May 4th - New Orleans Pelicans VS Golden State - 29-36

Pelican network guys doing a disservice showing the awkward dad cam on live TV.

If there one fireable offense for SVG... It's the constant pulling Zion at the 6 minute mark in the 4th.

Zion hasn't had a FT since, I think, the first quarter.

This is getting silly. He's clearly been fouled several times.

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Originally Posted by Taker597

If there one fireable offense for SVG... It's the constant pulling Zion at the 6 minute mark in the 4th.

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I agree, he should play Zion 46 minutes a night

Late game Lonzo v Draymond shootout

Late Game scoring run
Another team not name Pelicans imploding
A missed call that benefit the Pelicans


What reality we in...

Three nights ago; we keep Lonzo

Last Night we got to get rid of Lonzo

Tonight?

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Originally Posted by As I See It

Three nights ago; we keep Lonzo

Last Night we got to het rid of Lonzo

Tonight?

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Can I get a Normal Powell... and I'll be cool with Lonzo.

It's still what it's always been.

Keep Lonzo if the price is below $18m, let him go if it's higher.

The fact that he can go 0/8, 8/17, 1/9, 7/13 from 3 in four consecutive games is part of the reason. Zero consistency for him. It's all or it's absolutely nothing.

Lonzo responded tonight in a big way. Major props to him. Hope he can build some consistency going forward.

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Originally Posted by DaFranchise80

Lonzo responded tonight in a big way. Major props to him. Hope he can build some consistency going forward.

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Only 6 games left after tonight. Pretty impossible to establish consistency.

Lol I'm taking credit for this Lonzo perfomance because of my pro-Zo post on page 1.

Pelicans win, 108-103

Zion: 23/12/7 with 4 steals and a block on 8/17 shooting
Ingram: 13/3/5 with 2 steals on 5/15 shooting
Adams: 1/8/2 on 0/3 shooting
Lonzo: 33/6/4 with a steal on 11/23 shooting (7/13 from 3)
Bledsoe: 14/5/4 on 5/11 shooting

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Pelicans win, 108-103

Zion: 23/12/7 with 4 steals and a block on 8/17 shooting
Ingram: 13/3/5 with 2 steals on 5/15 shooting
Adams: 1/8/2 on 0/3 shooting
Lonzo: 33/6/4 with a steal on 11/23 shooting (7/13 from 3)
Bledsoe: 14/5/4 on 5/11 shooting

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...and only 12 TO's, too. huh?

Lonzo seriously confuses me. Who the hell is he really?

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Originally Posted by SeapeaNOLA

Lonzo seriously confuses me. Who the hell is he really?

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He's inconsistent. That's who he is.

If the shot is falling from 3, he's a presence. If it's not, he isn't. That's who he is: it's not a mystery. One dimensional scorer who vanishes when his one dimension isn't on.

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Originally Posted by SeapeaNOLA

Lonzo seriously confuses me. Who the hell is he really?

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Reason you flip a coin on whether to keep him or not. He has 50/50 chance based off his inconsistency 50- good and 50 - bad.:hihi:

Lonzo had to come up big tonight. Draymond had Zion in his pocket a bit in that 4th. I like it when our offense runs through Zion, but I don’t like it when we force it and it leads to turnovers. Zion was smart to defer to the hot hand

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Only 6 games left after tonight. Pretty impossible to establish consistency.

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Maybe not, but I'm happy for Lonzo. Clearly this was the biggest game of his career. I think the baggage of his old man coupled with the LA spotlight and all of the nonsense that went on there has screwed with this kid's head. Whether or not he stays with the Pels hopefully he can start to get out of his own head a bit. I don't think he'll ever be the star everyone pretended he was (including him) but he's clearly got some NBA skills and should have a decent career.

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

Maybe not, but I'm happy for Lonzo. Clearly this was the biggest game of his career. I think the baggage of his old man coupled with the LA spotlight and all of the nonsense that went on there has screwed with this kid's head. Whether or not he stays with the Pels hopefully he can start to get out of his own head a bit. I don't think he'll ever be the star everyone pretended he was (including him) but he's clearly got some NBA skills and should have a decent career.

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Yeah I've said a few times (and so have others, not claiming uniqueness here) that he has some good skills and if he can get it out of his head that he's supposed to be a point guard and just accept himself as a connecting wing-type player (think better shooting but worse defense version of old-man Iguodala for Golden State) then he'll end up a useful player to a team somewhere.

I just don't think that team is here. He hasn't established anything like the consistency yet for me to justify paying him the kind of money he probably wants and I don't want to pay him $20m+ for the next three years in the hope that he figures things out by year 4.

The formula to win big games is take BI and Adams out at the end of games.

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Originally Posted by SeapeaNOLA

Lonzo seriously confuses me. Who the hell is he really?

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He's probably the highest ceiling (R)FA guard this offseason, unfortunately. It's pretty much...

Him and Powell...
and a bunch of 32+ year old guards.
I'd give a flier to Derrick Rose, but I'm biased.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Zion hasn't had a FT since, I think, the first quarter.

This is getting silly. He's clearly been fouled several times.

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It's todays NBA. The refs simply aren't calling a lot of contact on drives to the basket or attempts around the basket. it's why our team is so poorly constructed for the game right now. I guess the NBA is concerned about slowing the game down too much. But in doing so they've basically created a jump shooting league. I guess they're happy with it.

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Originally Posted by Taker597

He's probably the highest ceiling (R)FA guard this offseason, unfortunately. It's pretty much...

Him and Powell...
and a bunch of 32+ year old guards.
I'd give a flier to Derrick Rose, but I'm biased.

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Why?

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

It's todays NBA. The refs simply aren't calling a lot of contact on drives to the basket or attempts around the basket. it's why our team is so poorly constructed for the game right now. I guess the NBA is concerned about slowing the game down too much. But in doing so they've basically created a jump shooting league. I guess they're happy with it.

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It's nonsense.

I refuse to accept concern over ''slowing the game'' as a reason, because if that was anything close to true they'd stop the 15 or 20 minutes of refs reviewing uncontested fouls every game. If anything, the game is slower today than it was even 5 years ago due to the quantity of coach's contests, ref reviews, et cetera. And it's not that they just won't call things around the basket: both Giannis and Embiid get 11+ FTAs a game. It's literally just refusal to call them for Zion at this point.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Why?

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Because he's not actually as awful as you make him out to be... Especially, as of the past couple of years...

Your dislike for Rose seems a bit grudgy.

By the way, I don't know if anyone noticed it, but this game turned when Curry shot one of his three point shots while turning his head the other way a la Lebron. The NBA gods will let you get away with that nonsense in blowouts but send seriously bad karma your way when you do it in a close game. This ain't the 2017 Golden State Warriors, these guys are only .500. Poorly played Steph.

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Originally Posted by Taker597

Because he's not actually as awful as you make him out to be... Especially, as of the past couple of years...

Your dislike for Rose seems a bit grudgy.

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Disregarding his play, which actually isn't particularly good still, just why?

We have a 19 year old PG that needs minutes. We have NAW, who is a combo guard, will need minutes. Bledsoe will probably still be on the roster and God Knows he'll get minutes - if he's gone, it'll probably be in a trade that brings back another guard. And then Lonzo may end up still on the team, eating up minutes at guard.

If you still have at least 3, possibly 4 guards who all need minutes on the roster why would you pay to bring in another 33 year old guard who isn't a difference maker? What's the role? Where's the fit? Obviously if he was a super star you make it fit, but I would hope that even if he's ''not actually awful'' you don't think he's a star.

Pelicans are 30-36 with 6 games to play.
Spurs are 31-33 with 8 games to go.

Spurs own the tiebreaker - so they are really 3 games up on NOLA.

If Spurs go 3-5, Pels have to go 6-0 to grab the 10th spot.

Pels have a 5-game road trip then finish the year at home vs Lakers.

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) May 5, 2021

Spurs only need to go 4-4 over their last 8 to make it impossible for us to make the play in.

The hot takes. Dear god the hot takes.

Lonzo with the game of his career. Just means he'll go 1 - 27 against the 76ers Friday. :hihi:

Still happy for him. He helped his future pay check.

This was nice. But with multiple players going back and forth for locker room treatment, including Zion...this just ain't worth it.

Also with the Spurs remaining schedule, it's highly probable they win only 2 more games. It's just as brutal.

Spurs got a brutal schedule. I'll be surprised if they go 4-4 especially with White's injury. The Pelicans schedule is tough as well. Either way, I'm just happy they'll likely improve on last season's record.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Pelicans are 30-36 with 6 games to play.
Spurs are 31-33 with 8 games to go.

Spurs own the tiebreaker - so they are really 3 games up on NOLA.

If Spurs go 3-5, Pels have to go 6-0 to grab the 10th spot.

Pels have a 5-game road trip then finish the year at home vs Lakers.

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) May 5, 2021

Spurs only need to go 4-4 over their last 8 to make it impossible for us to make the play in.

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His numbers are wrong. If Spurs go 4-4, they're still only 35-37. Pels going 6-0 would finish 36-36.

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Originally Posted by RobertM320

His numbers are wrong. If Spurs go 4-4, they're still only 35-37. Pels going 6-0 would finish 36-36.

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His numbers are correct then.

**dae posted the 4-4 not Lopez...you're right.

You know, if 6'0'', Fred VanVleet just signed for 21MM a year for four years (26 yo when he signed), Lonzo will get at least that much. In my mind, Lonzo has more game than FVV. The question then boils down to....

Is he a fit for the Pelicans?

If not, do we roll the dice...match...and attempt a sign and trade?

It will be an interesting story to follow this summer.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

Also with the Spurs remaining schedule, it's highly probable they win only 2 more games. It's just as brutal.

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It's rough for both teams, for sure. They have a better balance of road/home games but they also play better teams; by contrast, we play a few easier teams but 5 of them are on the road, where we're a 12-19 team (compared to being 18-17 at home).

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

It's rough for both teams, for sure. They have a better balance of road/home games but they also play better teams; by contrast, we play a few easier teams but 5 of them are on the road, where we're a 12-19 team (compared to being 18-17 at home).

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The Spurs could be lined up to play Jazz, Jazz, Jazz, Nets Net, Nets and I still wouldn't be confident this team will make the play-in.

So the win tonight sucks from that standpoint. Zion might be nicked and will continue to play. BI is definitely nicked and might continue to play.

Last thing this team needs is a very late season Quincy Pondexter serious injury chasing this nonsense.

Oh well.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

The Spurs could be lined up to play Jazz, Jazz, Jazz, Nets Net, Nets and I still wouldn't be confident this team will make the play-in.

So the win tonight sucks from that standpoint. Zion might be nicked and will continue to play. BI is definitely nicked and might continue to play.

Last thing this team needs is a very late season serious injury chasing this nonsense.

Oh well.

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Oh no, I absolutely agree.

We're doing this really annoying thing (that we've done in seasons before this one, as well) where we make a late push that gets us just far enough to hurt our draft pick badly without actually quite making the playoffs (or the play in, in this case).

It's extremely annoying. If you're going to make the playoffs, make the playoffs. If you're not, don't, and get the max value from your pick. Don't do this annoying ''we're a 12th seed all year but right at the end we'll ruin our draft pick to no actual tangible benefit'' nonsense.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

His numbers are correct then.

**dae posted the 4-4 not Lopez...you're right.

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Pelicans are 30-36 with 6 games to play.
Spurs are 31-33 with 8 games to go.

Spurs own the tiebreaker - so they are really 3 games up on NOLA.

If Spurs go 3-5, Pels have to go 5-1 to grab the 10th spot.

Pels have a 5-game road trip then finish the year at home vs Lakers.

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) May 5, 2021

numbers corrected in this tweet

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Pelicans are 30-36 with 6 games to play.
Spurs are 31-33 with 8 games to go.

Spurs own the tiebreaker - so they are really 3 games up on NOLA.

If Spurs go 3-5, Pels have to go 5-1 to grab the 10th spot.

Pels have a 5-game road trip then finish the year at home vs Lakers.

? Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) May 5, 2021

numbers corrected in this tweet

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Spurs will go 1-7 in the last 8.
Pels need to go 3-3.

Spurs

Wed, May 5 @ Utah

Fri, May 7 @ Sacramento

Sat, May 8 @ Portland

Mon, May 10 vs Milwaukee

Wed, May 12 @ Brooklyn

Thu, May 13 @ New York

Sat, May 15 vs Phoenix

Sun, May 16 vs Phoenix

Pels

Fri, May 7 @ Philadelphia

Sun, May 9 @ Charlotte

Mon, May 10 @ Memphis

Wed, May 12 @ Dallas

Fri, May 14 @ Golden State

Sun, May 16 vs LA Lakers

AUS dates

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Originally Posted by AUSSIE_PELICAN

Spurs will go 1-7 in the last 8.
Pels need to go 3-3.

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1-7 is a bit optimistic, don't you think? Wouldn't be a shock if they managed to pip Portland and Sacramento both (Sacramento are bad this year and Portland hasn't been great, they've suffered losses to Memphis (twice) and Charlotte in the last two weeks. At that point we need to go 4-2, and with our schedule plus us being on the road, that's it for us.

Basically as long as the Spurs don't absolutely collapse, they're making the play-ins and we aren't. Yes, they play better teams than us but we're playing almost all of ours on the road (and we suck on the road) and it's not like our schedule is a cakewalk either, given that we play Philly, Lakers, Dallas, and Golden State again.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

1-7 is a bit optimistic, don't you think? Wouldn't be a shock if they managed to pip Portland and Sacramento both (Sacramento are bad this year and Portland hasn't been great, they've suffered losses to Memphis (twice) and Charlotte in the last two weeks. At that point we need to go 4-2, and with our schedule plus us being on the road, that's it for us.

Basically as long as the Spurs don't absolutely collapse, they're making the play-ins and we aren't. Yes, they play better teams than us but we're playing almost all of ours on the road (and we suck on the road) and it's not like our schedule is a cakewalk either, given that we play Philly, Lakers, Dallas, and Golden State again.

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Probs, but TBH i'd rather the 8th pick

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Originally Posted by AUSSIE_PELICAN

Probs, but TBH i'd rather the 8th pick

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So would I. We'd make the 10th seed, immediately lose, and we'd have sacrificed a pick's best value for one extra game that would probably just mean one more loss.

What’s the word on the injuries to Adams and BI? I assume BI was pulled in the second half because of injury?

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Originally Posted by Darkhorse985

What’s the word on the injuries to Adams and BI? I assume BI was pulled in the second half because of injury?

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He tweaked something, I think his ankle, in the first half. They did scans at halftime and they were negative, but he only played a few minutes in the second half before they pulled him cause he was struggling a bit.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Oh no, I absolutely agree.

We're doing this really annoying thing (that we've done in seasons before this one, as well) where we make a late push that gets us just far enough to hurt our draft pick badly without actually quite making the playoffs (or the play in, in this case).

It's extremely annoying. If you're going to make the playoffs, make the playoffs. If you're not, don't, and get the max value from your pick. Don't do this annoying ''we're a 12th seed all year but right at the end we'll ruin our draft pick to no actual tangible benefit'' nonsense.

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Ehhhhh... I think I air my frustration with that about every year. I'm glad that I already got it off my chest. Short sighted organization issues,, I suppose.

Still don't understand what a play-in berth even accomplishes besides being embarrassed. It doesn't establish a winning culture. I hardly call getting swept valuable experience. It doesn't make players better. I don't see the point of making it extremely difficult to improve a very mediocre team that needs to be a contender in like 4 years. But watch us suck in a stupid weak draft, but be big head stubborn this year in what could be a high tier class.

I did not mind it last year, but I'm a bit ticked off this year. Especially, the guard situation not presenting any answers.

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Originally Posted by Taker597

Ehhhhh... I think I air my frustration with that about every year. I'm glad that I already got it off my chest. Short sighted organization issues,, I suppose.

Still don't understand what a play-in berth even accomplishes besides being embarrassed. It doesn't establish a winning culture. I hardly call getting swept valuable experience. It doesn't make players better. I don't see the point of making it extremely difficult to improve a very mediocre team that needs to be a contender in like 4 years. But watch us suck in a stupid weak draft, but be big head stubborn this year in what could be a high tier class.

I did not mind it last year, but I'm a bit ticked off this year. Especially, the guard situation not presenting any answers.

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It's a difficult situation because on the one hand, from a fan's outside perspective, it seems so straightforward. Obviously for the actual team it's not that simple. Coaches aren't actively trying to lose, players only control so much, GMs can't magic up trades that don't exist, and even if you do suck all year that's no guarantee of a top 3 pick anymore. So I get that on paper it's not as easy to control as the fan's exasperation would hope.

But it does seem like our path this year has, in a way, almost actively sabotaged the future of the team :hihi: Either we're building for the future, in which case having a subpar roster this year and using the Jrue trade to gather assets is fine but in that situation we should be aiming for a high pick. Or we're not building from the future and we're really trying to win now, in which case all the auxiliary moves we've made or off and the roster is clearly fatally flawed.

That's the problem with trying to rebuild while staying good. It's very very easy, when trying to play both sides, to just lose on both fronts.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

It's nonsense.

I refuse to accept concern over ''slowing the game'' as a reason, because if that was anything close to true they'd stop the 15 or 20 minutes of refs reviewing uncontested fouls every game. If anything, the game is slower today than it was even 5 years ago due to the quantity of coach's contests, ref reviews, et cetera. And it's not that they just won't call things around the basket: both Giannis and Embiid get 11+ FTAs a game. It's literally just refusal to call them for Zion at this point.

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Yeah there are no excuses. Stan said it best- ?They asked me how many fouls Zion has on him, and I said really guys? Does that really matter?? They have a quota and for some reason it?s less than others when in reality Zion is probably fouled as much as anyone in the league. I?m not saying they should go nuclear and give him 20 a game, but he should be at the top of the list with those mentioned. It?s embarrassing and speaks poorly of the officiating in the NBA.

And BI gets hacked a lot too for that matter

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

Yeah there are no excuses. Stan said it best- ?They asked me how many fouls Zion has on him, and I said really guys? Does that really matter?? They have a quota and for some reason it?s less than others when in reality Zion is probably fouled as much as anyone in the league. I?m not saying they should go nuclear and give him 20 a game, but he should be at the top of the list with those mentioned. It?s embarrassing and speaks poorly of the officiating in the NBA.

And BI gets hacked a lot too for that matter

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I saw this posted in another forum and thought it was interesting:

It’s different with Williamson, who doesn’t plant his flag on the block like O’Neal did. Instead, often moonlighting as a point guard, he’ll either drive the ball from the perimeter or catch a pass 15 feet out and then rumble in from there. By the time he reaches the basket, more than one defender will in all likelihood have had a chance to slow him down, complicating what officials have to deal with before a point of contact is made.

That uncanny combination of size and speed impacts the anticipatory decisions officials normally make. The three basic elements of refereeing are location adjustment, position adjustment and vision adjustment. There’s a lead official (somewhere along the baseline, ideally on the strong side), a slot official (free throw extended, near the sideline), and a trailer. Possessions involving Zion tweak their individual responsibilities a bit and force all three to focus on spots they otherwise don’t.

“When [the Pelicans] swing it back to the weak side, and Zion puts it down going to the basket, the lead doesn't have a chance to get there,” Vaden says. “And the slot is basically trying to referee that play by himself—with help, but there's a lot more pressure on [them] that way.”

In these spots, the lead official often has no choice but to observe from the opposite side of the lane, which isn’t preferable. Even still, referees don’t stare at Williamson so much as they focus on different defenders who appear on his path to the rim.

...“When he dunks the ball, you or I can reach out and hit him as hard as we want to, he's not even gonna feel it. He's going to be able to finish with power. And from a referee standpoint, they're trying to get their eyes to the point of contact, but he goes through it so powerful that you can't tell if he's hit or not,” Vaden says. “Most of the time, you're not gonna see it until you go to replay or go to the film session later and look at it in slow motion to see if there is actually contact or not.”

ETA: it was from an interview with a former ref.

Not sure that I buy it, but I thought this take was interesting. So what do you think? Is Zion attacking the basket so fast and so powerfully that the refs can't tell if he's being fouled?

ETA again: It also makes me think that the refs have gotten so conditioned to the over exagerated reaction that certain other basketball stars make, that they start to rely on it to decide if a foul occurred. Zion's lack of overexagerated reaction to contact is probably hurting him.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

I saw this posted in another forum and thought it was interesting:

It’s different with Williamson, who doesn’t plant his flag on the block like O’Neal did. Instead, often moonlighting as a point guard, he’ll either drive the ball from the perimeter or catch a pass 15 feet out and then rumble in from there. By the time he reaches the basket, more than one defender will in all likelihood have had a chance to slow him down, complicating what officials have to deal with before a point of contact is made.

That uncanny combination of size and speed impacts the anticipatory decisions officials normally make. The three basic elements of refereeing are location adjustment, position adjustment and vision adjustment. There’s a lead official (somewhere along the baseline, ideally on the strong side), a slot official (free throw extended, near the sideline), and a trailer. Possessions involving Zion tweak their individual responsibilities a bit and force all three to focus on spots they otherwise don’t.

“When [the Pelicans] swing it back to the weak side, and Zion puts it down going to the basket, the lead doesn't have a chance to get there,” Vaden says. “And the slot is basically trying to referee that play by himself—with help, but there's a lot more pressure on [them] that way.”

In these spots, the lead official often has no choice but to observe from the opposite side of the lane, which isn’t preferable. Even still, referees don’t stare at Williamson so much as they focus on different defenders who appear on his path to the rim.

...“When he dunks the ball, you or I can reach out and hit him as hard as we want to, he's not even gonna feel it. He's going to be able to finish with power. And from a referee standpoint, they're trying to get their eyes to the point of contact, but he goes through it so powerful that you can't tell if he's hit or not,” Vaden says. “Most of the time, you're not gonna see it until you go to replay or go to the film session later and look at it in slow motion to see if there is actually contact or not.”

ETA: it was from an interview with a former ref.

Not sure that I buy it, but I thought this take was interesting. So what do you think? Is Zion attacking the basket so fast and so powerfully that the refs can't tell if he's being fouled?

ETA again: It also makes me think that the refs have gotten so conditioned to the over exagerated reaction that certain other basketball stars make, that they start to rely on it to decide if a foul occurred. Zion's lack of overexagerated reaction to contact is probably hurting him.

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My Four Word Response...

Lebron James
Giannis Antetokounmpo