Remember Zion step-dad said he and Zion talked about New Orleans before the lottery. And he told him it would be a great city to go toOriginally Posted by 6warddude
https://youtu.be/i-TkuoljWks
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Remember Zion step-dad said he and Zion talked about New Orleans before the lottery. And he told him it would be a great city to go to
https://youtu.be/i-TkuoljWks
The issue is not the city or the market. If same things happened in LA or NY, his parents would be equally frustrated and the relationship would be equally frayed.
@mcnamara247
Might I remind people that during last offseason...there was this thing called a pandemic. How much "engagement" do you expect to have? I'm pretty sure the dude lives in nola with his family (in a very nice pad by the lake). Lil bro goes to school here. I know people with kids that go to school with him. So not very hard to find.
You know what f it...no more time wasting with this nonsense. Have at it.
Here's my list of players that should be on this roster to start next season:
Zion Williamson
Brandon Ingram
Josh Hart
Steven Adams
Naji Marhsall
Kira Lewis
NAW
Jaxson Hayes
Didi Louzada
That's it. Willy---can come or go. So that leaves 5 or 6 open roster spots including potential draft picks if this holds. Assuming beyond hope they can offload Bledsoe before the season. Team has every exception available in full, plus a trade exception from the JJ deal.
I'm prepared for them to go after Kispert if they keep their 1st round pick, and I'm not going to like it. Otherwise they will target shooters in FA and via trades.
Last edited by luckyman; 05-20-2021 at 05:42 PM.
Would you mind repeating it or linking it? If you don?t wanna repeat it and type it again I feel you but I?m genuinely curious
So do you think if Zion and BI really does want Zo back in New Orleans, Griff will bend over and sign to keep him?
Yea I’ll worry about a player declining a max off of their rookie deal when it actually happens for the first time ever. Rumors don’t mean anything.
Moving Bledsoe does look to be a high priority though. I think adding shooters the defense has to actually respect will make the game easier on offense for Ingram and Zion which I believe will help them spend more energy on defense in turn.
Listening to the new episode of the In the NO pod that just dropped. As always, grains of salt, apply some critical thinking, but here's the stuff they said on the pod. A lot of it we have already talked about or mentioned in this thread, but it's another voice to hear from.
- Stan's practices, when the team had the time for them, were very demanding and structured, which rubbed some players the wrong way.
- Some other players really adjusted to the hard-coaching style and worked well with it: NAW was mentioned here.
- Here's a section I will quote pretty much exactly, so that it's clear exactly what was said:
- There are egos on every team in the NBA, clashes get exaggerated on bad teams and brushed aside on good teams: they note the annual ''Draymond and Kerr nearly come to blows'' argument articles as an example of how nobody really cares about arguments when the team is winning. They also note how the Knicks this year have been good, so nobody has spent time talking about how Dolan has been terrible forever or how their draft pick in Obi Toppin was terrible: if we win next year, a huge portion of this media scrum goes away. Similar story with the Suns, where Jalen Smith got drafted and sucked but nobody's roasting them for their terrible drafting or Sarver's continued terrible ownership because they're winning.Shamit: Some players adjusted and some didn't, and the players that didn't adjust, they like to talk to their former coaches. In Sacramento. There's two coaches there, but there's one main coach that was there last year but you know who that coach is. They like to talk to those coaches and those coaches like to talk to the media. Some of it's off record and some of it's on record, mostly it's off record, and what's going on in Sacramento in the Sam Amick interview is that they were justifying the not-firing of Luke Walton basically justifying keeping him by saying 'oh you have these other teams where things aren't great', they used Indiana as an example and New Orleans, think there was another one, but that was the justification: ''oh at least we're not like those teams''. [...]
I think what's important here is one, Alvin is a survivor. He's made it 33 years or however many, three decades, in the NBA by making good relationships, saying the right things, politicking at the right time, and he survives. That's a testament to him and he's genuinely a very nice dude, I don't want to say he's this malicious guy, but he's smart about what he says to who. So if there's a player that calls him up or runs into him at the Kings game and says ''yo coach, I miss you'', or ''I wish I could still be playing with you'', something as innocuous as that, and I'm not saying this is exactly what Alvin did but you can put 2 and 2 together, if players are expressing to him that the adjustment is hard and they liked his system or whatever the case may be and Alvin is telling the media, there's a lot of telephone to be played there with how you choose to say things. That doesn't mean there isn't legitimate friction between Stan and some players on team, there's some truth to that, but it's important to note where those elements of truth are coming from. I'm not trying to absolve Stan of anything on his part, he probably is a really difficult person to be around in this situation when all the COVID stuff is going on, and they're losing in the particular fashion they're losing in. I think Stan could stand to take a few chill pills. There's a time and place. Oftentimes when there's a time and place the message, how he says things can come off as offputting.
One example of this is that he had a layup question, he could have dunked this, someone asked with two games or one to go, ''how good has Wenyen Gabriel been in these limited minutes?'', it was the easiest question, he's a non guaranteed minimum contract playing in meaningless games, you can say that you love his energy and give a political answer. Alvin was great at those kinds of answers. Stan ''mixed bag, it's a mixed bag'' like dude, come on! Why can't you just let it go, he's been good. There's a way to say things, he's not factually incorrect, you're not wrong but you're being a jerk. He may not realise that often, that can get exhausting over time. I don't think it's anywhere near one of those situations where he's lost the locker room or the team has turned on him. I think the Pelicans are really removed from that situation, really far.
- Ingram particularly experienced ''culture shock'' under SVG based on Ingram's previous experience with Walton and then Gentry, but the relationship improved over the course of the season and they're largely on the same page now.
- There's a reason that this issue is part of a side conversation on a podcast and not the major focus of a Woj hitpiece.
- Zion's relationship with the coaching staff is fine. He's not happy with the outcome of the season and the fact we're a losing team, but he doesn't have any personal issue with the coaching staff in general or Stan in particular. They mention Zion wanting ''roster improvement'' but I don't know how literally we're supposed to take that. Zion wants to compete, he wants to be among the elite, wants to win.
Basketball.
Notice...he said coaching staff. And that is correct. Families issues arent with the coaching staff
Contributor
Ohhh. Now I get it. Zion’s family got beef with Gayle. It’s so obvious.
Anyone want to join some Sleeping Gods game online. It's super fun...
Translation fix it now or else. Not that confident we are a playoff contender
One of the most insightful comments from the season-ending #Pelicans media Q&A was this answer from Zion Williamson (question from @brettmartel)
— Fletcher Mackel (@FletcherWDSU) May 17, 2021
It'll be interesting to see how David Griffin upgrades the roster and how SVG uses Zion, personnel next season. pic.twitter.com/bPEdXs0C9s
In other news
On Pelicans Weekly, David Griffin tells @dsallerson that Jaxson Hayes will be participating in summer league.
— Shamit Dua (@FearTheBrown) May 21, 2021
He also says Naji and Didi will be spending considerable time with Fred Vinson this summer working on their shot mechanics
Pels mock offseason: Please somebody tell me if the numbers work with the team avoiding the tax.
1. Trade PG Eric Bledsoe, 2021 Pelicans 1st (top 4 protected), and Lakers 2022 1st round pick (top 4 protected), for PG Malcolm Brogdon
2. Sign and trade PG Lonzo Ball for SG Luke Kennard
3. Hornets trade PF Nick Richards (cut) for C Steven Adams and Wizards 2021 2nd round pick
4. Re-sign Josh Hart 3-years ($34.5 million)
5. Re-sign Willy Hernangomez 2-years ($20 million)
6. Sign PF Otto Porter for 2 years full MLE
7. Decline option for Wenyan Gabriel
8. Draft 3 2nd round picks, C Lou Garza, stretch PF, and shooting PG
Lineup:
PG: Brogdon/Lewis (10th man)/2nd round pick
SG: NAW/Kennard (6th man)/Didi
SF: Ingram/Hart (7th man)/Marshall
PF: Zion/Porter Jr. (9th man)/2nd round pick
C: Hernangomez/Hayes (8th man)/Garza
The Pels could routinely play a 10 man rotation.
Last edited by Darkhorse985; 05-20-2021 at 10:35 PM.
I think Josh Hart hinted very well in his exit interview that he's out. Praised Gentry, not so much into SVG.
Well glad to see I’m not the only one that wants SVG gone. The players tuned him out from the start.
Well he likes Eric. So there is that
I want to know who said they arent great defenders....they just say dumb stuff. Both them mfers are GREAT defenders https://t.co/hM8ywkEp3g
— Josh Hart (@joshhart) May 19, 2021
Saying Gabriel has been a mixed bag is not being a jerk at all. I'm guessing the person who wrote that never played b-ball at any semi-serious level and has never had to deal with a head coach. Wenyen played 2 years at Kentucky on a title team.
Every player on this roster knows that's Stan's MO and has known that for months. So not like him being blunt is suddenly shocking and hurtful to some snowflake player.
I also seriously doubt Stan was some culture shock to BI when he played under coach K for a year. This is a player that skipped his own senior prom to go shoot in a gym.
I'd believe that for some player who just came straight from high school.
Wenyen is another player I'm indifferent about. He's still relatively young and has shown some ability the stretch the floor. Can also sign him to make a future trade meet salary minimums.
Last edited by luckyman; 05-21-2021 at 02:00 AM.
Nobody is saying that Stan being blunt is ''shocking and hurtful'' over stuff like the Wenyen comment. But, as Shamit said (the quote comes from Shamit, I did attribute it) someone being continually as blunt as possible for a year even when it would be easier not to be (as mentioned, Alvin was really good at the meaningless political answers) can grate on you after a while. Just because something is true doesn't mean you always have to say it all the time. If your significant other asks if she looks fat in a dress, just going ''yeah well, you're a mixed bag'' may be true but it's not winning you any favours and it doesn't actually help anyone.
As for the BI thing, I'm not putting any major weight on it either way. Either it's true, in which case it's confirmed the relationship is fine now, or it's not true and the relationship's been fine all along; the end result in either case is that the relationship is fine, so who cares. That said, claiming that he can't possibly have clashed with Stan because he was coached by K (ignoring that since then, he's made well over $50m and has spent 4 years being coached by Luke Walton and Alvin Gentry, so whiplashing back to the days where you're being treated like some random off the street by some old dude could cause some friction) is silly to me. Personalities can clash regardless of whether or not you've clashed with someone else before, even if they have a similar demeanor on paper.
I would bet anything that Thibs is harsher and more demanding in NY and those guys responded positively.
There are loser players on this team with loser mentalities. Griff needs to get the right guys, its not SVG who needs to change
Contributor
Sounds like one of the bigger issues here is Zion's parents feel they know better than professionals. They need to understand their place.
I know Shamit said this. I never said you did.
Without touching most of this, I'll just say it doesn't matter at all how much a player makes. Don't know about your part of the world, but over here we have a saying..."keeping up with the Jones." All these players have peers they want to keep up with. Making $50 mil isn't enough when your peers have shoe deals, commercials, date some singer/actor, have a $20 mil mansion while yours is only worth $5 mil, etc, etc, etc.
So all that said, once again, nobody here personally knows these players or have hung out with them. I can only go off what these players have said and what their coaches have said. All of his coaches have said multiple times he wants to be coached hard in multiple interviews. Coach Vinson and Weatherspoon in particular.
What some dude that tweets and writes for some small blog says...huge GRAIN OF SALT.
My point about the money isn't that Ingram, or anyone else, would see what they've made as ''enough''. My point is that, and I don't even think this is something most people would dispute, making massive quantities of money tends to change you a little bit as as person.
So it may well be the case that 18 year old ''I have to prove myself'' Ingram, aspiring for bigger things and dreaming of making it, takes tough coaching well from K, but that 23 year old multi-millionaire all-star NBA star Ingram who has just spent years being allowed to do basically whatever he wants by his coaches may take it slightly differently. None of that has anything to do with whether or not Ingram wants to ''keep up with'' his peers, of course he does. It only serves as a point to say that you can't use his experience with K 5 years ago when he was in very different circumstances to judge how he might react to something today.
Not, again, that I think it matters; Ingram has always come across as a reasonable person in interviews and he doesn't strike me as a quick tempered individual (obviously I may be wrong, I only know his public persona) and until I have a reason to suspect his relationship with Stan is bad, I won't. From what I can tell, it's fine.
And yeah, huge grains of salt; exactly like the grains of salt I advised people use themselves in my initial post. It can stand repeating: anyone who reads any of this stuff from any reporters should apply their critical faculties. Some people are more believable than others, but nobody is omniscient or perfectly unbiased. Even guys that we can generally trust on factual matters like Shams Charania are well known for sprinkling in partisan nonsense between the facts.
Sounds like he is simply saying that changes need to be made.
I’m curious what those changes are in his mind. Clearly he won’t say it publicly. I doubt it’s the coach since that change was just made, plus it led to him running the offense. So which players does he really want to get rid of? I would think with how much teams pack the paint against him, he 100% is begging for more 3 point shooting.
Last edited by bradael; 05-21-2021 at 08:34 AM.
I mean, it's pretty evident what we need.
Griff came out and he said that the focus this offseason needed to be ''IQ, toughness, and shooting''. One has to imagine that he didn't come up with this wishlist by picking names out of a hat: this will be what the team has identified as the needs based on both analysis of the season itself but also what they've heard from players. There's no proof of this, of course, but I would be shocked if Zion hadn't put forward a desire for more shooting around him, or if SVG hadn't pushed the need for more intelligent team defenders.
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