Willie Green’s comments after the New Orleans Pelicans loss to the Memphis Grizzlies are concerning

Willie Green’s comments after the New Orleans Pelicans loss to the Memphis Grizzlies are concerning

The Pelicans blew a double digit lead yet again in couple of quotes from Willie Green make you wonder if they can turn it around I’ll tell you what the Pelicans head coach said and why it’s a problem in today’s episode of lock on Pelicans let’s Go you are locked on Pelicans your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome to another edition of locked on Pelicans the daily podcast covering your favorite team the New Orleans Pelicans at NBA part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday

Available wherever you get your podcast and available on YouTube I’m your host Pelicans Insider credential member of the media Jake Madison at NOA Jake on Twitter here with y’all on this Wednesday dat after the Pelicans fall to the Memphis Grizzlies in overtime 116 115 another blown doubl digigit lead the

Pelicans led by as many as 15 points in this one taking a double digit lead into the fourth quarter here so we’re going to break down what happened and why a couple of quotes from head coach Willie Green are actually really concerning when you look at it in the larger

Context of this loss because there’s a couple of lessons to be learned from this game from really the whole season and at this point hearing these quotes beinging these quotes makes you wonder if the head coach doesn’t really understand what’s happening and why these things are happening and if he

Doesn’t can the Pelicans get out of this mess we’re going to break that all down in today’s episode of Locked on pelicans and today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account use code locked on NBA for $20

Off your first purchase and of course thank you for making lock on Pelicans your first listen today and every day we are here Monday through Friday for youall breaking down everything you want to know about this Pelicans team the good the bad bad after another blown double digigit

Lead listen Monday through Friday become an everyday or support the channel let me know in the comments Down Below on YouTube if you are an every day we are here every single day as part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day so let’s get right into it

Right 116 115 loss for the Pelicans in overtime to the Memphis Grizzlies blowing a double digit lead 15 points really in control of this game until the final five or six minutes where they let Memphis tie it up goes into overtime and they end up losing so there’s a couple

Of ways to look at this game right you want to do the glass half full approach all right the positive approach was the Pelicans played well and they just threw it away late in the fourth quarter and if they can figure that out they’re going to move on from there and look

Head coach Willie Green agrees with you and I’m pulling these quotes from no.com and Willie Green says says quote for 3 and 1/2 quarters our game plan and discipline was at a high level we were executing as the game started to get a little close they the Memphis Grizzlies

Upped their level of physicality and we started to turn the ball over and let them right back in the game end quote so look on the surface surface of it we’re going to get below the surface here Willie Green is correct they were up they were winning they did enough to win

The game by being up that much in the fourth quarter really is simple as that they’ve also done this a number of times this season and then had those losses happen almost snatching defeat from the jaws of Victory but what I think is really interesting what he says here is

For three and a half quarters and there’s another quote that I’m going to use from Willie Green that’s going to be in the next segment where he mentions three and a half quarters again right for three and a half quarters our game plan discipline was at a high level we were

Executing and I think that’s a misguided approach because the way I look at this game particularly the first quarter they were not executing they were not doing what they should do to win a game and the fact that they were up by 15 double digits I think could be chocked up to a

Little bit more luck than he wants to admit if you look at the first quarter of this game really the first half of this game the Pelicans weren’t fully in control in fact they lost the first quarter 24-19 if you lose the first quarter 24-9 can you really say for three and 1

Half quarters when you blew the fourth quarter you in control of this game I don’t know you’re down 15 five right there and Memphis was playing and shooting terribly so were the Pelicans right pelicin shot one of eight in the first quarter from three herb Jones went

0 for two CJ McCullum 0 for three Naji Marshall 0 for one Trey made one Jose Alvarado 0 for one Brandon Ingram didn’t take one Zion didn’t take one Val Tunis didn’t take one you know they struggled they shot 35% 7 for 20 from the field in the first

Quarter they had six turnovers in the first quarter the Memphis Grizzlies had four blocks in the first quarter they had five steals in the first quarter the Pelicans had just four assists is anything they were doing there they were four of seven from the free throw line

Do anything they did in the first quarter make you feel like they were EX exting their game plan or doing something to win the game I don’t and if Willie Green thinks that first quarter was good he is very misg misguided again the starters were bad they’ve been bad

The starting lineup of CJ McCullum herb Jones Brandon Ingram Zion Williamson Jonas valent junis has had a net rating this season bi was one of four including getting some of his shots blocked because the spacing has been terrible because there’s not enough three-point shooting the starting lineup went for five from

Three look at a certain point this isn’t working your starter should be winning the minutes for you it shouldn’t be your bench that wins the games for you that has a positive plus minus it’s supposed to be your starters then your bench comes in and you hope they don’t

Completely blow it and just maintain the lead or lose it a little bit it shouldn’t be the other way around where they make up for the negativity that is the starters right now so when Willie Green says for three and a half quarters our game play and dis plan was at a high

Level we were executing they did not execute in the first quarter and in fact it took them going on an 80 run in the second quarter to build a bit of a lead to then kind of get back into this game only then for them to go ice cold again because the

Spacing was bad the offense ground to a halt and then Memphis I believe went on a 7-0 run immediately after that to more or less even things up nothing about them in the first half was particularly great in my opinion they were up five 48 to 43 with Memphis shooting four of 23

From Deep Memphis was horrifically off from three they weren’t shooting well at all they shot 38% from the field in the first half if they get a little bit more shooting variance basically it being more normalized closer to the mean regression to the mean can go both ways

New Orleans isn’t winning this game at halftime so for Willie Green to think they did a really good job in all aspects of the game no they did enough to build a lead partially because they got some luck because Memphis wasn’t playing well and wasn’t making Shots

Part of that byy design I’ll give them that right when you’re letting bismack biombo at times you know take jumpers and you know guys take shots John Morant shooting seven threes going one of seven that was part of their game plan that was partially by Design okay that stuff

Works but I think to look at all this and be like oh they were really good no not at all even with a 15-point lead you could see the process to get there was absolutely flawed so instead of looking at the results and this is why on the

Show I regularly say look at the process over the results wiie green is looking at the results not at the process because there’s enough data out there particularly in this game to say no this wasn’t working so when they blowed this fourth quarter lead when variant kicks in right things get

Normalized they lose and it shouldn’t be a shock there’s a couple more quotes from him that show maybe they’re just really not getting that I want to look at that coming up because changes have to be made I think and if they’re not going to to do that we’re going to have

A problem here and this team is going to struggle and that’s why the show we did yesterday was maybe we need to have a cold hard truth of this team isn’t a contender because there’s flaws with the roster unless you really make some dramatic changes to your rotation and

Other things cuz some of the lineups were bad I’ll go into more of the bad lineups that we saw that are playing significant minutes in tomorrow’s show but certainly this is becoming a problem for the Pelicans now and it’s a reason why they blew another double digigit

Lead so coming up next more quotes from Willie Green that should make you concerned about the rest of this Pelican season that’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans right now though I’m excited to tell you about eBay Motors because our partners at eBay motors have teamed up with

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Everything you want to know about this Pelicans team the good the bad like this loss we’re going to dive deep into the stats and the lineups in tomorrow’s episode of some that are playing way too many minutes that the team needs to get rid of I wonder if head coach willly

Green is going to do that because I have serious questions after this in his comments after the game so make sure you become an every dayer so you never miss an episode we are part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day that’s going to be coming up you don’t

Want to miss tomorrow’s show so let’s get into this game a little bit more again a 116 115 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies in overtime the PS do some things right we’re not going to be super negative here intire well we’re going to be negative in today’s show as I’ve said

They still have a winning record they’re doing some things right it’s more just little tweaks they need to make that maybe just maximize what they have here and they can start being a little bit more consistent but changes need to be made certainly are they going to figure

That out though you know Willie Green says they must and here’s a couple of quotes that I find kind of interesting here will green says it’s our free throws our ution it’s our turnovers it’s not one guy it’s all of us we have to learn from this We’re In It Together We

Have to figure it out together end quote he goes on to say quote this is where we have to grow we have to learn to get to our spots execute with force and Pace make solid passes then when we get to the free throw line make our free throws

For three and a half quarters we did it for the last 5 six minutes we didn’t and quote so as we just explained in the first segment they didn’t do this for three and A2 quar quarters they Blitz them kind of in the second quarter a little bit and the third quarter second

How do you learn from this what do you learn from this what is there more to learn when the starters continually have a negative net rating or lose their minutes and you rely on the bench what is that telling you what is there to learn from and grow from this right why

Are the starters in the negative I’d argue it’s spacing why do the Memphis Grizzlies have that many blocks in this game because the spacing was terrible they had 17 blocks 17 blocks think about that for a second 17 blocks 10 steals for the Memphis Grizzlies does a good offense allow the

Opponent to get 17 blocks and 10 steals no the starters been losing their minutes because the offense is bad because the spacing is bad how many times is Zion Williamson out there with one shooter you want to slow down Zion put a ton of bodies at The Rim because

Teams aren’t scared of literally anybody else herb Jones is not being guarded on the perimeter right now by anyone from the Memphis Grizzlies it’s just a fact so to regularly run some of these lineups out there and again we’ll look at these more tomorrow and the stats

Behind them is just frustrating to see and he says we need to learn to make better passes you’re never going to make better passes when there’s no space you’re not going to score at The Rim easy which is what they need to do when there isn’t any space it’s really as simple as

That how do you coach up better free throw shooting right the Pelicans in this one from the free throw line 21 of 33 they’ve been bad all season long at it if there was a magic trick to fix this it would have been waved by now or magic

Wand that could fix this it would be waved by now right maybe there need to be bigger changes than just execute better that’s what gets really frustrating here you know CJ McCollum gets it he said after the game quote I’m going to the film we’ve got to do a

Better job at or um better job at an organizational standpoint we’re putting the ball in our best players hands it’s just about making sure the spacing is right and who we want to be the next past just little stuff like that then we got some decent looks and some of the

Possessions were awful and just figuring out our matchups and quote not the best phrase thing but he says the spacing is not right and that’s gonna make everything tougher Jordan Hawkins in this game in the game that the Pelicans shot 10 of 31 32.3% didn’t play Jose Alvarado went 10 of4 Dyson

Daniels was 10 of1 from three you know on the season let me look at Jose’s past couple games or Dyson’s past couple games when you look at these they’re not shooting well and that is contributing to these turnovers right that is why the Pelicans are struggling to shoot that is

A big part of all of this so you need to get the spacing right and there’s a guy on the roster that could help and he’s not getting minutes and that gets frustrating at this point in time so they definitely need to start looking at this from a better standpoint I think

Because certainly they’re not over his last is it five games Jose Alvarado is shooting 33% that’s not not going to get it done right what is Dyson Daniel shooting if anything at all I’ll pull that one up too right 33% isn’t good at this point

In the NBA it needs to be better than that and the Pelicans just aren’t giving their best players the best chances to succeed it’s why brinan Ingram is forced to take tough shot after tough shot I don’t love some of the mid-range shots he takes I’m not disagreeing that those

Are the only options he has though and that’s not a good position for him to be in so as a head coach you’ve got to put your players in the best position to succeed and I don’t know if they’re doing that Dyson’s actually shooting well over the past five games he’s

Shooting 46.2% from three on sorry 40 43% on 1.8 attempts per game no one’s still going to guard him because the volume’s too low that’s the problem here right that’s where some of the roster problems are they just don’t have the guys that are big difference makers to

Come off the bench it’s again why I pushed back that while I like all of these players Jose when I’m in my studio you see the Jersey behind me is arguably my favorite player on the team love that guy tremendously is he helping you win games in this moment or helping you

Maximize the starters I don’t think that he necessarily is and that’s a big problem for the team currently and why they’re not living up to their potential and why when I look at them one I don’t look at them as a championship team right now based on the roster they have

But does this even look like a top four team in the west when i’ said maybe their ceiling would be a top four team in the west I don’t think that is because it does feel like the coaching is holding them back with some of the lineups that they’re doing and just not

Maybe getting it you know willig Green keeps saying us we when does he look in the mirror on all of this I’m not saying you fire him I don’t think you should look at the Detroit Pistons right again he has a winning record they are doing some

Things right but a certain point you need another voice to come in to be like hold on and if then he doesn’t get it that’s when you have a bigger problem if that’s happening now and he’s not getting it that would concern me but I don’t know how much the front office is

Stepping in and like forcing some changes and saying we got to try some other things here’s the data behind it here the in they might be you kind of hope they’re not because otherwise then he really doesn’t get it and that’s a much bigger issue but that’s the problem like these quotes are

Concerning again they didn’t do well for three and a half quarters in this game they got very lucky that Memphis was just off again part of that the game plan part of that’s the game plan but I’m not going to say it was entirely the game plan Memphis was 11 for 46 from

Three 23.9% jaw was one of seven now in the last game he beat them by basically blitzing them and only scoring in the restricted area certainly but one of seven is not normally what John Morant is going to shoot from three for his career right he is shooting poorly sorry

Y here from Deep this season but he while not a good three-point shooter shoots usually better than 18% that’s what he’s shooting this year he makes a couple more threes two of them you know this looks entirely different if he’s three of seven from

Deep so I like some of the game plan but you also need to go score more because when then you don’t get stops when guys step up like John Morant did and he got into the lane and scored at The Rim in the fourth quarter again you end up

Losing a game that was very winnable so those quotes from Willie Green really do have me concerned about the future of this team if they’re going to make the right kind of changes and in tomorrow show we will look at some of the lineups that like aren’t working and

Are working and maybe we can provide some ideas of what the rotation should look like some of the minutes that guys should be getting so we’ll be talking about all of that in tomorrow’s episode of Locked on Pelicans so let’s switch gears because this was a very

Frustrating game I don’t think this team is maximizing their roster and they’re just not setting these guys up for the type of success they have you could win games you can even get double digit leads but you’re not going to be a championship Contender you’re not going to be a top four team

In the Western Conference if this is what you’re doing and that’s disappointing because the talents here for it and it’s going to end up if they keep going like this going to end up being one of those Seasons where we’re going to be very frustrated at the end

But there was some good news for the Pelicans it just came out in the form of a press release regarding the Smoothie King Center name I do want to discuss that because I do think it’s important that’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on

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Guaranteed and thank you for making lockdown Pelicans your first listen today and every day we are here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast ComEd yall like nobody else does breaking down everything you want to know about the team today we were looking at quotes from head coach Willie

Green now for your second listen lockon has launched the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel on YouTube lockon sports today is here for you 24/7 covering the top sports stories of the day with the local Experts of locked on plus our national shows covering every

League go to locked on sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 24/7 streaming channel so let’s take a break from the Memphis Griz game because this was frustrating I know you’re upset let me sound off like vent in the comments down below it’s

Totally cool we are here for you this is a safe space I’m frustrated too you can probably hear it we’re not going full on Angry cast but I really watching that game watching the second half watching the first half even you just never felt good about the team even with the lead

That they had built look when you build a double digit lead you should feel a little bit okay with it and I just never did in this game and it’s because of the process issues that they’re having right now that don’t seem to be going away for the Pelicans whatsoever so let’s not

Talk about that for a second because the Pelicans announced on Tuesday something that I do find pretty big and it was the press release that was the New Orleans Falcons and the smoothie and Smoothie King renew Arena naming rights partnership all this is to say and I’m

Not going to read the whole of the press release here to you but the Pelicans announced the renewal of their Arena naming rights contract with Smoothie King solidifying a continued partnership ship that has become synonymous with the vibrant Spirit of New Orleans okay quote the venue will proudly retain its

Distinctive identity as the Smoothie King Center for the foreseeable future that’s the big line here I don’t know how many years this is it wasn’t specific with it the fact is a big name partner that is giving the Pelicans presumably a lot of money renewed The partnership that’s big you know for a

Small Market team where we’ve had some questions about maybe the viability of them how profitable are they all of those things the fact that a bigname sponsor like this renews and re-ups I think does say something and is a really big deal this goes back to ibata as well

When they renewed with the Pelicans I thought that was a very significant deal too it means these companies see value in this team you know when we worry about things like the luxury tax which they’re in right now and they’ve never paid before one of two franchises in NBA

History to never pay the luxury tax right you know when you think about things like that they need re Vue coming in money coming in matters to potentially the competitive nature of the franchise so while you might not think naming it the Smoothie King Center for longer is hugely impactful I look at

That very differently and go okay maybe that means you can pay the luxury tax once twice however many times right same thing again with ibata you know sponsor of lock on Pelicans as well they do a great job of making sure that they’re finding the value there and showing the

Team by renewing the the Jersey patch I think those are both very significant things when it comes to this team and everything that they’re trying to accomplish with all of that so that’s a very important thing so hopefully this means you know they continue to stay in Good Financial Health because they’re

Run separately from the New Orleans Saints they got to generate their own Revenue they need to do all of these things so to see the Pelicans do that is great one thing that’s also I noticed this the other day and this should have been a tip that maybe this announcement

Was coming I started to see more signage in the Smoothie King Center for calling it the blender you know I think it had been kind of colloquially like informally named the blender by a lot of people good friend of mine T-Bob abar always loves to call it the blender

Which I think is a great name but I don’t think that had been like an official calling it of the blender or anything like that I don’t remember seeing that in a press release I don’t even remember seeing like signage and stuff around in the Smoothie King Center

Calling it The blender it is specifically referred to as the blender a couple of times in the press release here and you started to see some signs about it the other day so I guess they’re going to really kind of lean more into it and call it the blender so

That might mean we call it the blender here on locked on pelicans and you know in social media when I use that and other things instead of calling it The SKC or the Smoothie King Center just something I noticed and I meant to ask about it here I almost tweeted about it

The other day and I would have looked really smart had I done that because now you see this release and I wonder if as they were negotiating this they wanted to call it that more to kind of sound with you know just tie into Smoothie King with everything with that too

Another thing that I do think is actually kind of impressive about the Smoothie King Center re-upping of the naming partnership with everything here is also that what Smoothie King used to be headquartered out in mety I believe so local we’ll call it a New Orleans company even if it was technically in

Jefferson Parish with all of that but I believe they’ve relocated and moved most of to their operations to like Texas Plano Fort Worth like one of those places so for them to not really have the kind of same presence even though they were founded in New Orleans as that

They once had and still want to reup and renew says something about the value that they’re getting when it comes to the Smoothie King Center and the name and the partnership that they have here so I do think that also says something too if they were still headquartered

Here that would be one thing but I don’t believe they are they might still have a presence here but I believe it’s elsewhere where now you can correct me if I’m wrong in the YouTube comments don’t 1,000% hold me to that but I believe that’s correct as well so let me

Know what you think about this game 116 115 loss for the Pelicans are you more or less concerned about head coach Willie Green after this because I am more concerned I’ll give you some lineup data that illustrates how bad things have been and what could work for the

Pelicans in tomorrow’s episode of the show so make sure you’re an everyday or we are part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day as always I’m your host Jake M Nola Jake on Twitter and we’ll be back with y’all tomorrow

The New Orleans Pelicans blew another double-digit lead to the Memphis Grizzlies and the comments from head coach Willie Green after the game are concerning. Jake Madison let’s you know what Green said and why he think it means the Pels coach won’t be able to maximize stars Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram.

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