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The Twist that Woke Up The Pelicans Pick and Roll Game
The pick and roll is pretty much the staple of all NBA offenses. It’s run nearly every possession, and often multiple times during it. You often see double screens, pick and pop/pick and roll combos, and any other combination you can think of. But right now the New Orleans Pelicans are running a very simple […]
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Imagining Some ‘Pelicans as Buyers’ Trades
The blockbuster trade is not coming. And with the Pelicans starting to play much better and the playoffs in reach, neither is the epic sell job that sends out impact players for picks and/or inexperienced young prospects. No, if Dell is going to make a move, it is going to be a minor one or […]
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Finding the ‘Outta Nowhere’ 3-and-D Wing
The Pelicans biggest hole has been the in the same place for the better part of a decade. Heck, save for one good year from Peja, the small forward position might have been their biggest weakness since Jamal Mashburn lost his career to the all too common vertigo. And as Pelicans fans wish upon a […]
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Can the Pelicans Match the Warriors 2012 Draft and Would It Be Enough?
Harrison Barnes. Festus Ezili. Kent Bazemore. Draymond Green. All in one rookie class. Collectively, there hasn’t been a better draft in recent memory, and that draft (combined with what was already in place and a couple of savvy FA signings) led to a title, and a potential dynasty in the making. The idea of that […]
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Monty Love Proves Just How Flawed Our Memories Are
One thing you can say about Monty coached teams – They always played with effort. I have seen this sentence or one like it literally dozens of times in the past few weeks. The first thing I did when I read it was google ‘Multiverse Theory’. Seems odd, I know, but I was convinced that […]
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Are We Being Unfair to Tyreke Evans?
The Christmas Day game seemed like the tipping point for many fans. For me, it was the Boston game about a week earlier. Now, social media and the internet in general is not a great place to find the entire spectrum of fans’ thoughts, but it is all we’ve got right now. And the internet […]
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Do the Pelicans Have a Secret Plan?
No. They have a very public plan, I think. This plan is somewhat vague in some parts and is obfuscated by injury, spin, and the current roster. With the terrible way this season has turned out and with all the talk of “blowing it up,” whatever that is, I wanted to lay out some of […]
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Blowing It All Up (To Get Younger Edition)
Yesterday, our own Michael McNamara wrote an article about the difference between tanking and blowing it all up. “Tanking” has become polarizing due to the much maligned and highly ridiculed process that Sam Hinkie and the Philadelphia 76ers are taking. And while the validity of that process is a debate for another day, fear of […]
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Watch Party Tuesday 1/12 @ Tracey’s
It’s 2016, the Pelicans are still in the playoff hunt, and we all need to start getting excited about Quincy Pondexter coming back. So that means it’s time for another watch party! And if there is a team the Pelicans can absolutely beat it’s the Los Angeles Lakers. So come on down to Tracey’s, grab […]
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For Pelicans, Blowing it Up isn’t the Same as Tanking
It is no coincidence that I am writing this piece two days before we reach what I stated was The Point of No Return. A month ago, I wrote a piece setting a target days of January 9th for the Pelicans to decide which direction to take, and set a win total of 13 as […]
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The Pels want transition defense – are they getting it?
Gentry – and his coaching tree – are big proponents of transition offense. You heard all about pace in the off-season, and the general reason for that is transition attempts are generally worth about 1.09 points per possesion, or .1 more points per possession than their half-court conterparts. The flipside of that is that the […]
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Meet and Dine with Joel Meyers, Jrue Holiday, and Toney Douglas
Disclosure: My father donates his time to this organization, serving on its board of directors. No one on the 3 Point Club’s Executive Committee or Board of Directors receive any kind of financial compensation for the work that they do for the organization, nor did Bourbon Street Shots for the publishing of this post. We simply like to take […]
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Finding The Missing Piece(s): A Return of Sorts
Three years ago, I did a weekly series titled ‘The Missing Piece’. It was based around the premise that the Pelicans had some foundation pieces in place and they were just searching for the right guy to tie it all together. At the time, they had Davis and Anderson as the big men of the […]
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Old Habits Die Hard
I want to share something I was taught with you. Now it isn’t that complex of an idea, and you may already have an understanding of its message but basically it goes like this: To change who you are you have to change how you think and how you act. Ground breaking stuff I know. […]
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Examining Lineup Data – Get Well Soon, Q-Pon
With the return of Tyreke Evans and Norris Cole last week, the Pelicans inched ever so close to the roster that the team envisioned before the season; unfortunately, results since their return have been less than ideal. Though the team put together an impressive overtime victory over the Cavaliers, New Orleans has also dropped games to the […]
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Finding the Real Eric Gordon
The stat line doesn’t tell the whole story, and if that’s all you looked at, you might think Eric Gordon has had a relatively consistent season. The truth is that Gordon has been up and down. He’s had a few incredibly efficient games, but he’s also put up a few stinkers. Variance in player performance […]
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Omer Asik’s Contract Incentives
When news first broke that Omer Asik would be signing a contract extension with the New Orleans Pelicans, it was originally reported as a 5-year, $60 million deal. That estimation was quickly proven to be an overstatement, as the deal’s total value and length continued to trend downward. Before getting to what the incentives in Asik’s contract […]
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Maximizing Roster Output – Time for a Rotation Change?
First, a word of warning: the last time I suggested a rotation change, it involved benching Eric Gordon last November, which looks hilariously bad in hindsight. I clearly jumped the gun on that one, not allowing him enough time to get out of his early season funk (though he didn’t really do that until returning from injury […]
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The Learning Curve: Guard Play and Ball Stoppers
Let me tell you what I think is going on, and let me preface this by saying I am an all around positive guy, everything I write is positive. But not today. It shouldn’t be this bad. November is over for the Pelicans and they have yet to play a full 48 minutes of good […]
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Making Sense of Omer’s Minutes
As far as recent history goes, this past week wasn’t a bad one for Pelicans fans. Ryno looked better than ever, and AD went back to destroying worlds. Still, there was one lingering question. Where was Omer Asik? Well, he was on the bench. Why? It seems like some of that was answered in the […]