What We Just Learned About the Pelicans Is INSANE…

What We Just Learned About the Pelicans Is INSANE…

What we just learned about the Pelicans is insane as this team continues to struggle and find consistent wins. James Barel’s offense has gotten better, but their defense continues to suffer. So, what can the Bellicans do? Well, we’re going to take a look at what some folks are proposing inside this edition of Bellicus Digest. What’s good with it y’all? It’s your Mel the Mic back once again inside Bellicus Digest. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday and I hope you ain’t spending too much on Black Friday as we uh get ready for the Pelicans tomorrow night against the Golden State Warriors. We appreciate you for hitting that subscribe button this holiday season and thank you so much for being a part of the Pelicans Digest community. We continue to grow despite the team being down, man. As Mel was talking about those bells and of course the other night uh was the Memphis game. Hells took it into overtime, crumbled once again. still can’t find a way to get it done in the clutch, especially in in overtime minutes. Uh, but one thing is for sure, we can’t complain about this. The mandate for James Burgago was to improve this team’s offense. And one could argue it has. One can argue it has. This team is no longer in the 90s anymore when they finished the game. They’re now in the 110s, 120s. They’re they’re shooting better. They’re they’re flowing, moving the ball better. still having some issues situationally in my opinion, especially in that Memphis game. Especially in that Memphis game. Uh, and a quick recap on that Memphis game because I was watching that game and I I came and realized and once again in the third quarter, same issues with the Pelicans is always the same issues. I I argued in the third quarter that we relied on the rookies a little too much. I put this on my blue sky account uh right in the third quarter, right as Memphis had eroded that 15-point lead that the Pelicans had going into the half. And uh you know, you see the numbers right there. That’s what the plus the live plus minus numbers were for Fears and Queen versus Alvarado and Missy. And we started that third quarter with the rookies, Fears and Queen. Again, they’re going to be fine, but in that particular situation, you should have kept riding the odd hand of Missy and Alvarado. Especially when you’ve come to realize that you’re exposing Derek Queen to 7 foot five Zack Edy and Zach was eating lunch. Zack was getting busy out there unless he was out there. And you know, again, this is not a knock on Derek Queen, but this was also one of the reasons why I was so against putting him in the center position a lot of the times because of certain situational games like that where you have a really big and skillful big man in Zack Edy who can also shoot a three and you and you sending Queen out there to go defend him and and and Zach did and Zack E, don’t get it twisted, he ate me lunch, but not as much. Okay. Uh, but that was the only issue in that game that I saw because again, this team’s offense is getting better. Well, it’s not the only issue I saw. The other issue is continues to be the defense. And I’ll get into that in a minute. I’ll get into that in a minute. Um, can I also say this real quick though? Can I say this real quick? This is a Sadique Bay fan podcast. All right, let me go ahead and be clear on that. Let me be clear on that. This is a Sadique Bay fan podcast. All right. Third straight double double night for Sadique Bay. 18 points, 10 rebounds, and picked up three steals. Doing everything you need him to do correctly on the court. Whether it’s off the ball movement, he has some three point, get some good open look threes, rebounding, crashing the boards, fighting, scrapping. This is Sadique Bay fan page. All right. fan page, YouTube page, whatever you want to call it. This because you know y’all I was just saying this in a video the other day. You know, we’re we’re turning into a generation of being fans of certain players. I’m a fan of Sadique Bay. All right, let me be clear on that. So, um, another great night for Sadique Bay, another great night from Jose Alvarado, another great night from Eve Missy. U, but still the issue continues to be the defense on this team. But some folks are continuing to argue that while the James Migo offense has been getting better, there’s still some issues that need to happen on that offense. Chris Lambert, the Pelican debrief, uh posted an article uh today about uh the glaring issue with the Pelicans right now is his offense. Okay. Well, he according to him, he said the Pelicans lead assist man on a per game basis right now is Zion Williamson, who’s averaging just four assists per game and has only appeared in eight games. While rookie Derek Queen has emerged as an offensive hub who can create for others with four games of seven or more assists is still not enough. And when you look at the team’s current roster, the only player who even remotely can be a lead playmaker is Dejonte Murray, who is still sidelined until likely the new year with an Achilles injury. And you know, there is some I I can agree with a lot of that of what Chris is saying, but I also say that you kind of do have a playmaking guard in José Alvarado as of right now until Murray gets back cuz Pierce hasn’t really been focused on playmaking. It seems to me and the other issue is I see here’s the thing with that with the assist thing. In order for an assist to count, they have to score, right? I can argue that the Pelicans have made great passes and great looks in certain situations and they just hadn’t hit the shot. If that makes sense. Especially in those early on games. The Pelicans are currently 29th in assist. 29th in assists, but due to the offensive production, they had moved up to the into the top 16 as far as uh offense of rating in the NBA right now. Just right after the Chicago game, they jumped right into the 16, right in the 16th. So, the offense is improving. I can argue I can I I’m I’m arguing here that the assists are there. They’re just not certain guys are just not hitting shots. Herb Jones especially was early on not hitting shots. Uh Jordan Hawkins was not hitting shots. Best game of Jordan Hawkins so far this season. Now, I’m not going to criticize Jordan Hawkins in this episode. Nice job, Jordan Hawkins. Thank you. That’s what we’ve been waiting with that. He needed that. He took a day off, got his mind right, came back and great game with Jordan Hawkins. Let me say that. Let me give that man his props. I’ve been very critical of that man. Uh, but I’m just ar but I’m just arguing as far as with with Chris is concerned on this is that they just weren’t hitting the shots early on. They were getting the open looks and getting the good the good the good opportunities. They just wasn’t hitting them. This just wasn’t falling. So, so Chris. Okay, Chris, what do you uh propose that the Pelicans do in this particular situation? Trade, of course. Interim head coach Jennings Morgo wants to see this team playing unselfishly and with the lethal pace. To do that and not have a crazy amount of turnovers, you need someone you can trust as a decision maker when playing in transition, which is something this group lacks. Hence, they have the fourth worst assist to turnover ratio in the entire NBA this season. Again, not arguing with any of that. Not arguing with any of that. I don’t think you should be I don’t think it’s a trade situation. I think you still have an opportunity to to let this continue to develop and let these guys get more comfortable with each other. There are a lot of instances where I seeing guys making passes to guys where they thought that guy was going to be, which is a chemistry issue right now, especially with how we’re how Morgo is constantly juggling these lineups situationally. That’s a chemistry thing. I’ll give you an example. But Michael Peavey, you seen how Michael Peavey has improved game to game as of late, right? Is because he’s starting to learn how to move off the ball without the court and also communicating with guys where he’s going to be at. You see, now he’s been hitting that back door cut a whole lot more along that baseline instead of standing there waiting on that three. That’s the issue with this team offensively. You can’t get assists because this team doesn’t move around as well. They they get into these ISO situations and they stand around that three-ball line and they just watch. That’s what usually happens with this team. But the biggest glaring issue with this team in my opinion will continue to be his defense. These guys allow teams to get the switches and the matchup advantages that they want because I don’t know. I don’t know if they’re not again not communicating this enough to each other. I said this in the last episode and episode before that. It’s about knowing your personnel and knowing what guys tend to do in your what your opponent is going to do and which direction they want to go. The Pelicans when they get on defense, no matter if it’s they’re already terrible be because the issue that’s going to come with us and this high pace offense is that there’s going to be bad transition defense. That that’s just a fact. You see all these other teams that run it, Chicago, everybody else. We you see how these games are turning into they’re going from 101 to 99 to now 133 to 140 and 129 and 125 is because they’re not getting back and playing defense because of that quick action. So that’s going to be an issue with this team as far as because now you see for the second straight game they gave up 130 points. 130 points. And I can continue to argue that this team doesn’t have enough shooters on this team. They be getting into these shootouts with teams like this. We’re not going to win games like this. If you continue to get into these shootouts with teams like this. So defensive wise, but I continue to argue that defensive wise they allow the mismatches to happen. In that particular game, you saw in the in minutes when uh Missy may have been off the court, Zack Edy was eating and you had three or four Pelicans trying to crash in to try to give help because at some point you’ve allowed uh Jiren Jackson or somebody else to switch off the person that they was covering and now you end up in a smaller matchup with Zack Edy or somebody else. It was happen in the game before with the Bulls game, too. So that’s my that’s the glaring issue with this team to me right now is its defense. It’s offense I think is going to continue to get better that I think with more time and chemistry and and and familiarity with these lineups. They are they are going to get better as far as these units. Plus you got you still got to juggle bringing these guys back in like Herb Jones and P and Murray and all these guys and figure out how to make that work. while you got guys starting to heat up like Sadique Bay and the E Missy. So, this is going to take some time, man. And the hope and prayer is you can get it fixed and rectified faster than later because, you know, while it’s still a lot more games left, still a lot more season, and plus a lot of teams are struggling in the Western Conference. They’re dealing with a lot of injuries right now. We’re going into a game against Golden State where you might not see Steph Curry in that game. If I’m not mistaken, Steph’s going to be out for the week. So, and then you just got them playing the game in Memphis. You win overtime with them with no John Morant. So, there is still time for this team to get back into it if they could get this chemistry issues right. But again, I don’t think the glaring issue is his offense. I see the offense improving every game and every which every night really has been improving every night. The issue is the defense. The glaring issue is defense. And how do you do how do you fix that? I don’t know. I I really do think this team plays better when it plays man-to-man defense with some help depending on the matchup and the help, especially if you could get the help in the front uh in the back court uh or or early on above the three-point line. If you can get that trapped off and get these guys stopped before they can get into the lane, I think you have a better shot with this team as far as defensively, manto man. I I see a lot of guys still not just trusting each other on this team defensively. So, they’re letting them switch off. Here, man, go here. Take that guy. I got this guy. So, that’s the glaring issue to me. What do you think is the glaring issue? Is it the offense not getting enough assist or is it the defense? I’m I’m of the defense. I think that’s the most glaring issue. There’s a lot of glaring issues, but that’s the most glaring one to me. What are your thoughts though? Uh clap back with your thoughts uh in the comments. And once again, thank you so much for checking in with us here on Pelicans Digest, man. This is where you get the best analysis of beans and more about the New Orleans Pelicans as we continue to struggle through the season, man. But hopefully we going to make it and we going to get better. That’s why we still here supporting. You heard me and I appreciate you supporting as well. It’s Mel talking about those bells.

The Pels continue to struggle to find wins consistently. Melz On The MIC breaks down the issues.

—

Pelicans Digest is a YouTube channel dedicated to covering all the latest news, trades, reports, and rumors about the New Orleans Pelicans. We provide in-depth coverage of game highlights, player performances, and analysis of team strategies. Our channel features discussions on key players like Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy, Dejounte Murray, CJ McCollum, and Herb Jones, along with insights from Head Coach Willie Green and General Manager Bryson Graham. Stay tuned for all the exciting updates and engaging content on everything Pelicans!

Have you ever wanted to break into sports media as a write or content creator? Apply to join the Digest Media team today here: https://digestmedia.ca/join-us/

for_digest_redistribution

—

Borrego Ball: What’s The Issue?…Pelicans News

—

Zion Williamson, Saadiq Bey, Jose Alvarado, NBA Trade Rumors, NBA Free Agency, NBA Draft, NBA Finals Preview, Fantasy Basketball Advice, NBA Betting Odds, NBA Jersey Review, Player Performance Breakdown, Sports Analytics, NBA Highlights, NBA News Update, NBA Stats, NBA Roster Moves, NBA Predictions