April 24th - New Orleans Pelicans vs San Antonio Spurs - 26-33

Ingram with the world's laziest pass out, good transition D by Lonzo though

I think there needs to be a rule that unless you have a wide open lane to the basket or 10 feet of space from 3, taking a shot in the halfcourt without there being a single pass in the possession should get you benched.

Kinda sick of watching people get the ball at 28 feet and then just kind of smash the air out of the ball so that they can settle for a heavily contested shot with no attempt to even look for a better shot.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

For me, if I had to blame one single thing for the poor season, it would be the defense. Yes, the spacing isn't optimal and in a playoff context it would be more of a problem but whatever else is true this team has a solid offense overall for the regular season. If our defense was even just 20th instead of 27th, not even good just less bad, we'd be like 33-26 right now :hihi:

Shamit and Mason were saying on the last episode of the InTheNO pod that there's this stat out there: if games stopped at 45 minutes instead of 48, the Pels would be (I think) 35-24 on the season. That's how many last minute leads we've blown. If we were capable of stopping a handful of buckets per game, we'd be a far far superior team. Again, that's regular season: the offense isn't diverse enough to stand up in the playoffs yet, but the defense has been the single biggest killer, followed by the clutch decision making.

Shooters and defenders: the thing the whole league needs :hihi:

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I agree wholeheartedly. I do think defense is something that improves with continuity and confidence though, so you mainly need the length and ability to do it down the line. Having said that, I do think you need an Igoudala or a lockdown guy for sure. Offense.. some players are just not reliable on that end and never will be. A lot of it is mental. I can see guys like Zion and Ingram improving to where they aren’t negatives on defense. I struggle to see guys like Lonzo being reliable on the offensive end unless they are way down the pecking order. He has all the tools in the world but if you don’t have it mentally it just doesn’t work. You can get a guy to buy in on the defensive end if you are winning. Offense isn’t about buying in. You have it or you don’t

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

I agree wholeheartedly. I do think defense is something that improves with continuity and confidence though, so you mainly need the length and ability to do it down the line. Having said that, I do think you need an Igoudala or a lockdown guy for sure. Offense.. some players are just not reliable on that end and never will be. A lot of it is mental. I can see guys like Zion and Ingram improving to where they aren’t negatives on defense. I struggle to see guys like Lonzo being reliable on the offensive end unless they are way down the pecking order. He has all the tools in the world but if you don’t have it mentally it just doesn’t work. You can get a guy to buy in on the defensive end if you are winning. Offense isn’t about buying in. You have it or you don’t

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Frankly, just being honest, I find it very difficult to ever see Ingram being a plus on D. But I think he can be hidden just fine if the rest of the roster is okay, and we're a little while away from one guy being hunted being a problem; if that turns out to be a problem in the playoffs two years from now, we'll deal with it then.

Otherwise I generally agree.

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Frankly, just being honest, I find it very difficult to ever see Ingram being a plus on D. But I think he can be hidden just fine if the rest of the roster is okay, and we're a little while away from one guy being hunted being a problem; if that turns out to be a problem in the playoffs two years from now, we'll deal with it then.

Otherwise I generally agree.

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Just need to bring in the talent so we can evaluate. I think once we find our lockdown guy the answers will be a little clearer on where we need to improve

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

Just need to bring in the talent so we can evaluate. I think once we find our lockdown guy the answers will be a little clearer on where we need to improve

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That's one area where bringing in someone like Cade or Moody will help, if we go the draft route. Garuba is an extremely excellent defender also but he's more of a PF, though I can see that being potentially workable if his shot comes around (there have been flashes but overall not that encouraging) so that's partly why he's so much further down the list.

But yeah if NAW capitalises on the deflections/steals from this year going forward, Jax continues developing (he's been good defensively recently!), Naji sticks around, and we draft a positive defender or acquire one through FA/trade, I can see our team being a better defensive team next year which will help a lot. Not necessarily a top 10 D or anyhting but not bottom 5.

Generally positive Jax minutes here actually. Not perfect but encouraging

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

That's one area where bringing in someone like Cade or Moody will help, if we go the draft rough. Garuba is an extremely excellent defender also but he's more of a PF, though I can see that being potentially workable if his shot comes around (there have been flashes but overall not that encouraging) so that's partly why he's so much further down the list.

But yeah if NAW capitalises on the deflections/steals from this year going forward, Jax continues developing (he's been good defensively recently!), Naji sticks around, and we draft a positive defender or acquire one through FA/trade, I can see our team being a better defensive team next year which will help a lot. Not necessarily a top 10 D or anyhting but not bottom 5.

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Really really want at least Moody. Give us that please dear lord

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Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

We're letting Lonzo initiate half-court offense uh

It's not pretty.

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Like trying to start a car without a starter...

Good hands from Lonzo there but rare bad pass. Threw it about 5 feet too far ahead, very little chance of Kira grabbing that unless he was already sprinting

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Originally Posted by JJackisangry

Really really want at least Moody. Give us that please dear lord

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Cade, Moody, Mobley, Springer, Barnes, Wagner, Prkacin, Wieskamp, lots of good defensive prospects in this draft. Obviously some better than others (Wagner is just clearly better than Wieskamp for example, by a large margin) but lots of options for picking up someone who projects to make an impact on that end. Then of course, if we trade the pick there's plenty of good defenders in the league that we can try to acquire either with that trade or with another one.

With his ninth point tonight, Zion Williamson reached the 2,000 career point mark in just his 79th game, tying Rick Barry and Elgin Baylor for 10th fastest in NBA history.

It marks the fewest number of games needed to reach 2,000 points since Michael Jordan (73) in 1985.

— Pelicans PR (@PelicansPR) April 25, 2021

Also, this makes him the 7th youngest player to hit 2000 points; just behind Lebron, Durant, Booker, Dwight, Kobe, Carmelo, and Luka.

All of them took more games than Zion to do it, he just had the injury first year that meant he took longer to get to play those games. Especially impressive when you consider that guys like Kobe and Dwight and Lebron went straight to the NBA from high school so they had more years to play before hitting 20.

Drew Eubanks officially most annoying player on the Spurs

Brandon Ingram Shoot More Threes Challenge

Tonight, Zion Williamson joined Michael Jordan as the only players in the last 40 seasons to reach 2,000 points in their first 80 career games.

From @EliasSports: Here's the rest of the list of players who made it to 2,000 before Game 80. pic.twitter.com/31irG0eG1Q

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) April 25, 2021

Jakob Poeltl looks like if Blake Griffin was a lich

End of the first half:

Zion: 16/6/2 on 66.6%FG
Ingram: 6/4/2 on 40%FG
Lonzo: 13/0/2 with 2 steals, 50%FG (3/6 from deep)

Good shooting from Lonzo early helps out his scoring; kind of stagnant scoring from Ingram in the first half but his passing has been pretty strong even if the box score doesn't quite show it.

Zion doing Zion things.

turnovers and cant make free throws.....

its just the pelicans way...

airball yikes

charge, yikes-er

We're young and DUMB. Can't wait for this year to be over and get some shooters that understand TEAM ball. I'm over Ingram and willing to trade him... He ISO ball too much.

Outside of Ingram (who is 3/3) we are 7/19 from the line tonight. Not good!

What was with Ingram just not closing out at all on White there? I know White's not exactly Steph Curry but he's a 36% 3pt shooter who's shooting 39% over their last 10, you can't just give him wide open corner looks.

He missed it in this case but wow

One thing I will credit Lonzo with is that he is at least willing to shoot. There's some value in that, absolutely.

No good being a 45% shooter from 3 if you're only 45% from 3 because you never shoot them. So many other guys on the team who are just very very hesitant on pulling the trigger. Lonzo has taken more 3s tonight than everyone else on the team combined.

A dude just yelled “YOU’RE TRASH, BLEDSOE!”