ANTI-CLUTCH: Young New Orleans Pelicans Team HASN’T LEARNED How To Close Out Games

ANTI-CLUTCH: Young New Orleans Pelicans Team HASN’T LEARNED How To Close Out Games

The New Orleans are finally playing much much better basketball, but no one really seems to care because whenever the game gets close, it’s not really close for much longer after that. Let’s talk about that on the before we head into the weekend on the Friday episode of Locked on Pelicans. Let’s get into it. You are Locked On Pelicans, your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. And welcome into another edition of Locked on Pelicans, the daily podcast covering your favorite team, the New Orleans Pelicans, part of Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. And now, the number one sports podcast network in the nation, subscriber gear podcast, or you can also join over 12,300 Pelicans fans on YouTube. It’s almost at 12,400. So, why don’t you come help us out? You can also watch us on the GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network. You’re already watching your Pelicans games there. So, uh, you know, I am I am too sometimes just because Antonio Daniels and Joel Myers are just that great. So, come watch us over there as well. I’m your host for today, Pelicans Insider, credential member of the media, Dylan Sanders. You can al you can find me on Twitter, Dilly Sanders, and I’m also the publisher of Pelicans Roundtable, a fun community of basketball fans. Tonight’s going to be uh putting an end to the second of three weeks where I’m taking over for Jake Madison while he’s on his honeymoon. So, some of y’all are about to be very happy and some of y’all are going to be rightfully upset. I’m just joking. Today we’re going to be talking about, man, they really need to win Saturday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets. Jeremiah Fears is jumping ahead of Derek Queen in the rookie ladder. We’re going to talk about that, why it’s a why it’s a great thing uh for maybe both players. And of course, starting off, we’re going to talk about the second close loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves of the week. Well, it wasn’t really a close loss, but it felt like it should have been after the first three quarters. Uh, it was another game where the Pelicans crumbled down the stretch. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanuel.com and place your NBA live bets all season long. All right, let’s talk about this game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. And I want to start it off by saying that, man, James Burggo has these New Orleans Pelicans playing much better basketball. It it it seems like an actual confident team for most of the time. They’re uh you know going on long stretches of of doing good things. There are a lot there’s a lot more to be happy about on the court. But every week, every couple of days rather, you get at you get to the end of the game and you’re like, “Wow, well that stinks. Another loss.” It’s because they just always seem to crumble down the stretch. I mean, and that’s a skill of a team. you can be good for the first three quarters. A there’s a skill of the team is closing out games. It is clutch time. There’s a reason they do a clutch player of the year and the New Orleans Pelicans right now just simply don’t seem to have much of a clutch bone in their body, especially now without Zion Williamson. He was the one that sent it into overtime uh a few games ago and it it fell fell apart after that, but it was, you know, he he did send the game into overtime against the Memphis Grizzlies. I knew that. I I got it right. Um and right now there’s just no one really. It seems like that. I want to go over the fourth quarter stats in this game. The Pelicans shot 11 for 29 from the field, one for eight from three. Jet is just not what you want to see your team do in the fourth quarter of a game. Derek Queen only got one shot in seven minutes. And of course, he needs to be more aggressive, but we saw him do really well in the fourth quarter just a couple of nights ago. It would have been nice to see them draw up some more stuff to maybe get him some some some plays. Trey Murphy only played seven minutes in the fourth quarter. There was a lot where I was like, man, where is Trey Murphy? I get the I get the rotations, but I was like, man, Trey Murphy’s not out like not out here enough simply. Um there I you know, I I’m a fan of Bryce McGawans. I think he’s done well. There’s not much of an excuse to have Bryce McGowens on the court for three more minutes than Trey Murphy. Have them both out on the court, but in the fourth quarter, seems like Trey Murphy needs to be a lot more involved than he was in this game. He had four shots in the fourth quarter, only one three, and that was pretty late in the game after was already decided. I cannot believe the team shot 10 for 21 from inside the three-point line in this quarter. There were a lot of missed layups and those essentially count as turnovers. They only had one like one official turnover on the books uh down the stretch. The the Minnesota Timberwolves had seven turnovers in the fourth quarter, but it didn’t really feel like that. It’s just hard because there’s a lot of times and a lot of things that you want to be happy about with this team. And I think there are things to be happy about. Jeremiah Fears, we’re going to talk a lot about in the next segment, has been playing great basketball. You’re getting great performances from guys like my like Bryce McAllen that I just mentioned. Micah Peavey looks like a hit in the second round. Uh Trey Alexander, he didn’t have as good of a showing this time, but he only play he only played five minutes, didn’t hit a shot. Carlo Makovich was back and again, instant lob threat, instant energy. Uh like Jose Alvarado looks I think a lot better uh in the James Burggo offense than he did with Willie Green. Sadique Ba’s been hooping. Derek Queen is, you know, one of the biggest stories of the NBA season. Like like it is there’s good things happening in New Orleans, but it just feels, you know, like not a like a waste of time, but they’re sitting at 3 and 20. They’re the worst team in the NBA and it just you’re not getting the payoff for the positive talk yet. And I, you know, maybe after they get one win, they have an easy game. We’re going to talk about an easy game. No game’s easy right now whenever you’re three and 20. Two and 11 at home is just brutal. Um, you’re not going to you’re not going to convince more fans to to come to games if you can’t win them at all. Um, so yeah, it just feels kind of exhausting right now. It’s the same thing night in and night out. We’ve seen them take steps. One area where they still obviously need to get a lot better in is three-point shooting, not only accuracy-wise, but volumewise. Um, that’s something I’ve I’ve talked a lot about over the past couple weeks with Jordan P. Can’t wait to see him back. I think that he is going to help uh bump up your three-point numbers. James Burggo talked about that like he’s a guy that can help you go from what they shot 25 in this game. He could help you go to at least 30. And then the the the math equation of the Minnesota Timberwolves making over twice as many three-pointers as you whenever you can’t hit a two-pointer late. It that the math is not mathing there, guys. Um, and yeah, so there are they’re obviously a very young team. They they’re showing progress, but until it starts to show on the win sheet, I don’t think these players are going to feel like they’re playing much better. Uh, like they should have confidence. They should have more confidence. They should go into this game against the Nets with confidence, but it’s hard to really take that as a given with how the games have been decided lately. In overtime, they’ve been awful this year. the fourth quarter. Now they they they figured out the third quarter thing. It’s not every night you’re you’re losing third quarters, but now it’s just shifted over one to where it’s like, okay, well, now it’s the fourth quarter. Who’s going to take over? I didn’t even talk about the fact that Anthony Edwards only had 11 points in this game, eight turnover turnovers going into the game. If you if you hold Ant to 11 points and force him to turn the ball over eight times, you feel like you’re winning this game. And for, you know, it was a large section of the game where it did feel like that played a huge factor because he had six points for most of the game. He was in foul trouble. He he couldn’t play. Uh but of course when he came in, it wasn’t even just him that took over. Julius Randle had a great game. Uh Dante Devenzo, he missed 10 three-pointers in the last game. He went four of eight in this one. Uh Nas Reed hit four threes. It just the the negatives keep piling on top of each other and are outweighing the positives for the New Orleans Pelicans right now. Hopefully they can start to turn it around soon. Turn finish these games, turn the momentum into wins, but uh we’ll talk a little bit about maybe how they can do that later. But coming up next, I want to talk about Jeremiah Fears jumping ahead of Derek Queen in the latest version of the NBA rookie ladder. The season’s heating up and Door Dash has a way to keep their fans in their bag the whole way through. Whether you’re watching the highlights, just looking at the tunnel fits, I’m looking at you, Trey Murphy. Always always looking fresh, or just your favorite player, Door Dash makes the entire season more fun because every player has their bag. With Door Dash, fans have one, too. Door Dash keeps your snacks do stocked, your gear fresh, and your watch party vibes absolutely on point. There are nights when your team stresses you out. Yeah, just let Door Dash become your postgame therapy. Sometimes, you know, you just need a little something, a little late night snack. From tip off to overtime, stay in your bag and order on Door Dash. Get snacks, drinks, gear, whatever gets you through the season delivered right to your door. Door Dash in your bag all season long. And of course, 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, please subscribe podcast and join over 12,000 Pelican fans on YouTube as well. You can also watch us on the GF Coast Sports and Entertainment Network. And of course, we are part of the lockdown podcast network, your team every day, the number one sports podcast network in the nation. And that, you know, you became number one sports uh podcast network in the nation because of the Everyday Club. If you’re not an everydayer, why not? It’s awesome. We’re having fun over there. We’re going to give another Everyday Club shout out on Monday. So come in and hang out and drop your everyday dare comments in the section in the comment section below and we will uh have another little every dare club party on Monday. Uh all right, let’s talk about Jeremiah Fierce. Awesome. He’s he’s doing he’s doing great. Uh and he’s seen that his his recent, you know, level up in play reflected on the NBA’s ever updating they do it once a week. the rookie ladder. Now, number one and number two have not changed and I don’t think that there’s any argument to say that right now that Jeremiah Fears belongs to be above these two. That’s Khan Canipple of the Charlotte Hornets. Really fun young player. And Cooper Flag, who is the, you know, flagship player of this draft class, the the guy that everyone thought is going to be up next. And, you know, he’s looking like it. He is he’s looked really really good as of late. Um, and then you look at number three and now it’s Jeremiah Fierce. He is the first guy listed listed be behind the big two. And both of those guys were drafted ahead of Jeremiah Fierce. If we’re looking at, you know, just draft order alone, these two guys should be above Jeremiah Fierce. But Jeremiah Fierce drafted at number seven is all the way up to three now. And there’s no arguing that he should be any lower. He’s been on fire as of late. I want to talk take a look at ever since he he he’s been up and down a little bit this season. No, no shocker. He’s a rookie. He’s 19 years old. But I want to go back to one month ago from today and let’s look at what he’s averaging on the year since the past month, not even just the past week. 16.8. 8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.5 steals on 44, 37, and 78 essentially 79 shooting splits. Incredible, incredible stuff. And he’s starting to share the ball more. Over the past couple of games, that that assist number over the past six games, that assist number is up to 3.3 per game. And he’s getting I he is looking more more like an actual point guard, which is great. In the past, he looked like a point guard, but not really one that you expect to see pass the ball very much because he was playing a little bit more hero ball. He was doing what he was comfortable with, and that was getting to his spot on the floor. But you didn’t see his game expand much beyond that. And I think it’s been a great sign for the New Orleans Pelicans that they are, you know, seeing him grow into his game. just 22 20 now 23 games into his NBA career. Uh this game didn’t even count in the rankings. He had 20 points, seven seven rebounds, six assists. Uh he hit two quick threes. Uh now I would have loved to see him go a little bit more uh to the three-point game. We’re talking about how the Pelicans need more three-point shooting. Jeremiah Fears has gotten much better than uh he was, you know, I hate to say earlier on in his career, but to start the season, I guess. uh he’s much more of a threat from deep. So he he had that game against the Warriors where he shot nine threes and that was a great uh step forward, a positive sign. But you know, want to see him increase the volume next and that’s something we’ve been saying a while saying a bit and it’s something that I guess will probably take a while. Um he’s already I think shown just a a great jump in that since starting his career. I I you know he was inefficient from three. I think he started off shooting 27 from three over the first nine games and then in the 11 games not counting tonight actually. Uh he is up to 43 and then he made two. Uh so that’ll be even better. But going into the night he was shooting 43% from deep over his last 11 games. Great improvement. just want to see it keep coming. And of course, the biggest thing that’s had him in the in the he I saw him talking about it on TikTok. He’s just been feisty. And sometimes some teams, some fan bases, I guess, wouldn’t like that. I think the New Orleans Pelicans right now especially would love love to see that. He know he’s not afraid. Zero fears. It’s on the court on his back. Uh he’s going up to Luca. He’s instigating players. And you know, it’ll be fun to see if that keeps going whenever they start winning because that I think that fiery edge is something that you need to see. We were talking just a second ago about how they need someone to step up in the clutch. a guy like Jeremiah Fears is someone I’m looking to do that because he’s not afraid of any moment whenever it comes to going face to face or stepping up and uh whatever he has to already just want to see that come in the clutch more if Jeremiah Fears can become a guy that you know you can trust to take a shot late. Uh something that the Pelicans really haven’t had I I’m going to I’m going to invoke the name. Some people will be upset since like a Brandon Ingram because even Zion, he’s not a shooter. We saw him get forced into a three-point shot with the game on the line not too long ago and he missed it. So having Jeremiah Fears become that next guy, the closer of this team, I think would be a great sign and he has the personality to do so. Uh and that’s not the he’s not the only Pelican on the rookie ladder. Uh Cedric Coward uh is at number four. uh now he he you know got bumped down one because of Jeremiah Fierce and at five then it’s Derek Queen who did have a uh a notable weaker stretch of games recently uh whenever we talked about it he was not really didn’t seem he’s still been a liability on defense as of late but it was translating to him going uh not doing well on offense as well. There was that three stretch three game stretch where he was averaging 63 and four and that’s just not going to keep you up in the rankings. But over the past couple of games, I think he’s looked a lot better. He’s getting some of that confidence back on offense. He’s going to the rim more. He definitely seems like the kind of player who can get better on defense. I I I think he is definitely capable of that. He’s a very smart very smart basketball player already. And I yeah, I’d just be I would be shocked if he didn’t get better on defense. So, that’s the next thing that has to come. But, I’m glad we’re over the past couple of games, we’re seeing that confidence grow on offense. I already talked about it in this game, this last game specifically. Uh, you’ll want to see him be more involved in the fourth quarter. I think the game against the Brooklyn Nets is another the next opportunity for him to do that. And we’re going to talk about that coming up next. NBA games move fast. 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Closing us out for the week. Actually, it’s a a game against the New Orleans the Brooklyn Nets. You know, really kind of every game feels like it’s the New Orleans Pelicans versus the New Orleans Pelicans if you think about it. That’s, you know, that’s kind of a stretch. All right. The Brooklyn Nets are on the schedule for Saturday at a weird time. It’s going to be a 400 pm local tip. Uh it’s going on at the same time as Georgia, Alabama for all your college football fans. Uh the SEC Championship. Speaking of college football, real quick, no go wave tonight uh for a chance to get into the college football playoff. That would be awesome. Uh you know the four letters. Let’s talk about this New Orleans Pelicans Brooklyn Nets game because it is as weird as it feels to say at at three and 20. It’s a must-win game, I think, for the New Orleans Pelicans. Not to really save the season because at that point that is, you know, the how many games back you’re in from the playin doesn’t feel, you know, good, even reasonable to talk about, but it’s a must-win for the morale of this team. you know, things are getting chippy, not within the team itself, but on the court, you can tell this team wants a win. They are hungry for a win. And we we’ve talked before like the, you know, I think the the team and the uh the morale within them like as a unit, I would say, is still posit like they’re not, you know, arguing with each other. This team feels close. They are, you know, the vets are doing their job. They’re, you know, the leaders are leading and I think the team is responding to it well enough. You know, they’re getting even though they continue to lose these games, they’re the product on the court is getting better and better. So, that’s that’s a good sign, but at some point, you just need to see that win. And this game against the Brooklyn Nets is a perfect opportunity for that. The Brooklyn Nets are five- 17. I I guess you might be catching them at a bad time because they’ve won two of their last three games, but it is still a very winnable game. The the Pelicans will still be uh underdogs for this game if I had to, but mostly because it’s a home game for the Nets. Uh Noah Clowny is a name that I’ll throw out there. Uh he has been looking very good as of late. He just had a uh a 20point game uh the other night against the Chicago Bulls in that win. They lost against the Utah Jazz, but Noah Clowney had 29 four and three as a 6’10 power forward. He has a three ball. He’s shooting the ball well. Uh and he’s kind of been the leader of this team during the last couple of games where they’re starting to turn things around. He’s on a great stretch. He kind of does a little bit of everything. So, you know, Sadique Bay, I think, could be a good look because because Noah Clown’s playing well, he’s shooting well, but Sadi Bay is uh, you know, he kind of plays like an unc. He is a more physical. He’ll back back you down, get in your face, get into your chest. And, uh, I think that could be a good, you know, matchup reset for the uh, for the the third year player. I will not a rookie. Uh you know like Lori Mal Larry Malinin I I’m a huge fan of Marinette but he is not a defensive stalwart and he’s not a very aggressive player. So Sadiq Bay might be able to you know put a stop to the uh the recent stretch of Noah Clowny games and at least make him uneven on the defensive make Clowny uneven on the defensive side of the ball. And of course you know you have like a guy like Michael Porter Jr. who? Let me know. I’ve heard him floated as a name of of a guy that people have been looking at uh bringing in for Zion Williamson. Let me know if you’d be interested in that down in the comments section below. I don’t know that I am simply because of maybe the the off-c court fit with this. He seems like a uh a polarizing figure to add into this young team, but he is uh he’s playing good basketball. He’s, you know, he has 33 and 35 in his last two games. He had 33 a couple of games ago against the Boston Celtics. He’s shooting the ball. He’s the kind of player who I think could get hot and start to torch the New Orleans Pelicans defense. So, that’s something to see. He didn’t play in the last game, but it looked like uh it was rest rather than it was, you know, him still being injured for anything because it was back to back. So, I would expect him to be back on Saturday. And then another name I’ll be watching over the next couple of days for the um Brooklyn Nets is Cam Thomas. Cam Thomas has been out for a couple of weeks, but he seems to be ramping up and ramping up. And you normally see the New Orleans New Orleans teams in general as someone where, you know, an injured star will return. And of course, Cam Thomas, for a team like the Pelicans that cannot get a stop on the defensive side of the ball, Cam Thomas could end up being a game wrecker. For New Orleans, I want to see Derek Queen step up in this game. Nicholas Claxton is more of the kind of big that you’ve seen uh Derrick Queen do well against this season. So, I I’d love to see that happen. Maybe you don’t win the rebound battle, but I I think that you could you could see it be a good Derek Queen game. That’s what I want to see out of this. And of course, with that team being like a Michael Porter Jr., you know, Doac Cloudy to Claxton on defense, I would love to see Jeremiah Fears continue to attack the basket and shoot. I think this is a defense that he could really play well against. And of course, Trey Murphy. Michael Border Jr.’s an offensive guy. It’s the Brooklyn Nets, guys. They’re five and 17. I would love to see the the three guys that you expect to do well against a bad team do well. Is that was that is that crazy to ask for? I don’t think so. I definitely don’t think so. All right, we’ll see y’all on Monday. Of course, this is the last of next week will be the last you’ll see of me as a as the host of the show. I still be on the show every now and then. Joke will be back on the 15th. So, let’s have a fun last week together, guys. Uh, and thank you for making us your first listen today. And every day, make sure you make your second listen of the day. locked on fantasy basketball with Josh Lloyd helping me win my I’m gonna win another fantasy basketball game because of Josh Lloyd. All right, see y’all next week.

In this episode, you’ll get a deep dive into the recent struggles and bright spots for the New Orleans Pelicans as they navigate tough losses, issues closing out games, and the development of their young stars. The conversation explores why the team has faltered in clutch moments, highlights impressive rookie performances like Jeremiah Fears’ rise in the NBA rookie ladder, and assesses improvements under new coaching while pointing out both strategic and lineup challenges. Listeners will also hear a preview of the upcoming matchup against the Brooklyn Nets, discussing key players to watch and what the Pelicans need to do to finally secure another win and boost team morale.

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