After a nice opening game win against the Orlando Magic the Pelicans welcome their Southwest Division rival Dallas Mavericks into the Smoothie King Center for game 2.
As McNamara pointed out earlier this week the Mavs are bringing in the number one ranked offense–posting an offensive rating of 124.9. The Pelicans defense has played well in preseason and in the opener, but some of the same old issues remain. Perimeter defense was worrisome at times and rotations were a little slow. Davis (and his 9 blocks!) and Asik will make up for a lot of mistakes, but this will still be a tough test.
For tonight’s open thread give us your boldest (yet realistic) prediction for season. I’ll start: I don’t think Davis has a real shot at MVP. But Defensive Player of the Year is happening.
And feel free to talk about anything else on your mind in the comments below!
20 responses to “Mavs @ Pelicans Open Thread”
I’ll be the 1st to say I believe AD is gonna put dirk in trouble early and make him a non factor. And with asik in the middle it forces ellis takes bad jumpers. I believe we def have the match up advantage. All comes down to bench IMO
Monta used to be excellent at taking bad jumpers!
Can’t wait for this game. As far as Monta Ellis- his sweet spots are mid-range on the right. Hopefully they force him left and control the glass after he misses.
Excellent defense by dallas. Pelicans giving up open 3s
Mavs controlling boards
What’s up Pelican peeps? This isn’t as fun as I thought it was going to be…
I agree. Completely outmatched so far
callmened The defense is once again a concerning negative. Mavs guard are getting into the lane at will.
I love yet hate gordon. Talented but no effort on d. Same with evans.
Monty switched to zone. Excellent move!!
Tyreke going nuts!!!!!!
Doing a little better at mid range has helped the Pelicans
I absolutely don’t trust evans or gordon in a big spot. 7 4th qtr turnovers
Exactly. Tyreke is a 29% 3pt shooter yet has taken the past four threes.
Jason Calmes Mid range is key. It gets a bad rap because many people who shoot a lot of mid range shots shouldn’t be shooting at all. But teams with great mid-range shooters do well. David West, Chris Bosh, Dirk…I love bigs with consistent 19 foot jumpers.
Good game for Eric ;(
Hard to believe he was a candidate for the national team not two years ago.
The Pelicans clearly have 5 NBA playoff caliber pieces (and no other NBA playoff caliber starters or 2nd teamers):
Davis: MVP candidate,
Evans & Holiday: All-Star candidates,
Asik: Top 10-15 Center in NBA, and
Anderson: Strong 6th man candidate.
Looking at the rest of the roster:
Gordon: MAY be a solid 2nd team player and 2nd team leader,
Ajinca: is a quality 2nd team player looking for minutes (a candidate for a Q-pon for Vasquez type trade?),
Rivers and Jimmer: the not ready for rotational time players,
Salmons: buyout candidate to free up a roster spot (Is he Monty’s version of Byron’s Peja mistake?), and
Babbitt & Miller: deserving of some playing time to see how they play.
504ever hmmm? i think that might be reaching
In my humble opinion:
– Unibrow = All-NBA player (not an MVP because this team isnt good)
– Evans and Gordon = two talented yet erratic players that cant be counted on in the clutch (see 4th qtr vs Mavs)
– Asik – solid NBA center
– Anderson – 6th man candidate
– Holliday – all star candidate
– Bench = HORRIBLE. Jimmer, Rivers, Salmons are not good players. this is the weakness of this team. Not only are they bad defensively, but they not good shooters
First true test of season vs Mavs. They came back and had a great 3rd qtr but they faded in the 4th. Still have some learning to do but need to upgrade roster
callmened 504ever
It seems like we are at least close everywhere and only disagree on Evans. He is currently averaging 17points, 9.5 rebounds, and 7.5 assists per game with a bonus of 43% 3 point shooting. He is also averaging 1 steal and 2 turnovers despite his high usage rate.
That doesn’t seem erratic to me. It sounds like you are punishing him for the energy he expended to basically single-handedly erase a 16 point deficit in the 3rd quarter against the Mavs. He needed help in the 4th quarter and didn’t get it.
Without Evan’s 22 points and near triple double, we get blown out. Why do you mention him in the same breath as the guy who went 0-6 shooting with 4 turnovers? Tyreke’s current PER is 19. Gordon’s? -3.77, right at Jimmers -3.42 and near Salmons’ -2.93.
That’s right, of the twenty players in the league who have negative PERS, we have three of them and you are equating Evans to one of them. I, respectfully, disagree.
Fair to say I was pretty much right…. *see below* lol