The Bench. The REAL Culprit.

[Caffeinedisastr]

I have decided to start a thread about the real reason for our stuggles, the bench.

Too many threads have been started blaming the only good basketball players we have.
The bench has been overlooked, by Dell and by the fans.


The Culprits:

Rivers (still has work to do, mainly seeing the floor)
Babbitt (shot has not been very consistent and it is his only skill)
Miller (even Sac announces call this....as terrible as they are. Miller is invisible on the floor)
Jimmer (has not been the 3 pt marksman we brought him in for)
Ajinca (has seen minutes and has promise, but cannot stay out of foul trouble)
Salmons (see: Ajinca, but without the promise. Will most likely retire after the season.)
Withey (has looked decent the last couple of games, before then like a lost puppy)
Russ (not enough minutes to see)
Young (has he even played a season game or did I blink and miss it?)

So how can we make it better?

Are there any trades we can make?
Are there any FA we could check out?
Is there a magic fairy in Europe, Asia or even mystical places such as Canada that could help?

Personally I think we are awaiting a signing from Europe or a small trade or series of small trades.

[Caffeinedisastr]

I have omitted Ryno from the bench for obvious reasons.

[da ThRONe]

This is short sighted. You have to ask why the bench is so bad. The answer is all the cap space is going to those "good" players. So either those good players have to play better or we'll continue to struggle. Either way this is the team Demps built so good or bad he we have to live with it.

[HoustonPelicans]

I have omitted Ryno from the bench for obvious reasons.

What are these obvious reasons?

[Caffeinedisastr]

This is short sighted. You have to ask why the bench is so bad. The answer is all the cap space is going to those "good" players. So either those good players have to play better or we'll continue to struggle. Either way this is the team Demps built so good or bad he we have to live with it.

I was waiting for someone to mention this to facilitate the thread. Portland had the same issue 2 seasons ago. All of their money tied up in starters and nothing left for bench. Last year they bolstered the bench. What steps did they take that we could learn from?

[Eman5805]

I was waiting for someone to mention this to facilitate the thread. Portland had the same issue 2 seasons ago. All of their money tied up in starters and nothing left for bench. Last year they bolstered the bench. What steps did they take that we could learn from?

They traded for RoLo and signed Chris Kaman. That give them stability in their bigs.

They've also drafted well.

[Caffeinedisastr]

They traded for RoLo and signed Chris Kaman. That give them stability in their bigs.

They've also drafted well.

It's a shame we haven't been able to do the latter.

While I think Tyreke will be worth it, the trade for him really screwed up our depth.
It would be nice to have Vasquez/Rolo coming off the bench behind Jrue/Asik (assuming we could have him with Rolo's salary)

[Silverfoxx]

This is short sighted. You have to ask why the bench is so bad. The answer is all the cap space is going to those "good" players. So either those good players have to play better or we'll continue to struggle. Either way this is the team Demps built so good or bad he we have to live with it.

This. The starting line up has to respond as well, they are being paid too dollar to do so. Its no reason a team with Ad, Jrue, and Evans should have trouble scoring.

[N.O.Bronco]

The bench is basically the Rivers and Anderson show. That is largely of their own doing though. Frankly until they learn to spread the wealth and and get others involved it would be hard for any role player that isn't a dominant personality type to come in and have success with the way these two are playing.

Rivers needs to be a better floor general and Ryno needs to be willing to not force shots when they aren't falling for him and work on shot selection.

[pelicanchamp]

Dell took a huge risk signing Gordon and he bombed. he's added guys like salmons, Jimmer, Russ, Patric.... Low risk. We have not been rewarded. Asik, Anderson, and Jrue were Demps best moves. I doubt we will fix this problem before the season ends. I think the offseason is a make or break for Demps. I give him 2 more years. If we aren't an elite team in 2016 Demps will be fired. We have overpaid players. Tyreke, Jrue, Gordon....

[da ThRONe]

I was waiting for someone to mention this to facilitate the thread. Portland had the same issue 2 seasons ago. All of their money tied up in starters and nothing left for bench. Last year they bolstered the bench. What steps did they take that we could learn from?

Right now not a lot we can do. However as we saw last night we let a guy like Casspi go for nothing. This was a guy I felt could help us at the time. Either as bench depth or as a starter allowing Evans to come off the bench with Rivers and Anderson. For some reason Demps just cut him for salary purposes. Add Casspi and take away Withey and/or Babbitt and I think we are a much better team right now.

[Caffeinedisastr]

Right now not a lot we can do. However as we saw last night we let a guy like Casspi go for nothing. This was a guy I felt could help us at the time. Either as bench depth or as a starter allowing Evans to come off the bench with Rivers and Anderson. For some reason Demps just cut him for salary purposes. Add Casspi and take away Withey and/or Babbitt and I think we are a much better team right now.

I heard that Casspi didn't want to come to NOLA. I don't know if that was all him or Dell told him we were going to cut him.

Casspi initially came to us in a salary dump move.
Are there any other teams that could be looking for a salary dump that we could benefit from
OR is this something we'll have to wait a bit further into the season to see?

[N.O.Bronco]

Dell took a huge risk signing Gordon and he bombed. he's added guys like salmons, Jimmer, Russ, Patric.... Low risk. We have not been rewarded. Asik, Anderson, and Jrue were Demps best moves. I doubt we will fix this problem before the season ends. I think the offseason is a make or break for Demps. I give him 2 more years. If we aren't an elite team in 2016 Demps will be fired. We have overpaid players. Tyreke, Jrue, Gordon....

I don't think he deserves 2 more years TBH. At best 1 more. Monty is in the same boat. If Demps can't pull together the makings of a long term championship caliber core and Monty doesn't look like a coach that can lead such a team to the promised land by the end of next season it will be time to cut ties.

If Demps is on the hot seat going into the offseason in two years thats because his moves from this upcoming offseason were bad. Which means you would be giving Demps free reign to take a gamblers bet with the 15 million we will get from Gordons contract and tie the franchise back up for years....Then good luck finding a GM who would take on the mess if Demps screws that up.

1 year. He can't put it together by the early part of next season he should be gone come the following offseason.

Then you scout for a replacement with the pitch that you will have the best player in the league, a 15 million dollar contract coming off the books, additional starters on good contracts and an elite caliber stretch 4 that you can play with to build your new roster around the best player in the league. What potential GM candidate says no to that?

Give Demps the Green light to use the Gordon contract and all our cap space and then what GM wants to take over that mess if it goes wrong? A lot fewer I would suspect.

[Caffeinedisastr]

Dell took a huge risk signing Gordon and he bombed. he's added guys like salmons, Jimmer, Russ, Patric.... Low risk. We have not been rewarded. Asik, Anderson, and Jrue were Demps best moves. I doubt we will fix this problem before the season ends. I think the offseason is a make or break for Demps. I give him 2 more years. If we aren't an elite team in 2016 Demps will be fired. We have overpaid players. Tyreke, Jrue, Gordon....

I legitimately have no clue what we have in Patric Young other than energy.

Whether he's not performed well in practice or is not being played because he's a rook, I'm wondering when we'll know what he's about at the NBA level.

[HornetGuru]

Did someone just say jrue was overpaid?

[Asteptooslow]

Rivers sucks.

[da ThRONe]

I heard that Casspi didn't want to come to NOLA. I don't know if that was all him or Dell told him we were going to cut him.

Casspi initially came to us in a salary dump move.
Are there any other teams that could be looking for a salary dump that we could benefit from
OR is this something we'll have to wait a bit further into the season to see?

It mere speculation on my part, but usually guys making the amount of money Casspi is getting is usually happy being on any team he can get consistent mins on. So maybe it came down to playing time. I'm sure if Omri knew we were going to play him 20-25 mins per game he would have been thrilled to play here. Of course this is me guessing.