Ah, remember the glory days? Way back in December of 2013 and early January of 2014, the Pelicans had a handful of games in which their core players were actually healthy, and that team was getting pretty good. Flash forward just four months, though, and seemingly nobody remembers this magical time in the franchise’s history. Its a phenomenon that is not uncommon. Ask somebody about the film ‘The Usual Suspects’ and they will tell you it is terrific. Really, was it? Was it?
It was an average movie with a fantastic ending, but that ending was enough to make up for all the mundane scenes that come before it, propelling it to greatness in the minds of many. For the Pelicans, the terrible end to the season has clouded peoples’ overall opinion on a season that was quite promising at one point. So I want to go back. I want to see if Monty’s rotations were terrible when he had good toys to play with. I want to see how Jrue Holiday and Anthony Davis worked together. I want to see how Evans played coming off the bench with Ryno next to him. I want to see a closer representation of what this team will be next year before I claim that Monty is or isn’t the right man to coach it. Before I definitively say which free agents do or do not fit.
Because the truth is that none of us remember. We remember our anger of seeing Monty playing Greg Stiemsma over Luke Babbitt, but was he playing him in key situations over Ryno? If not, should we maybe cut the guy a break? We also don’t remember what the Pelicans looked like when they played with consistent pace. Before the injuries occurred, this team was top 10 in pace; You didn’t remember that did you? How about the defense – was it getting better or is there a major problem with these core players that needs to be addressed?
I don’t remember, and likely neither do you. So I am going back in time. I am going to watch every single game from those glory days and recap them here as if the game had happened that night. I will look at the good, the bad, and the ugly, but it will be different this time because the scope will be much wider. When you recap a game on the night it happens, you sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture. That won’t be the case here.
I will look at the games that truly mattered from this season and dissecting the players that truly matter, while grading Monty in the situation that Dell had set up for him this offseason. Because, does it really matter for the future if Monty chose Stiemsma over Babbitt and Roberts over Rivers if Holiday and Ryno are getting those minutes if healthy? The further I get away from the season, the more I think we were all overreacting a little to those decisions that will prove meaningless moving forward.
But if Monty was making similar head scratching decisions when he had all those great weapons at his disposal, then maybe there is a larger issue here after all. If Davis and Anderson were a mess on the defensive end, and never improved, then maybe Anderson isn’t the ideal player to put next to him. So, I invite you to take this journey with me as I revisit the glory days. Feel free to leave comments on other things you want me to watch for and/or take notice of and I will do that. Stay tuned, because coming up first in our series, we get the Return of Ryno – as the Pelicans obliterate the 76ers 135-98.
Ah, those were the days.
7 responses to “New Series: Glory Days”
How are you watching I would like to relive the glory days
A very cool idea and I look forward to the series.
Love the premise. And think you/we will fall in love again with this team Dell assembled, when they are healthy, and what Monte did with them.
this is a cool idea actually. Let me see good things: spacing, the pace was healthy(even if not that great in half court), the O was very curious with a surprinsing consistency even if not explosive, a lot of generated TO. Bad things: the passing was bad except with the big 5 (it isn´t a bad thing per se but it´s there),the starting line up was avg or worse with Stiesma or Smith, weird thing with no shooting 3s except Ryno(literally the rest of the team shot the same number with or w/o him), a horrible defense, an incredibly schematic O, too much mid range shots.
Let me be clear, it´s not that there were more bad than good, most of those stuff are connected and any line up w/o Aminu and Stiesma was good or better with an incredibly eff O and Monty didn´t have the “power” or the time to bring Gordon from the bench or the guts to put Ryno/Morrow with the starters, and that´s fine at that time. Oh and it´s painful to say, Smith can´t play with Monty´s scheme, kills everyone else O.
P.D. how dare you tal like that about Usual suspects haha. It´s not a masterpiece but even the rest is super fun and very well done
Great idea.
I seem to remember Monty doing a good job with his rotations by the end of that stretch. I believe he was getting the finishing 5 about 20 mpg and was usually giving them run in every quarter. Evans was still a bit of a mystery, but who knows how much his ankle was bothering him
Are these games online somewhere we could all access? Would love to watch along
thouse So, I will watch the games on Synergy – which only costs $20 from now through Sept. 31st. Well worth it IMO.
I will also post clips of key sequences from NBA.com – which has video of every single individual play from every game.
Gonna start today and try to have the Sixers recap up by tomorrow. I cant wait!
I concur. Great idea and I can’t wait to read. I remember some of the things soulbreaker discussed being what was talked about back then, but like you said will there be differences in the larger scope. Also, xman mentioned the big possibility. I know the preference of most appears to be small forward, but is there a plan to discuss some of the bigs available like Monroe? And what we’d be sacrificing to sign them.