January 2nd - New Orleans Pelicans vs Brooklyn Nets - 19-14

[Pelicanidae]

First game of 2024 💪

🏀: vs Nets
🕖: 7:00 pm CT
📺: @BallySportsNO
📻: @995WRNO#Pelicans | @SmoothieKing pic.twitter.com/AzXHkFAgeH

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) January 2, 2024

We begin a fairly difficult stretch of the season over our next 10 games, playing the majority of them on the road and against some tough opponents. This, however, is another game on our current homestand and a chance to bolster the record before the road games begin.

Brooklyn are 15-18, having gone 3-12 over their last 9 after a fairly positive start. They're bottom 6 in DRtg and just above league average in ORtg. This is a team that cannot defend anything but can score competently, so the strategy needs to be simply overwhelming their porous defense while keeping a robust enough defense to prevent runs. I repeat, they are a competent offense in 2024: this means you will not just stop them scoring entirely. You have to focus on being decent on defense and then hammering their terrible defense.

Of course, they have a number of good players on the roster - Nic Claxton is a good player and defender, Mikal Bridges has shown he can be a dynamic scorer, and Cam Thomas is a highlight machine because of his propensity to go off. What is often excluded from the highlights is that his defense is among the very worst in the league, and he can be a black hole on offense at times - it would make sense if we attempted to attack him as a mismatch whenever he's on court.

There's a lot of room for victory in this game. Brooklyn aren't a completely dead dog, but they're far from a juggernaut - at home, the Pelicans should be looking for a win here.

Let's see how it goes.

[Pelicanidae]

Great start to the game. Gotta be ready for their run though, they're not gonna shoot 20% from the floor all night.

[Pelicanidae]

Love seeing BI take and make multiple 3s early

[Pelicanidae]

Some questionable foul calls, nothing egregious so far but enough for me to think these refs might be a problem if the game gets any closer.

[Pelicanidae]

Everyone making shots early. We're not gonna shoot 67% FGA and 75% from 3 all night though, I'd like to see us trying to draw some fouls. Get them in some trouble.

[WhyHornetsWhy]

Random question:

What would it take to get Trae Young?

[WhyHornetsWhy]

If I could give up Dyson, Naji, and Larry + 2 firsts for Young...Boy oh boy

[Pelicanidae]

If I could give up Dyson, Naji, and Larry + 2 firsts for Young...Boy oh boy

What would it take? More than that, I think.

[WhyHornetsWhy]

What would it take? More than that, I think.

3 1sts then

[Pelicanidae]

3 1sts then

I think they would want either Herb or Trey. Naji isn't much value to them since he's an expiring this year and Trae + Zion + CJ + BI + JV is going to mean our picks are worth very little.

[WhyHornetsWhy]

Zion got the shirt fouled on him...What the hell

[WhyHornetsWhy]

I think they would want either Herb or Trey. Naji isn't much value to them since he's an expiring this year and Trae + Zion + CJ + BI + JV is going to mean our picks are worth very little.

Ahh Sorry. This is my final offer:

Herb, Dyson, Naji, Larry + 3 1sts

[As I See It]

I think 34 points defensively in a half is a season low

[Pelicanidae]

Ahh Sorry. This is my final offer:

Herb, Dyson, Naji, Larry + 3 1sts

If they were moving on from Trae they'd probably find it interesting, not sure that I would thought. Moving both out of best wing defenders and our only viable backup big plus a solid rotation player for Trae is a huge amount to give and it would hurt our depth considerably. Plus, we'd be starting two very small guards, one of which is famous for being one of the worst defenders in basketball. I have confidence in our team defense, but I don't know if I have that much confidence, you know? I feel like a deal involving Trae would basically force a CJ move.

[Pelicanidae]

Up 59-34 at the half is pretty good. Glad to see it.

CJ and BI leading the way, very hot first halves for those two, and then just a pretty solid all-round contribution from everyone else chipping in. Good to see. Run with who's hot unti they force a change.

[WhyHornetsWhy]

If they were moving on from Trae they'd probably find it interesting, not sure that I would thought. Moving both out of best wing defenders and our only viable backup big plus a solid rotation player for Trae is a huge amount to give and it would hurt our depth considerably. Plus, we'd be starting two very small guards, one of which is famous for being one of the worst defenders in basketball. I have confidence in our team defense, but I don't know if I have that much confidence, you know? I feel like a deal involving Trae would basically force a CJ move.

I would instantly...Reason is because of I am currently witnessing what our current record says we are (middle of the pack) with the "two best wing defenders and our only viable backup big plus a solid rotation player"...Do not think we can win a chip without that third instant offense.

I truly do not believe this team can win a championship with our current roster.

There's not enough offense.

[As I See It]

Ahh Sorry. This is my final offer:

Herb, Dyson, Naji, Larry + 3 1sts

I don't think I would trade Dyson. He's very young and I believe the offense will come (hoping he has a development trajectory similar to fellow countryman, Josh Giddey). Also, if you give up Herb, Dyson is the only defensive guard we have.

[WhyHornetsWhy]

There was a podcast by someone (i'll find it) that mentioned with Herb, we actually suck on defense or something along the lines of that...his name was like Sham or something.

[WhyHornetsWhy]

https://youtu.be/mR-Xh4LJBLs?si=anjKeRWvjth1XdMf

06:00-10:00

[WhyHornetsWhy]

Actually, 06:00-09:00 is where he talks about Herb.

[Pelicanidae]

I would instantly...Reason is because of I am currently witnessing what our current record says we are (middle of the pack) with the "two best wing defenders and our only viable backup big plus a solid rotation player"...Do not think we can win a chip without that third instant offense.

I truly do not believe this team can win a championship with our current roster.

There's not enough offense.

I'm not opposed to making a trade, I just think we've seen too often the consequence of an overly top heavy roster with no balance when it's been gutted out for stars. See, for example, the current Suns - who have a worse record than we do - suffering from that exact problem. But they have Booker and Beal and Durant! Yeah, and nobody else, so if someone gets injured or has a cold night the entire team just falls through.

I'm not even opposed to making a move for Trae, I just think ultimately I'd rather trade CJ for something else that the Hawks would want and do a 3 team deal where we give up CJ and Dyson as the core pieces rather than also giving up Herb (who I think is fantastic and on a very good contract, which is going to matter because our cap situation is going to be hell very soon) and gutting the depth.

I also wouldn't mind moving from Naji for the same reason because I don't think we're going to be able to afford to re-up when his contract expires this summer. So CJ, Dyson, Naji, plus picks and such, get Trae and maybe some spare backup big from the 3rd team if we also send out Nance.

I agree that this team needs a better offensive identity but I think that has almost as much to do with the coach as it does the players. There's offense talent on this roster, Green just has no interest in using it.

[hornetsrebirth]

Wow Herb! He loves to keep pushing to the basket which is an awesome instinct but it doesnt always finish... that time he completed a difficult finish against two defenders

[Pelicanidae]

Every starter other than JV in double digits so far.

Nets look miserable right now.

[Pelicanidae]

And that's JV in double digits, we are up 30

[WhyHornetsWhy]

Y'all weren't kidding.

Zion isn't really good on defense