So who we taking with the #1 pick?
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So who we taking with the #1 pick?
Thank you. Since the then Hornets came to NOLA, I’ve only probably have missed a handful of games. Growing up in this area I always dreamed of us having our own NBA team. Jazz was before my time. I will continue to watch or go to all the games no matter the circumstances. Know why? Because I’m a true fan! If they ever become something real then it will really mean something to me. Band wagon fans won’t experience that true exhilaration. Like when the Saints won the Super Bowl, those of us who cheered for them through years of them not even breaking.500, we felt it!
New pod...
— The Bird Calls (@TheBirdCallsNO) November 12, 2021
-@DMGrubb, @OlehKosel, @Impatientbull, @kevinbforbounce discuss the current status of the Pelicans and search for light in the darkness
Thanks for listening! https://t.co/MvBZSVApe7
Pelicans:
— StatMuse (@statmuse) November 11, 2021
— Lost to OKC at home tonight
— 1-11 record, worst in the NBA
— Worst net rating
— Worst defense
— 5th Worst offense
— Confusion around Zion’s injury
Oh, they also gave Steven Adams $35M and had to attach a first round pick & Eric Bledsoe to trade him a year later. pic.twitter.com/KPrkZ1v76x
Jaden Ivey deserves more love here.
Eh, I think unless he experiences a good bit of growth (or a good number of other people fall, which is very possible) he's only a fringe lottery guy. In a season where we start 1-12, we're not looking at a draft pick between 10 and 15, we're looking between 1 and 5.
Hey MM. Wanna wager on Zion returning and the Pelicans making the playoffs? Winner gets the rights to the loser's PR.com signature for one year.
Paolo, Jaden Hardy, Jabari Smith, and Jalen Duran are my guys..
The thing is... I don't see us drafting a PF if Hardy is available unfortunately... Which would be a terrible mistake to fill a need over BPA. You got to go for the most talented player available.
Duran I can understand passing on him. It's a really hard sell to draft a back up top 5 when you have a top 10 center and Hayes. Granted... It's a no Brainer to dump hayes and have Duran be the back up for a couple of years.
Hardy looks like best shooter coming out and Duran looks like fiercest stud of the lot. either one makes the Pels better
His name is Duren, not Duran. I do like the idea of an 80s synthpop group made out of NBA players though.
Won't lie I'm just not excited about Paolo and Chet. Banchero gives me Boozer vibes which is cool but eh, and Chet is a better version of Poku from last year draft and will take a ton of time to develop body wise.
I was hoping for a quick difference maker in this draft class but not seeing it yet. Still early but eh not forcing myself to like guys because I'm desperate Pels fan. If we got the top 3 pick I would trade it for sure for someone like SGA.
When Carlos Boozer starts bombing step-back off the dribble threes against hard doubles at 28 feet, which Paolo Banchero did fairly often pre-college, then I'll reconsider the Boozer comparison.
I don't see anyone in this draft on that all-time-mega-elite prospect tier, so if you're asking if I see Paolo as Luka Doncic, the answer is no, but I certainly don't see him as Marvin Bagley lmao
So... we better not do anything stupid like trade back...
Give me Jabari Smith Jr.
Val
Jabari
BI
Hart
Graham, that ain?t bad.
zion,,naw,,jax,, herb,, and trey...and the way things are looking now, we will be getting another top 5 rookie but depending on where we pick, we may trade back and get 2 rookies out of that deal.....so i guess a lot of posters on here are getting what yall wanted and thats for us to build through the draft......
I had read earlier this year that Tyler Herro could be had via trade cause he wasnt given a new contract and resigning him doesnt seem possible.. He hasn't been given a new contract; hence it wouldnt be hard to send them matching salaries. We could simply use our 'draft capital' right? Why cant something like this happen.
Not that he is greatness personified or anything. But the league is all about the 3-ball these days and it only makes sense to have at least one elite shooter on a team. He skills fit in with out two core players. why not him?
I'm starting to gear up my draft stuff properly now that I seem to have a little more time on my hands, so I'll be able to stop waffling over just guys that I like and start putting together early tier-lists and stuff, which is always nice.
I've only caught one of his games and I haven't seen a huge amount of his pre-college stuff, so I can't say too much. Obviously the gaudy shooting numbers are encouraging in terms of efficiency but he hasn't really played against anyone good yet since both Tennessee's games were against not-particularly-good teams. I'm cautious about his height and frame, an I'm looking forward to seeing how he holds up going forward. Can't say much more until I've watched more.
As I catch up on some film, I think what's most encouraging to me about Chet Holmgren is that despite his hype as a unicorn and a potential stretch guy, he doesn't just take meaningless threes for the sake of them. He does take them, don't get me wrong, but he's pretty choosy. They're not falling yet - and maybe they never will - but the fact that he doesn't seem to buy his hype on it is promising, as is the fact that he's not avoiding taking them either. Just selecting shots sensibly.
What I like about his defense is that he's not a huge gambler. 2 blocks and 2 steals in this latest game, 14.7%BLK coming into this game, and yet he's relatively disciplined when it comes to them. He's not swatting at everything indiscriminately and he tries to keep the ball in play. His style of block-chasing actually reminds me a lot of Tim Duncan, who was a master of trying to swat the ball low before it was up in the air. It meant that a lot of Duncan's blocks were quiet rather than big show-stopping blocks, and he could finish games with 5 or 6 blocks without you even really noticing it, but it meant that the ball was kept in play and he had an element of control.
Obviously the passing indicators are really solid as well. Nearly 20% AST for a legitimate 7 footer is always impressive - turnovers a bit high but I think that's coming more from a lack of balance on the more ambitious passes right now and I don't mind that so much as turnovers from a lack of recognition or from poor decision making.
Weight really is an issue for him though, as everyone's said. He's listed at 195lbs, and frankly I can believe it. He's got narrow hips and shoulders and relatively high hips as well, so he's never going to be a 250lb guy, but he does need to start looking into putting on 20lbs or so to try and strengthen his core and lower body, mostly from a health perspective rather than from an on-court effectiveness perspective. He's tall enough that outside of true monsters like Embiid, his lack of strength won't hinder him too much from using his length to overshadow opponents, but being that frail in the lower body when you know guys are going to go right into your legs all the time, that's a concern.
Enjoying his handle as well so far, which is always fun.
Funnily enough, my compliment to Holmgren about his passing is also my big concern for Banchero so far - he's missing a ton of really obvious passing reads that you'd hope he'd make. The shooting is low hanging fruit to criticise, but I expect some of that to come around - he hasn't taken that many, and the shotmaking has been good otherwise - but the passing reads are really concerning at this stage, he's missing stuff he was seeing pre-college. Need to monitor that going forward.
Make that Brogdon trade in the offseason
Zion will play again when the universe wills it, and not a moment sooner. And the universe does not bend to the actions of chaos. Instead, it is when the mind is still that the whole universe surrenders. In that vein, we are asking the fan base for stillness at this time.
— David Griffin Presser (@GriffinPresser) November 2, 2021
Speaking to Didi, I reminded him that his path to greatness is not in the expansion of his body, but rather it lies in the augmentation of his mind. The strongest drugs merely reduce some limitations, while an awakening of the mind allows us to become limitless.
— David Griffin Presser (@GriffinPresser) November 19, 2021
Catching up on the Jaden Ivey hype. I had him rated somewhere around 10-14 before the year started, sort of late lottery area, but I've been impressed with what I've seen so far. I watched the NC game from today and went back to watch the Indiana State game from about a week ago, and there's a lot to like.
The shooting remains a question mark for him, I'm not a huge fan of his mechanics and the touch seems to be a little bit beyond him. That said, the FTr and FT% are both solid (though not exceptional) which are always good indicators of being at least a reasonable shooter in future. I'll be curious to check out his accumulated mid-range stats as the year goes on.
That said, obviously a powerful athlete. Really impressed with his control, and he plays bigger than the 6'4 he's listed at - wouldn't be surprised if he was actually an inch or so taller than that.
Passing's been solid so far, I was concerned looking at the TOs because his TOV% is pretty high and in the Indiana State game he was missing a lot of pretty obvious reads, especially ones that required him to use his off hand, but this NC game was actually much better in that regard and he didn't give it away nearly as much.
Based on some early concerns with some overseas guys - Jovic has started the year off a bit rough, for example - I could see Ivey rising into my top 10 pretty easily if this keeps up.
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On my second try on Tankathon it gave me this lol. If this were to happen, which TWO would you pick?
Could be, I like Paolo and I had him ranked #1 coming into the year based on pre-college performance. But the media loves Chet and he's been great to start the year whereas Paolo is struggling in a few key areas, and I could easily see an argument for Chet if the draft were to happen today.
Still lots of games to play before then, and Paolo could very well re-assert himself (and probably will, at least in some areas like 3pt shooting), but I don't think it's guaranteed that he takes it over Chet.
What makes both players translate as game changers for struggling franchises? I guess that's my struggle with this year draft class so far. Chet has a better shot at that then Paolo imo. Not seeing translating game from Paolo that will affect wins in games yet. Not familiar with his Defense yet but thats what sperate Chet for me.
My current top three
1. Chet
2. Ivey
3. Smith Jr.
Whenever I look at talent the first thing I do is focus on their skillsets that will contribute to winning basketball games. Pelicans draft for talent and upside which I been a fan of, but young talent who contribute to games have things like 2 way possibility, high BBIQ, intangibles, passing, etc.
That's my focus this year instead of the usual "high upside" which is more like #3 for me this year.
I get your point, but if we're assuming upside - which we should, nobody drafts in the top 5 based on worst case outcomes, or at least they shouldn't - then Paolo's franchise helping upside is a 6'10 ballhandler who can score at all three levels both on and off ball who is also a positive on defense due to feel and timing, capable of running secondary offense.
That's pretty major, honestly. The question is just whether or not it all plays out in the optimal way - thus far in college, for example, the ''secondary offense'' thing is coming under question because while he did it very well pre-college, he's actually missing a fair amount of good passing reads early. That could just be adapting to the pace of the game, so judgment has to wait until there's a larger sample size, but it's something to be aware of and be concerned about.
Chet's upside is obvious. 7 footer who can shoot, ball handle, pass, defend the rim at an elite level without being a liability on the perimeter, etc. If all that plays out, that's an impactful player - KAT + defense in terms of skillset (though actually being a KAT tier shooter is unlikely for anyone of any position, let alone Chet). Right now, Chet's struggling with the shot a little from distance, but that's a more minor concern.
We're still early in the college season so things will differentiate more and more as they go along but it's pretty easy to imagine how most of the top prospects would help a struggling franchise, at least on paper. The question is just whether the progress happens throughout the season to counteract the warts on each player's game - and every player has some warts here and there.