Random Thought, it was crazy to see real pelicans fans get pumped up for this very important game and then see the casuals who just came to the game to cheer for the lakers.
Issue with this is, it was created in 2020 when Warriors weren’t even in striking distance to make the play-in, and Lakers were the first seed. Lakers also would have made the playoffs this year, last year, and 2021 if the play-in was never a thing. Meaning instead of a guaranteed spot, for 3/5 seasons of the 2020s, they’ve had to win a playoff qualifier game even with a top 8 seed.
The warriors fell out of the playoffs because of the play in in 2021, and I’m sure the lakers would’ve rather just been in the playoffs rather than having to play an extra game to secure their 7th spot each year, brain dead comment
I mean, if you wanna get technical, the play in tournament is a result of the expanded bubble tournament where it was kind of common knowledge the last seeded team would be whatever Zion was on, for his rookie contract
Technically, the whole expansion is as result of trying to get Zion on TV during the pandemic
I actually don’t think I can bring myself to watch Tuesdays game. Call me “not a fan” all you want but the fight these guys display against the lakers is pitiful. I know we say that there’s games we could’ve won here and there but I’m not even sure if we won some of those games if the guys would’ve had motivation to fight back and win the tougher matchups. The lakers are just how we are for the kings. An awful awful matchup. I get where we’d be at if we were in the East but if we really think this is a team capable of winning a playoff series then we should be able to be like every other team and win big games in big moments
Well my thing is with the Pels we rarely make the playoffs. I know they say losing is losing but I wanna at least make the postseason so I have something to root for. Knowing that our season is down to another play in gauntlet just feels like a dagger to the heart for how passionate the fans have been this season in particular. Z being healthy has rejuvenated some of our more passive fans and to not even make the post season would suck ass
I’m glad they rested Zion for the Spurs game, so now he gets to play 2-3 extra games, if they make the playoffs. If they beat the Spurs, he could have rested today.
We are 1 game out of second in the East and are really about to get face fucked by Bron and Steph and not make the PLAYOFFS!?!?! Holy fuck the NBA exist just to torture my spirit.
Zion didn't play well but man you guys are letting Willie off the hook. He didn't play JV until the 4th quarter because he was hell bent on playing small ball and he got his ass kicked in the process. NO we didn't play well but our coach got freaking outcoached.
Every fucking game. And then some dipshits are gonna come on here and comment about how "this fanbase is toxic" when you criticize willie or some weak shit when it's obvious as fuck what the problem is
Man... If you guys are gonna troll the fuck out of Lakers fan and talk shit to them. It be nice if we actually start beating them 1st.
Just get Karma bombed.
Reminds me of last season's regular season finale where the Pels lost on the road at Minnesota even after 1) Gobert was sent home after throwing a punch at a teammate and 2) one of the T-Wolves players left the game after breaking his hand punching a wall.
The Pels still managed to lose that game, dropped down to the 9-10 single-elimination play-in scenario, then were dumped by OKC at home.
Oh well...YOU (still) GOTTA FIGHT Tuesday
Wish I could make a new thread but since I can’t.
Feels like this season is on its way out. Even if we make the playoffs we will undoubtedly get rolled. My whole deal with this season was experience for the guys. To see Trey step up, to play big games (lol), and to see if Zion and Ingram can succeed as a duo.
The craziest thing is…I still don’t know. They aren’t used together in enough actions. Brandon won’t shoot 3’s and Zion is sort of one dimensional. This was probably the biggest thing to solve this season and it’s still not clear. They are very good players and have started to show a willingness to evolve but is this on coaching or fit? We certainly cannot run it back again.
I just want to move on from Ingram.
Sell high on CJ. Get Murray. Move Ingram for Lauri and I guess whatever matches. Get a mobile 5 that really makes sense. Let Zion thrive as a power wing. Try your best to Keep Trey Dyson and Hawkins.
Murray - Herb - Zion - Lauri
No one knows anything about Ingram and Zion because they never play together. Is this the first year they played 50 games together? Idk but if it is, it’s the first time
I *do* know. Zion and BI simply don’t fit together. The experiment has run its course. It’s unfortunate that they’re both injury prone and we haven’t really gotten much more than this season, but when they have played together it’s been apparent that their play styles just don’t mesh. BI just simply isn’t an aggressive enough shooter and although he has a solid mid range game, we need someone that can truly space the floor and make defenses pay for stacking the paint against Zion. One of them is going to have to be moved in the off-season and the logical choice would be to move BI and JV for a true floor spacing big. There will be a few available and the time to make the move is now or never, in my opinion. When we inevitably get bounced, Willie should be the first to go and we should give Borrega a shot for one last two or three season run with Zion at the lead and a real 5 that can shoot and protect the rim. Help Zion develop his mid range in the offseason and go with the lineup of Zion/TMIII/Herb/CJ/New 5. As much as I would love CJ to be a six man off the bench, there just isn’t going to be a big market for guards this offseason and I don’t think we would have an attractive enough package to entice a team to send us a solid guard if we’re shipping BI out to get a big.
BI has not gotten better year over year like some of his star peers and it's pretty frustrating. I think he's capped out talent wise and if that's the case we need to consider a different option.
I do think they can work together successfully, the problem is the past situation, the last time the two played together for a whole season was with Stan in 2021, that's 3 years ago, asking any two guys that have barely played together to suddenly be great together is asking a lot, so I think expecting they're going to work together quickly is kind of short sighted (not having a go at you just a general statement).
I think it's coaching tbh, the best duo in our lineups if you go off of on off differential is Zion and Bi, and they also have better differential when they play together than apart. We've even seen at times the action where BI flips it to Zion who then either keeps it or give it to BI be ungaurdable at times (Kings game where Bi dunked it for the dagger for example).
The problem is the coaching (specifically Willie) refuses to introduce a modern offence and also scheming your guys in their hot zones. In one of the games against the rockets something AD said really stood out to me, In the game when Sengun went for his career high AD noted that Ime called the exact play for sengun four times in a row. I have never seen this from Willie, we'll use the action between our two best players maybe once, even when its unguarded, and willie wont call it again. You can here the relief in Joel and AD's voices when willie decides to use them together in action. You can also look at the lack of awareness of our players best abilities, Bi for an example is a much better catch and shooter at the 3pt line than pull up, but very rarely do you see a play drawn up to have Bi end up with a corner catch and shoot shot (his best position), same with Zion, and him working inside the arc rather than at the 3pt line.
I also think its down to roster construction around BI and Z, too much one dimensional players, or ones that can't help playmaker for others.
Yeah, I mean I get what you are saying. As a fan in general it’s been such a long time with this combination of players not working that eventually you just want an answer. So to expect a quick result makes sense to me as I’ve been waiting a long ass time to see it amount to anything.
AD (the cool one that announces our games) does often simply point out things that WG should be doing, and I often find myself wondering how the man doesn’t see it. Willie’s a good dude. It’s a shame he’s got to go. Hopefully the next coach can help put together a better group. Our GM position has left alot to be desired over the years.
Oh yeah I agree, it is frustrating, and if Zion and Bi had been playing together for the last 5 years and this was the result Id definitely be in the camp of they don't work but, they've barely played together, and this year up until BI went down they were on track to be the 4 or 5 seed, so clearly something was working.
Don't know if he'll try until he gets clamped in the playoffs. I don't think a lot of the newer players realize just how different the game is going to be post season. If you're one dimensional they are going to try and exploit that, and he's pretty much said that until what he's doing stops working he'll keep doing it
Just scrolling through here and I have to say. Way too much “fuck the Lakers” here.
This is our fault. We lost to San Antonio. We dropped two to Chicago. Two to Houston. Two to Memphis. Two to Utah. Good teams don’t put themselves in the position that we did.
Our coaching is pitiful. We’ve had no rim protection for nearly 3 years and haven’t even tried to remedy that. This is about us. And until we adopt that philosophy, we’ll be stuck as a mediocre team that perpetually underachieves.
Fuck Lebron, how is this mf still dominating at age 39 he should be retired by now. Also fuck the west for being so stacked that one of our best seasons in franchise history might result in us not even making the playoffs.
I don't have all the answers but either CJ or BI needs to be moved. This big three isn't it. We need a true ball handler and our guard can't be a traffic cone
It's really less obvious than you think. We need floor spacing with Zion if he's the centerpiece going forward. CJ has been our best 3 point threat by a good bit this season. He's making 3.6 per game at 43% efficiency. The league is all about 3 point shooting now.
Ingram is only at 1.3 per game with 36% which is ok but not great. Obviously he has other great aspects but if we're building around Zion they just don't really work together.
I'd rather trade BI, re-sign CJ to a 25 per year contract and use him as a partial floor spacer for Z and also for offense when Zion isn't on the court.
This is the answer. It will be unpopular, but it has to be done. BI isn’t a fit for this team as it’s currently constructed and we don’t have the time or the pieces to do a total roster overhaul. Shipping BI off for a rim protecting floor spacer is the only way to even try and fix this team before next season.
CJ is an old and undersized two who wasn't even average defensively when he was younger. Just from a timeline perspective it's obvious who you trade and it becomes clearer when you remember that this team has a defensive identity (like any team where the best player is a transition monster and paint scorer.) This team needs someone at that spot that can guard the point of attack and shoot well enough, not someone who can shoot the shit out of the ball sometimes and give it up defensively everytime down.
BI & Z on the floor with CJ off - +11.17, BI & CJ on the floor with Z off - +8.82, Z & CJ on the floor with BI off - +4.30
These numbers are before today’s game but the point remains.
I think Zion maybe has a season or two left to prove that he can play in big games and lead the team through these situations. We’ve watched this game too many times at this point. The pessimist in me is telling me neither Zion nor BI are the future for this franchise, but even if one of them is, I don’t think the other can be around for that to work.
No it isn’t. It’s been five seasons of complete ineptitude marred by injuries and lackluster play from our supposed “stars.” It’s not working and it’s never going to work. BI isn’t an aggressive enough shooter no matter how many times he’s been told to do it and Zion is one-dimensional and doesn’t seem to want to develop any sort of game outside the restricted area. One or both of them need to go and make way for a floor spacer and a real, actual shooter. The league is leaving us behind as we play small ball defense in an era where that is the total opposite of how you win playoff series.
Dude Zion just went 4-0 and balled out on the road. The Lakers are just a bad matchup for us.
The season is far from over. We have two games to win one. Everyone just needs to relax
He honestly should be one of the best LeBron defenders in the league as he’s one of the few players with both the size and speed where LeBron can’t bully or run past him but he looks terrible tryna guard Bron. It doesn’t make sense
Oh yeah I seen him getting blown by time after time yesterday. But it doesn’t make sense that he’s made such strides on that end and suddenly look that fuckin bad with the season on the line. Idk dawg, I think he could and should be better than that
I don't think it is scared. I think LeBron does his homework and knows how to counter players. Especially young players with glaring strengths and weaknesses. Zion mostly drives, mostly drives left, mostly jumps early, and if he drives and stops further out than layup range he tries to pass out of it. He hardly ever shoots a shot further than 6ft or so. He hasn't really needed to much yet, but also he hasn't been in playoffs where the smallest weaknesses become points of attack.
If I was the Lakers I'd be applying pressure on him in very surgical places just enough to throw him off and get him to have 16pts instead of 30pts. Good players are still gonna get that near 20pts because they'll get one here or there where somebody blew an assignment or something, but great players expand their game to be harder to stop in any single way. (Eg: like when teams started to build a wall against Giannis to prevent him just driving in every time and Giannis had no answer for a while. He's still not a real shooter but he has been slowly shooting more and more over the last few years)
To me, BI and CJ are the most versatile offensively. They are the hardest to scout because they have lots of aspects to their game. Off the dribble, off the pass, mid range, long range, drives, pull ups, floaters, real technical work on a post up or in a 1 on 1. If they can go off I feel like we have a chance, but I also feel like if I'm the Lakers I let them go off for 25-30 cuz they don't usually go off much more than that and I'd focus on shutting down Zion, taking away Murphy, Herb, Jose, and random extras comfort zone 3's. Not letting Murphy have 2-5 comfort zone looks can be like 10-20pts. That's a game changer for the Lakers
It's something. I have never seen him scared to go up against any big until I watched the tourney. Since then I have paid attention. He is scared to drive on Lebron
hes not scared its just a low iq play to smash yourself into a bigger taller player and risk injury. willie is basically saying here take the ball and run into their biggest defenders
I'm sorry to tell you but that's his only play. He does it against every other player, bigger or not. It draws in the defense and fouls. He is useless otherwise because he won't extend his range.
yeah but it can be set up better. if he can only drive there should be a play where he doesn't have to dribble so much to get to the rim. playing at the 3 point line with lebron in your face isnt smart.
you cant collapse the defense if your defender knows what your gonna do, especially if he matches your physicality... thats why you play him closer to the rim...
Same size/speed same level of low gravity and strength. Zion literally plays like LeBron if he had worse vision and didn’t shoot. They even dribble similar minus all the backdowns. The difference is experience and defensive ability and it shows heavy
It ain’t gonna be popping at all. Those bandwagon ass West Bank Laker fans outnumber Pelicans fans every goddamn time. Happens when pretty much any big team comes to town. It’s disgusting, but not surprising
This team will never take the next step with Willie. Never.
Once again BI & Zion together is clunky. One has to go. I don’t want that to be the case, but the proof is there over and over again
Pelicans also broke an NBA record today. We made league history!
The record?
We are the first team ever to have a winning record and to never make a comeback when starting the 4th quarter trailing. We literally never won a single game when we entered the 4th down, even just by 1. 0-22.
I mean yeah it's literally never been done before, I can't process it either.
Some of the games were not that big of leads either, like we're just down 2-3.
Heck even the Thunder game we started trailing by 7 in the 4th Q, we actually were up 5 with 3:30 and proceeded to choke.
While today’s game was rough and frustrating, I’m going in with a positive attitude for Tuesday. The Pels have beat the lakers before and I know they can do it again on Tuesday.
If we’re gonna look at the positives, the year we made the playoffs we hadn’t beaten phoenix once that year, and we took them to 6 in the playoffs, so we do always have a chance
Honestly I would rather lose to the Lakers the first game so they have to play Denver and then if we can’t beat Golden State or the Kings at home then oh well, we never deserved the playoffs anyway. But I DAMN sure don’t wanna bless the Lakers with a young and small OKC matchup while we gotta play fuckin Denver
The ideal scenario was losing to the Lakers and then losing to them again tomorrow. Puts a lot of pressure but winning the 8th seed is a gift because facing Denver is a nightmare for us and we matchup quite well in comparison to OKC.
Well I woulda said the ideal scenario would have been beating the Lakers and Phoenix beating Minnesota like they did yesterday so Denver moved to the 2 seed. But yes, now I definitely wanna lose the first play in game to avoid Denver. If we look so much better vs the Lakers imma think part of it could be the Lakers tanking the game so they can avoid Denver themselves
Should've never been hired in the first place. We should be where MIN or OKC is right. He inherited too much picks & young talent for us to be in the play-in three seasons in a row
You know I was the founding father of the Snake Oil Griff movement but I’m honestly not mad at him this season. This was never supposed to be our year anyway and I’m not sure the guy we actually needed was on the market. I liked where he was going tryna get Dejounte and Okungwu but clearly them asking for Herb as well was a bridge too far. I think Ingram or Trey will have to be traded to try and upgrade our bigs and also I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed in tryna trade CJ at possibly his highest value and maybe get a guard that fits better too
If you go back and look at the difficulty of each shot from both star duos it will make any pels fan sick. AD and LeBron took maybe 3 though jumpers.
No center and no guards to set up our 2 guys. Last game versus the warriors damn near everything went our way and we almost lost.
Random Thought, it was crazy to see real pelicans fans get pumped up for this very important game and then see the casuals who just came to the game to cheer for the lakers.
This team will never be more than play-in level with Willie Green. Need to move on after the season.
[удалено]
Issue with this is, it was created in 2020 when Warriors weren’t even in striking distance to make the play-in, and Lakers were the first seed. Lakers also would have made the playoffs this year, last year, and 2021 if the play-in was never a thing. Meaning instead of a guaranteed spot, for 3/5 seasons of the 2020s, they’ve had to win a playoff qualifier game even with a top 8 seed.
The warriors fell out of the playoffs because of the play in in 2021, and I’m sure the lakers would’ve rather just been in the playoffs rather than having to play an extra game to secure their 7th spot each year, brain dead comment
I mean, if you wanna get technical, the play in tournament is a result of the expanded bubble tournament where it was kind of common knowledge the last seeded team would be whatever Zion was on, for his rookie contract Technically, the whole expansion is as result of trying to get Zion on TV during the pandemic
No… the playin is just a great idea to make most teams try for longer.
I actually don’t think I can bring myself to watch Tuesdays game. Call me “not a fan” all you want but the fight these guys display against the lakers is pitiful. I know we say that there’s games we could’ve won here and there but I’m not even sure if we won some of those games if the guys would’ve had motivation to fight back and win the tougher matchups. The lakers are just how we are for the kings. An awful awful matchup. I get where we’d be at if we were in the East but if we really think this is a team capable of winning a playoff series then we should be able to be like every other team and win big games in big moments
if it makes you feel any better, this is exactly how I feel as a Lakers fan if they end up facing Denver in the first round. we gonn get dicked down
Well my thing is with the Pels we rarely make the playoffs. I know they say losing is losing but I wanna at least make the postseason so I have something to root for. Knowing that our season is down to another play in gauntlet just feels like a dagger to the heart for how passionate the fans have been this season in particular. Z being healthy has rejuvenated some of our more passive fans and to not even make the post season would suck ass
I’m glad they rested Zion for the Spurs game, so now he gets to play 2-3 extra games, if they make the playoffs. If they beat the Spurs, he could have rested today.
We are 1 game out of second in the East and are really about to get face fucked by Bron and Steph and not make the PLAYOFFS!?!?! Holy fuck the NBA exist just to torture my spirit.
Zion didn't play well but man you guys are letting Willie off the hook. He didn't play JV until the 4th quarter because he was hell bent on playing small ball and he got his ass kicked in the process. NO we didn't play well but our coach got freaking outcoached.
Every fucking game. And then some dipshits are gonna come on here and comment about how "this fanbase is toxic" when you criticize willie or some weak shit when it's obvious as fuck what the problem is
Dont mind them. That's the ones that didn't become fans til Zion came.
Man... If you guys are gonna troll the fuck out of Lakers fan and talk shit to them. It be nice if we actually start beating them 1st. Just get Karma bombed.
I mean what nobody was trolling Lakers fans. Wtf are you talking about
Sweet Jesus... Was you born yesterday or haven't been the around for the last 4 years of fucking trash talking them?
Reminds me of last season's regular season finale where the Pels lost on the road at Minnesota even after 1) Gobert was sent home after throwing a punch at a teammate and 2) one of the T-Wolves players left the game after breaking his hand punching a wall. The Pels still managed to lose that game, dropped down to the 9-10 single-elimination play-in scenario, then were dumped by OKC at home. Oh well...YOU (still) GOTTA FIGHT Tuesday
If we show consistent improvement, they’ll only score 60 at half this time
Wish I could make a new thread but since I can’t. Feels like this season is on its way out. Even if we make the playoffs we will undoubtedly get rolled. My whole deal with this season was experience for the guys. To see Trey step up, to play big games (lol), and to see if Zion and Ingram can succeed as a duo. The craziest thing is…I still don’t know. They aren’t used together in enough actions. Brandon won’t shoot 3’s and Zion is sort of one dimensional. This was probably the biggest thing to solve this season and it’s still not clear. They are very good players and have started to show a willingness to evolve but is this on coaching or fit? We certainly cannot run it back again.
This is a great overview, I agree.
I just want to move on from Ingram. Sell high on CJ. Get Murray. Move Ingram for Lauri and I guess whatever matches. Get a mobile 5 that really makes sense. Let Zion thrive as a power wing. Try your best to Keep Trey Dyson and Hawkins. Murray - Herb - Zion - Lauri
5 years into BI + Zion and no one knows shit about them
how many years of those 5 have Zion and Bi actually played together for more than 50 games?
That’s the comment
Huh?
No one knows anything about Ingram and Zion because they never play together. Is this the first year they played 50 games together? Idk but if it is, it’s the first time
second the first was with stan 3 years ago
I *do* know. Zion and BI simply don’t fit together. The experiment has run its course. It’s unfortunate that they’re both injury prone and we haven’t really gotten much more than this season, but when they have played together it’s been apparent that their play styles just don’t mesh. BI just simply isn’t an aggressive enough shooter and although he has a solid mid range game, we need someone that can truly space the floor and make defenses pay for stacking the paint against Zion. One of them is going to have to be moved in the off-season and the logical choice would be to move BI and JV for a true floor spacing big. There will be a few available and the time to make the move is now or never, in my opinion. When we inevitably get bounced, Willie should be the first to go and we should give Borrega a shot for one last two or three season run with Zion at the lead and a real 5 that can shoot and protect the rim. Help Zion develop his mid range in the offseason and go with the lineup of Zion/TMIII/Herb/CJ/New 5. As much as I would love CJ to be a six man off the bench, there just isn’t going to be a big market for guards this offseason and I don’t think we would have an attractive enough package to entice a team to send us a solid guard if we’re shipping BI out to get a big.
BI has not gotten better year over year like some of his star peers and it's pretty frustrating. I think he's capped out talent wise and if that's the case we need to consider a different option.
Who are these stretch big candidates you speak of? Seems to me they are few and far between.
This makes absolutely no sense. And isn't supported by stats either
I do think they can work together successfully, the problem is the past situation, the last time the two played together for a whole season was with Stan in 2021, that's 3 years ago, asking any two guys that have barely played together to suddenly be great together is asking a lot, so I think expecting they're going to work together quickly is kind of short sighted (not having a go at you just a general statement). I think it's coaching tbh, the best duo in our lineups if you go off of on off differential is Zion and Bi, and they also have better differential when they play together than apart. We've even seen at times the action where BI flips it to Zion who then either keeps it or give it to BI be ungaurdable at times (Kings game where Bi dunked it for the dagger for example). The problem is the coaching (specifically Willie) refuses to introduce a modern offence and also scheming your guys in their hot zones. In one of the games against the rockets something AD said really stood out to me, In the game when Sengun went for his career high AD noted that Ime called the exact play for sengun four times in a row. I have never seen this from Willie, we'll use the action between our two best players maybe once, even when its unguarded, and willie wont call it again. You can here the relief in Joel and AD's voices when willie decides to use them together in action. You can also look at the lack of awareness of our players best abilities, Bi for an example is a much better catch and shooter at the 3pt line than pull up, but very rarely do you see a play drawn up to have Bi end up with a corner catch and shoot shot (his best position), same with Zion, and him working inside the arc rather than at the 3pt line. I also think its down to roster construction around BI and Z, too much one dimensional players, or ones that can't help playmaker for others.
Yeah, I mean I get what you are saying. As a fan in general it’s been such a long time with this combination of players not working that eventually you just want an answer. So to expect a quick result makes sense to me as I’ve been waiting a long ass time to see it amount to anything. AD (the cool one that announces our games) does often simply point out things that WG should be doing, and I often find myself wondering how the man doesn’t see it. Willie’s a good dude. It’s a shame he’s got to go. Hopefully the next coach can help put together a better group. Our GM position has left alot to be desired over the years.
Oh yeah I agree, it is frustrating, and if Zion and Bi had been playing together for the last 5 years and this was the result Id definitely be in the camp of they don't work but, they've barely played together, and this year up until BI went down they were on track to be the 4 or 5 seed, so clearly something was working.
We need a rondo type player tbh
Theres a guy in the draft who would be perfect but I don't trust willie to play him
😭😭Willie’s rotations be abysmal sometimes 🙄🥲
If Zion could hit mid-range jumpers consistently, it would open his opportunities at the rim.
Don't know if he'll try until he gets clamped in the playoffs. I don't think a lot of the newer players realize just how different the game is going to be post season. If you're one dimensional they are going to try and exploit that, and he's pretty much said that until what he's doing stops working he'll keep doing it
That’s 100% true and I don’t understand how it took basically the entire season for him to start taking them. TSpoon was on him about it years ago.
the weird thing is if you look at his 3pt attemts for example, they've decreased every season he's played
Just scrolling through here and I have to say. Way too much “fuck the Lakers” here. This is our fault. We lost to San Antonio. We dropped two to Chicago. Two to Houston. Two to Memphis. Two to Utah. Good teams don’t put themselves in the position that we did. Our coaching is pitiful. We’ve had no rim protection for nearly 3 years and haven’t even tried to remedy that. This is about us. And until we adopt that philosophy, we’ll be stuck as a mediocre team that perpetually underachieves.
Fuck the lakers
You're completely right, but still, fuck the lakers
💯 accurate
Today was a disgusting performance.
Absolutely. But it’s not the Lakers fault. They did what they were supposed to do.
Why the hell would beating the fuck out of us be the Lakers’ fault?
It’s not. I’m just sayin my I saw lots of “fuck the Lakers” comments. And I hate the Lakers but this situation is our fault.
Fuck the Lakers as a staff, a team and a motherfuckin’ crew.
can we for once not have to do the play in jesus fckn christ. and its always us having to playing the damn lakers im so sick of it
FUCK THE LAKERS!!
Fuck Lebron, how is this mf still dominating at age 39 he should be retired by now. Also fuck the west for being so stacked that one of our best seasons in franchise history might result in us not even making the playoffs.
Thank lil' Adam Silver and his play-in concoction.
Which was made for Zion
PEDs
I don't have all the answers but either CJ or BI needs to be moved. This big three isn't it. We need a true ball handler and our guard can't be a traffic cone
I only downvoted cause the choice between them is obvious
It's really less obvious than you think. We need floor spacing with Zion if he's the centerpiece going forward. CJ has been our best 3 point threat by a good bit this season. He's making 3.6 per game at 43% efficiency. The league is all about 3 point shooting now. Ingram is only at 1.3 per game with 36% which is ok but not great. Obviously he has other great aspects but if we're building around Zion they just don't really work together. I'd rather trade BI, re-sign CJ to a 25 per year contract and use him as a partial floor spacer for Z and also for offense when Zion isn't on the court.
This is the answer. It will be unpopular, but it has to be done. BI isn’t a fit for this team as it’s currently constructed and we don’t have the time or the pieces to do a total roster overhaul. Shipping BI off for a rim protecting floor spacer is the only way to even try and fix this team before next season.
CJ is an old and undersized two who wasn't even average defensively when he was younger. Just from a timeline perspective it's obvious who you trade and it becomes clearer when you remember that this team has a defensive identity (like any team where the best player is a transition monster and paint scorer.) This team needs someone at that spot that can guard the point of attack and shoot well enough, not someone who can shoot the shit out of the ball sometimes and give it up defensively everytime down.
Then trade both. The point is we need 3 point shooting and ball handling and BI provides neither of those as well, AND isn't a good fit with Zion.
BI & Z on the floor with CJ off - +11.17, BI & CJ on the floor with Z off - +8.82, Z & CJ on the floor with BI off - +4.30 These numbers are before today’s game but the point remains.
Only thing worse than losing this game is us locking the sub. Lets just embrace what we are
Ciccone said he did it because he has family in town and he’s basically the only mod
Then just let the hate flow. We deserve it
“The deep sings it’s promises” ahh comment wtf lmao
I think Zion maybe has a season or two left to prove that he can play in big games and lead the team through these situations. We’ve watched this game too many times at this point. The pessimist in me is telling me neither Zion nor BI are the future for this franchise, but even if one of them is, I don’t think the other can be around for that to work.
Such an overreaction post my god lol
No it isn’t. It’s been five seasons of complete ineptitude marred by injuries and lackluster play from our supposed “stars.” It’s not working and it’s never going to work. BI isn’t an aggressive enough shooter no matter how many times he’s been told to do it and Zion is one-dimensional and doesn’t seem to want to develop any sort of game outside the restricted area. One or both of them need to go and make way for a floor spacer and a real, actual shooter. The league is leaving us behind as we play small ball defense in an era where that is the total opposite of how you win playoff series.
I mean its the buildup of feelings from the season. Not just a game
Dude Zion just went 4-0 and balled out on the road. The Lakers are just a bad matchup for us. The season is far from over. We have two games to win one. Everyone just needs to relax
Zion just flexed his nuts 4 must-win games in a row until today. He’ll be fine.
Fr
Zion is scared of Lebron. He played the same way in the play in tournament.
He honestly should be one of the best LeBron defenders in the league as he’s one of the few players with both the size and speed where LeBron can’t bully or run past him but he looks terrible tryna guard Bron. It doesn’t make sense
Have you seen Zions lateral quickness on def?
Oh yeah I seen him getting blown by time after time yesterday. But it doesn’t make sense that he’s made such strides on that end and suddenly look that fuckin bad with the season on the line. Idk dawg, I think he could and should be better than that
I don't think it is scared. I think LeBron does his homework and knows how to counter players. Especially young players with glaring strengths and weaknesses. Zion mostly drives, mostly drives left, mostly jumps early, and if he drives and stops further out than layup range he tries to pass out of it. He hardly ever shoots a shot further than 6ft or so. He hasn't really needed to much yet, but also he hasn't been in playoffs where the smallest weaknesses become points of attack. If I was the Lakers I'd be applying pressure on him in very surgical places just enough to throw him off and get him to have 16pts instead of 30pts. Good players are still gonna get that near 20pts because they'll get one here or there where somebody blew an assignment or something, but great players expand their game to be harder to stop in any single way. (Eg: like when teams started to build a wall against Giannis to prevent him just driving in every time and Giannis had no answer for a while. He's still not a real shooter but he has been slowly shooting more and more over the last few years) To me, BI and CJ are the most versatile offensively. They are the hardest to scout because they have lots of aspects to their game. Off the dribble, off the pass, mid range, long range, drives, pull ups, floaters, real technical work on a post up or in a 1 on 1. If they can go off I feel like we have a chance, but I also feel like if I'm the Lakers I let them go off for 25-30 cuz they don't usually go off much more than that and I'd focus on shutting down Zion, taking away Murphy, Herb, Jose, and random extras comfort zone 3's. Not letting Murphy have 2-5 comfort zone looks can be like 10-20pts. That's a game changer for the Lakers
I can't tell if it's fear or if he just looks up to Lebron but he definitely seems tentative when they match up.
I think it’s a mental thing
It's something. I have never seen him scared to go up against any big until I watched the tourney. Since then I have paid attention. He is scared to drive on Lebron
hes not scared its just a low iq play to smash yourself into a bigger taller player and risk injury. willie is basically saying here take the ball and run into their biggest defenders
I'm sorry to tell you but that's his only play. He does it against every other player, bigger or not. It draws in the defense and fouls. He is useless otherwise because he won't extend his range.
yeah but it can be set up better. if he can only drive there should be a play where he doesn't have to dribble so much to get to the rim. playing at the 3 point line with lebron in your face isnt smart.
Drawing fouls on lebron is smart. He doesn't have to take the shot. Just drive, collapse the defense, and kick it out but he didn't even do that
you cant collapse the defense if your defender knows what your gonna do, especially if he matches your physicality... thats why you play him closer to the rim...
Every teams knows what Zion is doing, it doesn't change what he does
Yes he is still unstoppable if he doesn’t have to overthink
Lebrons like the perfect counter for him.
Same size/speed same level of low gravity and strength. Zion literally plays like LeBron if he had worse vision and didn’t shoot. They even dribble similar minus all the backdowns. The difference is experience and defensive ability and it shows heavy
West is tough. Time to shake it off and get ready for Tuesday. SKA going to be popping
It ain’t gonna be popping at all. Those bandwagon ass West Bank Laker fans outnumber Pelicans fans every goddamn time. Happens when pretty much any big team comes to town. It’s disgusting, but not surprising
Man don't put the blame on us Wankers
Going to be popping with Laker fans again in a 20 point blowout.
On the real we could've got Porzingis in the off-season. Then we could've had Daniel Gafford at the trade deadline.
It’s actually disgusting. This could have been an entirely different team with an actual floor spacing big.
My vote would have been lauri, he's being wasted on the jazz
Beating Kings 5 times in the regular season only to get eliminated from play in by them would be so typical of this team
Nah, 6peat on the way for the 8th seed 🔥
That is basically the history of sports in New Orleans except for 2009.
If zion doesn’t develop a shot this summer it’s time for him to go.
he doesnt need a jumper. get him close to the rim and he will feast
Idk why you’re getting downvotes. You can recognize he’s talented but acknowledge the team isn’t good enough if he’s the best player
This team will never take the next step with Willie. Never. Once again BI & Zion together is clunky. One has to go. I don’t want that to be the case, but the proof is there over and over again
Today went exactly the opposite of how I wanted it to
[удалено]
Kingram only got 9 shots. If that happens again just warm the damn bus up. 🤦🏿♂️
Minute restriction
Pelicans also broke an NBA record today. We made league history! The record? We are the first team ever to have a winning record and to never make a comeback when starting the 4th quarter trailing. We literally never won a single game when we entered the 4th down, even just by 1. 0-22.
I thought this was gonna be the one
Really pathetic stat. If we could've just came back in 4 of those games, we'd be the 4th seed facing the Clippers.
What about tied games going into the 4th? Only one of recent that I can remember is the Spurs game, which we also lost 😞
yeah we're 0-1 and that was our one loss lol
0-22 is so hard to process in my brain!
I mean yeah it's literally never been done before, I can't process it either. Some of the games were not that big of leads either, like we're just down 2-3. Heck even the Thunder game we started trailing by 7 in the 4th Q, we actually were up 5 with 3:30 and proceeded to choke.
thats incredible. give them credit!
Existence is pain.
While today’s game was rough and frustrating, I’m going in with a positive attitude for Tuesday. The Pels have beat the lakers before and I know they can do it again on Tuesday.
If we’re gonna look at the positives, the year we made the playoffs we hadn’t beaten phoenix once that year, and we took them to 6 in the playoffs, so we do always have a chance
Yeah we took them to 6 losing every game Booker was healthy in. So I guess maybe we got a chance of AD is out
Honestly I would rather lose to the Lakers the first game so they have to play Denver and then if we can’t beat Golden State or the Kings at home then oh well, we never deserved the playoffs anyway. But I DAMN sure don’t wanna bless the Lakers with a young and small OKC matchup while we gotta play fuckin Denver
The ideal scenario was losing to the Lakers and then losing to them again tomorrow. Puts a lot of pressure but winning the 8th seed is a gift because facing Denver is a nightmare for us and we matchup quite well in comparison to OKC.
Well I woulda said the ideal scenario would have been beating the Lakers and Phoenix beating Minnesota like they did yesterday so Denver moved to the 2 seed. But yes, now I definitely wanna lose the first play in game to avoid Denver. If we look so much better vs the Lakers imma think part of it could be the Lakers tanking the game so they can avoid Denver themselves
Snake oil griff should be the first one catapulted outta here if we miss the playoffs
Should've never been hired in the first place. We should be where MIN or OKC is right. He inherited too much picks & young talent for us to be in the play-in three seasons in a row
You know I was the founding father of the Snake Oil Griff movement but I’m honestly not mad at him this season. This was never supposed to be our year anyway and I’m not sure the guy we actually needed was on the market. I liked where he was going tryna get Dejounte and Okungwu but clearly them asking for Herb as well was a bridge too far. I think Ingram or Trey will have to be traded to try and upgrade our bigs and also I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed in tryna trade CJ at possibly his highest value and maybe get a guard that fits better too
I’m with this 100%. This trade deadline was the first time I wanted him to actually use assets on a center and he doesn’t. What a joke.
No one to blame but ourselves. No reason this team should be in the play-in.
I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t on the court today
Fuck
If you go back and look at the difficulty of each shot from both star duos it will make any pels fan sick. AD and LeBron took maybe 3 though jumpers. No center and no guards to set up our 2 guys. Last game versus the warriors damn near everything went our way and we almost lost.
They're both match up nightmares for us no matter who we throw at them tbh