In this short video, Tom Haberstroph of ESPN explains how good the Pelicans are when Jrue Holiday is in the game with Antony Davis vs when he is not
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Former pelicans coach Monty Williams delivers Emotional and Powerful Speech at Wife's Funeral2/18/2016 This years trade deadline is the 18th and GM's around the league are looking at their targets and juggling their assets, so here are a few things to watch out for.
New Orleans is in a tricky situation at this point in the season. With just a little over two weeks away from the trade deadline, our Pellies sit at 18-29 with a decision to make; they can either go into the market sticking to their guns and acquire players who will help right now or decide to go into rebuild mode. As much as people would love to see Ben Simmons or Brandon Ingram come down to the Big Easy, that will probably not happen. If you've paid attention to recent organizational rumors, you'll notice that it looks like Dell Demps is not ready to give up on the current roster. So, assuming those rumors are true, any movement you see from the Pelicans at the deadline will be only trades that will help the team now. While New Orleans is looking to do that, that doesn't mean that they will be the facilitators of any trades. What you want to do is not only look at what New Orleans is up to, but also look around the league at what other teams agendas are. It may not have anything to do with New Orleans, but its a sign that there's active movement and you never know if New Orleans will jump in. Here are a few teams to watch Phoenix Suns Last night, Jeff Hornaceck was fired, but that wasn't the only turmoil. Take it as you will, but it looks like Phoenix is about to start a fire sale. From what I've seen, everyone but Eric Bledsoe will be available. I'm a big fan of Brandon Knight, so for me personally, I have my fingers crossed Dell jumps in on this one if he can. P.J Tucker anyone?......guess not. Oh well. Los Angeles Clippers After the Blake Griffin incident, many people speculated that he'd be on his way out of the city of angels, but it's a tricky situation and I personally don't believe he'll be gone. Whatever happens to him still doesn't change that the Clippers will be one of the teams trying to make waves at the deadline. Hey, Jamal Crawford will be available! Funny. Atlanta Hawks Personally, I didn't think Demarre Carroll's departure would have hurt them as much as it did. Kyle Korver sucking doesn't help either, but there are even more problems past that. According to a few reports, Atlanta will be moving one of their point guards very soon. The one looking like the most likely to go is Jeff Teague. I'm not saying we would ever go after him, but its just something to look out for. Houston Rockets Like Atlanta, not much has gone well. Ty Lawson is, well, a bust. Yeah, we'll just call him a bust. I don't want to use a worse term. I'm sure if Morey gets a good offer he'll do whatever he feels will get the team a championship, but that'll never happen. I really like a few of the players on that roster and if Terrence Jones, or project players like Sam Dekker and Montrezl Harrell are available, I wouldn't mind if Demps made a offer. Houston is definitely a team to watch. Players to watch Those were just a few teams to watch, but here's a list of players that the Pelicans could easily acquire at the deadline to fill the holes left by Quincy Pondexter and Eric Gordon. One thing to remember, however, is that Dell Demps will more than likely go to the clearance aisle of the NBA. He'll try and swing deals similar to the ones that brought Pondexter and Cole last season by trading minimal assets for players that are not being used often on their current teams. Kyle Singler, SF, Oklahoma City Solomon Hill, SF, Indiana Ben McLemore, SG, Sacramento Tony Snell, SF, Chicago Garrett Temple, SG, Washington Terrence Ross, SF/SG, Toronto Mo Harkless, SF, Portland Andrew Nicholson, PF, Orlando Cleanthony Early, SF, New York Kevin Martin, SG/SG, Minnesota These were just a few players and teams I think we should all watch for at the deadline, but comment your suggestions below, you may get a few right! By Hunter Helms In this NBA season opener, the Pelicans lost to the defending champions 111-95. Last year's MVP Stephan Curry absolutely KILLED us. He ended with 40 points and 7 assist. The man hit 5 threes on us. PROBLEM: We did not get up on him!!! Holiday and Cole who were out are probably our two best ON BALL defenders. This is where we were missing them. There was zero ball pressure while guarding him. Also, when Draymond Green came up for a high pick, the hedging was just bad. Whoever was guarding Steph at the time would not get through the screen properly, and the man guarding the screener, usually Davis, would not even get a hand out and Curry was wide open to do his cooking.
Oh , and lets talk about Anthony Davis. He finished with 18 points and only 6 rebounds. That may be good for an average PF, but not good enough for a superstar. Davis went 4 for 20 and 0 for 2 on threes. The shots he took were just not good in my opinion. He rushed and forced them. The shots he got were mostly of a pick and pop and I felt like he had time to square up and face the bucket, make a dead ball move and get to the rack. And when he did do that, he was fingerrolling or doing a floater. He did get to the line a lot like he usually does which was good, going 10 for 15. After a game, in an interview, Coach Gentry talked about Davis and said, "He's going to take the same amount of shots tomorrow. He just didn't make some shots he's very capable of making." I agree he should keep take just as many shots, just make sure his feet are set and don't rush them! It didn't really seem like Anthony Davis went inside as much. There was this one time he did go inside against Ezili, and got his s*** blocked. You know why? Because Davis tried to shoot the ball with his right hand whiling spining towards the left side of the basket. Shoot that with your left, and that's two points. Speaking of post, KENDRICK PERKINS. Perkins was dominate on the post, going 5 for 5. With his 10 points, he did his job.....................AS A BACKUP. We still couldn't get a rebound!!!! Perkins only had 4 boards. Pelicans had 25 defensive rebounds while the Warriors had 21. This is when we are missing Omer Asik. I know most pels fans are not a fan of him, but I am. If you read Hunter's article on him, it explains it perfectly. He does his job, rebounds and defends, nothing more, nothing less. Gee, Smith, and Cunningham impressed me the most this game. Gee and Cunningham actually attaked the basket, most of our players didn't do that. Cunningham had to leave the game with a concussion he got so hopefully that's not too bad. Ish Smith, who we claimed Monday and hasn't even practiced with the team impressed me a lot. He will fit in with Gentry's system perfectly with his speed. I can't wait to till Evans comes back, who I think will improve the most this season because of Gentry. GRADEBOOK Davis - F Gordon - D Cunningham - B+ Perkins - B+ Robinson - C Smith - A- Anderson - D Gee - B Ajinca - C written by Cris Karraa Here's my all time New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans starting 5. (Not including anybody from the Charlotte Hornets) This is from 2002-Present.
PG - Chris Paul (2005-2011) Averaged 22.8 PPG & 11 APG (in his best season) SG - Baron Davis (2002-2005) Averaged 22.9 PPG & 7.5 APG (in his best season) I know, I know Baron Davis isn't a shooting guard, but if we're making a New Orleans dream team, I want my back court to be killer. SF - Jamal Mashburn (2002-2004) Averaged 21.6 PPG, 5.6 APG, & 6.1 RPG (in his best season) PF - Anthony Davis (2012-Present) Averaged 24.4 PPG & 10.2 RPG (in his best season) C - Tyson Chandler (2006-2009) Averaged 11.8 PPG & 11.7 RPG ;in his best season) Who is your New Orleans dream team? Comment below! by Cris Karraa Eric Gordon and New Orleans have had many ups and downs together, and now it might be time to say goodbye. Eric Gordons contract might be hefty, but this year that contract looks very different. Why? Because it's an expiring deal, and those are some of the easier contracts to trade in this league, so let's try and find a new home for our old timer. 3. New Orleans sends Gordon to the team that originally gave him his contract. You could call it a homecoming....I guess? New Orleans receives PJ Tucker, Markieff Morris, and Archie Goodwin. Phoenix receives Eric Gordon and Dante Cunningham I really love the idea of this trade because we get very nice pieces in Markieff Morris and PJ Tucker while also receiving a young prospect in Archie Goodwin. PJ Tucker is very similar to Pondexter and would put in good minutes at small Foward and Markeiff Morris could be very nice big for us- maybe even replace Ryan Anderson with trade rumors swirling about him again. Archie Goodwin is a student of John Calipari. I love the guards that have come from Calipari (we already have one in Evans) and maybe with a new start, Goodwin could become very good for this team. 2. The Grizzlies desperately need shooting and we.....we got what you need. New Orleans receives Jeff Green and Courtney Lee. Memphis receives Eric Gordon. During the draft, a trade along these lines was discussed. An apparent swap between New Orleans and Memphis was going down, but either they were just rumors or talks fell through. Either way, I really like that idea. A swap of just Jeff Green for Eric Gordon would not have worked financially, so I put Courtney Lee into the mix to balance out salaries. Jeff Green and Courtney Lee would be perfect for this team as Green would fill that large whole at Small Foward we have and Lee could be nice starting SG or be a nice sixth man. Both Lee and Green supply some sorely needed defense to this team, and to make things a little better they would be familiar with Quincy Pondexter, so we would be getting nice flow on and off the court. 1. Three Team Deal with Sacramento and Atlanta. New Orleans receives Demarcus Cousins and Dennis Schroder. Sacramento receives Eric Gordon and Tiago Splitter. Atlanta receives Rudy Gay. While not stepping too far out of the bounds of reality, I put together a dream trade for New Orleans. This gives them the second superstar next to Anthony Davis and a nice backup/future starter in Dennis Schroder. Demarcus Cousins days in Sacramento have got to be over because of the organizations inability to provide continuity while also being unable to keep their only star happy. I see Boogie demanding a trade very shortly, which I assume would lead to Rudy Gays departure also. If Cousins does request a trade, why not New Orleans? He'd be put in a fast paced system and have a another star next to him. I wouldn't worry too much about Demarcus' issues as a teammate because I think a strong personality like Gentry could keep him under control just like how Calipari did at Kentucky. Dennis Schroder, as I said earlier, would become a very nice backup for the time being and maybe become the heir apparent to Jrue Holiday as the starting point guard of the future. A trade like this would give the Pelicans a very bright future and give them the best front court in entire NBA. These were just some of my ideas, but I'd love to hear yours! Comment below! BY HUNTER HELMS The Small Forward position has haunted New Orleans for some time now, but I think I found some talent that could be easy for the Pelicans to swoop in on. 3. A trade for Terrence Ross. That was Ross' expression after Toronto inked Demarre Carroll to a 4 year, 58 million dollar contract to essentially replace him. Ross is still a very talented player, but hasn't quite been the player Toronto was asking for. Whether that be his fault as a player or the Raptors asking too much, the fact remains that Terrence lost his job this offseason and could be looking for a new home. The Trade: Toronto receives Ryan Anderson New Orleans receives Terrence Ross and James Johnson Ross would be a great addition to this team as he adds youth and terrific shooting. A young player to grow along with Davis is great to me and even better since he plays a position at need. James Johnson is essentially the salary balancer in this trade. I wouldn't be shocked if he gets waived soon after. 2. Danilo Gallinari I'm a really big fan of Gallinari and even better is that Denver should be shopping him soon because of their rebuilding efforts, which more than likely don't include him. That means the Pelicans could get him for a nice deal. The Trade: Denver receives Eric Gordon New Orleans revives Danilo Gallinari I think Denver wouldn't mind this deal, especially since Gordon will be an expiring contract and he plays a position their pretty thin at. I like the idea of the straight up swap and I love to imagine how well Gallinari would fit with this team. Even though he has been injury prone, there are reports that his injuries should be clearing up for the long run and that's even better. 1. Michael Kidd-Gilchrest MKG suffered the same fate as Ross this offseason. His team acquired a replacement and got Nicolas Batum. Rich Cho, Charlottes GM, has said the team plans to start Batum at SG and keep MKG at SF, but I don't see that working at all to be honest. In a situation where they are forced to choose between Batum and Gilchrest, I unfortunately see Charlotte going with the more offensive capable player in Batum. *eyes get watery because one of my favorite players is now riding the bench. *weeps tears of....JOY now that said player is available! *picks up phone to offer Charlotte a trade. The Trade: Charlotte receives Ryan Anderson New Orleans recieves MKG and Brian Roberts MKG could not be a better fit for this team. He plays SF, he's one of the best defensive wings in the league, and he played with Davis at Kentucky. His shooting is a work in progress, but right now his athleticism and defensive capabilities outway his poor shooting. Everyone saw how great he and Davis played together at Kentucky and I believe it would be pretty easy to recreate that magic in the Big Easy. That would also be a nice homecoming for Roberts, who began his career with the Hornets. These were just some of my personal favorite trade ideas, but share some of yours in the comments below! BY HUNTER HELMS
Pelicans Center Omer Asik will miss the 2015 Eurobasket Tournament due to recurring back spasms. The story was first reported by sportando.com. Asik was scheduled to play for his homeland of Turkey in the tournament but after visiting with doctors he was forced to leave Turkish Training Camp. Asik is not expected to miss any time with the Pelicans and will be ready for the start of training camp.
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