder in which Davis had 38 points, seven rebounds and four assists while Cousins (despite eventually fouling out) had 31 points and 10 rebounds in just 21 minutes, it's clear that their supporting cast is struggling. Point guard Jrue Holiday is shooting just 28.9% since Cousins came to town — a terrible sign considering he's the closest thing they have to a third threat. In the three games with Cousins, Davis is now averaging 35.3 and 10 rebounds per game.

Still, almost nothing is going right for the Pelicans so far. Veteran swingman Omri Casspi, who came with Cousins in the deal from the Kings, broke his thumb in his first Pelicans game and was waived to make room on the roster. Another roster spot was gained by waiving forward Terrence Jones on Thursday. New Orleans has since signed veteran guards Jarrett Jack and Reggie Williams, if only because the turbulence demanded it. What's more, Cousins earned his 18th technical foul of the season on Sunday and — unless it's rescinded by the NBA — he will receive an automatic one-game suspension for the second time this season.

As Pelicans color commentator and longtime NBA guard David Wesley sees it, the new-look Pelicans simply haven’t found a way to share the hardwood the right way just yet.

“Right now, the spacing of the floor is not there,” Wesley said on the Saturday telecast. “And with DeMarcus, Anthony, whoever is on the block that’s trying to operate, there are no lanes to operate with. There are no spaces right now to drive the basketball for the guards or the perimeter players. And they’re going to have to figure that out. This is (the) team they have.”

So far, though, this runway is rough.