The Three Amigos take in a Tulane game. Yeah sure AD was always showing up around town...ok maybe not.
Watching video of this reminded me that these three are still just college-aged kids. And I heard these guys just didn't show up. They interacted with the students. Hung out in the parking lot tailgating with Green Wave fans. This has loooooong term implications. First: Building a connection with a younger audience never hurts. Second, when these kids leave and head off in different directions, they have become (hopefully) huge Pelican fans - and it started last night.
Great work by the Pelicans and Green Wave, but even more impressed with these three. I wouldn't be surprised if these three weren't in Red Stick tomorrow night.
LINK
It Really Is A New Era
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08-30-2019, 08:55 PMWildlifeAirGrpIt Really Is A New Era
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08-31-2019, 06:28 PMPelicanidae
Sup @LSUfootball �� @Zionwilliamson @hayes_jaxson @TheReal_NAW1 pic.twitter.com/k76FnZIbts
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) August 31, 2019
The guys are hanging out again! -
08-31-2019, 10:33 PMWildlifeAirGrp
Every where these three show up, the home team dominates! Better be in the Dome, next Monday night.
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08-31-2019, 11:14 PMwuggie
This is great to see and is very promising. Looks like these guys are really friends.
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09-03-2019, 12:54 AMPelicanidae
No idea if this is the right thread for this, but I think it's at least not the wrong thread, since it's about the guy who is gonna usher in this new era: Zion Williamson.
Guys, I'm just watching back through a ton of clips that I had liked on twitter from draft people that I follow, and I just genuinely cannot believe we get to watch this guy play basketball every game for at least the next 4 years (health willing, fingers crossed).
This guy is just unbelievable. He's so, so, SO good.
Zion and Tre were fun pic.twitter.com/2668EXOoyM
— Max Carlin (@maxacarlin) August 30, 2019
Look at this pass from Zion to start the play. Tre Jones moves it on, because he's a very good secondary passer, but Zion's initial pass is bonkers. Off the dribble into a skip pass, over the defense. Ridiculous pace on it, and it lands right at Jones' catching spot. It's such a high level pass, it's something that guys who get as little ball-handling time as Zion did at Duke very rarely do, but he's so smooth with it and it just zips across the court before the defense can really react. By the time the defense can respond, it's after Jones has already moved it on.
When your rotation is late, you load up to contest in the wrong spot, and you're Zion so nothing matters pic.twitter.com/Ak9eaNjI8Z
— Max Carlin (@maxacarlin) September 2, 2019
Or this one. Like the description says, Zion's a bit late on his rotation (a rare mis-read for him), and when he recovers, he expects the ball-handler to go straight into the layup and doesn't anticipate the extra dribble, but still has the bounce and explosion to just erase the shot. As Zion matures and gets more experienced, he will stop making those errors (he already makes them much less than most other rookies) but the fact that he doesn't even have to worry about mis-reading at this point is so crazy.
Lol pic.twitter.com/shcTIjfaTF
— Max Carlin (@maxacarlin) September 3, 2019
We are going to see so much of this from Lonzo to Zion, it's going to be great.
Even his perimeter defense is distracting pic.twitter.com/MdXzeINlF8
— Max Carlin (@maxacarlin) September 3, 2019
And as a point of attack defender, come on?! This is just nuts. A guy who weighs 280lbs with this much muscle mass should not be this light on his feet, but he is. It's times like this that he resembles Draymond the most. Draymond has a different defensive posture, but that hopping motion looks pure Draymond, and it keeps the feet spaced relatively safely away from each other, which cuts down on the likelihood of getting your footwork crossed over. It's just smothering here, and Zion manages to keep the hands far away from a foul while completely denying the drive, or the pass. And that's against Jarrett Culver! Who is good!
This was Zion's world of cardboard moment. It's one of the handful of times last season where it seemed like he was actually going full force, and it was terrifying.
— TS% Eliot (@Cosmis) June 6, 2019
Basically what he said. World of cardboard. For a brief moment, it was like Zion just phase shifted. This wasn't a flaw in his defense, either, that he had to jump like that: it wasn't even his rotation. Hunter's man had failed to rotate to him, leaving him wide open, and Zion was on the other side of the paint when Hunter caught the ball. In the time it took Hunter to shoot (and admittedly, Hunter's shot is a little slow but still) Zion had crossed the entire court and cleanly erased the three. No foul either.
This dude is the best. -
09-05-2019, 03:32 PM13 - 3
We have hit the big time now. I thought it was a joke. Apparently they were wearing our jerseys.
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09-05-2019, 05:41 PMPelicanidae
.@ZO2_ stopped by to surprise a group of kids and their families by helping cover the cost of clothes and school supplies on layaway
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) September 5, 2019
#Pelicans | #NOLA pic.twitter.com/ycMnL42bkm
Lonzo moved in, according to his recent interviews, on September 3rd. By September 5th, he's already getting involved in the community. That's pretty cool -
09-05-2019, 06:08 PMbahmamambaI've seen all these guys do more in one off season here than ad did in 7 years it's kinda crazyQuote:
Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk -
09-06-2019, 03:30 PMAUSSIE_PELICANWho actually pays for all that?Quote:
Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
Is it Zo? -
09-06-2019, 05:39 PMPelicanidaeI believe so, although I wouldn't feel confident enough in that to guarantee it.Quote:
Originally Posted by AUSSIE_PELICAN
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09-06-2019, 08:24 PMWildlifeAirGrp
And it continues...
#TheRooksCollegeTour made its way over to the Lakefront https://t.co/AfenjD5Bzr
— Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) September 2, 2019
Big ups to @PelicansNBA for joining @PrivateersMBB at @LakefrontArena yesterday#NOLAsTeam⚔️ pic.twitter.com/fw1D6dznJH
— #NOLAsTeam⚔️ (@UNOPrivateers) September 3, 2019
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09-07-2019, 09:37 AMPelicanidae
Anyone who catches it in time, the Pelicans Instagram story right now is basically just Zylan Cheatham eating at various restaurants and getting very hype about it.
It's pretty funny. -
09-09-2019, 08:55 AMPilot172000
We are two weeks into the College Football season in the deep south and I am still seeing Zion and Lonzo articles and videos shared everywhere. It is certainly a new era for the Pelicans!
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09-09-2019, 10:38 AMml wavePossible, also he may have a charitable foundation, or have one of his sponsors pay for it...or some combination of the above.Quote:
Originally Posted by AUSSIE_PELICAN
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09-09-2019, 05:23 PMPelicanidae
.@PelicansNBA in the house! @Zionwilliamson @ZO2_ @hayes_jaxson pic.twitter.com/UVVqCmAUEq
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) September 9, 2019 -
09-09-2019, 05:33 PMPelicanidae
ZION! #Saints pic.twitter.com/uOAD54KhMr
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) September 9, 2019 -
09-09-2019, 06:25 PMPelicanidae
Officially #TheRooks are complete.
— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) September 9, 2019
Also, @TheReal_NAW1 rocking the Gold Top 3 Jordan 1s. ����
(Per Lonzo’s IG) pic.twitter.com/UQ6lxmPzAc
NAW present too! -
09-10-2019, 03:34 AMLtdee2019they Were there!!Quote:
Originally Posted by WildlifeAirGrp
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09-10-2019, 08:17 PMWildlifeAirGrp
The Pelicans checked in at Monday Night Football to cheer on the @saints and got a game they'll never forget �� pic.twitter.com/VS0DVpb8x5
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) September 11, 2019
They are undefeated at this point. From a marketing standpoint, this costs so little and has a huge impact on the perception and raising the excitement level of the general public - not just internet trolls like us. -
09-11-2019, 11:49 AMDroopyDawg
Family having fun lol
https://lonzowire.usatoday.com/2019/...ing-instagram/ -
09-11-2019, 02:07 PMkinglio21093It's actually NUTS how quickly the image of this franchise changed. Watching stuff like this gets me more and more hyped for this season.Quote:
Originally Posted by WildlifeAirGrp
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09-11-2019, 09:29 PM13 - 3
They looked bored. They rather be in NY playing for Dolan. Those people won’t support them. The NBA will lose millions.
Sarcasm kidding of course! Funny how the media was back in June. -
09-12-2019, 03:49 AMPelicanidae
I just found this in my camera roll... �� @Zionwilliamson pic.twitter.com/TTRBTepCNm
— Overtime (@overtime) September 12, 2019
I know this is a kind of old video, it was taken at Summer League, but jesus
Zion wasn't even in his top condition here, and he just casually jogs up to the hoop and explodes into a 360 windmill, head nearly at the rim, with apparently zero effort.
His athleticism is unreal. There are so few human beings in the entire world who can do things like this. -
09-12-2019, 05:31 AMDroopyDawg
Sheesh he wasn’t even trying.
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09-12-2019, 02:50 PMAUSSIE_PELICAN
He's on compound V.
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09-12-2019, 05:07 PMP_B_&_GNever trust a soopQuote:
Originally Posted by AUSSIE_PELICAN
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09-17-2019, 09:34 AMJJackisangry
The biggest thing for me is I want to see the minutes spread around. We have depth and we need to keep players healthy. It’s also the perfect time to evaluate the talent we have. We can showcase Frank and Jah a bit for the trading block. We should be able to run our system all day if we keep fresh legs on the court. There really isn’t an excuse to endanger players when we have this many rookies and younguns in the rotation.
I’m all for making a run at the playoffs. Do it the right way. Don’t to it the Tom Thibodeau way. We aren’t in any rush. -
09-25-2019, 09:41 AMPelicanidae
"The Best There Is
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) September 25, 2019
The Best There Was
The Best There Ever Will Be,"
- B̵r̵e̵t̵ ̵H̵a̵r̵t̵
- Nickeil Alexander-Walker pic.twitter.com/3EbwLGM4U3
Nickeil ''The Hitman'' Walker -
09-25-2019, 06:00 PMluckyman
Look its Brandon Ingram. I thought he was dead.
https://www.nba.com/pelicans/gallery...erment-project -
09-25-2019, 06:06 PMPelicanidaeHe looks happy, which is good to see. Also looks like a stiff wind would snap him in half, but still.Quote:
Originally Posted by luckyman
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09-27-2019, 08:29 AMPelicanidae
Zion Williamson and other NBA rookies predict their first-year stats and share their goals for the 2019-20 season: pic.twitter.com/R26ZUcyULu
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) September 26, 2019
Zion sets his personal expectations for his rookie season at 20/10/3.
I would not complain at that. -
09-27-2019, 11:15 AMbahmamambaha, that's around what you and I predicted that's cool lolQuote:
Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk -
09-27-2019, 11:21 AMPelicanidaeYeah, I think I went with something like 18/9/3, so pretty close. I genuinely think that's within grasp.Quote:
Originally Posted by bahmamamba
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09-27-2019, 11:35 AMJJackisangry
He has as NBA ready a body as anyone will have, so that isn’t unrealistic at all. I do think it will be a decent bit less, but that may be related to the amount of depth and talent we have in the side rather than him underperforming. There is no pressure on anyone here so they can grow at their own pace.
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09-27-2019, 11:51 AMPelicanidaeI feel like the first 10 points per game he gets should be basically just pencilled in before each game. I have no doubt in my mind that he can pick up 10 points a night on just putbacks, transition plays, and lobs, which means that he really only needs 8 points from actual play-calls to get up to 18 points a night. And given the possibility of free throws, that's like what, 3 possessions a night? Should be easily do-able.Quote:
Originally Posted by JJackisangry
What's most interesting to me is that although we have a bunch of guys like Lonzo and Jrue who are good rebounders for their position, we don't actually have anyone on our roster who has been a monster glass cleaner throughout their career. Favors is the best rebounder in our starting lineup, and his career high in RPG is 8.7, and that was 5 years ago when he was 22. Obviously playing without Rudy and with more pace will give him the opportunity to up his rebounds again, but I wouldn't be surprised if Zion was our best rebounder in his rookie year. His nose for the ball is just absurd, and his second jump is quicker and more explosive than most people's first.
I'm not guaranteeing it, obviously that's impossible. And who knows, maybe Zion takes until Christmas to really get into the swing of things. That's perfectly possible. But I just feel extremely optimistic for him.
That said, we do need to make sure we aren't placing unreal expectations on him.
Giannis in his rookie season put up 7/4/2 on 41% from the floor.
Gobert in his rookie year put up 2/3.5/0.2 on 48% from the floor.
Draymond Green put up 3/3/1 in his rookie year. 32% from the field.
Now obviously Zion is coming in at a much higher level than those guys, so we expect him to be more in line with the other instant-stars, like Luka Doncic, Ben Simmons, etc. But if he does put up stats more in line with, idk, 14/6.5/2 on 50% from the floor, then that's totally fine as long as he's showing the effort, the growth, etc, that we expect from him. -
09-27-2019, 04:04 PMJJackisangryExactly. He doesn’t need to blow up this year. We have plenty of talented players that can put up numbers, so it won’t be as if he is the only option like some of these rookies coming into the league. Some of those inflated numbers come from being the only option in the side. I’d be perfectly happy with the stat line you posted.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
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09-27-2019, 04:19 PMPelicanidaeI mean, Ben Simmons put 16/8/8 up alongside Joel Embiid who was averaging 23/11/3, Redick who was averaging 17ppg, and with another 2 guys averaging at least 13.5ppg, so his numbers did come alongside lots of other players putting up numbers. In one case, with Redick, literally the same talented player that Zion will be sharing the court with at times.Quote:
Originally Posted by JJackisangry
But yeah, the point is that while Zion is (in my mind) very capable of putting up a huge rookie season, he doesn't need to break the record books to have a good year. I think he WILL have a statistically impressive rookie year, in line with 18/9/3 or so, but if he doesn't, it's not the end of the world. -
09-27-2019, 05:33 PMJJackisangryWay I see it, the sky is the limit and the floor is pretty high. It depends how well he compliments the side, and as you said, a lot of his points should come from transition, rebounding and cleaning up. He should be the perfect complimentary piece while learning his trade on the other aspects. I’m more curious as to how this defense performs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
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09-27-2019, 05:52 PMPelicanidaeI'm going out on a limb here, but my prediction is that while it may take him until January or so to really get everything down, he will be playing defense at an All-Defense level by the end of the year. He won't get the award, because of the slow start, but his final 25 or 30 games are going to be top tier switching D.Quote:
Originally Posted by JJackisangry
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09-29-2019, 10:05 PMluckyman
https://www.nola.com/sports/pelicans...1bbf01eba.html
Have to say I really hope he can be another Lebron and live up to the hype. These days, he is definitely wise beyond his years.
Quote:
“It’s just basketball, man,” Williamson told The Times Picayune | New Orleans Advocate on Saturday. “I think people try to make it something it’s not, sometimes. You do have to put a lot of hard work in, but basketball is what got us this far and we use that as a tool to impact the community.
“So, it’s really not pressure at all. Especially when I know the position these kids in New Orleans have been in, because I’ve been there. So, I want to do as much as I can to help the community.”
Quote:
“It’s exactly what I thought it was going to be,” Williamson said. “My parents prepped me for this and they always told me it’s not just basketball. There’s a lifestyle part to it as well. So, this part wasn’t really a curveball. It was to be expected.”
Quote:
“I just want to do what I can to help bring that culture out. There was a girl here today that could already be on a shoe creative design team right now. She is incredible. And there are kids on the streets in New Orleans who are playing music on buckets and random objects they’re making the most beautiful sounds, and that stuff goes unnoticed.
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09-30-2019, 01:52 AM13 - 3
If @Zionwilliamson played @NFL football, he says he'd 'definitely' play tight end.
— SNF on NBC (@SNFonNBC) September 29, 2019
Any other messages for @Saints and @PelicansNBA fans?
"I love New Orleans!" #FNIA pic.twitter.com/0Bhgbxv58t -
09-30-2019, 08:51 AMPelicanidae
Zion's just taking all the right steps.
Does any of this guarantee that he'll be the transcendent player that he has the talent for? No.
Does any of it guarantee that he'll stay for his whole career (or at least the bulk of it)? No.
But this is the kind of ''embrace the city'' attitude that you beg rookies to have, and it increases the chances of them staying a lot if they actually care about the city, the people, the fans, etc, on a level beyond just sports. This is what you love to see.
And I don't think I have to tell any of you guys that we never really saw this level of ingratiation from AD. -
09-30-2019, 10:24 AMSilver NailNor from CP3Quote:
Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
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09-30-2019, 03:40 PMAUSSIE_PELICANThat's because AD in the beginning was too scared to open his mouth. If I had rocks for teeth I'd be scared too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
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09-30-2019, 11:36 PMWecandothis
New here I'm excited for this team I truly think they can make the playoffs.
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10-01-2019, 07:58 AMPelicanidaeWelcome to the board! I don't think the playoffs are a guarantee but I agree with you, I feel like we have enough that it's possible.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wecandothis