Zion looking very out of shape

[13 - 3]

I wrote about this exact mess before the season even started and how hopeless it is for fans. Was I wrong? https://t.co/wo0MPOZog9

— Shamit Dua (@FearTheBrown) November 2, 2021

[13 - 3]

PREACH!@NOLAJake jumped on @wdsu to talk about the embarrassing way the Pelicans and Zion Williamson have been handling his latest injury. pic.twitter.com/VOZWRvSpmQ

— Fletcher Mackel (@FletcherWDSU) November 3, 2021

[13 - 3]

Brian Windhorst on latest Hoop Collective podcast:

"Things aren't good in New Orleans right now. With all due respect to everybody, they have completely, totally, utterly, inexplicably botched how they've communicated the Zion Williamson injury. There's no other way to put it."

— Oleh Kosel (@OlehKosel) November 2, 2021

[PELICANSFAN]

I am glad the national media is starting to pick up on Griffin's incompetence. Hopefully it will lead to his termination soon (fingers crossed).

[JJackisangry]

I?m fully convinced that Gentry ruined this team. Our guys came into the league (and team) expecting every coach to be happy fun time and are struggling to cope with the demands of winning in the NBA. I almost wish Stan (or a more reputable hire) had been our first so at least they came in and learned discipline and structure off the bat. We are a mess. They don?t seem to respond to anyone. It?s been tits up since Monty left (and he wasn?t without flaws). But at least Monty was a leader of men and drilled hard work and discipline into those guys. We are a joke.

[PELICANSFAN]

I?m fully convinced that Gentry ruined this team. Our guys came into the league (and team) expecting every coach to be happy fun time and are struggling to cope with the demands of winning in the NBA. I almost wish Stan (or a more reputable hire) had been our first so at least they came in and learned discipline and structure off the bat. We are a mess. They don?t seem to respond to anyone. It?s been tits up since Monty left (and he wasn?t without flaws). But at least Monty was a leader of men and drilled hard work and discipline into those guys. We are a joke.

I think the lack of discipline is supported by Griffin. He seems to always want to play "good cop" with the players.

[JJackisangry]

I think the lack of discipline is supported by Griffin. He seems to always want to play "good cop" with the players.

I don’t think the Stan hiring was perfect by any means, but his sudden resignation/firing reinforces that point. Griffin doesn’t want a coach that will ruffle feathers. He wants everyone to be buddy buddy and therein lies that problem. There is no chain of command or accountability. I like Willie and want him to succeed, but he has a thankless task considering the way this organization has been run. We bring in one of Memphis’s best players, yet they are still thriving while we are even worse. It’s not by chance. It’s culture

[Wowowowow]

But Pelicans have missed both Zion and Ingram...Ja has played in every game for Memphis.

I'm not on the ledge yet. Maybe im a born optimistic but I like what I see from this team and our culture right now. Playing the shoulda coulda woulda game is a mute point to me.

Pelicandae looks to be right on Lonzo. A 3 & D pointguard version of Will Barton making 19-22 million taking less than 1 fta a game. Im fine with that exit to be honest.

Then Jonas is playing out of his mind for us and Graham for his price tag...aint no complaints! Then we have a rook starting who has been terrific on the defensive end.

Without a teams best player - I expect to be 5 games minimum off .500 [See Lakers when AD came back before Lebron. They were like 2-7]

I believe Willie and his coaching approach can muster up some wins for us to at least stay within 5-6 games under .500 when Zion gets back.

Still early!

[PELICANSFAN]

But Pelicans have missed both Zion and Ingram...Ja has played in every game for Memphis.

I'm not on the ledge yet. Maybe im a born optimistic but I like what I see from this team and our culture right now. Playing the shoulda coulda woulda game is a mute point to me.

Pelicandae looks to be right on Lonzo. A 3 & D pointguard version of Will Barton making 19-22 million taking less than 1 fta a game. Im fine with that exit to be honest.

Then Jonas is playing out of his mind for us and Graham for his price tag...aint no complaints! Then we have a rook starting who has been terrific on the defensive end.

Without a teams best player - I expect to be 5 games minimum off .500 [See Lakers when AD came back before Lebron. They were like 2-7]

I believe Willie and his coaching approach can muster up some wins for us to at least stay within 5-6 games under .500 when Zion gets back.

Still early!

Like you said, it is early, but Graham has not played well on either end. He is not shooting all that well and his defense is not very good (he is pretty small so I think we expected him to be lacking on defense). NAW has been a disaster so far.

[Eman5805]

Graham hasn’t shot well. I wouldn’t say he hadn’t played well. NAW is all of the above. Just missing open shots. Doing absurdly bad step back 3s.

I’ll swear until he’s not on the team that that shooting motion is doing him in. Stop pulling g that off hand away. Leave it there.

[All Metro]

A friend of mine saw Zion at AMC 20 looking big, not in a good way. She said he had like 3 different candies and a large ICEE.

Lmao

[Pelicanidae]

Draft all-time prospect.

In his first three years you:

- Go through a new coach every season
- Two sets of FO staff
- Completely turn over the roster multiple times


Botched the entire ''Zion era'' about as thoroughly as it's possible to botch it, and that's before we even talk about Zion's injuries and such. Franchise is a trash fire.

[Silverfoxx]

Draft all-time prospect.

In his first three years you:

- Go through a new coach every season
- Two sets of FO staff
- Completely turn over the roster multiple times


Botched the entire ''Zion era'' about as thoroughly as it's possible to botch it, and that's before we even talk about Zion's injuries and such. Franchise is a trash fire.

Who is your top 5 prospects so far for the 22 draft?

[As I See It]

Draft all-time prospect.

In his first three years you:

- Go through a new coach every season
- Two sets of FO staff
- Completely turn over the roster multiple times


Botched the entire ''Zion era'' about as thoroughly as it's possible to botch it, and that's before we even talk about Zion's injuries and such. Franchise is a trash fire.

"APOLOGISTS UNITE"!!!

[Taker597]

Draft all-time prospect.

In his first three years you:

- Go through a new coach every season
- Two sets of FO staff
- Completely turn over the roster multiple times


Botched the entire ''Zion era'' about as thoroughly as it's possible to botch it, and that's before we even talk about Zion's injuries and such. Franchise is a trash fire.

Well damn... That is probably the most negative that I've ever seen you.

Honestly, I'm just trying to let this era run its course. Griff resigns. We keep building our core. Move away from certain aspects that constantly holds us back. Every sports franchise finds their Golden Era eventually.

Granted I spent all Summer being really upset with the organization and prospects of Griff saving his job with a terrible play in run is over. I feel like a lot of pessimism has left and I'm excited again.

[Pelicanidae]

Well damn... That is probably the most negative that I've ever seen you.

Honestly, I'm just trying to let this era run its course. Griff resigns. We keep building our core. Move away from certain aspects that constantly holds us back. Every sports franchise finds their Golden Era eventually.

Granted I spent all Summer being really upset with the organization and prospects of Griff saving his job with a terrible play in run is over. I feel like a lot of pessimism has left and I'm excited again.

I generally try to be positive about things, and I'm not the kind of person who needs winning to find the sport enjoyable - or any sport, really. There's plenty of things you can find interesting and fun about the NBA even when you're losing, whether that's players chasing individual statistics and achievements, youth development, supporting good people (that was the Jrue Holiday effect), speculation about the draft, etc.

But right now I just feel like everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong. Zion out, Ingram out, none of the draft picks from prior years seem to be quite clicking (and we can debate why that is, but whatever the reason is, it's true) to the point where some of them aren't even getting played anymore - how can you care about youth development when your youth is either not playing, or not developing?

All that's left at the moment is the draft, and that's far enough away that I'm not quite as energised about it as I will be.

My doomer-mode will probably wear off soon enough, like I said, I don't need to win to find the game enjoyable and both BI and Herb are probably back sooner rather than later, but for now I'm just a bit grouchy with things.

[Pelicanidae]

Who is your top 5 prospects so far for the 22 draft?

It's too early to say, especially because I haven't done quite as much draft stuff in the last month or so as I would usually have done so I'm a bit behind, but my big names for this draft so far are some combination of:

- Paolo Banchero Jr
- AJ Griffin
- Chet Holmgren
- Yannick Nzosa
- Ousmane Dieng
- Pat Baldwin Jr
- Nikola Jovic
- Jalen Duren
- Caleb Houstan
- Jean Montero

Along with a few others that I'm probably forgetting.

[JJackisangry]

Draft all-time prospect.

In his first three years you:

- Go through a new coach every season
- Two sets of FO staff
- Completely turn over the roster multiple times


Botched the entire ''Zion era'' about as thoroughly as it's possible to botch it, and that's before we even talk about Zion's injuries and such. Franchise is a trash fire.

I cannot emphasize how important continuity is and why it was important to fire Gentry out of a cannon and bring in a fresh head coach then in year 1. Griffin had absolutely no intention of keeping him- he was humoring Gale. Willie (or whoever we would have hired) SHOULD BE IN THEIR THIRD YEAR AS OF NOW. Instead we brought in Stan in year 2 who was a short term appointment. Now we bring in a RAW head coach and expect him to perform miracles in his first year in that position. As you said, we could not have botched this any worse. It’s madness. I feel incredibly sorry for Willie as he will be added to the list of this dumpster fire before he had a chance.

[As I See It]

But right now I just feel like everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong. Zion out, Ingram out, none of the draft picks from prior years seem to be quite clicking (and we can debate why that is, but whatever the reason is, it's true) to the point where some of them aren't even getting played anymore - how can you care about youth development when your youth is either not playing, or not developing?

Some of them don't merit playing time they are getting.

As I said prior to the 2019 season, there is place for raw talent to gain experience without 'being thrown to the wolves'. It's called the 'G League'. You vehemently disagreed. So now we see that gaining experience while playing on the fly with the big boys has not seen JAX progress at all as you suggested he would. He is the same low-IQ player today, that came to us in the 2019 out of Texas with one year of playing experience, only now he's just a little bit more muscular and no longer a neophyte, As I always claimed, his ceiling may be in the ozone, but unfortunately we've learned that his floor may be just this side of hell (come to think of it, it may be hell itself).

And, I can say the same thing about Kira, too.

So to answer your question, send them both to Birmingham so both can find their footing.

[Pelicanidae]

I cannot emphasize how important continuity is and why it was important to fire Gentry out of a cannon and bring in a fresh head coach then in year 1. Griffin had absolutely no intention of keeping him- he was humoring Gale. Willie (or whoever we would have hired) SHOULD BE IN THEIR THIRD YEAR AS OF NOW. Instead we brought in Stan in year 2 who was a short term appointment. Now we bring in a RAW head coach and expect him to perform miracles in his first year in that position. As you said, we could not have botched this any worse. It’s madness. I feel incredibly sorry for Willie as he will be added to the list of this dumpster fire before he had a chance.

I absolutely would not be surprised if, by the end of Zion's rookie deal, Griff is gone and whoever the new guy is wants his own HC.

If that happens, then in the time since the AD trade demand we'd have gone through 4 HCs, a third entire FO change, and yeah, probably some big roster moves again.

I said before, I try to be positive about things, but it's hard to look at that - which is a semi-realistic chain of events - and see it as anything other than a historically bad period for a franchise to go through. It's absurd. A complete waste of talent - Zion's talent, Ingram's talent, whatever talent Jaxson and NAW and Kira may have had if given the right circumstances (having dreams about what Jaxson could be by this point if he had gone to a team that really knew how to develop youth - see Toronto, for example), and probably a waste of Green's talent as well if he ends up biting the bullet on all of this.

Just a depressing state of affairs. I'll be positive again soon enough but even I gotta wallow occasionally.

[Pelicanidae]

What I would give to acquire Jokic, another player who spent most of his age 20-25 years out of shape, but who is somehow superhumanly durable and has thus far played in at least 70 games every season, and who is currently making a very convincing argument for being the best player in the NBA.

[JJackisangry]

What I would give to acquire Jokic, another player who spent most of his age 20-25 years out of shape, but who is somehow superhumanly durable and has thus far played in at least 70 games every season, and who is currently making a very convincing argument for being the best player in the NBA.

We are at the point where this team needs a player that can coach and run the team lol. I just can’t get over how disorganized we have looked the past 3 years. It may have been different if Willie was in his 3rd or Stan was in his second year, but this overturn can’t continue if we have any hope of success. Basketball ain’t the sport for that. Leave that to footy overseas. We need a plan.

[As I See It]

Just a depressing state of affairs. I'll be positive again soon enough but even I gotta wallow occasionally.

I feel for you, dae; I really do. Surely you can find some solace buried deep in the 'magic' of your analytics files and basketball charts.

[Pelicanidae]

We are at the point where this team needs a player that can coach and run the team lol. I just can’t get over how disorganized we have looked the past 3 years. It may have been different if Willie was in his 3rd or Stan was in his second year, but this overturn can’t continue if we have any hope of success. Basketball ain’t the sport for that. Leave that to footy overseas. We need a plan.

I always watch a ton of games from other teams every year, and for the last few seasons Denver has been one of my favourite teams to watch because of Jokic. He's just one of those guys that you see everything click around. Even the arguments against him defensively - which used to be true - have been null for at least the last two seasons. If I could pluck one player from any team right now to add to the franchise, it would be him. He fixes so many problems, both in terms of pure production and in terms of providing identity to the team. Size, innate talent, and insane feel. He's probably my favourite player to watch right now.

The amount of stuff I'd move to acquire Jokic if he were ever available (which he isn't, obviously, Denver would be insane) is probably illegal in at least one country.

[da ThRONe]

I don't mind losing I mind the incompetence.