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Pelicans Scoop: Needs
18 games in – what do you categorize as the Pelicans’ biggest position of need? Shamit – With news that Elfrid Payton is now out for 6 weeks, the Pelicans need a solution on the ball handling front. Currently Jrue Holiday is the sole player who can consistently apply pressure on defenses with his […]
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10 Takeaways Through 10 Pelicans Wins
We’re officially past the 20% mark of the NBA season, which means it’s late enough to begin digging into certain trends and early enough to jump to conclusions about unsustainable starts (both good and bad). The Pelicans have won 10 games so far, so here are 10 takeaways from yours truly regarding what we’ve seen […]
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Working Smarter and Harder
Fatigue makes cowards of us all. — George S. Patton, Jr, War As I Knew It If you just look at the number of games or minutes played by the New Orleans Pelicans in the 2018-2019 regular season, you are left with the impression that the sample size is small, and that no conclusions . […]
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The Offseasons Loom
“Then out spake brave Horatius, The Captain of the Gate: To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his gods.” — Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome Summary This is not […]
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All Dell Demps Deserves is the Chance to Succeed . . . Or Fail
Dell Demps is entering his 9th season as General Manager of the New Orleans Pelicans, and what a journey it has been. When he first arrived in 2010, a new coach was just hired without his input and the term “ownership turmoil” would be a vast understatement. As if that wasn’t enough, rumors were swirling […]
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In The NO Episode 5: Interview with Pelicans Performance Consultant, Mike Guevara
Photo Credit: Ashley Amoss Meet the one of the most innovative guys in sports. Mike G is a Performance Consultant with the New Orleans Pelicans as well as the personal Performance Coach to Jrue Holiday. Coach Mike walks us through how he got his start, what kind of preparation goes into the offseason, what to […]
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In The NO Episode 4: Okafor, Schedule, and Ticket Sales
Part 1: Part 2: In Part 1 of the latest episode of In the NO, Shamit and Mason kick things off by discussing the addition of Jahlil Okafor. They then pivot to the recently released NBA regular season schedule, and then talk about the Pelicans’ over-under in comparison to some other Western Conference playoff hopefuls. […]
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In The No Episode 3: Gentry Ball, Decompression, and Targets
Shamit and Mason discuss the happenings of the offseason. We talk about Gentry Ball, targets, and take a look into the brief future. Listen on iTunes Listen on Spotify RSS Feed Direct Download
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Introducing “Gentry Ball”: A Look Into Early Offense and The Fit of Elfrid Payton
When Elfrid Payton was first signed, there was a lot of hullabaloo about his fit. As the dust settled, it became clear the idea was to put him in an up-tempo system that allowed him to play in the open floor. This message was reiterated by Dell Demps at the press conference introducing Payton and […]
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Trade Targets III: Setting Up the Next Trade
Some people play checkers, others play chess. Dell Demps plays chess. He might not always win, but he’s always playing chess. Most NBA fans are in a rush to judge every move in a vacuum. They rush to analyze a move the second it is made. But, in reality, each move is a domino that […]
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Trade Targets Part II: Zig While Others Zag
When you are a small market competing with 29 other teams, you need to find market inefficiencies. Either anticipate where the game is going next and/or grab up undervalued pieces while your opponents have their eye on another prize. The former is hard to do in a market with so many smart executives, but the […]
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Elfrid Payton: Homecoming
By Ryan Hebert (@RyanHebert89) College and more: March 21st, 2014 Elfrid Payton, and Doug McDermott are squaring off in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Payton’s 14th seeded Ragin Cajuns versus McDermott’s 3rd seeded Blue Jays’. Payton is 6’4 point guard guarding the 6’8 forward McDermott nearly the entire game, unusual, but Payton won […]
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What Makes Sense as the Next Step for the Pelicans?
July 2nd was a weird day. We can go into every minute detail and break it down several different ways, but let’s just say it was weird and move on. Some people want Dell to battle the false claims Boogie’s camp is spewing, but there really isn’t anything to be gained by that. His job […]
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The Midnight Dance
Intro At midnight July 1, the gates to the NBA’s biggest ball fly open and everyone is looking for that special someone to take to the dance floor. Like any dance, your popularity and attractiveness play a huge role in finding a partner to tango with. If popularity were market size in the NBA, you […]
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How to Use the Pelicans’ Q-Pon Coupon
The NBA free agency period is fast approaching, which means that the Pelicans’ front office members have probably hardly slept recently. As is the case for most seasons, there are a great deal of variables at play; as such, the team has surely built out a multitude of scenarios, flowcharts, and other far more technical […]
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Instant Ducats
I know it’s the season for copying research about late draft picks, free agency, or trade scenarios from others and passing them off as your own, giving takes on takes, and trying to twist rumor into news, smoke into fire, clicks into money, but I am going to do something a little different: I am […]
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Rules For a Boogie-Less Offseason
Every organization needs a contingency plan if the primary option does not pan out. Make no mistake, DeMarcus Cousins is plan A. As I detailed last week, the Pelicans best path to talent is through Cousins. It is extremely unlikely that any player near Cousins’ caliber will be available to them this summer, and […]
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All Things Considered: Boogie Edition
In November while the Pelicans’ season was very much getting off the ground I wrote about “The Big Conundrum”. This piece revolved around the success of Davis centric lineups and posed the question of how best to optimize the Davis and Cousins pairing given the success of the aforementioned lineups. I had optimistically hoped […]
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Thoughts on Round 2 Versus the Warriors
The New Orleans Pelicans officially usher in Round 2 of the 2018 NBA Playoffs tonight when they play the Golden State Warriors in Oakland. The Warriors have the clear advantage in the series, but they are not invincible. You’ve seen good analysis from Pellissier on this, and I’ll touch on that and a few other […]
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Thoughts on the Staff and the Offseason
More and more will be written in time about the Offseason, but since I have seen some thoughts about it floating around in the second half of the season, I’ll go ahead and talk about some of it now. Today, I’ll focus on the Staff. The discussion will be in two parts. First, I’ll talk […]