He just sent a SERIOUS Message…

He just sent a SERIOUS Message…

He just sent a serious message to the rest of the NBA that you need to have him up with consideration for rookie of the year honors if he continues on his aggression. We’re going to talk about Derek Queen’s insane night last night and the loss against the Nuggets inside this edition of Bellicus Digest. What’s good with it y’all? It’s your people Mel the back once again inside Bellicus Digest. Thank you so much for tuning in and thank you so much once again for subscribing. And if you haven’t done it yet, make sure you hit that subscribe button and come join us. This is where you get the best analysis, opinions, and more about the New Orleans Pelicans right here on Pelicans Digest. This Mel talking about those bells and last night again going into this game last night said it before I even started. Not much to expect. You know, you hate the term moral victories. That’s all you got to look forward to right now with the Pelicans. That’s all you got to look forward to right now with the Pelicans is just moral victories at this point. Uh, but last night, I mean, let’s be real here. This is probably the most improved we saw this team in a matter of weeks since the season started. And uh you know, especially in the first quarter when in the first quarter you come out and you’re like, “Okay, okay, this is what this team is supposed to look like when you got Zion Williamson back and you got everybody healthy and and it it felt like for a while there you had a chance with this game, but it still it still ended up being the same things that continue to be this team’s weaknesses, which is defense. and I and and these street boy shots, man. And we’re going to get into that in this episode, man. But first off, a lot of people are super excited, man. And I remember seeing this this past weekend when I was in New Orleans at the Smoothie King Center. I went into the Pelicans team shop. The hottest jersey in the city right now belongs to Derek Queen. That is the hottest jersey in the city right now. Especially after last night in a phenomenal game that he put up last night. uh notching 30 points, standing toe-to-toe against uh a player that he idolizes, Nella Jokic. And uh even though like I said before the game even started, Yokic was going to get his customary and standard triple double against us and he did. But at the same time, Queen was Queen showcased that you might need to start talking to about this kid being rookie of the Yiannis. You just might you might have to put him at least somewhere on the ballot because that was a great game last night from Derek Queen. In 30 minutes of action, Queen shined with a statline of 30 points, nine rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks. He shot 12 of 18 from the field, including one of two from behind the ark, and five of eight from the free throw line. And let me say this, you know, I know I’ve been anti queen at the five a couple episodes ago. I threw in a towel on that. I threw in a towel on that because at the end of the day, none of your other fives haven’t shown any sort of offensive prowess like Queen at that position. Anyway, he’s still too raw. Makavic, he he flies around, but he’s currently out and injured right now. Looney is just too slow for the offense that you want to run with the pace. And DeAndre Jordan, DeAndre Jordan just dedic I see no issue with it. I see no problems. Yeah, that was some problems as far as getting getting some things executed. You can see that that’s still raw and still developing, but I still see it working because now you got two players on the court that you got to worry about. Plus Trey Murphy. So now you got three guys on the you got to worry about and can and the defense can key in on. Uh, so I I see no problem with with the Derek Queen and Zion Williamson pairing. Queen at the five, Zion at the four. You can run them run them run your offense through either or. Switch up some things here and there, but so far the kid has been phenomenal, man. I mean, Derek Queen has been phenomenal. And again, that is the hottest jersey in New Orleans right now. going to the Bellus team shop and go try to get your Derek Queen’s jersey queen jersey right now. But uh my concern with the Queen Zion Herring is that you kind of you kind of don’t have no rim protection and you kind of don’t have no real defensive rebounding. Offensive rebounding I can see those guys getting busy on, but defensive rebounding concerns me. So, but at the same time, for the sake of this offense and this team at least getting up to 116, nearly 120 points last night, I’m I’m I’m cool with that. I’m cool with that. So, one thing is for sure, you can see the offense improving. Another thing that you’re starting to see improve is something that we’ve been big about during the Willie Green era that I think Willie didn’t focus enough on. That was situational rotations. You heard that that horn that that that horn that buzzer going off every every I want to say in between every three minutes because you because he was subbing guys in based on the situation that needed to be faced whether it was defensive or offensive. Whether it was Sadique Bay who still I can see he’s still playing through injury coming in and getting some couple of minutes. the Jordan Hawkins minute still not with. Uh-uh. Still not with. But of course, you know, the big issue, the really, really, really big issue with this team continues to be his defense. It continues to be this defense. Uh, and Denver knew that even though they were short-handed, and this is why, you know, even when these teams are short-handed, these great teams like Denver and Golden State and Phoenix are short-handed, your defense, our defense is so bad that you get guys like a Payton Watson, a Grayson Allen, and a Moses Moody having career nights against us. And that’s because of how Denver is able to move the ball around based on perimeter shooting and ball movement. That made a difference in this matchup. The Nuggets uh prevailed in both categories by making 11 three-pointers while uh creating 35 assist. It wasn’t the same for the Pelicans who only made seven triples and dished out 25 assist. And everybody, all the Pelicans were in double figures except her. And I said this in a video yesterday, you got to get Herd Jones involved in the offense somehow. But it’s also on her to to in my opinion to not be so addicted to the corner threes. And again, this team with the three corners, man. This team with the three-pointers, man. I think somebody in the comments said yesterday on one of the posts that I put on YouTube, uh, had the Pelicans made a couple of those three points, we might have won this game. 0 of 16 from three-point line between Fierce, uh, Jose, Sadique Bay, Jordan Hawkins, and Michael Peaveey. I’ll get to Mike Peavey in a minute. And Herb only made one three-pointer. I think Herb was uh maybe uh I think one one of three or something from three-point land. this team is so addicted to threes and they want to get into the continue to want to get into these shootouts with other teams on three-pointers. And listen, I know that’s the whole thing because I remember I was at the Thunder game and it was coming out from halftime and I remember I think I took a photo. I did I don’t know if I saved it or not, but I remember watching how everybody was warming up on both teams, the Thunder and the Pelicans. And everybody, and I mean everybody, with the exception of the center, was parked outside of three-point line shooting, warming up. So that’s the way of the world now. Everybody wants to be a three-point shooter, you know. And despite all my best arguments of how this team cannot hit these three-pointers, that’s how they fall behind, they still going to continue to try to do it. So, and that brings me to Michael Bee. Like I said, uh I’m sorry, uh Micah Heavy because Micah Heavy uh again continues to rise and it continues to get attention. And I told you y’all was going to start liking this kid. I told y’all at the start of the season y’all was going to like this kid because he’s great defensively and his offensive game is starting to improve. You seen he did well against the Thunder. Had 16 points uh last night. uh in 17 minutes he had nine points, one assist, and three rebounds. And one thing that I loved about what he did was he missed those first three-pointers. He was he he was just like the rest of them. Rest everybody else on this team want to shoot the three-pointers. Then you notice at the end of the later on in the game, he got off that three-point line and started crashing the boards. Was able to to sneak past guys and not be seen because now they’re like, “Oh, he’s just going to stand over there in the three-point line. Let him have it.” Now he’s open doing the back cut and you’re able to find him on the back cut. Now that’s more of what the more of Trey and what Herb and everybody else needs to be doing instead of parking behind the three-point line and waiting for a shot. Again, I’ll never knock a open three. I I can never knock that if you got an open shot. But recognize that a lot of y’all just ain’t that that those guys, okay? And you need to start. And again, over the last couple of games, I’ve seen a reduced usage of those three-point shots. But last night, I think that did us in cuz he went 0 for 16 from three-point line amongst most of the back court, uh, the guards and the wings. So, you know, again, I see I think the offense is improving. You see more focus on high percentage shots with with Queen and Zion and and getting into the paint within the perimeter and hitting more shots. hitting more toot boy shots and chipping away at these leads that they get themselves into. But again, that zone defense continues to destroy us because I think that defense is setting a zone. It works from time to time, but in certain situations, there’s always going to be somebody open on the three-point line because somebody’s not rotating correctly. Somebody is mismatched with somebody. At one point I saw Trey Murphy get mowed down with an elbow from uh Jokic cuz he end up getting caught up off off the guard. They didn’t rotate correctly and now Trey’s in the paint with Jokic. So it’s like what are we doing on defense? These guys don’t seem to rotate right or communicate enough on rotations to say, “Hey, let me stick with this guy. Let me hold this guy. This is a mismatch for you. Don’t don’t stay with your man.” Just that simple communication could help in my opinion. I I don’t know if they’re doing that. You don’t see it. Sometimes they look lost on the floor sometimes on defense. And one more thing that brings me up to a concern of mine that’s starting to grow with Jeremiah Fierce. Uh again, he’s starting to score points, but he’s starting to play more scoring guardish than point guard. He’s starting to play more scoring guard than point guard. And a lot of that is due because this team is behind a lot of the time. And and so I I kind of understand where the kid is coming from. A lot of it is because we’re usually down by 20 10 15 20 at some point and he feels like he’s got to get active in scoring. I would like to see him go back to where he was at the start of the season where he was more of a facilitator. In the first game against Denver, he had 21 points and six assists. In this one, he had uh 13 points and one assist. So, I he I see him for seeing more more of himself trying to become a scorer when he really needs to start being more of a decoy in the paint so he can get guys open and pass him the ball. He was so phenomenal at that at the start of the season. Now, he’s he’s playing more scoring guardish than he is point guard, which is why Jose is getting a lot more of these minutes. Uh, so you know, again, again, I I’m I’m going to sit here and say that I I could walk away with this game feeling a little bit more positive about the direction of this team because it wasn’t a 30point blowout like it was the first time. They didn’t quit. They played at least up until the last couple of minutes. Are the same mistakes there? Absolutely. Or the same the same issues there. Absolutely. Uh but at least they’re playing like you know something I say in the video. It’s on y’all now. It was up to y’all. Y’all wanted y’all it there’s nobody else to blame at this point. Y’all Everybody’s went to the owner. The owner said go talk to Joe Dumar. Joe Dumar say no I did what y’all asked me to do. I got ready to coach. Now it’s on the coach. Now it’s on y’all. We can’t look at the coach and nobody else. I think James Morgo coached up a good game last night offensively. Defensively still left a lot more to be desired. But I think offensively I think the the the structure and everything that was there. It was it was supposed to be what it was supposed to be. Again, they scored 116 points, not 90 points or 98 points or not even 100. They at least got over 100 this time around. So uh man, what did you think about the game last night? I’m going to head out to uh Dallas tomorrow night at the American Airlines Center for the game against the Mavericks for the uh NBA Cup action. Uh Dallas is way down right now. Things are all bad in Dallas, too, right now. So, uh it’s going to be interesting to see if the uh Pells can at least uh get a third win or second win out of them and make it their third of the season. But what were your thoughts on last night’s action against the Nuggets? Did you see improvement? Did you like what you see? Did you see more fight in the team? What did you see and what didn’t you like and didn’t see with the Pelicans? Clap back with your thoughts in the comments, man. Thank you once again for joining us here on Pelicans Digest. And don’t forget to hit that subscribe button and continue to help us join and build up the one of the fastest growing Pelicans communities out there. Man, thank y’all so much. It’s Mel talking about those bells. I holl at you.

Derik Queen goes toe to toe with Joker. Melz On The MIC breaks down the game against the Nuggets.

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Queen Meets Joker…Pelicans Digest

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