Health is the biggest concern for the New Orleans Pelicans, questions also remain about the starters

Health is the biggest concern for the New Orleans Pelicans, questions also remain about the starters

The Pelicans Are Back In Action for a 27 game Sprint to the playoffs so let’s play a bit of a game what’s the Pelicans biggest concern going forward what’s the biggest question we have about the pels and what’s the most underrated thing about the team I’ll answer all of those

In today’s episode of Locked 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 in NBA part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day

Available wherever you get your podcast and available on YouTube I’m your host Pelicans Insider credential member of the media Jake Madison at Nola Jake on Twitter here with yall on this Thursday a game day for the Pelicans back in Action taking on the Houston Rockets after first game back after the All-Star

Break we’ll of course recap this game in tomorrow’s episode of the show and of course thank you for making lock on Pelicans your first listen today and every day we are the number one Pelicans podcast breaking down everything you want to know about this Team final

Stretch run of the year it’s basically a Sprint to the Finish Line what is the playoffs going to look like for New Orleans we’re going to take a look at all of that here so subscribe of you get your podcast and on YouTube do me a

Favor tell a friend about the show get him clued into what’s going on because this is going to be a fun final stretch run for New Orleans here today’s episode of lock on Pelicans is brought to you by LinkedIn LinkedIn jobs helps you find quality uh qualified candidates you want

To talk to faster post your job for free at linkedin.com loock onba that’s a linkedin.com locked onba to post your job for free terms and conditions apply so we’re going to play a bit of a game here and I want you to tell me what you think what your answers to these

Questions are in the comments Down Below on YouTube or on Twitter at Nola Jake and this comes from Steve Jones Jr Steve Jones 20 on Twitter he is an excellent guy to follow on there if you want just more basketball knowledge a lot of x’s and o’s breaking down plays giving you

Some insight you really don’t get anywhere else I’m a big fan of his work and he put up a question the other day while we were kind of still in the midst of the All-Star break and it’s those questions I outlined for you in the open here what’s the biggest concern for your

Team the Pelicans going forward what’s the biggest question we have about them and what’s the most underrated thing so we’re going to tackle those in today to’s episode here so let’s start with biggest concern and I got to Define two things here first because look I think

Concern and question are kind of very similar things right so we need to differentiate between concern and question concern is what worries me what worries you about this team question is something we don’t know the answer to yet they’re similar but different in this case right so what I want to look

At here my biggest concern about the team thing that worries me is this one word health health right like that has been what is derailed New Orleans for as far back as we can remember you know Health kind of derailed Chris Paul’s career a little bit here in new orans health was always

An issue with Anthony Davis whether or not he was going to play getting MRIs questionable to return all of that and health has derailed Zion Williamson’s like very highly touted tenure here in New Orleans and there still just kind of getting their feet back Health has also

Impacted brain and Ingram who missed 20s something games last year straight with a toe injury that really hurt New Orleans in some of the playoff seating that they could have had so Health has always been a problem for New Orleans so while Health yes certainly is a concern

For any team I think it’s doubly so here in New Orleans given the history of what we’ve seen there were a couple of years right where they lost the most games due to injury but Health this year has actually been good and that’s why kind

Of scared like we’re on a good run here can this actually keep up right that’s the concern that we don’t want to see a very promising season derailed by injuries yet again New Orleans is on Pace to have close to 50 wins 48 49 50 somewhere in that range you know that’s

Only happened basically one other time where they’ve gotten above 50 in franchise history they’re on Pace for a top four season in franchise history you know that’s significant this well maybe it doesn’t feel as good as a could is a good team and that’s something that I’ve

Been hammering if you’re in every dayer of the show right you know I’ve been saying this team is good there’s flaws there’s room to grow we’ll see if they do all of that we’ll talk more about that coming up in the show here but this

Is a good team we don’t want to see it derailed by injuries but overall the health has been good this year right Zion Williamson is playing in games Brandon Ingram is playing in games and that’s really worth highlighting that they’re getting this right that’s not something that they always

Have you know there was a lot made over the coach uh not the coaching staff there’s a lot made over the coaching staff that might be some sort of Freudian slip there A lot has been made in the past over the medical staff and what they needed to do in New Orleans

The Pelicans this this offseason really listen to the players they moved on from Aaron Nelson that was a significant hire that David Griffin made when he took over this franchise they were kind of trying to change the perception of this team and it just never worked out for

The first four years and so to move on from Aaron Nelson who had a stellar reputation for the most part around the league though I think that started to wne in more recent years and start to listen to The Players more in their input on all of that was a significant

Departure from how they have kind of approached things in the past right so to do that I think was a big concession on this team’s part and I think that’s an impressive thing to kind of make that changeist listen to the guys and look it’s paying off right Zion Williamson

Has played in 44 games this season that is 80% of the games this year that’s fantastic right like let’s be honest that is awesome to see that he has played in 44 games here and is playing in over 80% of the games when he hasn’t even come close to that number in the

Past Brandon Ingram who has had injury issues as well right has played a 92.7% of the Pelicans games this year they’re keep keeping their best players healthy they should be commended for that that’s why it scares us that it might just fall apart like that you know

Again I think any team could point to health as their biggest concern but ultimately I think that kind of impacts New Orleans more because look one of these guys goes down for the remainder of the year like that’s a problem you know at certain point because of their

Injury history how much more you know it raises so many more questions then right like can you rely on these guys can you build build around a team where guys are constantly injured and I think that becomes hard to say yes to so it raises questions that one concern should it

Happen raises questions right we could phrase this as a question will they stay healthy we won’t need to do that because I think there’s other bigger questions here you know it’s the concern is that if they get hurt it worries us because it’s going to just derail the season the

Next one that I’m going to get into you could say is a concern but I think it’s more of an open-ended question and we’ll we’ll talk about that in the next segment here so health is over all been good like even CJ McCullum came back what felt like relatively quickly from

The punctured collapsed lung whatever you want to call it whatever it was right he came back and you know did you know relatively quickly and guys overall have been just healthy this year right you know you haven’t seen a ton of guys go down with like significant injuries

Larry missed some time certainly but came back and is playing great looks to be healthy so they took that kind of right treatment and approach with him Dyson had the unfortunate injury but you know that’s really been it at least for injuries that have happened during the

Season so what the Pelicans are doing has really been working and I’m glad to see that and that alleviates some of the concern that I would have had going into the season about this so I’m thrilled with what we’re seeing from the team but still always when it comes to this team

Is going to be Health going forward that’s the biggest concern but what’s the biggest question well it has to do with the starters if you’re in everyday that’s no surprise but let’s talk about that and how I view this as a question because I think the context in that is

Kind of important too uh also had oh I’ve got an honorable mention here for something that was a concern we’ll talk about that at the start of the next segment then we’ll get into the starters and the biggest question that’s coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on

Pelicans right now though I’m excited to tell you about LinkedIn jobs because LinkedIn jobs makes it easy to hire and when you’re hiring for your small business you want to find quality professionals qualified professionals that are right for the role that’s why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs

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Every day we are here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast breaking down everything you want to know about this Pelicans team subscribe wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube be coming every day or listen Monday through Friday to locked on Pelicans or if you listen 2 days a week

Listen 3 days a week we have almost 10,000 subscribers on YouTube want to hit that by the end of this season so if you haven’t subscribed please do so and comment down below what’s your biggest concern about the team what’s the biggest question you have about the team

What’s the most underrated thing about the team this year well a couple of things that yall said here um from the first section here biggest concern I said Health honorable mention a lot of y’all said coaching I get it but Willie Green said after practice on Wednesday that their

Goal is to be out of the play in tournament you know this is something that I did I did a whole show on this literally yesterday right you know I think By Design they’re not doing too much to tweak the team because look they’re winning games they’re achieving

That goal of being out of the playing tournament right now now maybe coaching holds them back and they fall into it we’ll see but they’re on Pace for nearly 50 wins they’re doing something right I don’t know if they need a ton of coaching changes right now in the middle

Of the year because I don’t want to see things get derailed where you go on a four- game losing streak after trying to mix it up and all of a sudden now you’re in the playin tournament what they’re doing now is working even if it’s uninspiring and I think that is the case

So I don’t know don’t don’t change too much so that’s not my biggest concern right now like coaching isn’t on kind of any of the concerns for me right now maybe in the future yeah but what they’re doing is working I think there’s something to be said for that right

Seventh best defense more on the defense in the third segment here they’re nearly a top 10 offense too like they’re doing some things that are working here 12 pest offense they’re trending in the right direction all right let’s go to the biggest question here and again question and concern I think can be

Really tied together here so the question to me is this can the starters figure it out and be a positive on the court now you could frame this as a concern the concern is the starters don’t figure it out right but let’s phrase it as a question can the starters

Figure it out because look even if they don’t I actually think that’s okay given where this season is heading right so can the starters figure it out we don’t know this is to me the biggest question because of the playoffs no matter what I think they’re going to get into the

Playoffs this season they’re definitely on track for that it feels like that’s what is going to end up happening here if they want to make noise in the playoffs the starters need to be better just flat out we talked a lot about this over this past week here the starters

Have not been good you know you need to rely on your starters more than in the postseason than you can in the bench and as they’re starting to already tighten the rotation the depth the Pelin being 10 11 guys deep doesn’t help you as much when some of those guys aren’t playing

And opponents aren’t playing as deep of a roster as well so you need the starters to figure it out there’s also not many changes this team can make at this point right so relying on your starters fixes or your starters getting better fixes a lot of things around this

Team it ties into so much right that’s how they’re going to stop blowing leads in the second half Those runs go when the starters are out there on the court not when the benches that’s a big concern it’s bad third quarters from the starters and that starting unit that

Leads to a lot of problems well if the starters play better and the you know work better together you have that less you win more games right you know since your starters get the majority of minutes the majority of possessions a lot of y’all and I I posted this on

Twitter I was curious what y’all had said you know uh consistency was a theme here so the starters get the majority of minutes if they play better that’s how this team becomes more consistent right when the majority of your minutes 60 to 80% of your minutes are the starters and

They’re playing well well then you’re consistent right but when the starters are inconsistent your team’s going to be inconsistent because of the roles the usage rate those type of things that that that they play right it’s also how this team reaches their potential this ties to the coaching right you know

Could that hold them back it feels or it ties to how this team is kind of feeling disappointing and I’ve spoken about this on the show it just doesn’t feel like they’re as good as they should be and that isn’t a great feeling even if they’re good in winning games how they

Reach their potential is your starters do it that’s what drives things in the NBA so if you want them to reach their potential it’s the starters not working now you could say that’s on coaching not being used right I’d say it’s maybe more on the play of these guys in their style

Of play and what they want to do they all know what the coaches want them to do and I wouldn’t say they’re doing that necessarily so when you look at this it’s just how everything comes together in my opinion so here’s what’s interesting about it why it’s a question not necessarily a

Concern team’s going to get into the playoffs and I don’t expect them to make the Conference Finals right like I don’t expect them to win an NBA title that’s okay it’s okay I just want to know if this group works or not or if it’s time

To break it up right it’s a data point it that that sounds very impersonal it sounds very like Excel spreadsheet e but that’s important to know what to do because it informs your offseason plans we’ve never got a chance to see if Brandon Ingram and Zion willson work in

The playoffs right so should you break them up when you don’t know that big thing right there’s a piece of information you don’t have that’s kind of key on everything you’re going to do with this franchise when it comes to player Personnel well get it answered

This year and even if it’s not the answer you want right or take that out of it say it’s a negative answer that they don’t work together at least you know and you know what to do you trade people right like we know they’re going to look to move on from yonas munis

Because they’ve gotten that data point out of the way we just kind of like know that that doesn’t work so now what’s next right and I’m not going to say it’s good or bad if they don’t click I wouldn’t say it’s bad it’s bad for this season because it means you won’t do

Anything you know you won’t win a title but if you’re not expecting that in the first place it sets you up better for next year and I think that’s an important thing I don’t know if they should break this team up yet I don’t know if you should break up and when we

Say break up the team right it’s the Zion and Brandon Ingram pairing I don’t know if they should do that yet I truly don’t because we haven’t seen it and we don’t have an answer to that question but if the starters don’t figure it out if you get into the postseason and the

Starters just still struggle and you lose in four or five games that’s a concern going forward of can they put it together and I think you start to get a clearer understanding that maybe the answer to that is no that’s not an exciting thing but it also informs what your next steps are

And with some of the draft Capital that New Orleans still has with some of the talented young players on this team you can make moves that build your team in the way that you think is going to be competitive in the postseason so I think even if we find out that the starters

Aren’t working together and they flame out of the playoffs and look I hope that doesn’t happen we at least know that and we can make informed decisions going forward and that’s what you want the front office to be able to do so that’s why this question to me is so important

I don’t necessarily care about the answer I’d like them to work certainly but I think it’s also okay if they don’t and then you make the right decisions and Right Moves based on that and that I think is worth knowing and that’s why I think this question is kind of key to

Not necessarily just this this season but this coming off season and then the subsequent actual regular season so this will kind of Drive everything for New Orleans it’s a big big burning question and I don’t have the answer to you yet it’s not a concern to me right like

That’s what I mean the between question and concern here right if they don’t work out it’s okay it’s okay it’s not concerned because then we know what to do and we’ll still have fun in the playoffs so that’s always a great thing so coming up next well first let me know

What your biggest question about this team is do you agree with me do you disagree is there another question the most underrated thing about the Pelicans I actually have a couple of things with this that I want to share with y’all because there’s a lot to highlight that

I don’t think gets talked about enough in a sense so let’s let’s talk about it here coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans right now though I’m excited to tell you about FanDuel get buckets with your first bet on FanDuel America’s number one sports book because right now

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Pelicans your first listen today and every day we are here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast breaking down everything you want to know about this team subscribe wherever you get your podcast and on YouTube as well tell a friend about the show comment down below all of those things

Become an everyday it’s the number one way to support the channel if you’re an everyday let me know in the comments down below I see y’all in there it’s a lot of fun to see the support and everything and I truly truly appreciate it so today I’m asking questions and I

Want to hear what your question what what your responses are let me know in the comments down below biggest concern concern you have about this team I said Health biggest question remaining is will the starters click or not and then we’re on to the most underrated thing I

Got a couple things here because there’s a there’s a few here and I think they lead to interesting discussions in in talking points about things here so first and foremost look the most underrated thing here is Herb freaking Jones because we love herb not on herb right love herb Jones giving him that

Contract this off season just kind of at time feels like the heart and soul of this team dude that just gives it all he played 50 games out of 55 right like we love herb Jones herb Jones is doing something this year that he hasn’t

Really done in the NBA yet and that is shoot the three ball well on over on three and a half attempts per game which is one more than his career average he is shooting 40.7% from three so let’s round up let’s give him give him a couple percentage

Points here let’s say he’s shooting 41% from three on on three attempts per game he’s making about one and a half attempts per game one and a half threes those are really strong numbers those are really strong numbers he’s an elite Defender he should be on it’s been

Criminal that he hasn’t made not criminal but you get what I mean that’s an exaggeration it’s been wrong in a sense that he hasn’t made one of the all defensive teams uh at the NBA level yet he is that good right like everyone basically says this is one of the elite

Defensive players in the league he blocks tons of three-point shots and that is not an easy thing to do like that is so hard to do in my opinion you don’t really see it and he does that often and I think it’s incredible he’s just an elite defensive

Player but he’s elevated his offensive game this year you know one of the things you see with guys that are like Elite defensive guys is they don’t always have offensive games because one of the reasons for that is they’re trying to conserve their energy Drew holiday was a really really good example

Of this right some of the nights when he was just an absolute Terror defensively he got nothing on the offensive end because he was too tired and he was just like resting during some of those possessions and things like that right it’s also why you see some offensive

Players not give you much on the defensive side of the ball it’s the flip side to that right they’re giving you so much energy spent on offense that they just don’t have it on the defensive side of the ball where they’re trying to just conserve some of that rest a little bit

To be able to go and just burst and score and do all those other things herb Jones is kind of giving it to you on both ends of the ends of the Court that’s an incredible thing so shooting well above League average The League average from three is

36.7% he is shooting 40.7 right like he’s shooting that’s 4% better that’s an incredible number that is significant here so becoming I don’t want to say an offensive threat because he’s not but becoming a much more consistent offensive player is great it’s wonderful like it’s not being talked about enough

He’s anite El Defender and becoming a good three-point shooter that’s what we want now there’s a bit of I’m I’m going to put a butt with this but that’s not impacting how opponent’s defenses are operating yet and maybe never will right he’s not tilting the defense defenses aren’t shifting their coverages to him

And that’s okay right like when it comes to spacing I don’t know if there’s any player in the league that’s going to space the court necessarily for Zion Williamson right so you’re not looking for herb Jones to space the court that’s not what we’re looking really for anyone

To do what have I always said if you’re an everyday or a longtime listener you already know what I’m going to say right it’s not about spacing the court for Zion Williamson because I don’t know if it’s cap anyone’s capable of doing that it’s about making defenses pay for how

They defend Zion Williamson you th throw three bodies at him well we’re going to make you pay by hitting an open three you still might be okay with that but we’re going to make you pay herb Jones is making defenses pay it’s all we can ask for I absolutely love

That if he keeps doing this and if the volume goes up if he can get it up another attempt per game four and a half attempts per game five attempts per game still shooting 40% that’s actually maybe going to have defenses have to account for him a little bit more that then

Opens things up for Zion and you start to kind of build this like scary offense more it’s been really great another thing that I have when it comes to underrated is look the defense is good consistently good right look at we just talked about herb Jones we know he’s an

Awesome Defender who’s the other plus Defender good defender in the starting lineup it’s not Zion right like he isn’t good you could almost say he’s bad valent chunis is a negative especially in the pick and role right CJ isn’t particularly good but is trying more on

That end you know is elevated his play on that end Brandon Ingram at best is a is a neutral Defender at best right like no one’s a plus Defender a positive Defender out of that starting for the Pelicans have the seventh best defense they just get it done no matter

Who is on the court I think that is an incredible thing they just go out and they defend at a high level and give you what you want seventh best defense this year they were the sixth best last year right they no matter how many different starting lineups they have no matter

Who’s playing a significant role this team is always good on the defensive side of the ball their eighth best at forcing turnovers this season you know they they do a very good job at defensive rebounding even if it doesn’t feel like it they’re ninth best there you know they force opponents to take

Contested and or bad shots so opponents don’t shoot particularly High against them all of this is a really good thing they they just do what you want you know you could call it an identity if you want maybe but no matter who is out there what they’re

Doing works on the defensive side of the ball and I think that is a really impressive thing that there is something here that is working so well and we’ve talked a lot about it on the show defensively that no matter who you have out there how many different players

Have started games for the team this year they’ve had 11 different players start for them right you have your usual starters Dyson Daniels has started 15 games Hawkins started 10 Trey has started six Matt Ryan Naji and Jeremiah Robinson Earl have all started one and this defense is still good they had

Back to back games where they held guys under 100 points that’s incredible under held their opponent under 100 points like that’s a really impressive number this defense is consistently good I love that you could also maybe say yon Jonas valunas is underrated on the offensive side but we’re not going to actually

List that as one so let me know what you think right who what is the biggest concern you have going forward is it health what about the biggest question is it will the starters click or not or is there another question you have is it have to do with coaching right what’s

The most underrated thing you found about this team I think another underrated thing could be just look at some of like the guys they’ve drafted and developed Hawkins looks to be good Trey looks to be good herb Jones naagi Jose right like there’s a number of guys

Here that they’ve kind of like plucked out of somewhat obscurity somewhat and have turned into key contributors key guys for this team that’s drafting that’s scouting that’s really impressive and something that maybe doesn’t get talked about enough because you need stuff like that in a small Market too so

Credit to the front office that and with the health stuff too let me know what you think in the comments down below and that’s going to do it for this episode of Locked on Pelicans thank You’ all so much for listening as always I’m your host Jake Madison at NOA Jake on Twitter

Be back with y’all tomorrow to recap the game against the Houston Rockets

The season resumes tonight for the New Orleans Pelicans. Jake Madison looks at three big areas around the team. Health (particularly for Zion Williamson) is the biggest concern going forward. The biggest question remaining is can the starters play better together. And Herb Jones remains the most underrated aspect of the Pels.

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