February 19th - New Orleans Pelicans VS Phoenix Suns - 12-16

[Funcrusher]

Zion's passing has become so multi-faceted so quickly

How high do you think his ceiling is as a playmaker? My projections have definitely gone up personally.

[Pelicanidae]

Bledsoe has had a few really nice drives early

[Funcrusher]

At least Bled's brining it offensively. Wish he could muster the want to actually makes things difficult for his guard counterparts on the other end of the floor

[Pelicanidae]

How high do you think his ceiling is as a playmaker? My projections have definitely gone up personally.

I thought he was going to be very good coming in from college, but not this good this quickly. I thought his peak would probably be around 5 assists a game, towards the end of his rookie deal. Right now, it's looking like that could come much quicker than expected, and the ceiling may well be more like 7.

Of course, assists per game are not the best measure of passing but that's a vague idea

[Pelicanidae]

The offense clickin right now

[Pelicanidae]

Laughing extremely hard at Cam Johnson trying to defend Zion on an isolation drive

[Funcrusher]

I thought he was going to be very good coming in from college, but not this good this quickly. I thought his peak would probably be around 5 assists a game, towards the end of his rookie deal. Right now, it's looking like that could come much quicker than expected, and the ceiling may well be more like 7.

Of course, assists per game are not the best measure of passing but that's a vague idea

Yeah I'm starting to see his playmaking ceiling as LeBron-lite I think. The development of his processing ability on offense has grown rapidly from college to now. He's gone from being simply willing to pass to making advanced reads off a live dribble at an increasingly frequent rate. He's also making passes now that don't immediately lead to assists but keep the defense in scramble mode and lead to secondary/tertiary opportunities.

[Pelicanidae]

Yeah I'm starting to see his playmaking ceiling as LeBron-lite I think. The development of his processing ability on offense has grown rapidly from college to now. He's gone from being simply willing to pass to making advanced reads off a live dribble at an increasingly frequent rate. He's also making passes now that don't immediately lead to assists but keep the defense in scramble mode and lead to secondary/tertiary opportunities.

Yeah I mean, gotta be careful to emphasise the ''lite'' part of that. Lebron's a top 5 passer of all time, of course. But in terms of just general style and approach, I agree, even if the actual peak of his passing powers are likely to be nowhere near Lebron's.

[Pelicanidae]

We give up fastbreak points so easily it's annoying

[Pelicanidae]

Oh hey look, Zion/JJ two man game results in another bucket, this time with Zion running the DHO.

[Pelicanidae]

CP3 is just dismantling whatever passes for our defense with zero effort. King stuff.

[Funcrusher]

So sick of this team not containing dribble penetration and being late to rotate. Players stop moving after the ball swings once or twice. This is game 29, WTF?

[Pelicanidae]

Josh Hart with the terrible ''I'm just gonna jump and figure out what to do when I'm already in the air'' move that ends up with Zion somehow finishing that through two defenders while crammed onto the baseline lmao

[Pelicanidae]

Zion up to 14/3/2 on 5/6 shooting in 12 minutes

*Insert he-can't-keep-getting-away-with-this meme*

[Funcrusher]

Hayes is literally a chicken with his head cut off on D. ********ed up the switch with Zion a couple of possessions ago and as a result ended up in eternal scramble mode. On a positive note he's probably one of our more active players defensively, which is also somehow terrifying to realize.

EDIT: I realize this post is a bit late lol, was holding onto this for a while

[Pelicanidae]

Honestly, why are we trapping CP3

Sure, give the 3rd best passer in NBA history completely unguarded teammates to pass to, that'll work

[Pelicanidae]

Love that super snappy extra pass from Hart to Lonzo for the 3

[Pelicanidae]

Lonzo with probably his nicest lob for a while there to Hayes in transition

[Funcrusher]

Honestly, why are we trapping CP3

Sure, give the 3rd best passer in NBA history completely unguarded teammates to pass to, that'll work

The alternative is letting CP just absolutely cook our guards. I miss Jrue, man.

[Funcrusher]

Yeah I mean, gotta be careful to emphasise the ''lite'' part of that. Lebron's a top 5 passer of all time, of course. But in terms of just general style and approach, I agree, even if the actual peak of his passing powers are likely to be nowhere near Lebron's.

I would probably consider LeBron closer to top 10 than top 5, but that's ultimately a small nitpick. Your point still stands.

[Pelicanidae]

The alternative is letting CP just absolutely cook our guards. I miss Jrue, man.

I mean sure, but CP3 is a better passer than he is a off-the-dribble penetrator at this point in his career. You've got very little chance at stopping either given our guard D, but if I had to pick my poison it would be making CP3 take guys off the dribble rather than just letting him dissect built-in openings.

[Funcrusher]

We're going to give up 70 this half, and we're not even playing at a super fast pace. Ugh

[Pelicanidae]

We're going to give up 70 this half, and we're not even playing at a super fast pace. Ugh

Sure, but on the plus side, so are they

[Pelicanidae]

You know, it's weird how much better Lonzo shoots at home versus on the road.

So far this year, he's a 43.5% 3pt shooter in home games, 34% on the road. It's a pretty huge difference.

[Pelicanidae]

Ingram's looked a lot better in the last few minutes than he did in the first quarter, good to see.