Joe Dumars Reveals His Plan To Rebuild The New Orleans Pelicans

Joe Dumars Reveals His Plan To Rebuild The New Orleans Pelicans

So Joe Dumar was on a podcast recently and I feel like he did a very good job giving a little bit of insight into his mind on what his approach is for this Pelicans team and what direction that he’s going to take to better this team in the future. So we going to break that down right now in the Pelican Scoop. Cue my music. This is the Pelican Scoop with Jordan Kitchens breaking down everything under the sun about your New Orleans Pelicans. Smash that like button, leave a comment, and subscribe to stay on top of your Pel content. Now, Running Point, here’s Jordan. What is good, YouTube? Welcome back to another edition of the Pelican Scoop. I am your host with the most Jordan Kitchens. And ladies and gentlemen, happy Monday. Go kiss your mama. Go kiss your your daddy. Whoever you need to go kiss, man. Just be happy you’re alive to see another day. So ladies and gentlemen, further and further, we have to figure out what is the nickname for Joe Dumar. You know, we have my guy Silly Willie. You know, Griff is gone. So I I had to give I had to give Joe. So couple things I’ve been thinking. You know, maybe GI Joe. You guys like G.I. Joe. Call, you know, he’s going to come in and just be we we cutting the BS. We we going to get straight to it. You know, we got G.I. Joe or, you know, we got uh Sleepy Joe. You want to call him Sleepy Joe? Like Joe not making a move, man. Damn Sleepy Joe. So, what do you guys want to call Joe Dumas? We have to figure that out. Or we just call him Joe Cool. You or we just call him Joe? All right. General Joe. I like General Joe. General Joe. I like General Joe. I’m going to call him General Joe. So, Joe Dum was on a podcast. Uh uh BJ Armstrong, the point guard, he used to play for the legendary Bulls teams um in the 90s. and he was on that podcast and he gave a little bit of insight on what he thinks the direction of the NBA is going to go, the direction he wants to take with this Pelicans team. You know, the type of mindset he wants to install into this team. That’s why I like the General Joe name. So, further and further, the first clip, this is what Joe Dumar had to say basically about the direction of where does he think the NBA is going to go because he’s been an executive for the last 10 plus years. So, he’s been able to sit back and really watch the landscape and whatnot. So this is what he says about the landscape and what direction he wants the Pelicans to go. Now that you are in this position, can you give us some insight on what direction the game is going to go in as you now begin to familiar get familiar with your team, the league? How do you see what do you see the future holds for what brand of basketball is going to be most successful in the next five years? Like how you think the game’s going to be played? B. I think you’ll continue to see people play at pace and I think you will continue to see people emphasize the three. I also would say this. If you look at the top three or four teams in the league, they have something in common. They’re putting two bigs out there. They’re putting two bigs out there. The bigs are back. You look at OKC, you look at um uh uh Cleveland, right? You look at Boston, they’ll have Porzingis and uh Horford out there together. like you you look at all of these top teams right now and man they got rim protectors and they may have another sevenfooter out there and so I do think that you know that when we just talked about small ball I’m not saying that’s completely going away but there is this trend man you know you look up man and you might see uh Adams and uh um Shenun Shenun out there like like it’s not uncommon where 5 years ago go be you weren’t seeing that at all. So, I do think that there’s this trend of, yeah, we’re going to space the floor and we’re going to shoot the three, but man, we need big bodies around this paint right now. Look, guys are so athletic now. Can drive to the basket. You better have some kind of paint presence there or it’s a layup line, you know? So, so the counter to we’re more athletic, we’re faster, we’re bigger, stronger, jump higher is, okay, well, who’s going to protect the rim on that then? Because if if not, then it’s just a layup line. So, you got to have some size around that basket. But, as you can see from what Joe said, you know, the obvious was the pace and the three-pointer. Like, we don’t really see that going anyway no time soon. That’s how the game’s going to be dominated. But the real thing is the size. having size in the front court, having actual big men, sevenfooters out there, skilled sevenfooters that can sit there and do multiple things on the court. And as you can see, he’s talking about the top four teams. What do they all have in common? Big men. They’re the they’re the they’re the long like between the Cavs, OKC, Boston. I mean, Minnesota’s out there with Randall and um and Gobear, but they used to have Cat and Gobear out there. So, you see the distinction out there that you need to be big. And this is the complete opposite of what David Griffin had to accomplish or wanted to accomplish with, oh, we’re going to have all these great wings and we’re going to team rebound and we don’t need no big men. We’re just going to bring a Daniel Tyson. We going to be solid. Like, well, we’re going to have so many guards. We only have to do that. That that knew we all knew that wasn’t going to work. The Houston Rockets already gave you a glimpse of that when they tried to go super small with PJ Tucker at the five in a bubble against the Lakers and they got killed by AD and Dwight Howard and Jelle McGee and all those guys. So, I I’m happy to see that Joe is aware, right? He’s like, “Look, you see the top four, what they all have in common, big men.” All right, you need and and and not even just that, they might have two good sevenfooters and they got another seven foot off the bench. The Pelicans on the hand are extremely undersized. Like Eve Me is only 6’11, you know, he’s not even a sevenfooter. So, it’s happy to see that that’s where Joe Dumas. So, where does that mean for the draft? You know, what type of players are going to target? Finally, hopefully we will bring in some big men as you know, word straight from Joe’s mouth that that’s what he wants. That’s the direction that he wants to go. So, and I think that does better suit this Pelicans team is with Zion at the three. I mean, we’ve seen it when you have Zion at the three, you know, Carlo and Kelly Olen out there and you let Zion just or or Eve me. I’m tripping. Eve, Mei, it was really more Kelly Olen down the stretch, but like Eve, Mei, Kelly, you want to go Carlo, Kelly, whatever you want to do, you know, whoever you want to drive, bring it. But I feel like Zion, we learned that him at the three is where he needs to be cuz Zion, you know, we we sitting here and begging for him to rebound better. That’s just not that’s just not his game. You know, Trey Murphy is not really that much of a rebounder. I mean, if if we’re being honest, Deontay Murray is a better rebounder than Trey Enzy. Let’s call it what it is. Deonte Murray, the second he steps on the court, he’s triple double watch. You can’t say the same thing about Trey and Zion. So, I feel like that Zion will be better suited as a three, you know, not more with the ball in his hands, of course, but it’s going to give you more opportunity to have bigger bodies in the paint that will defend on defense, you know, protect the rim because Zion’s not really a rim protector. cuz I will get you a block. But it’s more like he just swatting somebody that’s putting something soft up and he going to swat it off the glass. But we talking like protect the rim. That’s not really his game. And that’s okay. That’s okay. That doesn’t need to be his game. We can get somebody to do that. So I think Joe Dumar has the vision. You know, I agree with the division wholeheartedly. Like you definitely need I didn’t say plenty of times. I’m like, you know, we need Zion at the three and you need two solid bigs out there with them. You need one that can shoot and you need one one out there that’s gonna swat somebody that even think about coming in the paint because like Joe said, if the players are so good and so fast now, if you don’t have somebody to protect the rim, sway them, you know, try and make them change their shot and not go up with a shot, you’re in trouble because they’re so good and they’re so big and so strong. It’s a layup line. So, I agree with Joe wholeheartedly. What do you guys think? You know, comment down below. What do you guys think about what Joe’s saying about that’s the direction that this Pelican team needs to go is with size? You need way more size. You’re way too little. We didn’t complained in plenty of times before the season. I’m like, guys, if you look at the Western Conference, all these big men, the Pelicans are going out there with Daniel Tyson, Eve M before Eve M even showed anything, before he even showed any. I’m like, it’s it’s not a that’s not a recipe for, you know, winning. It’s not. And we saw what happened. You get clowned on the glass by everybody. I mean Isaiah Hardenstein one game I know we playing OKC it’s like Hardenstein was going forget OKC Sabonis had like a 20 rebound game on us you know that that’s unacceptable so the last clip I want to show you guys so the podcast I asked Joe Dumas you know as a team that’s out of the playoffs the Pelicans you know don’t really have much success when you’re trying to come there are you trying to instill like this competitive friction competitive tension going on around you know the org further winning right to to better everybody because when you have competition brings the best out of everybody. No matter what you want to say, right? You always want to be competing, especially as NBA player, as a professional sports team. You want guys out there that’s going to compete, put out their all on the line. And basically what I got from it, you want some dogs. So this what Joe Dumar had to say. Your team, the Pelicans, not in the playoffs this year, but that competitive conflict, as BJ likes to call it, the competitive friction. Is that going to be your point of emphasis in what you bring to the organization now? because I feel like the Pelicans for a long time, they haven’t had too much of an identity and bring in that toughness that you brought to Detroit all those years as a player and as an executive. Is that going to be your main priority when you’re building out this roster and building out this team? We intend to have competitive personality. We we we I can like Mo anything that I’ve accomplished in this game in this NBA was surrounded by it was the foundation was competitive tension. So, I’m not sure I know of another way other than being super competitive to be successful in this league. Even if Mo say if you look at the teams now, and I said this to one of the young guys here last night. We were just talking and I said the formula for success in the NBA has never changed. Style of play has where you shoot from. Is it a low post game? Is it a three-point game? Is it a half court game? Is it uh faster pace? Those things have changed. But there are certain things that have not changed. That competitive tension, that defending, that not backing up, that that plan for your teammates, like totally invested into winning, stats don’t matter during the playoffs. No one worried about what your numbers are. Those things have never ever changed for championship teams, for contending teams. And so when you see that and you recognize it, it’s it’s uh it’s a beautiful thing, man. And that’s why I want to call them General Joe, right? General Joe’s basically saying, “Man, listen, man. I ain’t going to be on no NBA team that’s not going to have some dogs out there, man. We going to get some dogs out there. We going to get some boys that want to go out there and eat, that wants to go down on the floor, play for their team, and do whatever they got to do.” All right. I want goons. I want dudes that when we go to a dark alley, I ain’t looking around like who near me. Like I already know what time it is. I know who’s with me. So I I that’s what I how I interpreted what Joe was trying to say. Obviously can’t say that, but that’s how I interpreted what Joe had to say. Like I said, y’all comment if y’all feel differently. That’s how I interpret it. And I like I said, y’all know how I feel about having some type of goons on with this team. This team needs heart. No if buts about it. You have your best player in Zion going up for a layup and Jaden McDaniel slinging them to the ground. Nobody do anything about it. All right. We we need heart, man. Draymond Green dog, right? Marshall dog. All right. You You need guys out there that you know what? I’m probably not going to really do that to Steph Curry because I know Draymond right there is going to knock my head off and don’t care about it and let me know that he knocked my head off. You know, you want that on the court. I’m not sitting there saying, you know, you need to be having just a goon, but you need to have some type of toughness and instill some type of just like when we out there, we the Pelicans. All right. We we going to be physical and that’s how it’s going to be man. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. That’s the type of mentality I feel like Joe De Maz will bring cuz you seen that over the years like other than Naji Marshall, you know, Jose Alvarado every now and then, you don’t really have a guy out there that’s that’s checking stuff, right? BI, you know, okay, but he he’s more mellow and chill like you really got to get BI going. You need a guy that’s going to check it. And if you don’t have one guy, you need a whole team that’s going to check it. Simple as that. So I I agree with Joe Dumar. And you know, competitive tension is good, right? You want to install that. That’s what championship level teams do. You don’t think Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum not going at it in practice, you know, during the not offseason, but like training camp. You don’t think they’re not going at it. All right. They two top dogs. You want your dogs to be dogs and the Pelicans like it’s a little too many kitty cats around. It’s a little too many kitty cats. Like Joseé Alvarado cannot be the guy yapping. Like he cannot be the guy checking stuff and trying to keep things in order. Jose, you’re you’re 52 on a good day. All right. You need a guy that has you you need a guy. All right. That means go get Isaiah Stewart from Detroit. You just need a guy that’s going to sit there and turn the tide for this team. Just going to instill like, bro, we ain’t taking none of that. All right. You just not the Pelicans teams in the past where you can just come into Smoothie King Center and like Deon Booker put a 56 on us, you know? You just light us up and just and some of the fans clapping for you, right? We not doing that no more, man. Like I ain’t going to sit there and say we going to, you know, bring back the bad boy Pistons, but Joe Dumar, I believe him. Like he’s going he’s going to bring some grit, some type of toughness. Like we not taking that. Like y’all have to stick up for yourselves. Y’all to have some type of backbone, man. Eay Udoka instilled that to the Houston Rockets. As you can see, even though they losing to the to the Golden State Warriors in this series, I think they will lose this series. But moving forward, I think the future’s bright, right? This is what these young guys need to need to be in a series like this against some old wy vets. That’s basically showing them like y’all y’all going to get there, but y’all not there yet, right? And the Pelicans have to start taking those type of steps to really start seeing that type of success. Because if you’re looking at the playoffs right now, the Pelicans can’t really hang with none of these teams. I’m just calling what it is. I’m talking about this variation of Pelican. They can’t hang with not one of these teams still playing. That’s why they’re not in the playoffs. Obviously, oh well, duh. They’re not in the playoffs. But you’re just seeing you’re not there yet. Even with health, I I just don’t see that type of fire that these teams have been playing with. You know, between the Lakers and Minnesota series, you’re seeing Anthony Edwards going at LeBron. You know, even with Paulo and the Magic, you know, they going down, but Paulo, he’s still he’s still thugging it, right? Him and Fry, they still thugging it. even though they’re going to the defending champs, but this is still good reps over time that’s going to build up. And I feel like the Pelicans for them to start winning, they have to start getting these reps in the playoff scenarios and situations like this where it’s win or go home or, you know, we we can’t be down 3-1 or we go into the hostile environment. We got to find a way to perform, right? This not no just uh we just not watching the Pelicans perform on a a march and march on a Wednesday in um uh San Antonio, right? I’m I’m talking like real playoff basketball, all eyes watching, millions watching, prime time slot. Those are the type of reps that the Pelicans have to start taking to become a better team. That’s the only way. You don’t just sprout up and be good and just boop like you have to you have to really take your lumps and then you get over the hump. And once the Pelicans start doing that, then we really can start talking about, you know, championship aspirations. But until then, we have to start from ground up, right? Joe Dum’s going to try and steal some toughness. Hopefully they can. I don’t even know what a successful season is for the Pelicans no next year because you’re gonna be down a couple guys going into the year. So, we shall see, man. Or they gonna keep Willie Green. I I don’t know. But I feel like Joe Dumas did say some good things. So, I’m going to shine some light on that. So, y’all let me know down in the comments. What do you guys think about what Joe Dumas had to say? What you guys think about, you know, does the team need some dogs? Obviously, I know you guys are going to say that, but you know, just let me know. I’m all ears anyway. So, I’ve been your boy Jordan Kitchens and I’m signing out. Peace.

On this episode of the Pelicans Scoop, Jordan Kitchens reacts to Joe Dumars speaking on his vision for the Pelicans on the Hoop Genius Podcast: https://youtu.be/QuoD55xSPY4?si=kZ-0jJTE-44o3-kC
❗❗❗
*Like Comment and Subscribe*
Follow me on Instagram: @jordan_kitchens