The Official First Gameday Thread! Pels vs. Bulls at SKC

[Jabberwalker]

I didn't get to see the game. I don't care about the result much but my concern is offensive rebounding. As has been mentioned a few times recently, it seems like if we play to our strengths we should be slowing the game down and pushing hard for offensive rebounds. We got only 6 last night, the bigs played quite a few minutes, and 2 were from Diallo, and we don't know if he'll be part of the rotation. Were we pushing for offensive rebounds?

[HoustonPelicans]

[BP225]

if we play to our strengths we should be slowing the game down

Having both of your bigs capable of rebounding and leading the break and ramming it down the other team's throat is one of the bigger strengths of AD and Cousins together. Slowing it down would kill that. I guarantee you get more out of those 2 leading transition than slowing it down and playing back to the basket.

I really do not understand why so many people think Grit and Grind is the answer. Do we want to be a top defensive team and have a lot of points in the paint? Yes. Do you need a bottom 5 pace to accomplish that? No.

[Joe Gerrity]

AFAIK we didn't suffer any major injuries. That's a win in my book.

[Mythrol]

No we didn't push for offensive rebounds at all and we still got more than Chicago.

The biggest issue was probably our defense but Chicago also hit some extremely ridiculous shots. Heck their last bucket of the game which put it away was a 3pt shot 5ft behind the line that came with 1 second left on the shot clock and was a Hail Mary. If they shot clock violate right there we have the ball in our possession down 1 for the final shot. Just some crazy lucky shots made.

Offense stagnated after halftime and it looked like it was due to players not in game condition yet and possibly Gentry trying out some different things. Open shots that were going in earlier weren't going in during the 2nd half, and we had a lot less / slower cuts and off ball movement.

We also played pretty sloppy and had some dumb turnovers. But that's what the pre-season is for. Go watch the Cousins and Gentry post game interviews, they have a good handle on what happened and what they need to do.

[Pelicanidae]

Having both of your bigs capable of rebounding and leading the break and ramming it down the other team's throat is one of the bigger strengths of AD and Cousins together. Slowing it down would kill that. I guarantee you get more out of those 2 leading transition than slowing it down and playing back to the basket.

I really do not understand why so many people think Grit and Grind is the answer. Do we want to be a top defensive team and have a lot of points in the paint? Yes. Do you need a bottom 5 pace to accomplish that? No.

I agree for the most part. Obviously there's some diligence we need to put into rebounding and the exact details of who runs and who tries for the offensive boards, but by and large our offense looked at it's best in the first quarter. And that was when AD and Boogie were flying down the court and making the Bulls either move or be moved.

[PolishFan]

I am disappointed with Miller. He looked just like the one I remembered from few years ago and I was hoping to see an improved player

[Snarly]

Milller's defense is going to be a problem. Expect Cunningham to log big minutes this year.

[Rel11]

Did I miss why Cunningham only played like 12 minutes last night? When I heard he was starting, I didn't imagine he would be perched at the end of the bench for the majority of the game.

[Mythrol]

Gentry said before the game that he was only going to play around 15 minutes.

[Rel11]

Gentry said before the game that he was only going to play around 15 minutes.

Thanks!

[AusPel]

Disappointed to hear these reports on Miller

[msw2024]

I take little from W-Ls in preseason from any sport. I have seen teams go under .500 in preseason and make a deep run in the playoffs. 1st half was very promising for the Pelicans. Rondo needs to layoff the 3s unless wide open. Boogie and Rondo ball movement while driving to the basic is awesome. If we can hit some shots for them or have AD cut to the basket we could be deadly. Perfect play was Rondo drove after Pick from AD. AD rolled to the basket and Boogie was spot up 3. Bulls had to help on Rondo so Boogie wide open 3. Teams will have a hard choice in do I protect the layup, dunk from AD, or give up a wide open 3.

[UNO Gracias]

It was a preseason game though (not the finished product), so don't read to much into it other than AD and Boogie are comfortable playing next to each other. Miller's defense, Diallo's fouls, Jrue's effectiveness off the ball, etc. these are things that will be rounded out as we press forward during preseason. Rome wasn't built in a day, and this team wont win a title this year. But the pieces are in place for this to be a fun team. I know at some point during the year I will become super frustrated at some bonehead things we do, but now is not that time. Hope should be springing eternal when you have two top 15 players on your roster.

[Mythrol]

There is reason Gentry played the starters ~30 mins and it's not because he just viewed it as some pre season game.

We only have 2 more games (Gentry said he's not playing starters against Memphis in last pre season game) before the games start counting for W and Ls. I'm not saying anyone should be panic mode over 1 game, they shouldn't, but it's clear Gentry views the pre season as VERY important for this team.

This first game was good for us because it showed us just how good we can be and also that we still have a lot to work on. The hope is to see improvements over the next two games in playing more consistent basketball. We have a long way to go and a short time to get there.

This idea that "its preseason just relax" is wrong. This is the time to point out flaws and get them fixed before the games count.

[Jabberwalker]

I saw a picture on Twitter yesterday that I can't find now but it was a graph of correlation between regular season wins and team plus-minus (aka score) of the first three quarters of preseason games (the fourth presumably removed because most coaches throw in the scrubs) and there were some exceptions like the Kings who did well in preseason and didn't do well the regular season and the Clippers (inverse to Kings) but overall it was actually kind of close which surprised me. I don't know how much stock I put in it until seeing more than a single season's results but I thought it was interesting. I hope I actually get to watch a preseason game because I really don't think I can evaluate much just from some stats from it.

[Jabberwalker]

I saw a picture on Twitter yesterday that I can't find now but it was a graph of correlation between regular season wins and team plus-minus (aka score) of the first three quarters of preseason games (the fourth presumably removed because most coaches throw in the scrubs) and there were some exceptions like the Kings who did well in preseason and didn't do well the regular season and the Clippers (inverse to Kings) but overall it was actually kind of close which surprised me. I don't know how much stock I put in it until seeing more than a single season's results but I thought it was interesting. I hope I actually get to watch a preseason game because I really don't think I can evaluate much just from some stats from it.

I found the picture!

[PolishFan]

I found the picture!

great graph. thanks for it