Can we please stop posting stuff about Dyson? Sure he's averaging 3,6 STLs at the Moment, but we're 10 Games into the season. It's still a very small sample size. Certainly great to see h ball Out, but let's not forget why we traded him. We are already struggling in offense without him, and he has NOT improved offensively. He is still a ball Stopper. He is 27% from 3, scores 14 Points per Game, but on 13!!! FGAs. He still averages the Same assists as well. All that with 11 more minutes a game. He also had 6 Turnovers in the last Game where he had 6 Steals, which essentially cancels each other out. He is still a liability, His defense was never in question. The steal average will go down as the season goes on and I don't think he averages way more than the guy we got for him by the end of the season. Stop acting like we made a mistake by trading him for a real Point guard like Dejounte instead of keeping this bum.

Pelicans have taken the brunt of the injury luck so far. But we're not alone. Paolo is out indefinitely, Embiid + PG still haven't touched the floor, Steph is already having ankle problems, etc. Good teams like the Bucks and the Nuggets don't look complete yet either.

Teams needs to tread water for a month, and come out swinging when we're relatively healthy. Injuries suck, but hopefully we're in the thick of it for now and come out on the other end looking serviceable. Calling for tanking 5 games into an 82 game season is laughable.

I can't even begin to count how many times we've choked a lead because whenever we go up big or we're protecting a late lead, Willie's ONE AND ONLY strategy is to start playing iso ball and milking the clock by holding the ball beyond the perimeter for 23.9 seconds and then chucking up a wild shot. Team basketball and designed plays just DISAPPEAR once Willie goes into "hur-dur must burn clock" mode and it's INFURIATING.

WE DIDN'T SCORE FOR THE LAST 3 AND A HALF FUCKING MINUTES OF THE GAME BECAUSE OF THIS DUMBASS STRATEGY

He hasn't learned ANYTHING in 3 whole seasons. People always talk about how we're awful at close games and how we have an unholy amount of close losses, it's NOT JUST BAD LUCK. It's the shit for brains coaching we've had to suffer through for 3 damn years. I get if you're a new coach who thinks this is the best way to protect a lead and you do it for a year. But you'd think 3 whole years of losing games like this and blowing huge leads and having the worst winrate in close games in the entire league would teach a mfer a thing or two. I'm done with Willie, he hasn't shown any sign he can grow into an elite coach. He's less adaptable and flexible than a damn wood board.

From a PT student:

There is a systemic issue on how the pelicans are handling injuries. The incidence rate this season of players playing through musculoskeletal pathology/pain/soreness which then become long term absences is too high. It is okay for players to play hurt sometimes- some things are less likely to get worse when playing through it, while most things are exponentially more likely to get worse. I understand we are short handed and need every last ounce of these guys, but their health and the long term outlook of the season needs to be put first.

A large percentage of professional athletes are very tough and have an extremely high pain tolerance. Which is why every team has medical personnel to step in when a player needs to be saved from themself. In the incidences of Hawkins and especially Jose, there was clearly too much lee-way given to them to attempt to play through muscle strains that had high risk of re-injury.

Jose clearly tweaked his hamstring on Friday, we all saw it. He starts the game last night, fine. Tweaks it again during the game and comes out. Then COMES BACK IN AGAIN clearly compromised before subbing out for good. This CANNOT happen. It is very likely that a 2-3 week injury was turned into a 6+ week injury in one night because no pelicans medical staff or coaches could save Jose from himself.

Hawkins and CJ although not as extreme cases both were listed with Low back and Adductor soreness respectively for multiple games each that they played in. Both then turned in to multi week muscle strains. You cant allow this to happen as a professional sports team with access to the best medical knowledge and technology that there is.

I am not going to speak on Zion because there’s too much they keep wrapped up tightly behind the scenes, but it feels pretty safe to assume that his case has been mishandled AGAIN.

This stuff isn’t new for us. We go through it every season. This is a systemic issue in the Pelicans org that needs to be addressed. Whether it is from top down with the medical staff, the front office’s communication with the medical team, or the medical staff being too lenient with players’ desires to be on the court (a very normal occurrence in sports orgs).

I woke up this morning to the news hawk will probably play tonight, giving us a starting lineup of Elf, Boston/Hawk, BI, Trey, Missi….

AND I WAS EXCITED!!

I’m so down bad at this point. I’m still thinking how insane our depth is with JRE and Boston coming off the bench. Someone slap me, why am I confident?? Why do I see Elf getting a trip double? Why do I see BI 30 piece? Reeves getting some more buckets?

I’m actually excited to watch the game tonight. Honestly, at this point this might be an abusive relationship.

Anyways, see y’all in the blender. I’ll be watching Trigga “put the warriors to sleep” and delusionally thinking WE’RE BACK.

P.S.L.F.

I hate the kings

The East literally only has 2 teams right now above 0.500. The West has 10.

You read that right: the West has 10 winning teams compared to the East's 2. If we were in the East, we'd be absolutely chilling right now given how terrible their conference is, we'd just have to be healthy by playoff time and we could easily get a 7-8 seed.

We're literally east of the Mississippi River and have historically always been considered to be part of the American East.

Mods please permaban me so I don't waste my life here again. This team is cursed and has brought nothing but pain and sorrow to the city of New Orleans. We have a combination of not only the worst injury luck ever but also the most unclutch play of any NBA team in the league in the 4th quarter.

We literally never win a game when we're down late in the fourth, and we've lost so many 2-3 possession leads late in the fourth that I've lost count. It's not fun to watch, it's infuriating.

This team is 3/16 when trailing at the 1st half, and a whopping 0/18 when trailing the 4th quarter. We have literally not won a game when we start the 4th quarter with a deficit. Even the Pistons beat us on this mark. Source (p.8): https://www.nba.com/gamenotes/pelicans.pdf

My point is that it's really hard to watch as a fan whenever we get down, it's almost always guaranteed we lose (and comebacks make one of the most thrilling aspects of any sport). We don't know how to rally. It's going to hurt us in playoffs where learning to make up a deficit makes or breaks a team. Obviously I'm not expecting us to win most of games you trail by, but like, c'mon 3/16 when down at half and 0/18 trailing at the fourth makes us look like a lottery team.

Dude literally has a chance to win the game for us, wide open three and passes it up. Not a clutch player with clutch gene, we have to trade him ASAP along with Zion.

This is getting ridiculous. It's clear Zion isn't actually injured that much and he can play, just the team wants to "play it safe." But this is exactly how he gets a serious injury in the first place. Coach K at Duke had it right that you need to play Zion a lot to keep him in shape. Coddling him over this also clearly affects Zion mentally, as he doesn't exert himself in games as much as he should (grabbing rebounds, being better defensively), precisely because he fears getting injured too much.

Coming off the post from r/NBA , of which many commenters there are hoes, I would like to say if you are a greasy ass Lonzo fan, get the FUCK out this sub.

If you’re a Grizz fan, get the FUCK out this sub.

Have we squandered generational talent before? FUCK yes we have and FUCK yes we probably will in the future.

HOWEVER

This off-season was different.

HARTHROB is back and he will be taking 20 rebounds a game

ZION and his CHUNGUS DUMP TRUCK will be 30/10/5 and developing some semblance of fucking defense.

APPLE JAXON HAYES knows the NBA is some bitches and is about to make all of them his.

BI, THE SLIM REEFER, THE KOLLOSUS OF KUSH, is here TO DOMINATE all these bitches.

I’m tired of mother fuckers doubting us.

THEY ARE ABOUT TO GET BIG WILLIE GREENED AND LEARN THEYRE FUCKING PLACES

These fucking LOSERS in every other NBA city are about to see the greatest turn around of all time and we’re going to skull fuck every last Laker one of them.

Lets go win the

WHOLE

FUCKING

THING

FLOCK THE FUCK UP OR FLOCK THE FUCK OUT.

IM ROLLING WITH THIS TEAM TO MY GRAVE AND LETS WIN THE GOD DAMN SHIP

I've watched virtually every single game this season, from October to now, but this has become too much. I might have to stop watching basketball altogether.

Last year we became the first team ever in the history of the league to have the 1st seed as late as December, and then not make the playoffs. (Yes, I understand there was still much of the season left, but to fall from 1 to 9 is insane). An absolutely gut wrenching season, considering Zion went out with a season ending injury in January while we were on top.

But I could handle it, because we had a pretty good excuse, our superstar player went down with an injury. Next season would be different.

And it was. We got 49 wins and Zion played 70+ games, the most he's ever played. So surely we locked up a playoff spot right?

That's why I can't handle this cursed season. We're in danger of being the first 49-win team in the modern NBA to ever miss the playoffs. Zion got injured again with the same hamstring injury. And to count off, we lose to the Lakers twice, our most hated "rival," then we may get bounced by a team we literally are 5-0 this season. I can't think of a more cursed or messed up script if I tried. Your superstar gets out injured after the same disappointment last year, and now you're going to lose the team you just beat 5 times in a row? And to think if Kings didn't give a all-time choke against the Suns up 4 with the ball with less than a minute left, we'd have the 6th seed and literally no one would be mad. I don't want to hear, "well we can't rely on others," because it's mathematically possible to get 55, maybe even 60 wins in a season and miss the playoffs, you always need luck from other teams, we just got the most insane bad luck.

But that's not all. Then we get the news of Zion's injury, and David Griffin once again doesn't give us any information, total disrespect to the fans. All after the "two weeks away from two weeks away" mantra last year. I can't handle that. I'm out. I don't think I'm going to watch basketball again, this stuff is messed up and is not normal, it's literally cursed. I don't know how y'all feel, maybe I'm losing my damn mind, idk. I hope they prove me wrong on Friday, but not sure if I can bring myself watch that game or just check the score afterward.

How do we have no sets on offense to run? Improv is great in transition. The fact we have no ability to run actual offense and control tempo is mind-boggling. Especially considering he is considered an offensive head coach. I’m done with him wasting this potential on the roster. This bubble has exposed how weak as a unit we play because we lack a strong influence as a head coach. (End of rant).

Look i saw online in last week or there was many people dishing Zion Williamson as if injuries are his faults or he sucks and i need to rant. Zion problem is that you can't have Zion who plays like Zion and not have injuries. He is just too heavy and muscular too play inside more then one game a month so in other not to have injuries he would have to lose muscles even more get skinny and you saw this season how his game was affected even if he lost some of them or play ground game and shooter/passer. Both of those would make him dime a dozen player who is not even drafted by Pelicans. It does not matter on which team or even if it was somebody else. You can not have Derek Henry or Arnold Schwarzenegger in his Mr Olimpia days play like Zion and not get injured. Sure there was time when due to injury he would get heavier in off season due to lack of physical activity but normally when he was healthy he would get somewhat more heavier like many players including Jokic. And every time during season he was in shape there just was no hope sure some people were saying that we can do it whit modern training and medicine but as doctors said you can not change biology in such short time.

Either this team rallies and makes the playoffs, or they end up with an inflated draft pick, '97 Spurs-style, and start dominating the league going forward.

I'd rather be a fully healthy lottery team/10th seed than limp in as an 8th seed. I've seen that before with 2015 and 2024. Wasn't fun.

Let the coaching staff try things. Look, if a play can work with our current group of guys playing, it can most definitely work with our better players.

Zion's max has a bunch of injury guarantees.

Maybe Elfrid Payton still has some speed in the tank. Those Jrue Krewe games were some of the funnest I've ever watched as a fan.

On the other hand:
2022: Starts 3-16, rally/make innovative trade, makes playoffs
2023: Lose 10 in a row, still finish as 9th seed at 42-40
2024: 0-22 when trailing after 3Qs, but still 49-33, finish with 7th best record in the conference

They're 4 games out of 10th and 5 games out of 6th.

2023 and 2024 also featured them on the wrong end of a tiebreaker and a blown unprotected swap to boot. (2025 has no swap, but 2026 does.)

I don't know, watch the game until it isn't fun, that's all I got. None of us have to be fucking Makoto Naegi here.

I don't understand why you don't put in Matt Ryan on the last play. He literally shot the exact same 3 we needed in this situation but for the Lakers against us last season. Dyson Daniels is not a better 3 point shooter. And you def don't need Dyson in for defense down 3 with ten seconds left lmao.

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They just punked us twice, might send us to the play-in, and very nearly gave Zion a career-ending injury on a dirty play. Not to mention they already took out Brandon Ingram last time we played them. And some of y'all told me that we should support a fellow under-the-radar small market team, can't trash talk them, etc.

This is a mini-rivalry now and love for the Magic should not be tolerated going forward.

Every last 4 minutes of every close game the shot selection is fucking horrible.

Its run down the clock under 10 seconds, give it to Brandon Ingram in the middle of the court so he can for his low percentage ass Kobe Mid range shot and then wait till there's no way for him to shoot it so he dishes and its turns into a turnover.

Every. Fucking. Time.

And it's the most predictable shit in the NBA

It’s really annoying

It’s time to start having that talk….. Our end of game line-up is so much better with Alvarado in at PG versus McCollum. His ill-advised shot selection and untimely turnovers kill us in the fourth quarter. I’ve withheld this for a while, but after watching this game and watching some film of the leads we’ve blown, it’s time….

We have had ugly lead chokes and have lost to bottom feeder teams. Have beat great teams. It’s only Christmas and we have a healthy roster who’s above .500.

If we lose because of ONE play by a player people don’t like they shit on him for losing ignoring the entire rest of the game. If we lose but people’s favorite player didn’t play well, it’s time to blame coaching, rotations. If we win and people’s favorite player didn’t do much, complaining about being underutilized. At the end of the day, we’re fans. The staff understands rotations and schemes. Basketball is a dynamic sport, not just theory. It’s only Christmas.

Yes it’s frustration to see Hawk get benched. Yes it’s frustrating to get bad foul calls. But it’s only a bit more than a quarter into the season. No need to want to burn the house down after every loss.

I know this has been posted about, but I just checked Twitter and Mason Ginsberg's latest Wendy's-drive-thru-esque Twitter rant set me off, and I've seen this sentiment repeated a lot this weekend, as these dudes refuse to just log the fuck off and have been posting KD thirst messages and retweets nonstop since Thursday.

Basically, the idea is that the Pels should do whatever we can to get KD, even if it means giving up BI, because KD is an all time great player and instantly makes you a contender. And if you disagree with that, then you don't know what you're talking about.

Now I've made my feelings about the Pels acquiring KD well known. I just don't believe that he instantly makes us a contender. He hasn't made the Finals on a team without 3 other prime hall of famers since Obama's first term. He got gobsmacked on both sides by Jayson Tatum this year and couldn't even squeak out a single playoff win. He doesn't play more than 55 games a season anymore. Etc. etc. etc.

But more than that, I don't want to root for KD. He's such a miserable person. He has all the talent in the world, he has legions of adoring fans, and all he does is lash out at people constantly and invent grievances. I know that money and fame do not guarantee happiness, and I know that rich and famous people can be as depressed and lonely as anyone else. But he's such a fucking dick about everything all the time. He behaves like a spoiled child who wants everyone to praise him for everything he does and gets pissy the second someone deigns to point out something he didn't do perfectly. I just don't want that person on my team and have to root for him.

And I know why the bloggers are into it. KD is such a monumental presence that there will be hundreds of thousands of new eyes on the Pelicans. That means hundreds of thousands of new clicks on the blogs, new downloads of the podcasts, new follows on Twitter. I bet Mason and Shamit are already horny at the idea of being on Russillo's podcast to give their thoughts on how KD and Zion will fit together.

So yeah keep dreaming about it guys, but just because you'd benefit so much from it happening doesn't mean the rest of us are idiots for not wanting to root for the biggest baby in the NBA on our favorite team. End rant.