October 28th - New Orleans Pelicans vs New York Knicks - 1-0

Zion's made 6 of his last 7 shots. Dude's heating up.

It will never happen but Zion would make an ideal six man. He doesn’t need a lot of offensive talent around him to be scarily efficient offensively. It’s more important to surround him with good defensive talent.

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

It will never happen but Zion would make an ideal six man. He doesn’t need a lot of offensive talent around him to be scarily efficient offensively. It’s more important to surround him with good defensive talent.

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I think subbing him out early and playing him with bench units to destroy is a good idea, but lmao at the idea of benching your best player.

Come on Brandon

Ingram is awfull on both sides of the floor in 2nd half.

Ingram had a great first quarter and has just been completely off since, kinda weird

Just completely abandoning what worked

What is this lineup

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Just completely abandoning what worked

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"all of a sudden"

Get Zion back on!

I can not understand how can someone with Ingram's build be so bad on defense. It is amazing to me. It's like he smokes weed before every defensive possesion..

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Originally Posted by Mrakar

I can not understand how can someone with Ingram's build be so bad on defense. It is amazing to me. It's like he smokes weed before every defensive possesion..

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In his defense he was a lot better at points last year. Tonight he just looks awful.

But if you want the explanation physically, it's because he has really high hips and very slow feet.

Not sure why Hawkins wasn't given much playing time after a good 1st half

his feet are quick when he wants to score! actually agree though defence is a different moving with the side shuffle etc and also running backwards.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Ingram had a great first quarter and has just been completely off since, kinda weird

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Zion playing well seems to have an inverse effect on Brandon.

Dyson needs to get better at shooting the ball..his shot is so bad

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Originally Posted by AussieHornet

his feet are quick when he wants to score! actually agree though defence is a different moving with the side shuffle etc and also running backwards.

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I disagree, I think even on offense his feet aren't quick. His best stuff is length and pace related, I don't think he ever just blows by people with speed.

Seems like the refs are finally giving Herb the respect he's earned defensively.

The Knicks are a frustrating team. Some of this disjointed feeling is more credit to them.

CJ and Herb killing it. Jonas hitting some shots. Should be able to close this one out pretty easily

Herb is a ********ing all-star, DPOY, 1st Team NBA-Defense, 2nd best player of this team, i can't even express how much i like him. HEEERBBBB!

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Originally Posted by msusousaphone

The Knicks are a frustrating team. Some of this disjointed feeling is more credit to them.

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Yea knicks playing hard despite the back to back.

Herb is one of the best defensive players in the entire league.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Herb is one of the best defensive players in the entire league.

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Could you imagine if Dyson’s offense improved to a point where you could pair him with Herb for extended minutes?

Gd bi

Nevermind

Sit the guys, I've seen enough. Up 20 points with 4 minutes left.

We are doing a great job of giving everyone their time to shine. Early we moved the ball really well and as the game went on and got tough we relied on individuals and spread out the usage very well. Jonas got his time for once. Zion and BI. CJ being very impactful as well. Early doors but we just look a better offense in general and we are missing some very good players still. I’m hopeful.

That lineup with cj,hawk,ryan,herb and jonas was a nice kineup if we are resting zion and bi because it allowed cj and jonas to operate with space. That lineup gave zion and bi so much time to rest

And nobody played more than 32 minutes.

Oof Dyson’s shot looks worse this year than last

Please baby Jesus let Zion stay somewhat healthy this year.

Pels start the year 2-0, winning their first home and away games, despite significant injuries. Both teams they beat were playoff teams last year (though in Memphis' defense, they also have injuries).

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

Please baby Jesus let Zion stay somewhat healthy this year.

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Zion and BI. This won't work if either of them miss chunks of time.

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

Please baby Jesus let Zion stay somewhat healthy this year.

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60 games is all I ask, and playoffs.

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

Oof Dyson’s shot looks worse this year than last

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Late in a close game I dont care if the team needs a rebound or a stop. Dyson should not be out there.

Very good game, my only complaint is the deep bench.

Please do not give the scrubs an entire quarter in a blowout game unless they're losing big.

BI’s numbers looked much better than I thought

Perfect result. Kept the Knicks below 90. Hell, even though the bench were throwing bricks at the end it all looked fluid and they were getting really open looks. They very easily could have turned the ball over 5 times and forced the starters back into the game. We Look better as a unit

Not sure I'm a fan of any of the big 3 sitting on the bench for so long.

Randle just played last night and played more minutes than all of them. And his 34 minutes is probalby just average.

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

BI’s numbers looked much better than I thought

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He had a really strange game. Awesome first quarter, looked awful 2nd and 3rd, then looked great again most of the 4th.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

Not sure I'm a fan of any of the big 3 sitting on the bench for so long.

Randle just played last night and played more minutes than all of them. And his 34 minutes is probalby just average.

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If we can win a game by double digits without running our guys into the ground, I'll take it. It's early in the year.

I think dropping point Zion was a good idea too. Not that it didn’t work. I think his health is more important than taking constant abuse on every drive by players that are looking to take him out of the game. He makes just as much of an impact on the peripheral.

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

I think dropping point Zion was a good idea too. Not that it didn’t work. I think his health is more important than taking constant abuse on every drive by players that are looking to take him out of the game. He makes just as much of an impact on the peripheral.

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Think it depends on the matchup. Tonight didn't need it but there will be nights that he's just got it going and in those cases, run it through him.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

If we can win a game by double digits without running our guys into the ground, I'll take it. It's early in the year.

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I will always take it. Load management. CJ is the only one that has proven he can handle the burden and that is because he takes ridiculous care of his body. Small guards also don’t have the massive limbs to deal with.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Think it depends on the matchup. Tonight didn't need it but there will be nights that he's just got it going and in those cases, run it through him.

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Agreed but I’d prefer him not to take a million cheap shots if unnecessary. Less wear and tear is good

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

Agreed but I’d prefer him not to take a million cheap shots if unnecessary. Less wear and tear is good

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This next matchup against the Warriors should feature Zion inclduing point Zion.

I'm not one of these Zion groupies that want EVERYTHING run through Zion every single game.

But against Goldent St, the Zion hammer needs to be featured heavily.

I want him to flatten Draymond like he did Julius in this game. I want Draymond mad and spitting at the refs. Golden St doesnt have an answer for strength and size. So Jonas should get more touches also.

Plus they will also be coming in on a b2b.

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Originally Posted by luckyman

This next matchup against the Warriors should feature Zion inclduing point Zion.

I'm not one of these Zion groupies that want EVERYTHING run through Zion every single game.

But against Goldent St, the Zion hammer needs to be featured heavily.

I want him to flatten Draymond like he did Julius in this game. I want Draymond mad and spitting at the refs. Golden St doesnt have an answer for strength and size. So Jonas should get more touches also.

Plus they will also be coming in on a b2b.

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I’m all for it. We should always try to expose other teams weaknesses, etc. That’s strategy 101 and on the coaches to game plan and not run on autopilot. Point Zion is just not something we should feature TOO frequently. There will be matchups to take advantage of though for sure

Can't remember the last time fans left the Arena early (and it was never really that raucous) - for a GOOD reason. We outplayed them from the tip. Back to back had something to do with it I'm sure, but man our defensive intensity was impressive.

Herb was definitively our best player last night. He stopped Brunson, he stopped Barret, he stopped Randle. It shows how versatile he is. Even his 3pt shot look good. Keep it up!
Ingram had really strange game on offense, from good to bad, to ugly and again to good. His shot chart is still awfull and his defense is atrocious. He needs to wake up on defense.
Zion was great as always on offense, but what surprised me was his defense. He stoped Randle easy couple times 1 on 1, he also held his ground against Brunson after the switch. I just hope it is a trend and not an exception.

Negatives:
Team rebounding - still awfull, i knew we will get rekt here because Robinson is a beast, but i still think we have personel to be better on the boards. Zion is especially underwhelming in this area. Part of it is because he is usually running to opposite side as soon as shot is realised, but even when he doesn't he doesn't look dominant as he should on the boards.
Dyson Daniels decision making and shot - its like it got worse from last season. His defense is great but his passing, shot and general decision making were awfull last night. His outside shot is bad, his inside shot is bad, he is missing layups. Reminds me of Lonzo and his first 2 years with Pelicans.
Awful spurs during the game - Every team has ups and downs during the game, but what this team does sometimes is mind boggling. We are able to get -10 points in 2 minutes and that can loose you a lot of games.
Free throws - man we suck at FT's. They are not called free for no reason, but as our commentators last night said, i'm not even sure if it is a good thing if we are getting to the line, that is how bad it was.

Positives:
Energy on defense - that is one that surprised me the most and the one im most happy about. This team came out with an energy yesterday. It wasn't there whole game but i was still super surprised with it. And we still have to get Trey and Jose back.
Zion - he looks almost as good as ever. Still need to see him get more creative but he will get there. This kind of games also helps because we need to limit his minutes and yesterday was perfect situation.
Coaching - i saw some really good things on both end of the floor. We don't look as predictable as we did last season, on both ends. We had good double and tripple teams last night, some nice movement on offense. Would like to stop with the lazy switches but its still early in the season.


We played 2 bad teams(they were bad against us, not bad in general) so we still need to get real test(its comming on Monday), but team looks better then i expected to. I'm still low on Ingram and we still have a lot of flaws, rebounding being one on the worst, but if we somehow get one year of Zion and Ingram with 60+ games we can make some noise.