December 26th - New Orleans Pelicans vs Memphis Grizzlies - 17-13

Man...that's a bummer to see.
Not to fond of the amount of games we are losing by single digits at this point.

Miss me now? At least he was not afraid of a fine.

Id love Willie to do this for Zion

Missed free throws: Even worse.
Passive offense in the clutch: Check.
BS calls all favoring opponent: Bane out of bounds with assist for 3, CJ robbed of continuation made shot and free throw, no loose ball foul on Smart after missed free throw at end of regulation, etc.

I'm so sick of watching CJ and BI backing up for 15 seconds of the shot clock. No force, no aggression, no fouls drawn, just blocked shots and fadeaway jumpers.

Willie's seat getting hotter and hotter each day...

Just a question for the Fire Willie crowd, which coach do you want him to replace ? And how many win you think such coach can impact ?

I honestly don't see this roster as a perenial 50 wins per season nor title contender, so I'm curious to see what are the expectations justifying firing the coach with the higher winning percentage with this franchise since Byron Scott (with one more win over 0.500 it's since Floyd). Btw I'm not saying that Green is the best coach in the League, just that I don't see much upside to his eventual firing.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by As I See It

17 Blocked Shots is....

Defense...Defense...Defense!!!

-or-

Nothing Possessions...Nothing Possessions...Nothing Possessions.

Could someone tell me if a one to six (1 to 6) Assist to Turnover Rate a good rate in the NBA?

Just plain ole' SAD!!!

---

Zion's not a point guard. Ja had 7 and 6. That's terrible for a PG.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blattman

Just a question for the Fire Willie crowd, which coach do you want him to replace ? And how many win you think such coach can impact ?

I honestly don't see this roster as a perenial 50 wins per season nor title contender, so I'm curious to see what are the expectations justifying firing the coach with the higher winning percentage with this franchise since Byron Scott (with one more win over 0.500 it's since Floyd). Btw I'm not saying that Green is the best coach in the League, just that I don't see much upside to his eventual firing.

---

Time to get rid of him was the off season you had nick nurse, udoka available

Also a coach has to take some blame when you keep blowing double digit leads and keep choking in crunch time

This team has plenty of talent

it drove me crazy watching dyson guarding Kat and Kat took advantage of the mismatch and scored the winning bucket........i thought i was not going to see a mismatch like that again from this team.......wrong, wrong,...last night they put dyson on JJJ and JJJ took advantage of the mismatch and scored on dyson in the same situation that we had with the twolves.....im not understanding putting dyson on 7footers on possessions that can win or tie a game.......

smart coaches and players, know if zion has the ball in a go to situation. just overplay to his left and its a chance that he will dribble the ball off of his leg or bully his way into a charge.....

team seem like they dont have any pride in making free throws....

lately for some reason, the team plays tight and panic in close games and dont run any set plays to get a good shot to put teams away or tie the game up....

i think willie should have let dyson guard JA instead of herb at the end of the 4th and had herb be the help defender.......dyson bodied JA real good on a one on one play earlier in the game and ja had to work hard to get by dyson...now ja did score on that play in the paint but it was a difficult shot that he had to shoot over dyson... i hope i get to see more dyson guarding ja in the next Memphis game....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 6warddude

lately for some reason, the team plays tight and panic in close games and dont run any set plays to get a good shot to put teams away or tie the game up....

i think willie should have let dyson guard JA instead of herb at the end of the 4th and had herb be the help defender.......dyson bodied JA real good on a one on one play earlier in the game and ja had to work hard to get by dyson...now ja did score on that play in the paint but it was a difficult shot that he had to shoot over dyson... i hope i get to see more dyson guarding ja in the next Memphis game....

---

Maybe the problem with our offense is its too much 1 on 1. It works ok for part of the game but crumbles in the most important situations when defenses are 100 percent locked in. Its crazy how bad the offense has looked with the game on the line and all of our best offensive players out there.

As for guarding Ja, I said it a bunch already but BI is our best guy for the job. Ja was scoring on Dyson and Herb repeatedly but BI was giving him fits with that wingspan

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Speakthetruth

Time to get rid of him was the off season you had nick nurse, udoka available

Also a coach has to take some blame when you keep blowing double digit leads and keep choking in crunch time

This team has plenty of talent

---

Ok so, if instead of Willie it was Udoka or Nurse what would be your expectations record-wise ? I'm sorry but I'm not convinced that this teams is talented enough to be legit title contender so even 50ish seems the high end.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 13 - 3

Miss me now? At least he was not afraid of a fine.

---

Agree. Willie needs to put this out there. Zion gets shoved on drives and no call, but if someone stares at Ja too long, it is a foul. How many games have you seen the officials call a bogus foul with 1.5 seconds left to decide a game. Then, after it gets overturned, it becomes a jump ball even though the Pels clearly possessed the rebound. And then on a loose ball desperation lob with 0.4 seconds left, get another questionable call. Come on, that is too obvious. Let that happen against the Lakers and see the outcry all over the media the next day.

This is unbelievable. Again we are falling apart in the last minutes of the game - WTF is going on with this team ??

The only thing saving Willie is he has a record above 500. That is the extent of our aspirations as a franchise.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

''Willie, let me suggest this lineup:

Herb and Dyson, plus one shooter''

He's in. He's all in. That's basically his go-to lineup half the time anyway.

---

Except he’s not in. I understand the issue with shooting. But here’s the problem, CJ late in games hasn’t been a shooter and he hasn’t been a defender. So if you can’t count on him not to choke, then you might as well put in defense, to at least try to disrupt the other team and maybe create some transition late in games.

Herb at least seems to come alive a bit in the 4th and actually hit shots. But you actually have to have him out there. The reason our offense is coming apart, is that we are putting our mentally softest players out there in crunch time.

Zion becomes too impatient, BI becomes too indecisive, and CJ becomes too scared.

Dyson was actually giving you more offense than CJ in the 4th quarter of the game. And Naji while he wasn’t playing great at least isn’t too scared to step up in the fourth.

Unfortunately, I think the real issue is that BI and Zion don’t work together. It’s why our starter’s minutes are so much worse than our “backup” minutes. Because our backups play with either BI or Zion but not both. You defend Zion and BI the same way, you clog the lane. I was hoping that maybe BI could help out with spacing when he’s on the floor with Zion but that hasn’t happened. It’s time to pull the trigger and trade one of them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blattman

Just a question for the Fire Willie crowd, which coach do you want him to replace ? And how many win you think such coach can impact ?

I honestly don't see this roster as a perenial 50 wins per season nor title contender, so I'm curious to see what are the expectations justifying firing the coach with the higher winning percentage with this franchise since Byron Scott (with one more win over 0.500 it's since Floyd). Btw I'm not saying that Green is the best coach in the League, just that I don't see much upside to his eventual firing.

---

Well , I'm starting with Borrego as interim. When you have the many blown large leads and collapses late in games it's all on focus and discipline and that is coaching.This staff has done nothing to develop Z and Herb and TM3 have just developed pretty much on their own . By firing WG now we have plenty of time to do a search for a HC

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by djrnno

Well , I'm starting with Borrego as interim. When you have the many blown large leads and collapses late in games it's all on focus and discipline and that is coaching.This staff has done nothing to develop Z and Herb and TM3 have just developed pretty much on their own . By firing WG now we have plenty of time to do a search for a HC

---

100% this. Team is going absolutely nowhere with Green.

+2. It shouldn't be this hard to see.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by djrnno

Well , I'm starting with Borrego as interim. When you have the many blown large leads and collapses late in games it's all on focus and discipline and that is coaching.This staff has done nothing to develop Z and Herb and TM3 have just developed pretty much on their own . By firing WG now we have plenty of time to do a search for a HC

---

Ok then but how many more wins do you expect with Borrego as HC ? It's interesting that so far no one replied with a number. Given that this roster have no player in the top 3 of their position (maybe even top 5) or top 20 in the League if you prefer the positionless approach, I'm curious to gauge the expectations the new coaching staff would/will face if/once WG is fired.

I think the two best players on the roster are really hard to build around since both are at best average defender and 3-point shooters. It basically forces the coaching staff to play only 3 and D players next to them and they're not the most common roster-building item out there, especially if you consider that you also need additional shot creation since neither have the primary ball handler skills to keep everyone involved on offense.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blattman

Ok then but how many more wins do you expect with Borrego as HC ? It's interesting that so far no one replied with a number. Given that this roster have no player in the top 3 of their position (maybe even top 5) or top 20 in the League if you prefer the positionless approach, I'm curious to gauge the expectations the new coaching staff would/will face if/once WG is fired.

I think the two best players on the roster are really hard to build around since both are at best average defender and 3-point shooters. It basically forces the coaching staff to play only 3 and D players next to them and they're not the most common roster-building item out there, especially if you consider that you also need additional shot creation since neither have the primary ball handler skills to keep everyone involved on offense.

---

You mean like a real Point Guard?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by As I See It

You mean like a real Point Guard?

---

Not necessarily, it's all about the right balance, it could be CJ but his defense forces to play elite defender on the perimeter to compensate the deficiences of the other starters so basically you'd have to play some star 3 and D if you don't want to sacrifice spacing or defense.

With the current core it's all about wishing that one of the top 3 will improve on one of his deficiencies to broaden the spectrum of the complimentary pieces, because so far you need one elite 3andD and one center who can shoot 3s and premium shotblocker. In both case, we are speaking about a potential all star.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Blattman

Ok then but how many more wins do you expect with Borrego as HC ? It's interesting that so far no one replied with a number. Given that this roster have no player in the top 3 of their position (maybe even top 5) or top 20 in the League if you prefer the positionless approach, I'm curious to gauge the expectations the new coaching staff would/will face if/once WG is fired.

I think the two best players on the roster are really hard to build around since both are at best average defender and 3-point shooters. It basically forces the coaching staff to play only 3 and D players next to them and they're not the most common roster-building item out there, especially if you consider that you also need additional shot creation since neither have the primary ball handler skills to keep everyone involved on offense.

---

You're missing the issue. It's not just about x's and o's it's about discipline , focus and fire. WG is weak and has no fire. that's why we have blown more 20+ leads than anyone that's ALL lack of focus, motivation. And that's coaching. It's also the reason we're like 0-6 in games under 5pts. WG clearly has no real plan in those crunch times. He is also weak when it comes to dealing with the refs, He whines to them, he rarely gets firm enough to get a tech which is needed sometimes. He just does not command respect. You want to know how many more wins I think we'd have with Borrego? I say we would not have as many losses , especially blown 20 pt leads and losses under 5 or less pts