November 22nd - New Orleans Pelicans vs Minnesota Timberwolves - 3-15

[Pelicanidae]

Starting off the week at home!

🏀: vs Minnesota
🕖: 7pm CST
📺: @BallySportsNOLA
📻: @ESPNRadioNOLA#WBD | @SmoothieKing pic.twitter.com/uUiFn8aOhz

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) November 22, 2021

The 3-15 Pelicans take on the 7-9 Timberwolves in what is sure to be a sad match for everyone involved. I'm joking. Ish.

Ring the alarm bells: the Pelicans no longer have the worst defense in the NBA. Now we're 29th, so that's improvement, of a kind.

The Wolves offense is ranked 19th and their defense 11th, so they're pretty similar to us in terms of scoring volume but their defense is just far better. They lead the league in 3PAs, courtesy of both DLo and Antman launching 8+ a night, with KAT following up at 6.5 a night as well. KAT is shooting 46% from deep while he does it, as well, which is pretty wild, continuing his career as the best big man shooter to ever live.

The Wolves defense is ranked so highly based largely on its ability to generate events. Top 6 in both steals and blocks, opponents actually shoot pretty solidly from 2 when they get the shots off. Minnesota just likes stopping those shots from going up. That said, their success on D isn't entirely due to great execution - they're also leading the league in Op3pt%, which is almost always subject to a lot of variance and some luck. Let's see if we can get the positive roll of the dice tonight.

Anything could happen!

[Pelicanidae]

The NBA’s rookie class has been really strong at the top. In general, it’s been a fun class. I dove deep into the best 16 guys, ranking which rookies have been most effective thus far through the first fifth of the season. https://t.co/1iVTKUeXNs pic.twitter.com/W6bKd4LNTp

— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) November 22, 2021

Ahead of the game, Vecenie ranks Herb top 10 among rookies this year so far

[ragincaucasian]

Sato and Temple starting just shows how devoid of talent this team is. Jesus.

[AussieHornet]

Sato and Temple starting just shows how devoid of talent this team is. Jesus.

What a flat start. Throwing the ball away, dumb decision making and sato air ball on the 3 by about a foot. Get herb on.

[6warddude]

the lineup change looked alright in the first period....3 more to go lol..

[Eman5805]

Hart is playing like he don’t wanna get dealt at the moratorium end date.

[As I See It]

Send JAX to G.League tonight!!!

[new city champ]

Is Jax even on bench. Haven’t spotted him or Zion yet…

[Pelicanidae]

Sato and Temple starting just shows how devoid of talent this team is. Jesus.

Except there's no reason to have started them. Green is seriously starting to concern me with his consistently weird and unjustified choices tbh.

[Pelicanidae]

So, to sum this game up so far:

- Satoransky and Temple start
- JV is injured
- Ingram is 1/8 from the floor and 0/3 from deep, continuing his ice cold streak
- NAW is having an awful game and being sent to the bench seems to have knocked his confidence
- Jax is nowhere to be seen at all

At least Kira has been fine ish.

[As I See It]

At least Kira has been fine ish.

So you still think Erie wasn't the right move for 'Crash' three years ago?

[As I See It]

I'm excited. It's getting close to "Alvarado-time"!!!

[Eman5805]

What happened to Trey Murphy? Odd. At least Kira is starting to sting quality games together.

[Pelicanidae]

What happened to Trey Murphy? Odd. At least Kira is starting to sting quality games together.

Green decided Garrett Temple needed to play 20 minutes a night.

Kira's been good except tonight he's doing the NAW thing of taking a million 3s despite having far more success when driving. Don't like that.

[6warddude]

this the game the board should be calling for trey....if we trying to 3pt our way back into the game then trey should be in there because he cant be no worst than who we have missing 3s..

[Pelicanidae]

this the game the board should be calling for trey....if we trying to 3pt our way back into the game then trey should be in there because he cant be no worst than who we have missing 3s..

I have very little faith in Green to make reasonable substitutions or rotations, right now.

[ragincaucasian]

Green decided Garrett Temple needed to play 20 minutes a night.

Kira's been good except tonight he's doing the NAW thing of taking a million 3s despite having far more success when driving. Don't like that.

I would normally give him a pass due to "experimenting", but those days are long over. Now is is becoming clear that he has a weird S&M style fetish of us getting beaten like the gimp in Pulp Fiction.

There is just no reason you ever start those 2 players together, ever. Like....EVER.

And B.I. is not a good basketball player right now. Just terrible in every way.

[Pelicanidae]

I would normally give him a pass due to "experimenting", but those days are long over. Now is is becoming clear that he has a weird S&M style fetish of us getting beaten like the gimp in Pulp Fiction.

There is just no reason you ever start those 2 players together, ever. Like....EVER.

And B.I. is not a good basketball player right now. Just terrible in every way.

Since returning from injury, this is BI (assuming he doesn't re-enter the game for the last minute and T-Mac himself a bunch of points)

Vs Memphis: 19pts, 3rbds, 4asts. 7/17 shooting (41.2%) with 1/4 from 3 (25%). 4TOs
@ Washington: 31pts, 5rbds, 4asts. 9/23 shooting (39.1%), 2/4 from 3 (50%). 1TO
@ Miami: 19pts, 4rbds, 5asts. 6/14 shooting (42.9%), 1/6 from 3 (16.7%). 5TOs
VS LAC: 17pts, 12rbds, 5asts. 6/17 shooting (35.3%), 3/5 from 3 (60.0%). 6TOs
VS Pacers: 12pts, 3rbds, 4asts. 4/14 shooting (28.6%), 1/2 from 3 (50.0%). 1TO.
VS Wolves: 9pts, 8rbds, 4asts, 2/13 shooting, 1/7 from 3. 6TOs.

That's 17.8pts, 5.8rbds, 4.3asts with 3.8TOs per game on 34.7%FG (34/98) and 32.1% from 3 (9/28).

It's bad! Real bad!

[As I See It]

LOL

Crash's backup had a double/double and is the Pels' leading scorer.

We shouldn't be too down; eventually the Second Coming will suit up for us....maybe.

[DaFranchise80]

I really really really hope that Griff is forcing Willie to play Sato and Temple just to showcase them for a future trade. Really need to give their minutes to guys who deserve it such as TM3, Kira, Herb, and NAW.

[Pelicanidae]

The only reason Temple should ever touch the court is for extreme injury cases imo.

My other big opinion right now is that whatever BI's injury was, it's clearly still affecting him, and he shouldn't be playing.

Those two things together might mean that Temple should get some run, but it should only be scrap minutes here and there. Instead he's being prioritised over Trey and Naji, which is just unforgivable.

Temple needs to get traded to bring us back something cool, and then he needs to promptly retire. Dude's washed.

[As I See It]

A game thread that is only one page long? SMH

[PaKwAn]

I understand that Temple was brought in to be the Vet for this team..but he can be the vet and not get that much playing time.. but yeah, this team is seriously lacking with talent...zion won't be able to do much with this team if people think he can be that savior...

[Pelicanidae]

Just saw on Twitter that, with only 36 points scored in 229 minutes, only 3 players in the NBA are less frequent scorers than Tomas Satoransky.

Tomas: 36pts in 229 minutes
Semi Ojeleye: 33pts in 218 minutes
John Konchar: 35pts in 212 minutes
Taj Gibson: 35pts in 202 minutes


League-wide badness is active on this roster, people.

He is 357th in EPM in a league with only 368 qualifying players.

[Taker597]

As bad as 3pt shooting is... 100% about dragging this franchise through the mud for the Lonzo Ball trade.