January 21st - New Orleans Pelicans @ Utah Jazz - 5-8

[Snarly]

What about Adams having 62? A non-offensive center touching the ball as much as the PG and more than our two stars. SVG's offense is old school college ball.

A lot of what Adam does is to create space with DHOs and screens. That's not really an issue. The issue is the guard play.

[pelafanatic]

A lot of what Adam does is to create space with DHOs and screens. That's not really an issue. The issue is the guard play.

Screens are worthless when your guards don't move off ball

[sterlr]

Right, okay so I know Lonzo hit a 3, that doesn't mean he should be our leading shot taker.

Which he is. Somehow.

That's because teams are inviting him to shoot the ball. Sadly, he takes the bait.

[Freyfamilyreuni]

That's because teams are inviting to shoot the ball. sadly, he takes the bait.

We actually saw good Lonzo for the first half of the game. He wasn’t forcing things, and he was getting the ball to BI during his scoring spree. Then oddly enough it seems that at the start of the second half they ran a play designed to get Lonzo a shot. Not sure why, but he hit the shot and then bad Lonzo came out to play and it was all downhill from there.

[Pelicanidae]

A lot of what Adam does is to create space with DHOs and screens. That's not really an issue. The issue is the guard play.

Yeah, it's not quite as concerning for Adams as it is for Lonzo. As you can see on the chart, while Adams had high touches his actual time of possession is pretty short. He gets it and either does something or moves it, and he moves it effectively for a C. Lonzo, as we all know, does not.

[Pelicanidae]

I was just looking at the team stats out of curiosity, and I was mildly surprised to see that, despite missing a few games, Lonzo has still taken more 3pt shots than anyone else on the roster so far this season.

77 in 11 games. Second place is 76 attempts in 14 games by Ingram, then 74 in 14 games by Redick, 59 in 13 by Bledsoe, and 52 in 14 by Hart.

Tells you a lot about the volume he's chucking.

Lonzo is shooting 28.6% from 3 so far this season.

[ragincaucasian]

Yeah, it's not quite as concerning for Adams as it is for Lonzo. As you can see on the chart, while Adams had high touches his actual time of possession is pretty short. He gets it and either does something or moves it, and he moves it effectively for a C. Lonzo, as we all know, does not.

Correct. Adams is 100% efficient. He is looking to set other people up. Lonzo is just a black hole of bricked 3's, 30% FG's, and 40% FTs. If he isn't throwing full court passes out of bounds he is doing something else dumb. I'm so over this experiment.

[AusPel]

When Mac tweets that NAW does some atrocious things, anyone know what he's referring to?

[Taker597]

Mannnnn... I wanna see Lewis just get a ton of minutes soon.

[Pelicanidae]

When Mac tweets that NAW does some atrocious things, anyone know what he's referring to?

I mean, NAW is still learning he messes up fairly often. Could be anything. Not that I'd go out of my way to call routine sub-1000-career-minutes-played errors ''atrocious'' most of the time, but yeah.

[JJackisangry]

Eric Bledsoe on the defense: "I think we have moments when we're really, really good. I think we have stretches where we're ********ing ********."

? Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) January 22, 2021

Tell us how you really feel, Eric.

If you start losing games in the fashion we have, the defensive effort starts to deteriorate. So much for holding a few opponents under 100. How can you convince the guys to hustle and play hard when Lonzo and Bledsoe give away such lazy turnovers? How can you convince BI and Zion to take over when nobody else even poses a threat on the floor? Why fight for these clowns?

Notice the difference when Nickeil is on the floor. He wants it. He?s not perfect but he tries.

[Pelicanidae]

If you start losing games in the fashion we have, the defensive effort starts to deteriorate. So much for holding a few opponents under 100. How can you convince the guys to hustle and play hard when Lonzo and Bledsoe give away such lazy turnovers? How can you convince BI and Zion to take over when nobody else even poses a threat on the floor? Why fight for these clowns?

Notice the difference when Nickeil is on the floor. He wants it. He?s not perfect but he tries.

For real. I said this as well the year that AD asked out and we continued playing vets: if we're going to lose anyway, I would much rather it be because we're giving minutes to young players fighting to prove themselves, full of fire and motivated to earn their minutes than complacent vets who just walk in assuming 25+ minutes a night regardless of what they put out.

Same thing this year. We're not winning 50 games, it's just not happening. We're not winning 45 games. Might not even win 40 games: it's not looking likely right now.

So if you're going to win 34 games and miss the playoffs, why do it giving wasted minutes to a vet that doesn't care when you could be achieving the exact same results by giving development time to players you have longer-term investment in?

[JJackisangry]

For real. I said this as well the year that AD asked out and we continued playing vets: if we're going to lose anyway, I would much rather it be because we're giving minutes to young players fighting to prove themselves, full of fire and motivated to earn their minutes than complacent vets who just walk in assuming 25+ minutes a night regardless of what they put out.

Same thing this year. We're not winning 50 games, it's just not happening. We're not winning 45 games. Might not even win 40 games: it's not looking likely right now.

So if you're going to win 34 games and miss the playoffs, why do it giving wasted minutes to a vet that doesn't care when you could be achieving the exact same results by giving development time to players you have longer-term investment in?

I’ve been vocal about this before, but we win that game against the Pacers and this team is probably a lot more motivated and performing better. That said, the coach needs to get us back on the right track effort wise as he played a part in the debacle himself. (And I think we both agree that it’s better to play the younguns now and set the team up for the future rather than blindly play vets).

You can’t have your starting guards (vets for that matter) continuously dribbling off their feet and doing lazy stupid crap with the ball. That is unacceptable at this level. It’s also a problem that neither of them actually want to take control of the game and neither are reliable 3pt shooters.

And somebody made a great point the other night about body language. Steven Adams makes a mistake and what does Bledsoe do? Mutters and waves his head dismissively as if to say ‘you idiot how dare you make a mistake.’ If you are going to have the nerve to hound someone when they make a mistake, at least show some passion (get angry) or be constructive. Don’t be a negative turd. Nobody is going to want to fight for that guy. Be a leader. Ffs we need our leader