April 9th - New Orleans Pelicans @ Minnesota Timberwolves - 42-39

[Pelicanidae]

Points scored is a pretty objective data point wouldn’t you say?

So are turnovers, missed shots, fouls, etc, and you seem fairly content to ignore those right now.

[HorneyTexan]

I'm going to go against the flow and say that during the last 10 games or so, I think CJ has played well. Has he been at the BI or Trey level, no, but he's been solid for us and I think he took his game to another level than where he was in January/February. The man played through a thumb injury which affected his free throw shooting...not sure how it doesn't affect his jump shot but maybe he's shooting it differently then?

[hornetsrebirth]

Yep, that's the only problem with our offense.

CJ can make his own shots really well (can't hit any of them right now, but he can make them so we'll just let him do that endlessly) and if you don't have a 25 piece dribble package, the team is banned from running a play that might create something for you.

Come on, man, I know you know better than this. You've just gone into defense mode for CJ so you're not willing to accept that sometimes he makes mistakes.

Don’t come on man to me. I’m telling you the truth. CJ can create his shot much better than Trey. That’s pure facts, I don’t even think a CJ hater can disagree with that statement because it that obvious of a fact. And you wanna talk about who is getting more shots up, well, an important part of that is who can actually create a shot.

[HorneyTexan]

We have to get it through JV's head to never bring the ball down...EVER. I don't care if it's off a pass and he wants to dribble or off a rebound. NEVER BRING THE BALL DOWN

[hornetsrebirth]

So are turnovers, missed shots, fouls, etc, and you seem fairly content to ignore those right now.

I didn’t ignore those. I specifically posted after the first half that CJ had been ice cold. He turned it on in the second half. He didn’t he did not have a good shooting that’s certainly true. Who else was missing all the three-pointers was it only CJ? Who else wasn’t boxing out on free throws and giving up rebounds was that all CJ? Because it seems like you’re ignoring everything, except for CJ, when he actually contributed a lot.

[As I See It]

Why are you leaving off the positive things that he does? Within that same timeframe he had a rebound and 2 steals and you arent mentioning them. That?s why I called you out because you only ******** on him when he does something bad and never recognize when he does anything good. That?s what makes you a hater.

Not true. I have been calling him out as no lead guard since the trade. Truth is, he is a 'shoot first', point guard 'wannbe' who thinks he's a combination of Dame, Steph, and Harden and can't play a lick of defense.

[Pelicanidae]

Don’t come on man to me. I’m telling you the truth. CJ can create his shot much better than Trey. That’s pure facts, I don’t even think a CJ hater can disagree with that statement because it that obvious of a fact. And you wanna talk about who is getting more shots up, well, an important part of that is who can actually create a shot.

He can, I didn't even dispute that CJ can create his own shot better than Trey. I literally said that he could in the post you're responding to.

My point is that basketball is not a competition of who can string together the longest sequences of dribble moves. Obviously CJ is great at that and far more practiced than Trey.

Basketball is a team game where a team of players is supposed to work together to create the best shots for the team offense.

So if Trey - who, by the way, has proven over the last 6 weeks that he's actually better at creating his own shot in certain positions than you are giving him credit for - cannot create his shot as readily as CJ can, but his shots are better once they have been created, then what the team should do is work together to create those shots WITH Trey.

Instead, they just park Trey in a corner and say ''oh cool, let's watch CJ do the dribbles'' and CJ is happy to oblige because - as he told all of us at the beginning of the season about 50 times over, including on his own podcast - he is so happy to finally be able to 'run a team' and be a 'lead guard'.

If these were 1v1 games of 21, then I would absolutely be in favour of CJ dribbling his heart out every possession over Trey getting a catch off a screen or something, but this is the NBA and so I don't really care too much about CJ's and-1 mixtape.

[luckyman]

Yeah I do not understand why Jax couldn?t get on the floor against KAT

Consider early in the season in THAT Laker game. Zion had just made 2 big free throws, but he was taken out late for Dyson. I assume for defensive purposes. A 19 year old rookie. We all know how that ended.

Now consider all season long against teams with talented bigs. Ol coach, all of a sudden, refuses adjustments and will not give Jax minutes. Who has not played bad when given minutes.

He sticks with Larry, who might be dealing with an injury. And whom cannot box out or guard bigs anyway.

It's pure stubbornness on that sideline.

[6warddude]

We have to get it through JV's head to never bring the ball down...EVER. I don't care if it's off a pass and he wants to dribble or off a rebound. NEVER BRING THE BALL DOWN

this......in the second half when he grabbed the offensive rebound over 3 wolves,,i thought he was just going to go up and try to score but no, he brings the ball down to his legs and then gets stripped.....

i was like, why do he does this crap...

[Pelicanidae]

He sticks with Larry, who might be dealing with an injury. And whom cannot box out or guard bigs anyway.

It's pure stubbornness on that sideline.

Larry got injured tonight, and Willie's response was Herb at the 5 lmao

I don't even hate the idea of Herb at the 5 in the abstract, certain situations, but why is it the go-to?

[Pelicanidae]

Something that also should be criticised and hasn't been so far:

Bench sucked tonight.

8 points in a combined 58 minutes played, on 3/10 shooting. 7 fouls and 3 turnovers.

Shocking stuff.

[hornetsrebirth]

He can, I didn't even dispute that CJ can create his own shot better than Trey. I literally said that he could in the post you're responding to.

My point is that basketball is not a competition of who can string together the longest sequences of dribble moves. Obviously CJ is great at that and far more practiced than Trey.

Basketball is a team game where a team of players is supposed to work together to create the best shots for the team offense.

So if Trey - who, by the way, has proven over the last 6 weeks that he's actually better at creating his own shot in certain positions than you are giving him credit for - cannot create his shot as readily as CJ can, but his shots are better once they have been created, then what the team should do is work together to create those shots WITH Trey.

Instead, they just park Trey in a corner and say ''oh cool, let's watch CJ do the dribbles'' and CJ is happy to oblige because - as he told all of us at the beginning of the season about 50 times over, including on his own podcast - he is so happy to finally be able to 'run a team' and be a 'lead guard'.

If these were 1v1 games of 21, then I would absolutely be in favour of CJ dribbling his heart out every possession over Trey getting a catch off a screen or something, but this is the NBA and so I don't really care too much about CJ's and-1 mixtape.

Sure, but where you go wrong is blaming it on CJ when Trey is standing in the corner motionless. If Trey can’t create his own shot well enough to put up the volume we need from him then he needs to be better at off ball movement. If guys are gonna stand around and watch CJ, what do you expect CJ to do about that?

[luckyman]

Zion is not going to play this year, even if they make the playoffs to go play Denver. Another 8th seed this year is not progress and is frankly a huge disappointment.

They need to mulligan this thing on wednesday. I'm serious.

[6warddude]

Consider early in the season in THAT Laker game. Zion had just made 2 big free throws, but he was taken out late for Dyson. I assume for defensive purposes. A 19 year old rookie. We all know how that ended.

Now consider all season long against teams with talented bigs. Ol coach, all of a sudden, refuses adjustments and will not give Jax minutes. Who has not played bad when given minutes.

He sticks with Larry, who might be dealing with an injury. And whom cannot box out or guard bigs anyway.

It's pure stubbornness on that sideline.

i could understand if katt was being physical going into the paint against our bigs then i get not using jax.....katt was playing outside the 3pt line and nance couldnt challenge him shooting so damn try jax to contest those shots.......the only time i saw katt get physical on offense in the paint was when willie put herb on him and that kinda went in our favor because katt should have fouled out when herb got that rebound on him and katt was all on herb but the ref didnt call it....

[As I See It]

Three of our Starters had a positive +/-.

Our bench and the other starters all had a negative +/- (any guesses who those other starters were?).

[ragincaucasian]

Welp. I honestly hope they lose to OKC. Could use another lottery pick.

When your two main guys are unreliable to play for most of the season, you need as much talent as you can get. Because you're so often having to play without one of them, or both.

CJ is a pure sidekick and nothing more.

This season had no business coming down to this.

I mean, even that doesnt guarantee anything. EJ Liddell was a steal, and we could have used him bigtime this season. But Pels life strikes again and boom...out for the season before the season even starts.

Sent from my SM-X200 using Tapatalk

[Pelicanidae]

Sure, but where you go wrong is blaming it on CJ when Trey is standing in the corner motionless. If Trey can’t create his own shot well enough to put up the volume we need from him then he needs to be better at off ball movement. If guys are gonna stand around and watch CJ, what do you expect CJ to do about that?

The thing is, even when guys do move around CJ he very very often misses it. He's not like BI who might miss something here and there but looks for the pass. CJ will make the pass only if there is zero route to a shot going up.

I can name a half dozen moments from just the last few games where this has happened. I even posted about some of them at the time, like CJ missing that wide-open lob to Trey the other game in transition.

Now don't get me wrong, everyone misses some passes I'm not even trying to be too hard on CJ for that. He's not a real lead guard facilitator. I'm just not sure if he knows that.

[hornetsrebirth]

The thing is, even when guys do move around CJ he very very often misses it. He's not like BI who might miss something here and there but looks for the pass. CJ will make the pass only if there is zero route to a shot going up.

I can name a half dozen moments from just the last few games where this has happened. I even posted about some of them at the time, like CJ missing that wide-open lob to Trey the other game in transition.

Now don't get me wrong, everyone misses some passes I'm not even trying to be too hard on CJ for that. He's not a real lead guard facilitator. I'm just not sure if he knows that.

Do you think you could name half a dozen moments from the same games where CJ made an awesome pass? I bet you could if you thought about it.

[As I See It]

The thing is, even when guys do move around CJ he very very often misses it. He's not like BI who might miss something here and there but looks for the pass. CJ will make the pass only if there is zero route to a shot going up.

I can name a half dozen moments from just the last few games where this has happened. I even posted about some of them at the time, like CJ missing that wide-open lob to Trey the other game in transition.

Now don't get me wrong, everyone misses some passes I'm not even trying to be too hard on CJ for that. He's not a real lead guard facilitator. I'm just not sure if he knows that.

Thank you, dae!!!

[Pelicanidae]

Do you think you could name half a dozen moments from the same games where CJ made an awesome pass? I bet you could if you thought about it.

Sure I could name a few (not a ton of awesome passes, because he's not an awesome passer), because I'm not saying CJ is garbage or that he sucks - I just think he's in a mid-career identity crisis, partly worsened by the team circumstances around him.

Could you acknowledge that he has some responsibility for some of the issues with this team, or are you too committed to his defense right now for that?

[hornetsrebirth]

Sure I could name a few (not a ton of awesome passes, because he's not an awesome passer), because I'm not saying CJ is garbage or that he sucks - I just think he's in a mid-career identity crisis, partly worsened by the team circumstances around him.

Could you acknowledge that he has some responsibility for some of the issues with this team, or are you too committed to his defense right now for that?

I’ve often named the faults that I find with CJ. The reason I’m on here defending him it’s because everyone else seems to have lost all perspective and balance on the situation. Suddenly, y’all have a complete inability to recognize any of the positive things that he does. And it’s combined with the ability to ignore negatives from the rest of the team, everything bad that happens is just because of CJ.

And yes, I’m gonna say it again he had a serious injury that require surgery, ON HIS SHOOTING HAND. He has battled through it and stayed on the floor which is more than can be said for our other star players.

[luckyman]

Actually a very accurate observation. Pels finished the season 27th in clutch defensive rebounding percentage, compared to fifth overall (including all situations) in the same stat. Definitely need to clean up some missed box outs under the rim in key spots https://t.co/XJuhpfhPoa

— Jim Eichenhofer (@Jim_Eichenhofer) April 9, 2023

I'm gonna go look at Trayce Jackson-Davis.

The rest of this season can kick rocks.

Hopefully BI and Herb make an all-nba team in some capacity.

[Pelicanidae]

I’ve often named the faults that I find with CJ. The reason I’m on here defending him it’s because everyone else seems to have lost all perspective and balance on the situation. Suddenly, y’all have a complete inability to recognize any of the positive things that he does. And it’s combined with the ability to ignore negatives from the rest of the team, everything bad that happens is just because of CJ.

And yes, I’m gonna say it again he had a serious injury that require surgery, ON HIS SHOOTING HAND. He has battled through it and stayed on the floor which is more than can be said for our other star players.

I don't think people are ignoring everything bad from elsewhere, it's just that - naturally - shot attempts happen more often than other things for most players. It's normal to average 14 shot attempts in a gaem, very rare to average 14 assists or 14 rebounds. So if someone is taking 14 shots and not hitting them, that sticks out a lot more than someone not getting 14 rebounds, which is just the norm. Therefore, CJ jacking up shots gets a lot of attention.

Especially because shot attempts, as mentioned earlier, are supposed to happen within an offense. It's both easy to see and immediately jarring when someone is forcing shots outside of that offense.

Look, CJ is a good player. Top 100 in the league, no doubt. All star in the past, well deserved. He has won us a handful of games this year.

That does not change the fact that he can be utterly infuriating to watch when he goes into ''me first'' mode. When you are watching a vital game get flushed down the toilet and the most glaring visual is CJ going ''me first'' mode, of course that is going to be what most people talk about first.

There are other issues - Willie's weird aversion to JV, the useless bench, etc - but you cannot act like it's unreasonable that people are mad at CJ right now.

[hornetsrebirth]

Actually a very accurate observation. Pels finished the season 27th in clutch defensive rebounding percentage, compared to fifth overall (including all situations) in the same stat. Definitely need to clean up some missed box outs under the rim in key spots https://t.co/XJuhpfhPoa

— Jim Eichenhofer (@Jim_Eichenhofer) April 9, 2023

I'm gonna go look at Trayce Jackson-Davis.

The rest of this season can kick rocks.

Hopefully BI and Herb make an all-nba team in some capacity.

This can be directly attributed to JV never being on the floor to close games.

[Pelicanidae]

This can be directly attributed to JV never being on the floor to close games.

Which is why I said, in the other thread, that if Willie Green is fully committed to not using big bigs to their full potential, we should move JV.