Jax got to get more than single digit minutes in games where Temple is getting 15+
Potentially a hot take here: I feel like this could be BI's best career year. I think he's already shown some chemistry with Jonas that he never really had with Adams, and when Zion comes back the shots are going to get easier, especially from the outside.
Based on how he's looking early, that's my early hot take.
I am proud of this team.
Defense, fighting and playing as a team are very promising. BI played like a leader, Val like an All-Star and Davonte was a great addition.
And so Anthony Edwards is gonna be awfully good - wow!
Devonte' has already, I think, given us more through 4 games than Bledsoe gave us the entirety of last season.
Brandon Ingram should be taking more shots not less in any scheme of things.
There are other wings in this league that take 30 shots multiple times per year even if they only make 7 of them. BI rarely does this even though he has the offensive skillset to justify it.
yeah, i was gonna say, I think this is the year BI takes the leap. I already said it's not impossible he rounds out into a prime T-Mac esque player, improbable yes, but BI is a weird player, with a weirdly late developmental curve. With the much needed weight he gained this offseason, this could be the year his game coalesces so to speak
Idk, I feel like him having a considerably better season than he did last year would be pretty impressive. Last season he had career highs from the midrange, tied his career high 3ptR and maintained his efficiency while increasing his self creation by nearly 10%, set simultaneously career bests in AST% and TOV%, a career best in BPM, et cetera. For him to have a unilaterally, indisputably better year this year, he'd have to become a top 25 player. Which is always something of a leap to make, I feel. The odds of any player entering that tier in a given year are fairly low.
Through 4 games, team stats, just for trivia purposes.
Team Overall:
Offensive Rating: 25th in the NBA
Defensive Rating: 19th in the NBA
Pace: 11th in the NBA
Assists: 20th
Rebounds: 4th
Blocks 12th
Steals: 26th
FG% 24th
3pt%: 10th
2pt%: 29th
FT%: 10th
Individual Leaders:
PPG: Brandon Ingram, 27ppg
RPG: Jonas Valanciunas, 15rpg
APG: Devonte' Graham, 5apg (this is an area we have struggled as a team so far, see the above team AST rate)
STLS: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, 2.0 per game
Blocks: Jonas Valanciunas, 1.3 per game
TS%: Jaxson Hayes, 60.1% - followed by Devonte' at 58.7%
WS/48: Jonas Valanciunas, .210
BPM: Jonas Valanciunas, -0.1 (no, we do not have anyone who has a positive BPM so far)*
*The caveat here is that I have only listed guys who have played in every game. Josh Hart actually shows up in a few of these stats near the top, but he only played in one game so it's hard for me to include him.
General consensus based on these stats early: our offense isn't very potent and this is largely driven by an inability to create buckets at the rim, which makes things harder on everyone else - we're having to rely on extremely good shooting to get anywhere right now, and we've been lucky enough to mostly get it, but it's not a sustainable thing long term. We need to start generating interior looks. Obvious solution to this is obvious, it can be left unsaid.
This is, I think, partly why Jonas has been showing up so strongly in the advanced metrics - him being on the court tends to correlate with a little bit more paint focus, and he's been an effective, if somewhat inefficient, scorer down there so far, as well as making a huge impact on the glass.
Ingram has been on fire as a scorer early, no question about that - he's also shooting 50% from 3 on about 5 a game through the first few outings, which is great. That's second on the team in raw 3pt% behind Jaxson, but since Jaxson is just 1/1, I think we can safely say Ingram's 50% is more impressive. Good signs so far from Trey Murphy, who is 7/17 from deep thus far; that's 41.2% from behind the arc on a little more than 4 attempts a night. I just wish he was getting some more minutes.
He has, but I still feel that he's playing out of position as our point. He takes too long to set up the offense, has trouble passing out of double teams, and his handle is only ok. Ideally, you'd like someone else taking the ball up and setting up the offense and letting Graham play more off ball.
That was my only real complaint about yesterday's game. Our guard's played hard defensively but at times struggled to set up the offense.
These next home games will indicate if we are improving or this win was false alarm
Day after, now I don't feel bad asking a non rosey question.
Are we concerned with Jax (and by association any bench big) not being able to spell Jonas?
Obviously JV is playing lights out, but it seems like Willie is having to set his rotation exclusively with the other starting C because Jax just can't hang with anyone defensively. I worry mostly about JV injury here with all that heavy usage this early on.
Or is it just that JAX can't measure up to Joel and KAT(2x) and we really shouldn't overreact to that?
Jax is more 4 than 5. He's just too light in the pants for the baddest biggest bigs.
Bit of both, I think.
I think Jax has actually been okay through most of his minutes so far, minimal as they've been, but both Joel and KAT are extremely tough assignments to deal with for any centre, let alone a young one that gives up both height and weight against them. I want to see how he does when he (hopefully) gets some more run, probably against less dominant centres.
Hard to make judgments about a guy who has, so far, played in all 4 games but has totalled fewer minutes than Garrett Temple.
He has looked very good. BI has all the makings of a superstar- playmaker, three level scorer and big shot maker. He just has to reach that level defensively and show a bit more consistency from time to time. He has periods where he can get super cold, and as we criticized him a bit last season in the clutch, he has to become more consistent there as well. I think Jonas can make all the difference for both he and Zion- just having an offensively capable big (and more 3pt shooting from Graham, TM3, etc.) will help both he and Zion at the end of games.
Awww
GREEN’S DUB CELLY ❗️#WBD | # Pelicans pic.twitter.com/5WLSfRqrr4
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) October 26, 2021
And I'm just leaving this here because it's funny. For those that know.
dog dk metcalf started with an 84 yard TD and didn't get to 100. shon gets to claim him on his taxes now
— John Sigler (@john_siglerr) October 26, 2021
Also, Herb Jones leads the team in on/off at an absurd +44.5 which is very very funny.
I absolutely understand why (more than 75 of his 90 minutes played so far have come with at least 3 other starters on the court with him) so it's more of a sign of the strength of the starting 5 thus far, rather than a personal statement about Jones, as well as his limited exposure to other lineups, but it's still fun.
He has been extremely good on defense, in fairness to him.