April 9th - New Orleans Pelicans VS Philadelphia 76ers - 22-29

[Pelicanidae]

Made it to Friday 🙌
Get your weekend started with #PelicansGameday!

🏀 vs. Philadelphia
🕖 7 p.m. CT
📺 @BallySportsNO
📻 100.3 FM @ESPNRadioNOLA @SmoothieKing | #WontBowDown pic.twitter.com/u8y8PuB5zl

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) April 9, 2021

Next game up. Here's the injury report:

Pelicans:
- Brandon Ingram (questionable)
- Kira Lewis (questionable)
- Lonzo Ball (questionable)
- N. Alexander Walker (out)
- Josh Hart (Out)

Sixers:
- George Hill (out)

The Sixers are currently 35-16, good for second seed in the East, and have done so behind the 2nd best defense in the league and the 13th best offense. Joel Embiid is a top 5 MVP candidate this year (though I don't think he is the favourite at all) and Ben Simmons is in the DPOY conversation. This game is going to be difficult at best and a complete impossibility at worst.

Let's find out what happens.

[13 - 3]

This should be a loss. Then again we did beat the Jazz at home.

[Taker597]

We lose tonight... We tied for 9th lottery odds.

If we can end 6th-8th. I'd be pretty ecstatic

[JJackisangry]

We lose tonight... We tied for 9th lottery odds.

If we can end 6th-8th. I'd be pretty ecstatic

I just want one or the other. If we make playoffs, great. If we can suck the rest of the year and get a high pick, even better. I?d prefer not to be caught in between per usual

I can?t see us continuing to suck so hard once everyone is back though. NAW will be a pretty big miss though

[Pelicanidae]

We lose tonight... We tied for 9th lottery odds.

If we can end 6th-8th. I'd be pretty ecstatic

6th in the lottery odds gives you a 9% chance at the #1 pick.

Zion + Cade pls.

[Taker597]

6th in the lottery odds gives you a 9% chance at the #1 pick.

Zion + Cade pls.

It's has a pretty chaotic odd for the top 3 as well.

[As I See It]

The Embiid v Adams matchup tonight will be telling.

[Pelicanidae]

It's has a pretty chaotic odd for the top 3 as well.

The flattened odds really help out those middle-lottery teams, honestly. It does deter tanking a fair bit because you can't just get the worst record anymore and guarantee the best pick. Even the worst record in the league (Minnesota, right now) only has a 52% chance of finishing with a top 4 pick.

6th has a 37% chance of finishing top 4.

So being the worst record in the NBA only gets you a 15% better odds at the #1 pick than does being the 6th worst record in the NBA. 15% is a lot but it's not a lot, you know? No real incentive to be the worst anymore, just incentive to be bad generally.

[Pelicanidae]

SVG: Brandon Ingram and Kira Lewis will play.

Lonzo Ball will not play.

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) April 9, 2021

No Lonzo but Ingram and Kira are back!

[Taker597]

SVG: Brandon Ingram and Kira Lewis will play.

Lonzo Ball will not play.

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) April 9, 2021

No Lonzo but Ingram and Kira are back!

*Sigh*

Here comes the 13th lottery pick...

[Silverfoxx]

*Sigh*

Here comes the 13th lottery pick...

I hate gravity

[Silverfoxx]

SVG: Brandon Ingram and Kira Lewis will play.

Lonzo Ball will not play.

— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) April 9, 2021

No Lonzo but Ingram and Kira are back!

No shot at you, you are an incredible poster, but I'm mad right now for some reason so with that in mind...


Enjoy mediocrity with this team.

[Taker597]

I hate gravity

After the last ten years of playing for 6th-14th lottery odds with some lucky lottery wins and two playoff berth. You'd think maybe being stuck on the mediocrity treadmill would get old. Outside of winning the lottery... We've haven't posted a worse lottery standing than 6th in I think since Chris Paul.

It just like insanity with this franchise. I get certain bad teams stay bad regardless of picks, but man... It's annoying how great this draft class is and we are dogging out for Ws that only hurt us. It's just frustrating. We'll get our one in 5 years playoff berth, but I want more.

[luckyman]

Since when does having the 13th pick, with young promising players like Kira, Zion, BI, Jax, and NAW ever meant "mediocrity"? All 5 of them need to dominate the league immediately?

Makes no sense.

[Pelicanidae]

*Sigh*

Here comes the 13th lottery pick...

You say that, but even if we had the entire team healthy and ready for 40 minutes that's no guarantee of beating this Sixers squad. They are very good.

[13 - 3]

*Sigh*

Here comes the 13th lottery pick...

Ingram need more experience. Didn’t you know

[13 - 3]

No shot at you, you are an incredible poster, but I'm mad right now for some reason so with that in mind...


Enjoy mediocrity with this team.

Trust the process

[Pelicanidae]

Since when does having the 13th pick, with young promising players like Kira, Zion, BI, Jax, and NAW ever meant "mediocrity"? All 5 of them need to dominate the league immediately?

Makes no sense.

I think people are just annoyed by how infrequently we find ourselves at the top of the lottery despite never really making any playoff impact.

Like, if you look at some other teams which have had very little playoff success (or none, even) over the last decade and look at how often they've made top 3 or top 5 picks:

- Sixers: made the playoffs 0 times in the 5 years between 2012 and 2017, but picked in the top 5 a total of 4 times, including two #1 picks
- Lakers: made the playoffs 0 times in the 6 years between 2013 and 2019, but picked in the top 5 a total of 3 times, with three consecutive #2 picks

And those teams being high profile in the media and their high picks being big names means that people have that kind of draft record in mind for teams that made no playoff noise.

In reality, our situation (missing the playoffs a lot, but not really drafting high that often) isn't too unusual. The Bulls, for example, have only made the playoffs once in the last 6 years and in all 5 of those non-playoff years they've only had one top 5 pick and no picks in the top 3.

[Pelicanidae]

Pelicans Starters:

Eric Bledsoe
Naji Marshall
Brandon Ingram
Zion Williamson
Steven Adams

— Daniel Sallerson (@dsallerson) April 9, 2021

We would rather start Naji Marshall than Kira lmao

[Taker597]

I think people are just annoyed by how infrequently we find ourselves at the top of the lottery despite never really making any playoff impact.

Like, if you look at some other teams which have had very little playoff success (or none, even) over the last decade and look at how often they've made top 3 or top 5 picks:

- Sixers: made the playoffs 0 times in the 5 years between 2012 and 2017, but picked in the top 5 a total of 4 times, including two #1 picks
- Lakers: made the playoffs 0 times in the 6 years between 2013 and 2019, but picked in the top 5 a total of 3 times, with three consecutive #2 picks

And those teams being high profile in the media and their high picks being big names means that people have that kind of draft record in mind for teams that made no playoff noise.

In reality, our situation (missing the playoffs a lot, but not really drafting high that often) isn't too unusual. The Bulls, for example, have only made the playoffs once in the last 6 years and in all 5 of those non-playoff years they've only had one top 5 pick and no picks in the top 3.

It's just the inherent frustration of this franchise operating the same way it always have for the last 15 years.

It's not even logical or even statistically favorable for us to tank. It's just frustration we consistently go hard for our once in 5 year playoff run and we go back on that low value lottery treadmill again.

It's already been 3 season since our last playoffs. For it feels like we are on course to do what we always do. Get our hopes up and disappoint. Probably won't be next year, because FA is weak and rookie we obtain would probably not be able to crack minutes for 2 months. Then, we'll end up at 11-18 again and tread water.

[luckyman]

Ingram need more experience. Didn’t you know

He's a veteran? PR twilight zone again?

[luckyman]

I think people are just annoyed by how infrequently we find ourselves at the top of the lottery despite never really making any playoff impact.

Like, if you look at some other teams which have had very little playoff success (or none, even) over the last decade and look at how often they've made top 3 or top 5 picks:

- Sixers: made the playoffs 0 times in the 5 years between 2012 and 2017, but picked in the top 5 a total of 4 times, including two #1 picks
- Lakers: made the playoffs 0 times in the 6 years between 2013 and 2019, but picked in the top 5 a total of 3 times, with three consecutive #2 picks

And those teams being high profile in the media and their high picks being big names means that people have that kind of draft record in mind for teams that made no playoff noise.

In reality, our situation (missing the playoffs a lot, but not really drafting high that often) isn't too unusual. The Bulls, for example, have only made the playoffs once in the last 6 years and in all 5 of those non-playoff years they've only had one top 5 pick and no picks in the top 3.

None of those teams had rookies as dominant as Zion already paired with an all star. A young all-star.

So with that in mind, clear as day, it's just immature fans that say they want to build slowly but actually don't.

Never mind all the high profile 13th picks that have helped Utah, Phoenix, Miami, and soon to be Chicago get to where they are. Kelly Olynyk and Markeiff Morris haven't turned out to bad either.

[Pelicanidae]

None of those teams had rookies as dominant as Zion already paired with an all star. A young all-star.

So with that in mind, clear as day, it's just immature fans that say they want to build slowly but actually don't.

Well sure, I never said it made logical sense to think that way. I just explained why some people do, so far as I can tell.

[Pelicanidae]

That blown layup... Naji... Pls...

[Pelicanidae]

Great deflection from Zion but Danny Green ends up with it elsewhere and hits the shot