New Orleans Pelicans PodcastRecapping Pelicans' Weekend Wins, Look Ahead | Pelicans Podcast
On the latest New Orleans Pelicans Podcast for Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, Pelicans.com’s Jim Eichenhofer and Gus Kattengell recap the Pelicans' pair of wins vs. the Washington Wizards over the weekend.
Hear highlights and postgame recaps from head coach Willie Green and guard CJ McCollum.
Later, Jim breaks down why the Pels have found the win column recently as he gives us his player of the week and player to watch for the upcoming games.
Welcome in to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, the official podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans, a podcast dedicated to everything you need to know about the squad. Here from players, coaches, broadcasters, and those who covered the NBA on a daily basis. It's time to flock up. The New Orleans Pelicans Podcast starts right now.
Hello, we want to welcome to another edition of the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, official podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans. A full week of pods. We are back at at Jimi Knhoffer, Gus Catngell with you.
Happy New Year.
We did that a little bit last year, but last week, but here we are twenty twenty five and Jim to welcome us to a brand new calendar year. A wind streak.
It feels good, Gus, it really does. I mean, obviously the Pelicans went through some long losing streaks before this weekend, and to be able to get to two victories against the Wizards, it's it's a it's a good feeling around here. They just need to keep it up. Yeah, no doubt.
Back on Friday, the Pelicans picking up a win one thirty c. J McCollum with fifty points right, corner.
Jose for three, no guest rebound taken by Carrington, throw it out along the Broaden who leaked out?
She'll get a plot by Hawkins and.
Then Jose GTAs George l au Train Murphy.
My goodness, what a sequence.
Wow, Oh me see another stuff on an attempted layup by Pool. Oh that's mister Ney to you. Back the other way, McCollum for.
Three, right wing rattles in.
Bucket, gutter chest it over to McCollum right side, step back, take a three, got it time out Washington. It's a fourteen to two start to the third quarter for the Pelicans up top.
McCollum set his feet for three.
That is lucky number seven for Christian James McCollum CJ.
Cooking with fisk grief in this one. Get it to CJ. Another three, My heavens from the right wing.
CEJ with now eight on a heater chest it to McCollum, right wing three number nine for CJ. That's a season high. The fill gobble stop pop white. Oh, my cookness, that is number ten for CJ. McCollum.
That ain't nothing, but he he's got an.
Even forty points. He caught that and wasn't squared up? Is ten three pointers pretty good?
Jim?
Yeah, I would say that's pretty good. I'd say that's almost the best in franchise history, which a record that mister McCollum also owns himself. He was inches away from matching his team record of eleven threes. But we'll take ten. Guess we'll gladly go into the night with that one in our back pocket. That's not a bad thing.
I'd like to interject and say that WHOA didn't say that's pretty good as well? Well, look at looking here.
That is the is the voice of the New Orleans Pelicans that we just heard and now we're hearing live again.
We don't have that many surprise guests, but it's great to have grap It's like being a ventriloquist.
Yeah.
Well, you know, if you just would have spade a little little half hour lady, you could be doing with snow angels in DC right now. Do you see all the snow over there?
We got out just in time.
Yes, just did a nicka time. Head coach Willie Green on the win back on Friday.
Yeah, you know it's hopefully you know, it's giving people some hope, some joy maybe getting away from the difficulties that we've all been kind of facing the last few days or so. And so credit goes to our guys, you know, stepping on the floor tonight and you know, competing at a high level and coming away with this win.
And Jimmy heard Coach touch on it there, obviously, CJ and all the players did as well.
Look, it hadn't even been a.
Week since the tragic events that unfolded here in the city, and you felt it in the arena. There was a moment of silence before the game, and you could just hear it in the highlights there. You wouldn't have known that to a five one team, right, I think people in that arena were just waiting and hoping to kind of have some good basketball and to that point, like Coach just said, just for that two hour moment, you know kind of feel.
No sure sure. I mean several of the players have mentioned this as well, that it feels kind of crass to even compare, you know, a basketball game or a win to what happened on Wednesday, just because I mean, there's just there's no comparison. I mean, it was horrible. It was one of the worst things that's happened in the country in a long time. But I mean, just from a basketball standpoint, to be able to get those wins was good. I mean, it did feel like just getting Jose back in some of the plays that he made. Obviously CJ coming through with fifty points, it was it was a good feeling at LEAs momentarily to kind of put that on the but what happened Wednesday in the back of your mind, but then it immediately kind of goes right back to the forefront as soon as you turn on the news and you watch everything and you hear about just the horrible act that that person committed on Wednesday. Yeah, no doubt.
And then it was these two teams again, this time in DC. As he just heard from the graph here as he's now left us, he just busted us with his presence for like a I don't know, just to make a comment that's basically what he did. But yeah, so look, you wanted to follow that up again right with another good solid performance and Trey Murphy came out to play.
All it to McCollum front court, left one on one with bub Carrington through the legs chest. It over to Murphy. Murphy drives center of the lane.
Watch out, hello, oh my heavens, double clutch Trey Murphy intense dunk with two hands.
Some of the dunks are good, those are nice, Sege McCollum, continue to shoot well.
McCollum picked up by SAARs, step backup angle three, nothing but net over the seven foot Alex saw five may threes and seven attempts from mclum.
Did I mention the dunking because you know that makes me happy?
Blur to the rack, missed the layoff? Me see affected it herb outlet to Murray, dump it off for Aid. Two head flush, great pass, better finish George front court up top Butler wide open, three fun arm, long rebound, Brandon Boston, herb leaked out herb one dribble, two head phush over Kyle Kuzma.
Palla.
When the PA announcer on opposing arena, you hear time out and it's the home team that's so the goot two dunks, two dunks in that sequence.
It is funny to hear the difference between the crowd reaction of the game Friday and the game Sunday of like the dour expression from the PA announcer, like you said, and you hear people in the crowd just kind of whatever reaction there is is more just kind of being people being upset. So that was It's been a long time since we heard that as well. It's i mean, the second game of the season was their last road win, so that was sweet to be able to get that victory in Washington.
Yeah, that's a long streak, Jim, that's a long streak. So you know, since he won two in a row, long streak since he won on the road. Twenty seconds here from coach, Yeah, it.
Was better, a better job tonight. Defensively, I thought we got off to a good start that helped us a ton you know, first quarter points, thirty three points in the first quarter, and it was really off our defense, getting steals, finishing possessions when we can test the shots, and it allowed us to get to get out in transition. Seventeen points in transition. Pretty solid night for us.
Right, So two games against the Wizards, two wins. Now, let's transition into why, Jim you think the Pelicans have won two games in the row. There's some things that stand out in some plature.
I mean, one thing too, that Willie Green talked about there was the defense was better. The things that I pointed out Sunday night was the Wizard scored sixty eight points in the first half Friday. They only scored forty three in the first half on Sunday, So I mean, my math tells me that's a twenty five point difference. It's great there, So I mean, just much better. And I mean Washington only ended up with ninety eight points at the end of the game as well. That was only the second time this season that the Pelicans have held the opponent under one hundred points, so both of those were wins. So that was really good to see. But I mean we've seen, you know, from a team standpoint, I think the biggest change that has happened lately over the last handful of games, I mean specifically the last five games. The Pelicans are seventh in three point percentage at thirty seven point two. Prior to Christmas are going I guess through Christmas they were twenty sixth in that stat at thirty three point two. So they've shot four percent better from three point range lately, and I mean even more drastically, before Christmas, they were thirtieth in the league in three pointers made per game at eleven point one per game. Over the last five games, they're sixth with fourteen point eight per game, So I mean he went from the least productive three point shooting team to in the top six over this recent span. That's that's been a huge difference, and I mean just explains the way that not only they were able to get those wins on the weekend, but they won pretty comfortably. And then also, I mean along the same lines of the three point shooting and the scoring offense being a lot better over the last five games, CJ McCollum is third in the NBA and scoring at thirty two point four points per game. The only two guys that have averaged more points over every team's last five games is Jokic at thirty six point six and Sga at thirty four point zero. So I mean, that's some pretty good company fort CJ. And then Trey Murphy is twentieth in the NBA in scoring over the last five games, so at twenty five point two, he's tied with Anthony Edwards in scoring over that span. So I mean, we've I've seen, we know Trey Murphy is talented We know that he has a ton of potential, but I feel like we're starting to really see that come through in the results and the outcomes on the court. The fact that he's been in that category of one of the top twenty scorers in the NBA over this recent stretch. Now, obviously we're going to wait to hear more information on his injury. We don't have an update as of Monday morning while we record this, But I mean, he's been playing his I think his best basketball of his career. And you take those two guys, and you know, we talked about this a lot earlier in the season, that both of those guys were shooting way below what they've done throughout their career. Now you flip it the other way and they're among the best scorers and shooters in the league over the last week or two. And so you see, now the wins are starting to come with the way that they're been playing in the offense now is not struggling nearly as much as it had been earlier in the season.
And I was going to give you a patter in a back there some flowers, because you've been saying it. It's something that you've been bringing up through the podcast as the season has going on that it was it not to put words in your mount that I don't remember them, but it was almost like, so it doesn't make sense, and unspeak was like this, these players, these guys are better shooters in this It has to turn around. It's going to turn around. And you were very specific as to maybe reasons why that didn't happen. That and played a lot of games, so you know, obviously, if you only played five ten games and you don't shoot well on the three pointers in three of those percentages going to be high. You haven't played a lot of time on the court with the players that you've been playing. That was an issue there as well, and I thought it was something that was very interesting last week. I think on the pod we played it or CJ McCollum touched on this is like it's twentieth game or something, which is nuts because we're now in January, but it just goes to show you that's what we mean a lot of times when injuries play a factor in what those percentages are. But you've been harping on it. To JD's phrase, if you flipped the basketball card here, the player card that player is who that player is with those percentage numbers, and you said that shooting had to come around because they're just better shooters than that.
Yeah, I mean, it just makes sense that that eventually they're gonna, you know, I guess I was gonna say, regress to the mean, but it's like they went, they moved forward, they moved in a positive way toward the mean of what they've done throughout their career. So, I mean, there was a long stretch of the season and hopefully we're out of it now and we're gonna be able to turn a corner to something completely different, But there was a stretch where it was like you could make a list of fifteen things that were all negative, And it doesn't make sense that you'd have all of these things happening at the same time where it's a bunch of your key players are injured, the guys who came back from injury were all having like their worst season in several years, all at the same time. It's like that just doesn't it doesn't add up. It's just so unlikely that I know, they have the fan duel parlays that they talk about on the TV broadcast and stuff like that it's like these combinations of things are like the chances of all of these things happening are like five thousand to one. But yeah, it feels like that's the kind of season that the Pelicans had been having, is a five thousand to one perfect storm in a negative way of like everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. So it is encouraging to see some of that stuff go in the opposite direction. And I do think to your point of what you were talking about, one of the things that you mentioned was, you know, not only had a lot of these guys not played a lot of games, but they hadn't played a lot of games together. They're at the point now where they've started the same starting lineup nine ten games in a row, which was unheard of. I mean, we would have killed for that, you know a few weeks ago when it was like it seemed like it was a different starting lineup every single game.
It is something crazy like seventeen or eighteen and first twenty to twenty one games, it was.
Something absurd like that.
I mean, it doesn't make any sense when you think about it like that.
Yeah, So I mean I definitely think that that's part of it, as well that they've been able to get some continuity. So and I mean another we talked about CJ and Trey, but another player that just came back from injury that had been out for a long time is Jose Alvarado. He played his two games on the weekend. De Jonte Murray didn't come back from his broken hand that he had on Opening night. He didn't come back until the night before Thanksgiving. So, I mean he's only been back for you know, i'd say about five or six weeks now. But I think both of those guys as well lately have been playing really well. I mean Jose I mentioned some of the stats last week before he came back. In terms of his impact right now, the Pelicans now are since the start of last season, they're forty three and twenty six in the games that Jose Alvarado plays, which is a fifty win pace over an eighty two game season. They're thirteen and thirty six when he doesn't play, which is a twenty two win pace. So I mean that's a pretty drastic difference. You're talking about a fifty win team or a twenty two win team that is not going to even come close to making the playoffs. Another fact that I noticed from this weekend that is a really good sign about the point guards between Jose Elverado and de Jonte Murray. Dejonte had twenty four assists and five turnovers in the two games against the Wizards. Elverado had six assists and zero turnovers. So you add those two guys together and over this weekend, you're talking thirty assists and only five turnovers between the two. That's a six to one assist to turnover ratio. And here's a stat too about Dejonte that I thought is pretty incredible too. If you take the three games that de Jontay Murray and Jose Elverado have played, which is the opener against the Bulls and then these two games against Washington. In those three games, Dejonte has thirty four assists six turnovers, which is a five point seven assist to turnover ratio, which is outstanding. Elite would be close to leading the league if you did that over the course of the whole season. So five point seven assist to turnover ratio for Gigonte in the three games that Jose has played. In every other game that Dejonte's played this season, when Jose's not available, his assist to turnover ratio is only one point seven, so he's been granted small sample. It's only three games, but he basically has been three times better more than three times better and assist a turnover ratio in the three games where Jose's played. Now, what exactly is the connection there? I mean, it would probably be a little bit too much of a leap to say that that's directly because of Jose, But I mean the fact that you have another guy that is handling the ball and comes in and plays those backup minutes, I think helps to be brilliant, To be totally honest, to the quality of the opponent, there is probably a factor. But either way, I mean, it's it's unbelievable how much of a difference that those two guys make when you have both of them on the court. I mean, I know this isn't They're not going to create a separate category in the standings for this, But let's just say the Pelicans are three to oher when both of those guys have played this season. So that is an encouraging sign as well and hopefully something that they can keep it keep up.
Look, you you are a huge fan of what Jose brings to this team. I loved hearing him speak going into that game on Friday, and he wanted to bring that crazy Jose energy that there's an allet you put on in that game. So there is something to that, Jim, there is something to that. And look, yesterday there was a moment in that game and where I hadn't really touched on it just yet, but Trey Murphy goes down again.
The Pelican season is what it is.
He literally is going up for a ball, he comes down on Jonas's heel and rolls an ankle. We'll find out today at practice what that severity is. It happened before them, well, I think last week or something like that. He didn't miss a game, so I mean, hopefully it's something of that nature. Right, But you felt the energy kind of go down a little bit and then the Pels had to pick that up and found the way to win. So in a season where you're just I'm not saying you're grasping for things to be positive about, but in't that a step though, Jim, because you felt you're like, oh no, and that lead got down to like eight or something like that, and it had been a double digit lead for a while, and then CJ makes a big shot, de Jonte gets that triple double, and they close out a game they controlled all night. I just I'm looking for things to be positive about and that it's a trend int the direction you wanted to see.
I think what we saw in the fourth quarter Sunday as well as throughout the game Friday. And then one of the biggest instances of this happening over the course of the season was all the way back in the opener against Chicago, was we're seeing them come up with plays on defense where they're forcing steals, they're forcing turnovers, and they're scoring at the other end. It feels like that was part of what happened in the fourth quarter. Was when there's been games a season where they've been up double digits in the second half or the fourth quarter and they haven't been able to hold down to the lead. And a lot of times you say, you think, okay, that's because the defense, the defense let down, they gave up a big lead, et cetera, et ce. But a lot of times it's the droughts on offense that really hurt you, where you can't score for a long period of time. So it seems like to me what they did against the Wizards to a pretty big degree was they got a lot more easy baskets, and when you do that, you prevent these three or four minute stretches where you go scoreless and all of a sudden, the double digit lead that you had is down to two or you lost it completely. I mean Friday's game, they had thirty two points off of turnovers against the Wizards, who committed twenty one in that game. And it's just something that's the way they want to play. That's that was kind of the blueprint going into the season, that you want to be a really disruptive defensive team. That's what they were last season and the season before that when they finished sixth in defense. So if you can do that, I think that is going to make a big difference as well. I mean another quick stat to Gus, they over the last five games of Pelicans are eighth in turnover percentage, so they've really cut those down. You know, whether it's not just Jose and Dejonte being really good at taking care of the ball and playmaking, but just the team overall has gone from bottom tier of the League, where that's been a really costly part of a lot of games, especially when they played against good teams and good defenses, Like, Okay, see, it's just been like they've done such a poor job of taking care of the ball that your your chances of winning are slim to none. But that's an area that they've improved as well a lot lately and something that they're gonna have to keep doing to be able to keep adding to the wins that they've had over the weekend.
Yeah, look, it was so nice to see the John Ta Murray get a triple double. But you don't get triple doubles. This is a point guard if guys aren't knocking down shots, if you know, he's not seamlessly being a part of that offense. And I think it goes back to kind of what we touched on already. Jim, you're seeing to your point now, Tanny, eleven games in a row, same live you're seeing it. I mean you're seeing not just from the alleys, but you're not seeing as many turnovers. Like I'm standing next to you and I throw it at your feet, right someone goes Wes Johnson said it. You know, this guy's gonna go left. I'm expecting you to go right. That just I know it sounds silly sometimes to say to listeners or fans, but that's the reality of it. The more you spend time to gather, the better you're going to see that.
I also think too that, I mean, this would be a better question for Dejontay Murray to answer and discuss. I don't want to put words in his mouth too much, but if you look at the way that some of the other top offensive weapons on the Pelicans have played lately, to me, it would put Dejonte in more of a position of I don't have to go out and score a ton, so you play like a more relaxed game. You play a game of I'm gonna let the game come to me because he Jay's out here getting fifty points and Trey Murphy is out here shooting like one of the best three point shooters in the league over this recent stretch. So maybe you're in a spot where mentally you're like, I don't have to force as much because we don't have to see us see me score twenty five to thirty points for us to have a chance to win the game. I'm gonna be able to distribute, and it just seems like he's done that really well, and he's just been really sound. He just hasn't made that many mistakes. The Friday game, he had twelve assists in one turnover, which I think was probably his best performance of the season from a assist a turnover standpoint. So I just, yeah, it just seems like he's making really good progress. He had a really nice behind the back kind of pass last night for a layup. It was beautiful. So I think he's definitely getting more comfortable. And again, like we talked about with CJ and Trey, this is another extremely key player to the team that is now playing a lot more like what we've seen throughout the first seven or eight years of his career than what he looked like over the first month plus after he came back from his injury.
Yeah.
I mean, look, there's a reason people were excited about it. Yeah, there's a reason this team traded for him.
He was an All Star in twenty twenty two.
To your points, the back of the All Star card or the back of your your player's card to do that. So, and you mentioned Trey Man in some of these games as of late He's had tremendous first halts which helped the team get going and putting in positions even though they didn't win at Miami. Even though they didn't win, in some of these games, they were in position and he was really their offense. And it's something I've asked you after games. So we're starting to see the importance of Trey Murphy to this starting lineup, to this team, to this offense. Whereas here's a guy, Hey, he's your three point shooting. He's a guy that can come off the bench. Baby, he can be somebody off that sixth unit. But we've seen games where when he is either not scoring in the second half, or defense is adjust to him, or he gets injured, the offense comes to a halt. And that's something that we have never been able to.
Say, right And you know, one of the things that Antonio Daniels said on the TV broadcast Sunday was that Trey Murphy is one of the rare players in the NBA. I mean, he might be the only one that could win the dunk Contest and the three point Contest in the same night, just because his athleticism makes him one of the most fun dunkers in the league. But he also has the range out to thirty thirty five feet. I think when he's at his best, and when we see Trey Murphy playing at the level that we know he can based on his potential, that's the kind of comment that you hear, is like, it's not just spot up threes, it's not just catch and shoot. He's also doing stuff off the dribble. He's getting all the way to the basket. He's basically maximizing all of the god given tools that he have has, which are pretty immense if you think about it, the package that he has as far as how big he is, and he still has a lot of flexibility, a lot of athleticism. He's improved his ball handling, so I mean just he's bringing all of that to the table, and that's one of the reasons why, as I mentioned earlier, that he's been a top twenty scorer in the league over to the last five games. Yeah, no doubt.
And that next step too, as we transition to the upcoming games has now we're in January and it's gonna be a very busy month for this team. But one of the things he's going to adjust to and it's part of the growing processes. All of a sudden, you go from oh, that's nice, so they know who he is and he's on the sky to report too, We're gonna double them, we're gonna take him away, We're gonna make sure somebody else beats us. And that's a whole different level of learning as a player, where sure, now you're a focus. Now you're dependent on by your team, and now other teams are out to stop you, not other members on your team.
Right, definitely, I mean that's something that he's going to have to go through, as you know, maybe the next step in the process of him becoming a guy that consistently produces the way he has been lately. But I think the Pelicans also look coaches and stuff like that would look at it, like with the way CJ's been playing and shooting lately, you can't devote too much attention to Trey and then hopefully we'll see Zion back soon. And there's another piece where it's like you can't run everyone at tray because there's other players that you have to worry about to a major degree. So but yeah, I'm curious to see I'm interested to see you know how he follows this up on the way he's been playing lately. But I mean, this has been an extended stretch where he's been really productive. We've seen him have weeks where he's been really good, or a game or two here and there, and then I mean, honestly, some of it is if he has a you know, hit a forty one point game against I think it was Portland a couple of years ago, and then maybe two games later he isn't scoring at a high level. But a lot of it is because there's been so many other mouths to feed. There's been so many other high scorers on the court with him at times. But I think now is probably this is definitely the most that they've ever asked from him over a span of say, ten to fifteen consecutive games. So it's been great to see the way that he's responded in the consistency that he's had lately, where it doesn't seem like he has any dips. He's not having those six point games, eight point games. It's like every single night he's giving you fifteen to twenty points and a lot of times a lot more than that.
Yeah, it's double digits and again, we'll see. We'll get the latest maybe from head coach Wille Green. He got a back to back on Tuesday Wednesday. Now, transition to what we got to get going on here, because we do have a lot as the month of January is off and running. But we hope for the best. Again, we've seen him rolling ankle during a game and come back and play the next game, so we'll see what takes place. But you got four games this week, Jim, and it's a lot of games here. A little back to back, got some pretty good opponents in particular certain position at center that makes you maybe want to focus on somebody.
Well, it's a Monday, thankfully, Jim.
Is all always are Friday.
I mean.
It's time for mister Eichenhoffer to give his players of the week and a player to watch for this week, which you gotta got.
Let's start with the week twelve player to watch, which is gonna be Eve me c You know, I tell you it's funny. I feel like over the last couple of years, a lot of people have said, you know, the center position is is going away. You know, the centers are dinosaurs. There's not that many good bigs anymore. But yet that would be news to Eve mecI because if you think about during the homestand some of the players that he went up against, and now if you look at this week as well, I mean, this is a really interesting collection of centers that he has to go against in Week twelve. On Tuesday, the Pelicans are playing Minnesota. That's obviously Rudy Gobert. Wednesday, he's gonna be facing DeAndre Ayton and Donovan Quingen. Friday, mister Embiid in Philadelphia, and then Sunday Christaps Porzengis. So not only is it some of the better and best centers in the league, but it's a lot of guys that are completely different styles. So I'm really curious to see how Eve does against those group of players. And by the way, too, just a couple schedule notes that I think are relevant in terms of who the Pelicans are playing against. Tuesday, when the Pelicans played Minnesota, that's actually the second game of a back to back for the Timberwolves. They play the Clippers Monday night at home in the Target Center. And the Timberwolves are three and six out of their last nine games, so they've definitely been been slumping lately, they've had some really good stretches and some other stretches that we're concerning. Right now, it seems like they're in a bit of a slide, so maybe the Pelicans are catching them at a good time. Wednesday game against Portland that's actually the first game of a back to back for them, so I'm not sure how that's going to affect what the Trailblazers do in the Smoothie King Center. But Portland beat Milwaukee on the weekend on the road that actually ended their eight game road losing streaks, So like New Orleans, Portland's had a lot of difficulty winning games on the road. Hopefully the Pelicans can take advantage of that game against the Sixers. Sixers are eleven and five after they started three and fourteen, so they've really turned things around from how rough their first part of the year was with a lot of guys injured, and then the Celtics on Sunday. By the way, neither of those games for the Philly or Boston are back to backs for them, so they'll be able to have guys available. They won't be resting people last ten games. Boston is five and five, so after starting out at a level where everybody was like, you know, even though Cleveland's have an amazing start, the Celtics are unquestionably the team to beat. It's they've definitely started to play a little bit. I'm not sure what the reasons for that are. Maybe they're a little mentally tired from going all the way and winning the championship last year and then starting back at the beginning of a regular season, but they have not played as well lately and it's just been the kind of thing where now, all of a sudden, Cleveland has a huge lead in the Eastern Conference. But either way, I mean, that's a very difficult game that the Pelicans are going to have to end the weekend.
Yeah, it's been a surprise team for me this year in terms that the way they ended, and I mean everybody was basically Anthony Edwards was Michael Jordan two point zero right at the end of last year. He's taking out He's going to be the best player in the NBA and this is not about him. The dude drop fitty right then he just dropped fifty and they lost by fourteen, right right.
I heard that this morning.
I'm like, they was on Saturday. They lost by fourteen to Detroit, I think is what it was, and he dropped fifty so fifty three. Yeah, it's crazy. There's something about chemistry. I don't know if the call Anthony Towns trade had something to do with that or not. We kind of saw they had to adjust when they got Rudy Gobert, and then last year looked like they adjusted, and then this year how much of that. It'll be interesting to kind of look at and see, like, when I take a peek at Minnesota, why are they different? I thought for sure they would look like how Okac's looking right now.
You know, it's interesting too. I think Minnesota is also an example. I mean, you mentioned some of the specific reasons why they might have dropped off a lot from where they were last year, where they won fifty something games and they were in the running for the one seed. But I think what we've also seen across the West is it's hard to come It's hard to have multiple years in a row where you're in the elite of the conference. I mean, if you look at the four teams that made the semi finals last year in the West, Okayse's really the only one that has come back and played at that same kind of level. They've actually surpassed what they did last year in terms of I mean they're thirty and five, but I mean the Nuggets have had their struggles. I mean their fourth right now, they're twenty and fourteen, so that's pretty still pretty good, but I mean Dallas has had a bunch of injuries. They're twenty and fifteen, and then Timberwls are tenth at seventeen and seventeen. So I think there's definitely reasons why they've fallen off. But I mean one of the bigger ones to me is just the West. It's gonna be hard to just continually be a top tier team in the West. We've seen already some changes in terms of the teams that are at the top other than Oka.
See.
So I mean, you we've probably discussed this a little bit before. You get a little bit worse in the West, and you can get a lot worse in the standings. You know, if on paper your talent is a little bit worse, so you have some more injuries, I mean, you can drop pretty rapidly. Unfortunately, that's been the case to it on a different level with the Pelicans as well, but yeah, I think that's definitely part of it. The Randall Towns trade definitely hasn't worked out that well for them. Dante DiVincenzo was a really good pickup, but he's had a really bad start to the season. It's only been recently that he's played a lot better and looked a lot more like the guy that was a key part of what the Knicks did last season where they went, you know, deeper in the playoff, went to the second round of the Game seven, to the second round of playoffs. So, I mean, some of that stuff just hasn't worked out the way that they expected it to and that's why they're in the position they are. But I mean, it's still a really challenging game for the Pelicans, and I think too, I'm looking forward to Tuesday because you know, we're being totally honest here putting all the all the on the table. Pelicans won two games, and it's great that they did that, but there's a lot of people, pretty much everyone around the league, is like, well, yeah, but you played the Wizards, so now if you can beat the Timberwolves and make it three wins in a row, I think that'll definitely get people's attention a little bit, and now you could start to build forward as far as now. You beat a team that is definitely somebody that thought that they were gonna be able to go deep again in the Western Conference and then play Portland on Wednesday. So I mean, I would love to see the Pelicans be able to just string together a bunch of wins, but it's gonna be tough to try to get, you know, win number three in a row on Tuesday against the Wolves.
Yeah, in Portland took two of you, two from your earlier in the season there as well, and they're young and athletic too.
I'm with you.
You want to see a string here of some games there and specialists, be honest, after not winning a couple of games at home, especially that five game homestand these two at home, you know, yeah, and I mean the Trailblazers.
You mentioned that you lost two of three to them. I'm curious to see how this game goes because from the Pelicans have a lot different collection of players available I think for this game than they did for some of the ones that were earlier in the season as well, So hopefully you'll get better results from that standpoint as well. So it should be fun. I'm definitely looking forward to being in the Blender on Tuesday and Wednesday.
And speaking of the Blender Player of the Week. If you've been checking out these games.
It's an easy ones, ob yeah, it's I mean, would you throw me out of the studio if I said it wasn't CJ. McCollum, would you be like Jim, you got to go.
Because because we talked about Trey Murphy's and okay, you talked about me. See was the Western Conference rookie of the month. That's okay, all right, but I wouldn't toss you out.
He would you would politely ask me to leave, though.
Look, I mean he's to your point. You know what, there's something I want to play that it really stood out to me yesterday we were doing our pre game and because he spoke for fourteen minutes after the game the game Friday, Yes, that's right, fourteen minutes, and he said some things in there that really stood out to me. And I think if you're a Pels fan, you want to hear it first. Here's your pat on the back. Okay, I'm really like to pat ourselves in the back here when the graph is sitting next year.
We're the pat on the.
Back checkers, fact checkers over here. But you kept saying that this guy is a professional, he's a professional shooter. He's going to put into work. It's going to come around.
Listen to what he said.
Well, in terms of the game, it's just it's just basketball. I thinks as life kind of progresses, you realize that it's just a game that you got to prepare and put your time in and that eventually things will turn around and go your way. This season, obviously, has been difficult for a lot of reasons, and we haven't won games, and we haven't played particularly well consistently, and it's frustrating. But I think for us, it's just about being professional. And I pride myself on trying to do things the right a way, trying to prepare it, and haven't. I haven't shot the ball grade this season. You know, I played okay, But I told some of our coaches, I said, I'll be at forty percent ten days, just give me ten days.
I feel good.
I've been getting my reps, I've been doing what I'm supposed to do. I'm gonna start winning within the margins and impacting winning and obviously we took a step in the right direction. We got we got more games to win. But I think it was just about us going out and playing hard, and the team that played harder was gonna win tonight.
I love that because I mean you can kind of hear to your points, Like I know it's gonna come around, and I know it's gonna happen, though, but I have.
To do this.
It means a lot to me, and I think that what I take away from the game now, Like it's great to score fifty and hit threes and do that stuff, but I mean I work so hard, Like I sacrifice so much time I go to the gym at night, I'm on the table. I miss a lot of time, you know, away from my family, putting time into the game. So it's like when you have success, it's like okay, like this isn't off or not, you know what I mean, Like this is there's a reason why you know I'm able to hit ten threes.
You know I was that.
I was at thirty four percent from three and I'll be at I'll be at forty in like six days. But there's a reason why, Like I work hard, I take advantage of my time. I understand how to play this game a high level, and I know it's a stake. I know it's January, i know it's in February. I'm aware of everything, and I think for me, it's like I have this small amount of time to play this game, and I want to take advantage of it. In nights like this, it's just her minder that the work works. You know, I was raised to work hard and go after what I want in life. And I told my wife, I have a small window to hoop. I'm gonna take advantage of it. And then you know, I'll go home and sit down. You can go be a dentist and do whatever you want. And I think it's about picking the right sacrifices. And if I'm gonna be away from my kids, i'd better be playing well, you know what I'm saying, Like otherwise I'm wasting my time.
I tell you, Gus, I mean not only Week eleven Player of the Week, but also the Interview of the Week. And it's interesting with you mentioned fourteen minutes. It's like I watched the whole thing and it keeps you interested the whole time. It's not like he's just saying a bunch of cliches, and you know, you know, one game at a time, the stuff that we hear all the time. I mean, there's a lot of really interesting points that he made during that long talk with the media Friday's game. But I mean one of the things that he mentioned was he's like, I'll get back to forty percent. I think at his lowest, he was at thirty four percent, not that long ago. He's already up to thirty seven point eight percent from three point range on the season, So I mean he's inching very close already to his forty percent goal. It helps when you go ten for sixteen in a game on Friday the way he did. But yeah, CJ McCollum player of the week. He over the four games, he averaged thirty two point five points. He was twenty five for forty six on three pointers, which is fifty four percent, and he also shot six percent from the field overall. I think one of the underrated parts of his fifty point game Friday also was I mentioned ten for sixteen on threes. He was also eight for eleven on twos. It seemed like the combination of stuff that he did where he had he had a play where he kind of cleaned up a rebound put it right back in for a floater. He had some runners, he had some driving layups. I think he had maybe a reverse layup or two. Just the fact that I mean, even without the three point shooting in that game, if you look at just his twos in his free throws, he would have had a productive night overall. So I guess that's how you get to fifty points as you just do everything well offensively. And I was just really impressed by the way that he just capitalized on every opportunity had in that game. He only took twenty seven shots overall to get his fifty points, So I mean he will score two points per shot, which I think he would take that every single time.
Yeah, no doubt.
I think that's one of the things to keep an eye on here as that continues to grow. As you mentioned, at some point, I know we've been seeing at practice Zion brandon Ingram taking shots and stuff. So maybe this you know, at some point this month we'll see so many these players come in. I know Willie Green last week said it's still some time for BI, but Zion I think last week was clear to start practicing or this week coming up, he's going to be practicing and stuff. So look, it's getting closer to kind of seeing that, and it'll be another adjustment period for these guys to start playing together.
Yeah, but I mean there's there's forty plus games left in the season and that it's not realistic to think that they can get back in the race for the postseason. But I mean, you want to establish over these last forty plus games that you're one of the better teams in the league, You're one of the better teams in the West. And I think they can do that when they I guess I should probably slow down a little bit and say, baby steps, let's get to three wins in a row, four wins in a row, five wins in a row, and then go for a bigger goal. But I just want to see them just be more successful and keep reminding us. I think the way they did on the weekend that this is not a bad team. This team has a lot of talent. This team can win games. It can score a lot of points, it can make a lot of three pointers, it can do a lot of the things that lead to successful basketball. So that's really what I want to see over the last three points three plus months of the regular.
Season, eight games left in the month of January at home. And I bring that up to close out this podcast because you may have to make some adjustments to it. You may have known this super Bowl is going to be played here in the first full week of February here, so it's not just Super Bowl Week that you're gonna have to worry about when it comes to where you're parking, even if you're normally parking say like Garage five, like a lot of US employees and stuff, where we're having a park in the Champions Square lot. So there's gonna be a lot of different adjustments. The best thing I can tell you is over the next couple of days, we're gonna do our best to let everybody know how to get in and where to park because access point access entry into the facility is gonna be a little different there as well, So Pelicans dot Com I'm being told us the best way to go check that out during this week. By our next podcast on Wednesday, we may even have a little sit down with my Costs, who obviously knows that area a lot will he's gonna be getting a lot of information.
All you need to know.
You even heard the mayor yesterday if you watch the news yesterday. This week, today, January sixth starts the ramping up and the transitioning for that entire area towards the super Bowl. So I know you think of super Bowl as that week. I'm telling you all, it starts now this week. It starts today, So we're still trying to get info, and especially with what happened last week, just be prepared. If you come to a Pels game, there's eight left this month, it's just gonna be little adjustment. You have to park a different lot, or you may have to get to the dome arena area a different way, like I think off of Yola and stuff. But we're gonna get all of that for you Pelicans dot com this week.
Check that out. We have some more info.
And Wednesday's not just hit your ride with Jim.
Yeah, I got plenty of room. No, February ninth is the super Bowl, so like you said, it's super Bowl month, not super Bowl week. So yeah, we'll have to make some adjustments and stuff like that. But it was interested. I saw mister Rod Walker, who covers the Pelicans for NOLA dot Com had a pull up on X of which fan base he would you would least like to see, Which team and fan base you would least like to see be in the super Bowl. So I thought that was interesting. I don't know if you had any thoughts about.
I know you like your Seahawks.
Right, well, he did not gonna be He left it only to teams that are in the player in the playoffs.
I like, so they weren't elegable to see. I don't know, to be honest with you, I don't think there's anybody that you know, how I.
Most want to see. I think I most want to see the Bills and the Lions. Those are the two teams that I think I most want to see. Not just those teams, but those fan bases. Neither of them have ever won a Super Bowl. Obviously. The Bills have been in where they've been in four lost all of them. The Lions, I don't think I've ever even made it to the super Bowl. Yeah, so those are ones that spinning it into a positive broad Walker. I'm going to say the Bills and Lions are the ones I most want to see, the ones I least want to see. I'm not I'd have to think about that a little bit. I kind of don't want to see the Chiefs and nothing personal against them, but just because they've they've won how many of they won two or three in the last four or five years, So I'm good with the Chiefs not coming here and in the NFC, I'd have to think about that. I know a lot of people I'm not a not a local in terms of being born here, although I've lived here long enough. I know a lot of people said they don't want to see Tampa Bay as a division rival come here.
So well, Jimmy, I don't know you were here because you've been here for nineteen years. Yeah, well was a uh, there was a time it came this close to having the unfortunate ability or chance that we would be driving down Poets and have to see Atlanta Falcon flags.
Wow as they almost they blew it in typical Falcon fashion.
The forty nine ers, when that's right, Yep, the game was in Atlanta and they.
Were accounting court. Yeah, they were like ten yards or something like that.
It was going on, and now you know what, you know, you know who would have absolutely been miserable for an entire week of falcon. Do you remember what that was like, graft do you remember that week possibility?
I think the second most hated team in my NFL career is the San Francisco forty nine Ers.
Oh so both of them are.
I was rooting for the forty nine ers like I was rooting for the Saints that day. That would have been.
Ridiculously miserable because you know they put little flags. You know, the entire CBD would have would have you would have had a falcon on one of the hotels per.
Jackets on it.
Yeah, yep, So we dodged a major bullet right.
There's It's funny because we had just maybe like a year earlier, we had just moved into this facility out here in Metaie where we're recording, and so the NFC, I think it's probably the same way this year. The NFC team will whoever makes it from the NFC will train out here. And I remember one day walking outside and I was like, guy was walking right towards me. I'm like, is that Jim Harbaugh? And it was so that was kind of a shocker. I was like, wait, I wasn't didn't realize the forty nine here.
Yeah, we'll have somebody training here. Yeah, it's here in two lane, hugraph. I think that's usually the Protocolay. By the way, how the Falcons postseason hopes look.
Eliminate eliminated.
That's a real shame that happen for the Graft.
The voice of your New Orleans Pelicans, he's going to be busy here this month here as well, Jim I can offer always a pleasure, sir.
Thank you for joining us.
Thanks guys, yep, and thank you for tuning us in on the latest edition of the New Orleans Pelicans podcast. We'll see you on Wednesday.
Thanks for listening to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast. Join us three times per week on pelicans dot com, the Pelicans mobile app, the iHeartRadio app, or where you get your podcast, and be sure to give Jim and Gus a follow on x at Jim Underscore I can offer and Gcap Underscore seventeen. We'll see you next time right here on the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast.
