https://player.fm/series/the-lowe-post-1203962
Appearing on the most recent episode of Zach Lowe's podcast, we have JJ Redick! I will, as always, transcribe the key moments of the interview for anyone who misses it/can't listen/doesn't like podcasts/would rather read/etc.
Q: Have you been down to New Orleans yet?
Redick: Yeah, I've been twice. I'm going down again tomorrow, there's sort of a team-building day/event that we're doing that I think Trajan has sort of organised, -
Lowe: Trajan Langdon, of Duke?
Redick: Trajan Langdon, of Duke, correct - but it'll include the whole team, it's not just gonna be me and the other four Duke guys, it's gonna include all the guys on the team but yeah, we're doing a little thing. Edwin Moses and Tommy Smith, two very famous U.S track and field superstars are gonna come and talk to the team. Tommy Smith, actually, was in the 1968 Olympic games, him and John Carlos, were famous for getting up on the podium after winning the Gold and the Bronze medal, and giving the black power salute. I actually wrote two papers on them at Duke, and these weren't thesis papers, but they were 30 page papers, so I'm particularly excited about tomorrow and getting the chance to meet them.
Q: In the media, Jrue Holiday was mentioned a lot around you and your decision to go to New Orleans; he's not Lebron or someone, and you've never played together before, so what's the connection?
Redick: Never really crossed paths with Jrue, other than on an NBA court. I've had a few friends that have played with Jrue, in Philly and in New Orleans. I think you [Lowe] wrote a very flattering piece on Jrue -
Lowe: He's universally beloved.
Redick: Yeah, but there's something, I just enjoy the way he plays and competes and goes about his business. His priority is his family, and then basketball, and that's something that I can relate to and I think skill-set wise, he's just somebody that I've always wanted to play with. Defensively, he's unbelievable, he's a guy who can play with and without the ball, he's just a stud to me.
[Lowe mentions that Jrue has this monster reputation at his high-school, and then he came into the NBA, got injured, and has been mostly clean for a few years now, says Jrue's always been a monster athlete.]
Redick: Yeah, but not just as an athlete, he's a really great player. I do think he's bounced back from those, I guess it was stress fractures and then he had surgery on his legs, but he and I talked during the free agency process on the phone and just expressed to each other how much we wanted to play together. I think if you go back to like, the May 22nd or whatever it was that New Orleans gets the first pick, and from the outside you're like 'oh, that's great for them, that's exciting', but they've gotta move AD and then you wonder what they'll do with Jrue. Then you start seeing things that David's saying publicly about keeping Jrue, and getting people who wanna buy into a certain culture and a certain way of playing, and then you get 'hey, New Orleans is going to be interested...' and this all kind of happened over a 6 week span. There's just these rumblings and then all of a sudden you're a week out and you're thinking that oh wow, this could actually be a place that I could go.
Conversation shifts to the team overall, team structure, lineups, etc:
Lowe: Do you think you have a handle on the team? Cause it's a deep team, but it's also a strange team, in that Zion is a rookie but he's going to get a lot of- he's going to start at the 4, might play some 5, okay no, he WILL play some 5. Lonzo's a point guard with a, let's say 'unreliable' jumpshot, Ingram has had these wild ups and downs in his career and is coming off a blood-clot, there's a lot of strange pieces that are going to be fit together. So how are they going to fit together, who's going to come off the bench, who's going to start, who's playing in crunch time? Do you feel like you have a handle on things, is there anyone you haven't met?
Redick: No no, I- no I think actually maybe Derrick, 'cause the two times I've been down there Derrick wasn't in town, but everybody else I've met. When I was there last week, you know, guys were playing full-court, playing pickup, and I don't think I have a great feel for the team because it's a lot of new pieces with Jrue being really the one sort of mainstay there, and obviously E'twaun, and some of the other guys that were there. But personally, I just go back to when I signed with LA, or when I signed with Philly, I didn't really have any sense going in what it was going to look like. I remember the media day the first day before training camp my first year in LA, going over to Ty Lue and saying like, 'who... who's starting? Who's our starting 5? I know Chris, Blake, and DJ, but...' and he was like 'uh? You, mother******', so that was uh... I didn't sign up because I envisioned a certain thing, or I was told a certain thing, it was more that there was something exciting happening, there's a lot of interesting pieces here,
Lowe: And deep, it's a deep team.
Redick: Yeah, and there's just a general excitement about the direction of the franchise and people down there are really excited.
Zion Talk
Lowe: What's your first conversation with Zion? What are your first impressions?
Redick: Oh, he's just a super nice kid. I think he's in a very interesting position because the amount of responsibility that he has off the court, you know? He has this huge contract with Jordan, there's gonna be a lot of people pulling at him, but he's got such a great head on his shoulders that for me, I think it's taking it slowly and figuring out where I can help and where I can be an added value for him.
Lowe: Make shots.
Redick: Oh of course, on the court.
Lowe: I was talking to someone in the league about this today and Zion on the Pelicans, Zion's not just a number one pick. He's one of those ''once every eight years'', AD-Lebron-Zion, hes in that - you heard - maybe he is the most anticipated number one pick since Lebron, or since AD, how often do those guys go to teams where you think ''hm, sometimes is he gonna be the third option, the fifth option?'' He doesn't get to go right in and be The Guy and do whatever, or whatever he wants to do, have you thought about that? It's interesting.
Redick: It is interesting. I think part of it is just the circumstance, and part of it is an intentional thing that Griff and the front office and the coaching staff has done, and it's taking pressure off him. I mean, to me, it's no question that he's the most hyped prospect since Lebron and then you have David Griffin coming out and saying 'it's Jrue's team, he could win the MVP, he has that level of talent,'
Lowe: He said that? That Jrue could win an MVP?
Redick: He did say that, or play at an MVP level. So it's obviously intentional that he would come out and say that, and then like you said, it's just an interesting mix of guys where it's promising young players like Lonzo and Brandon, and then older vets like Derrick and I, and then obviously Jrue is sorta the guy. It's an exciting team. The thing that I'm excited about, and I don't think it's just Duke homerism, is Frank Jackson. He had some great moments at the end of last season.
Lowe: Yeah, there are gonna be guys that are going to get squeezed. It's just going to happen. I don't know if it's going to be E'twaun Moore, or Frank Jackson, or like, Kenrich Williams had a stretch but is he gonna play? Or is he gonna play a little bit of 4, you guys don't have a whole lot of traditional 4s, other than Zion, so it's very interesting how the minutes are going to be allotted. Starting right off the bat: do you care if you start or come off the bench?
Redick: No, no,
Lowe: 'Cause I think the two possible starting fives are: Lonzo/Jrue/You/Zion/Favors, and Lonzo/Jrue/Ingram/Zion/Favors, which is a lineup that really is light on shooting but high on just running the ball down their throats. So you don't care, it doesn't matter? You're gonna play a lot in crunch time either way.
Redick: I hope I'll play, I hope I'll play a lot, I haven't been given any indication that I won't play. I go into every season, every situation just with an open mind: going back to last year, Brett pulls me aside 10 minutes before our first training camp practise and says 'I wanna bring you off the bench, let me know your thoughts', and he didn't know it at the time but I already knew this was coming from 3 months ago in July. And I wasn't hurt or anything, it was just like okay, if that's what's good for the team then I'll do it. I didn't think it was what was right for the team, but if he thought that then I was fine with it.
[THAT'S THE FIRST AD BREAK, WILL UPDATE WITH THE REST SHORTLY]
JJ Redick on The Lowe Post
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09-17-2019, 07:19 AMPelicanidaeJJ Redick on The Lowe Post
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09-17-2019, 08:33 AMPelicanidae
[EVERYTHING FROM AFTER THE FIRST AD BREAK HERE- MUCH LESS PELICANS SPECIFIC]
Q: How do you make a quick release quicker?
Redick: There's a couple of ways to do it. Number one is working on eliminating the bring-down. Let's say you catch it at eye level, you catch it and you bring the ball down to waist level, and use it as momentum to sort of lift back up -
Lowe: Anthony Morrow was the first guy -
Redick: He was the man. He took it to the extreme. But he also shot a set shot. Klay's great as well, and his form, I talk about this a ton, but it's the best I've ever seen. He has no wasted motion at all, but unless he's shooting off a dribble it's not really a jump shot - it's different. So that's one, you eliminate that bring-down, and you can work at that, just work on catching the ball and still getting some elevation into shooting. Another one is that you shoot on the way up. Steph is the man at this, Steph shoots on the way up, I do that sometimes as well. Inevitably, sometimes you just have to do that. And then after that you have to just work on getting it out of your hands quicker, and there's ways to do that.
Apparently in Philadelphia, every member of the team was asked to give a powerpoint presentation that lasted about half an hour to the rest of the team, on a subject of their choice that interested them. As part of team building. They only discussed a couple of players, but the topics they chose were as follows:
Redick: Simulation Theory
Simmons: Australian wildlife
Dario Saric: History of the Yugoslavian War
Honestly wish I had been there for these presentations, sounds interesting.
Q: You are officially listed with 1 NBA dunk. Do you remember when and where it was?
Redick: Of course, you act like I haven't YouTube'd this 20 times in my life. It was Game 6 of the 2011 first round versus the Hawks. Gilbert Arenas missed the 18 footer, Dwight got the offensive rebound at the elbow, I cut from the right corner, he passed it to me and I dunked.
Lowe: At what point did you decide, 'I'm dunking'?
Redick: I didn't dribble. I had been feeling particularly bouncy in warmups that game and earlier in the second half I had come around this little half-DHO/Half catch and shoot, it was a weird little pullup but I had come up on the left side and driven down the middle past Jamal and laid it in, and I remember thinking to myself 'I should have dunked that'. Then it was stuck in my head that I'm gonna dunk the next chance I get.
Lowe: It wasn't like a barely dunk either, it was a two handed - it's not like when Steph tries to dunk, where the last three times he's -
Redick: He's got to stop.
Q: The playoff streak. Are you worried?
Redick: It's going to be a tough one, but my expectation is that we're going to challenge for a playoff spot. I don't make any guarantees in life, of course, but I would expect us to be right there.
Lowe: So here's my assessment of the West, you ready? I'm just gonna list teams, so: Denver, Houston, Utah, that's three. Both LA teams, that's 5. Portland, six - these are not in order, I'm just listing teams that I think people consider playoff teams. Portland six, Warriors seven, Spurs eight. So, let's just stop there. I've had a lot of discussions with people, are the Warriors a lock or not, the consensus around the league is that they're a lock, the two guys are just too good, so that's fine. If they're a lock, we're running out of spots. I said San Antonio, I'm high on San Antonio, I'm higher than most, although I'm starting to get a little Pop-USA hangover, I'm higher than most on Dallas. I think Dallas has a chance to make the playoffs. Obviously there's a big wild card with, is the big fella healthy and ready to go? We are up to 9, and we haven't gotten to you guys yet who I would put right below Dallas [?!??!?!?! what?!] maybe, and the King's, so that's 11. They're a lot like you guys in that they have 12 legitimate, good NBA players, and there's a power in not playing any bad NBA players, so that's 11. Some people say Minnesota was good when Covington was healthy, eh, they're alright I'm buying Minnesota as 12th. So if you guys make it, or Dallas makes it, someone is missing the playoffs that nobody expects. It's a bloodbath out there.
Redick: It is. I'm glad that we get to play games and we don't get to just pick things based on paper.
Lowe: What makes me nervous about you guys is that I was super high on Milwaukee last year because I like things that make sense. Giannis, plus shooting, let's go. I look at you guys and I'm like, wow there's a lot of stuff going on here. A lot of dudes who can't shoot, a lot of dudes who are really good shooters but I don't know how many of them they can get on the floor together, Zion's a rookie, there's talk about playing Zion at the 5 but you're gonna start Favors and if you start Zion, Favors, Ingram, Lonzo, that's not a lot of shooting there's just a lot. You're gonna play super fast, that's interesting, but I get nervous when I look at you and say 'man, they got a lot of stuff to figure out'.
Redick: There were times in the first few months of my first year in Philly where we were 14 and 18 going into the Christmas day game against the Knicks where I was like, man, this could go really South. There's some fragility here, to the season, and being like okay I'm the oldhead on the team, what happens in February if we're out of the playoffs? I'm having these conversations with myself, with my teammates, with my agent, but I'm telling Brett that I actually think we're really good and then we finished 52-30, 3rd seed. Something clicked. So, I would say this: from my understanding, the way David Griffin, Trajan, and Alvin are looking at this season is that there's going to be some allowance for growing pains, and the goal is to be there at the end contending for 7 or 8.
Lowe: Have you met the Melli kid? People are high on him.
Redick: Yeah, I met him the other day. The ideal pairing is with him as a stretch 5 with Zion, but there's only so many of those guys.
Lowe: You're trying to get Zion rumbling in space.
Redick: Yeah, it's all over.
[END OF THE PODCAST, PRETTY MUCH].
And that's it guys, Redick appearing on the Lowe Post podcast, done and transcribed. -
09-17-2019, 01:22 PMluckyman
So he says the starting 5 has no shooting, but who in their right mind would leave Jrue or Ingram open? And why does shooting get looked at so much more than defense, rebounding, off ball movement? People point to the Warriors shooting with Steph and Klay, but forget during their title runs they played lock down defense and we're top 5 rebounding. Plus always led the league in assists.
Then Lowe makes having quality depth seem like that's a problem. I haven't heard anyone project Zion as a backup 5. That position is not his game at all.
Seems like he was just trying to �� out ways to slot this team 10-12 Wierd fella. -
09-17-2019, 01:30 PMPelicanidaeI agree with Jrue, but not really with Ingram. Ingram has been a low volume, low efficiency shooter for pretty much his entire career, and I'd much rather give him room and let him try and bomb from long range than risk being blown by on the dribble. Jrue, on the other hand, is streaky but is far more willing to pull the trigger and has been a much better shooter historically than Ingram, even if he's been on a decline over the last few years.Quote:
Originally Posted by luckyman
It's not inaccurate to say that a starting 5 of Lonzo/Jrue/Ingram/Zion/Favors is lacking shooting. Nobody on that list shot better than 35% from three last season. The question is just whether or not that lack of shooting matters that much. If we were aiming for a championship, it would, but we aren't, and I don't think it's a big enough problem throughout the course of 48 minutes to prevent a 7th or 8th seed trip.
And Zion will start at the 4, but it's almost certain that he will play at least a few minutes here and there as a small ball style 5. Griffin's comments about him being like Draymond Green with rockets adds some support to that.
I do agree though, Lowe had some very weird takes in this pod. He basically scoffed at the idea that Jrue could be an MVP level player (he actually said that Jrue could play at an MVP level for ''maybe 5 games'' which is a weird way to talk about one of the most highly rated impact players in the NBA), and when he gave his alternative lineup of Lonzo/Jrue/Redick/Zion/Favors, I was very confused because almost nobody has talked about that in the Pelicans media. The general conversation has always been Lonzo/Jrue/Ingram/Zion/Favors VS Jrue/Redick/Ingram/Zion/Favors. Nobody wants to start a 3 guard lineup again, if we can avoid it. -
09-17-2019, 02:06 PMSilver Nail
I think it is assumed that BI will be in start 5, wouldn't be surprised if we close with Jrue/Redick/EMoore/Zion/Favors.
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09-17-2019, 02:39 PMsocbe7A lot of what the Warriors are able to do offensively is a result of their ability to shoot. Steph and Klay put so much pressure on the defense because of how dangerous they are as three point shooters. The Warriors are never a good comparison because they have two of the best shooters of all time in their back court, which will likely never happen again.Quote:
Originally Posted by luckyman
The Pels don't need to be the Warriors offensively, mainly because they can't be. With that said, they need better shooting in order to space the floor for guys like Jrue, Ingram, Lonzo and Zion, who all prefer to attack the rim rather than shoot from deep.
Jrue Holiday has MVP capability, but unfortunately for him, offensive statistics are over-valued when discussing MVP. Additionally, he won't be seriously considered without a top record in the league, which is not happening this year. -
09-17-2019, 02:43 PMbahmamambaI just hate this obsession with the 3 as if 2 points don't matter take ad it seems like the last couple of season he lost that 15 footer that made him so deadly anyways I actually like that starting 5 they each seem to be able to get to the basket at will which is huge and with that comes fts actually think we'll be one of the best at getting to the line.....well as long as the refs actually let us lolQuote:
Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
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09-17-2019, 02:45 PMluckyman
To say that starting 5 lacks shooting means defenses can just pack the paint and ignore the wings as if you're playing the 76ers with Ben Simmons. That is far from the truth with the Pelicans. Jrue had an odd ball off year shooting last year, but he is a good 3 point shooter. Ingram has shown flashes in his short career and there is absolutely nothing about his shot that makes you think he is a bad 3 point shooter. That had more to do with his poor coaching with the Lakers. His volume of 3 point shots will go up exponentially in Gentry's system and I'd be willing to bet he's going to shoot 36%+ in that system.
Ingram will also be in the floor to close games. If anyone sits it'd probably be Lonzo with his poor ft shooting.
As far as Zion at the 5 I can't see it. His game is more dynamic on the offensive end than Draymond and I think best utilized next to another big, or maybe with Melli at the 5.
Ultimately, he and Jaxson Hayes will be the best front court in the game since Jaxson is extremely agile for a 7 footer. Just needs weight and strength. -
09-17-2019, 02:51 PMbahmamambayeah there's no real rondo on the court besides lonzo but even he can get extremely hot from 3 but I mean even favors has an okay jumper that you have to respect and I mean that all you really need is for the other guys to be a little scared that you'll make it so they don't pack the paintQuote:
Originally Posted by luckyman
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09-17-2019, 03:29 PMPelicanidaeJrue has gotten worse as a three point shooter every year for like 4 years in a row now. He shot a career worst 32% from three last season. He has been good in the past, and he will still have hot stretches now and then, but it's not like he's a safe bet to be a strong shooter. He just hasn't been a consistent outside shooter for a while now. Hopefully he will bounce back this year, and I think there's a good chance that he will, but it's not like you can just assume he will automatically.Quote:
Originally Posted by luckyman
Ingram has been low volume, low efficiency, for his entire career. He's a 32.9% three point shooter for his career: he has taken less than 400 threes total in his three years in the league. Counting on him to be a real defense-stretcher is kind of asking a lot. If he can be even a dead average 3 point shooter this season on 2.5 threes a game, you take that to the bank. Asking for anything more is swinging for the fences, imo. You can bet on it, sure, and maybe you're right, but it's a pretty far out bet.
Zion will play the 5 at times, I feel extremely confident in that. I don't think it will be where he gets the majority of his minutes, sure, and it probably won't even be every game, but he will play minutes at the 5 this season. -
09-17-2019, 03:31 PMPelicanidaeRondo shot 36% from 3 last year. That's better than literally every member of our starting 5 did, and he did it on higher volume than Ingram, Favors, and Zion had.Quote:
Originally Posted by bahmamamba
I'm not trying to put a downer on this team at all. I still think we're gonna be fun and that we'll surprise a lot of people, and I'm confident that we have what it takes to be a playoff team. But we don't get anywhere by pretending that we don't lack shooting in a lineup of Lonzo/Jrue/Ingram/Zion/Favors. -
09-17-2019, 05:29 PMluckymanThats false. He shot 36% just 2 seasons ago and is 36% for his career. Consistency notwithstanding, he's not someone you can just leave open from 3. So his name does not belong in this conversation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
It's not a "swing for the fences" with proper context. He is just 21 and hasn't played much. Even when he did his role was constantly in flux. There is absolutely nothing wrong with his form and he has had stretches of shooting ~40% from 3. People wondering if Ingram can shoot are people that stare at box scores too much. Which is especially probelmatic for a player like Ingram who has only been on bad teams with changing roles in the equivalent of TWO NBA seasons.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pelicanidae
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09-18-2019, 01:55 AMPelicanidaeJrue's 3pt %age over the last 6 years (since coming to NOLA):Quote:
Originally Posted by luckyman
2013-14: 39.0%
2014-15: 37.8%
2015-16: 33.6%
2016-17: 35.6%
2017-18: 33.7%
2018-19: 32.5%
Please explain to me how this has not been a general downwards trend. I admit that when I said he had gotten worse as a shooter 4 years in a row, I was wrong: I had clearly forgotten about the 35.6% season, so it's not a completely linear downwards trend, but it is just absolutely obvious that his three point shooting has been on a clear downwards trend since he got to New Orleans. Can he have hot stretches? Sure, he can. He does. Can you rely on him as a primary ''floor spacer'' at this point in his career? No, you can't. Hopefully he bounces back. It's entirely possible that he will. I HOPE he does. But to just act like it's a given that if he's on the floor, you're spaced, is silly. Any scout who is prepping his team for a game with us will know that, unless Jrue's on a hot streak at that particular moment, he's not likely to present a huge threat from three.
Ingram has played 3 years in the NBA, for over 6000 minutes. It's definitely true that he's still young (although he's not ''just 21'', he turned 22 a few weeks ago), but 6000 minutes is long enough to demonstrate a pattern. People wondering if Ingram can shoot at all are maybe a bit loopy, but people wondering if Ingram can shoot on any real volume with any kind of consistency are just people who are capable of examining reality, because he has yet to do so. What makes someone like Redick special is that he is consistent. If someone shoots 40% for 12 games out of the year and then shoots 30% for another 50, that player is not a reliable shooter, and it doesn't matter what their form looks like.
That's Ingram's problem. He has a few games a year where he looks like his 3 point shot is falling, but the vast majority of the time he is not the kind of outside threat that morphs a defense around him, which is the entire point of a shooter. Redick has impact as a shooter because he is a constant threat: his shooting has gravity. Ingram doesn't, because he isn't, and it doesn't, because he doesn't do it enough and isn't consistently accurate when he does it. That's just reality.
Can that change? Sure. I hope it does, again. I would love it if Ingram can take a couple of threes a game this year and hit them at league average. But just assuming that he's going walk out there and be 37, 38, 39% on ''exponentially'' more threes? That's asking for a HUGE jump that we just do not see very often, and if it's what you're expecting then you could very well be disappointed.