IDENTITY: James Borrego’s New Orleans Pelicans Want To PLAY FASTER, Early Results Look Positive

IDENTITY: James Borrego’s New Orleans Pelicans Want To PLAY FASTER, Early Results Look Positive

The New Orleans Pelicans are starting to look a little bit more like a James Burggo team and they just had their second practice under him on Tuesday. Let’s talk about what we learned from that practice and what we can expect moving forward on the Wednesday episode of Locked on Pelicans. Let’s get it. You are Locked On Pelicans, your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast, part of the Locked On Network. your team every day. And welcome back to another edition of Locked on Pelicans, the daily podcast covering your favorite team, the New Orleans Pelicans, part of the Lock on Podcast Network, your team every day. And the number one sports podcast network in the nation now. Come on, guys. That’s awesome. Subscribe where we get your podcast. Join over 12,300 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well. And you can also watch us over on the GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network. You’re already listening to Antonio Daniels and Joel Myers, watching them hug. Wasn’t that an awesome bromance moment? Uh, but you’re already watching over there, so you might as well come watch us over there as well. I’m your host for today, Pelicans Insider. Credentialed member of the media, Dylan Sanders. You can find me over on Twitter, Dilly Sanders, and I’m also the publisher of Pelicans Round Table, which a fun community of basketball fans. Come over and talk some ball with me throughout the day. I’m sitting in for the next couple of weeks for Jake Madison, who is the normal your normal host. You’re used to seeing him on there uh and his awesome beard. Now, it’s me with the mustache for the next couple of weeks as we we go through it and watch some Pelicans basketball. There was a a win yesterday and hopefully there’s going to be well two days ago now and there will hopefully be some more wins moving forward. Today we’re going to be talking about uh James Roy talks a little bit about finding their identity there. the identity is starting to come through in the way they play. And to to look at that, we’re going to look at some big differences uh from before James Brigo took over and then after James Brigo took over. Then we’re going to talk about what else we learned during practice. There’s going to be some updates on Jordan P. We had another update on him. And Carlo Matovich, who is someone who I’ve been a fan of this year, but hasn’t really gotten the chance because he’s been he’s been out with injury. And then of course, we’re going to close out today’s episode by previewing Wednesday’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app. Create an account and use code lockown NBA for $20 off your first purchase. All right, we talked to James Bergo after practice on Tuesday and there were a couple of pretty interesting things, but the number one thing that I want to start off with because I think it is the the biggest impact for this season is what their identity is going to be. How has he changed this team? There were some questions on if he would even be able to really change things because he’s been on the staff for a couple of years. He is the offensive guy. So, he was already there. he was already in the building. How much is going to look different? And I think we’re already seeing a little bit more look different under him. So, I I’ve picked out three things that James Buro talked about wanting to put an emphasis on and think that and he thought that the team was doing well and wanted the wanted them to continue doing that over the next couple of games. Well, I really the rest of the season, but this is the identity he is starting to see form within the team. The biggest change is in pace. Before the before the coaching change, they were at 99.55 pace, bottom five in the league. In the, you know, it’s a smaller sample size, but in the six games since Burggo took over, they’re the sixth fastest team in the NBA at 104.14. Now, that’s something that is dictated by the opponent that you’re going against partially. uh you know, it’s more of like a you you got to find a balance between the two teams. It’s not really being taken over by one team in particular. If you’re pay playing a fast team, you’re going to have to play faster. If you’re playing a slower team, you’re going to have to play slower. They’re going to have to match your uh your speed. So, it’s a middle ground. It doesn’t really It depends on the opponents that you play partially, but there is an emphasis on playing faster under James Burgago. And now sometimes faster means putting up a lot of threes. That’s not what James Bgo is doing so far. Uh the three-point volume is actually way down from when Willie Green was the coach, but the the actual paint touches are way up and you’re seeing that translate into more shot opportunities because that’s what the team looks like right now. That’s the strength of this team is inside the paint. They shot 20 more shots than the Chicago Bulls did uh in that win, but they shot less three-pointers. So, that it doesn’t always mean putting up a lot of three-pointers. Now, the Bulls are a team that play really fast, get up a lot of three-point shots. The other thing that has been way better under James Berago is the rebounding numbers. Now, the rebound percentage, they’re like a top 10 rebounding team in the NBA right now. They were bottom five again under Willie Green. And I like the way that Bargo put it because Burggo mentioned, you know, they don’t have a Yonas Valenunis on the team. Uh he mentioned his days with the Spurs. He mentioned they don’t have a Tim Duncan that’s just going to go out there. You don’t have to worry about them rebounding because you don’t have to worry about rebounding because they’re going to be the vacuum. They’re going to get all of the rebounds. The Pelicans don’t really have that. Now, Eve Mi is someone that did was a vacuum. Sadique Bay has been a great rebounder over the past couple of games, but you don’t really have that guy on this team. So, you have to do it as more of like a communal effort. Everyone has to chip in. You need games where Jos Alvarado has eight rebounds off the bench to to win that battle. And uh you know it’s not shocking to find out whenever a team rebounds well they end up playing pretty well and it ends up being a closer game than it would have been otherwise. So those are the two biggest things that he said that he wanted to emphasize is playing with a lot of uh pace and rebounding. It seems kind of It seems kind of I I would say obvious uh to be like, “Oh yeah, we want to get up a lot of shots and we want to grab our misses.” But when you’re talking about an identity, the SH the Chicago Bulls, they have an identity. Everyone knows that they’re going to play fast whenever you play them. You have to adjust to that. The Houston Rockets are going to slow things down and be a little bit more methodical. So, you have to find out what you’re going to be. And it seems like James Burriga wants to be a very fast team. And another thing that he mentioned that he wants to put an emphasis on is steals. Getting active hands on the defensive side of the ball. That is a defensive identity. Uh and it’s something that they have improved since he took over. It was 8.8 steals per game as a team during the Willie Green era of this season and then now they’re up by two with 10.8 eight per game. And I I’d say if you want to get a lot of steals, you have the personnel to do it. Zion Williamson has been incredible at getting steals this season. And so has Jeremiah Fierce. Talk about a revelation. Uh you know, he had that seven steel game. It was a they took a one away from him, which is, you know, has to be really annoying for him. It’s a really annoying thing to see is whatever you you take away stats from a player. Uh but he had seven in that game. He had the the four steals the the other night and whenever he is getting active on defense, that’s whenever he plays at his best because if he gets the steal, then he is one of the fastest players in the NBA and he can go down and get a quick bucket. And we’re talking about the the pace, high transition offense. And then that’s not even mentioning the fact that they’re going to get Dejante Murray back who is again really fast a high steel percentage player. They have Herb Jones who’s hurt right now but he’s a high steel player. Trey Murphy is good at getting steals. They have the the opportunity and the players to to do that on defense. So what we’ve learned is James Bgo is searching for a high volume offense. uh right now that means a lot of paint touches and and shooting and he wants to be active hands on defense. That is the identity of the New Orleans Pelicans under James Burggo right now. And if he has it his way, it’ll be that way for the rest of the season. Uh so when we come back, we’re going to talk about a couple more things we talked about from practice. uh like injury updates from Herb, not Herb Jones, Jordan Pool and Carlo Makavik. We’re going to talk about using Zion Williamson and Derek Queen as offensive hubs and then he we saw it. He punished the rookies when they weren’t doing their job. They he pulled them, played other guys from off the bench. We talked to him about why he did that. And so we’re going to talk about all that stuff coming up next. Basketball season is officially here and nothing beats being in the arena for those opening games. But let’s be real, getting tickets can be a total headache. I know that that is the number one thing that would keep me from going to a game. But luckily, we have game time. All those things you hate. Waiting in queues, surprise fees, prices that jump out right before checkout. It’s easy to get frustrated when all you want to do is cheer on your team. Game Time gives the is the app that gives the advantage back to the fans. It’s your ultimate life hack for scoring amazing NBA tickets fast, easy, and stressfree. I love their zone deals. They’re game changer. You pick the section, Game Time picks your Game Time picks your seats, and you save big. So take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. That’s L C D O NA for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. And thank you for making Locked on Pelicans your first listen today and every day. We are here Monday through Friday. The number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team. So join us over on YouTube. 12,000 Pelicans fans there. You can also watch us on the GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network. We are part of the Luckorn Podcast Network, your team every day. No, the number one sports podcast network in the nation. You can also come join me over on my website, the Pelicans Roundt. Uh, come talk some ball with me. And drop a comment down below. Every day, let me know if you’re here. I know you are because you’re an everyday. That’s what makes you an everyday dare. And let me know. Ask me any questions in the comments below. Let’s get to know each other. All right, let’s get into a little bit about what we talked to James Burger about on practice after practice on Tuesday. It was his second practice as the head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans or interim head coach, whatever tag you want to give him. Well, interim is the tag, but you know, he’s the head of co he’s head coach right now. Jordan P got the great injury update on Monday that he was cleared to resume basketball activities. Uh but when he was asked about clarifying that and what that meant for him in practice, Burggo told us that Jordan has not yet resumed contact activities. He’s just been shooting, which is, you know, it means he’s on the way. He’s on the road to coming back from injury, but it’s just not there yet. Uh, which is really unfortunate because I think that he can really change this James Burggo offense because they’re playing with so much pace. Jordan P is going to be a I think a very beneficial player for him. He can get those volume threes. We talked about the paint justice being up, three-pointers going down. I think that they could keep that pace but also be a little bit more balanced so you’re not losing the the math equation of the three-point line as bad as they are in every game. Jordan Paul I think will fix that. And so what else that could actually fix the three-pointer thing is Carlo Makovich who’s been out. He is the best shooting big that the team has. He’s been out with this cash train for the past couple of days and you don’t we haven’t really heard anything about him. And unfortunately again the update for him is that there is no update. We were hoping to see maybe a little bit more of a timeline, some more clarity on what Carlo Makovich is going through. Virgo didn’t give us anything. He said there was no update uh to give on Carlo Makovich, but did did acknowledge that they are hoping to get him back soon because he can be a a very big beneficial player as the three the the best stretch big that they have. Uh if you’re talking like pure centers. Um, and he is a obviously a lob threat and he’s active. He’s fast. He plays fast. So, I think he would he’d match what James Rego is doing on the court. All right. So, those are the the injury updates that we got to. Uh, next we also talked to him about using Zion Williamson and Derek Queen both as offensive hubs. I I think we saw during when really Green was still here, we saw Zion Williamson and Derek Queen play together for a little bit and it looked really really good. It hasn’t looked as good since Bergo took over. Uh which is a bit unfortunate, but it’s something that they’re going to keep working on because having those two together is transformational for an offense. Brego talked a little bit about it. I’ll just give you what he said uh about getting those two together and and having it be a beneficial relationship for both. I think we’re in a pretty good rhythm. I mean, we’re still trying to figure everything out, how to space off of each other, how to utilize both bigs as hubs in this offense. It’s looking cleaner and cleaner to me. The more they’re out there together, the more they can practice together. They’re communing communicating well during the game. So, it’s just a great great to have Zion back out there, just to have his force, his presence, and gravity out there. And of course, we also talked to Zion Williamson, and he kind of echoed the same things. And he also talked about how exciting it is for him to be able to play with Queen out there because I think these are two pretty unselfish players in the grand scheme of things. Uh, you know, you think about Zion, you think about his his, you know, him attacking the paint, getting whatever bucket he wants, but he can’t also do that. He can’t always do that and he has the ability to be an offensive hub whenever he’s not doing that. And having Derek Queen as a, you know, another hub out there, that just opens up so many playmaking opportunities. Z talked about having so many different players that can take the ball down the court, himself and Derek Green included in that. And it just opens up a lot of options for this offense. The ball movement has looked a lot better in the past couple of games. And having so many players that the ball can go through and you trust to make the right pass is awesome. And you have both of them out there. Each player is having their own gravity. Of course, Zion opens up a little bit more right now, but Queen is also the person that you want want to run the offense through. think you have to figure out how to get them both working together and how to have them both working together in this fast-paced offense because I think that is what’s really made that partnership tick down a little bit and like the net rating differential it was a plus 17 I think it’s about a plus five right now uh that duo in net rating around those numbers um so it it’s gone down got to figure out how to get that back up and the last day we talked to Derek uh to James Bgo about it was interesting was the decision not to roll with Derek Queen and Jeremiah fears after the third quarter and he kind of played he played Koi a little bit but was he was just joking. James Rego likes to joke around a lot but he did talk about the fact that he pulled Queen and Fierce because they were not playing up to his standard on the court. And I think that’s kind of scary, gonna be scary for a lot of people seeing them not situ. Uh you didn’t have to take a look at Twitter for long to see people freaking out about Derrick Queen not being out there. But if the game’s going well and it’s in a different direction than those two right now, they are still rookies and they have to, you know, adjust to what the coach wants to do. You can’t build everything around them whenever things are working out elsewhere. And with Queen, I think the issue is getting him to, you know, better suited to play in the fast-paced offense that James Burgo, we talked about that identity. They want to get fast and they want to um they want to move the ball. Uh he can move the ball, but he, you know, he doesn’t he works better at his own pace. And so it’s it’s a mixture of getting him to do the right things to play at a quicker pace. And that’s why you look at like Eve Mi at sitter. I think Eve Mei is a better fit for playing faster on the court at center. And then Jeremiah Fears, he’s looked great as a, you know, as a individual scorer, but he’s not always the best in terms of ball movement. The ball can kind of get trapped with him at times. It was what we’ve seen a lot out of Jos Alvarado this season, but José Alvarado was passing the ball a lot more. Trey Murphy talked after the game about how much he loved that Jose Alvarado was passing the ball. James Burggo talked a lot about how he loved the ball movement that he was seeing and a lot of that had to do with the fact that they were going with Jose Alvarado who was passing the ball more. Jeremiah Fierce has been a great young point guard but I would say playmaking is his weakest point averaging like just over two assists a a game is is not where you want to see out of a a faster paced point guard. The ball should be moving and not getting trapped. I think you’re seeing those two guys play what’s been getting them success uh play like what’s been them getting them success over the past few games past few weeks but Berago is focused more on the team right now so that was I thought that was interesting now let’s take a look at what we can expect against the Now let’s take a look at what we can expect to see against the Memphis Grizzlies uh because they they close out their their la their this little home twoame home stand before going back out on the road against the Warriors. They face the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night. Let’s get into that coming up next. 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And thank you, of course, for making Lockdown Pelicans your first listen today and every day. I’m your host Dylan Sanders for today filling in for Jake Madison while he’s over on you know his honeymoon there. All right, the Pelicans have one more home game in the month of November, and I think it is maybe one of the biggest games they’ve had in weeks because it it feels weird to be like standings watching while they are, you know, sitting at the bottom and uh at 3 and 15. But if you beat the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday, you are just two games out of the playin. That’s two games. Uh and so we’ve already seen them start three and 15 and make a push to the playin. Uh before it was Trey Murphy’s rookie year 2021 2022 uh they did they did just that and it’s going to be an easier even easier climb this year because the bottom of the west is not very very it’s not very good at all. Uh you know like I said the Pelicans three of 15. They’re one win away against the Grizzlies who are the current 10 seed from being right back in the conversation. So, how do you do it? How do you beat the Grizzlies? And it’s it’s kind of interesting because it a lot of it revolves around the things that we’ve already talked about today. Uh, one thing for sure is the status of Zack Edy because we’ve talked about how much better they have been as a rebounding team under James Burggo, but Zach Edy kind of changes your entire game plan. He’s 7 foot three. He’s a monster in the paint uh both offensively and defensively. He makes rebounding so much harder. They are one of the best rebounding teams in the league over the last 10 games and that’s partially because they got him back. S uh Cedric Howard Cedric Coward is another great rookie uh in this great rookie class, but he’s a great rebounder. Um so the rebounding game is going to dictate a lot of what happens. I’m going to be really interested to see if Zakid does play, which it sounds like he is. He he left the last game early with a head injury, but he was playing. He was pretty good. He looks good in practice. It sounds like he’s going to play. I’m going to be interested to see what that means for the center position for the New Orleans Pelicans because Eve Mei looked a little bit better in in playing with pace and he was better on the boards than Derek Queen. But Derek Queen has already done well against a bigger center in Victor Winyama. Now, he’s not the same player as a Giti, so it is going to be a little bit different. But I’ll be interested to see what happens the center battle there cuz I think that is the most interesting battle on the court. And then of course there is the whole thing of pace. We’ve talked about the Pelicans have been playing faster paced teams and they look good playing at that fast pace, but it’s also a balance and the New Orleans uh and the Memphis Grizzlies are one of the slower teams in the league. They’re only a slightly faster than the Pelicans were under Willie Green. So maybe whenever the game slows down a little bit, that’s when you turn to Derek Queen because that’s whatever he looks his best. And uh I’m going to be interested to see what that looks like. Uh there is a role I I’m going to put start creating a role player watch because the role players keep destroying this New Orleans Pelicans defense. Right now it’s Cam Spencer. He is the player to watch out for. He’s shooting like 40% on like five threes a game over the past 10 games. So, he is absolutely someone that seems primed for a career game against the New Orleans Pelicans defense. Uh, Zion should be back. It’ll be will be back. It It’s weird to to keep having to say that every time, but yeah, it was a day of rest. He’ll be back. It’s going to be really interesting to see what he looks like uh if he plays the backto back this weekend. But before that, they do have to play this game against the Grizzlies. Uh Jeremiah Fierce isn’t going to be able to get his uh his get back on John Morant who stole the ball from him, did the the fingerpoint thing back in the uh the season opener because John Morant’s out. I I think the Pelicans match up pretty well against the the Memphis Grizzlies. It is just really that center position that I’m watching out for. I think that he’s going to end up uh dictating the game. And of course, whatever it’s not Zach, it’s Jiren Jackson Jr. who has been also great this season. He’s scoring the ball really well. He’s looking a little bit better. I I don’t really doubt that he’s going to be able to get his. He looked good against the Pelicans whenever they played them earlier this year. And then looking at that game, they play the New Orleans Pelicans played them close. It could have gone either way. Uh Grizzlies won that game by six with the first game of the season. I’m going to be really interested to see how New Orleans handles not having Herb Jones in this game because Herb Jones had a great first game of the season. It’s 17 points. He was three for five from the field, nine rebounds, three assists, three steals, and a block. And I think he played a huge role in turning the tide. Trey Murphy could supplement that by playing a little bit better. He had a weak first game of the season. And then I’m going to be looking at guys like Micah Peavey and really Jose Alvarado. José Alvarado really found something that worked for him in that last game. And of course he’s not he doesn’t have the size of Herb Jones, but he has that defensive intensity and he has you know he he rebounded very well in that last game and he was pushing the ball around. So we’re going to be watching that of course. And that’s going to do it for us today. Pushing it right towards the end. But thank thanks for making this your first listen. For your second listen, be sure to check out Josh Lloyd of Locked on Fantasy Basketball. He’s helping me become a better basketball fan and he’s going to help you become a better fantasy basketball player. So, of course, check him out.

The New Orleans Pelicans are developing a fresh identity under interim head coach James Borrego, with changes coming fast after just two practices. This episode unpacks the team’s shift to a faster pace, improved rebounding, and a bigger focus on steals, giving fans insight into how these adjustments are transforming their play. Injury updates for Jordan Poole and Karlo Matkovic are discussed, along with analysis on using Zion Williamson and Derrick Queen as offensive hubs. Get a complete preview of what to expect in the Pelicans’ upcoming clash against the Memphis Grizzlies, including key matchups to watch and strategic adjustments that could make the difference.

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