Change is coming to the Pelicans’ roster

Change is coming to the Pelicans’ roster

hey guys welcome into another episode of from the wing I’m Christian Clark the Pelican beat rider for nola.com in the times picun I was on Airline Drive for exit interviews Tuesday definitely lot to chew on we heard from David Griffin will green a bunch of the players I think the one thing above all else I took away change is coming on Airline Drive this year and I don’t think it’s at the management level I don’t think David Griffin’s going anywhere I don’t think it’s the coaching level I don’t anticipate Willie Green going anywhere but I do think this roster is going to look pretty different headed into the 2024 2025 season David griffi acknowledged we saw it we saw what the starting five that we were trying to put on the floor for one and a half years looked like this past season there was a good sample size of minutes and while the Pelicans had a very nice regular season starting lineup they put on the floor was not great and I think you know we’re going to see a new starting five headed into next season and I guess we’ll see how much it changes yeah the the there were some lines in there that felt very pointed we’ve talked about one of the positions that is an eventuality like there is no starting center on the roster per as soon as this league year ends they don’t have a starting center so there will be a new starting center that is like a virtual formality how they go about that who that ends up being remains to be seen and the verbiage that was used felt um and kind of thei the rhythm of what we heard from other players felt very much like there was not a lot of plating and security given to very many people um you know Zion seemed very happy him and Herb seemed like the two most secure people in the building and everybody else kind of like was either was kind of you know maybe a little Sullen about the end of the year and like how they performed I don’t think anybody was very happy with how they did in the series but it’s it was interesting to hear Larry you know rip on we’re all Pawns in a chess game and you know sounded like somebody who’s very prepared for changes to happen but also sounds like you know he would also be the guy that would say that thing all puns in the game man in The Game of Life we’re game we’re ants under the magnifying glass um but the the two key things from Griff um and I are we going to get into the the like the full quotes do you want to give the full quotes or do I highlight the two uh the two Snippets that felt the most important well I I guess I’ll I’ll set you up with this I asked Griff very directly CJ mccom Zion Williamson Brandon Ingram you know those guys are going to make $106 million next season this is not traditionally team that pays the luxury attacks you got outscored in your minutes with them you are net negative with your minutes can you run it back David Griffin’s quote was you certainly don’t come at this as we’re going to build around one of them I think certainly anytime two of the three were on the court we won those minutes when three of them were on the court we tended not to that has a lot to do with what we support them with giving them the ancillary pieces that help them Thrive knowing now because we’ve seen the group enough I think we’ll be able to address some of that but certainly we have to be open to a lot of different things so two of the three on the court we are pretty good when all three were out there tended not to be also we put it out on the court for a good stretch of time had some regrets about untimely injuries but we saw enough that very like it feels like in uendo that those three the the opening for those three to change is is as wide as it’s ever been um yes I would I would agree with that statement I don’t think it’s an inevitability that the big three changes but I do think it is for the first time a possibility since they traded for cjom I guess it was a possibility last summer when frankly I think they they looked around at some Zion deals but didn’t do them but it is it is once again a possibility this summer yeah now we we finally the one thing the one fortunate thing that we can hang our hats on is that Zion started doing all of the professional things and that everything we’re seeing and hearing down to the last act he had on court which was shaking the hands of everybody coming off the court before they went into the locker room feels very much like a guy who this team now belongs to and everything we’re hearing certainly sounds like a team that belongs to the guy um and we kind of had our foot in both types of water here we had it in the leftovers of 2223 as well as the new Waters of can Zion be the guy Zion showed us a lot of I can be the guy and now he’s got to get the offseason right but it feels very much like the focal point now in terms of all of your design and decision-making is not to try to figure out how to tie the two together or how to tie the three together it’s how to make pieces work around him and that’s never quite been exactly the focus it’s been like ah let’s see what we have and he made it clear that we have seen what we have um and there are two things that we’ve harped on a good bit that were choices that were that were made you know at the end in the off season and again at the deadline we were short on ball handling we are short on athleticism and depth at the center position those are choices that were made there were price tags out there that were very very high to change those things they could have made a choice at those times we opted not to we rolled the ball out and we tried to do it with what we had and this series felt like it shined a gargantuan Spotlight at those two things it just blazing heat of a thousand suns like literal ants under the magnifying glass you don’t have a center that can play in modern NBA matchups and you do not have a point guard when Zion isn’t taking up a lot of the initiation duties and now it feels like we are going to confront those things um and it sounds like it’s a re real possibility that you know if something comes along where bi is a part of that reconstruction that that door is now open it does feel like the time is right to better optimize the roster on around Zion and and really fit the pieces around him a little bit better than they have fit around him in in the first five years he’s already played with three centers five years into his career Derek favers Steven Adams Jonas valent chunis Dereck favers was to me on the back nine of his career and he was almost at the end um he’s just pretty close to to being washed Stephen Adams I think you know still had some good basketball left but it was a terrible fit at the time and and now when you look at Stephen Adams I mean I think the injury stuff has kind of caught up with them yonis Val chunis I it was not a bad fit to me J funis did a lot of very good things for the Pelicans it was not ideal but him and Zion you know I think they they made it work and it was pretty good I just think you know if you want to win playoff rounds if you want to try to compete for a championship you’ve probably got to try to do something something different there and and I mean if you’re G to do that you also need like a leap from Zion and and to see him in the playoffs obviously um but yeah I I just think it’s time to try to get the right guy there and I think the Guard the guard discussion is going to be you know very interesting uh another thing I asked David Griffin Point Blank because I get asked about it every single radio hit I do do the Pelicans need a point guard I asked him that I was like what do you what do you make of the Pelicans need a point guard discussion he says I I don’t he basically was like I don’t think like there’s that many pure point guards out there just the NBA in general but he’s like we do need more basketball IQ on the floor he brought up the example of shis Alexander is not a pure point guard but he does a great job of getting them the best most efficient shot on the floor every single time and I thought that was fair and I thought that was good yeah so there’s a there’s actually a little bit of conversation going on about this right now in terms of like this this era that we’re in right now took a lot of chances on wings that could develop enough initiation there’s this belief that like you get the wing that can do everything you win the game and realistically a lot of those shots have landed as like guys are actually you’re a two or a three and you can’t really handle the ball and that’s not going to be a part of your game to that degree but when you have a team like the Thunder like Shay does have some primary initiation and and Jaylen has primary initiation and they’re both good and giddy can do it too and it’s just and there’s one guy after another after another after another that can play A in that role and they have enough they also had health for us so much of the contingency was finding out how much of the burdens Zion could handle that there was there’s no real starting point guard role in our primary rotation that actually makes sense with him and Brandon because they both play on the ball and so like the dream here if you could just go wave a wand over anything is that CJ is three years younger and three inches taller or that your backup point guard Jose is 6 fo4 um then you would not have felt that in the way that you did just now in in the OKC Series so it’s it’s more they just they were short on ball handling and primary initiation and they knew it by Design and it just got shown to them over and over and over again I think it’s plainly clear that giving more responsibility to bi in that world is not a good idea and that CJ moving up to initiator one a or one B is a terrible idea at this point in his career and so Brandon Ingram was begging them to to go out and get a point guard I mean never never really heard that line from him before but that that was I think that was one of the interesting takeaways from this too is hearing him say out loud like yeah you remember when I shot those threes it was pretty cool to catch those balls from point guards yeah you know I mean Lonzo ball I I had almost forgotten about you it it been a long time um yeah I thought I thought those was really interesting he’s like would it help if they got a point guard he’s like yeah absolutely would help me um and you know take more of those catch and shoot threes and and get off the ball a little bit I thought that was an interesting point Adam the Pelicans performance against the kings in the first round it was not just bad offense it was his like historically bad playoff offense like one of the worst offensive performances we’ve seen from any playoff team in like a decade the Pelicans scored 92 92 85 and 89 points they averaged 93.5 points per 100 possessions I went through all of it that was the worst offensive rating by a playoff team since 20156 when there are like three teams with with worse offensive ratings than that why why was it explain to me why it was not just bad but but putrid offense um so it’s matchups uh and playoff air playoff Arena matchups so you get a an OKC team that’s really their only defined weakness like true weakness is play is big like size in the paint and you can potentially punish them in the paint and play out of that the problem is everybody else they have is really athletic and long and spaces so they don’t really have like another weakness so now you have to beat like one-on-one matchups well you know who this matchup is terrible for small guards and you know who we needed initiation from really small guards um so there and and then the thing that bi seems to struggle with the most when trying to create is a Defender that can get up in him and so Lou Dort got up NBI and everybody that popped up in front of CJ caused him to dribble for six or seven seconds before he could do anything um we couldn’t beat a one-on-one matchup outside of Jonas Valen chunis and it’s because of the size and athleticism like this is of Jaylen plus sgaa I put Dort on you and if you make if you actually get me to switch you get freak Wing athlete to deal with with it’s not good just not it’s it’s a heinous matchup when you when you’re short on ball handling you need to be able to move those guys around and like that’s the unfortunate thing and why I keep mentioning Jose and how sad it is that he’s so small that series that matchup is screaming for him it’s screaming for a guy to probe and move around in space to go take switches to go Force rotation with his dribble and we have anybody else that can do that and the only guy that can do that’s 510 so he had a terrible series we had a terrible series we couldn’t initiate anything every play was a dumpster fire Steve Jones had a hilarious hilarious quote um when they when duners spot did the recap of game three and talked about what might happen in game four he said you know uh New Orleans just kind of has to try to extend this thing they really need to try and you know do whatever they can to get the thunder in rotation and and then see like what would it look like if we can get CJ and Trey to knock down a few shots what would it look like indeed the world will never know yeah I mean I think CJ was five of 22 from three going into game four finished the series seven of 29 I mean 24% from a guy who shot the heck out of it all Year Jose Alvarado was one of 14 from three in the series three of 20 overall Jose Alvarado Made Who was an awesome bench player for the Pelicans in the regular season made three field goals in in the entire series um Brandon Ingram obviously gets most of the headlines here and he should get most of the headlines to be clear be because he you know he’s a guy who’s made an All-Star Game and they’ve got to make a decision about his contract and was so bad it was it was hard to look at and frankly game four was almost like a starky in or Simmons esque and we we should say that Brandon was coming back from you know a knee injury and he only looked right in like one of the seven games that that he played in after that like I I think that that absolutely went into it um but look Brandon was awful CJ was really bad Jose really struggled who was anyone good in the series like Naji Marshall was was okay was was any Pelican good in the series I mean Jonas gave you everything you could rationally expect from him so like he wasn’t good because Chad got him in you know pick and roll and drives and kicked his ass but he gave you every ounce of gas he had um herb was bad offensively so it kind of draggs like he was still good defensively he was like the only person that was still consistently good defensively but it kind of didn’t matter um so yeah it’s it’s really it’s tough to say anybody Trey gave you a good game Nai gave you a good game ho uh yonas if you’re being honest gave you like one good game and you never got a good game from bi from CJ um and everybody else was inconsistent so no I wouldn’t like if you had to ask me to pick an MVP of of the series for us like painfully I can’t can’t do it Brandon Ingram went 24 from the field in in game four there’s one play that’s going to be burned into my brain forever it was like 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter Pelicans down three he’s near the left block and he’s got Dort kind of pinned on his backside and all he has to do is just jump up and shoot like this six-footer right off the glass and ched ched is there but he’s far enough away where it’s like I don’t think he can block the shot or anything it’s just the type of shot I’ve seen Brandon Ingram make 500 times in a pelican’s uniform he pivots pivots pivots he clearly doesn’t want to take the shot finally jumps skips it crosscourt to Naji Marshall who throws up an air ball I mean it was just so clear in that moment it was like he doesn’t want to shoot right now I mean he he does not want to shoot he’s in his head right now I mean it was I mean Brandon did not have a a good series at all but like game four I think was kind of a new low for in the series and I mean it was stunning it was stunning to see him struggle to that degree on our last episode I think we outlined a lot of the reasons why you know at least I thought that that he struggled so much this year compared to two years ago when he was you know really really good in that first round Series against the Suns I thought it was better point of attack Defender you know from from Dort versus Jay Crowder and Tory Craig and he did get a little bit of Mel Bridges you know when I when I tweeted this I had people saying oh you’re you’re ignoring Mel Bridges but if you watch that series or if you even like bothered to go and look at the tracking data Mel Bridges guarded him a little bit but Mel Bridges was the primary defender on CJ McCollum so like if you guys are going to tweet that at me have a better memory or try to do your homework um and then I think the other big factor was Chad hren is an incredible rim protector I don’t know if people realize how good Chad hren is see also in game four when herb Jones gets a little gets a little ball away from the basket has like four feet to go to put in a layup and he chooses to go off the top of the glass from three feet away because he is afraid that Chad will get to it he takes a bad shot when he could have made a layup for fear that CH might be there and the dude had a couple games where he had four and five blocks so like he clearly had his impact like Chad answered the call in this series they challenged him in game one and the the adjustment was cool we’re gonna let Chad do this and he gave it to you offensively and he gave it to you on the defensive end as well like the the Thunder I think on their current roster could have two two guys who finish you know top five in MVP voting in their careers I mean Shay has already done it he’s going to be a top three guy in nvp voting this year like that is that is how much I think of Chad I mean I I think so highly of him a player this is just the beginning you know already this incredibly efficient offensive player already incredible rim protector like mobile great great competitiveness for a seven-footer I think that’s one of the most unique things about him a lot of these big guys they play basketball because they’re tall and I think when you have incredible competitiveness from a guy that big it can be it can be really special um so I think I think so highly of that guy yeah he I mean it’s a lot of like the promise of porzingis and but with more fluidity and ball skills um and I think when we I think when we did the initial conversations about their draft class I’m pretty sure we were reversed like you knew about about po passing create like creation and defense at a level that I did not and I was just watching Gaga games and was like I don’t think people understand about Chad like everybody calls him slow because he like hunches over while he moves and he doesn’t look athletic watch his feet watches jumper and the stuff he’s willing to do the dude’s really really smart and he’s just really it’s not like he is not a traditional big in any sense like to Will’s credit he is like more like a wing but he gives real elite Rim protection as well even though he’s rail thin so like it we should all be terrified if he puts any meat on those bones which who knows if he will he might be one of these gangly dudes till the end of time and the injury issues may come one day but right now it’s uh yeah it’s they got a they got some they got some good stuff cooking over there all three of the Thunders 25 and underst studs sh um Chad hren and Jaylen Williams scored more points than than Brandon Ingram in this series it is it is as we outlined earlier it is decision time with Brandon Ingram the summer you you’ve got to give him an extension or you’re going to have to move him you know I asked I asked David Griffin two separate questions about this topic and I thought it was a little bit noteworthy that he he basically just avoided it answering it like the plague and I get why like he you know I asked like you know could you what are your thoughts on extending him and if you did extend him could it be at a lower number than the max because the the max number of years and money the Pelicans can extend in for four years $28 million it’s going to be an enormous number 30% of the salary cap the money in the NBA is just stupid right now in general and Griff and I I totally get why he just basically didn’t answer he’s like look I really admire Brandon trying to come back from injury and I love him as a person he’s just a a a great guy and and good teammate and I think all those things are true it it was admirable that that Brandon Ingram tried to play that’s been a criticism of him in the past I like that he tried to get back out there on the court with his teammates like salute hat tip and he is a very nice person and was self reflective after that game talked about his struggles I think all that stuff is true I think this is going to be a very um difficult decision this summer yeah I think I think there was like some acknowledgement that we were asking him to sacrifice as much as anybody to make this work this year and I think he did all those things and you would love if things panned out smoother or things went better but I mean we had a good stretch there where he committed on the defensive end and was really really helpful and we got even like a little glimpse of like the true sealing of him and Zion together but I think to the point of what what Griff mentioned about like we saw enough is even though you would have liked to have seen more and you believe that maybe even there’s a sliver more potential than you saw you know like it’s abundantly clear that there are not a lot of great ways to make it work at an elite level um I think that cat is a little out of the bag and part of it and it’s just because of like what you would expect in terms of what they will improve on and where their games will evolve they’re not going to become like better fits fast enough in terms of their skill development because it would require them to become radically different players so um unless you can all of a sudden like if you can have the IQ level of CJ and accept your fate and become like a masterful off ball finisher which is what we saw from him most of this year you know I it’s a really tough ask so it was nice to hear bi get like that acknowledgement at least like yeah this is a really tough year for him but you can’t say and like negotiation in general like if you’re gonna have this conversation like can’t tell us what he’s gonna say can’t tell us what it’s going to be like can’t tell us that yeah sure he’s got the got the extension I think you know we’re going to read between the lines and say you know I think anybody if you ask anyone around the team that’s close to the team before you know maybe even 3 months ago or at last trade deadline um if you ask them what player you believe like uh Griff probably had like the most attachment to we might say Brandon Ingram because like that’s the guy he made a call about and was proven right to a large degree um and now like all of this talk just makes it sound like look we got to we got to we got to think about it we got to do it and if a real deal comes across the table U where somebody shows that they value Brandon Ingram we’re going to have to move on it because there are some teams out there that have some stuff that makes sense um and there if if it can happen this offseason that there’s a reason that that works for some teams and also for us like it would be nice to make the decision now before the extension so that you’re not locked in for another year if you already know it’s imperfect but it’s also just the world isn’t on fire if they have to go into negotiations and come up with an extension and he’s a frozen asset for a year that’s not the end of the world I don’t think anybody’s worried that Brandon Ingram’s game is gonna fall off a cliff he’s a pretty consistent player and he’s not old um nor does he have like this checkered injury history he just he had a problem in the past where like H these timelines would go like a little too far like an ankle would take an extra week and it shouldn’t um so yeah I I think I think we heard a lot of reasonable things and a little salute to Brandon that I think was fair and I think even the most Ardent Defenders of bi are acknowledging right now that this might this might might not be right long term it it’s been a really interesting trajectory for Brandon Ingram in New Orleans he’s he’s been here five years now that first season you know it starts taking way more threes than he ever did with the Lakers most improved player makes the All-Star Game in in Chicago his his second season is you know Zion Oh I’m sorry it was Stan get any covid and I don’t think like a situation he enjoyed very much and like I think who did they didn’t have the right fit at coach uh I don’t think it was like a fantastic roster around those around those two guys I mean Brandon was pretty available that season year three in New Orleans Brandon missed quite a bit of time but was able to get back on the court and him and CJ really get the Pelicans to the playoffs he shines in this first round Series against the Suns and I I think at that point I was like man I feel so good about this guy like with Zion coming back of like the Zion be a partnership and like if Zion can be the guy we think he is Brandon being the number two and then he has this this year in his fourth year in New Orleans it’s just weird he he kicks the back of Dylan Brooks’s foot misses 29 games what amounts to two months season kind of goes down the drain without Zion and bi bi gets back on the floor finally and plays really well down the stretch but it’s kind of too little too late and the Pelicans losing the playing Tournament game and then there’s this year where where Brandon was much more available 64 games his most since his days with the Lakers um and I think you know as the season progressed like did about as good of a job as as he can of like being a gap filler I just don’t think that’s who he is at his core frankly but I think he everyone kind of saw look Zion just the most talented player in the best version of this Pelicans team this season was with Point Zion basically and Brandon had to fit in around that and I think he did a lot of good things during the regular season with that and then you know he twists his left his left knee and he has this playoffs and now we’re at this point I thought it was he was very honest and raw after the game four lost to the Thunder about the stret with Team USA and and this season up till now was the worst he’s felt like he played in a Pelicans uniform I mean his he just like emotionally was having a a really tough time up there I mean it was it was like raw honest stuff and it it kind of like took me a back almost what did like what did you make of of him like just being very very honest there yeah I think you know I think he shared vulnerability and hopefully people don’t take too much advantage of that but I think feeo was really hard um and I think it was embarrassing and so then to have to come from that into a situation where you know that you’re going to be sacrificing part of your role this year like he he knows that walking in the door and you’re coming out of like being like a little bit of the summer laughing stock and now your volume metrics are all going to fall by by Design and you’re the guy that needs to find a way to fit and it never really clicks and that’s not going to be on anybody else than other than you and then to have that Crescendo in we need to get you back from injury we have to have you oh by the way now Zion’s not here and balls back in your hands it’s just a tough a tough run for him um and especially for a guy that plays like a very you know real hoopers know style of basketball like ball in my hands I’m a scorer I’m going to up fake you and go over the top of you I’m going to spin and go over the top of you he’s on the ball a ton and we came in and like asked him to change his identity and I think it’s really I think it’s proven very very hard for him just as a thing just as like a concept it’s really hard for him to not be that guy and I think there’s certain tools that aren’t in the chest um I think it’s an important point I just don’t he’s he’s very talented he’s good he helped the Pelicans have their second most successful regular season franchise history I do not think of him as a malleable player and you know I I shared that on Twitter uh around Team USA a time and people did not really like that opinion at all I mean man I think I got quote tweeted by multiple ringer staffers um yeah they did they did not enjoy that one and I gotta say I think it was a correct take like I’m sorry uh I I really do I just don’t think I just don’t look at him and say this is like an extremely adaptable basketball player um I mean I know his time playing with LeBron was very brief and he was super young and that was not an ideal situation but from what that very limited sample size that we saw it did not go great him and Zion it’s been an okay fit at best um I I just don’t think you know he’s he’s great at like adapting in in a lot of different circumstances there’s two things he’s not an off ball player like by Nature he’s not an off ball player it stylistically he’s never played that way and so he’s it’s going to be really hard to shift him into that because it’s teaching him Concepts he’s never really used like from from jump and he’s not an electric athlete he’s very long so he has a good enough handle he has great vision he has the ability to be like an elite passer when the openings are there but he can’t create the openings with his dribble so like the things that you the pathways to being like malleable or to being in a role that can constitute like a real number two in today’s NBA like he’s only got two ways that feel realistic to me he’s got the Middleton path or he’s got the the two-year Demar de rozan path you either have to become an elite Creator out of the post and arguably the best defender on your team or you have to be the finisher the unquestioned high IQ finishing shot maker and and also be a good Defender and the defense is still not that great um so you he has to become one of those two things wherever he is as like a goal but these the idea that he’s gonna run around and play like Rip Hamilton ball or anything like that and fit around somebody like that’s not real and I I’ve made this point like we’ve done some conversations about like his three-point volume and why the number didn’t matter to me as much as like the types of attempts they were and he kind of made that point again when he was talking about the point guard I just don’t think he’s gonna shoot through contact and I don’t think he’s gonna have these dribble moves to get himself open that he doesn’t have them anywhere he takes fadeaways spins and step and step backs where he dribbles forward first gets you on your back foot and then relocates backwards these are not like Dynamic Athlete moves they’re taking advantage of his length and when guys are willing to get up on you and push you around doesn’t matter if you’re long so yeah I just that stuff was never realistic to me I think the the two places I wanted to see him like realistically improve was when he does get those catch and shoot attempts even if the close out is fairly close you got to be willing to take the shot and you have to be willing to go up through Conta sometimes and between that and just taking a transition three here and there as you’re coming up the floor I think that’s the real way for him to get to like four to six attempts a game but I don’t think seven or eight was ever like a reality um so yeah that I think we’ve pretty we’ve beaten that one pretty much to death at this point I think one of the reasons Pelicans fans experienced a lot of frustration in the first round was you are playing a team that is younger than you and that also started their rebuild or retool around the same time that that the Pelicans did I mean if you look at it Pelicans had to move Anthony Davis which rebooted this whole thing you know around the same time that the Oklahoma City Thunder sent out Paul George and Russell well Russell Westbrook and and rebooted what what they’ve got going on and I thought that that Griff gave a pretty interesting answer about you know basically starting their rebuilds or whatever you want to call it reboots around the same time both teams being non-g glamour markets like you definitely can’t say well Oklahoma City is benefiting from being able to sign free agents that is uh that’s not that market I lived in Oklahoma City for six months after college um what B what Griff said was the thing I think OKC did incredibly well from a fit perspective with those kids and young men to develop them in an environment where winning didn’t matter for couple of years our team was consistently trying to win the development curve looked different the trend line looked different did you what did you make of that did you think it was valid and and if so why was that the case that they could develop without pressure and the Pelicans had to try to win right away um expectations so two things two like focal points you know OKC gets to make a for one OKC has never not been a winner prior to their existence so you have a satiated fan base that has already been to a finals who has already had allw World talent that was home homegrown in Seattle um but you started with an embarrassment of riches no matter what the Pelicans had in Anthony Davis they didn’t start with an embarrassment of riches they started again with mismatches around a one really great player and when Paul George leaves OKC like there’s a there’s a like an elbow nudge and a wink wink that like I’m not GNA be an about this and y’all are going to get me where I want to go so I’m not GNA trash you in the public and the Pelicans got extorted so they’re like how they are able to move ad is very different so like th that’s one point of view and then the other is the two star players you do end up with Shay and you end up with z Jay is not some allw World expectations player before he like when he comes over from the Clippers or when he gets to the NBA or when he’s at Kentucky he was the wasn’t even a starter in college no he was the 20th ranked recruit in his class he had four other players starting for his team that were ranked above him and granted his class like shout out to High School uh Prospect Scouts there because uh 18 the 20 are were NBA players so you weren’t that far off but um you know he had he was on a cow team where it’s like the guards get watered down because the usages spread out and all this stuff so like analytically he looked like a nice player but he didn’t have this ultra high usage that made just feel super confident comes into the league and you know he gets traded as a chief asset of like this pile of stuff deal well if it was Zion Williamson at that time you know what that deal is much less you’re not getting Zion Williamson and all that stuff in that same package so like realistically it’s it’s those expectations Zion walks into Duke already has million plus followers on social media the questions are is he just a highlight re or can he really play and then Duke is the number one team in the country all year and he has highlight after highlight after highlight after highlight and he’s emerging more and more as the season goes on so he walks into the league with the expectation that he’s going to be great and then as soon as he touches the ball he’s great there isn’t a an upswing I think you hit both of the key points here it is the the Zion versus SGA Factor where SGA you know was he’s a lottery pick he’s regarded as a very nice young player but nobody ever thought sja was going to be like a top three in MVP voting you know one of the five best players in the NBA until very recently Zion had those expectations before he got drafted into the NBA I mean people are like look this this guy’s a potential to be the face of of the NBA and I remember during his second year staven Gundy said this is one of the best young players we’ve ever had in our league it was just different I mean Zion was better at 19 and 20 than Shay and so there was expectations to win right away and then I think you hit on the other thing I mean like I think you can you can have a fow period and sell that to your fan base it’ be okay if you just had 10 great years in a row but I think it’s a little more difficult too because the Pelicans they didn’t have that you know they’re they’re trying to build out a fan base and you know it’s just so they got to hit the gas right away and you know as good as Zion is and was I mean maybe that wasn’t the best thing of like trying to hit the gas immediately um I I do think it’s kind of both of those those things at play here and you know Zion it’s like if you get him number one overall it’s a lot easier to sell him on hey look we’re like we’re gonna we’re gonna do what San Antonio is doing with wanyama right now like we’re gonna this is going to take time and if we’re patient with this like we can really max out if you’ve if you’ve had you know really good stuff to point to like San Antonio can look at that and say look at all these Rings we know what we’re doing and and New Orleans was just not in that situation either right you like part of this is selling it to everyone involved and you have guys that are that are already you know when he gets here we have 10year dudes on the roster that have their own expectations and you’re trying to figure out what to do with Drew holidays and JJ reic um so it’s just a much more complicated environment um for us than than it was for them like just plainly that’s that’s what it is so while it’s it’s nice to like whenever you get into the Nuance of these discussions and off of like the first take level of discussion that there’s just reality like you know I I find a little bit of a parallel in those kind of conversations like case and Wallace for OKC incredible development year becomes like a go-to Slaughter slot in in a guard spot by the end of the year but the thing that happens that allows him to do that is the question mark on him coming into the league is a shooting and from game one shooting’s not actually a problem so they give him this 16 to 18 minute roll as a like a six man or like first guard Off the Bench and he wasn’t even first guard Off the Bench like Trey Mann got some of that too and he just took a little bit a little bite a little bite a little bite and he got better in it um but he had all the other tools so he had an environment and he had rational expectations that’s very different from what like how fans talk about Jord Hawkins and what this team was for him like there was no place for you to just slot him in because of where the gaps are just having a volume movement shooter like look at Malik Beasley in every offseason of his life he is the guy whose role gets cut and that is Jordan Hawkins is that but lighter right now so it it would have been tough even if it was an ideal scenario so it’s you know whenever you compare any of this stuff and you really get down the nitty-gritty there’s a explanation and look salute to OKC give them give them their credit it’s an awesome scenario it’s an awesome scenario for them they have an embarrassment of riches they have had the luxury of being able to make like cultural decisions to eliminate former lottery picks but they don’t get everything right it’s not like they they just plucked all this stuff out of the sky they get everything right they picked Duan Jang before they picked Jaylen willes like they didn’t know Shay was gonna be this you know they it they picked povy and had to run him off the team like they they get stuff wrong too but they gave themsel a nice safety net to build this stuff with and then made the tough decisions before they got bad the co year you know I was like one of the the 20 people inside SKC I’ll never forget this poku pass that I think dented the backboard it’s just it’s burned into my brain forever I’m pretty sure there’s like a a small crack still on on the backboard that that poku threw that chess pass that that went 10et over his teammate’s head um before we wrap up can I tell you the two funniest things that that happened at Exit interviews oh absolutely fire away number one was just Matt Ryan’s entire availability just just phenomenal stuff I mean I asked him the first question I was like hey we haven’t talked to you since uh you’re on your you got your two-way deal upgraded to a standard contract like what was your reaction to that and Matt Ryan said about time man so yeah I would say he was ready for a standard contract Matt Ryan was also asked what are you going to work on this offseason said well everything and you know defense because defense is is pretty tough if you have um you know light pigmentation ba you know basically saying uh it’s hard to play defense in the NBA if you’re white so I gotta work on that part of my game which uh was really funny man it was really funny Matt Ryan is a um intense raw guy who I enjoy I I enjoy covering him if uh if hea said work on getting his melanin up I’d have lost it because that he he it was right there it could have been that could have been so good uh still very funny though the other the other just I almost melted into a puddle was um David Griffin he was going out of his way to say he said you know like you guys are making too much out of so and so this is just like last last year when everybody wanted to make our issues about the medical staff and I mean I when I tell you I almost evaporated into a cloud he got pressed about the medical staff last year at the Aaron Aaron Nelson’s time in charge which just an absolute disaster downplayed it fired Aaron Nelson I don’t care what title they gave him he got paid out but they fired him Zion plays 70 games Brandon Ingram plays 64 games your best two players after two lost Seasons because they miss so many games are on the court you win 49 games and you’re up there saying we you guys made too much of this last year okay okay but you also called this you were like watch watch it watch it not even be like it may have nothing to do with Aaron Nelson even like it it may not actually be him it’s just that like removal of him and the need for guys to play more because of where we are in the scheme of all this like just changing it is probably going to make everything better even if it wasn’t like his individual practices that were the problem but like I mean yeah I mean some of it I mean absolutely some of it was on the players it’s it’s fair to say that like Zion not being in optimal shape goes into that and Brandon Ingram no matter if you like the guy or not not powering through minor stuff like that’s part of that’s on him too like don’t don’t get me wrong it’s on the players just yeah it just is like dude this this was like this is like a black mark on these last five years and there’s no way you can wiggle out of this sorry like it like it or not like no matter how much of the blame is or isn’t on Nelson you were the guy in charge all of this happened it is you are inextricably linked it you were here people didn’t like you and things went bad and you were gone and now they got better so yeah clearly something is better um so yeah that’s that’s funny Adam this was a horrible ending to what I thought was overall a mostly fun regular season we saw growth genuine growth from Zion Williamson of he needed to do better after the n Season tournament some great moments from him a lot of fun bench moments this was one of the best benches in the NBA Jose Larry Naji shout out Naji Marshall uh go get paid brother or do whatever makes you happy uh fun guy to cover I think this I had fun doing the doing the show you know during during the season and I’m sorry it ended that way because I I had a lot of fun yeah would be nice to be talking about more rounds and like you know get like the super like all that could have changed in any world realistically is like get to a second round series is like the height of what could have been um and we could have like ridden off of uh you know weeks of extra weeks of adrenaline and joy you know maybe a little mindfulness but uh we sorry I had to bring back the damn mindfulness joy and and uh what was it mindfulness joy and competitiveness no no no it was compassion I’m gonna be compassion oh it’s worse oh it’s worse be practicing a lot of compassion this summer please rip those down tomorrow um but anyway so the live laugh love Pelicans they’re in the books um and the the one shame will be like no matter how much longer Brandon’s tenure goes the possibility of what Brandon and Zion could have been if things went ideally will always be like ships passing in the night U we’ll we’ll never know um how it could have been if they would have been healthy and played more together and all that stuff like had the all the rest of the crap gone better um but no matter how disappointing anything is this season the primary objective of the year is Will Zion become the A1 professional leader of said team and I think we’re as hopeful about that as we have ever been able to be and that is like that’s the th that’s the thing like the franchise is toast if he can’t do that and a lot of evidence was going the opposite way and it finally sounds and looks like he is taking up the mantle and I’m excited to see where that goes massive offseason for Zion Williamson do not backslide there was real growth progress over these last four months keep building on it please please keep building on it Adam we’re going to be pumping these out once a week rest of the offseason we got Lakers draft pick the Pelicans probably will defer the Pelicans own draft pick we got the draft we got free agency there will be trades we have got a lot of stuff to talk about this offseason I will talk to you again next week brother adios

The Pelicans’ season is over. Christian and Adam discuss takeaways from exit interviews. A roster shakeup is inevitable. The only question is to what degree? Zion playing 70 games, Brandon Ingram’s future in New Orleans, and more are all covered in here.

0:00 Time to optimize around Zion
11:50 Historically bad playoff offense
23:09 Ingram’s 5 years in New Orleans
34:47 OKC could develop without pressure
44:05 Funniest exit interview happenings