January 23rd - New Orleans Pelicans @ Minnesota Timberwolves - 5-9

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by UNO Gracias

True.

No slight against anyone with an English degree. I work in ibanking, and my boss has a degree in romantic literature.

---

Nice, I get your point though. No harm done.

Any chance we can trade Lonzo for your boss's degree? Would probably help the team a little more.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 13 - 3

It’s already started. We traded Holiday

---

I was talking more so the date when players who signed during the off-season can be traded.

On to the team's problems Lonzo lack of playmaking skills just make things so difficult.

The turnovers are a huge problem some come from sloppiness others come from them over thinking and others come from trying to always make the homerun play. It's going to take some time to get over those bad habits.

As for Zion I think for him to take the next step to be a super star is he has to train with professional during this off season. I know he likes working out with his step dad but he needs to improve in other area's of his game.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 13 - 3

This is great

https://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/...eans-pelicans/

---

We don't go to that deep state cesspool. Lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pelicans_fan_504

I was talking more so the date when players who signed during the off-season can be traded.

On to the team's problems Lonzo lack of playmaking skills just make things so difficult.

The turnovers are a huge problem some come from sloppiness others come from them over thinking and others come from trying to always make the homerun play. It's going to take some time to get over those bad habits.

As for Zion I think for him to take the next step to be a super star is he has to train with professional during this off season. I know he likes working out with his step dad but he needs to improve in other area's of his game.

---

I agree about getting in some focused training, but I also think he'll naturally be helped when/if we move Lonzo and can get some people finally shooting. Right now he's making offense happen, which we desperately need, but it's like every time he goes to the rim he has to fight a triple team and he gets so much contact that it's gotta be taken out of him. I feel like we'd see an impact on his rebounding and his defense is he had a slightly easier job on offense, and that can be achieved by having

A) A PG who can set him up from time to time instead of forcing him to always do it himself [read: trade Lonzo, play Kira]
B) Some shooters who can actually hit so that you can't triple team him, or if you do, you get punished for it [Lonzo's 27% and Redick's 30% are not cutting it]

Well, AD made the right move to say the least.

Griffin to David: We'll build a championship squad around You, Jrue, and Zion.

AD presses X to doubt.

Another problem not talk about alot is Josh Hart play, dude has really struggle. Does anyone think that his play has made the front office think twice about resigning him?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pelicans_fan_504

Another problem not talk about alot is Josh Hart play, dude has really struggle. Does anyone think that his play has made the front office think twice about resigning him?

---

We didn't resign him. He's a RFA after this year, there was no extension.

Edit: I misread, I thought you thought we had already resigned him.

He's definitely not a must-keep. He's done some things well, some things poorly: if we get a good offer for him or he demands too much, he can go. Not desperate to get him gone though.

Nets are giving up about 125 a game despite a ridiculous big 3

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AusPel

Nets are giving up about 125 a game despite a ridiculous big 3

---

Yep. I said this at the time of the trade, as did several others, that the Nets offense was going to be great but that the defense wasgoing to be legit horrific. Some people argued that the offense would be so good that even the poor defense wouldn't be able to sink them.

Welp. They struggling alright :hihi: In the regular season it probably won't matter but once they get deep into the playoffs against good teams who have multiple games to work them out, I think they're pretty much toast unless they make some moves to add D. Right now not a single player in their rotation is an actively good defender.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

We didn't resign him. He's a RFA after this year, there was no extension.

Edit: I misread, I thought you thought we had already resigned him.

He's definitely not a must-keep. He's done some things well, some things poorly: if we get a good offer for him or he demands too much, he can go. Not desperate to get him gone though.

---

As much as I hate to be that guy, but we got to be 10 man deep on the roster. We are so limited in versatility and interchangeable match-ups that we really have to brute force our win to a win every night. Right now... I only got 5(Really 4, but the rookie exception on Lewis) guys

Zion
Lewis
BI
Zion
Adams

Lewis only because he's a rookie. NAW and Hayes as much as potential they've shown. Are still very far off and expendable. Even with them included and Hart, the core of our long term team is still only 8 players deep with an aging Adams. It's pretty clear that we have a talent issue.

And we aren't going to being fighting and winning FAs anything soon. Let Hart decide his market and if it's about what I expect. $8-11 million per year on a 2-3 year deal. You match a flexible and tradable deal.

We tried our hand of trading for a disgruntle Superstar and we just aren't an appealing market till we start to win games. Let's tackle the issue at hand and that's inability to acquire/keep/develop talent and simply winning games. We actually build a functional core and start winning games. Then, we really can go about for acquiring a Superstar to put us over the top. We constantly try to skip the tough intermediate part. It's just not gonna happen.


Nobody is knocking down our door to build a new Super team in NOLA with Zion.

The point that I'm trying to get across is that you got to keep some scraps to build a functional roster. At the end of the day, everyone is looking bad one way or another. Lonzo Ball is the only player you have no choice but to flat out dump. He has a single digit per with a usage rate of damn near 20% while being a Net Negative Player with ridiculously bad shooting pct. The fact that he hasn't gotten bench is really sad and this fanbase should be very vocal to Griffin and the team for continuing to force a very bad player in the starting lineup. Bledsoe and Hart have some potential to being great functional depth pieces off the bench, tho. Would I be worried that I lose them... With the shape of our depth. Actually yes. Something is always better than nothing. You can always find worse in the NBA. And we have a very bad track record of finding the absolute worst alternative.

Unless a player is not salvageable with little upside. It may be in our best interest to keep them around till we really have an answer that makes them truly expendable.

Not really sure if you're disagreeing with me or not, honestly.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Yep. I said this at the time of the trade, as did several others, that the Nets offense was going to be great but that the defense wasgoing to be legit horrific. Some people argued that the offense would be so good that even the poor defense wouldn't be able to sink them.

Welp. They struggling alright :hihi: In the regular season it probably won't matter but once they get deep into the playoffs against good teams who have multiple games to work them out, I think they're pretty much toast unless they make some moves to add D. Right now not a single player in their rotation is an actively good defender.

---

Jordan used to be first team all D

Is he that washed?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pelicanidae

Not really sure if you're disagreeing with me or not, honestly.

---

I was mostly elaborating on the messy conundrum of roster construction and our long term outlook. Just really bleak, bro.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AusPel

Jordan used to be first team all D

Is he that washed?

---

Yes. DeAndre Jordan hasn't been very good in a while. He'll still look all right in the box score because he can rebound and block shots at the rim but his mobility is shot and you can literally just watch him die in PnR any time you like. Dude gets shredded on fairly frequent basis, and especially by the time they get into the playoffs it's going to be ugly.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Taker597

I was mostly elaborating on the messy conundrum of roster construction and our long term outlook. Just really bleak, bro.

---

Gotcha.

I think what teams need to accept is that there will be a period of time, if you're in a super youth movement rebuild, where you just suck. It doesn't have to be a Philly-like process where you spend 4+ years being the worst team in the league, but there will probably be at least one year where you're just terrible. Teams try to delay it or deny it by stretching out the process, and all they do is make sure that they never have a league-worst year but instead just have 4 or 5 ''pretty crap'' years. Which isn't great.

It's like the whole thing with like, sticking plasters [band-aids in the US]. Yeah, if you just rip them off the pain is intense but it only lasts a millisecond. If you try to peel them off real slow, it's not quite as painful but it lasts forever. Just gotta tear it off.

Same principle here: you're going to suck. You suck a little for a long time or you can just suck a lot for a season, your choice, but I think we all know what the better of the two is.

Of course for us, we're lucky because Ingram broke out and Zion was immediately effective so we should at least theoretically be able to skip that complete garbage phase, but only if we jettison the crap now and make legit strides towards reshaping the roster.

Lonzo needs to go. Bledsoe needs to go. At this point, Redick needs to go. Melli needs to go. I understand that there's only so many trades you can make at once, so I'm fine with us coming into the season sucking because Griff had to deal with the Jrue trade and then he acquired Adams, which is a move I still really like. You can't do everything at once. Fine. But by the deadline, those other issues need to be dealt with, or least some of them do. Coming into the season, I'm fine with us sucking, but there should be progress towards the long term shape of the team by the end of the season.

Losing to the Twolves without KAT and Dlo has to be the seasons lowest point. Looking at the Pels the most glaring problem is other than NAW they literally have no bench. Melli, Hayes, Hart and JJ are not giving you much of anything. Kira has shown some promise but SVG refuses to play him. The starting lineup already has bad chemistry and there is no bench support.

Like at this point I don't want to hear from no one in interviews or anything. It's all very cringe and embarrassing to watch. Please trade the vets and let this just be a lottery/development season man. I can't watch grown men turnover and play careless and souless.

This team continues to disappoint Me...

The worst part of this is how badly the Pelicans whiffed — considering this roster and coaching staff was assembled with a very high priority on competitiveness and toughness.

And they’re getting stomped all over - by an objectively terrible team - and just taking it.

— Scott Kushner (@ScottDKushner) January 24, 2021

its sad that every active player for the pelicans didnt play last night against a team that played a back to back plus was short handed......the twolves came out with all the energy and we underestimated them.....

we just dont have the killer instinct in us right now....

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Nichols

Ingram hasn't looked good in 3rd and 4th quarters as of late.. He needs to fix that.

---

Probably because he gets tired of carrying everyone in the first half lol

Good news is we’re slated for the 4th pick lol. Trade Lonzo and reddick and bring up Didi and just let Kira naw and didi get as many minutes as possible

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 13 - 3

The worst part of this is how badly the Pelicans whiffed — considering this roster and coaching staff was assembled with a very high priority on competitiveness and toughness.

And they’re getting stomped all over - by an objectively terrible team - and just taking it.

— Scott Kushner (@ScottDKushner) January 24, 2021

---

I don't mind losing with a purpose, but when you invest into winning as much as we did this off-season you expect better results.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HornetGuru

Good news is we’re slated for the 4th pick lol. Trade Lonzo and reddick and bring up Didi and just let Kira naw and didi get as many minutes as possible

---

We slated to win the lottery last year and ended up at 13th. Don't expect us to stay when other teams commit to tanking and we are masochistic as we can get. No playoffs or top pick by winning pointless games.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wuggie

At this point, I just want to blow the team up and keep the main young guys being Zion, BI, NAW, Hayes and Kira. I'd rather see young D League level guys who give effort and want to be here play.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 13 - 3

He is actually right

The worst team in the NBA (Minnesota) on a back-to-back and playing without its 2 best players (KAT, Russell) beating the Pelicans after 3 quarters.

Minny up 87-78

EMBARRASSING

If you?re NOLA, best part of this 7-game road trip, game against Dallas postponed. pic.twitter.com/le22MUQskX

? Fletcher Mackel (@FletcherWDSU) January 24, 2021

---

It?s not about being right. I?m chill because apparently nothing is to be done for a bit. I doubt we trade Lonzo. I doubt we make any personnel change. So I?m just in a mental holding pattern until the next interesting thing happens.