March 21, 2025 • 51 mins
On the latest New Orleans Pelicans Podcast for Friday, March 21, 2025, Pelicans.com’s Jim Eichenhofer and Gus Kattengell are joined by Pelicans TV Studio Host/Reporter Erin Summers to discuss the play of Zion Williamson, the signing of Elfrid Payton, and what the NBA could do to ensure a higher level of competitiveness from teams hoping for a better lottery spot.
Later, Jim gives us his trending number and weekend showdown.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
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 cover the NBA on a daily basis.
It's time to flock up. The New Orleans Pelicans Podcast
(00:29):
starts right now.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, if we want to welcome to the New Orleans
Pelicans Podcast, your official podcast of the New Orleans Pelicans.
Mister Jim, I can offer and Gus Catten Gill here
with you on a Friday, and it's not Tgif is TGI, Jim,
you'll get what we're talking about here in a minute,
Aaron Summers is going to join us. Next segment, Jim,
We're going to go over a handful of topics with
her as the season is now down to a dozen games,
(00:56):
game thirteen left to play, which was on when day
you and I talked about it in a Wednesday podcast.
When you lose by forty six like you did on Monday,
there was really only one thing you and I wanted
to see, right, competitiveness at Minnesota.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
And did you get some did your big time? You
did time?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, Well, this is go ahead I.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Was that was one of the best wins of the
season for sure. It was definitely objectively the best road
win of the season, the only win that they've had
in a way in this year against a team that
has a winning record overall.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Well, this is what it sounded like on the Pelicans
radio network.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
That don't hurt my heart just because you hate you
hate see anybody go down like that. You know, he's
made so many strides this season, and you know sounds cheese,
but you know this is a minor setback for a
major comeback. Trey gonna do what he needed to do
to get back on the court and come back better
than ever.
Speaker 6 (01:47):
Randall, Wayne and See poked it away from Conley, big boy,
look out, close it up, and then Randall was closing
down Ze just stop.
Speaker 7 (01:56):
And take the world the left hand.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
See he blows through four defenders and scoops it in
with a left hand.
Speaker 7 (02:06):
To tell you something, there consequences. They're repercussing the duke.
Speaker 6 (02:09):
We're up one thirty seconds left in the third, Zion
and just pounded by Randall.
Speaker 7 (02:14):
It doesn't matter.
Speaker 6 (02:16):
Zion drives in. He scoops it up with a left
hand over the top of the boxing down twenty seven
per Zike.
Speaker 7 (02:23):
Go ahead, see stay thirsty, my friend.
Speaker 6 (02:25):
Brown, now z get it to eat, and this time
he will finish with a right hand punch. Little frustration
right there from the rookie.
Speaker 7 (02:36):
If at first you don't succeed, try try, try, try, try, try,
try try again.
Speaker 6 (02:43):
It's pretty accurate by my partner. Dose around o'lennox throwing
out in the corner. Brown, No dip three? Are you serious?
Are you serious? Cowboy? Rotting cowboy in front of our bench.
He's got fifteen for me.
Speaker 7 (03:00):
Three round is four for six from three.
Speaker 6 (03:03):
We're up two two minutes left in Minnesota, Olenic drive
with two with one tear drop Bruce Brown, brick rebound, take.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
It by the column, back it out, back it out.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
Bounce feed Almorado to z Hangs blaze it in.
Speaker 7 (03:19):
Where lay one?
Speaker 6 (03:22):
With thirteen point six seconds left, where is the and
one doesn't matter?
Speaker 7 (03:28):
Curious Dunton doesn't get the call.
Speaker 6 (03:30):
You're up four with thirteen point six seconds, get it
in to read back to Conley, Conley chess up to Edwards.
Speaker 7 (03:38):
Fake a three, take a three, brick want rebound. C
that's gonna do it. That'll do it, that is gonna
do it, that will do it. Randal with the fall,
and I mean the rest of the people who did
not leave earlier, my heavens are are literally sprinting for
the exits.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
That is an unbelievable way, and that is a brutal,
brutal loss for the Timberwolves.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
John the Chaser and Telegraph and any with the calls there. Look,
Zion was just playing amazing, but you heard in so
many of those calls. Jim Kelly Lennik had an incredible
game that fourth quarter. Bruce Brown with some big shots
there as well. We talked and played some soundbites Wednesday
from David Griffin, specifically talking about those two guys.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
If I look at that game.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
And I'm David Griffin, that's it's exactly what I was
trading for right there, right, I mean, those two guys
literally helped your star player, Zion Williamson.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Win the game for sure. I mean those are the
kind of wins. I mean, you win in Minnesota, a
team that's battling for top six in the West. You know,
is a team that made the Western Conference finals. Last year.
We know how good they are. For you to go
in there and get a win like this. I thought
that was really impressive. And I think, you know, even
though they're we're going to talk about this later too,
(05:02):
that there have been several games where they haven't been
in it at all, where they're down by thirty something
at home against Orlando, and then in the recent game
against Detroit. This was a great bounce back. And I
do think that it's been kind of jacky and hide,
but you know, some games they've been getting routed, and
other games they've been they've looked really good. They also
had a recent win against the Clippers, which is another
(05:24):
team that is right there in the race for top
six in the West. And I mean, one kind of
quick fact they have. The Pelicans have six wins this
season against teams that have a winning record over the
course of the entire year, but two of them have
happened in the last ten days. There was the win
against the Clippers on March eleventh, and then there was
the win Wednesday at Minnesota. So I can't explain it
why we're seeing so kind of schizophrenic performances from the Pelicans,
(05:48):
but I mean, it does seem when they're right, Like
you said, it's This is what you hope for when
you added those two guys, that you're able to have
the veteran presence and be able to pull out games
like this.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Now, no basketball analystill to play one. On my talk
show Back in the day, Jim I would say, it's
probably because of something you've brought up in the past,
just you know, using the same schedules. You know, in
that schedules rosters or starting lineups, lineups, just you know,
working with certain players in combinations more often than not.
Obviously you know Trey gets injured, but for the most part,
(06:19):
you've had games together with people kind of playing on
the court. And I think it's something that we're going
to talk about with Aaron here Zions flip the switch.
I mean, it's Zion's playing really good basketball, and if
he's playing really good basketball and you sprinkle some vets,
sprinkle some guys playing. Look, the other thing we played
with Aragriffer on Wednesday was, you know some of the
(06:40):
young guys playing well. Carlo Mackovic had a nice game.
You've me see had a nice game in the win.
It's literally what you want to see, and that's why
these games do matter.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Hunt Jim, Yeah, I mean Zion's had I don't think
I can put a number on it, but it feels
like he's had a handful of some of the best
games of his career over the last month or two.
So I mean the fact that he's at that level
where you know he's played, I guess you could characterize
it as all NBA. How many times do you think
he's looked like an All NBA player lately? I would
(07:09):
say it's been often, and I think Wednesday was the
case as well, where he goes for twenty nine points,
he had eight assists, he was twelve for sixteen from
the field that his had three steals. His presence was
just very evident. That his ability to kind of take
over games. We've seen that more and more, you know,
since he came back from his hamstring injury.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
No doubt.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Well, as I alluded to, we're gonna have a really
cool conversation here with Aaron, So we'll do that here
in a quick second. We'll be right back to wrap
things up for this Friday podcast as Jim gives us
his things to do on Friday weekend showdown, trending numbers
all that, But Aaron Summers joins us. Now here's our conversation,
all right, Tom now to bring in with Aaron Summers
sideline reporter, team reporter and of course host over in
(07:51):
the Gulf Coast Sports and Entertainment Network for the away games,
including tonight Aeron. So you know, he got a little
time before we go live tonight and see what takes
place in Minnesota.
Speaker 8 (08:03):
How you doing, I'm doing great. We already have a
couple news items today that I got to work through
to fit into the show. Because not only are we
doing the Pelicans Plus game tonight, where you can be
in the interactive chat with myself, Jim, Wes, and Andrew
that's gonna be throughout the game. You have to log
into Pelicans Plus you can ask us questions. But we
(08:23):
just found out that Zion Williamson is not playing tonight,
and then the Pelicans just signed to Alfred Payton to
a ten day contract, so and I sat a reward
for him for being available in and out when we
needed him this season, and it's gonna be cool to
see him tonight. So yeah, got a ton of stuff
going on.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
You guys have had a couple games off lately too
because of the situation with National TV and stuff like that.
Did you on Wednesday? You guys didn't have the you know,
the pregame in the post game, did you have withdrawal
or was this you know, kind of a nice breather from.
Speaker 8 (08:53):
The Jim Wes and I still got together and chat out, okay,
and before the game and chatted work stuff and everything,
and we watched the game, texted back and forth. Yeah,
I mean it's hard to just completely walk away. And ironically,
the Pelicans keep winning when we don't have postgame shows,
(09:14):
so we don't have those nice moments to talk about.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, that part is frustrating.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Yeah, no, that is frustrating.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
One of the things is frustrating, obviously, is the kind
of season that we've had.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Aaron, I'd love.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
To get your reaction when Trey Murphy got injured fifty
seconds into the game.
Speaker 8 (09:30):
Man, that was tough to watch. I hate it for
Trey because he has had to battle back from a
few different injuries, and he really seemed like he was
hitting his stride. He was getting more comfortable affecting the
game in different ways and sliding into that number two
for the Pelicans, and it's tough that he is out
(09:51):
because he's going to lose an entire summer of continuing
to work on his game. He'll be available once the
season starts. Good point any setbacks or anything like that,
But yeah, how is he gonna come in off of
that injury? And then how much better can he be
(10:11):
if he had had a whole summer to work on
some things?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Jim, You and I talked about it on the Wednesday
podcast about the growth that he had this season, right
from going from is this guy a starter in the
league too?
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Yeah, he is?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And you and I going, Hey, he's got the makings
of the is you like to say, the recipe, the
ingredients of a good gumbo to be an All Star
perhaps eventually in his career. And what's remarkable is listening
to Aaron just now, I'm trying to think, has he
had more than one season where he's actually had a
summer and a start to the season, because he didn't
(10:43):
start last season right or this season he got died
and start last season.
Speaker 8 (10:47):
First game of training campers, she's going.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
To go into this season not fully healthy.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I guess maybe between his rookie season and his second year.
If I Vegas right, had that goodness maybe that was
the one time that he had a a full summer
to prepare and he didn't have any obstacles in the way.
So but yeah, it hasn't hasn't been very often for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
And I'm bringing that up only because it just kind
of maybe goes to add to just how good he
really is, right because he's not having the full summer,
in the full preseason and all that stuff to kind
of get going yet in season weeks in or days
in or games into the season. Boomy, he gets better
throughout the year. That's not the norm, right, Normally, as
Aaron said, you get better quote unquote in the lab,
(11:28):
he's getting better during the season.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, I think so. I mean, some of this is
just the reps that he's getting during games. The fact
that I think one of the biggest things this season
was he was able to apply during games how much
more of an improved ball handler he was, and just
the fact that he had a bigger role where it
wasn't I mean, because of some of the other guys
that were out. Obviously Abi was out for a while,
Zion was out for a couple of months. He ended
(11:51):
up being in a roll where he actually actually got
to create a shot a little bit more than he had,
a lot more than he had in the past, where
when some of those players were all out there, he
was really in more of that spot up shooting role.
So I mean that was we try to look for
silver linings, We try to look for some positives in
a year that has gone so awry like this. I
definitely think that might be one of them, is that
he got to kind of spread his wings and expand
(12:13):
his game a little bit more than maybe he would
have if his role had been similar to what it
was his first three years in the NBA.
Speaker 8 (12:20):
I think it's just evident that there's so much more
improvement there for Trey. You know, he is able to
improve work on different things throughout the season because of
the injuries, he was able to expand different areas of
his game, but really attacking them in the summer and
working through what he wants from that, I mean, I
(12:42):
think he can still work on his ball handling. I
think he can still work on creating his own shot, attacking,
getting to the rim, and being more consistent from three.
You know, we've had the up and down games from him.
He hit that slump for a little while earlier this year, recently,
and those are things that you need reps for. And
(13:02):
hopefully he is going to get healthy as quick as
possible and we can see him start to really make
some more strides forward, because I really think that. And
he'll tell you he wants to be an NBA All Star.
He wants to be a top scorer in the league
when it's all said and done. I mean, he was
not satisfied with top ten and Pelicans, you know, all
(13:25):
time scoring. He wants to be top ten in the NBA.
So more power to him. I think the drive is there.
I think the make up, the athleticism and the talent
he just got to kind of hone it in.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
It's remarkable you said that because even in games where
he didn't have good shooting nights, he's still scoring twenty
points and having you know, high lumborough assistant in rebounds.
Here's what Zion had to say Wednesday after the win
about Trey's injury.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
That don't hurt my heart just because you hate you
hate see anybody go down like that. You know, he's
made so many strides this season and you know sounds cheese, Well,
you know this is a minor setback for a major combat.
Trey gonna do what he need to do to get
back on the court and come back better than ever.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
All right, So Erin you mentioned Zion there. Look, I
know he's not playing tonight he had that heart fall
on Wednesday, but I know Jim wanted to get your
opinion on this too. CJ was asked, is this the
best Zion we've seen since becoming a Pelican? What do
you make of the way he's played since coming back
from injury.
Speaker 8 (14:26):
I think that this is something that's come up every
single game. Yes, this is the best that we've seen
Zion Williamson b But for me, it comes to a
point where Zion needs to realize everything needs to click
for him, that this is what it takes for me
to be the top of my game and as accessful
as I can be. It seems like the light bulb's
(14:47):
kind of gone off for him. He's mentioned it several
times where he's got to bring the same effort on
the defensive end as he has to offensively. We're seeing
it night in and night out with the steals and
the blocks. I mean, he has career high and blocks
and steals, But then he's not only going and getting
his points. On the other end, he has a career
highs and assists and rebounds, so all areas of the game,
(15:11):
he's attacking at a very high level. Maybe it has
something to do with the way that they've handled his minutes,
but now he's seeing as those minutes are increasing, this
is the kind of effort that it's going to take
for me to be the guy night in and night out.
And on Wednesday night we saw without a lot of
help around him, Sure, sure CJ had a bounce back game.
(15:35):
Jordan Hawkins helped, Bruce Brown helped, people helped. But going
against Minnesota, who is a better team, he was an
absolute game changer because of what he brought as a collective.
And I think that for him, it's kind of like
he gets it, he sees it, he's doing it now,
and he knows what it's going to take night in
(15:56):
and night out for that to be the result.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
It's too bad we're not going to see him tonight
because I was really looking forward to seeing how he
would follow up the performance that he had Wednesday against
the Timberwolves. I'm going to go out on a limb
here too and say I mean the reason that he's
not going to play. He had a hard fall where
he landed on his back, and honestly, I had kind
of kind of forgotten about that play until this morning
when they said he had a low back contusion, and
(16:19):
then thought back to it. But I think, you know,
along the lines of some of what you were saying, Aaron,
I think the game that he had Monday was really
impressive too, along the lines of his relentlessness and his determination,
because I mean, it was from a team standpoint, it
was hopeless. They're down by thirty five points, but he
still played with so much energy in the second half.
He was dunking on people, he was getting to the basket,
(16:41):
he was it didn't seem like his energy dropped it all.
So I think that was also, you know, not fun
to see because the game was so brutal, but just
another sign of the way his motivation and his energy
has definitely gone up a lot. And you can see
how that's, you know, coming from the fact that his
conditioning is so good.
Speaker 8 (17:00):
Yeah, I mean, I think consistency is key with him,
and to your point, and not only on both ends
of the court, but from beginning to end, he's started
games a lot more aggressive, and he's maintained it throughout
and I think that if we can continue to see
this version of Zion with a healthy Pelicans team, we're
not that far off from being extremely successful. Yeah, it
(17:22):
hurts that de Jonte Murty's not going to be available
for a lot of the season next year, but man
Z's shown that he can be that guy that gets
this offense going.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I think one of the things that's interesting too is
you've heard him in the recent weeks and I think
even after Wednesday's game on TV Aaron he was telling Andrew,
if you want to be the best player in your team,
you have to guard the best player on their team
and things that nature. So to your point, light bulb
going off. Look And I just think at the end
of the day, he's well aware that it's your seven.
(17:53):
Yeah next year, Yeah, it's her seven next year. The
good thing, I think is you are seeing that when
every gets together, the health, the mentals, the physical. I mean,
he's one of the dominant players in the league. So
I had something good I guess to look into next year.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (18:09):
I mean, it might not feel all the time that
he's worth it, because you don't know about his availability,
but I think this season he's proved that he's matured.
He knows what it takes. And yeah, if this is
the version we're going to see of Z every night,
then it was worth it because he is an absolute,
(18:33):
not even game changer, but franchise changer.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Well, twelve games remains, six on a road, six at home.
Hopefully some Peals fans will get to see him before
the season ends here at the Smoothie King Center. Now, now, Jim,
you said you went back and remembered it to the
hard fall, So he legit has a bobo.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
I mean he has a bruise. I mean he landed
on his back on our hardwood.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Couple of teams in the NBA, what are some of
the reasons for them, perhaps Jim to not be playing well,
I don't know. Five starters, six starters, seven of the
top players in it.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
I think LaMelo Ball, what was it? He was rested.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Because he's got to get ready for rest.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
He has to get ready for rest. Yes, the Charlotte
head coach had that to say, what do you.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Make of all this?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah, I mean I think this is something, unfortunately that
we saw coming in terms of how hypes this draft classes,
and you know, some of the players at the top
of it seemed to be guys that, along what Aaron
just said about Zion, seemed to be people that are
projected to be franchise changers. So but I mean we
not only you know, you mentioned Charlotte's case, but Utah
objectively was just fined one hundred thousand dollars for the
(19:41):
way that they handled LORI marketing.
Speaker 8 (19:43):
And that's not even a slap on the wrist for this.
These teams, like, right, that's insane. If you can trade
one hundred thousand dollars for the number one pick in
the NBA draft, I think anybody would do that.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
That's just Jim's expense account.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I mean, Jim was absolutely true. I'd pay one hundred
thousand dollars every week now. And the thing, you know,
the thing that's interesting too about the Utah situation is
it's almost like you know, when people talk about you know,
you're trying to put somebody in prison, and you find
something like he was littering and you put him in
prison for that. Like the marketing thing, to me is
only the tip of the iceberg of what Utah is doing.
(20:16):
But it was what the league could catch them on
because he was a recent All Star, therefore he fell
falls under the player participation policy. But I mean, there's
so many other things that they've done this year where
it's just out of sync with the way that you
would handle the season. So, you know, it's just one
of those things where it's been jarring to see the way.
(20:37):
I do think that this problem has lessened a little
bit with when they changed the lottery format in twenty nineteen,
and they made it so it's not like the worst
team in the league has the best percentage. It's more flattened,
is the word that they always use, where the odds
aren't that much different between the team that has the
worst record in the fifth or sixth worst record percentage wise,
(20:57):
but you're still seeing, you know, agregious case is like
that worthy Obviously if the NBA has to step in
and find you, even if that money isn't drop in
the bucket, it's definitely a sign of something that needs
to be looked at. In my opinion, I.
Speaker 8 (21:11):
Totally understand this from a fan standpoint. This season for
the Pelicans has not been what we wanted it to be.
You have so many injuries, you're not winning, Let's just
go ahead, throw in the towel and make it worse something,
go and get the number one pick. However, you go
in that locker room and look every single one of
(21:31):
those players in the face and tell them we want
you to lose or we're not playing tonight. How is
that taken. These players are competitive by nature, They're getting
paid to play, and they want to play. I mean, Zion,
as much as he's dealt with this, always says he
wants to play, he wants to be on the court.
(21:53):
So it's a weird. It's a weird situation for I
would say front office to handle because you want to
maximize your potential in the future, and you can do
that in the draft, but you also can't lose your
locker room and you can't have these players throw, you know,
you can't tell them to throw games. That's just not.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Well, yeah, that's.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
To your point.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
And look, I think the interesting thing is we've discussed
throughout the season too. When you just look at this
roster right and used to look at Alfred Payton coming
back for a ten day, I mean, Brandon Boston.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
There's some guys on this team that have.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I wouldn't say benefited because you hate that that's how
it happened. But to your point, Arin, it's an opportunity
for them. Willie Green has been saying that, look is
how you have to look at it.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Those guys want to be in the league. They like
living like Jim I can offer here, you know, and
traveling in.
Speaker 8 (22:45):
Style, you know, playing hard and getting better because you
have more minutes I e. Tray Murphy and what we're
seeing was Zion Williamson at the beginning of the year.
Do you remember how we were talking about how we're
going to play small ball. Look at this team now
we're seeing that these bigs alongside z work really frickin' well.
(23:06):
We wouldn't have known that had everybody been healthy, because
that lineup would have never been something we needed or
went to.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Willie Green literally just said that on Wednesday two days ago,
that if eve me c, that the growth of eve
me C is that.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
David Griffin on Monday said the same thing too.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
It's like, Hey, if we don't have the injuries and
we don't have the season we have, we'll leave me C.
Would have we would have been playing right now now,
he's a guy that's going to be looked at as
one of the top rookies. So you can look at
it from a number of perspective, but that's one of
the things that you look at. So I mean tanking,
I don't.
Speaker 8 (23:37):
Think that's why you still compete to the end because
you never know what may come of it.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
How do you fix it?
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Is it something like that where if you get fined automatically,
should you talk whatever team if you get that, if the.
Speaker 8 (23:50):
Fine doesn't bother Jim, I can offer, it's not going
to bother the owner of the YouTube.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I agree, which is why I'm saying, is that a
way to maybe fix it that if you do get
found doing something agreed just where you get fined, you
were disqualified from winning them.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I like that idea. I like that idea. Put them
at fourteenth in the lottery and say, hey, that's where
you are. I mean, I've brought this up before, maybe
going back a couple of months too. I really dislike
the conditional first round the protected first round picks, because,
for example, Philadelphia is in a situation where they're vastly
incentivized to finish with a bottom five record because their
(24:24):
pick is top six protected, and if it doesn't fall
in the top six, it's going to go to Oklahoma City.
I would love to get rid of all of the
protections on picks because I feel like that also is
happening too often where it's obvious to people, whether the
team wants to admit it or not, in the case
of the Sixers, that it makes way more sense for
them to lose than to win. So I want to
(24:45):
get rid of that. But I mean another solution I have,
and you know, let's be about trying to come up
with solutions on this podcast instead of just complaining Gus.
I like, I'm in favor of the idea of having
the fourteen teams that are in the lottery everyone has
exactly the same percentage chance to get the first pick
and all the way through. So therefore you get rid
(25:05):
of all of the incentives in terms of, well, if
we finish with a worse record than this team, we
have a better chance than this just gets to the point,
and one of the biggest pushbacks on that would be like, well,
it's not fair because if you win fifteen games, you
shouldn't have the same percentage chance as a team that
just missed the playoffs, and to that, I say, too bad.
Just put a better team on the court. It's time
(25:27):
to stop having everyone have like a safety net for losing.
I just want to come up with it. And this
is also something I've talked about several times on the podcasts,
like we need to come up with ways to make
it important to win today and not next year, not
two years from now. And so I think that's another thing.
Just get rid of all of the incentives to lose,
(25:47):
and I think the last month of the regular season
would be so much better. And it would there'd be
so fewer times where you I've done this myself as
a as a fan, you tune on, you tune into
a game and you're like, oh, no, you'll Kich isn't playing,
Murray's not playing. I mean, just to pick one example
of a game that people were excited to watch recently
and they didn't play. That's obviously a different conversation than
(26:07):
the lottery teams, but the point being that there's just
too many times where you turn the game on and
you're expecting it to be the main group of players
for this team, these teams, and you're seeing guys that
wouldn't even normally be on the court.
Speaker 8 (26:21):
Oh, I was just gonna say, this has nothing to
do with tanking or what not, but we should get
rid of back to backs because that is a built
in excuse for players not to play. But that's different Tangent.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
I was gonna ask you, is you'd have to cut
You'd have to cut it from eighty two games, because
I don't think in the window that they have on
the calendar, with a lot of these arenas also having
hockey teams, where they could ever get it to where
there's no back to backs as long as they play
eighty two game schedule and still have like an All
Star break and still have all the other parts of
the schedule. But I mean, I think most of us
(26:53):
are in favor of if they could cut it down
to like seventy seventy six games. But the problem with
that is, like everyone's like, hey, when when you ask
a group of people in the NBA, whether it's the players, whoever, Hey,
you want to reduce the schedule, Yes, they all raise
their hand and they say you want to take less money?
And then everyone puts their hand hand down. So but
I mean, I like the idea too of getting rid
of the back to back so or at least reducing
(27:13):
them to the point where maybe you only have five
or six. I don't think they can ever get to
zero as long as we play. We're playing eighty two games.
Speaker 8 (27:20):
The NFL extended their season, I mean, is that not
a possibility for the NBA if you want to spread it.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Out a little bit further, So we end what second
week of April? Mid April's call it date April. What
if you end at the end of April. Yeah, right,
I think in April early May, because I mean my
thing is, I mean, you just go as long as
you want. Instead of starting October third, start October thirtieth.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Yes, And I mean that's what I word, because.
Speaker 8 (27:42):
The playoff teams, you're in the championship, like that's the
it's a long time to be playing.
Speaker 7 (27:47):
But I don't know.
Speaker 8 (27:49):
I think I think with Utah, and I told this
to Jim earlier, if you are so blatantly tanking like
they are they are, and they have been since January,
then they should automatically get the last pick in the lottery,
like automatically.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
I like it.
Speaker 8 (28:07):
I think that we should still apply some advantage to
some of the teams that are worse off because there
is there's different market sizes, there a different amount of
money people will spend. We want to try to make
this as equal competitive, as equally competitive as we can,
which also means we need to figure out what the
heck is going on with the East because none of
those teams have been eliminated from the playoffs yet, which
(28:29):
is wild because two of those teams are worse than us.
But again another tangent, you know.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
I had a friend recently who said that the way
the NBA teams, you know, such as the ones that
we've cited, have behaved, they don't deserve the right to
have parody. And I think that there's a good point
there somewhere in the mix of like the system only works.
When they originally set up the lottery system, it was
with the understanding that it works if everyone is trying
(28:56):
their hardest to win games, and the team that has
the worst record legitimately is the worst team with the
they put out maximum effort, and they still were terrible.
They still had the worst record. But once you start
tinkering with it and having all these other artificial things
that go into the system, the whole thing falls apart
in terms of what it was intended to be. So,
I mean, I think that is a that is something
(29:18):
to think about.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
That.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
It's like at a certain point when you behave a
certain way, it's like a little kid that you have
to kind of discipline and be like, you know, if
you're gonna have if you're gonna eat sixteen balls of
ice cream, we're gonna have to take the ice cream
away from you. It's kind of like that. I feel
like in a certain way, it's like I don't feel
sympathy for any team that does intentionally does stuff like
that and be like, oh, well, you know, we need
(29:41):
to treat them fairly that we need to make sure
that they get the pick that they should get based
on the record. It's like they don't deserve the pick
that they should get if they're if they it was
artificial the way they got to the record they got.
Speaker 8 (29:51):
Can we relegate them like they do over We talk
about that them to the G League?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Yeah, we were thinking about either something like that. But
I mean, look, the other thing too, is that just
there's a level of respect in there with you, the fan,
the paying customer, the people actually goes Aaron. If you
go to dinner expecting something and maybe that meal isn't there,
or there's no water, there's no utensils. I mean, if
you're going somewhere to expect something, right, we go to
the movie, Well, the sound's not working today, You're just
(30:17):
gonna have to read the closed caption. I mean, we
wouldn't stand for that.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Anytime you go.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
To the grocery store and only four out of seven
times the grapes are fresh, I would or I would
never go back to or.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
You can be like, hey, unfortunately today you can only
shop from asles seven to ten.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Aisles one through six is closed today. I mean that
wouldn't because.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
A lot of fans don't know that, right, I mean
they buy tickets months in advance, they have certain packages.
Maybe we look at it differently, guys, because we work
in a building where you know, we see we see
the people that are charged to trying to sell tickets
and get packages together, and we're also normal people where
we all depend on our dollar and how far we
(30:59):
can have it to right. So I think there's a
level of respect that which is probably why I think
you get so and say been out of shape upset
by that, because yeah, I mean, but you're right though,
I mean there's a level of respect to that. You know.
It's like, because I want to ask your expertise on this,
because you also cover the Saints, which you've been busy
the last couple of days as free agency has started
and you know, talking to players like that. Why is
(31:20):
it work in the NFL? I know, a couple of
years ago the league said, hey, the league was resting,
the teams were rusting players.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
The last two weeks.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
So they made a change where they made a conference
games towards the last four month of the season where
it mattered where you won your division. Right, I'm sorry,
division games? Yeah, but still you covered a team in
the Saints this year that at halftime, we're leading the
Bucks in the last game of the year, and Spencer
Rattler and then we're doing everything they could to win.
(31:49):
Saints had no business going to the playoffs. Wasn't gonna happen.
All they're gonna do was Jim's favorite thing, spoiler scale here.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Why does it work in the NFL?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Though?
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Why?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Why are those games competitive with guys they are not?
The Saints are going to pick first. They weren't gonna
pick first but they show up to play the last game.
Speaker 8 (32:04):
I think that it has to do with the limited
number of games, that each one is so much more
important that you can't you don't know what's going to happen,
so you're not going to start tanking so to speak,
early in the season. Or there's players this is their
livelihood and if they have this one opportunity to play,
like Spencer Rattler at the end of the season, to
(32:26):
show that he's not a fluke or whatever as far
as being drafted and he can do all the things.
It's just the injuries around him that he is going
to give it everything he's got and you can't tell
him not to.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Yeah, I mean, that's another reason why for the case
of shortening the NBA schedule too to I mean, I
feel I'm sure a lot of people would say that
if you cut it to seventy from eighty two, that
still wouldn't make that much of a difference. But I
think the scarcity of the games definitely makes a huge difference.
I mean, think about it. You only if you're an
NFL player, you only get seventeen opportunities in games to
prove how good you are. You know, the future of
(33:01):
your career, whether you should be re signed, how much
money you should make in free agency. I'd have to
go back and look, but I mean, by Thanksgiving the
Pelicans had played seventeen games. There's just there's just you know,
you just don't. I mean, part of this is human
nature too. You just it's impossible to value every single
NBA game the way that you do with the NFL.
So I can totally see that that that's a huge difference.
(33:23):
I mean, this is a whole other conversation too. I've
thought about this many times when people compare the NFL
and the NBA. To me, the biggest advantage you can
argue about the game itself, you know how much people
like the physicality of football over basketball or over other sports.
But to me, the biggest advantage that the NFL has
is the game schedule. Because if the NBA schedule was
seventeen games in the NFL was eighty two. Granted, it's
(33:45):
physically impossible play eighty two football games, but just bear
with me on this analogy. If the schedules were flipped,
I think the NBA would be a lot more if
there was seventeen is not possible, but say it was
the NBA season was thirty games. I think the NBA
would have a lot The ratings for each individual game
would be so much higher, maybe the league would be
more popular. They came up with eighty two games seventy
(34:07):
something years ago when they were trying to figure out
how how do we put games in this arena when
hockey's not playing, So it's it doesn't really make sense
to play eighty two games, but it's just it's it
was a grandfather and in and it's been that way
ever since.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
To y'all's point. Behind you.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
On the TV, they're showing highlights from the first round,
full day of the NCAA March madness. Right, they play
thirty some odd games, and those games all matter, right,
because it's it's seeding all that your polls all matter
and to help get you the seeds into the turn.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
So each game does matter.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Winning your conference, your conference tournament, how you can play
in if you win the conference turn. So they make
each game something valid. I know the NBA try to
do that mid season tournament and stuff.
Speaker 8 (34:49):
I think there should be something with their division because
it doesn't matter if you win your division in the NBA,
like what's the point of you even having them?
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Right, they just use it. It's basically just uses a scheduling. Yeah, right, yeah,
what would you do with the division? I think they
should play more division games? You can play, Yeah, seeing.
Speaker 8 (35:11):
If you do a first half and second half like
MLB used to do, Like you win the first half
of the season, you get automatic into playoffs, and.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Then you reset it everyone zero zero in the second half.
It's interesting. Yeah, yeah, that's an interesting idea. Yeah, I
don't know. I think the thing that's weird is the
divisions used to be more important. They actually intentionally devalued them,
which I at the time I didn't agree with at all,
But it was one of those things where it's, again,
(35:39):
everyone is so obsessed with everything being quote unquote fair
that they didn't like the fact that there was teams
that won the division that had like a two seed,
and someone that had a worse record had a six seed, say,
or a better record had a six seed, Whereas in
the NFL it seems like no one Betts and I
that a team wins a division at nine to eight
and they get a higher seed than someone else that won.
(36:00):
The Vikings won fourteen games.
Speaker 8 (36:02):
Shout out to the NFC South yea, yeah so.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
But I mean the NBA is the opposite of that though.
The NBA, it seems like any time that someone a
team is in a situation where they complain about something,
the league's reaction is like, oh, we got to change that, yeah,
even if for the betterment of the league it's not
a good decision. I think that's what happened with divisions,
is that they you know, they devalued them. I think
two and again, I'm going on a bunch of different
(36:25):
tangents here. If and when they expand, I think they
go to thirty two teams, they should go back to
having like eight teams in every division. The way it
used to be, you had six or seven teams in
your division and there were fewer divisions, so there was
more value to the division back in the day than
there is now because I mean, there's only five teams
in each division. The leader of the South East Division
(36:46):
in the NBA right now is I think Atlanta, and
they're like thirty two and thirty eight, thirty two and
thirty six. It's just no one cares about the divisions anymore.
I think when they expand, they can rethink the way
that they do things, and hopefully we'll go back to
a point where it's like the division matters. I mean
there's people who cover the NBA they don't even know
the team that they cover who's in their division. So
(37:07):
I mean that just that just goes to show you.
Speaker 8 (37:09):
My last pitch is just to move the Pelicans to
the east.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
I'm all, might come on, I mean, it's an easier
have you have the barrier, Let's do it Mississippi River.
Right east of the river, you're the east. West of
the river, you're in the west. I mean, would makes
sense to you. Look, I think the one thing that
we figured out here in our little chit chat is
there are ways to make it more competitive, perhaps right,
(37:33):
and to help things like tanking or just not have
a good product in these games. Because guys, we've been
covering the league for a while, it just feels like
year after year now recently, I mean, thirty point forty
six point losses are becoming common that that wasn't ever
the case. I mean, right, I mean I'm not wrong
on that, huh. I mean, I know, I'm almost fifty.
(37:54):
I can't think of anything anymore, but.
Speaker 8 (37:56):
Yeah, I mean they weren't scoring as many points.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Well that's just whether it's a three point game or what.
But I mean blowouts are like commonplace. And you know,
I kind of started seeing this, what two three years
ago where I remember talking about it on my talk show.
There was a playoff run I think Golden State and
Boston met I think or something like that in the finals,
and both though those teams had a game or two
(38:19):
in their playoff run where they lost by thirty. But
yet eventually we're gonna play in the finals. I'm like,
what in the world's going on. That's not the norm,
you know, like Jordan's Bulls didn't lose by thirty in
their playoff run.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
It just never happened.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
So we've heard the commissioner talking to midseason tournament they're
gonna look at the three point shot in the game.
You guys are talking about how to make games more competitive,
scheduling all that. I think we're all agreeing something can
maybe be looked at. It least to maybe be done
to make games more competitive and not have situations like tanking.
Speaker 8 (38:50):
Yeah, and people like Browne shouldn't be grandfathered in because
of their dad.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
He does have more three corners made though, now that's
a whole other episode.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Ben Simmons, I saw that. I sent that to I
know he was very excited today.
Speaker 8 (39:01):
Seventeen points last night in garbage time.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
Whoop do you do?
Speaker 7 (39:05):
Hey?
Speaker 2 (39:05):
It is funny that they did show lebron working out
before the game and Bronny and then they last I checked,
they were down by like twenty or thirty to the bumm.
Speaker 8 (39:12):
Yeah, they were getting blown out. That's why he was
playing off.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
So got a twelve games left, a dozen games, six home,
six road.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Let's see what takes place here.
Speaker 8 (39:21):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I cannot believe that
we're closing in on the end already, but wild season.
So we'll see what we got the last twelve.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Yeah, I mean this is going to be. I think
one of the things I'm going to get into this
in the last segment too, just the opportunity for some
of these guys that haven't played that much the season,
or have started to play more and more lately, like
Karlo Mekovich. Just that's going to be I think one
of the biggest things to focus on in the last
dozen games is just I mean, you know, we've talked
about this a million times. They're not in the race,
(39:51):
but just the player development part of it, I think
will be something that will be the most interesting aspect
of this last few weeks of the season.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Aarony Summers the way to give a follow over there
on all the social media platforms as well. Plus don't
forget tonight over on the Gulf Coast Sports Entertainment Network
with Wes Johnson.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Thank you, Aaron, Thank.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
You, our thanks to Aaron for joining us here and
give us a lot of I guess ideas for the
commissioner Adam Silva, you had.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Some great ideas here as well.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Look, thanks guys.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Is that the one thing that you do see though
with him? And I know David Stern was known really
good with that. And this league's been a league that
is not MLB, you know what, resistant to change and stuff,
although they've made some changes as of late. But I
do believe when I hear the commission mid season in
Vegas say hey, we're gonna look at these things and
(40:37):
in all those things, because I do think at the
end of the day, we all want a good product,
we all want to watch competitive play, and we want
to get back to you know, the NBA is fantastic,
and you have to put on every game because you
don't know what you're gonna see, right.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
The league has been very proactive. I mean, you know,
I think the opinion about the play in tournament, I
think has been overwhelming whelmingly positive. There might be a
few people that don't like the fact that now the
ninth and tenth place teams get to extend their season,
whereas before they would have been done. But I do
think that that that's been a huge positive. The play
in tournament, the in season tournament, NBA Cup we should
(41:12):
call it officially now, I think that's been more positive
than negative as well. I mean, I think there's probably
more detractors of that than there is with the play
in tournament, But the point being that these are I
think these are things that are so kind of outside
the box that the NBA structured itself the same way
for a long time, over decades and decades, and so
(41:34):
the league's willingness to make some of these changes definitely
is a sign kind of like you were saying, of
that they're willing to look at things, which I think
is encouraging the fact that you can identify a problem
they've been very good at Okay, we see what's wrong.
We see let's come up with different ways to fix it.
Let's implement them. Let's not drag our feet and wait forever. Yeah,
to actually try the change. And I think for the
(41:55):
most part, the stuff that's happened in this decade has
been has been really good.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
Hey, look, let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Right, as you mentioned in the conversation with Aaron, there
was a new TV deal that is starting with the league,
and partners of the league paid a lot of money
to be a part of it.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
NBC.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
We're gonna see what happens with inside the NBA with
Shock in them and Charles and what's gonna happen with
that Amazon coming.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
They all cut in big checks.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
You know what they don't like if you cut big
checks and no one watches advertising does not.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
So I do think they have the power. They have
the influence to say we need you need to make
these changes, you need to do X, y Z to
satisfy us. And the league isn't in position to be like, nah,
we're gonna We're not gonna do anything. We're They're gonna
they're going to have to address whatever issues and concerns
that the partners have.
Speaker 4 (42:43):
And that's not us being fuddy duddies, like, no, this
is fact. Like the ratings are not as high as
they have been.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
There's you know, games like we mentioned in the conversation
with Aaron, where you're down thirty, you're down.
Speaker 4 (42:54):
Forty more than once or twice a season.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
You know, So looking at gameplay, as you guys talked about,
looking at if teams are really trying to be.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
Competitive night in a night out, is it.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Time to shorten? I mean Steve Kerr said, hey, wh
should shorten the season? How does money affect? So there's
a lot of things. I'm very interested how that's gonna go.
Because I know in the NFL that have owners meetings
right in the spring where they all get together and
look over at rules and stuff. The NBA per se
doesn't have that. Do they have government meetings?
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Yeah they do. Yeah, So I'm.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Interested to see how that goes. But look, we got
we got twelve games left. Let's uh, let's focus on that.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
But we got a lot I think of things that
could be very interesting from Pell's draft picks, two changes
in the league to expansion and all that stuff coming
up here in the next couple months if not season.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
So, uh, it is Friday, gym seeing what that means.
Speaker 8 (43:49):
TG I, Jim, it's Friday, which means mister Eichenhoffer. As
a pair of things for us, trending numbers and weekend showdown,
what are we starting with?
Speaker 3 (44:03):
Jim, Let's start with the trending number and that is five,
which is the rank that the Pelicans have. If you
look at all of the rookies in the NBA and
you add up all of the minutes that they've played,
the Pelicans have received the fifth most minutes played by rookies.
So I thought this was actually a stat that John
Schumann of NBA dot com wrote about at the beginning
(44:25):
of the week in his power Rankings, which is honestly
one of my favorite things to read it about the
league by anyone. But it was interesting because if you
think about it, going back to the win the season started,
you would have never thought that, Okay, the Pelicans are
going to be one of the teams that relies on
rookies the most to play minutes the season. You know,
you expected them to be in the playoff race. You
(44:47):
expected them to be, you know, not relying on guys
that haven't have literally no experience in the NBA. So
but over the course of the season, Eve me C
is third among all rookies in minutes played, with a
little bit over seventeen hundred minutes. Carlo Makovich is twenty ninth,
Antonio Reeves is thirty ninth. But the interesting thing about
(45:09):
both of those two guys is they've both played more
since the All Star Break than they did before it.
So that's just something to keep an eye on, just
to see how many minutes those guys play over the
last few weeks of the season. I also thought it
was interesting too, if you look at all the teams
in the NBA, the five teams that have gotten the
most minutes from rookies played this season is Washington's number one,
(45:30):
Utah two, Toronto three, Memphis four, and the Pelicans five.
It's kind of interesting that the Grizzlies are such a
huge outlier among those five teams because all of those teams,
except for the Grizzlies are among the bottom teams in record,
which you would expect if you're getting tons of minutes
from rookies, you're most likely not gonna win a ton
of games. We all know that the teams at the
(45:51):
top of the standings, generally speaking, are the teams that
have experience and the guys that have been All Stars
for year after year. Your Lebron James is your yokches
those guys. So it's interesting that the Grizzlies actually are
kind of the one exception to that group of teams.
The weekend showdown, this was actually pretty easy pick, and
(46:13):
this is a really interesting game. On Sunday at six o'clock,
Denver will be playing at Houston. The Nuggets right now
are third place in the West at forty four and
twenty six. They're one game behind the Rockets, who are
in second place at forty five and twenty five. So,
I mean, this could be a preview of the Western
Conference semifinals if things hold where those teams are and
(46:33):
they both advance from the first round two seed versus
a three seed, So there's a lot at stake in
that matchup. Obviously, OKAC has the number one seed wrapped up.
They might even actually almost have it mathematically clinched as
far as having the best record in the West. They
and so there's a huge fight and battle between the
(46:53):
teams right underneath the thunder and the standings. By the
way too, if the season ended today, the Nuggets at
the three seed would play against Golden State as a
six seed. What a series that would be, and then
Houston as the two seed, would play the winner of
the play in game the seven to eight playing game
between the Clippers and the Timberwolves, which I think also
would be really interesting to see the Rockets either play
(47:15):
the veteran Clippers or the Timberwolves that made the Western
Conference finals a year ago and have a ton of talent.
So that's the weekend showdown. Really good game Sunday night.
You know, in and around your NCAA tournament watching that
you do this weekend, maybe you want to tune into
the league Pass and watch the Nuggets play the Rockets
in one of the better games we'll see over the
stretch of the season.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
Really impressive, OKC clinching the top seed in the West
and they have it by twelve and a half games.
Last year they won the West last game of the year.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
Yeah, what a difference.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Just quickly, I mean, your thoughts on that team. I
was just scrolling. They have single digit losses, okay, Jim
on the road, Yeah, seven five losses at home. The
only other team that has that same number is Cleveland.
(48:06):
They have five losses at home, eight losses away. Cleveland
and OKC statistically, you know, look at it those I mean,
but that can you imagine just losing five games at home? Now,
I don't think of OKAC as you know, a tough
place to play, or is it you?
Speaker 3 (48:21):
I mean it is because their crowd is really loud,
and I think, I mean, they they always are pretty intense,
so I think it's I mean, it was less a
tough place to play when they were one of the
worst teams in the league. I don't know, it's weird
how that works, but yeah, the last couple of years,
they I think they have developed a really good home
court advantage. I mean, I think Okac's record. I think
one of the most impressive parts about Oklahoma City, beyond
(48:44):
just the record that they have of you know, where
they are, is the fact that they're doing it in
this West. There's so many good teams in the West.
If you think about the record that they've put together
having to play against the competition that they have, and
I think, I mean one of the biggest pieces of
evan of how good the West is two. Is the
fact that even the second place team has twenty five losses,
(49:06):
which you're you're actually gonna see a thing this year
where a lot of times the number two seed in
the West, like it was last year, has like fifty
five fifty six wins. It's gonna be a lot less
than that this year because I mean, even if Houston won,
if Houston went undefeated the rest of the season, which
probably won't happen, they'd still finish at fifty seven and
twenty five. So you're you're just seeing, like after OKAC,
(49:28):
you're seeing how difficult it is to put together a
great record in this conference. And I mean, I would
definitely be happy to be forty five and twenty five
right now the way Houston is, But I mean that's
not like an elite record for the second best team
in a conference the way like if you look at
the East, where Boston is probably five at least five
six games ahead of Houston. Yeah, exactly. So it just
(49:52):
just shows you that the West has been been a
lot different this year than it has been in the
in the recent pot.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
To your point, though, thirty two and eleven in con
for in Sarthy Oklahoma City Thunder and Aaron again a
twelve and a half game lead, and they're Oh by
the way, they're only peaking nine to one in their
last ten games, Houston eight and two in the last
ten game. It's a very good pick for your weekend showdown.
The Rockets have won eight in a row. Jim, enjoy
the weekend, sir. We're gonna enjoy it twice this weekend.
(50:20):
A couple of watch parties. Tonight we will be at
Fat Harry's. Come on out here, the Pelican members of
the pel squad. It's an official Corona watch party. Come
on out, get some Corona gear, wink.
Speaker 4 (50:32):
Wink other stuff. You're gonna have fun.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Plus, of course, on Sunday, we're gonna be a Uptown
sports social over our magazine Street there as well. So
hope to see you either tonight or Sunday. They'll have
the NCAA games on, We'll have the Pels game on
here as well.
Speaker 4 (50:45):
We'll have a lot of fun. Thank you, Jim, look
forward to seeing you.
Speaker 3 (50:47):
Thanks Gus. I'm looking forward to it to be fun.
All right.
Speaker 4 (50:49):
We'll see you on Monday on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
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 Guss
a follow on x at Jim Underscore I Can Offer
(51:12):
and Gcat Underscore seventeen. We'll see you next time right
here on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast
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 cover the NBA on a daily basis.
It's time to flock up. The New Orleans Pelicans Podcast
(00:29):
starts right now.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, if we want to welcome to the New Orleans
Pelicans Podcast, your official podcast of the New Orleans Pelicans.
Mister Jim, I can offer and Gus Catten Gill here
with you on a Friday, and it's not Tgif is TGI, Jim,
you'll get what we're talking about here in a minute,
Aaron Summers is going to join us. Next segment, Jim,
We're going to go over a handful of topics with
her as the season is now down to a dozen games,
(00:56):
game thirteen left to play, which was on when day
you and I talked about it in a Wednesday podcast.
When you lose by forty six like you did on Monday,
there was really only one thing you and I wanted
to see, right, competitiveness at Minnesota.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
And did you get some did your big time? You
did time?
Speaker 4 (01:13):
Yeah, Well, this is go ahead I.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Was that was one of the best wins of the
season for sure. It was definitely objectively the best road
win of the season, the only win that they've had
in a way in this year against a team that
has a winning record overall.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
Well, this is what it sounded like on the Pelicans
radio network.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
That don't hurt my heart just because you hate you
hate see anybody go down like that. You know, he's
made so many strides this season, and you know sounds cheese,
but you know this is a minor setback for a
major comeback. Trey gonna do what he needed to do
to get back on the court and come back better
than ever.
Speaker 6 (01:47):
Randall, Wayne and See poked it away from Conley, big boy,
look out, close it up, and then Randall was closing
down Ze just stop.
Speaker 7 (01:56):
And take the world the left hand.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
See he blows through four defenders and scoops it in
with a left hand.
Speaker 7 (02:06):
To tell you something, there consequences. They're repercussing the duke.
Speaker 6 (02:09):
We're up one thirty seconds left in the third, Zion
and just pounded by Randall.
Speaker 7 (02:14):
It doesn't matter.
Speaker 6 (02:16):
Zion drives in. He scoops it up with a left
hand over the top of the boxing down twenty seven
per Zike.
Speaker 7 (02:23):
Go ahead, see stay thirsty, my friend.
Speaker 6 (02:25):
Brown, now z get it to eat, and this time
he will finish with a right hand punch. Little frustration
right there from the rookie.
Speaker 7 (02:36):
If at first you don't succeed, try try, try, try, try, try,
try try again.
Speaker 6 (02:43):
It's pretty accurate by my partner. Dose around o'lennox throwing
out in the corner. Brown, No dip three? Are you serious?
Are you serious? Cowboy? Rotting cowboy in front of our bench.
He's got fifteen for me.
Speaker 7 (03:00):
Three round is four for six from three.
Speaker 6 (03:03):
We're up two two minutes left in Minnesota, Olenic drive
with two with one tear drop Bruce Brown, brick rebound, take.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
It by the column, back it out, back it out.
Speaker 6 (03:16):
Bounce feed Almorado to z Hangs blaze it in.
Speaker 7 (03:19):
Where lay one?
Speaker 6 (03:22):
With thirteen point six seconds left, where is the and
one doesn't matter?
Speaker 7 (03:28):
Curious Dunton doesn't get the call.
Speaker 6 (03:30):
You're up four with thirteen point six seconds, get it
in to read back to Conley, Conley chess up to Edwards.
Speaker 7 (03:38):
Fake a three, take a three, brick want rebound. C
that's gonna do it. That'll do it, that is gonna
do it, that will do it. Randal with the fall,
and I mean the rest of the people who did
not leave earlier, my heavens are are literally sprinting for
the exits.
Speaker 6 (03:57):
That is an unbelievable way, and that is a brutal,
brutal loss for the Timberwolves.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
John the Chaser and Telegraph and any with the calls there. Look,
Zion was just playing amazing, but you heard in so
many of those calls. Jim Kelly Lennik had an incredible
game that fourth quarter. Bruce Brown with some big shots
there as well. We talked and played some soundbites Wednesday
from David Griffin, specifically talking about those two guys.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
If I look at that game.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
And I'm David Griffin, that's it's exactly what I was
trading for right there, right, I mean, those two guys
literally helped your star player, Zion Williamson.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Win the game for sure. I mean those are the
kind of wins. I mean, you win in Minnesota, a
team that's battling for top six in the West. You know,
is a team that made the Western Conference finals. Last year.
We know how good they are. For you to go
in there and get a win like this. I thought
that was really impressive. And I think, you know, even
though they're we're going to talk about this later too,
(05:02):
that there have been several games where they haven't been
in it at all, where they're down by thirty something
at home against Orlando, and then in the recent game
against Detroit. This was a great bounce back. And I
do think that it's been kind of jacky and hide,
but you know, some games they've been getting routed, and
other games they've been they've looked really good. They also
had a recent win against the Clippers, which is another
(05:24):
team that is right there in the race for top
six in the West. And I mean, one kind of
quick fact they have. The Pelicans have six wins this
season against teams that have a winning record over the
course of the entire year, but two of them have
happened in the last ten days. There was the win
against the Clippers on March eleventh, and then there was
the win Wednesday at Minnesota. So I can't explain it
why we're seeing so kind of schizophrenic performances from the Pelicans,
(05:48):
but I mean, it does seem when they're right, Like
you said, it's This is what you hope for when
you added those two guys, that you're able to have
the veteran presence and be able to pull out games
like this.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Now, no basketball analystill to play one. On my talk
show Back in the day, Jim I would say, it's
probably because of something you've brought up in the past,
just you know, using the same schedules. You know, in
that schedules rosters or starting lineups, lineups, just you know,
working with certain players in combinations more often than not.
Obviously you know Trey gets injured, but for the most part,
(06:19):
you've had games together with people kind of playing on
the court. And I think it's something that we're going
to talk about with Aaron here Zions flip the switch.
I mean, it's Zion's playing really good basketball, and if
he's playing really good basketball and you sprinkle some vets,
sprinkle some guys playing. Look, the other thing we played
with Aragriffer on Wednesday was, you know some of the
(06:40):
young guys playing well. Carlo Mackovic had a nice game.
You've me see had a nice game in the win.
It's literally what you want to see, and that's why
these games do matter.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
Hunt Jim, Yeah, I mean Zion's had I don't think
I can put a number on it, but it feels
like he's had a handful of some of the best
games of his career over the last month or two.
So I mean the fact that he's at that level
where you know he's played, I guess you could characterize
it as all NBA. How many times do you think
he's looked like an All NBA player lately? I would
(07:09):
say it's been often, and I think Wednesday was the
case as well, where he goes for twenty nine points,
he had eight assists, he was twelve for sixteen from
the field that his had three steals. His presence was
just very evident. That his ability to kind of take
over games. We've seen that more and more, you know,
since he came back from his hamstring injury.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
No doubt.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Well, as I alluded to, we're gonna have a really
cool conversation here with Aaron, So we'll do that here
in a quick second. We'll be right back to wrap
things up for this Friday podcast as Jim gives us
his things to do on Friday weekend showdown, trending numbers
all that, But Aaron Summers joins us. Now here's our conversation,
all right, Tom now to bring in with Aaron Summers
sideline reporter, team reporter and of course host over in
(07:51):
the Gulf Coast Sports and Entertainment Network for the away games,
including tonight Aeron. So you know, he got a little
time before we go live tonight and see what takes
place in Minnesota.
Speaker 8 (08:03):
How you doing, I'm doing great. We already have a
couple news items today that I got to work through
to fit into the show. Because not only are we
doing the Pelicans Plus game tonight, where you can be
in the interactive chat with myself, Jim, Wes, and Andrew
that's gonna be throughout the game. You have to log
into Pelicans Plus you can ask us questions. But we
(08:23):
just found out that Zion Williamson is not playing tonight,
and then the Pelicans just signed to Alfred Payton to
a ten day contract, so and I sat a reward
for him for being available in and out when we
needed him this season, and it's gonna be cool to
see him tonight. So yeah, got a ton of stuff
going on.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
You guys have had a couple games off lately too
because of the situation with National TV and stuff like that.
Did you on Wednesday? You guys didn't have the you know,
the pregame in the post game, did you have withdrawal
or was this you know, kind of a nice breather from.
Speaker 8 (08:53):
The Jim Wes and I still got together and chat out, okay,
and before the game and chatted work stuff and everything,
and we watched the game, texted back and forth. Yeah,
I mean it's hard to just completely walk away. And ironically,
the Pelicans keep winning when we don't have postgame shows,
(09:14):
so we don't have those nice moments to talk about.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, that part is frustrating.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Yeah, no, that is frustrating.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
One of the things is frustrating, obviously, is the kind
of season that we've had.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Aaron, I'd love.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
To get your reaction when Trey Murphy got injured fifty
seconds into the game.
Speaker 8 (09:30):
Man, that was tough to watch. I hate it for
Trey because he has had to battle back from a
few different injuries, and he really seemed like he was
hitting his stride. He was getting more comfortable affecting the
game in different ways and sliding into that number two
for the Pelicans, and it's tough that he is out
(09:51):
because he's going to lose an entire summer of continuing
to work on his game. He'll be available once the
season starts. Good point any setbacks or anything like that,
But yeah, how is he gonna come in off of
that injury? And then how much better can he be
(10:11):
if he had had a whole summer to work on
some things?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Jim, You and I talked about it on the Wednesday
podcast about the growth that he had this season, right
from going from is this guy a starter in the
league too?
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Yeah, he is?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
And you and I going, Hey, he's got the makings
of the is you like to say, the recipe, the
ingredients of a good gumbo to be an All Star
perhaps eventually in his career. And what's remarkable is listening
to Aaron just now, I'm trying to think, has he
had more than one season where he's actually had a
summer and a start to the season, because he didn't
(10:43):
start last season right or this season he got died
and start last season.
Speaker 8 (10:47):
First game of training campers, she's going.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
To go into this season not fully healthy.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I guess maybe between his rookie season and his second year.
If I Vegas right, had that goodness maybe that was
the one time that he had a a full summer
to prepare and he didn't have any obstacles in the way.
So but yeah, it hasn't hasn't been very often for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
And I'm bringing that up only because it just kind
of maybe goes to add to just how good he
really is, right because he's not having the full summer,
in the full preseason and all that stuff to kind
of get going yet in season weeks in or days
in or games into the season. Boomy, he gets better
throughout the year. That's not the norm, right, Normally, as
Aaron said, you get better quote unquote in the lab,
(11:28):
he's getting better during the season.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Yeah, I think so. I mean, some of this is
just the reps that he's getting during games. The fact
that I think one of the biggest things this season
was he was able to apply during games how much
more of an improved ball handler he was, and just
the fact that he had a bigger role where it
wasn't I mean, because of some of the other guys
that were out. Obviously Abi was out for a while,
Zion was out for a couple of months. He ended
(11:51):
up being in a roll where he actually actually got
to create a shot a little bit more than he had,
a lot more than he had in the past, where
when some of those players were all out there, he
was really in more of that spot up shooting role.
So I mean that was we try to look for
silver linings, We try to look for some positives in
a year that has gone so awry like this. I
definitely think that might be one of them, is that
he got to kind of spread his wings and expand
(12:13):
his game a little bit more than maybe he would
have if his role had been similar to what it
was his first three years in the NBA.
Speaker 8 (12:20):
I think it's just evident that there's so much more
improvement there for Trey. You know, he is able to
improve work on different things throughout the season because of
the injuries, he was able to expand different areas of
his game, but really attacking them in the summer and
working through what he wants from that, I mean, I
(12:42):
think he can still work on his ball handling. I
think he can still work on creating his own shot, attacking,
getting to the rim, and being more consistent from three.
You know, we've had the up and down games from him.
He hit that slump for a little while earlier this year, recently,
and those are things that you need reps for. And
(13:02):
hopefully he is going to get healthy as quick as
possible and we can see him start to really make
some more strides forward, because I really think that. And
he'll tell you he wants to be an NBA All Star.
He wants to be a top scorer in the league
when it's all said and done. I mean, he was
not satisfied with top ten and Pelicans, you know, all
(13:25):
time scoring. He wants to be top ten in the NBA.
So more power to him. I think the drive is there.
I think the make up, the athleticism and the talent
he just got to kind of hone it in.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
It's remarkable you said that because even in games where
he didn't have good shooting nights, he's still scoring twenty
points and having you know, high lumborough assistant in rebounds.
Here's what Zion had to say Wednesday after the win
about Trey's injury.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
That don't hurt my heart just because you hate you
hate see anybody go down like that. You know, he's
made so many strides this season and you know sounds cheese, Well,
you know this is a minor setback for a major combat.
Trey gonna do what he need to do to get
back on the court and come back better than ever.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
All right, So Erin you mentioned Zion there. Look, I
know he's not playing tonight he had that heart fall
on Wednesday, but I know Jim wanted to get your
opinion on this too. CJ was asked, is this the
best Zion we've seen since becoming a Pelican? What do
you make of the way he's played since coming back
from injury.
Speaker 8 (14:26):
I think that this is something that's come up every
single game. Yes, this is the best that we've seen
Zion Williamson b But for me, it comes to a
point where Zion needs to realize everything needs to click
for him, that this is what it takes for me
to be the top of my game and as accessful
as I can be. It seems like the light bulb's
(14:47):
kind of gone off for him. He's mentioned it several
times where he's got to bring the same effort on
the defensive end as he has to offensively. We're seeing
it night in and night out with the steals and
the blocks. I mean, he has career high and blocks
and steals, But then he's not only going and getting
his points. On the other end, he has a career
highs and assists and rebounds, so all areas of the game,
(15:11):
he's attacking at a very high level. Maybe it has
something to do with the way that they've handled his minutes,
but now he's seeing as those minutes are increasing, this
is the kind of effort that it's going to take
for me to be the guy night in and night out.
And on Wednesday night we saw without a lot of
help around him, Sure, sure CJ had a bounce back game.
(15:35):
Jordan Hawkins helped, Bruce Brown helped, people helped. But going
against Minnesota, who is a better team, he was an
absolute game changer because of what he brought as a collective.
And I think that for him, it's kind of like
he gets it, he sees it, he's doing it now,
and he knows what it's going to take night in
(15:56):
and night out for that to be the result.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
It's too bad we're not going to see him tonight
because I was really looking forward to seeing how he
would follow up the performance that he had Wednesday against
the Timberwolves. I'm going to go out on a limb
here too and say I mean the reason that he's
not going to play. He had a hard fall where
he landed on his back, and honestly, I had kind
of kind of forgotten about that play until this morning
when they said he had a low back contusion, and
(16:19):
then thought back to it. But I think, you know,
along the lines of some of what you were saying, Aaron,
I think the game that he had Monday was really
impressive too, along the lines of his relentlessness and his determination,
because I mean, it was from a team standpoint, it
was hopeless. They're down by thirty five points, but he
still played with so much energy in the second half.
He was dunking on people, he was getting to the basket,
(16:41):
he was it didn't seem like his energy dropped it all.
So I think that was also, you know, not fun
to see because the game was so brutal, but just
another sign of the way his motivation and his energy
has definitely gone up a lot. And you can see
how that's, you know, coming from the fact that his
conditioning is so good.
Speaker 8 (17:00):
Yeah, I mean, I think consistency is key with him,
and to your point, and not only on both ends
of the court, but from beginning to end, he's started
games a lot more aggressive, and he's maintained it throughout
and I think that if we can continue to see
this version of Zion with a healthy Pelicans team, we're
not that far off from being extremely successful. Yeah, it
(17:22):
hurts that de Jonte Murty's not going to be available
for a lot of the season next year, but man
Z's shown that he can be that guy that gets
this offense going.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
I think one of the things that's interesting too is
you've heard him in the recent weeks and I think
even after Wednesday's game on TV Aaron he was telling Andrew,
if you want to be the best player in your team,
you have to guard the best player on their team
and things that nature. So to your point, light bulb
going off. Look And I just think at the end
of the day, he's well aware that it's your seven.
(17:53):
Yeah next year, Yeah, it's her seven next year. The
good thing, I think is you are seeing that when
every gets together, the health, the mentals, the physical. I mean,
he's one of the dominant players in the league. So
I had something good I guess to look into next year.
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (18:09):
I mean, it might not feel all the time that
he's worth it, because you don't know about his availability,
but I think this season he's proved that he's matured.
He knows what it takes. And yeah, if this is
the version we're going to see of Z every night,
then it was worth it because he is an absolute,
(18:33):
not even game changer, but franchise changer.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Well, twelve games remains, six on a road, six at home.
Hopefully some Peals fans will get to see him before
the season ends here at the Smoothie King Center. Now, now, Jim,
you said you went back and remembered it to the
hard fall, So he legit has a bobo.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
I mean he has a bruise. I mean he landed
on his back on our hardwood.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Couple of teams in the NBA, what are some of
the reasons for them, perhaps Jim to not be playing well,
I don't know. Five starters, six starters, seven of the
top players in it.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
I think LaMelo Ball, what was it? He was rested.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Because he's got to get ready for rest.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
He has to get ready for rest. Yes, the Charlotte
head coach had that to say, what do you.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Make of all this?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yeah, I mean I think this is something, unfortunately that
we saw coming in terms of how hypes this draft classes,
and you know, some of the players at the top
of it seemed to be guys that, along what Aaron
just said about Zion, seemed to be people that are
projected to be franchise changers. So but I mean we
not only you know, you mentioned Charlotte's case, but Utah
objectively was just fined one hundred thousand dollars for the
(19:41):
way that they handled LORI marketing.
Speaker 8 (19:43):
And that's not even a slap on the wrist for this.
These teams, like, right, that's insane. If you can trade
one hundred thousand dollars for the number one pick in
the NBA draft, I think anybody would do that.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
That's just Jim's expense account.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
I mean, Jim was absolutely true. I'd pay one hundred
thousand dollars every week now. And the thing, you know,
the thing that's interesting too about the Utah situation is
it's almost like you know, when people talk about you know,
you're trying to put somebody in prison, and you find
something like he was littering and you put him in
prison for that. Like the marketing thing, to me is
only the tip of the iceberg of what Utah is doing.
(20:16):
But it was what the league could catch them on
because he was a recent All Star, therefore he fell
falls under the player participation policy. But I mean, there's
so many other things that they've done this year where
it's just out of sync with the way that you
would handle the season. So, you know, it's just one
of those things where it's been jarring to see the way.
(20:37):
I do think that this problem has lessened a little
bit with when they changed the lottery format in twenty nineteen,
and they made it so it's not like the worst
team in the league has the best percentage. It's more flattened,
is the word that they always use, where the odds
aren't that much different between the team that has the
worst record in the fifth or sixth worst record percentage wise,
(20:57):
but you're still seeing, you know, agregious case is like
that worthy Obviously if the NBA has to step in
and find you, even if that money isn't drop in
the bucket, it's definitely a sign of something that needs
to be looked at. In my opinion, I.
Speaker 8 (21:11):
Totally understand this from a fan standpoint. This season for
the Pelicans has not been what we wanted it to be.
You have so many injuries, you're not winning, Let's just
go ahead, throw in the towel and make it worse something,
go and get the number one pick. However, you go
in that locker room and look every single one of
(21:31):
those players in the face and tell them we want
you to lose or we're not playing tonight. How is
that taken. These players are competitive by nature, They're getting
paid to play, and they want to play. I mean, Zion,
as much as he's dealt with this, always says he
wants to play, he wants to be on the court.
(21:53):
So it's a weird. It's a weird situation for I
would say front office to handle because you want to
maximize your potential in the future, and you can do
that in the draft, but you also can't lose your
locker room and you can't have these players throw, you know,
you can't tell them to throw games. That's just not.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Well, yeah, that's.
Speaker 4 (22:20):
To your point.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
And look, I think the interesting thing is we've discussed
throughout the season too. When you just look at this
roster right and used to look at Alfred Payton coming
back for a ten day, I mean, Brandon Boston.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
There's some guys on this team that have.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I wouldn't say benefited because you hate that that's how
it happened. But to your point, Arin, it's an opportunity
for them. Willie Green has been saying that, look is
how you have to look at it.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Those guys want to be in the league. They like
living like Jim I can offer here, you know, and
traveling in.
Speaker 8 (22:45):
Style, you know, playing hard and getting better because you
have more minutes I e. Tray Murphy and what we're
seeing was Zion Williamson at the beginning of the year.
Do you remember how we were talking about how we're
going to play small ball. Look at this team now
we're seeing that these bigs alongside z work really frickin' well.
(23:06):
We wouldn't have known that had everybody been healthy, because
that lineup would have never been something we needed or
went to.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Willie Green literally just said that on Wednesday two days ago,
that if eve me c, that the growth of eve
me C is that.
Speaker 4 (23:20):
David Griffin on Monday said the same thing too.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
It's like, Hey, if we don't have the injuries and
we don't have the season we have, we'll leave me C.
Would have we would have been playing right now now,
he's a guy that's going to be looked at as
one of the top rookies. So you can look at
it from a number of perspective, but that's one of
the things that you look at. So I mean tanking,
I don't.
Speaker 8 (23:37):
Think that's why you still compete to the end because
you never know what may come of it.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
How do you fix it?
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Is it something like that where if you get fined automatically,
should you talk whatever team if you get that, if the.
Speaker 8 (23:50):
Fine doesn't bother Jim, I can offer, it's not going
to bother the owner of the YouTube.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I agree, which is why I'm saying, is that a
way to maybe fix it that if you do get
found doing something agreed just where you get fined, you
were disqualified from winning them.
Speaker 3 (24:02):
I like that idea. I like that idea. Put them
at fourteenth in the lottery and say, hey, that's where
you are. I mean, I've brought this up before, maybe
going back a couple of months too. I really dislike
the conditional first round the protected first round picks, because,
for example, Philadelphia is in a situation where they're vastly
incentivized to finish with a bottom five record because their
(24:24):
pick is top six protected, and if it doesn't fall
in the top six, it's going to go to Oklahoma City.
I would love to get rid of all of the
protections on picks because I feel like that also is
happening too often where it's obvious to people, whether the
team wants to admit it or not, in the case
of the Sixers, that it makes way more sense for
them to lose than to win. So I want to
(24:45):
get rid of that. But I mean another solution I have,
and you know, let's be about trying to come up
with solutions on this podcast instead of just complaining Gus.
I like, I'm in favor of the idea of having
the fourteen teams that are in the lottery everyone has
exactly the same percentage chance to get the first pick
and all the way through. So therefore you get rid
(25:05):
of all of the incentives in terms of, well, if
we finish with a worse record than this team, we
have a better chance than this just gets to the point,
and one of the biggest pushbacks on that would be like, well,
it's not fair because if you win fifteen games, you
shouldn't have the same percentage chance as a team that
just missed the playoffs, and to that, I say, too bad.
Just put a better team on the court. It's time
(25:27):
to stop having everyone have like a safety net for losing.
I just want to come up with it. And this
is also something I've talked about several times on the podcasts,
like we need to come up with ways to make
it important to win today and not next year, not
two years from now. And so I think that's another thing.
Just get rid of all of the incentives to lose,
(25:47):
and I think the last month of the regular season
would be so much better. And it would there'd be
so fewer times where you I've done this myself as
a as a fan, you tune on, you tune into
a game and you're like, oh, no, you'll Kich isn't playing,
Murray's not playing. I mean, just to pick one example
of a game that people were excited to watch recently
and they didn't play. That's obviously a different conversation than
(26:07):
the lottery teams, but the point being that there's just
too many times where you turn the game on and
you're expecting it to be the main group of players
for this team, these teams, and you're seeing guys that
wouldn't even normally be on the court.
Speaker 8 (26:21):
Oh, I was just gonna say, this has nothing to
do with tanking or what not, but we should get
rid of back to backs because that is a built
in excuse for players not to play. But that's different Tangent.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
I was gonna ask you, is you'd have to cut
You'd have to cut it from eighty two games, because
I don't think in the window that they have on
the calendar, with a lot of these arenas also having
hockey teams, where they could ever get it to where
there's no back to backs as long as they play
eighty two game schedule and still have like an All
Star break and still have all the other parts of
the schedule. But I mean, I think most of us
(26:53):
are in favor of if they could cut it down
to like seventy seventy six games. But the problem with
that is, like everyone's like, hey, when when you ask
a group of people in the NBA, whether it's the players, whoever, Hey,
you want to reduce the schedule, Yes, they all raise
their hand and they say you want to take less money?
And then everyone puts their hand hand down. So but
I mean, I like the idea too of getting rid
of the back to back so or at least reducing
(27:13):
them to the point where maybe you only have five
or six. I don't think they can ever get to
zero as long as we play. We're playing eighty two games.
Speaker 8 (27:20):
The NFL extended their season, I mean, is that not
a possibility for the NBA if you want to spread it.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Out a little bit further, So we end what second
week of April? Mid April's call it date April. What
if you end at the end of April. Yeah, right,
I think in April early May, because I mean my
thing is, I mean, you just go as long as
you want. Instead of starting October third, start October thirtieth.
Speaker 4 (27:40):
Yes, And I mean that's what I word, because.
Speaker 8 (27:42):
The playoff teams, you're in the championship, like that's the
it's a long time to be playing.
Speaker 7 (27:47):
But I don't know.
Speaker 8 (27:49):
I think I think with Utah, and I told this
to Jim earlier, if you are so blatantly tanking like
they are they are, and they have been since January,
then they should automatically get the last pick in the lottery,
like automatically.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
I like it.
Speaker 8 (28:07):
I think that we should still apply some advantage to
some of the teams that are worse off because there
is there's different market sizes, there a different amount of
money people will spend. We want to try to make
this as equal competitive, as equally competitive as we can,
which also means we need to figure out what the
heck is going on with the East because none of
those teams have been eliminated from the playoffs yet, which
(28:29):
is wild because two of those teams are worse than us.
But again another tangent, you know.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
I had a friend recently who said that the way
the NBA teams, you know, such as the ones that
we've cited, have behaved, they don't deserve the right to
have parody. And I think that there's a good point
there somewhere in the mix of like the system only works.
When they originally set up the lottery system, it was
with the understanding that it works if everyone is trying
(28:56):
their hardest to win games, and the team that has
the worst record legitimately is the worst team with the
they put out maximum effort, and they still were terrible.
They still had the worst record. But once you start
tinkering with it and having all these other artificial things
that go into the system, the whole thing falls apart
in terms of what it was intended to be. So,
I mean, I think that is a that is something
(29:18):
to think about.
Speaker 5 (29:19):
That.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
It's like at a certain point when you behave a
certain way, it's like a little kid that you have
to kind of discipline and be like, you know, if
you're gonna have if you're gonna eat sixteen balls of
ice cream, we're gonna have to take the ice cream
away from you. It's kind of like that. I feel
like in a certain way, it's like I don't feel
sympathy for any team that does intentionally does stuff like
that and be like, oh, well, you know, we need
(29:41):
to treat them fairly that we need to make sure
that they get the pick that they should get based
on the record. It's like they don't deserve the pick
that they should get if they're if they it was
artificial the way they got to the record they got.
Speaker 8 (29:51):
Can we relegate them like they do over We talk
about that them to the G League?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Yeah, we were thinking about either something like that. But
I mean, look, the other thing too, is that just
there's a level of respect in there with you, the fan,
the paying customer, the people actually goes Aaron. If you
go to dinner expecting something and maybe that meal isn't there,
or there's no water, there's no utensils. I mean, if
you're going somewhere to expect something, right, we go to
the movie, Well, the sound's not working today, You're just
(30:17):
gonna have to read the closed caption. I mean, we
wouldn't stand for that.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Anytime you go.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
To the grocery store and only four out of seven
times the grapes are fresh, I would or I would
never go back to or.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
You can be like, hey, unfortunately today you can only
shop from asles seven to ten.
Speaker 4 (30:35):
Aisles one through six is closed today. I mean that
wouldn't because.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
A lot of fans don't know that, right, I mean
they buy tickets months in advance, they have certain packages.
Maybe we look at it differently, guys, because we work
in a building where you know, we see we see
the people that are charged to trying to sell tickets
and get packages together, and we're also normal people where
we all depend on our dollar and how far we
(30:59):
can have it to right. So I think there's a
level of respect that which is probably why I think
you get so and say been out of shape upset
by that, because yeah, I mean, but you're right though,
I mean there's a level of respect to that. You know.
It's like, because I want to ask your expertise on this,
because you also cover the Saints, which you've been busy
the last couple of days as free agency has started
and you know, talking to players like that. Why is
(31:20):
it work in the NFL? I know, a couple of
years ago the league said, hey, the league was resting,
the teams were rusting players.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
The last two weeks.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
So they made a change where they made a conference
games towards the last four month of the season where
it mattered where you won your division. Right, I'm sorry,
division games? Yeah, but still you covered a team in
the Saints this year that at halftime, we're leading the
Bucks in the last game of the year, and Spencer
Rattler and then we're doing everything they could to win.
(31:49):
Saints had no business going to the playoffs. Wasn't gonna happen.
All they're gonna do was Jim's favorite thing, spoiler scale here.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
Why does it work in the NFL?
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Though?
Speaker 4 (31:57):
Why?
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Why are those games competitive with guys they are not?
The Saints are going to pick first. They weren't gonna
pick first but they show up to play the last game.
Speaker 8 (32:04):
I think that it has to do with the limited
number of games, that each one is so much more
important that you can't you don't know what's going to happen,
so you're not going to start tanking so to speak,
early in the season. Or there's players this is their
livelihood and if they have this one opportunity to play,
like Spencer Rattler at the end of the season, to
(32:26):
show that he's not a fluke or whatever as far
as being drafted and he can do all the things.
It's just the injuries around him that he is going
to give it everything he's got and you can't tell
him not to.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Yeah, I mean, that's another reason why for the case
of shortening the NBA schedule too to I mean, I
feel I'm sure a lot of people would say that
if you cut it to seventy from eighty two, that
still wouldn't make that much of a difference. But I
think the scarcity of the games definitely makes a huge difference.
I mean, think about it. You only if you're an
NFL player, you only get seventeen opportunities in games to
prove how good you are. You know, the future of
(33:01):
your career, whether you should be re signed, how much
money you should make in free agency. I'd have to
go back and look, but I mean, by Thanksgiving the
Pelicans had played seventeen games. There's just there's just you know,
you just don't. I mean, part of this is human
nature too. You just it's impossible to value every single
NBA game the way that you do with the NFL.
So I can totally see that that that's a huge difference.
(33:23):
I mean, this is a whole other conversation too. I've
thought about this many times when people compare the NFL
and the NBA. To me, the biggest advantage you can
argue about the game itself, you know how much people
like the physicality of football over basketball or over other sports.
But to me, the biggest advantage that the NFL has
is the game schedule. Because if the NBA schedule was
seventeen games in the NFL was eighty two. Granted, it's
(33:45):
physically impossible play eighty two football games, but just bear
with me on this analogy. If the schedules were flipped,
I think the NBA would be a lot more if
there was seventeen is not possible, but say it was
the NBA season was thirty games. I think the NBA
would have a lot The ratings for each individual game
would be so much higher, maybe the league would be
more popular. They came up with eighty two games seventy
(34:07):
something years ago when they were trying to figure out
how how do we put games in this arena when
hockey's not playing, So it's it doesn't really make sense
to play eighty two games, but it's just it's it
was a grandfather and in and it's been that way
ever since.
Speaker 4 (34:21):
To y'all's point. Behind you.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
On the TV, they're showing highlights from the first round,
full day of the NCAA March madness. Right, they play
thirty some odd games, and those games all matter, right,
because it's it's seeding all that your polls all matter
and to help get you the seeds into the turn.
Speaker 4 (34:38):
So each game does matter.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Winning your conference, your conference tournament, how you can play
in if you win the conference turn. So they make
each game something valid. I know the NBA try to
do that mid season tournament and stuff.
Speaker 8 (34:49):
I think there should be something with their division because
it doesn't matter if you win your division in the NBA,
like what's the point of you even having them?
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Right, they just use it. It's basically just uses a scheduling. Yeah, right, yeah,
what would you do with the division? I think they
should play more division games? You can play, Yeah, seeing.
Speaker 8 (35:11):
If you do a first half and second half like
MLB used to do, Like you win the first half
of the season, you get automatic into playoffs, and.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Then you reset it everyone zero zero in the second half.
It's interesting. Yeah, yeah, that's an interesting idea. Yeah, I
don't know. I think the thing that's weird is the
divisions used to be more important. They actually intentionally devalued them,
which I at the time I didn't agree with at all,
But it was one of those things where it's, again,
(35:39):
everyone is so obsessed with everything being quote unquote fair
that they didn't like the fact that there was teams
that won the division that had like a two seed,
and someone that had a worse record had a six seed, say,
or a better record had a six seed, Whereas in
the NFL it seems like no one Betts and I
that a team wins a division at nine to eight
and they get a higher seed than someone else that won.
(36:00):
The Vikings won fourteen games.
Speaker 8 (36:02):
Shout out to the NFC South yea, yeah so.
Speaker 3 (36:05):
But I mean the NBA is the opposite of that though.
The NBA, it seems like any time that someone a
team is in a situation where they complain about something,
the league's reaction is like, oh, we got to change that, yeah,
even if for the betterment of the league it's not
a good decision. I think that's what happened with divisions,
is that they you know, they devalued them. I think
two and again, I'm going on a bunch of different
(36:25):
tangents here. If and when they expand, I think they
go to thirty two teams, they should go back to
having like eight teams in every division. The way it
used to be, you had six or seven teams in
your division and there were fewer divisions, so there was
more value to the division back in the day than
there is now because I mean, there's only five teams
in each division. The leader of the South East Division
(36:46):
in the NBA right now is I think Atlanta, and
they're like thirty two and thirty eight, thirty two and
thirty six. It's just no one cares about the divisions anymore.
I think when they expand, they can rethink the way
that they do things, and hopefully we'll go back to
a point where it's like the division matters. I mean
there's people who cover the NBA they don't even know
the team that they cover who's in their division. So
(37:07):
I mean that just that just goes to show you.
Speaker 8 (37:09):
My last pitch is just to move the Pelicans to
the east.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
I'm all, might come on, I mean, it's an easier
have you have the barrier, Let's do it Mississippi River.
Right east of the river, you're the east. West of
the river, you're in the west. I mean, would makes
sense to you. Look, I think the one thing that
we figured out here in our little chit chat is
there are ways to make it more competitive, perhaps right,
(37:33):
and to help things like tanking or just not have
a good product in these games. Because guys, we've been
covering the league for a while, it just feels like
year after year now recently, I mean, thirty point forty
six point losses are becoming common that that wasn't ever
the case. I mean, right, I mean I'm not wrong
on that, huh. I mean, I know, I'm almost fifty.
(37:54):
I can't think of anything anymore, but.
Speaker 8 (37:56):
Yeah, I mean they weren't scoring as many points.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Well that's just whether it's a three point game or what.
But I mean blowouts are like commonplace. And you know,
I kind of started seeing this, what two three years
ago where I remember talking about it on my talk show.
There was a playoff run I think Golden State and
Boston met I think or something like that in the finals,
and both though those teams had a game or two
(38:19):
in their playoff run where they lost by thirty. But
yet eventually we're gonna play in the finals. I'm like,
what in the world's going on. That's not the norm,
you know, like Jordan's Bulls didn't lose by thirty in
their playoff run.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
It just never happened.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
So we've heard the commissioner talking to midseason tournament they're
gonna look at the three point shot in the game.
You guys are talking about how to make games more competitive,
scheduling all that. I think we're all agreeing something can
maybe be looked at. It least to maybe be done
to make games more competitive and not have situations like tanking.
Speaker 8 (38:50):
Yeah, and people like Browne shouldn't be grandfathered in because
of their dad.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
He does have more three corners made though, now that's
a whole other episode.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
Ben Simmons, I saw that. I sent that to I
know he was very excited today.
Speaker 8 (39:01):
Seventeen points last night in garbage time.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
Whoop do you do?
Speaker 7 (39:05):
Hey?
Speaker 2 (39:05):
It is funny that they did show lebron working out
before the game and Bronny and then they last I checked,
they were down by like twenty or thirty to the bumm.
Speaker 8 (39:12):
Yeah, they were getting blown out. That's why he was
playing off.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
So got a twelve games left, a dozen games, six home,
six road.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
Let's see what takes place here.
Speaker 8 (39:21):
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I cannot believe that
we're closing in on the end already, but wild season.
So we'll see what we got the last twelve.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Yeah, I mean this is going to be. I think
one of the things I'm going to get into this
in the last segment too, just the opportunity for some
of these guys that haven't played that much the season,
or have started to play more and more lately, like
Karlo Mekovich. Just that's going to be I think one
of the biggest things to focus on in the last
dozen games is just I mean, you know, we've talked
about this a million times. They're not in the race,
(39:51):
but just the player development part of it, I think
will be something that will be the most interesting aspect
of this last few weeks of the season.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
Aarony Summers the way to give a follow over there
on all the social media platforms as well. Plus don't
forget tonight over on the Gulf Coast Sports Entertainment Network
with Wes Johnson.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Thank you, Aaron, Thank.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
You, our thanks to Aaron for joining us here and
give us a lot of I guess ideas for the
commissioner Adam Silva, you had.
Speaker 4 (40:13):
Some great ideas here as well.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Look, thanks guys.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Is that the one thing that you do see though
with him? And I know David Stern was known really
good with that. And this league's been a league that
is not MLB, you know what, resistant to change and stuff,
although they've made some changes as of late. But I
do believe when I hear the commission mid season in
Vegas say hey, we're gonna look at these things and
(40:37):
in all those things, because I do think at the
end of the day, we all want a good product,
we all want to watch competitive play, and we want
to get back to you know, the NBA is fantastic,
and you have to put on every game because you
don't know what you're gonna see, right.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
The league has been very proactive. I mean, you know,
I think the opinion about the play in tournament, I
think has been overwhelming whelmingly positive. There might be a
few people that don't like the fact that now the
ninth and tenth place teams get to extend their season,
whereas before they would have been done. But I do
think that that that's been a huge positive. The play
in tournament, the in season tournament, NBA Cup we should
(41:12):
call it officially now, I think that's been more positive
than negative as well. I mean, I think there's probably
more detractors of that than there is with the play
in tournament, But the point being that these are I
think these are things that are so kind of outside
the box that the NBA structured itself the same way
for a long time, over decades and decades, and so
(41:34):
the league's willingness to make some of these changes definitely
is a sign kind of like you were saying, of
that they're willing to look at things, which I think
is encouraging the fact that you can identify a problem
they've been very good at Okay, we see what's wrong.
We see let's come up with different ways to fix it.
Let's implement them. Let's not drag our feet and wait forever. Yeah,
to actually try the change. And I think for the
(41:55):
most part, the stuff that's happened in this decade has
been has been really good.
Speaker 4 (41:59):
Hey, look, let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Right, as you mentioned in the conversation with Aaron, there
was a new TV deal that is starting with the league,
and partners of the league paid a lot of money
to be a part of it.
Speaker 4 (42:11):
NBC.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
We're gonna see what happens with inside the NBA with
Shock in them and Charles and what's gonna happen with
that Amazon coming.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
They all cut in big checks.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
You know what they don't like if you cut big
checks and no one watches advertising does not.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
So I do think they have the power. They have
the influence to say we need you need to make
these changes, you need to do X, y Z to
satisfy us. And the league isn't in position to be like, nah,
we're gonna We're not gonna do anything. We're They're gonna
they're going to have to address whatever issues and concerns
that the partners have.
Speaker 4 (42:43):
And that's not us being fuddy duddies, like, no, this
is fact. Like the ratings are not as high as
they have been.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
There's you know, games like we mentioned in the conversation
with Aaron, where you're down thirty, you're down.
Speaker 4 (42:54):
Forty more than once or twice a season.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
You know, So looking at gameplay, as you guys talked about,
looking at if teams are really trying to be.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
Competitive night in a night out, is it.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Time to shorten? I mean Steve Kerr said, hey, wh
should shorten the season? How does money affect? So there's
a lot of things. I'm very interested how that's gonna go.
Because I know in the NFL that have owners meetings
right in the spring where they all get together and
look over at rules and stuff. The NBA per se
doesn't have that. Do they have government meetings?
Speaker 3 (43:24):
Yeah they do. Yeah, So I'm.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
Interested to see how that goes. But look, we got
we got twelve games left. Let's uh, let's focus on that.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
But we got a lot I think of things that
could be very interesting from Pell's draft picks, two changes
in the league to expansion and all that stuff coming
up here in the next couple months if not season.
Speaker 4 (43:43):
So, uh, it is Friday, gym seeing what that means.
Speaker 8 (43:49):
TG I, Jim, it's Friday, which means mister Eichenhoffer. As
a pair of things for us, trending numbers and weekend showdown,
what are we starting with?
Speaker 3 (44:03):
Jim, Let's start with the trending number and that is five,
which is the rank that the Pelicans have. If you
look at all of the rookies in the NBA and
you add up all of the minutes that they've played,
the Pelicans have received the fifth most minutes played by rookies.
So I thought this was actually a stat that John
Schumann of NBA dot com wrote about at the beginning
(44:25):
of the week in his power Rankings, which is honestly
one of my favorite things to read it about the
league by anyone. But it was interesting because if you
think about it, going back to the win the season started,
you would have never thought that, Okay, the Pelicans are
going to be one of the teams that relies on
rookies the most to play minutes the season. You know,
you expected them to be in the playoff race. You
(44:47):
expected them to be, you know, not relying on guys
that haven't have literally no experience in the NBA. So
but over the course of the season, Eve me C
is third among all rookies in minutes played, with a
little bit over seventeen hundred minutes. Carlo Makovich is twenty ninth,
Antonio Reeves is thirty ninth. But the interesting thing about
(45:09):
both of those two guys is they've both played more
since the All Star Break than they did before it.
So that's just something to keep an eye on, just
to see how many minutes those guys play over the
last few weeks of the season. I also thought it
was interesting too, if you look at all the teams
in the NBA, the five teams that have gotten the
most minutes from rookies played this season is Washington's number one,
(45:30):
Utah two, Toronto three, Memphis four, and the Pelicans five.
It's kind of interesting that the Grizzlies are such a
huge outlier among those five teams because all of those teams,
except for the Grizzlies are among the bottom teams in record,
which you would expect if you're getting tons of minutes
from rookies, you're most likely not gonna win a ton
of games. We all know that the teams at the
(45:51):
top of the standings, generally speaking, are the teams that
have experience and the guys that have been All Stars
for year after year. Your Lebron James is your yokches
those guys. So it's interesting that the Grizzlies actually are
kind of the one exception to that group of teams.
The weekend showdown, this was actually pretty easy pick, and
(46:13):
this is a really interesting game. On Sunday at six o'clock,
Denver will be playing at Houston. The Nuggets right now
are third place in the West at forty four and
twenty six. They're one game behind the Rockets, who are
in second place at forty five and twenty five. So,
I mean, this could be a preview of the Western
Conference semifinals if things hold where those teams are and
(46:33):
they both advance from the first round two seed versus
a three seed, So there's a lot at stake in
that matchup. Obviously, OKAC has the number one seed wrapped up.
They might even actually almost have it mathematically clinched as
far as having the best record in the West. They
and so there's a huge fight and battle between the
(46:53):
teams right underneath the thunder and the standings. By the
way too, if the season ended today, the Nuggets at
the three seed would play against Golden State as a
six seed. What a series that would be, and then
Houston as the two seed, would play the winner of
the play in game the seven to eight playing game
between the Clippers and the Timberwolves, which I think also
would be really interesting to see the Rockets either play
(47:15):
the veteran Clippers or the Timberwolves that made the Western
Conference finals a year ago and have a ton of talent.
So that's the weekend showdown. Really good game Sunday night.
You know, in and around your NCAA tournament watching that
you do this weekend, maybe you want to tune into
the league Pass and watch the Nuggets play the Rockets
in one of the better games we'll see over the
stretch of the season.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
Really impressive, OKC clinching the top seed in the West
and they have it by twelve and a half games.
Last year they won the West last game of the year.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
Yeah, what a difference.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Just quickly, I mean, your thoughts on that team. I
was just scrolling. They have single digit losses, okay, Jim
on the road, Yeah, seven five losses at home. The
only other team that has that same number is Cleveland.
(48:06):
They have five losses at home, eight losses away. Cleveland
and OKC statistically, you know, look at it those I mean,
but that can you imagine just losing five games at home? Now,
I don't think of OKAC as you know, a tough
place to play, or is it you?
Speaker 3 (48:21):
I mean it is because their crowd is really loud,
and I think, I mean, they they always are pretty intense,
so I think it's I mean, it was less a
tough place to play when they were one of the
worst teams in the league. I don't know, it's weird
how that works, but yeah, the last couple of years,
they I think they have developed a really good home
court advantage. I mean, I think Okac's record. I think
one of the most impressive parts about Oklahoma City, beyond
(48:44):
just the record that they have of you know, where
they are, is the fact that they're doing it in
this West. There's so many good teams in the West.
If you think about the record that they've put together
having to play against the competition that they have, and
I think, I mean one of the biggest pieces of
evan of how good the West is two. Is the
fact that even the second place team has twenty five losses,
(49:06):
which you're you're actually gonna see a thing this year
where a lot of times the number two seed in
the West, like it was last year, has like fifty
five fifty six wins. It's gonna be a lot less
than that this year because I mean, even if Houston won,
if Houston went undefeated the rest of the season, which
probably won't happen, they'd still finish at fifty seven and
twenty five. So you're you're just seeing, like after OKAC,
(49:28):
you're seeing how difficult it is to put together a
great record in this conference. And I mean, I would
definitely be happy to be forty five and twenty five
right now the way Houston is, But I mean that's
not like an elite record for the second best team
in a conference the way like if you look at
the East, where Boston is probably five at least five
six games ahead of Houston. Yeah, exactly. So it just
(49:52):
just shows you that the West has been been a
lot different this year than it has been in the
in the recent pot.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
To your point, though, thirty two and eleven in con
for in Sarthy Oklahoma City Thunder and Aaron again a
twelve and a half game lead, and they're Oh by
the way, they're only peaking nine to one in their
last ten games, Houston eight and two in the last
ten game. It's a very good pick for your weekend showdown.
The Rockets have won eight in a row. Jim, enjoy
the weekend, sir. We're gonna enjoy it twice this weekend.
(50:20):
A couple of watch parties. Tonight we will be at
Fat Harry's. Come on out here, the Pelican members of
the pel squad. It's an official Corona watch party. Come
on out, get some Corona gear, wink.
Speaker 4 (50:32):
Wink other stuff. You're gonna have fun.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
Plus, of course, on Sunday, we're gonna be a Uptown
sports social over our magazine Street there as well. So
hope to see you either tonight or Sunday. They'll have
the NCAA games on, We'll have the Pels game on
here as well.
Speaker 4 (50:45):
We'll have a lot of fun. Thank you, Jim, look
forward to seeing you.
Speaker 3 (50:47):
Thanks Gus. I'm looking forward to it to be fun.
All right.
Speaker 4 (50:49):
We'll see you on Monday on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast.
Speaker 1 (50:52):
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 Guss
a follow on x at Jim Underscore I Can Offer
(51:12):
and Gcat Underscore seventeen. We'll see you next time right
here on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast
Host
Jim Eichenhofer
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