5th December - New Orleans Pelicans VS Phoenix Suns - 6-15

Getting Hockey game on the phone with Cox

I've ended up watching the Suns stream because of the issues with the Pelicans one, so it seems like this issue is kinda hitting everyone.

That said, it's annoying that this is happening on the game where Griff is supposed to be giving an interview in the 2nd quarter.

This team is just so much better with Ball starting the game instead of Williams. It’s not ideal to have Ingram at PF but he was playing it with Williams on the court anyway. The only difference I would like to see is have Hart start the game over JJ and let JJ come off the bench firing in a Lou Williams/Manu Ginobli role..

Had Holiday played the way he has been lately this team would have 4 more wins. He was barely an average player to start the season. Can’t wait for him to slide into that 3rd option role behind Zion and Ingram. I really believe he can thrive in that position.

We look good right now because we're shooting 73% from the floor and 83% from 3.

That doesn't change the fact that we're about to give up a 30+ point first quarter again, and we've allowed them to shoot nearly 60/40/85.

Defense doesn't look as bad as it has sometimes recently but it's still not very good.

Hayes looks solid so far as well. I like when he is aggressive. Once this kid puts on some weight and increases his basketball IQ he will be a problem and perfect fit for this team.

NAW is on the court

Lol at nobody closing out on Cam Johnson

Love this bench unit run by Jrue. Allows him to attack and run the show. Has some help in NAW to handle some duties. A spacing center. Hart who can do it all and knock down the 3s. Kenny hustle who does the dirty work. Great lineup

You know your defense is horrible when you can drop a 40 point first quarter, play better defense than you generally do, and still only be up by 2

I’m guessing they just gave up on the defensive thought.

If anyone's hearing the Griff stuff, would appreciate it if you could let us know what he's saying. I'll try to add tweets with quotes in the thread

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

You know your defense is horrible when you can drop a 40 point first quarter, play better defense than you generally do, and still only be up by 2

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It’s pure comedy. Glad that Kenny Hustle is back at least. Despite his lack of ability on the offensive end, he is the only one that always looks like he knows what he is doing

Griffin said there’s been absolutely no setbacks for Zion Williamson.

— Scott Kushner (@ScottDKushner) December 6, 2019

Griff: It's fascinating anyone thinks there's another agenda going on with Zion right now

— Shamit Dua (@FearTheBrown) December 6, 2019

David Griffin on Zion: "He continues to progress, he's progressing really well. ... We have been much more cautious with how we've ramped him up from stage to stage bc he's 19."

— Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) December 6, 2019

Griffin says Zion's return will be based on him meeting specific metrics during his recovery. Didn't say it will be after the 8-week mark, but hinted that will be a possibility.

— Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) December 6, 2019

Griff on any load management with Zion: “He very likely will he asked not to take the pounding of back to backs. ... But we’re trying to win games. He will play.”

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) December 6, 2019

This makes sense. We don't have a ton of back to backs anyway.

You know it’s been a PR disaster when Griffin has been called in to chat with the boys. Good to see him around

.@dg_riff answered a numbered of questions about Zion's rehab, timeline on @FOXSportsNOLA

full interview: pic.twitter.com/vZYcBtDse2

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) December 6, 2019

Pels twitter uploaded the interview.

Key quotes pretty much all included above.

Repeated ''absolutely no setback''.

Griff says he has been ''nauseatingly transparent'' according to many people inside of the organisation. ''We did a radio interview here on ESPN radio, locally, said some similar things when we were in Phoenix oddly enough, and nothing's changed.''

Griff says if he hits the return metrics in 7 weeks, then Zion will play at 7 weeks, but if it takes 10 weeks, then he'll play at 10 weeks.

''We're trying to win basketball games, and honestly we've been horrible at that'' :hihi:

Thought David was openly candid and honest tonight

Our defence is so BAD... Jesus Christ please help us... :help:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PineBeltPelican

Thought David was openly candid and honest tonight

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He always struck me as an honest guy. I just don’t think he ever anticipated that we would be THIS bad. He had to speak up sooner or later

"We're dreadful defensively a lot of times at the moment because we're so young. When we get Favors back - he does that." - Griffin

— The Bird Writes (@thebirdwrites) December 6, 2019

edit: meant to post this tweet, not re-post the interview clip

I agree with David Griffin how the injuries have been a positive in a sense allowing younger guys to get some playing time but the negative is it has set us back in losing games. This team is easily a top 6 seed healthy.

Yeah, I thought it was a pretty good short little interview. Confirmed a lot of suspicions: he's doing well, no setbacks, he could still come back before/at the 8 week projection, but they're not guaranteeing that because it does require him hitting various performance metrics and they're not going to rush him into them because he's important long-term and he's only 19. Makes sense to me.

All I gotta say is Brandon Ingram is incredible. In 2 years he will be arguably the best SF in the NBA.

They are finally connecting the Hayes rim runs.

David Griffin just pointed out something I hadn't cribbed to. Jaxson Hayes isn't fully conditioned to play the minutes he's playing.

Not yet. Hands on hips and not elevating as much as he normally does.

Hayes has 11 points in 11 minutes, 66% shooting

I want to say our transition D is bad, but I don't think we actually have transition D at this point

How can you not love Ingram and his work ethic!? Going to the staff and telling him do whatever it takes to bring the greatness out of him. No matter how they have to coach him by dog cussing or whatever it takes. Kid is going to be a star and shatter every Pelicans scoring record.

Ingram made that pass, that was good, but I'm not sure why we felt the need for an extra pass there when the corner shot was open. Then, of course, Melli makes another pass because he wasn't really open and it's a turnover.

Lonzo playing with a better mentality tonight. Still making some pretty hilarious errors, but he’s been better tonight

Great read from Jrue and the go ahead pass

Joel and AD are a trip

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Ingram made that pass, that was good, but I'm not sure why we felt the need for an extra pass there when the corner shot was open. Then, of course, Melli makes another pass because he wasn't really open and it's a turnover.

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Lmao!!

Hart, I love you, but your shot clock awareness is poo

Good drive from Lonzo there

Our defense is honestly so disgusting it's almost funny

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

Lonzo playing with a better mentality tonight. Still making some pretty hilarious errors, but he’s been better tonight

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I agree he is having an all around good game tonight. If he could limit a turnover or 2 then that would be great. I think he’s only going to keep getting better and better especially when Zion comes back and he conitues to learn his teammates. We need Lonzo to be a 12-15ppg/7-10apg/5-7rpg player with great defense while shooting 40% 3pt /75% FT and we will have exactly what we need from him. I fully believe he can be that and more but we don’t need much more with the players we are surrounding him with.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Our defense is honestly so disgusting it's almost funny

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Almost makes you pine for Julius Randle doesn’t it?

End of the first half, we're down 74-70 :hihi: These scores are absurd.

Leading scorer is Redick with 17

Jrue has 15 points on 75% shooting, 3 assists, 3 steals. 3 fouls, 1 turnover.
Ingram has 11 points on 80% shooting, 3 assists, 4 turnovers, 3 fouls.
Lonzo has 7 points, 5 assists, 2 steals, 4 turnovers, 1 foul.
Hayes has 11 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 66% shooting, 0 fouls, 0 turnovers

We gave up 74 points in 24 minutes... I am about to vomit...

Lonzo/Jrue/Ingram/Zion/Hayes could potentially be the best defense in the NBA hands down. Once these guys start to learn each other better along with the systems. As well as the young studs getting stronger and adding some muscle/weight this group can be deadly when you consider they are all 2 way players.

At least we are trying to play basketball tonight. Lonzo is driving, players are getting out in transition and we are getting Hayes involved a good bit. It just isn’t there. We really need another option (Zion cough) to take some of the pressure off of Ingram. Nobody else out there is enough of a threat to give him room to work. He just gets swarmed

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

Almost makes you pine for Julius Randle doesn’t it?

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Julius Randle isn’t a good defender but he isn’t terrible. He had a pretty incredible season her offensively last year. Randle would actually be a great fit for this team right now with all of our injuries. Wouldn’t mind seeing him here as a bench big backing up Zion. Just not for his price.

The one thing I took from Griff’s interview is he is not blaming Alvin for anything. He firmly believes the struggles are from player injuries and a lack of experience.

Finally winning the FT battle but losing the game. LMAO

We gave up a lot of points but atleast we hung in there and put up points. I really believe a lot of our defensive problems are just due to youth and our huge roster turnover. Many of these guys not knowing how to play with each other can cause major problems. Hopefully when we get healthy it starts to improve when we can finally have some lineup consistency where players can get use to each other’s tendencies.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by msusousaphone

Finally winning the FT battle but losing the game. LMAO

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They decided it was best to leave Cam Johnson open tonight. They usually pick one person to let shoot corner threes all night and I’m guessing it’s Cam Johnson.

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Originally Posted by Fedupfan

The one thing I took from Griff’s interview is he is not blaming Alvin for anything. He firmly believes the struggles are from player injuries and a lack of experience.

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That is something you keep in House. You can’t publicly shame your head coach.

This is the most trash 3 point defense i've ever seen.