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Thanksgiving Scoop
You’ll have to see how the answers turn out, but here are some upward-pointing questions in advance of Thanksgiving. 1. Holiday is back. Are the New Orleans Pelicans now equipped to win “today” against at least half of the NBA a 0.500 or better rate? How about with Evans coming back? 42: I think that’s […]
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What Everybody is Saying and Nobody is Talking About
A couple of wins and now everybody is talking playoffs. Another injury or two and a losing streak and everybody will be talking who to take in the top 3. That’s how fickle it is right now, as the Pelicans have dug themselves a sizable hole, but have also looked like a sure-fire playoff team […]
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How Jrue Holiday Will Immediately Help the Pelicans’ Offense
There is a lot of excitement on Jrue Holiday’s return to the New Orleans Pelicans tonight. While the focus has been should he start or come off the bench, the real talk should be about how he will specifically help this team. And help he will. Holiday is an excellent player, despite injuries and a […]
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Anthony Davis Showing Patience on Offense
This year Anthony Davis has been an absolute banshee on the court for the New Orleans Pelicans despite their winless start. He’s third in the league in scoring per game, averaging 31.3 points per game. This is well above the 24.3 he averaged last season. And the stats show that he is having a much […]
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Issues of Trust
I’ve spent some time thinking about just has gone wrong with this team that was controllable. Every team makes mistakes. Bad luck aside, I wanted to come up with an answer, and not just some early bad signing. I wanted the real root of the issue. These people are not incompetent. They can be wrong, […]
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What Everybody is Saying and Nobody is Talking About
Everybody was saying that Hillary was a shoe-in just a week ago, but nobody was talking about how similar polls had projected Hillary to beat Bernie in some of the key states, and she ended up losing states like Michigan despite what the “projections” said. But guess what? Everybody started saying that as soon as […]
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Examining Lineup Data – the Value of Continuity
*Note – this column was written in advance of the Pelicans’ November 10th victory against the Bucks* Key Takeaway: Pelicans lineups that have played more than 5 minutes together this season (making up ~65% of the team’s total minutes played) have outscored their opponents by 6.6 points per 100 possessions (roughly the Thunder’s net rating last […]
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The Good and Bad with the Pelicans’ Defense
A lot has been made of the Pelicans’ revamped defense. Is it truly 10th best in the league? Is it actually bad? Is this smoke and mirrors? Small sample size? Being affected by one or two games? It is still too early to predict where the defense will fall at the end of the season. […]
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What Everybody is Saying and Nobody is Talking About
Everybody was saying that last week’s piece would be a one-off. That I was just going to be able to do it once, and after that I would fade back into the oblivion. But what nobody was talking about was how determined I am to show how stupid it is to talk in these extremes, […]
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The Pels’ Supporting Cast and Their Missing Second Lead
Much has been made of the Pelicans supporting cast, or apparent lack thereof, recently. If you’re on this blog, you’re sure to have heard, at least a dozen times, “I feel sorry for Anthony Davis! He has such a terrible supporting squad around him! And so they keep losing games… I hope he gets traded […]
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The cost of Tim Frazier and observations
Those of you who follow me on Twitter know I’m a fan of Tim Frazier. I usually take the side of the underdog, and a not-quite six-foot five-year college player who went undrafted yet still fights his way to the NBA qualifies. He plays with fire and energy. I like watching him. Outside of Chaos Stephenson […]
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Finding the Perfect Pairing for Anthony Davis
So far this year the Pelicans are winless, despite Anthony Davis having two monster performances to start the year. And right now, the future doesn’t look too bright. Most people blame general manager Dell Demps. When New Orleans drafted Anthony Davis a championship or two was the expectation. He was the talent of a generation. […]
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The Transition to Transition
We’ve had just a few New Orleans Pelicans games to watch, so beyond Anthony Davis is good This team needs work There’s not too much to say with great confidence, especially when some important pieces are missing and returning, possibly soon. Watching games against just a 3 teams is bad enough, but when two of […]
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What Everyone is Saying and Nobody is Talking About
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. The recent trend amongst NBA experts, podcasters, bloggers, and the like is to inform us all of what everyone is saying, and nobody is talking about. And then, they so cleverly say the opposite of what everyone else is saying and begin to talk about what nobody else […]
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Figuring Out Solomon Hill
Last off-season, the Pelicans made some moves, most of which were met with indifference to slight approval from fans. Well, to be fair, I think most fans were actually excited to see Gordon leave, but some of that was mitigated by seeing Ryno in Houston. Still, most of the new guys that were brought in […]
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Searching for Pieces
Offseason always feels like an eternity to me. After the adrenaline rush of free agency, we are exposed to the horrors of Summer League.. then we wait a few months and are rewarded with preseason pickup basketball.. I mean, NBA preseason games. There are a lot of projection models that are not, erm, high on the Pelicans […]
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Some Clarity on the Glass
The 2014-15 Pelicans ranked 4th best in offensive rebounding% as Anthony Davis and Omer Asik feasted off Tyreke Evans’ wild rim running. In the 2690 minutes Evans played that year, the Pelicans had an Oreb% of 29.0, good enough for 2nd in the NBA. Davis was and is simply a monster finishing around the rim, […]
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The Bourbon Street Shots Pelicans
With another NBA season set to kick off this week, I find myself thinking about where I was last year at this time. I had started a brand new job in a brand new city, and longing more than ever for the start of a new Pelicans season. It wasn’t just the fact that the […]
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Quick Wins and a Path Forward
We are right in the thick of the 2016 NBA preseason, and it seems as if the only buckets being filled up for the Pelicans are ones full of bad news. First, we learned that Jrue Holiday’s wife Lauren will soon have a surgical procedure to remove a benign tumor from her brain (for which Jrue […]
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Introducing: Locked on Pelicans
I’m very happy to announce that I’ll be your new host of the Locked on Pelicans Podcast. Big shoes to fill with Brett Dawson leaving, but I’m excited to be talking Pelicans everyday! We’ll have our Bourbon Street Shots writers on as guests constantly, and don’t forget about In the NO as well! Preseason has […]