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Is it not odd that Sato hasn't been officially announced as a member of the team like all the other new comers have? Or have I just missed something.
Welcome Tom?š Satoransk? (@Satoransky) to New Orleans! #WontBowDown pic.twitter.com/7Qj6ZG9SRj
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) August 9, 2021
Last edited by msusousaphone; 08-12-2021 at 02:38 PM.
BI, Zion, and CJ had a net rating of +3 when on the court together. BI and Zion had a +13.4, BI and CJ had a +13.2, Zion and CJ was just +5.4.
BI and Zion worked. BI and CJ worked. It was CJ and Zion and all three together that didn't work.
The Spurs can dedicate this season to player development and take max cap room into the 2022 offseason, @johnhollinger writes.
— The Athletic NBA (@TheAthleticNBA) August 12, 2021
“I love what they did.”
The biggest winners of NBA free agency: https://t.co/fPvuA9mzRg pic.twitter.com/wWR4yfFEtD
Can't explain how much this kind of thing irks me. I'll wait to see if we're in his losers column before I really go off, but the Pels did the exact same thing, and let's just say BI and Zion>>>>>Keldon Johnson and Dejounte Murray
You know we going to get slack from every reporter due to having Zion on our team. They either have too high expectations or trying to create a divide to try to rip our talent from us by creating a bad narrative. I just ignore the haters..hopefully, our team does as well.
What’s crazy is that Zion has definitely played his part in the losing. The media acts like Zion was single handedly responsible for all the teams wins. It’s such a flawed perspective when superstars get a pass even though they aren’t necessarily leading the team to wins.
weird take. Every player on every team plays a part in wins and losses, to varying degrees. Zion is no different. And what superstar A) gets a pass for not contributing wins B) doesn't contribute wins (at least above a replacement level)?
Are you saying because we haven't won much in the Zion era (which has basically been 1 year lol) that somehow Zion isn't a winning player/doesn't impact winning much? Because I think you can see that those two points aren't necessarily analogous.
Last edited by Funcrusher; 08-12-2021 at 06:36 PM.
He's got plenty of flaws in his game. Right now he does one thing better than anybody his size has EVER done it (apologies to Sir Charles); he can score at the rim But, that 60% shooting percentage shouldn't fool anyone; the man is an abysmal shooter (See his FT%). On the defensive side of the ball, who would you rather have in the game during crunch time...Zion or Naji? I know who SVG would prefer.
True, he is a work in process and I have no doubt he can get there, but to date, he is more a 'Paper Superstar' than a real one.
Here is a weird stat...Zion has played in 12 normal home games. Thats non-attendance restricted/non-bubble home games in New Orleans.
New Orleans fans have only had 12 unrestricted opportunities to see him play in Smoothie King in his 85 total NBA games so far..
Just thought I'd look that up since some mouth on the radio said Zion doesn't really "move units" in New Orleans. Also shows just how short of a time he's been a pro.
Zion: "Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is kinda insane"
Griffin fires SVG and gets rid of the entire starting lineup not named Zion and Ingram... Replaces Adams with JV. Replaces Lonzo with Graham. And dumps Bledsoe.
Media reaction: "What are they doing? This team that didn't even make the play-in tournament last year is making so many changes. Zion is not going to be happy"
It's so weird. We sucked last year. I know we were close in a lot of games, and there was stretches in which we weren't too bad, but at the end of the day close doesn't win any prizes and we were a lottery team.
And the general perception from the media, and a fair amount of the fans, was just ''do that again''. What? We were supposed to pay through the nose for the privilege of retaining a 31 win team? Like Zion said, you can't just do the same thing again and again with no real changes and expect a different result. That's how you become the Blazers at best. Changes had to be made, they were made. One of the biggest complaints people had was no shooting, and another was that we lacked usable wings. We've added shooting and wings. We upgraded at the C, and have shifted around the guard spots. If we suck again next year, it's not because we sat back and didn't try.
Basketball.
At the end of the day (month, really), the records will show that Green replaced SVG, Graham replaced Hart, JV replaced Adams, we drafted some good prospects, the superstars got even more experienced, and Buddy replaced Zo (Bledsoe is just addition by subtraction). That scenario is way more palatable.
All will be right in the end stage rebuild of this franchise.
Its the 2 first round picks and the trade back that they are probably weighing too much, but you guys might be weighing too little. When you factor in the trade backs (10 to 17 and 40 to 51) - that is like giving up the 18th pick. So, the Pels basically gave up the 18th pick in this draft, their own lottery protected pick (which, yes, could turn into two 2nds, and the Lakers first)
When you give up 3 firsts, you should improve fairly significantly. When you are a young team, you should be hoarding picks, not spending them, and over the last two summers they gave up 4 firsts and two 2nds. Again, when you give up that many picks, you should be improving significantly. Jrue cost 3 firsts. Harden costs 3 picks. Its the picks that factor into all this. If I would have flashed back in time to right after the bubble ended and said the Pelicans would spend 4 firsts and trade away Lonzo, I would bet your guys would have thought this roster was far more improved and/or we would have a 3rd stud on it.
MOST of the negative takes have been fair IMO. What hasnt been, IMO, is how little they have valued Jonas. I think he is either the 2nd or 3rd best player to switch teams this offseason. I also think their idea of who Lonzo truly is as a player is way off. But their overall idea of -- this team gave up the equivalent of 3 firsts this offseason, and they are still far more likely to be a 9 or 10 seed that a 6 or 7 seed, is fair.
@mcnamara247
The truth is New Orleans is ********ed in free agency. Good players just dont want to come here, for a variety of reasons. Mainly because we dont have a winning culture yet and because we are a small market. There is essentially no chance of picking up an all star in free agency whether we have the cap space or not. And the Pelicans have to over pay even for role players, and even over paying isnt always enough to get it done. There is nothing any GM can do about that right now.
Thats the bad news. The good news is we have 2 young all star cornerstones locked in to build around, which is not something most teams have. I am optimistic about the Trey Murphy pick, the he is going to turn out to be one of the best players from the draft class and nobody is going to remember the Pelicans traded back, they are just going to remember we got lucky with finding a good player. The Pelicans future depends on being able to coach young players up, especially on defense, getting guys like NAW and Kira to take the next step in their development. Id like to see one more trade and am a big proponent of Buddy Hield… It seems like mostly just fantasy but if this is real and we do get him, the off-season was a huge success. So far it’s been just ok.
Obviously it cost us either a late first or 2 seconds depending on what happens this season, but we did just sign Devonte Graham in Free Agency. He chose to sign an offer sheet with us because he wants to come here. We should embrace the guy for that. While not an all star in the traditional sense, he's a guy that could win multiple 6th man of the year awards in Nola if we're able to put together a winning franchise, and that has a ton of value.
This notion about small market just doesn't cut. The Saints are literally across the street in the same exact market and small market isnt even ever mentioned and players banging at the door to get in. Its the winning culture that is the speedbump. When we become a consistent winner this will all change...just like it did with the Saints.
You can’t compare the sports on markets. Saints play games maybe once or twice a week and they get support from other states as well. You can make preparations for the weekend to go see them. The Pelicans often play 3 to 4 games a week and obviously a smaller market won’t be able to keep up with that. NTM the Saints have a winning culture. Pels don’t. Small market matters here
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