October 25th - New Orleans Pelicans VS Dallas Mavericks - 0-1

[Pelicanidae]

Coming off a match versus the reigning champion Toronto Raptors, we crash into the opposite end of the spectrum, taking on one of last year's worst teams in the West: finishing with only 33 wins and falling at 14th in the Western Conference, the Dallas Mavericks look to improve this year. They won their first game, so taking this game would really be a chance to tie up the records early.

The Mavericks, of course, are basically a two man show at this point. They do have some other pieces, they're not quite as awful all around as some other teams, but for Dallas it's really Luka and Kristaps or bust.

Usually I would include relevant statistics, but after they've only played one game I'm not going to bother: I'll start including those after teams have played 5 games or so, just building up more of a sample to establish some basic trends.

Last game had a lot of positives. The defense looked better than it had in preseason even though it wasn't perfect (we gave up a LOT of layups), and there were some nice offensive stretches. There were also some problems: Jrue had a really poor game on the offensive side of the floor despite his strong defense, and the team overall had trouble getting to the rim, finishing the game with more shots taken in the midrange than at the rim, which is never what you want.

This game, we're looking to see some of that interior defense shore up, and to get some more action on those drives. If we do that, it should be very much possible for us to take this game as a win and open up the season at Home with a victory! That'd be nice.

Let's go and get the win. #WBD

[Creative]

Must win for US!

[Taker597]

Spoiler warning: Gentry still experimenting with rotations.

[luckyman]

Experimenting with it is fine. I only ask he don't go full looney tunes with it like on Tuesday.

[msusousaphone]

Just roll with it, fellas. This will be the theme of the season: Get all the young guys some play and try to showcase some trade bait to package with draft picks for a star.

[Taker597]

Just roll with it, fellas. This will be the theme of the season: Get all the young guys some play and try to showcase some trade bait to package with draft picks for a star.

We aren't LA. That stuff doesn't don't work for us.

[bahmamamba]

hopefully he doesn't sit lonzo almost the entire 2nd half and then expect him to come in cold and do something

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[Pelicanidae]

Here are the Wont Bow Down t-shirts that'll be given away at tonight's home opener pic.twitter.com/RyJs2yAaEC

— Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) October 25, 2019

[Pelicanidae]

"Eventually we'll have to cut down the rotation. You can't play 11, 12 guys. There's going to be some great players that don't get minutes." - Gentry

— The Bird Writes (@thebirdwrites) October 25, 2019

Gentry knows that going 11 or 12 men deep isn't sustainable, knows it will have to be cut down at some point. The term "eventually" makes me think that it won't be tonight though, rather over the next few games.

[Snarly]

He’s been saying stuff like that since early on in the preseason. He’s going to need to make his decision sooner rather than later. It almost like he’s trying to be the good guy and play as many of these guys as possible rather than making the tough decision and sit a couple of guys.

[JJackisangry]

More concerned with how Jrue presents himself tonight. We need him to be much better

[luckyman]

I dont buy it. Moore doesnt need to "showcase" anything. The entire league knows what he does. His situation is obvious.

Kenrich is a nice injury insurance policy, but 18 minutes are far too many for him. If anything that should go to Frank.

Jah is another and good for situations like when they play the Lakers.

And your starters cant get chemistry if they are constantly being subbed and having to play with different players all the time. Jrue even mentioned that he had never played with some of those lineups.

I'm just going to be extremely disappointed and disturbed if Gentry pulls this extreme BS again.

[Pelicanidae]

I dont buy it. Moore doesnt need to "showcase" anything. The entire league knows what he does. His situation is obvious.

Kenrich is a nice injury insurance policy, but 18 minutes are far too many for him. If anything that should go to Frank.

Jah is another and good for situations like when they play the Lakers.

And your starters cant get chemistry if they are constantly being subbed and having to play with different players all the time. Jrue even mentioned that he had never played with some of those lineups.

I'm just going to be extremely disappointed and disturbed if Gentry pulls this extreme BS again.

Agreed with a lot of this, but I would like to disagree on the Kenrich point. Given that we currently have Miller injured and Zion out, we are much thinner at the 3 and the 4 than we are at the 1 and 2, and we have a lot of guards. I'd much rather see Kenrich, who is a legit 6'7 with length, getting minutes to fill in those gaps at the 3 and 4, than try and force another gunning guard into the lineup. I know that Gentry just loves running 3 guard lines all the time, but there needs to be a limit at some point. If you give all those minutes to Frank, your 9 man lineup will be 6 deep in guards with Jrue/Lonzo/JJ/Hart/Frank/NAW, which is just too much.

And yeah, just prepare to be disappointed and disturbed, cause Gentry's ''eventually'' comment is extremely foreboding. Almost guarantees 10+ men in the lineup tonight.

[bahmamamba]

Agreed with a lot of this, but I would like to disagree on the Kenrich point. Given that we currently have Miller injured and Zion out, we are much thinner at the 3 and the 4 than we are at the 1 and 2, and we have a lot of guards. I'd much rather see Kenrich, who is a legit 6'7 with length, getting minutes to fill in those gaps at the 3 and 4, than try and force another gunning guard into the lineup. I know that Gentry just loves running 3 guard lines all the time, but there needs to be a limit at some point. If you give all those minutes to Frank, your 9 man lineup will be 6 deep in guards with Jrue/Lonzo/JJ/Hart/Frank/NAW, which is just too much.

And yeah, just prepare to be disappointed and disturbed, cause Gentry's ''eventually'' comment is extremely foreboding. Almost guarantees 10+ men in the lineup tonight.

yeah I like kenrich out there even if he isn't scoring he's getting boards and defending I mean dude was the only pel getting rebounds while surrounded by 4 raps lol its crazy

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[GuardianAngel25]

LoL people over reacting on Gentry’s lineups already? This stuff just never ends. We went to OT and had we won by a point nobody says a word except great game won by Gentry without Zion! Chill out people let the man coach!

[GuardianAngel25]

We lost arguably our best player right before the season. This caused rotations that Gentry had planned to completely changed. Get used to seeing 3 guard lineups cause we have no choice. We have 2 SFs on the roster and one with Ingram will have to play minutes at PF do to Zion. We will figure out what works best but again let’s trsut people who have seen 1 game and 0 practices over Gentry lol.

[Pelicanidae]

yeah I like kenrich out there even if he isn't scoring he's getting boards and defending I mean dude was the only pel getting rebounds while surrounded by 4 raps lol its crazy

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Kenrich is great.

He reminds me a little of prime Tony Allen, although obviously not exactly the same. But Tony Allen in that he's a guy who you can put out on the court and he won't really score that much, but he'll just defend, rebound, pass, move off ball, etc. He just makes good things happen by playing basketball with a high IQ, and a high motor. He'll never be a 20 point per game scorer, and I'd be pretty surprised if he ever hit averaged much more than 10, but it doesn't matter because he does all of the little things. Every roster appreciates guys like that. You can just put them in any lineup, they don't need the ball, and they just make good things happen.

[bahmamamba]

Kenrich is great.

He reminds me a little of prime Tony Allen, although obviously not exactly the same. But Tony Allen in that he's a guy who you can put out on the court and he won't really score that much, but he'll just defend, rebound, pass, move off ball, etc. He just makes good things happen by playing basketball with a high IQ, and a high motor. He'll never be a 20 point per game scorer, and I'd be pretty surprised if he ever hit averaged much more than 10, but it doesn't matter because he does all of the little things. Every roster appreciates guys like that. You can just put them in any lineup, they don't need the ball, and they just make good things happen.

exactly

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[Pelicanidae]

basketball.

[bahmamamba]

dreaming of no Moore

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[Creative]

Let's go!

[djrnno]

Here are the Wont Bow Down t-shirts that'll be given away at tonight's home opener pic.twitter.com/RyJs2yAaEC

— Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) October 25, 2019

They should have paid the money and used Tom Petty's Won't Back Down

[Pelicanidae]

Incredible start.

Clock won't start, then tip off, Ingram intercepts it, bricks the layup, and the clock still hasn't started

Amazing

[GuardianAngel25]

Nice read Ingram bad pass

[HartOfaPelican]

Jrue starting right where he left off.