https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdPxlj8A-CE
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Fun interview. Shoots straight. Very personable guy. Will become a fan favorite.
Not sure if this was mentioned on here, but the protections on the first that we got from Denver and then sent to OKC are interesting.
Protected 1-14 from 2023-2025. If the pick doesn't convey by 2025, it becomes a second round pick. So basically this pick has almost no upside.
That may take some of that 1st round sting off for some people.
Hello all,
You might need to put together a FAQ for kiwi's. Did you know that you now have about 4.8 million new Pelicans followers? (and OKC just lost them).
So, I'm new, what do I need to know?
Ha! Be prepared for epic debates about MLE's and why we traded our 2037 2nd round draft choice for a cup of coffee and some cash or who we should draft in three years. And when I mean epic, I mean War-and-Peace-novel epic. But what do I know?
On a side note: when does NZ play the West Indies in cricket? Today or tomorrow?
Hey, welcome to the board.
There's tons of things that someone could say to introduce you to the team or the board, so I'll just throw out some random stuff and you can take it or leave it.
1) The board is nice but debate can be intense
2) There are some people who will never stop thinking Lonzo is on the brink of becoming Magic Johnson.
3) Pelicans are overwhelmingly unlucky, historically. Whenever something goes wrong, that's #PelsLife
4) Prior to David Griffin taking over, our old front office loved to trade all of our picks away: as a result, we seem to covet picks more than most other teams
5) Our defense has been really awful over the last few years, while our offense has been good. Expect to hear a lot about that.
I was among those who weren’t fans of BI. But he worked his tail off. Really impressed me. Lonzo has already improved a bit. He just has to become not useless in the half court. Going more offball could be the ticket. But has gotta get better at finishing in the paint. Use two hands to gather. And continue developing that floater.
Lonzo's fate was sealed draft night. Especially If Kira shows any of his upside potential early. The team saw all the issues at point guard and made several moves to shore that up.
Plus I think both Lonzo and his daddy want him to leave next summer anyway. Au revoir. Sayonara.
I would disagree that BI had a ''fairly natural progression''. He was bad as a rookie, pretty bad as a sophomore but better, then regressed hard in year three, before having a historically massive explosion in year 4. That's not what most people do.
That said, yes, the things he improved at are things that players often improve at when they're young: mainly, shooting. Lonzo also improved as a shooter, but where did that get him? Still tradeable in the eyes of most, because his baseline was so awful that he's still only just better than league average from the 3pt line, and still well under league average everywhere else. That's before getting to things like the mentality issue, which isn't an issue Ingram ever had. Say what you want about Ingram, and of course I did, but being ''scared to drive'' is not an issue he had in LA, whereas it is an issue Lonzo has had since day one.
In a game where physical contact is staple night in and night out, LB shies away from it; BI has never cowered from it...EVER!! That's why in a half court set, offensively, LB's only value is as a catch and shoot shot maker. Can Lonzo correct this flaw in his game? Will he ever be effective in the paint? Well those are the questions that need to be answered, aren't they?
if you look back at Eric Gordon's M.O. early in career he was prolific at taking it to the hoop, then after knee issues, reinvented himself into a 3pt peripheral player.... so, its possible for Lonzo to create himself invaluable... but I doubt his heart
I thought he was just being underutilized on offense. Turns out, he's just plain bad at offense all together.
I was pretty on the money here
Nah. If you read what is going on with the organization then you know there was something going on. We don?t know what that thing is except definitely some x?s and o?s issues. I mean you have Hart defending Bledsoe and Hart is a golden child of Griffin. IMO he likes him more than Lonzo.
Adams is silent leader type. He leads by example but team definitely needs a vocal type of veteran and i think JOhnson did good at that when he was traded here.
There are so many outliers you may not think about. What if team was looking to Adams to call out Bledsoe for his lazy play at times but Adams didn?t? How would that make Adams look if he did?
Adams was injured a good part of the season. I know he isn?t a horizontal player but something was definitely bothering him. He also will probably go down as the least injured center in a long time and he knows that. He usually doesn?t miss many games. SVG should have benched him longer and let him heal. Maybe that is another reason SVG is gone.
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I agree with Sleeper.
I think Adams is one of the scapegoats for a troubled team.
He might be traded for someone who suits a different style of play, for salary in an upgrade, or for cost saving at centre.
On the other hand he might be back on friendlier salary for another season.
I believe he has a certain x factor that has real value as a role player:
1. Adams is a starting centre voted toughest player in the league.
2 Considered one of the strongest players, he enjoys banging with the legit bigs in the league like Embiid, Gobert or Jokic.
3. Sets the hardest screens in the league bar no-one.
4. Top four offensive rebounder, leads the top ten in contested oreb %
5. Selfless team player - positive plus/minus
6. Leads by example
7. Very disciplined, always gives top effort
8. Great locker room presence by all accounts
9. Great hustle plays - box outs, fights for the ball
Fair enough. However, scoring was not an issue for the Pels and Adams was not brought in to score. I?m pretty sure that was Bledsoe?s part and he failed. Adams role was to guard the rim and give second chances to our woefully shooting team.
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Nobody said Adams is bad. Or that he was the reason the team was bad. They said the acquisition cost was bad.
I like a good loaf of bread. Very versatile and helpful. Goes with my eggs in the morning and maybe I throw some garlic spread on it and it goes with my lasagna at night
But if I paid $22 for that loaf, when I could have gotten a similar one for $4, my wife should question my judgment and perhaps even take away my card for a few days
I never thought it made much sense to get a big that couldn't at least make a mid range jumper to provide some semblance of spacing for Zion. But hey... setting solid picks and post passing has SOME value in basketball, so I guess it wasn't a total waste. Wouldn't have given up picks for that though.
I would have been fine giving someone like Adams a full MLE for what he does. And if he were a FA this offseason, MAYBE some team would give him that. But that would be his ceiling
Adams wasn’t brought in for his offense. And it didn’t appear that Zion had too much of a problem scoring while Adams was on the floor, so for Zion at least spacing didn’t appear to be too big of a deal. (Not sure about BI though, perhaps the analytics geeks can educate me). The problem with Adams, IMO, appeared to be on the defensive end. He was fine guarding the paint, even when having to cover for both Zion and BI. But he really seemed to struggle guarding anyone on the perimeter. Now part of that might have been SVG’s defensive scheme, which probably wasn’t a good fit for today’s NBA. With the NBA moving so much of it’s offense beyond the 3 point line, it really makes you wonder whether like SVG, the game is leaving Adams behind a bit.
The game left Adams behind a few years ago. He really hurt them in that Portland series in 2019 and he put up decent numbers in the 2020 series against Houston because he was playing against perhaps the smallest front line of all time, but they destroyed him on the other end. Not to mention, in those two series he shot 12-28 from the free throw line, so they couldnt play him late both because of his offensive liabilities AND his defensive liabilities
And yet, after all that....our genius POBO looks at a 30 million dollar price tag and goes GIVE ME THAT! And heck, here are some picks too. Like, Presti must have hung up the phone and died of laughter for the next 30 minutes before calling it into the league. Imagine someone giving us a first and 2 seconds for Bledsoe right now. Its almost that equivalent
To give numbers to back this up, the Thunder were a combined -11.4 per 100 possessions when Adams was on the court in those two series (and a positive 6.2 when he was off). His turnover percentage was triple what it was in prior playoff years. He was just an utter liability. And again, Griff went and gave up picks, players, and flexibility for that. Just mind blowing
Our main offensive weapon is a very interior focused player, so naturally Adams doesn’t compliment him whatsoever in that area. The main selling point for Adams was having him set high screens and having Zion roll to the basket, but that is difficult when teams don’t respect our perimeter game whatsoever. I agree with the sentiment that Adams is a scapegoat for bigger problems, but if we didn’t have a plan for him we shouldn’t have acquired him at all.
Adams wouldn’t have been a negative defensively if we could guard the perimeter, but Bledsoe and company gave up tons of space and didn’t defend the point of attack at all. A team with good perimeter defenders and spacing would love Adams. I do think the league favors mobile bigs, but Adams still has a place on the right roster. We are not even close to the right one.
I have posted them before. Negligible
Zion averaged less points and the same number of rebs per 100 possessions with Adams off vs on. Slightly higher FG percentage with him on- 62 percent vs 60. Most things were the same or close with Adams on vs off except two things
1. Pels were a negative with Zion and Adams both on, but a fairly big positive with Zion on and Adams off
2. Zions FT rate skyrocketed with Adams off the court. Which makes sense
I can't think a more brain dead situation than the Adams debacle in recent memory
If I'm interpreting the stat correctly, that's not what that means. Thats because we know virtually all of Zion's shots were either layups or dunks no matter who was on the floor. Plus his points per 100 were identical whether Adams was on the floor or not (116.2 Adams on vs 116.0 Adams off).
Also his FG% actually dipped some when Adams was off the floor (55.9% Adams on vs 54.0% Adams off).
That means Adams either provided some paint gravity or screened for Zion to get cleaner looks without getting fouled. Which matches what we saw on the floor.
Then again, these stats come from Cleaning the Glass, and free throw rate measures free throws made, not free throws attempted.
Per usual, dont know what this dude is talking about. Here is a link with the stats
https://www.nba.com/stats/vs/#!?Play...100Possessions
Ah, so my stats come from the more robust CTG, which only considers lineups on the floor at least 100 possessions, which removes the noise.
Silly me for over estimating the sage. Gotta keep the expectations low.
The Asik trade was fine. Fair value. The Asik re-signing was a debacle