Joel Meyers & Antonio Daniels talk expectations, season opener at Grizzlies | Pelicans Podcast

Joel Meyers & Antonio Daniels talk expectations, season opener at Grizzlies | Pelicans Podcast

[Music] Hello everyone and welcome to the New Orleans Pelicans podcast, official podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans. We have a special treat for you since it is opening week everyone. It is opening week. Pel will start the regular season and we’re going to kind of give you a little representation of how we’re going to cover your favorite basketball team. Little print, little television. I’ll represent radio here, fellas. Joel Myers, Antonio Daniels, and Jim Iikenhoffer. Are y’all excited this week? You ready? We are ready. Actually, we’re ready. What was it? April 15th, the end of the season. We wanted to wash away that season as soon as possible. So, yes, we’re ready. And there’s a lot of good energy going on right now across the parking lot here in the gym. He knows what I’m talking about. I I’ve been ready for a while. I’ve been ready for a while. um changes obviously took place in the summertime and I’m interested to watch this whole thing come together from the top down. About you? Yeah, I mean I’m I I’m going to echo e echo part of what Joel said that I mean let’s turn the page on last season. Let’s never bring it up again. And if we do bring it up, it’s going to be man like look at how much better that things are right now than they were compared to last year. So ready to really close the the book on last season and try to forget a lot of what happened during that span. Yeah, no doubt. You know, I I think it’s interesting what Tony just brought up, Joel, about just how this all comes together. There’s so many storylines and part of what you do as well is to try to navigate those story lines at the start of the season. So when you look at this year upcoming, what are some of the things that you look forward to the most kind of covering and seeing unfold before your eyes? Well, I think it took place over the summer because Joe is a nononsense guy and he’s done it at the highest level. Uh, he’s won rings, he’s in the Basketball Hall of Fame, he’s been an executive 2004 that team, he’s put together a really good roster in Detroit before, so the experience is there. He comes back to his home state, so it’s a feel-good story to begin with for Joe Dumar. And I like what they did after watching the finals last year where both teams were very physical because they went 10 or 11 deep and kind of the whole motto of the summer was get enough players that you can play 10 or 11 and and if somebody gets into foul trouble early, whoever it might be, it’s not a huge drop off like we’ve seen in the past. So this is one of the deepest teams in my 14 years with the Pels. And that’s more than anything else, I think that’s what you need now in the NBA. You have to have depth because it’s a long season. We play three games in four nights. We have what is it? The the Pells have the second most backto-backs in the NBA this year. So depth is critical. And not just for the Pells, but the two teams that went to the finals last year both went 10 and 11 deep. Yeah. Depth is king. Yeah, depth is king. And I would say versatility is queen, right? If you look at Oklahoma City and Indiana and the way that they’re constructed, you know, this is a copycat league. You know, two years ago when Boston won the NBA championship, everybody tried to do what Boston did, even though they weren’t constructed the way Boston was. So, it was a lot of threes. And Indiana and Oklahoma City kind of they didn’t go against it, but they won another way. And the way that they won is more um manageable because what they did is they went out and they added depth one and they also added versatility. What I mean by versatility is wings. Wings guys that are 6’5, 6′ 6, 6’7 that you can switch multiple positions. Boston did the same thing with Jason Tatum and um Brown and Derek White. You can go down the list of the amount of wings that they had. You look at Oklahoma City with Shay Gillis Alexander and Alex Caruso and Lou Dord and uh Kase Wallace go down to this Kerish Williams all these JDub all these wings and to your point now you you have to you got to keep up. You got to keep up. You know they say you know you adjust you adjust and you evolve or you die. And what the Pelicans are doing, especially in the depth category, is they’re evolving. Now, this is a this is a very deep team. And they’re going to need minutes from rookies, right? Jeremiah Feders. They’re going to need minutes from rookie Derek Queen. These guys are versatile. They can play multiple positions. And we can get into this later. Mhm. My big kind of watch is Derek Queen. Is Derek Queen. I’ve had conversations with Joe Dumars about different bigs in this league, okay, that are hubs for their particular offense. You think of Alfie Shangon, you think of a Doma Sabonis, right? You think of a Ethne Davis in Dallas, you think of different guys that are a Nicola Joic. And no, I’m not comparing Derek Queen to those guys. That’s not what I’m doing. heard it here first. What I’m talking about is his skill set and IQ to be able to be a guy that initiates the offense from the front court position. You know, um people call Derek Queen baby Joic in college. So, there actually is a little bit of that comparison already, even though like you said, no one’s saying like this guy is as good as Joic or in that stratosphere yet. Um to me, there’s there’s at least there’s probably more, but there’s at least three reasons to me in the NBA, the way things have trended, why depth is so much more important. One is the pace of the game. It Indiana can throw different guys out there, bring in a whole bunch of new guys and have fresh legs the whole time. I think that’s important. Um the second thing, and obviously, knock on wood, that this isn’t as big of a factor or even close to it as it was last season, but there’s more injuries in the NBA than there used to be. There’s more guys missing games, so you have to have depth. You have to have a backup plan. You can’t say, “Okay, these are the seven or eight guys that we’re going to ride all season and that’s going to take us through 80 games.” It’s just not realistic or feasible. And then the last part of it to me that’s also why depth is becoming more important is if you look at the salary cap and you even see saw this off season the excuse me with the second apron you’re going to lose guys. So you need to have a a whole group of new players that you can that you can develop over time and say okay there’s no way we’re going to be able to bring back every player that led us to the finals or led us to a championship like OKC. we have these other two-way contract guys or rookies or people that we drafted that are going to be able to step in and fill those roles eventually. So, I think um it’s never to me it’s never been more important to have depth than it is now because of just a bunch of different reasons. Can I ask a question? Sure. You talked about um the pace of the game is faster than it’s ever been. What’s more taxing on your body, the pace of the game or physicality? depends upon conditioning of the individual obviously and uh and matchups. We just saw Houston. No, I’m talking about like as a as a team, right? As a as a what’s most important. Well, what is your personality and your style? And that’s what you have to identify early, right? And the Pells right now, Derek Queen’s going to have to play in certain positions where we saw Houston, they went four bigs. Everybody’s doing it now, right? That’s the thing. So the matchups every night are going to be the key and how do you match up with that opponent? So that’s why you bring up Derek Queen. I want to see Jordan Hawkins as well on the floor more and I want to see him do more than shoot because he has got a beautiful stroke. We know he can shoot and I would love to see him at both ends of the floor and also make his teammates better too cuz he’s a talented guy and I’m happy to see that they picked up both Eve and Jordan Hawkins. excuse me, in their options. So, the commitment by the organization as Jordan gets ready for his his third and it’s real important for you bring up depth, but guys by the year and we always talk about it. What have you added? Well, make your teammates better. You can we know you can shoot certain guys. Can you also enhance the other guys on the floor and their games? That’s what this league is all about. This league is all about taking that next step, right? The proverbial jump, right? When we talk about Trey Murphy and we talk about who is dedicated Herb uh Herb Jones, right? Those guys have to take that step. We again, this is a league where you’re watching other teams to watch where Tatum and Brown were in Boston and then they took the proverbial step and won an NBA championship. this league and this team in particular is not simply going to be about um Fears and Queen and and some of these younger guys, Jordan Hawkins. It’s going to be about guys that have been here for years now taking the proverbial step which should eventually take this team to the next level and then as you know in the locker room holding your teammates accountable. So, not just off the floor, but as we all watch and and the coaches with tablets and and breaking down game film, uh the biggest concern obviously after watching four preseason games is can you get stops because this team can score. I don’t think there’s any question about that. You and I were talking over the last few days about it. What were they sixth defensively a couple of years ago? Two years in a row six. So, as we always say, offense is a lot of fun. Defense is a lot of hard work. Well, we’ve seen Trey in the offseason put the time in. We’ve seen Herb put the time in. So now put the time in at the defensive end of the floor as a group and not necessarily in zone schemes, but your individual man-to-man defense care that much at the defensive end of the floor. Yeah. The right mix of obviously vets to take that next step, rookies, and then guys that you brought in the offseason that have been there and done that. It’s going to be a fun fun watch as the season goes on. Speaking of a fun watch, from turtlenecks to being human costumes to, you know, pelican hats, this relationship for the last six years has been fun to watch. When we come back on the Pelicans Podcast, we’ll delve into that when we come back next right here on the Pelicans Podcast. [Music] All right, welcome back to the New Orleans Pelicans podcast. Joel Myers, Antonio Daniels, they’re already chuckling. Jim I can offer. So they are ready for your indepth analysis. What makes them work for the last six years bringing Pelicans basketball to your home TV? Here come the hard-hitting question, guys. So I hope you’re ready. I can’t wait. So you’ve worked together for six years. This is the seventh. What’s been the the most enjoyable part do you think of of working together over this time frame? Evolution for me like honestly because it’s it’s um from where we were from game one day one to where we are now. And I’m not talking about on camera. I’m talking about just our relationship as a whole and how much it has evolved over time. how much when we aren’t working in the summertime where Joel will call and ask about my wife and my children and like it has nothing whatsoever to do with basketball. But you know, we we used to always hear as players. You you always know which coaches care about you because they see you as more than a player, right? Yeah. And our relationship has grown to the point now where it’s a actual relationship. It’s not a professional relationship. There are some people you’re we laughed about this about a week ago where you’re cool with because you work together. Mhm. And if your jobs, you know, whatever, then you may never talk to that person again. And that’s not the relationship that we have. And that’s refreshing. That’s awesome. We communicate a lot. A lot. Bottom line. Too much. Yep. We communicate. And by the way, it’s honest communication, especially during the season. We we sit the back on the bus together. We sit close to each other, caddy corner on the plane, and uh we communicate a lot and that’s the key. So, and I’ve watched his family grow and he’s got beautiful family. So, it’s kind of nice for me. Plus, maybe people don’t know this, we met in 1999. he was playing and I was doing television for the Spurs and uh so I’ve watched him grow as a person, as a dad, as a father. Um and uh as a husband, it’s been good and healthy. Uh but it goes down and it boils down to and I think this is really kind of what maybe comes across more than anything else on the telecast. We love the game. Well, our nights off, we text watching other games cuz we can’t believe certain things we just saw. So, you know, people don’t understand it’s 6 month season, 7 month season. We hope it’s a lot longer, but we’re watching we’re watching everybody. We’re watching the Bills obviously, but we’re keeping up with everybody else because our love for the game is the same. And I respect because he played to the highest level. Uh you guys can take this whatever direction you want, but I I was wondering um what’s been like your favorite interaction that you’ve had with a fan or most memorable or just in general your perspective on um how much fun it’s been to interact with fans and the way that they’ve responded to you. For example, there’s a couple in the stands that has dressed up as you a man and woman dressed up. Peter Finny Jr.’s daughter. Is that who it is? And it they are a great couple and they care. It’s they care about the Pelts and you know it’s not about us. It’s the loyalty they showed to the franchise and that’s we really appreciate that couple. There’s a bunch of people though you know. Oh man, I I I tell you I this fan base for me for us like it loyalty, the passion, um the support, the constant encouragement like even even during the season where obviously like you guys opened up by saying we’re ready to close your close the book on that season, move past, but the amount of um just support even throughout that season last year and just throughout my time here as a whole, Even on the road, when we go on the road, I I tell you my favorite interaction, I will say this is always with the lottery ticket. You know how many lottery tickets that we’ve been given? Really? You like seriously, you know, I mean, I’m talking about here. I’m talking about when we go somewhere else on the road, how we’ll meet fans, Pelicans fans on the road, they’ll give us lottery tickets. That’s incredible. That like I don’t know how often that’s happened. or somebody fans at the game in the Smoothie King Center will bring us cards and the cards you open them up and the cards are just full of lottery tickets. Wow. You know what I mean? That’s probably my and as you can tell because I’m here right now sitting with you guys. We have not won yet. But um that’s probably my my favorite uh my favorite interaction with the lottery tickets. It’s really funny because we’d still do it even if we had the lottery. We’d still want to do the games. But I also remember I said I do remember a closing scene in Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Tad Akroyd and they’re looking good Lewis. They’re on the beach with Jamie Lee. Y it’s those those moments and we laugh about it because it is don’t forget we take it very seriously. Sure. We don’t take ourselves seriously. We take the game and and the elite athletes in front of us very seriously, but we don’t take ourselves seriously. So that’s where, you know, it’s entertainment for us. Yeah. Just, you know, just extend what fans sort of feel and you’re just trying to give them a little something. We’re going to have fun in whatever we do. We are going to have fun. You know, it’s interesting listening to you guys the same thing. You know, Jim, John Deaser, Tiffany, we have our own little radio group text there. You know that it’s the same thing. If there’s not a game night, we’re texting about something. During the game, we’re texting about, you know, other things going into it. It is sort of a family thing. And, you know, we’re talking about kids and family. You know, I can understand that when the season starts, our kids are starting the second quarter of the school year. When the season ends, the regular season, the NFL draft is about to take place. The new baseball season’s about to take place. Your school year is about to end. So, you think of all the things that go into it. It is a family. I I think when you think about it, spend more time together. Like I spend more time with Joel throughout the course of a season than I do with my own family, you know, like and we used to say that as players, with your teammates, you travel together, you eat together, you know what I mean? You meet together, all these other kind of things that go into, right? all these things that go into um being a team like it you spend you spend a lot of time together and that’s why I appreciate how the relationship has evolved from where it was initially to where it’s become today. Yeah, no doubt. And I think one of the things too when you have that kind of relationship, it helps in the broadcast too, right? Because you’re taking what he’s saying and you know exactly how to call about that or off of his call. you know exactly how you go into your analysis and that’s part of that back and forth that you get. So when we come back, let’s kind of get into the upcoming season. It is opening week. So it starts with Memphis, but it’s not just the Pels. The rest of the NBA is about to get going here as well. So we’ll do that and wrap up this edition of the New Orleans Pelicans podcast when we come back. [Music] All right, welcome back to New Orleans Pelicans podcast. Jim Mikoff, Antonio Daniels, Joel Myers, Gus Katting with you. Um, two national games for the Pels, Joel. Well, you can show them that they deserve more. Okay, that’s easy. That should be motivation. That should challenge you. and and a healthy team with Z on the floor with Zion on the floor. I think some of the games will be stolen from AD and I as opposed to just two national appearances. Plus, you got so many partners whether it’s NBC and Peacock or ESPN or Amazon. If the Pels stay healthy, get off to a solid start. They’ve got to win at home in November. That’s going to be the key to the early part of the season. We always talk about every 10 games or whatever it might be. Well, it’s probably 20 because of the start in October and then all the home games in their topheavy in November. Capitalize at home and capitalize before the backto back hit, the three games and four nights hit. So, that’s going to be a key is a really clean start the first 20 games of the season because what do we have? Is it 16 or 17 games in November? It’s a busy, really busy November. To me, that’s going to tilt everything if they can succeed and then they’ll steal games from us. I I think about the initial question, Gus. Uh, from a player perspective, two games and two national games, you know, it’s it’s a it’s a rap lyric that says, “Here’s what they think about you.” Yeah. You know, and here’s what they think about you. And you have an opportunity to change the narrative that’s around you right now collectively as a team because I’m thinking if we’re only on twice nationally, they don’t think that we’re worth being on nationally. That’s how I’m taking it. I’m taking it personal. I’m taking it more personal than anything else. Can’t be a competitor not feeling that. Yeah, that exactly. And that’s that’s my that’s my thought process. I’m thinking about this more from a player perspective. I’m not like from an analyst perspective. I’m like, “Oh, well cool. You know, we get to do 80 games. Like, this is awesome. You know, we get the chance to continue to connect to our fan base. Like, that’s great.” But from a player perspective, I’m like, “Two games.” Okay. Because normally they cherry pick the networks take and steal our best games. And that may happen if the Pells get off to a good start this year. So, we’ll see. But it it should be motivation for sure. We had John Deucheser when the schedule came out and he was talking about how in sports you hear all the time athletes and teams say that no one believed in us and he was like yeah this time there you’re right when you say that it’s not a cliche like you actually you can say that it’s every team in the in the league gets at least two you got two so you got the minimum number of national appearances. So um yeah I I can see the motivation part of that. As we wrap up you you referenced earlier that you wanted to talk a maybe a little bit more about Derek Queen. Um, each of you guys, can you talk about a player to watch, maybe somebody that you have your eyes focused on the most going into the season? I I I’ll be honest, and and I know this may sound cliche, mine is Trey Murphy. Like, if there’s a guy for me that’s that’s ready to take that next step and completely change the narrative, not just surrounding him, but surrounding this team collectively. Mhm. I’m telling you, he he is he is on the cusp of something special and we we’ve seen glimpses of it. We’ve seen glimpses of it here and there and obviously with the shoulder injury last year, missing the remainder of the year, but he’s ready to step into the most improved player conversation, step into the all-star conversation on a consistent basis. Yeah. Stole mine. I was going to say he’s on the verge of being an all-star. So, uh, there’s a marquee player already here, and if he’s on the same side of the floor with Z and they drop a double into the lap of Z, everything works cuz Trey is going to be available. So, uh, Jordan pool to me is really important. And as much as I think Sadique Bay was a steal, he’s going to be huge off the bench to start the season, Jordan Pool, he can score. and as he gains confidence and trust in his teammates to make everybody on the floor better around him because we all know he can shoot but is he going to elevate their game as well because he’s going to be bringing it up. I mean there is truly the only true lead is fierce but you’re not going to put too much on his shoulders right now. So, for me, Jordan Pool, besides Trey, and I agree with you, Trey is could be an all-star this year, and hopefully he will be. Uh, but Jordan Pool can be a differencemaker for this franchise. Well, he said it to us in media day in our office that that was his goal. And that’s why you just saw why Joel Myers is a professional. He was asked a question about one player, gave us a half the team. So then if one of those players weren’t out being the top player to watch, he can say, “I said it back at the beginning of the season.” It’s like, it’s like my pick four. I’m gonna name nine guys. One of them is gonna work. I will be Jordan P. Although bae I’m I’m with you on Sadig Bay though. I am with you on Sadig Bay. I am I am He’s a grown man. I’ll say this the way Herb Jones has acted this camp. I I kind of get out the way when he’s in the in the hallway. You kind of want what you need. You know, he has been something that’s opened my eyes. So, I’m interested. Look, I’m ready to get this season started. You guys ready? Amen. It’s about time. GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network on Wednesday will tip off the regular season. Joel Myers, Antonio Daniels on of course Pelicans television, Jim Iikenhoffer over there in pelicans.com and I’ll try to do my best to keep Graph, you know, happy on Pelicans Radio. As always, we enjoy you tuning in here on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast. We’ll see you next time.

New Orleans Pelicans TV play-by-play announcer Joel Meyers and TV color analyst Antonio Daniels join Jim Eichenhofer and Gus Kattengell on the Pelicans Podcast for Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025 to discuss their expectations for the 2025-26 NBA season which starts Wednesday night in Memphis against the Grizzlies. Learn more about Joel & AD’s relationship as they enter their seventh season together on the Pelicans TV broadcast team.
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