November 8th - New Orleans Pelicans @ Dallas Mavericks - 1-9

Why haven't we send Kira to the gleague... It's Griff right?

I somewhat enjoy this Dan Dickau era type basketball. Just need more useless dunks.

Pels fans need to prepare themselves for this fact. Zion will play no more than 40 games this year unless they go on some insane run.

The "injuries" will keep cropping up. A knee swelling here. A hamstring there.

NAW needs to work w/ Fred Vinson. Willie needs to bring Jose off the bench to try something different. It may work it may not but at least it won't be the same look.

Willie also needs to get on the bench overall. If I was JV I would be pitching a fit b/c come on it doesn't make sense, 10pts from our bench and that was one guy. Just unacceptable and maybe that's some of the problem here, everyone is too nice. We need a Jimmy Butler.

JV looking at the bench missing shots like he wanna throw some hands lol.

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Originally Posted by PELSGIRL

NAW needs to work w/ Fred Vinson. Willie needs to bring Jose off the bench to try something different. It may work it may not but at least it won't be the same look.

Willie also needs to get on the bench overall. If I was JV I would be pitching a fit b/c come on it doesn't make sense, 10pts from our bench and that was one guy. Just unacceptable and maybe that's some of the problem here, everyone is too nice. We need a Jimmy Butler.

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Fred Vinson doesn't fix shoot IQ. He just does mechanics.

Idk who does that...

Should have just watched MNF. It's a game now.

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Originally Posted by Spec3333

It has gotten to the point where I DVR Pelicans games and just fast forward through the 4th quarter while I watch the score of the game go by at the bottom of the screen ? saves me time and misery.

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This is actually a great idea

What's even more surprising is that some folks are still using cable. I do miss DVR tbh

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Originally Posted by luckyman

Pels fans need to prepare themselves for this fact. Zion will play no more than 40 games this year unless they go on some insane run.

The "injuries" will keep cropping up. A knee swelling here. A hamstring there.

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Good. I'm ready for a new era here.

Pelicans team stats as we currently stand:

ORTG: 102.0 - 27th in the NBA
DRTG: 113.9 - 29th in the NBA
Pace: 98.6 - 18th in the NBA

Rebounds: 46.0, 12th in the NBA
Assists: 23.2, 14th in the NBA
Steals: 7.3, 20th in the NBA
Blocks: 4.3, 25th in the NBA
3PT% 32.1%, 25th in the NBA
2PT%: 48.3%, 29th in the NBA
TOV: 16.5, 24th in the NBA

In the bottom 10 of the league in almost every category. Literally doing nothing successfully.

Interesting, just as a hypothetical, our current leading shot taker this season is NAW, who has taken 9 more shots than Jonas who is second in attempts thus far. As we all know, he is being unbelievably inefficient. So I wondered, where would our team's 2 and 3pt% be outside of NAW? The answer is that NAW's shooting about team average from 2, so that wouldn't change much (48.6% without his contributions, only 0.3% better) but without NAW's shots included, the team shoots 34.1% from 3 instead of 32.1%. That's a big enough percentage jump that the team would rank 18th in the league in 3pt shooting rather than 25th, which is a pretty huge jump. Illustrative of exactly how bad NAW has been from 3 and how many of them he's taking.

Good stat breakdown. With NAW, what should you do? Do you really want to bench him after 10 games? You were counting on him to be your SG of the future. As painful as it has been to watch, I think you have to give him a bigger sample size. I have very little interest in or tolerance for the Zion excuse. Being given a bigger role is a chance to step up and grow your game. Instead NAW has shrunk. Hope he can turn it around. He’s hurting us, badly…

So Zion is getting a lot of crap, and rightly so, about his injury situation. When do we start questioning BI? Being out with a hip contusion this long? And he misses most of the pre-season with injury as well? I mean is this AD level softness or is the team purposely holding him out until Zion returns?

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Originally Posted by Silverfoxx

This is actually a great idea

What's even more surprising is that some folks are still using cable. I do miss DVR tbh

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Right now the Pels are the only reason I still have Direct TV. And I am seriously questioning why I’m essentially shelling out well over a hundred a month for this.

What NAW is doing now he should have had the opportunity to get out of his system the first year. We saw what he could be in the 2nd half of Stan?s tenure. I do think he needs structure and a role (which Stan gave him). Unfortunately for him, Willie is trying to figure out how to be a head coach in the same manner NAW is trying to carve out a role for himself. Both still have a lot to learn.

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

What NAW is doing now he should have had the opportunity to get out of his system the first year. We saw what he could be in the 2nd half of Stan?s tenure. I do think he needs structure and a role (which Stan gave him). Unfortunately for him, Willie is trying to figure out how to be a head coach in the same manner NAW is trying to carve out a role for himself. Both still have a lot to learn.

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It’s really mind boggling at how bad the organization develops talent. They all show up and look promising and then some kind of way get worse every year that goes by.

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Originally Posted by Freyfamilyreuni

So Zion is getting a lot of crap, and rightly so, about his injury situation. When do we start questioning BI? Being out with a hip contusion this long? And he misses most of the pre-season with injury as well? I mean is this AD level softness or is the team purposely holding him out until Zion returns?

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I give BI a pass on this, honestly. If he's 100% fine, then sure you'd want to see him come back and maybe we win some of these close games that we ended up losing, but if there's any lingering issue, why risk further injury when you know that you're not likely to win these games anyway without Zion? Just wait until you're 100%.

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

What NAW is doing now he should have had the opportunity to get out of his system the first year. We saw what he could be in the 2nd half of Stan?s tenure. I do think he needs structure and a role (which Stan gave him). Unfortunately for him, Willie is trying to figure out how to be a head coach in the same manner NAW is trying to carve out a role for himself. Both still have a lot to learn.

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Someone needs to tell NAW that he is not a sharp-shooter. When he's in rhythm and everything is going well, he's a good shooter, but he can't base his entire game around high volume three point attempts because he is just not that guy whatsoever. He is at his best when he is aggressively driving, and working the rest of his game out around that. If there isn't someone on the coaching staff yelling that into his ear, then there's a problem.

It's also an IQ issue because while you do hope the coaching staff has identified this as a focus for him, he should be able to realise it himself as well. A bit of self-reflection, a bit of self-awareness would be nice.

Honestly, if NAW can’t shoot around 40% from the arc then he can’t be a starting shooting guard in today’s NBA. The guy at that position has to be able to punish opposing teams from deep. It’s a requirement for the job. Period.

On Zion, I’ll say again if your team is one injury away from being unable to win any games, then you have put together a bad team. I’m not talking about winning a chip or making a deep playoff run without your franchise player. But you should be able to keep your head above water, play .500 ball, while he’s out.

I can still remember when Monty was coach he would constantly say it was unfair to put all the responsibility for the team winning on a young Anthony Davis’ shoulders. I agreed with it about AD then and I agree with it now for Zion. It can’t all be up to him.

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Originally Posted by new city champ

Honestly, if NAW can’t shoot around 40% from the arc then he can’t be a starting shooting guard in today’s NBA. The guy at that position has to be able to punish opposing teams from deep. It’s a requirement for the job. Period.

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I feel like ''around 40%'' is pretty high as a minimum. There are plenty of very good starting calibre NBA guards who have never hit 40% for a season, and have only occasionally sniffed 38 or 39%. I feel like if NAW could just be a league average 36% on good volume (say, 5 a game) while leveraging his driving game harder, that would be enough. His biggest problem is approach right now, not mechanics.

List of NBA starting guards who have never shot 40% from deep for a full season, just for context:

- James Harden (is averaging 40% so far this year, so maybe he'll be off this list after 2022)
- Marcus Smart
- Donovan Mitchell (has hit 38% once before)
- DeAaron Fox (career 32% shooter from 3)
- DeMar DeRozan (career 28% from 3)
- Russell Westbrook (obviously on a career decline now, but even in his prime from age 22-30, he was a 31% shooter)

It's very possible to be a very sub-40% three point shooter and still be good and impactful as a starting guard. It just requires you to recognise that's not your strength and do something else. That's NAW's problem right now. He needs to realise his approach to the game is all wrong and switch his focus from shooting to driving.

Perhaps I'm being to position-centric, but I don't necessarily expect my lead guard to be a 40% 3-point shooter. They have other responsibilities and typically l'd expect them to be elite at getting to the rim and generating FT attempts, like a Harden, Westbrook or Fox. Alternatively, they can be great at running a team, distributing the ball, defending and leading. Smart is more like that, though I actually think he's better coming off the bench for a contender.

I want my shooting guard to be an elite shooter. Occasionally, lack of deep shooting can be offset by all-court scoring ability, like with DeRozan and Mitchell. Maybe you project that NAW can become that kind of scorer. But we have two guys already who are ball-dominant scorers in BI and Zion. What we need most is guys who can spread the floor and knock 3-pointers at a high level. I think a shooting guard on this team has to be able to do that consistently.

It's a league-wide issue, though. Hard to say what things will look like by the end of the year:

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/09/10528...on-ball-blamed

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Someone needs to tell NAW that he is not a sharp-shooter. When he's in rhythm and everything is going well, he's a good shooter, but he can't base his entire game around high volume three point attempts because he is just not that guy whatsoever. He is at his best when he is aggressively driving, and working the rest of his game out around that. If there isn't someone on the coaching staff yelling that into his ear, then there's a problem.

It's also an IQ issue because while you do hope the coaching staff has identified this as a focus for him, he should be able to realise it himself as well. A bit of self-reflection, a bit of self-awareness would be nice.

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You can’t blame everything on the coach which NAW still deserves some blame- particularly with his decision making and such. You just have to admit though that this organization has absolutely no plan and no idea how to develop talent. Sometimes you have to turn the diamond in the rough into role players and we can’t do that.

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

You can’t blame everything on the coach which NAW still deserves some blame- particularly with his decision making and such. You just have to admit though that this organization has absolutely no plan and no idea how to develop talent. Sometimes you have to turn the diamond in the rough into role players and we can’t do that.

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That's what I said.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

That's what I said.

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I was agreeing- just added that to echo your point. Can’t all be blamed on the player though when we always struggle to develop anyone apart from those that are too good to fail.

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

I was agreeing- just added that to echo your point. Can’t all be blamed on the player though when we always struggle to develop anyone apart from those that are too good to fail.

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Yeah it's a two way problem. The players should be able to realise some of this stuff themselves through critical thinking and self-reflection, but if they don't for some reason, it's on the coaching staff to highlight the issues and guide them. If nothing is changing it's a sign that both sides aren't fulfilling that deal.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Yeah it's a two way problem. The players should be able to realise some of this stuff themselves through critical thinking and self-reflection, but if they don't for some reason, it's on the coaching staff to highlight the issues and guide them. If nothing is changing it's a sign that both sides aren't fulfilling that deal.

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For sure. I do think there is such a thing as drafting well and picking players that fit certain skillsets to fill a role, but development is also a key part of a young players growth. Teams don’t find so many gems in the draft because they simply scout well. They develop the talent much better than us as well. One part of that is running a coherent offense which we just haven’t done since CP3 was here.