Outside if whatever the hell is going on with Jose, they are all legit injuries. Why this team gets them in rashes and other teams don't?Originally Posted by SeapeaNOLA
Beyond me.
 |
| . |
|
Outside if whatever the hell is going on with Jose, they are all legit injuries. Why this team gets them in rashes and other teams don't?
Beyond me.
Again, I'm not debating the merits of Zion with you. You are not his biggest fan and that's fine, I don't care to try and convince you.
But if you're going to have him on court, parking him in the corner while you run Larry Nance PnR is literally the least helpful thing you could do for anyone. Ingram was barely involved in the last few minutes either, until he took those hail mary threes right at the end. It was a complete abortion of an offense - Zion camped in the corner, BI watching, while we ran Larry Nance centred offense.
Absolute joke of a close to the game.
Basketball.
This never happened again.
— JC’s Pops (@JDub9911) November 11, 2023
It worked and it never happened again. https://t.co/vUpnEqVbqM
Basically this
We have now lost 4 in a row.
Our next 4 games? Dallas, Dallas, Denver, Minnesota.
8 game losing streak incoming.
Trying to run sets through Zion was just not working in the 2nd half. The final 3 quarters really.
Truth does not equal "you just dont like Zion".
Can we beat our previous record of 20+?
Sure thingThat's definitely not a misrepresentation of what I said. You are a very honest interlocutor.
All goofiness aside. This would have been a huge win. Houston has been playing well, have now won 5 straight over good teams, and just blew out the Lakers by 35.
It's a shame they couldn't pull it out, but the odds of a victory were very low to begin with. This isn't last year's Rockets at all.
Onward to the next game.
Should have been a win. I hate how the game was officiated. Once Brooks got 5 fouls, he was allowed to hack and body everyone. He literally could have been called for a dozen or more fouls.
I will say, it is very funny that for the last several years all we've asked for is BI and Zion healthy together at the same time and then when we finally get it, it's everyone else i the main cast who's gone instead
Willie Green is great guy, great motivator but i think this team needs another coach. Yes we played without bench, yes i was the one saying we need continuity but man these players require a system and Willie is not giving it.
Every game we have 5-6 minutes stretch where we get outscored by 15-20 points. Even during winning stretch when we were 4-1, we didn't play good, i'm not the only one who was writing here that we are playing bad.
I would like to keep Willie around as an assistant maybe, but obviously that will not work. Let's see, i hope i'm wrong, but i don't think so.
Also i need to add, what the hell happend to Nance? He looks cooked. He was our best bench player last year together with Trey, he was part of closing lineups and now he looks like a 40 year old Udonis Haslem out there.
The stuff about Nance might be a little bit of selective memory because while he did have several good games last year, big games, he also had a bunch where he looked awful as well - he's just very hit or miss, and it appears that the injury he had last year and apparently through summer might have stolen the last few hits from him.
As for Willie, I just don't know why he's so spineless. I can accept bad rotations from time to time - it happens. I can accept some missed adjustments, or late tweaks to the gameplan, or running the wrong play in a close game - he's a first time coach, only a few years into his first job, it comes with experience.
What I can't understand is how soft he is. I honestly think it's part of the reason the team is so generally quick to wilt; it comes from the top. A while ago, either last year or the year before, Willie was asked about why we don't get foul calls in a post-game presser and he said it was because we hadn't ''earned'' them yet. He's in his third year as a HC now. Have we earned them yet? He gave the refs permission to treat us like garbage. He rarely gets techs. He rarely calls timely challenges or timeouts. He will never bench a player over anything - except JV, who he called off the court once last year yelling for reasons nobody understood at the time.
After their game tonight where JJJ got ejected with two techs, the Grizz coach got on the mic in his postgame presser and he went nuts about the officiating. He pointed out, he doesn't do it often, but sometimes it's just egregious and you can't ignore it - he said it was some of the worst officiating he has ever seen, and he knows he's going to get fined but he doesn't care because he has to stick up for his guys when the refs treat them poorly. Can you imagine a world where Green comes that straight out with it? BI could get put in a sleeper hold mid-court and Green wouldn't know if he should call a challenge or not.
If I'm taking an honest look at this roster now I'd be happy to trade most of them. I like Herb, Murphy, CJ, Jose, Hawkins. The rest is all on the block for me. This team needs a real playmaker in the worst way and Zion just isn't buying in to whatever is going on right now. BI is great and I respect him but we suck at closing games and he's out closer. It is what it is.
I'd love to bring in KAT for Zion, Siakam for BI, and a floor general. Maybe Brogdon?
KAT
Siakam
Herb/Murphy
CJ/Hawkins
Brogdon/Jose
Or just figure out how to close games and get Zion motivated.
I’m willing to give this team a mulligan because they’re still trying to learn Borrego’s system but man do we need a true floor general (point guard) in the worst way.
I don’t think we need a PG and if we’re open to trading half the roster then CJ is definitely on the “available” list.
I would honestly start fielding offers for both Zion and BI just to guage the interest and how teams value both of them.
I've finally included BI because i wouldn't pay anybody on this team 55M+ for his next contract.
If we’re going to trade the guys, ai want players their age or younger and picks. Lots of picks. I don’t want to turn them into a guy that only has 2-3 great years left.
I agree partially, but disagree.
I think the problem with Zion isn't that he's not buying in to whatever's going on - it's that he's buying in too much. He's getting played in the post, so he's sitting off the post. We're running plays for others while he's left to sit in the corner and he's just accepting it. He's going entire stretches of the game where he barely touches the ball and he doesn't complain, he lets others get theirs. He needs to say ''actually no, I'm the best player on this team, give me the damn ball''. We've seen what happens when he does play like that and it's awesome, but we don't get enough because he's being far too happy to act like a roleplayer at times.
BI has grown massively since coming to New Orleans but it's very clear that his current playstyle preferences and the coaches preferred styles do not go together. They constantly preach paint touches and threes, and he doesn't really like either - he wants the midrange. That's not really a coherent playstyle for effective modern offense. Being able to hit the midranger is good, and it acts as a positive release valve when the other team closes things up elsewhere, but you can't win a game in today's NBA trading difficult 2s for 3s on the other end; it's just not possible, and it does nothing to open things up for other players because opposing defenses want you taking those awkward, low value shots.
It ultimately comes down, to me, that you can't have both. If you want the higher ceiling, you keep Zion and you go all in on more shooting and rim protection. Trade BI for KAT and move JV for someone else to play auxiliary ball handler minutes; give Zion the reins. If you want a higher floor, you keep BI and you flesh out the roster with a more agile PnR big than JV who can preferably defend more than one position - Claxton would be a good example (actually Claxton would also fit with Zion). Whichever it is, you do it now before we have to pay BI that $250m contract and we can no longer afford to do anything.
I know that the Pels mantra has continually been ''we haven't seen them play together enough'' and that is ultimately true, but at the end of the day, we no longer have the time. We have to pick a path now and go with it. Addition by subtraction; either unleash Zion and give him the perfect context, or move him to give BI a better framework for his own style.
BI is my favorite Pel, but if one has to go it’s him and it’s unfortunately because of salary.
It really is just a crushing salary. $60m a year by the end of it - I wouldn't pay anyone who isn't making consistent All-NBA teams that money.
I am concerned about how bad Nance has looked, especially given how Willie hates to play Jonas
This team will always find a way to lose a game. We have a lot of potential, but that's where it all ends - either someone is always injured or we just play badly. I'm disappointed...
Destiny at this point. Some things can’t be understood nor figured out. The Pels franchise is one of them. They could have the Allstar team and still find a way to be below 500.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote