Speaker 1: What is a Fellasicho's I am Dan Valley coming at
you with another twenty twenty four twenty twenty five NBA
season look ahead. If we're on to the New Orleans Pelicans,
which means I get to speak with Schmidt Dua from
the in the no podcast as well as the substack.
You can find the links to those both in the
podcasts and YouTube descriptions. Go over subscribe support him going
to get into all things Pelicans. Super excited to talk
about all these teams, but the Pelicans are just feels
like there's a lot of different pivot points that this
team is facing right now, so they're particularly intriguing to
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out of me. Let's go talk to Schmidt Dua from
in No Chumit. Welcome back. This is the third time
you're back for year three of the Pelicans Look Ahead
with us. I very much appreciate you hopping back on
with me. How are you doing, man.
Speaker 2: I'm doing well. We're going for a three peet here.
I'm excited. This is one of my favorite times of
the year because one, I get to be on this show.
Two it means the seasons are right around the corner,
so it's that time.
Speaker 1: It seems close and yet so far away at the
same time. I don't I don't know how to describe
it right now. The Pelicans, though, feels like they're just
approaching like eighty different pivot points. But I have to
just ask a general question about last season. What is
just kind of like your biggest take away from what
unfolded with the team?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the biggest takeaway from the team is
the Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram partnership is not one
that should continue forward. I think they've had five years
to work it out, and last year was the most
amount of games they played together. And I think I
feel like you have a question here, so I'm gonna
let you ask the question. But I think that was
my biggest takeaway is that partnership. It's it's time to
move on.
Speaker 1: We We're gonna start off spicy here. And so the
question I've been asking is I dictate too much of
these podcasts. So I've been asking people what is their
biggest storyline that they're monitoring into next season. I do
pride myself on knowing, like I kind of know what
they're gonna pick. The Pelicans have like ninety different things
to choose problem, And so what is your biggest storyline
as we're sitting here basically the beginning of September that
you'll be monitoring with this team?
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, so just continuing right off that one, it's
is Brandon Inger gonna get traded? And when is that
going to happen? I think, excuse me, they would have
liked who have done it around the draft or around
when free agency first started. I don't think they necessarily
read the market correctly, or I guess I don't even
know if that's.
Speaker 3: Fair to say.
Speaker 2: Is because I feel like they anticipated did be suitors,
and I think that's the reasonable anticipation to have, and
it just turns out that like no one was interested,
and now they're here and it's it's September. Basically, there's
a chance maybe Utah wakes up in two weeks from
now and they're like, you know what, we're not gonna tank.
Speaker 3: We have lowry market and Bill Hardy and.
Speaker 2: You know, we're just gonna go for it, and maybe
they get a deal done. But I would say that
chance is very slim. So what you're looking at is
Brandon going into the season and without an extension, and
at what point is some team gonna come around and
be like, hey, like let's move in on Brandon like
the Indiana Pacers did with but Pascal Siakam in the
middle of the year. So it's not stuff that hasn't
happened before, but it's like, who's going to be the team,
what's that deal going to look like? And there's other
stuff around that that needs to happen. Particularly from a
financial standpoint, just where the Pelicans are at with their finances.
So it's just like, man, now you have a pretty
fine need of the thread, and it's kind of like
you're running out of time to do it.
Speaker 1: What is like, do you have any theories as to
why the I understand Brendan are gonna be a difficult
player to fit into the larger context of a team.
He's still a good player and he's not old. Like,
what do you make of just the tepid trade market?
Is this more about like teams still trying to really
wrap their head around the new CBA. Is it doesn't
speak to the level of not desperation, but like, okay,
he said it into his final year and now we're
gonna have to pay him, and so that's on their mind.
Is it just well, the Pelicans might be asking for
too much and they don't. They have leverage in negotiations
with him, but maybe not a ton of leverage in
trade negotiations. It's such a bizarre dynamic when looking at
his trade value specifically, for sure.
Speaker 2: I think it is almost entirely related to his contract demands.
You know, from my understanding, him and his agent are
c making the maximum four year extension that.
Speaker 3: He's eligible for.
Speaker 2: That put him around two hundred and eight million dollars
in new money, which is a lot of money, So
a lot of money. It's thirty percent of the cap,
and so that's where the Pelicans have a pause. That's
where I think a lot of teams have paused. So
it's like, we're gonna spend assets to trade for this guy,
and then we got to pay him like a top
fifteen player. Last year, there was fourteen players in the
league that made thirty percent or above the salary cap.
So you're paying like a top fifteen player. The return
has to be a lot more than what Brandon's provided.
On the basketball court, he's a very good player. He's
had availability issues. You know, he's played somewhere around like
forty five to fifty and then like sixty ish games
in the last three seasons, so he's missed, you know,
twenty twenty plus games each of the last three season.
And then as a player, I think he's tip. He
hasn't quite broken into that absolutely sure fire All Star
or All NBA rage yet. You know, he's kind of
had spurts where he's looked like that guy in certainly
stretches where he's looked like that guy. But teams are
just like, man, I don't know, that's not a sure thing,
So how can we commit money to that?
Speaker 1: So if they're going to go into the season with him,
I guess the one like easy question is there is
that like there's a chance that just becomes a major
distraction that's hanging over the team right because it's constantly
being speculated about and talked about and reported on.
Speaker 3: I am really worried about that.
Speaker 2: Because the other component of this is the pending Trey
Murphy extension. So Trey Murphy is finished three years of play,
he's eligible for the rookie extension. My understanding is something's
gonna get done. Therefore, before the season starts. I think
both sides have a good working relationship. But if you
let's say something gets done, I think it's gonna be
a lot of money. So let's say Trey Murphy's making
somewhere in the thirty million dollar range per year or
in the high twenties, just but it's still a large
amount of money. And then you have brandon Ingram who's
in expiring, who doesn't have a deal done. Does he
feel some type of way that they prioritize Trey, right,
And then what happens if if Willie Green decides one game,
hey he's not having Brandson having a great game, We're
gonna close this one out with Trey, you know, or
we're gonna just some of these decisions without that contract
in hand make me a little bit nervous. And then
I'm also a little bit nervous how Brandon's gonna approach
it personally? How is he gonna play knowing there's a
contract on the line, if he feels jilted that he
wasn't given a Max's he gonna go out there and
prove he's a MAX player?
Speaker 3: And what does that look like?
Speaker 2: Does I mean he's just taking a lot of shots
and not necessarily playing within the system. I don't think
any of these things are impossibilities, And I just think
you've got to have a healthy fear of things going wrong,
and there's a lot of things that.
Speaker 3: Can go wrong.
Speaker 1: Now you've already said that you're kind of just out
on the fit with Zion, and I think de Jontay
Murray coming in super complicates that. But like, if there's
a way for Brandon Ingram to fit in the larger
context of the team. What does that look like? Is
it kind of winding back the clock to that when
you look at a shot profile the first season in
New Orleans, New Orleans night and day basically compared to
what it like. Just is that what it looks like
to him like that type of like offensive role or
is it is there other things that you're monitoring there,
like what is the pathway? Because he sounds sounds like
he's gonna be on this team on opening night, It's like,
what is the best way for him to actually optimize
himself or help optimize him this team one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: It's it's the shot profile. With the Johnta Murray coming in,
Bread is gonna be off the ball a lot more
than he's used to being.
Speaker 2: Uh, there's gonna be touches split between him, Dejontay, Zion,
all these guys are like playing on the ball.
Speaker 3: Somebody's gonna have to get those threes up. Now.
Speaker 2: De Jontey hasn't been shy in getting those threes off,
but he took a fair amount off the dribble threes
as well. I don't know if Ba's comfortable taking off
the dribble threes, and if he doesn't have the ball
in his hands, he might not even have the opportunity
to take a lot off the dribble threes. There's going
to be a lot of kickouts. Zion's gonna get to
the paint kickout, Deconte's gonna get to the pain kickout.
They're gonna play up tempo and transition. He's gonna have
to take those threes. Defensively, he's trended upwards since you
know the Alvin Gentry and standmand gun to years every
single year under Willy Green, I think Brandon's been solid
and he's had moments of good defense, you know where
I think previously he could have been called a liability.
Now I think he holds his own and can be disruptive.
He's gonna have to maintain that level of defensive intensity,
and I'm just a little bit concerned where, Okay, you're
gonna be a player that has to get threes up
and then you're gonna have to play defense, and then
you're gona have the rebound, then you're gonna have to facilitate.
You're gonna be super Nick Batoom, which is a very
very good player right, But is that the player he
wants to be. Is that the player that he thinks
is going to get a max. Ironically, that player would
get a ton of money. I mean, we just saw
we just saw og andob get a monster.
Speaker 1: Between got like one thet nine figures back when it
was a big deal to get nine fighters.
Speaker 2: Exactly he got He actually got I think a twenty
five percent max.
Speaker 3: I think at the thirty.
Speaker 2: But he got twenty five percent max that Betom did.
But yeah, og Ojina knew we got a monster deal
and Brandon's I don't think. I don't think it's a
stretch to say by any means, the Brandon is a
far better offensive player than Nanobi, just in terms of capability.
Speaker 3: So can you.
Speaker 2: Become this versatile glue guy and does that goal against
your own self image?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: I think that's kind of the battle here. It's like,
we need you to plug in these holes. But he
sees himself as the go to person, like the you know,
like a Carmelo.
Speaker 1: So if I had to force you to make a
prediction on how this ends, whether it's he gets traded
before the season, mid season, we take this to free agency,
maybe we see an extension, maybe we see him resign.
It's August the thirty first, and this is probably gonna
go up like very soon, because this is a team
that could blow up, like everything that we talk about.
If you had to predict how this ends, what would
you go with.
Speaker 2: I believe he would get traded mid season, closer to
the trade deadline. I think the Pelicans would kicked tires
around Jared Allen once again. You know there's going to
be five days of trade eligibility there, uh for for
Allen who signed his extension earlier this summer.
Speaker 3: If that fit is going south.
Speaker 2: For Cleveland, I Pelicans will one hundred percent be knocking
on that door. Barring that, I think the Pelicans would
accept just any kind of general Hey, let's just get
some salary back that's maybe expiring, maybe a week pick
or maybe some weirdly interesting young prospect.
Speaker 3: Well I'm looking at I'm looking at.
Speaker 2: Houston for example, right, what are they gonna do with
Jalen Green and ouprin Shangoon? And if we get to
the deadline and Houston's just out of this playing chase
and not even like in playing contention, are they willing
to do Jalen Green, maybe one of those future picks
and and something, you know, some weird salary that they got.
It's gonna be an unappetizing trait. The Pacers got three
men picks, yeah, man picks and then you know, uh
was it they sorry, yeah, they got three three picks,
That's what it.
Speaker 1: Wasah, there's the twenty I guess the Indy's twenty twenty
six pick is somewhat intriguing. But like if they have
the Aacaman, Halburn and m Hardy, I don't know what, like,
they're gonna be good.
Speaker 2: So yeah, sorry, yeah, I keep saying the Pacers kind.
But the Raptors did and they got the Bruce Brown
contract and and.
Speaker 3: That was essentially it.
Speaker 2: So yeah, who's gonna be like the Bruce Brown thing
that comes back in this deal? That's kind of like
what I'm looking at, like the guy that's playable salary
that you're hoping to flip later, you know, for for
something I don't know. And and I think if that
deal doesn't net a center for them, I could see
the Pelicans taking some of if there's any draft capital
that comes from that, or taking some of their own
draft capital and attaching it to CJ and going after.
Speaker 3: A center with that regard.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm looking at Nick Claxon in Brooklyn, who
I think the Nets are going to be open for
business for any of their players at this point, as
long as you're willing to meet their price.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he would be so good on this team. He
probably likes to like do stuff with the ball a
little too much than what they're looking for, but he
is so good. I love Nick Claxton, big Nick Claxton
fan over here. So, de Jontay Murray was actually traded
and it was to the New Orleans Pelicans just right off, Like,
what was your thoughts on that trade.
Speaker 3: I'm a big fan of it, you know.
Speaker 2: I think I was campaigning for them to trade for
Murray as soon as I you know, as soon as
it became a parent that he was going to be
on the trademarket back in like January or February, prior
to the trade deadline. And you know, I wrote this
article on the substack that they should go after Desjonty
Murray and it's very likely that they would be able
to get him without putting Brandon in the deal, and
that would free them up to move Brandon to go
complete the rest of the roster, and I thought conceptually
that was very sound and they were able to do
it with.
Speaker 3: Dyson, who I love. I love Dyson.
Speaker 2: I don't know if he would have reached his potential
on this version of the Pelicans Larry Nance expiring salary
and you know two I would say, eh, picks. I
don't think they were fantastic picks that the Pelicans sent out.
And so because of that, I thought, wow, home run deal,
especially because of Murray's own deal by the way, Yeah, yeah, Murray, Murray.
Murray's like twenty percent of the Salard cap. Twenty percent
of the sald cap. Yeah, and you know, there was
a little bit of a bump that he got because
of his trade kicker the largest in history, but it's
really not.
Speaker 3: That big of a deal.
Speaker 2: And I thought my argument was that Murray and Brandon
statistically almost identical players, right in terms of in terms
of like raw perduct like they were like last year
it was like twenty two, like six and six, like
both of them were like roughly at that amount. And
then I thought the upside with Murray was a little
bit greater because of his fit with Zion. I don't
think Brandon and Zion can be involved in actions together
because Brandon is not the greatest advantage creator, and so
if you do like screen rolls with Brandon's the ball handler,
he's not going to be able to turn the corner.
And it's an easy switch because they're kind of like
sized players where I think Dejonte he's a lot quicker
in his decisions and he gets downhill like quicker. He
doesn't live at the rim or anything. That's still like
something he needs to improve because he likes to operate
in the mid range area as well. But I think
that's a harder switch. Murray was a really really good
isolation player too last year, so I think just being
able to put Murray and Zion an action together. So
if I'm getting Brandon but at twenty percent of the
salary cap and maybe like a three percent or five
percent better fit, yeah, that's a great player. Let me
take that and then turn Brandon into something else, hopefully
a center. They just that last bit they haven't been
able to do. It's that last bit they haven't been
able to do yet.
Speaker 1: It seems like they were banking on it based off
what the roster looks like currently. Yeah, that was actually
one of my questions though with Murray, is that so
you do think that it will invite more creative use
of Zion away from the ball, where it feels like
when he doesn't have the ball, it's either he's just
like kind of coming up to go get it, or
he's if he's off the ball completely, he doesn't feel
like he's doing much a lot of the time when
you're watching him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2: And not only that, and just not having a center,
they're gonna have to be creative. I think they're gonna
they're gonna run a lot of small ball lineups. I
think internally right now they're split on whether they should
just start out the gates small as opposed to starting
a token center for the first, you know, seven minutes
of the first quarter, in the first seven minutes of
the third quarter and never seeing another center again. That's
kind of what they did with JAV this past year,
and the poor JV. They were not They wouldn't even start
him out of half some of these games, you know,
and it's like, okay, you already committed to that, and
then the person you were replacing JV was Larry Nance again,
you know, solid player, but he was at best the
two hundredth best player in the league.
Speaker 3: Maybew hundred and fiftieth.
Speaker 2: So it's like, in this case, you have Daniel Tice
who's like in that range to fifty three hundred, or
you can just start your best five players who are
all top hundred players.
Speaker 3: I feel like I am a I am.
Speaker 2: Of the mindset that they should just start their best
five players that having a nominal center who's not very
good isn't really gonna help you just because they are
they can play center. Atino Tics is six eight, so
it's like not even he's like he's a real RCE center.
Speaker 1: Yeah, looking at if Ingram is still on this team,
I think in theory, Ingram will have to be the
one that should need to adapt more. But I'm just
wondering because Murray, as we saw in Atlanta, like he
is someone who is more comfortable and took more of
those catching shoots threes. Is it gonna be end up him?
Maybe that's adapted. Like when you're looking at the three
of these stars together, so long as they're playing together,
who winds up making like or is gonna need to
make the most adaptations to ensure this thing works while together.
Speaker 3: That's a great question.
Speaker 2: Historically, the way that the politics of this team have
been set up like Zion's been the one like I'll
take a backseat, right, that can't happen anymore. So the
first thing that needs to happen is everybody needs to be.
Speaker 3: On the same page as a Zion's team. I think
Murray understands that.
Speaker 2: I think he said something to that effect in his
intro directory press conference where he said something like, that's
our superstar.
Speaker 3: So I think there's an understanding there.
Speaker 2: Secondly, you know, Murray will have to adapt just because
Brandon is also a good player, and you're gonna have
to do things that gets your good player going. You
can't just like, as much as I want it to
be this perfect role player, like, you're gonna have to
make them comfortable in some place in order to optimize
everything that's going on. So Murray is gonna have to
continue to take those threes. It's actually a contract incentive
of his to make one hundred and one or one
hundred and three. I forget, and he's such a number
I love it. Yeah, Well, he made two hundred and
something last year. It was over two hundred.
Speaker 1: There was a point I think it was like before
the All Star Breakers, he was shooting the hell out
of off the dribble threes. It wasn't just like he
finished like forty on catching shoots and that number on
pull ups ended up dipping, but he was shooting the
lights out on unassisted threes.
Speaker 3: At one point.
Speaker 1: It was wild.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he should. He made over two hundred last year.
He needs to continue to take around seven to eight,
and I'm okay with that being the shot that he takes.
You know, I think some of these guys like Luca
and an Ant who are just not the world's best shooters,
but they take a lot of threes. They have nights
where that three ball is falling and they're just on guard,
like you just can't do anything with them, and it
makes the defense, It warps the defensive coverage, it makes you,
I don't know, it just changes how the teams guard you.
Speaker 3: And I think Murray needs to continue to do that.
Speaker 2: I'm a big believer in lead guards putting shots up
from from deep. But he's gonna have a lot opportunities
off the catch too. Brandon is a fantastic three point
generator himself. He gets to the teeth of the defense
and kicks it out. It's a good playmaker Zion. Of course,
we know that he was ninth in the league and
three point assists last year. Tenth was Murray actually, and
so they're gonna have opportunities to take these shots and
they absolutely need to. And kind of circling back to Brandon,
he's gonna need to as well. He only made about
eighty or so. He made less than Herb Jones, So
it's like, who would have thought that.
Speaker 1: You know, all things are possible through Herb Jones, So
it's surprising about him anymore. Is there like a way
would you know they're all gonna start? So it's like
if you gave Ingram the quick hook and kind of
staggered them that way, would that be a way to
maybe alleviate like some of the awkwardness to where he's
gonna get more time the independent of Murray at the least,
maybe independent of both Zion and Murray and helped run
those units. Is that something that you expect to try
that they should try. That'll be like a heavy like
staple of what they're doing.
Speaker 3: Well, they they absolutely to answer your question.
Speaker 2: Yes, because they staggered Zion and Brandon a lot last
year because I think they quickly put together that starting
unit that they that they would put out just didn't
function correctly, and then they'd get into the stick.
Speaker 1: With it for some reason. I don't understand it.
Speaker 2: But I don't understand that either, and then they would
do their stagger units, and their stagger units would destroy
it didn't matter like who was you know, like the.
Speaker 3: Brand units were very good.
Speaker 2: The Zion units were very good too, So it was
just like, I think they will probably continue to do
that and then kind of figure out who Murray works
best with. And I assume that they would experiment more
with the Zion aspect of it first, because it certainly
seems like those two are more of the players that
are going to be here long term or in the
near future than be I.
Speaker 3: But you know, you never know. I do think stagger
will be a big part of their strategy.
Speaker 1: Though you mentioned Trey Murphy and that you would just
start the five best players right out of the gate.
Do you one trust them to do that, but two
if or not if they say, hey, we need to
put Daniel Twice in the starting lineup, or whatever. Does
that diminish the likelihood that Trey Murphy starts, or does
diminish the likelihood that I'm just assuming like CG. McCollum
will come off the bench won't start.
Speaker 2: So if they start Daniel Tye, two of HERB Jones, CJ. McCollum,
or Trey Murphy come off the bench two of those three.
I think that's a ridiculous proposition because that's three very
very good players, and if two of them are coming
off the bench, something is going wrong and I want
to do everything I can to maximize the minute like
two of those threes play, right, The player I would
bring off the bench is CJ. McCollum in any of
the scenarios. I think that is the one I would
absolutely do because I would like the Pelicans to be
big at the perimeter positions as much as possible, knowing
that they're going to be weak at the center spot
even with Tys, I would like.
Speaker 3: Them to be big at the perimeter position.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: I also just think that CJ. Efficacy off the bench
in this construction with Murray is gonna be a lot
higher because there's just again the lack of touches and
if you're just relegating CJ to be a spot up
an attack, close out guy, Tray can do that just
as well, and he's a better defender, and he's a
better rebounder, and you know, Tray can finish above the rim.
So it's just one of those things where it's like,
off the bench, CJ can maybe play that Jamal Crawford role,
get some of his own stuff going, and still get
a lot of like, you know, enough catch and shoots
off of whichever stagger guy that he's playing off of.
But yeah, I mean, my whole thing comes down to
if you're bringing two guys off the bench that are
very good players, they're gonna play with max twenty six
twenty seven minutes a game, and that's just not enough
minutes for a Trey Murphy or a Herb Jones and.
Speaker 3: Even a CJ McCollum.
Speaker 2: But like I think, making it's only one person suffers
that fade instead of two is the is the way
to go.
Speaker 1: So it does seem like then, based off what you're
saying that if the roster stay is largely the same,
or let's just say Brandon Ingram is still on this
team on opening night and so with CJ. McCollum that
this roster construction is gonna then result in more Zion
at the.
Speaker 3: Five, Well, yes and no.
Speaker 2: I think hm, they will play as small and that
doesn't necessarily mean Zion's guarding.
Speaker 3: The five man. I think you will see.
Speaker 2: I think one, ye're gonna see those units are gonna
switch everything, so like who guards the five really blurs.
You don't really know is guarding the five if they're
switching all the screens.
Speaker 3: Two.
Speaker 2: I think there's gonna be matchups where they do put
Herb on the five, or they put a brand in
on the five like.
Speaker 1: Herb of course, but like can Ingram do that in
like a I'll call it a steady volume.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Ingram can do it in certain matchups. They
experimented with it a little bit last year. They put
him a up against Alan and he held up. It's
just fine, And I think there's more of the rim
running type centers that they would do it on and
allow Zion to roam.
Speaker 3: Zion's actually quite a good low man defender.
Speaker 2: He likes to hunt some of these blocks and steals,
so they like his defensive play making off the ball.
Speaker 3: Same thing with Herb Jones.
Speaker 2: It's like, if he's not at the point of attack,
then you kind of want him in the lanes creating havoc.
So it's the advantage of just putting Ingram on some
of these slimmer centers that are really offensive non threats,
because if you're playing against like the MAVs, then you
want Gafford to be the one eating up all the
possessions and.
Speaker 3: Not Luca eating up all the possessions.
Speaker 2: So you kind of want to take teams out of
their rhythm of how they're playing, and they think that
they have a mismatch with an Ingram or somebody, and
really it's Herb Jones that's waiting, waiting for you to
try to do something, and he's just going to take
the ball from you.
Speaker 1: So where are you at. We haven't really talked about
Zion much yet. Where he kind of at with the
big fella, And well, like, what did you make I
think it was like what he did last year, Like
I don't know, quarterway through the season, after the midseason tournament, whatever,
you feel like a switch flipped defensively for him. So, like,
what was kind of the biggest difference you noticed in
his performance last year?
Speaker 3: It's almost like he had two different seasons within one season.
Speaker 2: So I think for the first half of the season
he was a pretty disappointing player. I don't think he
was playing at a top fifty level. He was having
his least efficient year. He was obviously not playing great defense.
And he saw it culminate at the end season tournament
in Vegas against the Lakers, and he just looked lethargic
and they.
Speaker 3: Got embarrassed pretty badly.
Speaker 2: And then it started trending the other direction into where
he started. He started peaking in March. In April, it
looked like, oh my god, the Destroyer of worlds is here.
Like this, this guy is wanting defensive assignments. He wants
to guard Kawhi, he wants to guard Lebron. He's, you know, block,
He's pinning Katie's stuff off the backboard. So it's just
like this was a completely different player. I'm optimistic that
that player is gonna be the one that walks through
the door on Opening Night, just based off of all
of the reports around him. And it just seems like
he's changed his lifestyle in a meaningful way. He's sort
he looks physically like he's in great shape this summer
with all the pictures that have come out. We've been
fooled by the pictures before, so it's one of those
things like I gotta see it like in person.
Speaker 3: I gotta see it in a game. But it's it
could be worse.
Speaker 2: We've also seen the bad social media with regards to zions,
so like right now, it's a completely different summer than
last summer, and the press has been nothing but positive.
And I'm excited to see what you know, they want.
His stepdad said they want to get him down to
two seventy one, and he's currently at two eighty two
and he was at Duke. He was listed at two
eighty five, So I'm excited to see what that what
that looks like. You know, I think he.
Speaker 3: Could be a very very different.
Speaker 2: Player if he's not having to play his way into
shape for the first three four months of the season.
Speaker 1: And you would hope that. I guess being lighter like
at least makes it less likely he's going to suffer
just some of these lower body injuries because it's just
such a bummers. But I mean, obviously the way he
was playing, but just like not being able to see
this guy in all these high stakes games. Really sucks
because he's so good when he's operating at his peak.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm a I'm not a doctor, so I
don't know about like the likelihood of injury or not.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to speculate on it.
Speaker 2: But I do think that being lighter, from a personal experience,
makes you far more explosive, and it just reduces your
fatigue levels. And I think there is a link between
fatigue and injury. So if you're just constantly tired or
sore or out of you know, that kind of stuff,
then you're more I think there's tendencies to get out
of shape or non schaut of shape, tendencies to get
hurt in those conditions. So I'm more excited for his
conditioning aspect of being letter. I think it's easier to
get in that elite conditioning that you need to be
as an NBA player when you're carrying less weight.
Speaker 1: For sure, Trey Murphy sees a lot of attention for shooting,
the way he can go a bout of shooting and
be deployed. He is a lot more than that. And
I know that you're someone who's been like I don't
even want to say early on Murphy you were just
you've been on top of Murphy from the beginning. What's
something or stuff that he can do for this team
that you think goes overlooked on sort of that macro scale.
Speaker 2: For sure, they primarily use him as a spot up
guy and a spacer guy, and I think that's doing
themselves a disservice because he has more to offer. He
is a guy in my opinion, that needs to be
used like Lowry market and is used in Utah. They
need to leverage his athleticism getting downhill without the ball
getting in in motion. He can finish over people and
he's done that multiple times, and you're not going to
get that as often if it's just attacking closeouts. Sure,
that's always going to be a part of his game,
and I think the three ball is always going to
be kind of the money maker.
Speaker 3: But you can leverage the thread of.
Speaker 2: His shooting a as a screener, but be you know, just
kind of like becoming a role man. We talked about
like the like size switch between Brain and Zion. One
thing I think they can do with Trey is because
of how they use him, he ends up taking on
the worst defender of the opponent usually, so it's usually
a small guard that's kind of hidden on him in
the corner. And if you start using him as a
screener with Zion, good luck, right, because you can't really
switch that too. Now you can mix in rolls to
the rim, because I think Trey can finish above the rim,
and so it's like, oh, did you just invent a
lob threat for Zion, Like, yeah, he's right there. Try
it too. That pick and pop is going to generate
an easy look every single time. So I think you
can simplify the game and get in more touches, and
I think there's other things that you can do just
off the ball, where using his shooting gravity to like
spring other people open and just kind of create space
on the weak side of the court. So I do
think there's a lot of creativity that they need to
bring this season, and I'm optimistic they will.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they have, like just based off
the hierarchy politics here, it also feels like if Zion
was screening for him, that that's like a capability that
Trey Murphy would have just based off some of the
passes he's made on drives, but like, he's not a
high turnover guy. We've seen him navigate some tight spots
in the half court when he is on the ball.
Sometimes it just doesn't happen a time. So I would
love to see something like that. But also the reality
of the situation is what you laid out feels far
more likely because it plugs and plays into how the
Pelicans are already operating, whereas this feels like more of
a wholesale shift, especially when you're adding to Jontay Murray
and brend and Ingram are still.
Speaker 3: On this team. Well, I think you're right.
Speaker 2: I think it's really easy for them to do. Like
let's say Zion gets the ball around the wing and
Tray's you know, and the corner closest to him. I mean,
Zion takes a dribble, breaks in the defense, and then
Trey flies over for a handoff, and Zion goes for
a handoff. Trey's probably gonna have an open three there.
But let's say the defender's really good and gets over
that screen and smile as a handoff. Okay, Well, Trey
puts the ball on the floor. Now you just got
a baked in pick and roll. With Zion on the
empty side, and Tray's shown that he can make those
pocket passes, and now Zion's on the move going to
the rim. So it's just like, yes, please give me
more of your pick or poison with the rim king
and the elite shooter, Like just figure like that should
be easy basketball.
Speaker 1: Is there any like I don't want to call it
a weakness, but an area of development that you're still
like kind of monitoring with him to see how it
pans out.
Speaker 2: With Tray, Yeah, defensively and just activity on the boards.
Speaker 3: I think offense, we already.
Speaker 2: Know his floor as an offensive player, and I think
that floor is you can plug him into any team
and just be elite. I think what's gonna tip him
over to being one of these guys that get some
of these og In Andov type deals later on in
their career is how well he can hold up defensively
across multiple positions. And I think in Virginia and college
he was a very very good defender, and in the
NBA he's been not that great, and then those trending
upwards last year and to where he was like okay
by the end of the year. He was also kind
of like Zion, like, oh, you're blocking shots that I
didn't see you blocked before. You know, you're going after
rebounds that I didn't see you do.
Speaker 3: And so I know he has it in him, just got.
Speaker 2: To bring it out consistently. And that's that's where I'm
really looking for a lot of strides.
Speaker 1: I was having this discussion with Greg Wissinger from The
King's Herald about Keegan Murray and his extension next year.
Is Trey Murphy belonging the like will he be one
of the you know ball That mistest is based off
the reaction to what he gets an extension, because you're
throwing numbers out before when you said in the twenties,
I'm like, they get Tree Murphy locked down in the
twenties per year. That's gonna be a steel, It's gonna
be a feel.
Speaker 2: Look, I think his deal is gonna be somewhere in
the realm of five years, one hundred and.
Speaker 3: Fifty two hundred and seventy million dollars.
Speaker 1: So that's a manual quickly money, And that's perfectly fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's quickly. I think kind of set this
market for some of those guys, unfortunately, And I think
that was an insane deal for the Raptors to give there.
Speaker 3: I don't even know who they were bidding against.
Speaker 2: But that's that's that's that's how the league played out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the market this summer was just so bizarre. I
had I ended up having such a bad feel for it.
And we didn't see there were no offer sheets given
out this year, right, and wasn't last year. We only
had the Paul Reid off for sheet late in the summer.
So I'm trying to think just off rip, like I
don't know who these who the Pacers been against, Robie Topping,
Like why did he get above the mining?
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Look, I think some of the Pacers are another team
where I just think that they had this kind of
window with Halliburton and now they've just locked up all
of these guys to keep their same team. And like, yeah,
you made the Eastern Conference finals, so you feel good
about it.
Speaker 3: But it's just like.
Speaker 2: You need to be salarly flexible in the worst way
as as some of these small market teams, and you
need to be able to move off your current build
and just restructure around your star. And I think that's
one thing, you know, for all Darryl Morey's works that
like he was able to do repeatedly around James Harden
was just kind of invent a new team. And that
just because you stay flexible at the margins. Committing four
years to a thirty two year old small guard in
t J McConnell when you just played paid m hard,
it's just like why, why, why would you do that?
And it's just four years. He's thirty two years old,
he's gonna be thirty six by the end of the deal.
And you're like, oh, well, it's not that much money.
It's like, cool, Tyree Saliburton got the All NBA bonus,
so that's five more percent that you weren't accounted for.
Pass Klos yakams around thirty percent of the cass so
together they're making sixty percent. And then now you're just
handing out deals to role players. Granted he was great
in the playoffs, but it's just like, man, I don't know,
I just I wouldn't.
Speaker 3: Have done that.
Speaker 1: I actually probably have a bigger problem with the obi
toping of it all than I do.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, yeah, the same concept.
Speaker 1: Herb Jones last year shooting receives a ton of attention.
Anecdotally and somewhat statistically when you dig into it did
feel like he was doing like more offensive initiation. Is
that gonna fall by the wayside now looking at the
construct of this team, and is there may be room
to kind of use him more as like well, look
at herb Jones like kind of operating out of the
short role, because we did see a like I remember
at leasting a couple possession where it looked like he
was doing that. So like, how can he be like
deployed and continued creative ways offensively because he was just
so much more than his shooting improvement last year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, same thing with Trey. Just get these guys involved
in the action a lot more. Get them screening, get
them screening off ball, on the ball, just and again,
her is athletic enough to where you get him going downhill,
he's gonna finish and he's gonna finish well, or he's
gonna get to the free throw line.
Speaker 3: So run a pick and roll.
Speaker 2: Especially if you're doing some of these small ball units,
like if Zion has the ball in his hands and
you got b I spotting up and de Jonathan's spotting
up and Tray spotting up, like, yeah, like run a
screen roll with her.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be great. You're gonna have a great time.
Trust me.
Speaker 1: I entertaining too to watch stuff like that.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, they're gonna have to get built.
Speaker 1: To do that. I hope that that becomes like just staple.
Speaker 3: That's what I think is.
Speaker 2: Like, Look, you're not gonna win playing traditionally because the
traditional guy you're playing is just not a good player.
And and so you're trying to play against these other
teams who have better players at that position, and in
the West, elite players at that position, elite elite bigs
in the West man and so you gotta do something
that's different, and you have to hammer your strengths. And
right now, unfortunately, your strengths.
Speaker 3: Are your wings.
Speaker 2: You have a lot of wings that are like sized,
and they're good offensively and they can wreck hav defensively.
So just be big one through four in the five position,
you're gonna see the up size, but you're gonna have
a ton of offense there.
Speaker 1: So who cares when you look at the centers who
are on their team, do you have any like overarching
sentiment Like I've talked myself into Carlo Makovich, like maybe
we should get him some minutes. But when I'm looking
at this and seem like, I know, Daniel Tyson isn't
super old. He seems older than he actually is, but
probably because he's dealt with so many injuries. But like
I'm assuming Tys is the most important, like non Zion
like big on this, like conventional big, And then do
you see him like Makovich or maybe me like getting
an opportunity. I don't know what to make of it.
And we're at the point of the offseeas where I
have talked myself into Carlo, like I feel like that
dude could make like a little bit of an impact,
like he was able to do this in that in
Summer League, look like he was moving well defensively. So
I I just don't know where It's just it's such
a curious roster. It makes sense the stuff they're doing
independent of the bigs, but to not have like a
center that you trust just feels so weird to me.
Speaker 2: I don't think they should give minutes to either Carlo
or mec or even Jerry unless unless absolutely needed, right,
because like I'm just looking at the minute allocation and
if you're bringing some of these dudes off the bench
that are not going to start. There's just no way
you're gonna be able to give them the requisite minutes
unless you play a.
Speaker 3: Lot of small ball stuff.
Speaker 2: And so if you're playing a lot of small ball stuff,
then you don't have room to give minutes those other guys.
And so it's either one of those guys getting fourteen
to twenty minutes a game as a starter, or one
of those guys getting fourteen to twenty minutes off the bench,
and there's really no more minutes to give to anybody else.
In my opinion, I just wouldn't even fool around with it.
I mean, look, in the preseason, sure whatever, figure out
what you can do. Maybe if someone's blowing you in camp,
you find a way to get someone minutes.
Speaker 3: I just don't even know. If I would spend time
practicing that stuff, I would just start.
Speaker 2: I would I would practice being small and just being
the best possible small team.
Speaker 3: But hey, I'm not the coach.
Speaker 1: So what is You can kind of glean this from
the names that are most mentioned with the Pelicans, which
right now I feel like Walker Kessler and still Jared
Allen FLT. Right out there. But what is like the
single biggest thing the Pelicans need out of a five.
Speaker 3: Being a five? No, they that's a great question, I
think he I think they would.
Speaker 2: Want a guy that could finish above the prip first
and foremost, and then a guy that can rebound the
ball at a high level, and two is mobile enough
to play different schemes defensively. Now, you don't have to
be able to switch one through five every single time,
but you do have to be able to play at
the level of the screen. You do have to be
able to get out the shooters. You do have to
be able to change it up. So I think just
mobility and speed first and foremost or what they're looking for,
and then offensively. You know, I don't think they are
married to the idea of getting a stretch five simply
because it limits them so much into the terms of
the guys that are actually available. You want good players,
so they think they can create spacing if they have
a vertical threat. You know, if they have a vertical
threat with Zion and you build a wall, then you
plant the guy behind the walls and I'm just gonna
throw over that wall. You know, same thing with Murray
and so just offensively, don't be a zero and be
able to finish above the rims.
Speaker 1: What I would say, have you given thought to any
names aside from Walker Kessler or Jared Allen that would
be worth monitoring? And is this team? I guess they
have like the trade exceptions that they could take someone into,
and there's draft Aculdy they could send out, but just
based off now we've gotten to the point because Dyson
Daniels has gone, Larny Hunters gone. The outgoing salaries in
a lot of these cases are just massive, or you're
dealing because you're not trading your core players of like
Herb or Trey Murphy. So it's almost like they're only built.
Maybe it's not a blockbuster center coming in, but they're
only built to make a blockbuster trade and getting like
a center, maybe like a mid end center or a
lower end center will come back as part of that deal.
But that's some of the issues I've run into with them,
is that I don't know if there's just like, oh,
they swung and hit a side, like even getting Dayron
Sharp to the Pelicans for instance, can be somewhat challenging.
But they do have the trade exceptions they could take
them into, So I guess there's that. But given thought
to any names outside of the two that are mentioned
the most.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, the Walker Casher thing is interesting
because the trade construction I do with Brandon is Kessler
and Collins because I give them two looks at two
different kinds of centers. Right, So it's just like, cool,
you got the balancy young guy that can also shoot
three is and then you got the traditional drop big
two block shots. I love that because I'm like, you
can go in any direction. You have two bigs, you
feel good about them. The one that I keep coming
back to is the CJ. McCollum DeAndre Aida Aiden Challenge.
I think that's it's a festival.
Speaker 3: Of sadness that no one wants to be a part of.
Speaker 2: But I'm like, I think by February someone can get
desperate enough to be like, Okay, if you're Portland, you
just want to clear minutes for Klinging and you just
want Aiden out of there.
Speaker 3: And then if.
Speaker 2: You're the Pels, they're roughly the same salary, so you
just kind of make that happen and they have the
same amount of years left, so it's like CG would
be expiring next year, AID would be in expiring next year.
Speaker 3: You could.
Speaker 2: It won't prevent you from making any of the moves
that you want to move make. What would really need
to happen is then Brandon needs to be traded for
like a lot of like expiring money that way, you know,
because you just can't have money coming back in the
Brandon trade. That's long term, you're going to be over
the text. But that one's a fun one obviously mentioned.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm so out on
I'd rather them take a flyer on Robert Williams the
third somehow, Like I just that.
Speaker 2: That's the perfect Pelicans player, play thirty five games a.
Speaker 3: Year and be really good, but then just not be available.
Speaker 1: That's yeah, there you go.
Speaker 3: Sounds like a good fit. Uh yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know how they can get to the problem
with like like Robert Williams and Wendell Carter is there's
no real way to get to their their dollar figure,
as you mentioned, like just large salaries that the Pelicans have,
so they don't have to get creative, get multiple teams involved.
There's always like you know, there's always the Clint Capellas
of the world that because he's in expiring, maybe they
can work something out with Clinton and the Hawks. But
it's it's pretty dire, man, Like, there's not a great
selection of bigs they could do it.
Speaker 1: For you at all. Like there might be like trade
deadline when restrictions left. Maybe yeah, but.
Speaker 2: Again, back, like that's just such a weird salary because
he's like Isaiah Stewart's like a sixteen million year So
it's just like.
Speaker 1: Fun to heel back. We're at twenty three now, we're
kind of we're cooking with something here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, yeah, Trajan should love one of c
j or Brandon, right, yeah, man, it's it's tough to
be honest, it's super tough to construct. I mean, Kestler, Collins,
Alan Claxton are like the main ones I look at
anything else, like I think.
Speaker 3: It could be anybody's guess.
Speaker 2: They really they really really liked d in the draft,
and they liked Klingen. Of course, they liked the Behemoths
and unfortunately we're not you know, they attempted to trade
up for them, but.
Speaker 3: I think it didn't pan out obviously.
Speaker 1: Uh, what is so they've what were they six in
defense last year despite not having a five that you
would call a top tier rim protector. I have two questions,
one of which might just be stupid, but the first
one's not just like for a listeners, like, what goes
into the Pelicans being so good or being able to
be so good defensively without having that elite type of
big man where a lot of the times you like,
even teams that like the Celtics the way they defend
like they still have like one or two elite big men,
depending on how you feel about Al Horford. What allows
the and obviously Zion is an only big man, but
what allows the Pelicans like to be so good defensively
without that conventional type of defensive big man.
Speaker 3: A few things.
Speaker 2: One, they sell out to prevent shots at the rim,
so pack the paint style defense.
Speaker 3: Will give up threes if we have to. They do.
They give up a good number of threes.
Speaker 2: I think it's like top five in the league that
they give up but sell out to protect the rim,
protect the paint. So we don't have a good rim protector.
That's correct, But you're not going to get to the
rim that we're just going to make it very difficult
to do. Secondly, what they do is they generate a
lot of turnovers. So Jose Alvarado, Herb Jones, Dyson Daniels,
even Larry Nancenauji Marshall. These people were always forcing steals.
You know, Zion two when he started getting in shape.
Just a lot of guys that can generate turnovers. That
helped them defensively, and they were they've been you know,
I forgot, actually forgot where they finished at. But they've
historically over the last few years, they've been a decent
rebounding team and.
Speaker 3: That helps them. It's just kind of not giving up
second chances.
Speaker 2: So they they kind of clean up the low hanging
fruit and recognize that, Okay, we you know, we can't
really protect the riom. Oh. And the last thing is
they were one of they were the best team at
defending the three point line.
Speaker 1: No luck involved there though, right, that's just completely it's all.
Speaker 2: Uh, you know, people go back and forth on that.
I have certainly like the Analytically, it's very very difficult
to prove or even find evidence that it's anything but luck.
It's very difficult to Yeah, it's it's it's all. It's
all variance. If if you look at the data, it's like, cool,
there's nothing we can do experimentally that like tells us
that it's not very But that's with publicly available data,
and you know, measuring certain baltuables. I don't know if
we have an accurate way to measure herb Jones yet.
Speaker 1: So we didn't metric named after herb Jones. We've got
Lebron and raptor.
Speaker 3: Just herb Jones.
Speaker 1: Well, this was my second question about it. So the
turnover aspect, I think with now Murray and his current role,
like being able to play with herb Jones, even this
version of Ingram or what we think Trey Murphy could be, Like,
I feel like he can do stuff like that and
he'll look a lot better defensively in New Orleans. The
rebounding aspect, I'm wondering if there's a concern there about
compromising their defense because you lost Valance Unis, but you
also lost Naji Marshall was a pretty good positional rebounder.
So is there any level of concern there about that
impacting their defense in the sense of being able to
end possessions just because as you mentioned, they are good
at preventing those second chance opportunities.
Speaker 3: Big time, big time. JV was a monster.
Speaker 1: Just you look at off rebounds. Was with him for
a fucking wild.
Speaker 3: Yeah, JV was a monster. So there's a huge concern
for me.
Speaker 2: They're gonna have to get created, They're gonna have to
gang rebound. Dejonte's gonna be have to be a person
that was closer to the Spurs level where he was
at like around eight or nine a game, as opposed
to you know on six that he's been with the Hawks.
So same thing with Zion, same thing with Brain, all
of those guys. It's gonna be a collective effort to
get those, but it might just end up being a
thing where like Okay see was like what twenty eighth
or twenty ninth in defensive rebounding, but they were so
good at every other aspect of defense.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: The one thing Depelicans don't have that Okac had was
an incredible room protector like Chet. But they're gonna have
to do a lot of what Okac did is like
be great offensively. So you're playing a lot more half
court defense than you are a transition defense, and that
helps you a lot.
Speaker 3: And then you know, generated shits.
Speaker 2: On of turnovers and and just swarm, just swarm teams,
so by being faster than them.
Speaker 1: They also I was like either the second half of
the year or the latter third of the year, Like
okay SE's wings and cards were like selling out to
just box out people so that they're big cigret rebounds
and their defensive rebounding rate shot through the roof during
that spand so you could also try and do something
like that since you have so many of those wing types.
Jordan Hawkins, where's he fit into the vision of this team.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure that he does. To be honest, I
wasn't you know. I wasn't the biggest fan of that pick.
In general.
Speaker 2: I'm not a fan of drafting specialists, and that's what
I pegged Jordan as He's going to have to be
a player that hits a shot at an elite level
at a high volume, because if he doesn't, then he's
not going to be able to provide value to the
Pelicans because he doesn't yet contribute anywhere else on the court.
You know, he's not a great finisher, he's not a
good playmaker, not a good reboundary, he's not a good defender,
he's not a good turnover generator. So it's just like
it's a ton of boxes that you can check that
were negative and his shot just wasn't good enough last year.
If you're looking at Jose Alvarado off the bench, and
Jose has done nothing but win his minutes ever since
he's come to the Pelicans. If you're looking at potentially CJ.
McCollum off the bench, and there's no way that you
can get Hawkins on the court because now they got
Javonte Green as well, and that guy is by the way,
that guy's gonna earn minutes. Yeah, yeah, he's gonna find
his way into minutes.
Speaker 3: He absolutely is.
Speaker 1: Go about someone who will guard up that is just
like Davonte Green. Love Davontae. That was a good pick
up by them. If he's able to stay healthy, yeah,
I think he'll get minutes. Uh are you ready to
enter the lightning round? Cookie cutter? Portion of these podcasts
do it? Is there something good, bad, strength, weakness, storyline development,
whatever that's flying under the radar that you think needs
to be discussed more.
Speaker 3: Flying under the radar?
Speaker 2: Yes, I would say it's how Willie Green's gonna handle
the season. So last year they brought on James Birego
to facilitate with the offensive execution and the offensive schemes,
and about part way early on in the season, they
abandoned a lot of those principles of philosophies. Now there's
a couple of different reasons why they may or may
not have happened, but the important one is the important
thing here is they went away from it. It's imperative
that the Pelicans not go away from that style of
play this coming year, and in fact, they need to
lead into it more, as we've kind of talked about
all throughout the podcast.
Speaker 3: Because of the roster limitations, Willie Green.
Speaker 2: Is going to have to be a coach that responds
very quickly to the data in front of him. You
can't make it to the whole year and play the
starting lineup, that's neg If you can't play Garrett Temple
for a thousand minutes for no good reason, you can't
do all of these things that are very clearly just
not good for your team and just continue to do
them and do them and do the well passed the
expiration date. So I think how Willie Green approaches this
season and the creativity that he embraces is going to
define how good these Pelicans can be, because if they're
going to be put in a box or be pretty
limited and it's going to be okay, well Trey's just
going to hide in the corner, and then it's gonna
be Brandon could take her in to ISO for a
Midi and then then de Jontay takes her in ISO
for a Midian and then Zion go Iso. It's not
going to be a fun season for anybody. So that
is what I think is kind of flying under the
radar is it's it's not a contract year for Willie Green,
but I think it's heading into one. And don't I
don't want to say he's coaching for his job, but
that seat can get really really warm if things don't go.
Speaker 1: Right, I will say, And I do think a lot
of this is just the level of maybe stability and
a lot of these positions around the NBA. He feels
like he might have the hottest coaching seat right now
just because like, Okay, the Bulls and Blazer's fine, but
there's just no expectations for those teams. So if you
want to say Chauncey Billups or Billy Donovan. Sure, but
I kind of look at Willy Green right now. Just
because the Pelicans on paper are really good, they might
not be perfect, So there's gonna be that expectations there.
So there's a chance that he's like in the most
pressure filled situation relative to the rest of the head
coaches in the league.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like if you go to another year where you
can't get Brandon to take threes and you continue to
play these like offensive zero guys way more than you
need to, and then you know you're just you have
all this offensive talent and you end up being in
that top ten offensive team. And I think it's fair
to ask, like, should the pelicansend in a different direction?
Speaker 1: So at full strength, what does the top ten rotation
for this team look like? I have I think eight
locks penciled in, where was de Jontay Murray, Herb Jones,
Brandon Ingram, Trey Murphy, Zion CJ Jose Alvarado, and then
I have Tye as a lock just because I figure
one of the bigs is gonna play.
Speaker 2: I would say Tys would be eight, Javonte Green would
be nine, and that test spot will rotate between depending
on the matchup Jordan High, Fawkins, JRI and.
Speaker 3: Me C slash Carlo. So just kind of what they
need on any given night.
Speaker 1: What is going to be this team's most use closing lineup?
Speaker 2: It better be de Jonta Murray, Trey Murphy, Herb Jones.
Speaker 3: Brandon Ingram and Zimon Williamson.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that would be the most used one,
and some of that might be out of their control
because a lot of these guys just get hurt.
Speaker 1: So it always, Yeah, with the Pelicans, it always ends
up resolving itself in the form of people not being
available when we think they have a lot logjam Bridge.
Is there a weird, funky, offbeat lineup that you're hoping
Willie Green rolls out this year?
Speaker 2: I felt like I feel like the answer to that
one is like just the starting line up to us
clothesline that it just pitched. But just in the spirit
of being small and weird, it would be kind of
fun for them to do. It would be fun for
them to do Zion and as many shooters.
Speaker 3: On the court as possible. So let's get c j
out there, Let's get Trey out there, Let's get Jordan
Hawkins out there. And that fourth guy.
Speaker 2: If Matt Ryan's still out there on the team'd be
hilarious to get Matt Ryan out there, or you know,
if he's not, then you're kind of picking between like
what serves you best. And I kind of like Dejonte there,
and I kind of like Herb there to just seeing
what you can do. But it'd be fun, too fun
to do a weird Zion plus just elite shooting at
every level and it's just like movement and movement and
movement and quick decisions.
Speaker 1: I want to see one where it's like your front
court is just Herb, Trey, Murphy and Javonte Green, and
like if you just want more size out there, like
Inger gonna be a part of that and we'll pay Dejontay.
I have no idea what that looks like, but like
Javonte Green has been like made a career of guarding
like actual bigs a lot of the time.
Speaker 2: So well Zion and the Dogs line up historically is
work and it's gone back to like you know, like
the Stamen Gundi years. So like that would be Jose Javonte,
Herb Trey, and Zion. Like that would be like Zion
and the dogs in my opinion, like that would be yeah,
like to just absolutely go get them guys in Jose
and Javonte and then Herb of course just being the
menace that he is, And.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wanted to even go to that. But like
also during when Zion's on the bench, like forget about
putting out an actual big like let's just like I
don't know.
Speaker 2: If something that I would pay to see that yeahs
out there.
Speaker 1: So we have as we record this, they're over under
is currently said at forty five and a half. Would
you take the over the.
Speaker 3: Under on that? I would take the under at this rate?
Speaker 2: Uh, forty five and a half is tough ask in
the West when you have the worst center rotation in
the league.
Speaker 3: That's what I would say.
Speaker 2: And just kind of like these weird fit questions just
hanging over you, like, hey, what like what is this
team gonna look like? But yeah, I don't think it's
a it's a major under. I think this team should
win more than they lose, so it should be like
a forty three forty four win team Barney changes.
Speaker 1: What's also tough with them too is that, let's say
they make changes that were in support of and that
rebalances the roster in degree makes them better. If this
happens in the middle of the year, it's just harder
to make these integrations where that's the value of doing
it over the off season is you have to go
through a training camp with everybody. How does that impact
them if they do wind up moving Ingram or CJ.
You're trying to integrate this semi big new piece midstream.
I don't like. I just don't know how they'll necessarily
respond to that.
Speaker 2: It's a great question. Who knows, man, I just hope
it would be an easy one. I mean, just we're
able to do it very quickly with the Gafford and
PG right, So it's like if the guys make sense
as a fits, and sometimes it just it just takes
off because in my opinion, you'd be sending out a
guy that is a little bit of an awkward fit.
So if you're doing that in simplifying people's roles like Okay, yeah,
Desonte's the clear cut point guard, Zion's the Zion, and
then everyone else kind of fill in around that, then
maybe it wouldn't take that long.
Speaker 1: Integet do you have? Like this is such a weird question.
Because I feel like this roster is going to look
different February. But like, do you have a floor for
them in the West or is it like, are there
any playoff teams that you consider them you look at
and say, Okay, they'll definitely be better than this potential playoff
team in the West.
Speaker 2: I think it's risky business to set floors in the
West because what if Wemby is just incredible and Chris
Paul has a renaissance, Ye're down in San Antonio, right
what if the Rockets take off? What if you know?
So it's like I would like to say, yeah, the
floor is they're going to be better than Portland and Utah.
Like I think that's very reasonable to say. And I
think like they would absolutely be better than Houston and
San Antonio. But it's just like, Okay, one of your
guys misses time for an extended period and one of
the other teams has an unexpected leap. You can find
yourself at the third worst team in the West. So
I would say they were if you put them in tiers,
they would be in a similar tier right now as
the Kings, the Lakers, the Clippers, and and I would
say the Warrior I would put them all in the
same tier.
Speaker 1: I will say, And this is kind of what's fun
about the West is that you could probably pitch me
on like any order and I'm not going to push back.
And like if you told, honestly, if you told me
the Pelicans finished eleventh, I'd be like, okay. If you
told me the Pelicans finished like one or two, I'd
be like, yeah, sure, why not? Like if everyone were
just healthy, you could pitch me like there's some of
that in the East, but only with like four or
five teams. In the West, it's like ten or eleapon,
which is just boers.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say, there in that tier.
Speaker 2: And then like you know, like the teams I mentioned
like Utah and and Houston and San Antonio or the
tier below and then Portland's like the clear cut like
last one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you think like Will Hardy's gonna get fired
for conduct not detrimental enough to the team if Utah
rattles off another like you know, December to Remember or
whatever it is?
Speaker 2: Well, like the longtime like league rumor is that he's
Pop's heir, so like Will Hardy coaching Lemby, I don't know, man,
Like I'm sure Hardy's gonna be fine wherever he goes.
Speaker 3: That guy's an incredible coach.
Speaker 1: Is there anything about the Pelicans, this team the coming season.
I haven't talked to you about. We haven't discussed that
you think we should touch upon before I let you go.
Speaker 2: I think we covered pretty much every like. I think
we hit all the important notes that we needed.
Speaker 3: To cover for sure.
Speaker 1: So as soon as we're done, that's when the brand
and Ingram news breaks that the trade is coming, because
that's how these things typically were. Are you just able
to tell our listeners where they can find you and
all the great work that you're putting out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can find me on Twitter at Fear of
the Brown as you see on your screen right there.
But you can also find me at Inthano dot suffstack
dot com.
Speaker 3: That's where I do my writing.
Speaker 2: Will publish our podcast there, and we have a YouTube
channel with the same name in the Know.
Speaker 1: The links to both of those will be found in
the podcast in our YouTube prescription. Chmid, thank you so
much for all your time as you give me every year,
and as you know by now, I will be pestering
you again down the line.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, always a pleasure.
Speaker 2: Dan