I’ve seen a lottttt of people throw around the “this is the best halfway point of a season ever in Pelicans history” with no added context whatsoever. The 2023-2024 pelicans team sits one game above what the Demarcus Cousinless pelicans were at, while being 1-3 in their last 4 games, with the one win coming against a knicks team missing Randle, Anunoby, Brunson, and others. The amount of people I saw trying to use that win to spin the narrative back to “see? The pelicans are SO back! We beat what might be the worst team in the league player wise last night for once instead of losing to the grizzlies b-team last time! Doomers are idiots and hate the team!”
The 2017-18 pelicans, with a core of Anthony Davis, Holiday, and Mirotic with ALVIN FKIN GENTRY as coach managed to be just as good at this point with an entire all nba player missing on their team. That same team came out of all star break winning 10 straight games. That squad with dell demps is famous league wide for being one of the most poorly run teams ever, albeit with the injury bug as well. Meanwhile, the team we’ve hand built for the last 5 years with a plethora of assets have managed to acquire this very same record while being for the most part entirely healthy this season.
The 2017-2018 pelicans was Anthony Davis’s 5th year in the nba. The 2023-2024 pelicans is zion’s 5th year with the team. This is Brandon Ingram’s 5th year with the team. You can push back the need to live up to the talent and team standards one more year, but then players on this squad that are important to what it needs to be are up for extensions and that’s when you HAVE to decide what this team is going to be going forward. Are we as a fanbase satisfied with the results of this rebuild being a wizards John wall and Bradley Beal type team that won’t seriously compete for anything, but have a run every once in a while, or a Trailblazers Dame and Cj led team that won’t seriously compete for anything but make a run or two?
That’s what the entire disagreement in this sub hinges on. “Doomers” want the team to maximize talent and assets and build a team that’s a title contender, the ones disagreeing either think this team is that(wrong) or are blindly faithful to a front office and players that have given us NO reason to be. The arguments from both side sometimes can frankly be asinine, with people rather using cherry picked stats to try to prove their point rather than just discussing the actual team and what’s happened. Frankly, I’m in the department that bar any major injuries this team NEEDS a first round win at the very least to defend rolling out the same squad next year with the same players and coaches.
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The “doomers” also have seriously unrealistic expectations of what is able to happen through FA and trades. I’m happy with this core (BI and Zion) as I don’t think there is any other possible way you can create an immediate contender with our assets. You need to develop consistency and chemistry, then when the moment is right strike a trade / sign a FA. That trade opportunity hasn’t arisen and we don’t have the same FA pull as a NY or LA. We’re building a winning culture with what is currently our most successful regular season in years with an extremely tough and tightly contested west. Not to mention that we are only 3.5 games back off a 4 seed.
Honestly bro I would care less about this since we’ve seen this team being 10 games above .500 so rarely. The thing that annoys me rn is that the standings are so close and the gap between the 8th seed and 9th seed is closing. We are 2-3 since trade deadline, we need to fix something and just perform better to secure a top 6 seed. I’m not even that mad to the losses since 2 of them come from the 2nd night of back-to-backs.
So they are better than that team then, so this thread doesn’t prove what you think it does
That 2017-2018 squad was really good and made it to the second round of the playoffs and took two games from the Warriors. If this team is better than that team, isn’t that a good thing?
I am so bi polar about this team – just gotta ride it out and see what happens. I’m not expecting much. Hopefully they shake things up next off season if we get bounced in the play in or 1st round. We have good pieces but the fit is clunky – might just be Willie..? Anyway, still love the Pels (so does my cardiologist).
“Pelicans barely beat the depleted Knicks. Barely even counts and shouldn’t be considered”
“Pelicans lost to the Pacers. Doesn’t matter 4/5 starters were banged up, the team got in 12 hours before tip off, off of a road back to back, and the other team had 2 days rest at home. Unacceptable”
I get your point I just can’t stand when people downplay the good things a team does and then they don’t keep the same energy for their own team. It’s just such a doomer mindset and unfair.
I’m not making excuses, last night was completely winnable and frustrating. That being said, Friday will be a much better gauge of where this team is at than last night was. We get the Pacers again, but this time with a days rest and at home. Also I’m fairly happy with being one game above that Pelicans 2017-2018 team that was a damn solid team.
I do agree that we need a first round win to justify continuing with the current trajectory. I’d even argue we need a 2nd round win or at least a very competitive series. Depends where the teams at with matchups and injuries at the time ofc, but as it stands now that would be my opinion.