Mo is first on my list
Veteran. Winner. Can hit 3. Good rebounder.
Can be cheaper than Alexis
Mo is first on my list
Veteran. Winner. Can hit 3. Good rebounder.
Can be cheaper than Alexis
How we match up with Golden State is irrelevant. The Pel's aren't even close to the level of talent GS has and should focus on how to deal with the rest of the league first.
The biggest questionmark is Gentry. Does he understand, what kind of roster he has and what kind of playstyle it demands or does he follow the same illusions of how basketball should be played as George Karl.
What the Pel's have is basically a Gasol+Randolph pairing on steroids. Two of the most dominant big man on one team. Two guys that can force the defense to adjust.
The idea should be to force the opponent into the halfcourt, where we can use our size and superior strength. We should make the game slow, physical and ugly.
The problem is, that in order to do so, you have to defend first. You need a really good team defense to control the pace of the game and you need to be really efficient on offense with high FG% and low turnovers.
With Rondo you already have one defensive liability on the perimeter. Cousins main weakness is his pick&roll defense. Jrue was excellent on defense at the PG position, but being 6'4 means he will have to defend guys bigger than him for extended minutes, when we play him alongside Rondo. After Jrue Solo is pretty much the only good perimeter defender this team has.
That's simply not enough to impose our will on the game and to force teams to play our way. The Pelicans desperately need more upper echolon defenders on the perimeter. We need at least one more full sized wing, that can defend and can hit 3's.
The rumors that the Pel's were interested in Nick Young don't indicate Demps is aware of that.
But one thing is for sure - a team built around two bigs won't win many games trying to outrun and outshoot his opponents. The Pel's have to do it on the defensive side of the ball.
Since when is Rondo a defensive liability?
Well... we have 2 great perimeter defenders and 2 superb bigs, one of which is an elite shot blocker on the inside.... we'll be ok....
I know, or have the strong opinion, that he can play strong defense. A lot of action was run away from him against the Celtics because he was disrupting a lot of it. And then there's the game against Kyrie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiD5CGmg-dk
Nobody is denying, that Rondo can turn it on on D for a few games a year. Problem is, that he was barely trying in a Kings uniform. And he was benched in Chicago pretty much because of the same reasons.
Can Gentry get through to Rondo and make him care enough about his defense for the whole regular season? When will it click for Rondo? After 3 teams basically moved on from him the moment they had the chance to do it, he should no longer be content to only show up in big games.
But with Rondo being a seemingly strong minded and stubborn individual, I have my doubts which Rondo will show up in NOLA - Playoff-Rondo or George Karl-Rondo?
ok... what happened in SAC for Rondo?
a lot of the "we're so glad he's not our problem" seems to be coming from SAC
while I feel Rondo's an upgrade over our current situation... I'm worried over some of the things I'm seeing regarding him
Seems like almost none of the BBS boys like this Rondo signing. I swear I can't recall them liking anything we done lol.
I think people on this board have to get used to ignoring most everything coming out of Sactown. A great many people there want you to fail. Need you to fail, because otherwise all their whining and complaining and proclamations of how terrible Boogie was turn to dust. And then where are they going to find a scapegoat? Probably start stringing up poor Skal next.
Just a disastrously poisonous environment for years now. You had people who never wanted Rondo there. You had people invested in Karl lashing out at anybody involved in his downfall. You have a large core of people who had an irrational hate of their own franchise player who resent anyone who he likes or who says nice things about him. You have another large group of people just generally angry about the eternal struggles and looking for scapegoats. You have some really nasty media boobs too, and I say that as a New Yorker. At least the haters here are almost just trolls who play a persona. The egos and entitlement of media types in Sac though can be something else. They've been there forever and ever and have angry mobs of followers they play too. The same dumbasses that chased Webber from town, that chased Adelman from town, still there. Chased Boogie too.
Of course now the one thing that can be said was Rondo mocked the Kings talent last season, so that isn't going to earn you many friends.
It's simple, Rondo hates losing and playing with scrubs lol. They still love him in Boston.
Pels didn't slow the pace after acquiring Boogie but I wonder if they will now that they have Rondo. This could be beautiful, or a disaster. https://t.co/ZDU7mOmqGV
— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) July 15, 2017
It is unfortunate that some folks don't think proximity has anything to do w/ type and/or amount of information one can obtain. So, yes in 2017 it still makes a difference regarding proximity. Physically being able to talk with players,coach's,brass, other journos and reporters.Doing actual legwork to create friendships,bonds and other relationships by physically being at the facility and other frequented locales.Aeeing injuries first hand & being at pressers and meetings for first hand info. Texting and Internet is fool's gold if you think that it equates to personally being seen and on locale all of the time. If I am in the gym, I can talk to AD while he's being iced or retaped etc. what are you gonna do? Text him from Buffalo?
That's fine. But that's not what you said. There's a distinction between saying "proximity dictates the type of information a person can obtain" and attacking the competence and credibility of persons based on their residences in Utah and Chicago. Especially when "information" is such a broad category. Does 42 need to live in New Orleans to explain how our cap situation may dictate future moves (granted, he does :hihi:)? Does MM need to live in New Orleans to explain potential FA targets (which is likely shaped from contacts w/ his sources)? Does Ginsberg need to live in New Orleans to explain how to efficiently spend our assets and remain flexible moving forward? No, so not only have you changed the argument, but you've narrowed the definition of "information" to fit your narrative.
You don't have to like them. But to act like BSS can't be informative because some of their members live outside New Orleans is ignorant.
Ok, let me rephrase. There are folks locally that have just as much knowledge as those at BBS. The guys that live here therefore have a huge advantage over those that live in far away lands. (See my post above). The guys at BBS do supply good information regarding,at times very confusing NBA bean counting etc. But,what they do is NOT obscure. Pels fans can get that information from locals. i.e. BirdWrites. And let's not conflate the knowledge regarding $$$, cap, MLE and all of that $$$ minutia with being a guru at talent evaluations. And as far as INSIDE INFORMATION. Ugh! If you want info regarding $$$$$ , BBS is a great source. As are other establishments. Also, conversations are much easier w/ BIrdWrites folks. They are much more apt to conversate if your opinion differs than theirs, instead of pitching hissy fits, name calling & all of that tripe . So. Thus I like BirdWrites. If you think BBS has something special going, then by all means, stick with him. Frankly, I can get my $$$ info from somewhere else & I don't recall what any of BBS guys qualifications are to assume they are Mensa talent evaluators. Too each his own . That's fine.
Jake goes to more practices and covers more games than any TBW writer with credentials. Andrew is at almost all the games with credentials. 42 and I are based out of here as well. Even still proximity has virtually nothing to do with these guys ability to get sources or watch games or access info.
Pels fans: "This move sucks, fire Demps fire Gentry" - totally fine
Writers: "This signing isn't great because the player hasn't been good in years and all the information available on the player points to the player not being good" - they never like anything we do.
Also it's not like you see TBW writers praising this signing either. You seen Fisher's timeline?
If we trade Ajinca, I'd love to bring in Withey or Speights to be the backup 5 for cheap. We also need to either bring back Cunningham or sign someone else like Diaw that can stretch the floor. There's quite a few guys available that I'd love to add, we just need some cap space. I think it's very likely we stretch Ask in the next week, to free up space for us to resign Cunningham and add a few shooters to round out the roster.
That's cool. What about the other ones? The one that has LOADS of "inside information" all of the time from the beautiful mountain state of Utah & demeans, delegitimization & verbally assaults those that disagree with his POV? That "Inside Info" has been 100% not correct this summer. Or the other ones that keep posting & retweeting political garbage on the Pelicansreport website! It seems as though the actual hard leg journos, doing the work, on the ground are the most grounded in what they do. Usually the case. For the few who are actually walking the beat, I appreciate you immensely. It's unfortunate that most of the SOUND comes from the others.
Nobody would be able to cheer. It would be like a black hole of emo rawrXD was unleashed upon the audience.
Could we somehow get Taker and Buckwheat into that depressive troll battle royale?
Buuuuut yeah. I'm excited. So whatever. Really nothing else we can do until we see the team start playing. I think the pessimists are wrong.....but nothing we type matters. It's what goes down on the court.
Jake Madison is much much much better than TBW podcast. He actually has good analysis. And seems like he actually knows what's going on.
Long time lurker, haven't seen this interview with Big Baby talking about Chris Paul/Rondo posted on here.
Rondo talk starts at 4:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wO9DeSfZDn4
1) If you don't like to to follow people who tweet about Politcs, don't follow them. You don't pay us to tweet.
2) Just because the plans Mac has relayed to you all haven't panned out doesn't mean they weren't true at the time. And secondly that has nothing to do with his ability as a writer. He and long with everyone else at BSS and TBW provide a service to y'all for FREE. Writers do their research so lazy fans can be informed.
3) BSS and TBW aren't news outlets. Journalism isn't their job. They aren't working the beat. They provide analysis and insight through hours of research that others are unwilling to do. If you don't want to appreciate it, don't read it. Better yet, make your own.
And you generalize writers. Anybody can look up Rondo's stats on basketball reference like you just did. Very few actually put for the effort into finding the context behind them. Even fewer seek out writers from previous teams and get their opinions on them. It's absolutely lazy of you to criticize writers for not being fans of Rondo without putting forth the effort to see why they aren't? What do we get by not being fans? Do we not want the team to succeed? It's one thing if a player has one bad year but have had 5 great ones recently and someone dismisses them. It's totally another thing in Rondo's case where he has not been a positive player since 2012. Boston was a bottom 3 team who made the playoffs the same year they got rid of Rondo. He clashed with Rick Carlisle of all people. In Sacramento he actively gave up open layups and shots to hunt assists, or would dribble the ball and toss someone a grenade. He hasn't been a good defender since his injury - and even the coaching staff thinks that. These are all objective facts. If you choose to ignore them, that's on you. But don't get pissy when people who have done their homework disagree.
BRING ON DA RAJON CAJUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNN! :snacks::Pickle:
http://i64.tinypic.com/34sigr8.jpg
Trust me, I don't follow any BBS folks on Twitter. I have been on the Pelicansforum for 6 years For BASKETBALL banter. Not to see political pablum every time I click on the site. I have ZERO problems w/ opinion writers who have opinions & allow opposing opinions to be discussed. A few folks at BBS have this inwarranted aura of "if someone disagrees with them, then they are stupid". Hey, you guys offer a great service & for those who follow you, Great! Your knowledge of $$$$$ in NBA is fabulous . Doesn't mean that any of you have earned the right to stake claim of "Gurus of all things NBA" & anyone that doesn't agree is ignorant of the game. Keep doing what your doing. Great service to Pels fans. But maybe w/out the condescending attitude towards those that don't agree w/ your POV (note: YOUR is non specific . Godspeed.
somewhere MM is LHAO.....
Everybody on this site needs to relax! This whole site has become just a bunch of people complaining about one thing or another. This guy thinks to highly of himself, that person is not an insider, boy I wish there were more insiders, he lives to far away, man if there was just some news, any news. I am really getting tired of it all (yeah I know, don't read it if you don't like it.)
The guys at BSS have a website that does a great job reporting on the Pelicans, they have had watch parties at Tracy's so they could meet their readers and enjoy a game with fellow fans ( I attended once), they do this because they choose to. If you disagree with something you read, ok, you have that right, but there is no reason to attack people over it. Please read what they have to offer, form an opinion and discuss said opinion with intelligence and civility. We all owe BSS and the Bird Writes a thank you for giving us so much free information that allows us to be so informed about this team.
As for the team, everyone seems torn on Rajon Rondo. To me the reason for this signing is pretty simple. The Pelicans acquired Boogie Cousins from the Kings for pennies on the dollar partly because he had worn out his welcome in Sacramento. As a small market team they had to take the chance on the man's talent and hope for the best. Same thing applies to Rondo, everyone knows about his problems with coaches and selfish play, but again at a probable discounted rate Rondo's talent cant be ignored. Is he the perfect fit, no one knows yet, but we do know he is the ONE who agreed to come to New Orleans even if his choices were limited by his past outbursts. These guys may be flawed, but the small market Pelicans now have 4 former all-stars on their roster, and a chance to compete.
Hopefully Rondo makes all the HATERS eat there WORDS. Let's root for the guy maybe the coach's know something all of us don't.
If we were the GM we could probably be the worst in sports
I'm pretty optimistic about the signing.
I hope everyone is at this point since it's already agreed upon. At least to try to be optimistic it will work.
My opinion is much the same as it was the other day: Rondo is a 1 year deal that can hold down a starting guard position for us while we look for a long term answer. We didn't give up assets and we retained much of the flexibility we had before agreeing to terms with Rondo. I like other players better and I'd much rather have Bledsoe but if signing Rondo means we aren't desperate to make a move then it's worth it.
As far as his personality goes, I fully believe Cousins and AD will keep him in check. I also think Rondo himself will be very willing to keep himself in check because he is playing with Cousins and AD.
[QUOTE=Tinman;1428532]Trust me, I don't follow any BBS folks on Twitter. I have been on the Pelicansforum for 6 years For BASKETBALL banter. Not to see political pablum every time I click on the site.
100% agree. Less than half of the "writers" tweets listed on Pelicans Report are now basketball-related. I bet I'm not the only season ticket holder who disagrees with the completely liberal slant on this forum, and I certainly could find plenty of political sites to visit if that's what I were seeking. Instead, what I want is concentrated information and opinions about my Pelicans team, without the political baggage to wade through. Express your uniformly unique opinions about politics in a more appropriate forum, please.....