March 27, 2023 • 33 mins
On the latest Pelicans Podcast presented by SeatGeek, Joe Cardosi & Jim Eichenhofer are joined by New Orleans Pelicans team reporter Erin Summers (10:20) to discuss the recent Pels win streak, the tremendous vibe of the Pelicans Watch Parties, and a look at the reasons the Pelicans have had sustained success.
Later, Joe and Jim break down the state of the Western Conference standings and why the Pelicans are in a much better place moving forward.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome into the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, presented by Sea Gig,
a podcast dedicated to everything you need to know about
the squad. Get it to Murphy right corner crade he's
got and even ten they're falling all over themselves on
the bench ten for training, thirty two points. The New
(00:28):
Orleans Pelicans Podcast starts right now. Welcome to the Pelicans Podcast.
My name is Joe Cardosi, joined by the impermeable mister
jim Ikenhofer. Because we are freting. We are on a
(00:49):
four game winning streak, we are eight in the West.
We are now at five hundred once again, Jimothy, I've
just got two questions for you. What was your favorite
moment of the four game winning street because there's so
many now? And why was it the Garrett Temple three?
It wasn't the Garrett Temple time. I think my favorite
(01:12):
moment was just seeing Trey Murphy defy the rules of
physics and never hitting the rim on any of his three.
It's one thing to make ten three pointers in a game,
but it's another to do it where I mean did
he did? He? Even? None of them like rolled around
the rim, no rattled in none of them I don't
think even like scraped up, even the haters could be
(01:33):
like lucky shot. Yeah, any of those. Yeah, I mean
it was unbelievable that. I mean they I felt like
they were gonna have to replace the nets if they
kept him in the game any longer. And he was Yeah,
I mean it was bananas. I mean good for Trey,
second youngest player ever in the NBA to hit ten threes. Uh,
he was just absolutely bonkers thirty two points. And the
(01:54):
other man in the game who was looking pretty good,
mister Brandon Ingram getting thirty two of his own and
he had a career or high and assists with thirteen.
By the way, too, Trey was ten for twelve from
three point, right, It's not like he was ten for
twenty two and took a million and it's like, oh man,
he was so high volume. I mean, to go ten
(02:14):
is unbelievable. Yeah, but no, you're right, I mean what
a performance by both of those two guys. I mean,
Ingram has been just on a tear lately. Not sure
people will listen to this before after this announcement has made,
but I think he's got a really good chance to
be Western Conference Player of the week with the performance
that he's had just across the board, I mean, shooting
(02:34):
high percentage from the field, great on threes, assisting just
hardly any turnovers, averaging over thirty points a game. So
it's just been such a great stretch for him and
the team overall. There were so many good things that
happened on the weekend that I'm sure we're going to
get into, but the best one definitely was the fact
(02:56):
that the Pelicans, in one of their biggest games of
the season, probably top two or three most important game,
played maybe their best game of the yes. So to
be able to play that way, go into La and
beat the Clippers by twenty one, which is, you know,
the Clippers are one of the teams that you're a
little bit behind in the standings. That was kind of
a jaw dropping performance to play that well. I think
that's the thing is, you know, we were excited about
(03:17):
the wins because we needed them before, but we had
no illusions about the type of competition we were winning against.
But to make that jump in competition versus the Clippers,
because when you looked at the schedule, this was one
of the games I was more worried about than some
of the others, and to be able to come out
that strong, to hold Kauai, you know, in check the
whole game. It just seemed like a performance where once
(03:39):
again you feel confident in your Pelicans, no matter the foe.
You no longer feel like you're just beating up on
subpar competition. Yes, and I think the combination of how
much the Pelicans have struggled on the road since say
the beginning of January, as well as you look at
this road trip on paper and you're like Clippers, Blazers, Warriors, Nuggets,
(03:59):
this is not the trip that you want to go
into with your season kind of quote unquote at stake,
with everything kind of hanging in the balance. So for
them to get that win to start this off, it's
hard to even measure how huge that was. Now, you
go into this Portland game, a team that has been
sitting some of their key guys, and you hope that
you can get this win as well. So the people
who were concerned or even people that were you know,
(04:22):
very negative about this road trip, I think a lot
of them have calmed down consideringly. Consider you know, if
you thought, man, they could go oh in four on
this trip or one in three. There were a lot
of people saying that, And now I think you have
a really good chance to win multiple games on the trip.
And it's it's crazy how much their fortunes and their
outlook has changed just in really the last three days.
(04:43):
Yeah for sure. I mean, and you gotta say, Portland's
coming off a back to back, as you're saying, they
they they're sitting some of their guys not sure what's
going to happen with Damian Lillard. But even if they
played Damian Lillard, we have beaten the Portland Trailblazers with
him playing. And then you know, you got to go
into the Golden State Warriors, Didn'tver Nuggets swagger. Then you
play the Clippers once again. There's just so much room
to make Hay here. And you know, I'm just I'm
(05:06):
just feeling cocky again. Man. It feels good to now
hang my head high. I'm doing all kinds of stuff.
I'm doing the two small gesture to my two year
old son who was trying to get some raisins. I
don't worry, I got him the raisins. I did dunk
on him, though, I'm just kidding. He has some post skills.
He swatted me when I tried to dunk on him,
but he got the raisins And I'm just feeling good man,
and I feel like we can roll into the rest
(05:27):
of this trip feeling ourselves justifiably so once again, Yeah,
I mean these games are so important, and I mean
you reference the games next Saturday against the Clippers. I
feel like the juice in the arena, the enthusiasm is
going to be at a very high level because I
mean that homestand is also a bunch of teams that
people are really going to be interested to see with Kings, Grizzlies,
(05:51):
Nicks are the other three games on that home stuff
and be back. It's it's really been a huge reversal
from a week or so ago after the first game
against Houston, and I just want to see them continue
to stay hot and just keep rolling up these wins.
Oh and one thing I did want to talk about
because once again, I do check Twitter just to see
what fire alarms are going off. So a lot of
(06:11):
people panicked because Dary and Cbron got called up and
they're like, oh, no, is there an injury that we're
not being told about. Something like that. A thing they
should know about the G League season and our Birmingham
squadron or seasons. Oh yes, that's a very large contributing
factor to why he's going to be rejoining the team.
I know this has been in the works for a while.
(06:32):
I remember hearing a couple weeks back someone asked, you know,
when when is Cbron going to rejoin the team, and
the response was, they'll be back for the Portland game. So, yes,
this was all planned, and this is all in conjunction
with that season getting to a conclusion. Yeah, and looks
it's it's hard to pay attention to everything. I get it. Look,
I've been busy myself. I understand you got to watch
(06:53):
every game, but look, I'm a dad, I'm doing a
whole bunch of stuff. Jim, I know you've you've been
watching the games. You've probably got more in than me. So, like,
I just I know that the Western Conference is crazy.
I know that, right, But you know I'm looking at
the games and look, look, the Lakers had Lebron, so
I'm assuming they must have crushed it. Actually, they lost
their first game back with him to the Bulls yesterday. WHOA,
(07:14):
Yeah that was surprising. Okay, yeah, that was helpful for
the Pelicans, so that give that a plus sign in
terms of positive news. All right, well, okay, then you
got the stacked MAVs, you got the MAVs with Luca,
you got Kyrie back facing Charlotte. Come on. Yeah, they
actually lost them twice this weekend. They lost Friday and
Sunday to the Hornets. What this is, Bunan is how
(07:38):
about the Pesky Jazz. I've been seeing stuff about the
Pesky Jazz. I'm sure they're taking care of business. Got
to catch am maga. Yeah, they actually lost twice as
well this weekend. They lost to Milwaukee on Friday and
then they lost a Sacramento on Saturday. So oh and
two for them. Ooh yeah, boy, who wrote this? I
don't oh man, I should start paying attention here. Oh,
I go through my notes here. Well, it looks like
(08:00):
the West is in more shambles than I thought, so
maybe we should win some of these games. So it
looks like we couldn't really make some Hey. Yeah, and
the hay has been made a lot already in the
last two days, as evidenced by the list of stuff
that happened. I mean it was we would have been
happy as heck with just the twenty one point win
against the Clippers. But honestly, like it was kind of
(08:21):
stunning as the weekend progressed, if you were paying really
close attention to all the scores, it was kind of like, wait,
the Mavericks just lost at home to the Horns, so
they'll beat them on Sunday when they play them again
in Charlotte. No, that didn't happen. And then, like we
said with the Lakers, Lakers had a really good win
fright against Okay, see they're on a roll. They're getting
Lebron back, the streak is going to continue. And then
(08:42):
the Bulls, Hey give credit to the Bulls because that
was a big win for a lot of other teams
in the West. Bulls play the Lakers again on Wednesday,
so they'll have another chance to to get them. So
but yeah, it was I mean, everybody that was watching
the scores and tweeting about this weekend do we live?
I think the only slightly negative thing that you could
say that happens Sunday, and even this is debatable, is
(09:05):
that Minnesota one, so that the Pelicans didn't move ahead
of the timber Wolves in the race. They they're in eighth, right,
now they would be in seventh if yeah, if, but
Golden State, right, So Golden State lost, so you're a
little closer to Golden State. Now we're gonna get into
that towards the end of the show. That stays more
fun to hate, right, Yeah, Minnesota has really not accomplished
(09:27):
the whole heck of a lot of the last twenty
thirty years of their franchise. So yeah, I mean, in
a vacuum, I'm always happy to see the t Wolves
beat the Warriors. Yeah, so it was. It was good.
I mean a bunch of people actually on Twitter asked
me before that game started on Sunday who should we
root for? And I said, I said we should root
for the Warriors. But I said there's no really right,
right or wrong answer here because either way, whichever team loses,
(09:50):
it's it's a good thing. So that's how I'm gonna
look at Yeah, no matter what it does in the standing,
it's gonna feel good in your tummy, and it sure does.
Today we had a great mid City yacht club watch
party with the P twelve and our own Aaron Summers
was there doing let's call it team reporting during that game.
It was a late when. We're so glad that she
was able to hang there with Gus kat Andel. So
(10:10):
let's get her in studio, talk about the experience, talk
about the big win, and just get hype. Joining us
on the Pelicans Podcast, fresh off a very successful mid
city yacht club watch party with the Pels twelve, our
(10:31):
own team reporter Aaron Summers, you're looking bright and shiny.
I'm guessing you didn't party as hard as Gus. Um,
you know it was. It was relatively team compared to Gus.
You know, well, we had a great time. It was
an amazing atmosphere. The place was completely packed, not even
sounded it just the room that we were in. But
I was walking around and there were tons of Pelicans
(10:54):
fans behind us in the outdoor area inside. I mean
they we talked about this. Actually, they had the Pelicans
game on every TV, which is not something that you
could have said last year. Probably though you were still
having to request Pelicans games if you went to a
sports bar. Yeah. Yeah, Jim was that annoying guy at
the bar. I mean, you're not afraid to be that guy,
but that's pretty much all the time regardless. Yeah, I've
(11:16):
done that Pelicans game. I've done that with some of
my favorite teams in other sports of being that guy,
and they're like yeah, like, yeah, we can definitely put
it on. And I'm looking all over the place for
where the TV is and I realized that it's only
on in the TV in the men's room. So, but
who's asking for that? Oh, it's the shirtless guy painted orange.
But that's just Jim. Jim likes the party. And but
(11:36):
the Pells twelve they actually messaged me on Twitter they
said there was one of the best watch parties they've
had so far. Sounded super packed. It was great to
talk to Rell a little bit on the radio from
the Pels twelve. And it looks like we got another
one coming up tomorrow, so I guess get ready round two. Yeah,
I mean, I know it's gonna be a Tuesday night
and it's going to be at nine o'clock start, but
(11:57):
right there at like eight, so coming out, Yeah, it
was incredible just how loud the bands were in there
and they were screaming defense on the opening tip. Yes,
it was unbelievable. Yeah, I was. I was trying to
say to Aaron and gust Jim. I was like you know,
if y'all could get some sound of them, you know,
just kind of be in a little hype. It was
(12:19):
easy because they were hype the entire time. You could
just hear it over everything. Yeah. Yeah, it sounds like
it didn't take long for them to get into the game.
I mean, how incredible start obviously, how yes, like, yeah,
that's what I was gonna say. I mean, how amazing
was it to have that be the big Watch party
and the game go the way it I mean it was.
It wasn't exactly the way you drowed up, like you
(12:40):
have all these people that are excited for a game,
a run to start right, yeah, and then and b
I just yeah, buckets, I don't know. It was perfect start, yes,
And I think people were like, is this for real? R?
And they're like, oh my gosh, like try to hit
another one. And even Graf was sort of not able
to believe it. He was waiting for the bottom to
fall out. He was excited. I was by myself in studio.
(13:01):
Gotta say, sounded fun, but it was busy. I barely
got a chance to pay attention to the game because
between trying to coordinate the stuff at the yacht club
and then cutting highlights by myself. There were twenty nine
highlights because there were so many plays and Graph was
just out of his gourd with some of those calls.
It was great to hear him excited. But even during
(13:22):
the game when they would start to be a little slippit,
she was like, oh, no, the Pelicans are gonna cool off.
He just couldn't believe that it was gonna stay wire
to wire right then he was like, well they're still
up by ten. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's fine, it's fine.
So no, it was. It was nice to see Graph
relaxed and happy and a four game win streak. I mean,
I cannot I know it happened, but I cannot remember
the last time it happened. It feels like a lifetime ago.
(13:45):
I don't know when the last four game win streak was.
But I feel like the lost at Houston to start
that weekend road trip, yeah, was basically like the bottom
of the barrel, like the wake up call the team,
you know, like you go down double digits to the
that's the worst team in the NBA. Yeah, And just
(14:07):
like Rappy, I don't think they came out ready to
defend them, like I talked about how they were playing
a lot of hero ball and they're just a lot
of their players just trying to get numbers. I don't
know if the Pelicans were ready for it that first game, well,
they were just kind of cruising. I think they went
in assuming like this is the worst team. They were
up by double digits and then Jabari Smith Junior just
annihilates them in the last second of the game, and
I think at that moment they're like, dang, maybe without
(14:31):
that shot, maybe we really need to get stuff together.
And Coach Green said they had a lot of hard conversations,
and I think we've seen the fruit of those conversations
and they've really realized We've been hearing the word urgency
for a while, but they've really started playing like it
over these past four games. And it's good that we
had some of these teams to kind of gain some
(14:52):
confidence against, yeah, with you know, Houston at the same
time making these playoff So Yeah, it seems like in
recent days though, we've learned that the Hornets may not
be as vulnerable as we thought. It was kind of
a springboard playing those teams that you built up your confidence.
A lot of things went well I think one of
the things that I would point out to people who
(15:13):
say after they had won three games in a row,
and they're like, well, they only played those three teams.
That's true, those teams were all struggling. But you don't
see everyone beat the Hornets by a convincing game every
single night. You don't see everything killed the Spurs every
single night. We've been winning by an average of twenty
one points, right. That was That was the part that
was encouraging to me, not just that they beat those teams,
(15:35):
but they did so in such dominating fashion, and you know,
it's totally carried over into the game against the Clippers.
It seemed like you saw the exact same team that
had just pummeled three of the teams that were really
struggling and do the same thing against the Clippers, even
almost to a greater degree. One of the things that
I noticed when I was looking through some different numbers
(15:57):
since the beginning of the four game winning streak, Trey Murphy.
He's tied for the NBA lead in three pointers made
per game with Gary Trent. Now, it helps that he
made ten of them in one game. That definitely boost
the stats. But I mean, like the second youngest player
to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, to make to make
ten three pointers in the game. Yeah, it was. I mean,
but I mean, what if what are we seeing from
(16:20):
him right now in terms of just the jump that
he's made. Um he had on March twelfth against Portland,
he had forty one points. So basically, over a two
week span, he's had two of the best games of
any young player in the NBA. You know, over this
stretch well, and in March alone, he's averaging nineteen points
over fifty percent from the floor. And then you add
(16:41):
in the threes. He's taken almost ten attempts a game
and hitting those at forty seven percent. So you can
see in the numbers. The confidence is there, his ability
to shoot is there. It's just about him applying that
in a game. He's had his ups and downs, and
you can see him out there sometimes when you can
hell like his body language, he's not feeling it. He
(17:02):
does not feeling confident in himself. But over the past
few weeks he's gone out there and he's been aggressive
and he's told himself like, I'm gonna shoot. I'm gonna
shoot the ball every time I get it. I'm gonna
look for a spot. I'm gonna shoot anywhere, whether it's
a corner pocket three, or if it's at the top
of the key, or if somebody is like on him.
You know, he's like, I'm just gonna continue to put
(17:23):
up shots and they're going in. And I think that's
just continuing to build the confidence for him. And when
he doesn't have a look from outside, he's doing a
really good job just going to the basket. And I
think that's also helping kind of just change up his
game a little bit. Yeah, and it's it's hurting defenders,
like they don't know what to do. Well, that's the thing.
I mean, he's such a versatile player, Like you almost
(17:45):
don't know how to guard him because he's deadly from three.
He'll dunk on you if you close it. I mean,
he can take it to the rack, he can shoot
from three. He's such a versatile player. And at his side,
I mean he's so hard to defend. Well. Last year,
I know, the end of last season, you know, he said,
I need to get better, you know, with the ball,
like moving with the ball, dribbling, creating and not just
(18:08):
catching shoot trees. And we've seen that part of his
game grow and everybody that we've talked to me and
Brandon Ingram called him the best shooter on the team
after the game on Saturday. You see Jim McCollum said that,
you know, he's going to be able to achieve whatever
he wants if he just puts in the work. You know,
I see him in the gym all the time. He's
working on different things. He's still growing into himself. You know,
(18:31):
he grew a lot towards the end of his tellege
right career, and and he started out not a lot
of people really believing that he's going to be an
NBA player. He because dad didn't think he was going
to be an NBA player. And then he goes to Rice,
transfers to Virginia, and I think that the ceiling is
so high for him, and I think we're going to
(18:51):
see him continue to improve. Yeah, I mean, we see
a lot of guys in the NBA make a big
jump in their second year, to the point where sometimes
people have joke say that the most Improved Player award
should not even be eligible for second year guys because
it's like what you expect. But I mean the strides
that he's made right now. I mean you said it, Aaron.
I think what we've seen the last couple of weeks
(19:12):
and even throughout the course of the season, but more
accelerated lately, is just understanding that the potential that this
guy has is so high. And I've said before maybe
I'm going a little bit on a limb, but when
I say this, but I think he has the potential
to be an All Star someday. Well, David Griffin sort
of talked about openly that Trey Murphy was untouchable and
the trade talks, so everyone's disappointed in the lack of
(19:33):
moves we made. A lot of people wanted Trey Murphy
and there's good reason that he was sought after. And
you're starting to see now why David Griffin said hands
off Trey Murphy and those trade talks and what a
phenomenal pick at that part of the draft. He was
the fifteenth pick in the draft. I mean, I can't
say enough about our scouting department, like we could talk
about that forever, but come on, what Herb did on
Saturday against Kawhi Leonard. We haven't even the black guy,
(19:57):
by the way, well he held him four of sixty
twelve points like incredible, Yes, yes, back to try. Sorry,
yeah no, I'm just so happy for everyone. It's hard
to stay folks. I think the comment that b I
made about him being the best shooter on the team,
I mean, to me, Trey is moving into that level
of as one of the best shooters in the league. Obviously,
(20:18):
he has to put more of a resume behind it,
and that's going to take time. It's not going to
happen in the first two seasons of a career. But
I mean, I think he's on his way to being
able to do that. And just to be so explosive
to have a forty one point game in this month
and then have thirty two and to Joe's point two
one two point basket in the game Saturday was an
athletic eliop dunk. I think it was so I mean,
(20:41):
he's just showing the different parts of his game, and
I mean it's when you take a step back overall.
I mean, I think he's he's kind of the epitome
of this of just with some of the ups and
downs the team has had this year, you forget sometimes
that the future of the team is still very high.
They've had times this year, where man that they might
not make the play in tournament, or they're struggling, or
(21:03):
they're really having a tough time with players injured, whereas
at the beginning of the season they were able to
get through all of that. But still, you take a
step back and you see him have these kind of
games and what Herb's done and what some of the
other younger guys have done, and you realize, like, yeah,
they want to achieve as much as they possibly can
over the next eight games and over this postseason, hopefully
they get in and make the playoffs. But I mean,
(21:24):
beyond that the windows, I still feel like we there's
a lot of really good things that are coming down
the road because of the personnel here. Well, I think
Brandon Ingram too. I think he's finally found his rhythm
after being hurt and coming back, and they've moved him
into more of the point guard rule. I mean, he's
the one bringing the ball up, handling the ball at
twenty three assists the past two games. Yeah, yeah, that's insane. Yeah,
(21:49):
but he's done such a good job seeing the floor,
putting his teammates in positions to be successful. They're hitting
the shots. When he gets some of the ball and
you have so many potential assists that just weren't going
in before. Now they're making the shots. And so I
really like the move of having bib that the ball
handle are more. Yeah. I think physically too. I don't
(22:11):
think that he's talked about this Brandon at all in interviews,
but I think physically he just looks better if you
look at if you watch his last like five to
ten games, trepidation when he first came back, it's different.
It's a different movement he's It just seems like he's quicker.
Everything's more fluid, Yeah, more confident. So Aaron, I know
you're you're going to be super busy because you've got
a million interviews. You've got to do yourself. Always busy
(22:33):
around here, and you're gonna be back at it again.
We're gonna have another watch party tomorrow night. Not sure
how long Aaron Summer is going to be able to
hang out, but go see Gus. He'll be the one
doing push ups with a beer helmet on. If not Jim,
So when does that start again? Tell the people where
they can go and uh and check the people out
at mid City Yacht Club. The more yes, it is
Mid City Yacht Club. The our pregame show starts at
(22:57):
eight thirty with the game starting at nine, but we'll
be there a little bit ahead of time, so at
least by eight we'll be there in the boat house.
So it's behind the main part of the bar, so
just keep walking straight and you'll you'll see the little
house on the side and that's what we'll be set up. Yeah,
come stay hi. It's always a great time to hang
out with Aaron Summers and Gus Cat and Gell and
(23:18):
once again I will be in the studio. But it
sounds like it'll be a lot of fun and I
hope you'll enjoy it. Aaron, I guess we got another
one tonight, another one tomorrow. Let's go Pels, huh. I
mean let's get some back to back wins. Yes, yes,
I think the Trailblazers are somebody that we should easily
be able to win against. But you just can't take
it for granted. So you know, gouts start out good
(23:40):
again very first quarter of the last four, so I
got to keep that up absolutely, So let's let's hope
we can keep this hot streak going against the Trailblazers.
And then once again against the Warriors. Thanks again, Aaron
big thanks to Aaron Summers doing Yo persons work out
(24:01):
there mid City Yacht Club and she will be there
once again on the Morrow. So joiner and join us
out there. Jim, who you know, we talked about a
little bit, but the state of the West is in flux,
and you know, I'm gonna call this Monday because it
(24:22):
feels good once again to look ahead at the schedule.
I'm feeling feisty, Jim, set us up. Yeah, Joe. I mean,
you know, we've had Western Conference Wednesday all season. I
feel like we could call every day Western Conference something
now because every single day there's important games on the
skal Western Conference. Yeah, Monday, so on this Western Conference Monday, Yeah,
(24:44):
I think one of the biggest things to look at.
I mean, we're obviously we're not gonna have a show
until Wednesday, so the Pelicans will be playing Portland Monday
night and then Golden State on Tuesday. That Golden State
game is going to be huge. Now that the Warriors
lost on Sunday, you're very close to them. Yeah, So
I mean, just one of the bottom line things. If
the Pelicans can win Monday night against the Trailblazers and
(25:06):
then beat Golden State on Tuesday, the Pelicans will be
ahead of Golden State in the standings. So yeah, that
would feel amazing, especially with some of the gloom and
doom that we experienced not that long ago. So I mean,
that's that's that's huge. I mean, to be able to
move ahead of Golden State would be would be massive. Um,
it's gonna be hard to beat them at home, I mean,
(25:27):
I was. I think a lot of people were surprised
that the Timberwolves beat them, mostly because Golden State has
been so good in a chase centers at Yeah, right,
you're never surprised when they lose on the road, but
when they lose at home, it's just like whoa. That
was interesting surprising that was such a low scoring game too,
that both teams I think finished under one hundred points.
If the Pelicans can keep Golden State to that level
of offense or even close to that, I think they
(25:49):
have a really good chance to pull off a win. Unfortunately,
San Francisco slash Oakland has not been a pleasant place
for the Pelicans to visit. Unless the whole years has
two eyes. Tonight, I would be helpful and shut yea. Yeah,
Willie Green talked about it. He was like, you know,
he could have easily gone out and sat the rest
of that game, but he was with one eye, like
let's let's go. So sure, I hope he's all right
(26:10):
and can defend and herb will be I mean, it
almost goes without saying. I mean, his role is going
to be so important in the Golden State game. It's
it's important every game. But I mean he might have
to chase Clay Thompson around, he might get assigned to
Steph Curry. I mean, there's no bounds to what kind
of stuff you asked him to do defensively. So those
are some of the things to watch for in that game.
(26:31):
But I mean, just going forward, you know, we talked
about this a lot today, just how excited everyone is
right now based on the four game winning streak and
the dramatic difference in terms of where they are in
the standings. It wasn't that long ago that they were twelve. Yeah,
and now look at the play in right you know,
and and now we're sitting eighth. We were seventh for
(26:52):
a moment, rightly, and then we dropped one because of
you know, games played there, but it just shows you
it's so oh fluid right now. It's we were talking
about how crazy the West is and it still is.
Look that we talked about the teams that are that
have lost. The Lakers didn't look like world beaters with
Lebron When Austin Reeves is like your third best player,
(27:14):
that team still doesn't scare me as much as the
media may want to talk about their chances. The MAVs,
they have not looked good. And oh, by the way,
Lucas facing a suspension for his sixteenth take right, Yeah,
And I mean that the situation with Dallas is kind
of the perfect way to kind of look at the
play in race. I mean, I'm want to look at
(27:34):
the Pelicans postseason outlook right now in two separate elements.
The first is the play in tournament. And when I
said that, I mean the minimum going back maybe the
last couple of weeks is you have to at least
make the play in tournaments. And I think the best
part about this weekend from that standpoint is that they
drastically improve their position because of Dallas losing twice, which
(27:58):
we mentioned earlier in Utah twice, so Portland right now
is in thirteenth place. I think they I want to
say a lot of people have ruled them out, but
I feel like they've themselves have ruled themselves out right
basically the way that they've handled their lineups and that
kind of thing. That doesn't mean that in one game
that you you're definitely going to beat them, or that
you can just walk over them. And hopefully they learned
that lesson from that first Houston game. Sure now they're
(28:19):
they're going to be prepared, right because, yeah, especially if
Lillard plays, and that's a big if, you know, you
can never count them out just because he's got that
dog in them all right. But you know, I do
feel like there's no team on the schedule the Nuggets still,
I gotta say, Nuggets still scare me a little tough, Yeah,
but you know, I don't feel like, oh, no, chalk
(28:41):
up a loss looking at the schedule anymore, right And
I think if the Pelicans can win, can strain together
even more wins, the threat of not finishing in the
top ten is going to completely dissolve. It's starting to
head that way right now, where I think the teams
that are above Dallas and eleventh in Utah and twelfth
are starting to have a at least a little bit
of a cushion. Pelicans probably are going to have the
(29:04):
tiebreaker on Dallas. So that's another game that you add.
If you can get two, three, four games ahead of them,
you're going to put them totally too far in the
rear view mirror for them to catch you. So so
that's the first part is get into the play in tournament. Now.
The second part, on the upper side of the standings
is this might sound crazy, and I almost was hesitating
to tweet this Sunday night, but they they're not that
(29:27):
far from the top six now. So like what you thought.
You may have thought, oh my gosh, they might not
even make the play in tournament. They might finish a
level thinking about cutting my hair that Alfred Payton here
might yes, the Alfred Payton. He went from that too.
Now they have they legitimately could finish in the top six.
And this might seem astounding, but I mean they're in
(29:48):
a position now where on April ninth that they could
just be in the playoffs and avoid the play in tournament. Now, granted,
they're going to have to pull off some big wins.
To do that, they might have to beat Golden State
head to head Tuesday. They might have to, you know,
some combination of Denver, Memphis, Sacramento, which are the three
best teams in the West right now, but um, they're
right there and the win Saturday. The Clippers right now
(30:10):
are fifth. The Clippers are not far that far ahead
of you. You play them again, if you beat them
at home, that's another team that you could put behind you.
So the list of teams that the Pelicans could now
realistically say we have a reasonable chance of finishing ahead
of them or catching them, it just seems like it
keeps increasing. And so this that's where this four game
(30:31):
stretch has been so valuable. Another thing too, I don't
want to go too long on this, but there are
only two games behind Phoenix. Phoenix is in fourth place.
Can you imagine how much people's minds would be blown
if the Pelicans ended up in fourth place. That might
be a little bit of a pipe dream, and it
might be a little bit unruistic, but it's good and
it's on the table. That's the part that is just
(30:52):
the fact that you can look at that as a
reasonable not pie in the sky being a complete you know,
a lunatic. Yes, it's it's really really attainable, especially as
the Pelicans are getting healthier. A lot of these teams, like, look,
you never want injuries to happen, but when they happen
for the Pelicans in the long run may have accidentally
(31:13):
been beneficial. You're starting to get healthy when other teams
are getting worn down. And I don't think any team
wants to see a fully healthy Pelicans, especially with some
of the way they've been looking recently, with Bi looking
like the BI we know and love, a Trey Murphy
coming on. Yeah, boy, I think we can have some fun. Jim, Yeah,
I mean, we'd love to see a fully loaded team.
(31:33):
But I mean in the short term, the great Jews
is that what they do have on the court right
now is playing at a really high level. Last thing, too,
I'll mention about the West Race in the whole situation
is again there's a bunch of games coming up on
the scoreboard where two teams that the Pelicans are competing
with are playing each other, and so something positive is
going to happen. For example, Monday night, Phoenix plays Utah.
(31:56):
Either Phoenix loses that game and you get closer to
the Suns or Utah loses that game and you improve
your position as far as definitely finishing ahead of the Jazz.
We want Utah out of the mix because the Pelicans
went own three against them. We don't want them in
any ties that kind of thing. So, but there's a
bunch of games. Wednesday, Minnesota plays Phoenix, same situation. One
of those teams has to lose. You have a great
(32:17):
chance to gain more ground if the Pelicans can win
these next two nights. I mean, the conversation that we're
gonna have on Wednesday is going to be even more
excited and optimistic and enthusiastic about the possibility. Yeah, we're
gonna have to do the whole podcast, just hooting the
whole time, just stopping around the podcast studio having a party.
But it's possible. Look, Portland's coming off a back to
(32:39):
back and they lost that one, so you never know
what their energy level is going to be. And then
I think we've seen that Golden State can be had.
I'm ready to roll, man, Jim. It's been a fun streak.
So let's go Pels. Let's keep the good times going.
We want to talk to you next podcast in an
absolute fervor, so until then, we will be talking to
(33:03):
you once again. On Wednesday, go check out that mid
City Yacht Club watch party sponsored by Corona. Our own
Gustcat and Gal will be there. Aaron Summers will be there.
You can be there too, and you can be part
of the radio broadcast. Show up to find out how.
We will talk to you once again on the Pelicans
podcast on Wednesday, and until then, thanks for listening to
(33:31):
the New Orleans Pelicans podcast presented by seat Geek. Join
us three times per week on pelicans dot com, the
Pelicans mobile app, or you can subscribe to the podcast
on iTunes. We'll see you next time right here on
the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast presented by SeatGeek
Welcome into the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, presented by Sea Gig,
a podcast dedicated to everything you need to know about
the squad. Get it to Murphy right corner crade he's
got and even ten they're falling all over themselves on
the bench ten for training, thirty two points. The New
(00:28):
Orleans Pelicans Podcast starts right now. Welcome to the Pelicans Podcast.
My name is Joe Cardosi, joined by the impermeable mister
jim Ikenhofer. Because we are freting. We are on a
(00:49):
four game winning streak, we are eight in the West.
We are now at five hundred once again, Jimothy, I've
just got two questions for you. What was your favorite
moment of the four game winning street because there's so
many now? And why was it the Garrett Temple three?
It wasn't the Garrett Temple time. I think my favorite
(01:12):
moment was just seeing Trey Murphy defy the rules of
physics and never hitting the rim on any of his three.
It's one thing to make ten three pointers in a game,
but it's another to do it where I mean did
he did? He? Even? None of them like rolled around
the rim, no rattled in none of them I don't
think even like scraped up, even the haters could be
(01:33):
like lucky shot. Yeah, any of those. Yeah, I mean
it was unbelievable that. I mean they I felt like
they were gonna have to replace the nets if they
kept him in the game any longer. And he was Yeah,
I mean it was bananas. I mean good for Trey,
second youngest player ever in the NBA to hit ten threes. Uh,
he was just absolutely bonkers thirty two points. And the
(01:54):
other man in the game who was looking pretty good,
mister Brandon Ingram getting thirty two of his own and
he had a career or high and assists with thirteen.
By the way, too, Trey was ten for twelve from
three point, right, It's not like he was ten for
twenty two and took a million and it's like, oh man,
he was so high volume. I mean, to go ten
(02:14):
is unbelievable. Yeah, but no, you're right, I mean what
a performance by both of those two guys. I mean,
Ingram has been just on a tear lately. Not sure
people will listen to this before after this announcement has made,
but I think he's got a really good chance to
be Western Conference Player of the week with the performance
that he's had just across the board, I mean, shooting
(02:34):
high percentage from the field, great on threes, assisting just
hardly any turnovers, averaging over thirty points a game. So
it's just been such a great stretch for him and
the team overall. There were so many good things that
happened on the weekend that I'm sure we're going to
get into, but the best one definitely was the fact
(02:56):
that the Pelicans, in one of their biggest games of
the season, probably top two or three most important game,
played maybe their best game of the yes. So to
be able to play that way, go into La and
beat the Clippers by twenty one, which is, you know,
the Clippers are one of the teams that you're a
little bit behind in the standings. That was kind of
a jaw dropping performance to play that well. I think
that's the thing is, you know, we were excited about
(03:17):
the wins because we needed them before, but we had
no illusions about the type of competition we were winning against.
But to make that jump in competition versus the Clippers,
because when you looked at the schedule, this was one
of the games I was more worried about than some
of the others, and to be able to come out
that strong, to hold Kauai, you know, in check the
whole game. It just seemed like a performance where once
(03:39):
again you feel confident in your Pelicans, no matter the foe.
You no longer feel like you're just beating up on
subpar competition. Yes, and I think the combination of how
much the Pelicans have struggled on the road since say
the beginning of January, as well as you look at
this road trip on paper and you're like Clippers, Blazers, Warriors, Nuggets,
(03:59):
this is not the trip that you want to go
into with your season kind of quote unquote at stake,
with everything kind of hanging in the balance. So for
them to get that win to start this off, it's
hard to even measure how huge that was. Now, you
go into this Portland game, a team that has been
sitting some of their key guys, and you hope that
you can get this win as well. So the people
who were concerned or even people that were you know,
(04:22):
very negative about this road trip, I think a lot
of them have calmed down consideringly. Consider you know, if
you thought, man, they could go oh in four on
this trip or one in three. There were a lot
of people saying that, And now I think you have
a really good chance to win multiple games on the trip.
And it's it's crazy how much their fortunes and their
outlook has changed just in really the last three days.
(04:43):
Yeah for sure. I mean, and you gotta say, Portland's
coming off a back to back, as you're saying, they
they they're sitting some of their guys not sure what's
going to happen with Damian Lillard. But even if they
played Damian Lillard, we have beaten the Portland Trailblazers with
him playing. And then you know, you got to go
into the Golden State Warriors, Didn'tver Nuggets swagger. Then you
play the Clippers once again. There's just so much room
to make Hay here. And you know, I'm just I'm
(05:06):
just feeling cocky again. Man. It feels good to now
hang my head high. I'm doing all kinds of stuff.
I'm doing the two small gesture to my two year
old son who was trying to get some raisins. I
don't worry, I got him the raisins. I did dunk
on him, though, I'm just kidding. He has some post skills.
He swatted me when I tried to dunk on him,
but he got the raisins And I'm just feeling good man,
and I feel like we can roll into the rest
(05:27):
of this trip feeling ourselves justifiably so once again, Yeah,
I mean these games are so important, and I mean
you reference the games next Saturday against the Clippers. I
feel like the juice in the arena, the enthusiasm is
going to be at a very high level because I
mean that homestand is also a bunch of teams that
people are really going to be interested to see with Kings, Grizzlies,
(05:51):
Nicks are the other three games on that home stuff
and be back. It's it's really been a huge reversal
from a week or so ago after the first game
against Houston, and I just want to see them continue
to stay hot and just keep rolling up these wins.
Oh and one thing I did want to talk about
because once again, I do check Twitter just to see
what fire alarms are going off. So a lot of
(06:11):
people panicked because Dary and Cbron got called up and
they're like, oh, no, is there an injury that we're
not being told about. Something like that. A thing they
should know about the G League season and our Birmingham
squadron or seasons. Oh yes, that's a very large contributing
factor to why he's going to be rejoining the team.
I know this has been in the works for a while.
(06:32):
I remember hearing a couple weeks back someone asked, you know,
when when is Cbron going to rejoin the team, and
the response was, they'll be back for the Portland game. So, yes,
this was all planned, and this is all in conjunction
with that season getting to a conclusion. Yeah, and looks
it's it's hard to pay attention to everything. I get it. Look,
I've been busy myself. I understand you got to watch
(06:53):
every game, but look, I'm a dad, I'm doing a
whole bunch of stuff. Jim, I know you've you've been
watching the games. You've probably got more in than me. So, like,
I just I know that the Western Conference is crazy.
I know that, right, But you know I'm looking at
the games and look, look, the Lakers had Lebron, so
I'm assuming they must have crushed it. Actually, they lost
their first game back with him to the Bulls yesterday. WHOA,
(07:14):
Yeah that was surprising. Okay, yeah, that was helpful for
the Pelicans, so that give that a plus sign in
terms of positive news. All right, well, okay, then you
got the stacked MAVs, you got the MAVs with Luca,
you got Kyrie back facing Charlotte. Come on. Yeah, they
actually lost them twice this weekend. They lost Friday and
Sunday to the Hornets. What this is, Bunan is how
(07:38):
about the Pesky Jazz. I've been seeing stuff about the
Pesky Jazz. I'm sure they're taking care of business. Got
to catch am maga. Yeah, they actually lost twice as
well this weekend. They lost to Milwaukee on Friday and
then they lost a Sacramento on Saturday. So oh and
two for them. Ooh yeah, boy, who wrote this? I
don't oh man, I should start paying attention here. Oh,
I go through my notes here. Well, it looks like
(08:00):
the West is in more shambles than I thought, so
maybe we should win some of these games. So it
looks like we couldn't really make some Hey. Yeah, and
the hay has been made a lot already in the
last two days, as evidenced by the list of stuff
that happened. I mean it was we would have been
happy as heck with just the twenty one point win
against the Clippers. But honestly, like it was kind of
(08:21):
stunning as the weekend progressed, if you were paying really
close attention to all the scores, it was kind of like, wait,
the Mavericks just lost at home to the Horns, so
they'll beat them on Sunday when they play them again
in Charlotte. No, that didn't happen. And then, like we
said with the Lakers, Lakers had a really good win
fright against Okay, see they're on a roll. They're getting
Lebron back, the streak is going to continue. And then
(08:42):
the Bulls, Hey give credit to the Bulls because that
was a big win for a lot of other teams
in the West. Bulls play the Lakers again on Wednesday,
so they'll have another chance to to get them. So
but yeah, it was I mean, everybody that was watching
the scores and tweeting about this weekend do we live?
I think the only slightly negative thing that you could
say that happens Sunday, and even this is debatable, is
(09:05):
that Minnesota one, so that the Pelicans didn't move ahead
of the timber Wolves in the race. They they're in eighth, right,
now they would be in seventh if yeah, if, but
Golden State, right, So Golden State lost, so you're a
little closer to Golden State. Now we're gonna get into
that towards the end of the show. That stays more
fun to hate, right, Yeah, Minnesota has really not accomplished
(09:27):
the whole heck of a lot of the last twenty
thirty years of their franchise. So yeah, I mean, in
a vacuum, I'm always happy to see the t Wolves
beat the Warriors. Yeah, so it was. It was good.
I mean a bunch of people actually on Twitter asked
me before that game started on Sunday who should we
root for? And I said, I said we should root
for the Warriors. But I said there's no really right,
right or wrong answer here because either way, whichever team loses,
(09:50):
it's it's a good thing. So that's how I'm gonna
look at Yeah, no matter what it does in the standing,
it's gonna feel good in your tummy, and it sure does.
Today we had a great mid City yacht club watch
party with the P twelve and our own Aaron Summers
was there doing let's call it team reporting during that game.
It was a late when. We're so glad that she
was able to hang there with Gus kat Andel. So
(10:10):
let's get her in studio, talk about the experience, talk
about the big win, and just get hype. Joining us
on the Pelicans Podcast, fresh off a very successful mid
city yacht club watch party with the Pels twelve, our
(10:31):
own team reporter Aaron Summers, you're looking bright and shiny.
I'm guessing you didn't party as hard as Gus. Um,
you know it was. It was relatively team compared to Gus.
You know, well, we had a great time. It was
an amazing atmosphere. The place was completely packed, not even
sounded it just the room that we were in. But
I was walking around and there were tons of Pelicans
(10:54):
fans behind us in the outdoor area inside. I mean
they we talked about this. Actually, they had the Pelicans
game on every TV, which is not something that you
could have said last year. Probably though you were still
having to request Pelicans games if you went to a
sports bar. Yeah. Yeah, Jim was that annoying guy at
the bar. I mean, you're not afraid to be that guy,
but that's pretty much all the time regardless. Yeah, I've
(11:16):
done that Pelicans game. I've done that with some of
my favorite teams in other sports of being that guy,
and they're like yeah, like, yeah, we can definitely put
it on. And I'm looking all over the place for
where the TV is and I realized that it's only
on in the TV in the men's room. So, but
who's asking for that? Oh, it's the shirtless guy painted orange.
But that's just Jim. Jim likes the party. And but
(11:36):
the Pells twelve they actually messaged me on Twitter they
said there was one of the best watch parties they've
had so far. Sounded super packed. It was great to
talk to Rell a little bit on the radio from
the Pels twelve. And it looks like we got another
one coming up tomorrow, so I guess get ready round two. Yeah,
I mean, I know it's gonna be a Tuesday night
and it's going to be at nine o'clock start, but
(11:57):
right there at like eight, so coming out, Yeah, it
was incredible just how loud the bands were in there
and they were screaming defense on the opening tip. Yes,
it was unbelievable. Yeah, I was. I was trying to
say to Aaron and gust Jim. I was like you know,
if y'all could get some sound of them, you know,
just kind of be in a little hype. It was
(12:19):
easy because they were hype the entire time. You could
just hear it over everything. Yeah. Yeah, it sounds like
it didn't take long for them to get into the game.
I mean, how incredible start obviously, how yes, like, yeah,
that's what I was gonna say. I mean, how amazing
was it to have that be the big Watch party
and the game go the way it I mean it was.
It wasn't exactly the way you drowed up, like you
(12:40):
have all these people that are excited for a game,
a run to start right, yeah, and then and b
I just yeah, buckets, I don't know. It was perfect start, yes,
And I think people were like, is this for real? R?
And they're like, oh my gosh, like try to hit
another one. And even Graf was sort of not able
to believe it. He was waiting for the bottom to
fall out. He was excited. I was by myself in studio.
(13:01):
Gotta say, sounded fun, but it was busy. I barely
got a chance to pay attention to the game because
between trying to coordinate the stuff at the yacht club
and then cutting highlights by myself. There were twenty nine
highlights because there were so many plays and Graph was
just out of his gourd with some of those calls.
It was great to hear him excited. But even during
(13:22):
the game when they would start to be a little slippit,
she was like, oh, no, the Pelicans are gonna cool off.
He just couldn't believe that it was gonna stay wire
to wire right then he was like, well they're still
up by ten. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's fine, it's fine.
So no, it was. It was nice to see Graph
relaxed and happy and a four game win streak. I mean,
I cannot I know it happened, but I cannot remember
the last time it happened. It feels like a lifetime ago.
(13:45):
I don't know when the last four game win streak was.
But I feel like the lost at Houston to start
that weekend road trip, yeah, was basically like the bottom
of the barrel, like the wake up call the team,
you know, like you go down double digits to the
that's the worst team in the NBA. Yeah, And just
(14:07):
like Rappy, I don't think they came out ready to
defend them, like I talked about how they were playing
a lot of hero ball and they're just a lot
of their players just trying to get numbers. I don't
know if the Pelicans were ready for it that first game, well,
they were just kind of cruising. I think they went
in assuming like this is the worst team. They were
up by double digits and then Jabari Smith Junior just
annihilates them in the last second of the game, and
I think at that moment they're like, dang, maybe without
(14:31):
that shot, maybe we really need to get stuff together.
And Coach Green said they had a lot of hard conversations,
and I think we've seen the fruit of those conversations
and they've really realized We've been hearing the word urgency
for a while, but they've really started playing like it
over these past four games. And it's good that we
had some of these teams to kind of gain some
(14:52):
confidence against, yeah, with you know, Houston at the same
time making these playoff So Yeah, it seems like in
recent days though, we've learned that the Hornets may not
be as vulnerable as we thought. It was kind of
a springboard playing those teams that you built up your confidence.
A lot of things went well I think one of
the things that I would point out to people who
(15:13):
say after they had won three games in a row,
and they're like, well, they only played those three teams.
That's true, those teams were all struggling. But you don't
see everyone beat the Hornets by a convincing game every
single night. You don't see everything killed the Spurs every
single night. We've been winning by an average of twenty
one points, right. That was That was the part that
was encouraging to me, not just that they beat those teams,
(15:35):
but they did so in such dominating fashion, and you know,
it's totally carried over into the game against the Clippers.
It seemed like you saw the exact same team that
had just pummeled three of the teams that were really
struggling and do the same thing against the Clippers, even
almost to a greater degree. One of the things that
I noticed when I was looking through some different numbers
(15:57):
since the beginning of the four game winning streak, Trey Murphy.
He's tied for the NBA lead in three pointers made
per game with Gary Trent. Now, it helps that he
made ten of them in one game. That definitely boost
the stats. But I mean, like the second youngest player
to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, to make to make
ten three pointers in the game. Yeah, it was. I mean,
but I mean, what if what are we seeing from
(16:20):
him right now in terms of just the jump that
he's made. Um he had on March twelfth against Portland,
he had forty one points. So basically, over a two
week span, he's had two of the best games of
any young player in the NBA. You know, over this
stretch well, and in March alone, he's averaging nineteen points
over fifty percent from the floor. And then you add
(16:41):
in the threes. He's taken almost ten attempts a game
and hitting those at forty seven percent. So you can
see in the numbers. The confidence is there, his ability
to shoot is there. It's just about him applying that
in a game. He's had his ups and downs, and
you can see him out there sometimes when you can
hell like his body language, he's not feeling it. He
(17:02):
does not feeling confident in himself. But over the past
few weeks he's gone out there and he's been aggressive
and he's told himself like, I'm gonna shoot. I'm gonna
shoot the ball every time I get it. I'm gonna
look for a spot. I'm gonna shoot anywhere, whether it's
a corner pocket three, or if it's at the top
of the key, or if somebody is like on him.
You know, he's like, I'm just gonna continue to put
(17:23):
up shots and they're going in. And I think that's
just continuing to build the confidence for him. And when
he doesn't have a look from outside, he's doing a
really good job just going to the basket. And I
think that's also helping kind of just change up his
game a little bit. Yeah, and it's it's hurting defenders,
like they don't know what to do. Well, that's the thing.
I mean, he's such a versatile player, Like you almost
(17:45):
don't know how to guard him because he's deadly from three.
He'll dunk on you if you close it. I mean,
he can take it to the rack, he can shoot
from three. He's such a versatile player. And at his side,
I mean he's so hard to defend. Well. Last year,
I know, the end of last season, you know, he said,
I need to get better, you know, with the ball,
like moving with the ball, dribbling, creating and not just
(18:08):
catching shoot trees. And we've seen that part of his
game grow and everybody that we've talked to me and
Brandon Ingram called him the best shooter on the team
after the game on Saturday. You see Jim McCollum said that,
you know, he's going to be able to achieve whatever
he wants if he just puts in the work. You know,
I see him in the gym all the time. He's
working on different things. He's still growing into himself. You know,
(18:31):
he grew a lot towards the end of his tellege
right career, and and he started out not a lot
of people really believing that he's going to be an
NBA player. He because dad didn't think he was going
to be an NBA player. And then he goes to Rice,
transfers to Virginia, and I think that the ceiling is
so high for him, and I think we're going to
(18:51):
see him continue to improve. Yeah, I mean, we see
a lot of guys in the NBA make a big
jump in their second year, to the point where sometimes
people have joke say that the most Improved Player award
should not even be eligible for second year guys because
it's like what you expect. But I mean the strides
that he's made right now. I mean you said it, Aaron.
I think what we've seen the last couple of weeks
(19:12):
and even throughout the course of the season, but more
accelerated lately, is just understanding that the potential that this
guy has is so high. And I've said before maybe
I'm going a little bit on a limb, but when
I say this, but I think he has the potential
to be an All Star someday. Well, David Griffin sort
of talked about openly that Trey Murphy was untouchable and
the trade talks, so everyone's disappointed in the lack of
(19:33):
moves we made. A lot of people wanted Trey Murphy
and there's good reason that he was sought after. And
you're starting to see now why David Griffin said hands
off Trey Murphy and those trade talks and what a
phenomenal pick at that part of the draft. He was
the fifteenth pick in the draft. I mean, I can't
say enough about our scouting department, like we could talk
about that forever, but come on, what Herb did on
Saturday against Kawhi Leonard. We haven't even the black guy,
(19:57):
by the way, well he held him four of sixty
twelve points like incredible, Yes, yes, back to try. Sorry,
yeah no, I'm just so happy for everyone. It's hard
to stay folks. I think the comment that b I
made about him being the best shooter on the team,
I mean, to me, Trey is moving into that level
of as one of the best shooters in the league. Obviously,
(20:18):
he has to put more of a resume behind it,
and that's going to take time. It's not going to
happen in the first two seasons of a career. But
I mean, I think he's on his way to being
able to do that. And just to be so explosive
to have a forty one point game in this month
and then have thirty two and to Joe's point two
one two point basket in the game Saturday was an
athletic eliop dunk. I think it was so I mean,
(20:41):
he's just showing the different parts of his game, and
I mean it's when you take a step back overall.
I mean, I think he's he's kind of the epitome
of this of just with some of the ups and
downs the team has had this year, you forget sometimes
that the future of the team is still very high.
They've had times this year, where man that they might
not make the play in tournament, or they're struggling, or
(21:03):
they're really having a tough time with players injured, whereas
at the beginning of the season they were able to
get through all of that. But still, you take a
step back and you see him have these kind of
games and what Herb's done and what some of the
other younger guys have done, and you realize, like, yeah,
they want to achieve as much as they possibly can
over the next eight games and over this postseason, hopefully
they get in and make the playoffs. But I mean,
(21:24):
beyond that the windows, I still feel like we there's
a lot of really good things that are coming down
the road because of the personnel here. Well, I think
Brandon Ingram too. I think he's finally found his rhythm
after being hurt and coming back, and they've moved him
into more of the point guard rule. I mean, he's
the one bringing the ball up, handling the ball at
twenty three assists the past two games. Yeah, yeah, that's insane. Yeah,
(21:49):
but he's done such a good job seeing the floor,
putting his teammates in positions to be successful. They're hitting
the shots. When he gets some of the ball and
you have so many potential assists that just weren't going
in before. Now they're making the shots. And so I
really like the move of having bib that the ball
handle are more. Yeah. I think physically too. I don't
(22:11):
think that he's talked about this Brandon at all in interviews,
but I think physically he just looks better if you
look at if you watch his last like five to
ten games, trepidation when he first came back, it's different.
It's a different movement he's It just seems like he's quicker.
Everything's more fluid, Yeah, more confident. So Aaron, I know
you're you're going to be super busy because you've got
a million interviews. You've got to do yourself. Always busy
(22:33):
around here, and you're gonna be back at it again.
We're gonna have another watch party tomorrow night. Not sure
how long Aaron Summer is going to be able to
hang out, but go see Gus. He'll be the one
doing push ups with a beer helmet on. If not Jim,
So when does that start again? Tell the people where
they can go and uh and check the people out
at mid City Yacht Club. The more yes, it is
Mid City Yacht Club. The our pregame show starts at
(22:57):
eight thirty with the game starting at nine, but we'll
be there a little bit ahead of time, so at
least by eight we'll be there in the boat house.
So it's behind the main part of the bar, so
just keep walking straight and you'll you'll see the little
house on the side and that's what we'll be set up. Yeah,
come stay hi. It's always a great time to hang
out with Aaron Summers and Gus Cat and Gell and
(23:18):
once again I will be in the studio. But it
sounds like it'll be a lot of fun and I
hope you'll enjoy it. Aaron, I guess we got another
one tonight, another one tomorrow. Let's go Pels, huh. I
mean let's get some back to back wins. Yes, yes,
I think the Trailblazers are somebody that we should easily
be able to win against. But you just can't take
it for granted. So you know, gouts start out good
(23:40):
again very first quarter of the last four, so I
got to keep that up absolutely, So let's let's hope
we can keep this hot streak going against the Trailblazers.
And then once again against the Warriors. Thanks again, Aaron
big thanks to Aaron Summers doing Yo persons work out
(24:01):
there mid City Yacht Club and she will be there
once again on the Morrow. So joiner and join us
out there. Jim, who you know, we talked about a
little bit, but the state of the West is in flux,
and you know, I'm gonna call this Monday because it
(24:22):
feels good once again to look ahead at the schedule.
I'm feeling feisty, Jim, set us up. Yeah, Joe. I mean,
you know, we've had Western Conference Wednesday all season. I
feel like we could call every day Western Conference something
now because every single day there's important games on the
skal Western Conference. Yeah, Monday, so on this Western Conference Monday, Yeah,
(24:44):
I think one of the biggest things to look at.
I mean, we're obviously we're not gonna have a show
until Wednesday, so the Pelicans will be playing Portland Monday
night and then Golden State on Tuesday. That Golden State
game is going to be huge. Now that the Warriors
lost on Sunday, you're very close to them. Yeah, So
I mean, just one of the bottom line things. If
the Pelicans can win Monday night against the Trailblazers and
(25:06):
then beat Golden State on Tuesday, the Pelicans will be
ahead of Golden State in the standings. So yeah, that
would feel amazing, especially with some of the gloom and
doom that we experienced not that long ago. So I mean,
that's that's that's huge. I mean, to be able to
move ahead of Golden State would be would be massive. Um,
it's gonna be hard to beat them at home, I mean,
(25:27):
I was. I think a lot of people were surprised
that the Timberwolves beat them, mostly because Golden State has
been so good in a chase centers at Yeah, right,
you're never surprised when they lose on the road, but
when they lose at home, it's just like whoa. That
was interesting surprising that was such a low scoring game too,
that both teams I think finished under one hundred points.
If the Pelicans can keep Golden State to that level
of offense or even close to that, I think they
(25:49):
have a really good chance to pull off a win. Unfortunately,
San Francisco slash Oakland has not been a pleasant place
for the Pelicans to visit. Unless the whole years has
two eyes. Tonight, I would be helpful and shut yea. Yeah,
Willie Green talked about it. He was like, you know,
he could have easily gone out and sat the rest
of that game, but he was with one eye, like
let's let's go. So sure, I hope he's all right
(26:10):
and can defend and herb will be I mean, it
almost goes without saying. I mean, his role is going
to be so important in the Golden State game. It's
it's important every game. But I mean he might have
to chase Clay Thompson around, he might get assigned to
Steph Curry. I mean, there's no bounds to what kind
of stuff you asked him to do defensively. So those
are some of the things to watch for in that game.
(26:31):
But I mean, just going forward, you know, we talked
about this a lot today, just how excited everyone is
right now based on the four game winning streak and
the dramatic difference in terms of where they are in
the standings. It wasn't that long ago that they were twelve. Yeah,
and now look at the play in right you know,
and and now we're sitting eighth. We were seventh for
(26:52):
a moment, rightly, and then we dropped one because of
you know, games played there, but it just shows you
it's so oh fluid right now. It's we were talking
about how crazy the West is and it still is.
Look that we talked about the teams that are that
have lost. The Lakers didn't look like world beaters with
Lebron When Austin Reeves is like your third best player,
(27:14):
that team still doesn't scare me as much as the
media may want to talk about their chances. The MAVs,
they have not looked good. And oh, by the way,
Lucas facing a suspension for his sixteenth take right, Yeah,
And I mean that the situation with Dallas is kind
of the perfect way to kind of look at the
play in race. I mean, I'm want to look at
(27:34):
the Pelicans postseason outlook right now in two separate elements.
The first is the play in tournament. And when I
said that, I mean the minimum going back maybe the
last couple of weeks is you have to at least
make the play in tournaments. And I think the best
part about this weekend from that standpoint is that they
drastically improve their position because of Dallas losing twice, which
(27:58):
we mentioned earlier in Utah twice, so Portland right now
is in thirteenth place. I think they I want to
say a lot of people have ruled them out, but
I feel like they've themselves have ruled themselves out right
basically the way that they've handled their lineups and that
kind of thing. That doesn't mean that in one game
that you you're definitely going to beat them, or that
you can just walk over them. And hopefully they learned
that lesson from that first Houston game. Sure now they're
(28:19):
they're going to be prepared, right because, yeah, especially if
Lillard plays, and that's a big if, you know, you
can never count them out just because he's got that
dog in them all right. But you know, I do
feel like there's no team on the schedule the Nuggets still,
I gotta say, Nuggets still scare me a little tough, Yeah,
but you know, I don't feel like, oh, no, chalk
(28:41):
up a loss looking at the schedule anymore, right And
I think if the Pelicans can win, can strain together
even more wins, the threat of not finishing in the
top ten is going to completely dissolve. It's starting to
head that way right now, where I think the teams
that are above Dallas and eleventh in Utah and twelfth
are starting to have a at least a little bit
of a cushion. Pelicans probably are going to have the
(29:04):
tiebreaker on Dallas. So that's another game that you add.
If you can get two, three, four games ahead of them,
you're going to put them totally too far in the
rear view mirror for them to catch you. So so
that's the first part is get into the play in tournament. Now.
The second part, on the upper side of the standings
is this might sound crazy, and I almost was hesitating
to tweet this Sunday night, but they they're not that
(29:27):
far from the top six now. So like what you thought.
You may have thought, oh my gosh, they might not
even make the play in tournament. They might finish a
level thinking about cutting my hair that Alfred Payton here
might yes, the Alfred Payton. He went from that too.
Now they have they legitimately could finish in the top six.
And this might seem astounding, but I mean they're in
(29:48):
a position now where on April ninth that they could
just be in the playoffs and avoid the play in tournament. Now, granted,
they're going to have to pull off some big wins.
To do that, they might have to beat Golden State
head to head Tuesday. They might have to, you know,
some combination of Denver, Memphis, Sacramento, which are the three
best teams in the West right now, but um, they're
right there and the win Saturday. The Clippers right now
(30:10):
are fifth. The Clippers are not far that far ahead
of you. You play them again, if you beat them
at home, that's another team that you could put behind you.
So the list of teams that the Pelicans could now
realistically say we have a reasonable chance of finishing ahead
of them or catching them, it just seems like it
keeps increasing. And so this that's where this four game
(30:31):
stretch has been so valuable. Another thing too, I don't
want to go too long on this, but there are
only two games behind Phoenix. Phoenix is in fourth place.
Can you imagine how much people's minds would be blown
if the Pelicans ended up in fourth place. That might
be a little bit of a pipe dream, and it
might be a little bit unruistic, but it's good and
it's on the table. That's the part that is just
(30:52):
the fact that you can look at that as a
reasonable not pie in the sky being a complete you know,
a lunatic. Yes, it's it's really really attainable, especially as
the Pelicans are getting healthier. A lot of these teams, like, look,
you never want injuries to happen, but when they happen
for the Pelicans in the long run may have accidentally
(31:13):
been beneficial. You're starting to get healthy when other teams
are getting worn down. And I don't think any team
wants to see a fully healthy Pelicans, especially with some
of the way they've been looking recently, with Bi looking
like the BI we know and love, a Trey Murphy
coming on. Yeah, boy, I think we can have some fun. Jim, Yeah,
I mean, we'd love to see a fully loaded team.
(31:33):
But I mean in the short term, the great Jews
is that what they do have on the court right
now is playing at a really high level. Last thing, too,
I'll mention about the West Race in the whole situation
is again there's a bunch of games coming up on
the scoreboard where two teams that the Pelicans are competing
with are playing each other, and so something positive is
going to happen. For example, Monday night, Phoenix plays Utah.
(31:56):
Either Phoenix loses that game and you get closer to
the Suns or Utah loses that game and you improve
your position as far as definitely finishing ahead of the Jazz.
We want Utah out of the mix because the Pelicans
went own three against them. We don't want them in
any ties that kind of thing. So, but there's a
bunch of games. Wednesday, Minnesota plays Phoenix, same situation. One
of those teams has to lose. You have a great
(32:17):
chance to gain more ground if the Pelicans can win
these next two nights. I mean, the conversation that we're
gonna have on Wednesday is going to be even more
excited and optimistic and enthusiastic about the possibility. Yeah, we're
gonna have to do the whole podcast, just hooting the
whole time, just stopping around the podcast studio having a party.
But it's possible. Look, Portland's coming off a back to
(32:39):
back and they lost that one, so you never know
what their energy level is going to be. And then
I think we've seen that Golden State can be had.
I'm ready to roll, man, Jim. It's been a fun streak.
So let's go Pels. Let's keep the good times going.
We want to talk to you next podcast in an
absolute fervor, so until then, we will be talking to
(33:03):
you once again. On Wednesday, go check out that mid
City Yacht Club watch party sponsored by Corona. Our own
Gustcat and Gal will be there. Aaron Summers will be there.
You can be there too, and you can be part
of the radio broadcast. Show up to find out how.
We will talk to you once again on the Pelicans
podcast on Wednesday, and until then, thanks for listening to
(33:31):
the New Orleans Pelicans podcast presented by seat Geek. Join
us three times per week on pelicans dot com, the
Pelicans mobile app, or you can subscribe to the podcast
on iTunes. We'll see you next time right here on
the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast presented by SeatGeek
Host
Jim Eichenhofer
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