New Orleans Pelicans vs Houston Rockets - Preseason - 0-1

[Pelicanidae]

There will be moments when Zion doesnt pass the ball to CJ or BI when they have an advantage. It will also happen vice versa. They just passed Zion the ball and he fumbled it away for a turnover.

I know you and Shamit thinks Zion is the Pelicans god and the others need to defer to him 99% of the time, but it simply isn't the truth.

There is only one basketball so there is no need to yell to the world whehever those other guys dont give the ball to Zion over and over and over. But other teams prepare for that.

Plus, it's only preseason.

If this was one play in one preseason game, I'd be on the same page. Unfortunately, it's been a problem for years at this point whenever Zion's been available, and it happens for entire halves at a time, consistently.

It's fair to say that maybe that's because Zion's been out so much, so guys are more used to playing without him - that's fair. It's also fair that maybe in situations that are late in games, or on long road trips, or whatever, guys get tired and they start to default to what is easiest on their mind, which may often be isolation ball, since they can do that largely on autopilot rather than needing to watch the rest of the floor.

It's not acceptable in the first quarter of the second game of the year when nobody has played even 30 minutes of NBA ball yet - or in October at all, to be honest.

You can act like it's just pre-season, or just a few plays, but it's a scheming problem which is obvious; and it doesn't just impact Zion. It happens to JV as well; he can have mismatch after mismatch, score points every time he catches it, and they'll still just ignore him for 8 minutes at a time. It's not good basketball.

[Pelicanidae]

Unfortunately we are the Pelicans so it'll take about 35 games for the coaching staff to remember the stuff it took them 35 games to learn last year, and then someone will get injured in time for it to not matter.

[AtlPel]

Man I’m seeing a trend….Our defense looks horrible, not hustling, and bad passing. I may also be for trading a few bench guys and draft picks for another star. Zion needs to get his ******** together on defense and BI needs to stop jumping in the air with the ball and trying to make decisions while in the air to pass or shoot. Never ends well.

[Fedupfan]

This is a terrible basketball team .

[Pelicanidae]

Man I’m seeing a trend….Our defense looks horrible, not hustling, and bad passing. I may also be for trading a few bench guys and draft picks for another star.

Basically can't, now. Lillard in Milwaukee means our picks are all but valueless there, LA picks are pretty much over, and we have no real flexibility with money. Time to make big moves for a star was this summer imo.

[Fedupfan]

They just can’t run a fast paced offense because they don’t have the IQ. This is going to be a long season.

[Pelicanidae]

JV, Herb, and Zion have played a combined 36 minutes tonight and taken a combined 3 FGAs.

Just absolutely zero effort to get people involved or try out a variety of looks.

[donato]

Rough watch without Joel and the bad audio to begin with.

[AtlPel]

Pelicans aren’t playing Team basketball. They are playing 1 on 1 street ball

[Pelicanidae]

What can you say? Dismal basketball. Team isn't trying. Offense dead in the water, defense not far behind.

[Fedupfan]

I’m just going to expect them to be a bad team. I think that’s what they are.

[Pelicanidae]

I’m just going to expect them to be a bad team. I think that’s what they are.

Learned from last year - which was about 10 years late, honestly - that you have to expect this team to win 30 games. That way if we do suck, it's what you expected but if you're better then it's a pleasant surprise.

[Fedupfan]

The worst sign of it all is a moping Zion.

[luckyman]

Zion is playing like BI for Team USA....distributor man. Not even trying to be aggressive when he does touch it. You can't blame the team for that.

Then gets blown by on defense for an easy dunk. Just low energy tonight from him.

This is why they need to play every single preseason game and get this worked out.

On the other hand, to act like this spells doom is highly ridiculous. They look like a team with astarting 5 that hasn't played together much. The turnovers need to stop and that's my only real worry at the moment.

[ragincaucasian]

Borrego needs to put a foot in some azzes. This is some unacceptable trash.

[Pelicanidae]

Hey, look at that.

[As I See It]

Curious as to why there are no halftime stats tonight posted on the board. Oh well!!

[As I See It]

# 1 totally turned his back to the rebound. Sad!!

[ragincaucasian]

Losing to the freaking Rockets....by 20+. Willie what are you doing?

[ragincaucasian]

The actual gameplay is worse than the commentator audio levels. That's saying ALOT.

[Pelicanidae]

Losing to the freaking Rockets....by 20+. Willie what are you doing?

It's a dismal night, man. The misery has set in early this year

[ragincaucasian]

It's a dismal night, man. The misery has set in early this year

It's the consistent inconsistency that kills me. Remember how good the opener was in Brooklyn? Then we rarely ever saw that kind of ball movement again. It's mind boggling. It has to just be low IQ players at this point. They know what works, and don't do it.

[AtlPel]

Coach may lose his job this year if they don’t show progress. The GM may be the real problem though

[6warddude]

this game plan was all by design to try stuff out and get the bad out of the book .....our main guys are not involved ....remember 3 games in 5 days so this is condition time .....MVP zion will show up come game one....

[Pelicanidae]

this game plan was all by design to try stuff out

I could buy that if they were actually trying stuff out. Instead they were just doing the same boring, uninspired iso-ball trash that sucked for months last year. It's not trying something new when you're just taking the opportunity to go back to old habits.