October 17, 2025 • 24 mins
NBA Senior writer for ESPN and Andscape Marc Spears joins Jim Eichenhofer and Gus Kattengell to discuss what thinks the Pelicans potential can be for the 2025-26 NBA season.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Hello everyone and welcome to the New Orleans Pelicans
Podcast, official podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans, Gus
Kattengel. And as you can see, Mr. Jim, I
can offer pelicans.com got a lotto talk into talk about today.
And one of the things that I'm excited about is our guest Mr.
Mark Spears, senior NBA writer for Anscape and ESPN is going to
join us here as well. Jim and I may or may not ask him
(00:24):
about Jeremiah fears. I don't know if you knew this,
14 points in the fourth quarter earlier in the week in a
preseason game in him, Zion, Wasit a windmill dunk, was it not?
It was a 360. It got everybody excited, man.
Those players and those plays that got got the week started
off right for me, man. Zion upset a few of the dunk
purists, the people who believe that you must categorize dunks
(00:48):
exactly the way that they are. And I guess a lot of people said
that that was not a windmill. And the Pelicans official
account came back and said, you know what, guys?
You're right. It was a 360.
It was not a 360 with the windmill luckily though, so
there's more room for improvement from Zion.
Hopefully during the regular season.
See the combination of the 360 and the windmill.
(01:08):
Look, if, if I'm a Pels fan, yougot to see why there's
excitement about Jeremiah fears.And then also, I think if you're
a Pels fan and non Pels fan, yougot to see Z, you know, and
look, I, I know that a couple ofgames in Australia, but you got
to not only see his, what he looks like, right, and being in
shape, but four steals as well. Jim kind of gives you an idea
(01:28):
what kind of condition he's in. And I love the mindset.
He was agitated that Trey Murphydidn't give him more passes so
he could produce more dunks for the Birmingham crowd.
Yeah, he wanted to please the the squadron, the ticket holders
there. He wanted to make the people
happy that get to see the Pelicans in person in Birmingham
once a year. So yeah, it's been, I think it
(01:48):
was encouraging pre season. You know, you mentioned also
Jeremiah fears. He talked about how he's gotten
better every game in pre season.If you look at the way he played
in the first game compared to the next couple, I mean, there's
a big difference. And I think that's encouraging
because you just see that he's he's taking some of what he's
learning in some of the mistakeshe's making as any rookie point
guard will and he's figuring outhow to, you know, eliminate some
(02:11):
of that stuff or reduce some of that stuff.
I'm excited about his future. One of the things Willie Green
talked about so far in the preseason and in camping
practices, competitiveness, he wants his team to be
competitive. And Jim, to your point, Jeremiah
Fears had a shot, A3 pointer, 30feet at the back of the rim,
could have won the game as the pills went down by two back in
Birmingham. So just in that game, though,
(02:33):
you saw that competitive nature continue.
And they're going to need that as we'll chat here at the end of
the podcast. The start of the season is going
to be pretty tight here as well.But you know what, let's get
into it. I don't want to make our guest
wait any longer. Mark Spears going to join us.
We come back of the New Orleans Pelicans podcast.
(03:05):
All right, time to welcome in our guest.
Jim. I can offer.
I know you feel the same way I do.
Mark Spears, senior NBA writer for Amscape and ESPN joins us
and clearly knows he's on a New Orleans podcast with a choice of
shirt today. What's up Mark?
How are you, man? All coincidental, man.
You know, I, I was just rocking it today and I just like, you
know what I don't need to change.
I'm going to keep it here. Go Tigers.
(03:27):
Well, I'm glad you chose that outfit, Mark.
You know, we had you on a few months ago and we were just a
podcast, but now we're ATV show.So, you know, we're making
progress around here. We're really.
Yeah, man, the world need to seehow handsome you are, brother.
It's long overdue, man. I hear you man.
He needs a he needs a green roomMark.
He's he's very popular. You know, it's interesting
(03:49):
because I was thinking of Showtime and us doing this TV
show. You guys listening to it or
saying it just now and I saw youtweeting earlier this week.
I'm excited the NBA season literally right around the
corner in terms of the start of the regular season.
You were tweeting Steph Curry isready to go.
That guy is always must watch basketball.
We got to see in person with thePelicans Kevin Durant in a
(04:09):
rockets uniform. I I know Mark there's some big
names that are injured and are going to be missing time.
Maybe even the season, but there's so many stars and
Knights and you look at the Westit it really is must watch on a
nightly basis in the NBA right now.
Do you feel that going into the new year?
Yeah, no, I I think the West is going to be extremely
interesting. Pretty much every team in the
(04:31):
West is competitive. I mean, I was watching the
Nuggets versus the Clippers pre season game.
And typically with pre season games, I'll, I'll watch the
first quarter, maybe get to halftime, But the intensity in
that game, right, for a pre season game was, was something
that I, I can't recall really seeing too often.
(04:53):
I was like, OK, this feels a little different.
Teams are getting ready. I think they know what's at
stake. You know, obviously the Thunder
are still the choice to not onlywin the West, but to win
everything. But it ain't going to be easy.
There hasn't been a repeat champion, I believe since the
Warriors and like what, 1718 something like that.
(05:18):
Denver looks ready. You know, Golden State looks
ready. Clippers look ready.
Minnesota can't forget about them.
You know, like there's, there's some dogs and you know, I feel
like that by the end of the season, if, if the Pelicans can
(05:39):
finally be healthy, they're not going to be easy out.
You know, I, I, I think they area team that has the talent to,
you know, compete for a plan and, and possibly a playoff.
But you know, a lot of it has todo with Zion's health, which has
been the whole thing his whole career.
(06:00):
But something's got to give And and and I think, you know,
perhaps it's the year we could finally see him healthy And, you
know, maybe on I don't want to take your questions from you,
but but back in an All Star form.
You know, Mark, by the way, I'veheard a few people refer to that
recent Nuggets Clippers preseason game that you
(06:21):
referenced as game eight of their playoff series.
So I mean, that's pretty, that'sa pretty good game for a
preseason game. You're saying it went?
Back home afterwards, they didn't, they didn't go forward
after. But in terms of the Pelican
specifically, I know this is something that I was kind of
chatting with you or joking withyou about a couple days ago when
we we were talking about having you on.
(06:42):
It definitely seems like from our standpoint that the national
media perspective perspective has been very negative about the
Pelicans. And I'm not asking the answer
for everyone in national media. You are Mark Spears, but I mean
what? What is your?
Perception. Exactly what's your perception
of that and and just what your maybe how your opinion kind of
(07:02):
diverges a little bit from? That maybe I'm a little closer
to it, as you could tell, like, but one thing I've just always
noticed and I've said that is ifZion's healthy, they win.
They've always won. They they've had a top team in
the West when he's when he's played, you know, obviously
(07:25):
there's some changes. C JS not there anymore.
And and I think from a leadership standpoint, you know,
that certainly is a loss. But you know, being in the Bay,
I've seen the leadership that Kevon Looney has and he's one of
the quietest guys. Have either one of you guys have
much of a conversation with him since he's been there?
(07:47):
Probably not, right? Just media day, we we talked.
Yeah, I mean, it just you, but one of the nicest guys in the
world and I don't think he'll deal with any nonsense in the
locker room, right? It's going to be a mature locker
room. It's going to be a, you know, a
locker room ready to play. So in a lot of ways, not from a
(08:07):
player standpoint, but from a leadership standpoint, I think
he will take the torch from CJ. But I mean, when you look at the
roster, you you know, we know what Zion is.
Jordan Poole is a sneaky addition.
Somebody being in the Bay, I've seen a lot.
(08:28):
I think New Orleans fans are going to fall in love with him.
He's an electric scorer. You know, maybe they need to
bring back the woo, you know, because, yeah, it is somebody
certainly that could get that going.
I I really think that New Orleans fans may not know too
much about them today, but come the start of the season and I
(08:52):
think he's in a lot of ways beenbeen humbled.
He won a championship with the Warriors and things ended bad
and then he had to go to Washington and that going from
being with the Warriors to Washington was tough.
So I think now coming to New Orleans, he's finally felt like,
all right, I got to little bit of five my career show that I'm
(09:15):
a lead player in this league andand I think New Orleans will
give them the opportunity to be an amazing 1-2 punch.
I knew you'd follow the Pelicans.
I knew that would be something that we could count on you for.
One of the things that you mentioned about Looney was, you
know, that he's kind of, he could be another guy that is a
really prized addition and somebody that wasn't talked
about a ton. Maybe I wanted to ask you a
(09:37):
little bit about the nba.com GM survey that you probably heard
about from recently. He actually got a vote for who's
the most underrated acquisition of the offseason.
So I thought that was interesting.
I, I was kind of wondering like,where did that vote maybe come
from? Golden State, because I'm sure
they understand how valuable he is.
You know what, maybe it did, maybe it was Dunleavy who did
(09:59):
that. I'm I wouldn't be surprised
because it's like I said, it's just like now I think Golden
State surely has enough veteranswhere they can police themself,
right? Right.
But where maybe there's there's a loss is if something's going a
little haywire. Looney could like he, he's like
(10:22):
the old EF cut Hutton commercial.
You know, when he when he talks,people listen and doesn't say a
whole lot. But when he talks, he's like a
big old dude man. Like you don't want to cross
him. He'll he'll clean things up.
But he's also really great with the young guys, you know, rookie
from Maryland. I think he'll he'll spend some
(10:43):
time with him, especially since he's going to be out for a
while. Messi, who I should have
mentioned, who I think as a bright, bright, bright future
ahead as another player that people are sleeping on to add to
the depth of this team and and athleticism and at at the center
(11:06):
position. I think he is today's
prototypical NBA center like so I make like the Pelicans have
size too. No, I think Looney is going to,
he's going to make an impact that only like the people in the
organization, only the players, only the coaches, only the, you
know, some of the medical personnel is truly going to be
(11:26):
able to see. You, you mentioned fears.
I, I know we talked to you abouthim a few months ago, but now
that we're in pre season, he's really starting to show even
more of his potential. A game, he had a game against
Houston where he had, you know, 2642 steals from what you've
seen of him and, and I know you,you had a really good
conversation with him. What's your perception now,
(11:48):
maybe as we get close to the regular season on him?
I think he's going to have his great days and he's going to
have his bad days. You have some ups and downs.
I mean, the point guards in thisleague are fierce, no pun
intended. But he he's not frightened by
anybody. He's confident.
He believes that he should have been the number one pick.
And if you believe that, you gotto work to show that you're that
(12:10):
we can make a conversation out of that.
There's some fantastic rookies, you know, coming into this this
league. I wish queen was healthy to see
how good he could be, and we'll see that in time.
But I mean, Jeremiah works. He's he's fun, he's electric.
(12:31):
He's already taken into culture,which I thought was was really
cool to see. And I think he'll also be like
to watch him on the floor with either Jose or pool.
I I think it's going to be fun. You know, it's going to be
helter skelter and I've I've been waiting for him to dunk on
(12:53):
somebody, you know, waiting to see some of that athleticism.
But that that 4th see that's what the pre season for is for
to me really for vets is to check the lights, make sure that
the you know, you can start the car and car up revving and
everything. But for for somebody like
(13:13):
Jeremiah, man, you, you try to play him as many minutes as you
can get as much experience as you can.
Summer league is cool. NBA pre season is different.
It's a different level. And so I was, I was pleasantly
surprised, not even pleasantly surprised, though.
It was good to see him have a dominant fourth quarter, right.
It's not the first team, but it's still pre season basketball
(13:38):
and for him to show that kind offight in the pre season game,
the fourth quarter, I, I think that was a great sign.
Yeah, I mean, Mark, you, you, you said it in terms of kind of
the way I perceive him as well right now is like I'm so
confident that he's going to be a really good NBA player, that
he's has a chance to have a really high ceiling and and and
(14:00):
be, you know, even maybe like a star player.
I feel similarly with Derrick Queen, but we haven't seen him
on the floor that much. But I mean, so far I just we
just don't know if it's going tohappen right away.
I mean, but I think you can say that about a lot of rookie point
guards, as you mentioned earlier.
I mean, that's probably the toughest, got to be the toughest
position in the NBA to come intothe league.
Because if there's 30 starting point guards, I don't know,
(14:22):
maybe 24 of them are elite talents.
I mean, there's just not that many knocks off at that position
in the league. Yeah, I mean, it's like you got
Steph right one night and then you go up to Portland and like,
even Scoop, when Scoop's back, you got to show up against
(14:42):
Scoop, man. Like, you know, like that nobody
has any. Anyone you could take, you could
sleep on. You go up to Sacramento and, you
know, you might have to guard Levine, right?
Like, might go big. So think every game is going to
be a challenge. Every game is going to be an
education. But I certainly think he's up
(15:04):
for it. I think one of the things too
that's going to be interesting is Mark, since you get to talk
to players, Jim and I in the under 6 foot club.
Can you find out what Victor Wynn Banyama is doing Because
our home opener is going to be against the Spurs and I just
read something this week that he's up to like 7-5 or 77.
Can you please let us know how that goes?
(15:25):
You know what I mean? It's going to be interesting to
see him here personally real soon, but man what that that
team is going to be interesting and he looks special.
That's another guy, man, Like I,I, I hate when health ruins
stars, right? Like with Zion, with Jah, with,
(15:46):
with Wimby, the the those two guys, like I want to see Zion
against Wimby, like see how thatgoes and how they guard each
other. You, you know, I, I do think
that first game is going to be great.
I'm actually going to see Wimby,I think the night before they
play. Dallas right there, Opener.
(16:09):
Yeah. Yeah, so I'll be at that game,
but I mean, I don't know that Wimby is not really a play
against each other, but right, have they like so that would be
exciting to see, fun to see. And this is this is Zion's time,
man, to I think make it where people in San Antonio are
(16:30):
talking about him, right, where the league is talking about him
again. But we're talking about him, you
know, being a member of the Olympic team in 28.
They're like, to me, this is this is got to be personal for
him. You know, he's faced a lot of
Chris criticism, a lot of it, you know, half of it is to his
(16:52):
own detriment, right? But if he looks great, he's got
Joe's leadership, Willie's leadership, Troy's leadership.
There's a guy like Looney pushing him.
He's in amazing shape. Like I want to see him have a
season where people are talking about him and not wimpy, right?
(17:13):
Like he, he has that talent. You know, I've, I've talked to
some of his former teammates andthey're saying that like he has
talent to be the best player in the league.
And so I, I'm just really excited for him.
And, and the reason why you can't sleep on New Orleans
(17:34):
basketball is because of him. And so it's it's time for him to
have a full season. It's time for him to play in the
playoffs. It's time for him to, you know,
make New Orleans basketball relevant.
He has the game, he has a talent, he has the pieces around
him. He needs to be healthy.
They need to be healthy. And if, if New Orleans can be
(17:57):
healthy, I'm just, I'm just saying like this is a team that
you're going to have to show up against and they're going to be
fun to watch. Well, Mark, on that note, I'll
let our production team let let them know that need to take that
last minute and go ahead and play that before player
introductions. What you just said, because fans
would love to hear that and see that come to fruition.
(18:17):
Man, I love it. Mark Spears, senior NBA writer
and Scape and ESPN, man, always a pleasure to have you on.
Looking forward to checking in as the season goes on and see
where we are. So y'all y'all say going to meet
some jumbo as a gift for being on the show or something?
We can do that and Jim knows everybody, so he'll hook you up.
I think Mark knows more people than I do, but we'll, we'll,
(18:38):
we'll line that up for you, Mark.
I appreciate it now. Thank you, Mark.
Later. All right, Jim, as always, man,
that's fun when we have Mark Spears join us here.
But we, I got to ask you about that competitive nature and
especially the start of the season and you're going to bring
(19:00):
in something that you love to dohere on the podcast and that's
trending numbers and you're going to tie it into the start
of the season. And by the way, before I get
into this Gus, I am so happy theregular season is almost here.
I can't wait for games that count and for having something a
little bit more tangible to talkabout interviews, press
conferences and pre season games.
It's been fun, but let's get serious now, Gus.
(19:20):
So with that, the first trendingnumber is so the Pelicans play
Memphis on Wednesday in the season opener in FedEx Forum.
I actually have three trending numbers for them.
It's 5127 and 48 and that is their win totals over the last
three seasons. The reason that is notable is if
you think about it, the 27 is stands out between the 51 and
the 48, right? They also have a lot of injuries
(19:43):
already at the beginning of the season.
It does sound like John Morant is going to be ready for the
opener. That's at least what he said
recently. But I mean, they have guys like
Jaron Jackson, Brandon Clark, Zach Edie, you know, a bunch of
their bigs are going to be out of the lineup.
So I picked that trending numberbecause I think once again,
their injury in their health status is going to dictate a lot
of their season. They've been one of the best
(20:03):
teams in the West when they've been healthy as by, you know, 2.
They've had a couple 2 seeds last year they won 48 games.
They were one of the best teams in the West until the tail end
of the season when they fell offand had a head coaching change.
That kind of messed up the wholechemistry and the whole
situation. But the the health,
unfortunately, with the Pelicansand the Grizzlies.
(20:24):
That's been the thing that's if you're healthy, you're a good
team, if you're not, it's going to be a struggle.
And one other quick note too on that game to open the season out
of 82, Zion is four and four head to head against JA over
there six seasons. So hopefully for basketball
fans, we'll get a 9th opportunity for those two guys
to play against each other. It hasn't happened a lot and
it's something that I think has kind of robbed basketball fans
(20:47):
of just a fun matchup of those two guys being on the court.
Second trending number is San Antonio and that is 5.
The Pelicans play the Spurs Friday night in the home opener
in the Smoothie King Center 5 isthe number of games that Victor
Wenmanyama and Darren Fox playedtogether last season.
So there was a little excitementabout those two guys being
paired up and some of the pick and roll stuff that they can do
(21:09):
together. But because of Wemby's blood
clot issue and then Darren Fox also had an injury, they barely
got to play together in just those five games.
It sounds like Fox is also not going to be ready for the opener
this season. Think he has a hamstring injury
and so that's in doubt and it looks like he's not going to be
able to play. But they have a couple other
young guys in Dylan Harper who they drafted #2 overall.
(21:32):
And that's Bob Castle, who won Rookie of the year last season.
So, I mean, Fox probably isn't gonna play against the Pelicans,
but they have other guards who are going to step up and play
bigger roles and probably try toseize the opportunity that for
at least this stretch of the season when Fox isn't playing,
they're going to be relied upon to do a lot more.
So a lot of hype about Cooper flag, but Dylan Harper was
(21:54):
picked right after him and I think people are excited big
time about him. Last trending number, the third
team that the Pelicans are goingto play during the regular
season. On Monday they play the Boston
Celtics and the trending number I have for them is 4 because of
their top six guys. Basically the the six players on
the Celtics who started at least40 games last season.
(22:16):
Of those six players, four of them are gone play against the
So between Jayson Tatum, who's going to miss all or most
probably most of the season, at the very least, Drew Holiday,
they lost in the offseason, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford
went to Golden State. So I mean, you're talking about
a completely different Boston team.
This is not the group that won the championship two years ago.
(22:39):
They have a lot of question marks based on the departure of
Porzingis Horford and also Luke Cornett, who went to the Spurs
at the center spot. It's it's anyone's guess in
terms of, you know, how they're going to feel that and who's
going to be able to, you know, take on the starting role and
have a lot of responsibility. But I think it also is worth
mentioning that even without some of those guys, the Celtics
(23:00):
don't have any more. They're still going to have on
opening night. They're going to have Jalen
Brown, who could average 30 a game this year.
You never know of Derek White and Peyton Pritchard.
So I mean, they have three of ofthe best.
They have a very good top three in terms of their guards.
And I think we're going to see alot of three pointers, I'm
pretty sure from that squad likedid last year.
I mean, people have been talkingabout maybe they'll break the
(23:21):
record for most threes in a gamethis season.
That wouldn't seem so. That's the first 3 opponents.
I think it's important for the Pelicans to get off to a good
start in those first three gamesbecause after that, as we've
discussed in previous episodes, they have one of the toughest 3
game Rd. trips that any team will have in the NBA all season,
and that is at Denver, at the Clippers, at OK C.
(23:41):
So get off to a good start and let's not be in a hole the way
that they were last year. We had to dig out of it the
entire 82 games. And all three teams you just
mentioned that they will play onthe road.
Mark Spears reference previous segment as they're ready.
So there you go. We'll see what happens, man.
Our thanks to Mark Spears for joining us.
And as always, thank you, Jim. And great stuff there.
(24:01):
As always, thank you for watching the New Orleans
Pelicans podcast. I'm Gus Katengel, we'll see you
next time right here. Thanks again.
Hello everyone and welcome to the New Orleans Pelicans
Podcast, official podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans, Gus
Kattengel. And as you can see, Mr. Jim, I
can offer pelicans.com got a lotto talk into talk about today.
And one of the things that I'm excited about is our guest Mr.
Mark Spears, senior NBA writer for Anscape and ESPN is going to
join us here as well. Jim and I may or may not ask him
(00:24):
about Jeremiah fears. I don't know if you knew this,
14 points in the fourth quarter earlier in the week in a
preseason game in him, Zion, Wasit a windmill dunk, was it not?
It was a 360. It got everybody excited, man.
Those players and those plays that got got the week started
off right for me, man. Zion upset a few of the dunk
purists, the people who believe that you must categorize dunks
(00:48):
exactly the way that they are. And I guess a lot of people said
that that was not a windmill. And the Pelicans official
account came back and said, you know what, guys?
You're right. It was a 360.
It was not a 360 with the windmill luckily though, so
there's more room for improvement from Zion.
Hopefully during the regular season.
See the combination of the 360 and the windmill.
(01:08):
Look, if, if I'm a Pels fan, yougot to see why there's
excitement about Jeremiah fears.And then also, I think if you're
a Pels fan and non Pels fan, yougot to see Z, you know, and
look, I, I know that a couple ofgames in Australia, but you got
to not only see his, what he looks like, right, and being in
shape, but four steals as well. Jim kind of gives you an idea
(01:28):
what kind of condition he's in. And I love the mindset.
He was agitated that Trey Murphydidn't give him more passes so
he could produce more dunks for the Birmingham crowd.
Yeah, he wanted to please the the squadron, the ticket holders
there. He wanted to make the people
happy that get to see the Pelicans in person in Birmingham
once a year. So yeah, it's been, I think it
(01:48):
was encouraging pre season. You know, you mentioned also
Jeremiah fears. He talked about how he's gotten
better every game in pre season.If you look at the way he played
in the first game compared to the next couple, I mean, there's
a big difference. And I think that's encouraging
because you just see that he's he's taking some of what he's
learning in some of the mistakeshe's making as any rookie point
guard will and he's figuring outhow to, you know, eliminate some
(02:11):
of that stuff or reduce some of that stuff.
I'm excited about his future. One of the things Willie Green
talked about so far in the preseason and in camping
practices, competitiveness, he wants his team to be
competitive. And Jim, to your point, Jeremiah
Fears had a shot, A3 pointer, 30feet at the back of the rim,
could have won the game as the pills went down by two back in
Birmingham. So just in that game, though,
(02:33):
you saw that competitive nature continue.
And they're going to need that as we'll chat here at the end of
the podcast. The start of the season is going
to be pretty tight here as well.But you know what, let's get
into it. I don't want to make our guest
wait any longer. Mark Spears going to join us.
We come back of the New Orleans Pelicans podcast.
(03:05):
All right, time to welcome in our guest.
Jim. I can offer.
I know you feel the same way I do.
Mark Spears, senior NBA writer for Amscape and ESPN joins us
and clearly knows he's on a New Orleans podcast with a choice of
shirt today. What's up Mark?
How are you, man? All coincidental, man.
You know, I, I was just rocking it today and I just like, you
know what I don't need to change.
I'm going to keep it here. Go Tigers.
(03:27):
Well, I'm glad you chose that outfit, Mark.
You know, we had you on a few months ago and we were just a
podcast, but now we're ATV show.So, you know, we're making
progress around here. We're really.
Yeah, man, the world need to seehow handsome you are, brother.
It's long overdue, man. I hear you man.
He needs a he needs a green roomMark.
He's he's very popular. You know, it's interesting
(03:49):
because I was thinking of Showtime and us doing this TV
show. You guys listening to it or
saying it just now and I saw youtweeting earlier this week.
I'm excited the NBA season literally right around the
corner in terms of the start of the regular season.
You were tweeting Steph Curry isready to go.
That guy is always must watch basketball.
We got to see in person with thePelicans Kevin Durant in a
(04:09):
rockets uniform. I I know Mark there's some big
names that are injured and are going to be missing time.
Maybe even the season, but there's so many stars and
Knights and you look at the Westit it really is must watch on a
nightly basis in the NBA right now.
Do you feel that going into the new year?
Yeah, no, I I think the West is going to be extremely
interesting. Pretty much every team in the
(04:31):
West is competitive. I mean, I was watching the
Nuggets versus the Clippers pre season game.
And typically with pre season games, I'll, I'll watch the
first quarter, maybe get to halftime, But the intensity in
that game, right, for a pre season game was, was something
that I, I can't recall really seeing too often.
(04:53):
I was like, OK, this feels a little different.
Teams are getting ready. I think they know what's at
stake. You know, obviously the Thunder
are still the choice to not onlywin the West, but to win
everything. But it ain't going to be easy.
There hasn't been a repeat champion, I believe since the
Warriors and like what, 1718 something like that.
(05:18):
Denver looks ready. You know, Golden State looks
ready. Clippers look ready.
Minnesota can't forget about them.
You know, like there's, there's some dogs and you know, I feel
like that by the end of the season, if, if the Pelicans can
(05:39):
finally be healthy, they're not going to be easy out.
You know, I, I, I think they area team that has the talent to,
you know, compete for a plan and, and possibly a playoff.
But you know, a lot of it has todo with Zion's health, which has
been the whole thing his whole career.
(06:00):
But something's got to give And and and I think, you know,
perhaps it's the year we could finally see him healthy And, you
know, maybe on I don't want to take your questions from you,
but but back in an All Star form.
You know, Mark, by the way, I'veheard a few people refer to that
recent Nuggets Clippers preseason game that you
(06:21):
referenced as game eight of their playoff series.
So I mean, that's pretty, that'sa pretty good game for a
preseason game. You're saying it went?
Back home afterwards, they didn't, they didn't go forward
after. But in terms of the Pelican
specifically, I know this is something that I was kind of
chatting with you or joking withyou about a couple days ago when
we we were talking about having you on.
(06:42):
It definitely seems like from our standpoint that the national
media perspective perspective has been very negative about the
Pelicans. And I'm not asking the answer
for everyone in national media. You are Mark Spears, but I mean
what? What is your?
Perception. Exactly what's your perception
of that and and just what your maybe how your opinion kind of
(07:02):
diverges a little bit from? That maybe I'm a little closer
to it, as you could tell, like, but one thing I've just always
noticed and I've said that is ifZion's healthy, they win.
They've always won. They they've had a top team in
the West when he's when he's played, you know, obviously
(07:25):
there's some changes. C JS not there anymore.
And and I think from a leadership standpoint, you know,
that certainly is a loss. But you know, being in the Bay,
I've seen the leadership that Kevon Looney has and he's one of
the quietest guys. Have either one of you guys have
much of a conversation with him since he's been there?
(07:47):
Probably not, right? Just media day, we we talked.
Yeah, I mean, it just you, but one of the nicest guys in the
world and I don't think he'll deal with any nonsense in the
locker room, right? It's going to be a mature locker
room. It's going to be a, you know, a
locker room ready to play. So in a lot of ways, not from a
(08:07):
player standpoint, but from a leadership standpoint, I think
he will take the torch from CJ. But I mean, when you look at the
roster, you you know, we know what Zion is.
Jordan Poole is a sneaky addition.
Somebody being in the Bay, I've seen a lot.
(08:28):
I think New Orleans fans are going to fall in love with him.
He's an electric scorer. You know, maybe they need to
bring back the woo, you know, because, yeah, it is somebody
certainly that could get that going.
I I really think that New Orleans fans may not know too
much about them today, but come the start of the season and I
(08:52):
think he's in a lot of ways beenbeen humbled.
He won a championship with the Warriors and things ended bad
and then he had to go to Washington and that going from
being with the Warriors to Washington was tough.
So I think now coming to New Orleans, he's finally felt like,
all right, I got to little bit of five my career show that I'm
(09:15):
a lead player in this league andand I think New Orleans will
give them the opportunity to be an amazing 1-2 punch.
I knew you'd follow the Pelicans.
I knew that would be something that we could count on you for.
One of the things that you mentioned about Looney was, you
know, that he's kind of, he could be another guy that is a
really prized addition and somebody that wasn't talked
about a ton. Maybe I wanted to ask you a
(09:37):
little bit about the nba.com GM survey that you probably heard
about from recently. He actually got a vote for who's
the most underrated acquisition of the offseason.
So I thought that was interesting.
I, I was kind of wondering like,where did that vote maybe come
from? Golden State, because I'm sure
they understand how valuable he is.
You know what, maybe it did, maybe it was Dunleavy who did
(09:59):
that. I'm I wouldn't be surprised
because it's like I said, it's just like now I think Golden
State surely has enough veteranswhere they can police themself,
right? Right.
But where maybe there's there's a loss is if something's going a
little haywire. Looney could like he, he's like
(10:22):
the old EF cut Hutton commercial.
You know, when he when he talks,people listen and doesn't say a
whole lot. But when he talks, he's like a
big old dude man. Like you don't want to cross
him. He'll he'll clean things up.
But he's also really great with the young guys, you know, rookie
from Maryland. I think he'll he'll spend some
(10:43):
time with him, especially since he's going to be out for a
while. Messi, who I should have
mentioned, who I think as a bright, bright, bright future
ahead as another player that people are sleeping on to add to
the depth of this team and and athleticism and at at the center
(11:06):
position. I think he is today's
prototypical NBA center like so I make like the Pelicans have
size too. No, I think Looney is going to,
he's going to make an impact that only like the people in the
organization, only the players, only the coaches, only the, you
know, some of the medical personnel is truly going to be
(11:26):
able to see. You, you mentioned fears.
I, I know we talked to you abouthim a few months ago, but now
that we're in pre season, he's really starting to show even
more of his potential. A game, he had a game against
Houston where he had, you know, 2642 steals from what you've
seen of him and, and I know you,you had a really good
conversation with him. What's your perception now,
(11:48):
maybe as we get close to the regular season on him?
I think he's going to have his great days and he's going to
have his bad days. You have some ups and downs.
I mean, the point guards in thisleague are fierce, no pun
intended. But he he's not frightened by
anybody. He's confident.
He believes that he should have been the number one pick.
And if you believe that, you gotto work to show that you're that
(12:10):
we can make a conversation out of that.
There's some fantastic rookies, you know, coming into this this
league. I wish queen was healthy to see
how good he could be, and we'll see that in time.
But I mean, Jeremiah works. He's he's fun, he's electric.
(12:31):
He's already taken into culture,which I thought was was really
cool to see. And I think he'll also be like
to watch him on the floor with either Jose or pool.
I I think it's going to be fun. You know, it's going to be
helter skelter and I've I've been waiting for him to dunk on
(12:53):
somebody, you know, waiting to see some of that athleticism.
But that that 4th see that's what the pre season for is for
to me really for vets is to check the lights, make sure that
the you know, you can start the car and car up revving and
everything. But for for somebody like
(13:13):
Jeremiah, man, you, you try to play him as many minutes as you
can get as much experience as you can.
Summer league is cool. NBA pre season is different.
It's a different level. And so I was, I was pleasantly
surprised, not even pleasantly surprised, though.
It was good to see him have a dominant fourth quarter, right.
It's not the first team, but it's still pre season basketball
(13:38):
and for him to show that kind offight in the pre season game,
the fourth quarter, I, I think that was a great sign.
Yeah, I mean, Mark, you, you, you said it in terms of kind of
the way I perceive him as well right now is like I'm so
confident that he's going to be a really good NBA player, that
he's has a chance to have a really high ceiling and and and
(14:00):
be, you know, even maybe like a star player.
I feel similarly with Derrick Queen, but we haven't seen him
on the floor that much. But I mean, so far I just we
just don't know if it's going tohappen right away.
I mean, but I think you can say that about a lot of rookie point
guards, as you mentioned earlier.
I mean, that's probably the toughest, got to be the toughest
position in the NBA to come intothe league.
Because if there's 30 starting point guards, I don't know,
(14:22):
maybe 24 of them are elite talents.
I mean, there's just not that many knocks off at that position
in the league. Yeah, I mean, it's like you got
Steph right one night and then you go up to Portland and like,
even Scoop, when Scoop's back, you got to show up against
(14:42):
Scoop, man. Like, you know, like that nobody
has any. Anyone you could take, you could
sleep on. You go up to Sacramento and, you
know, you might have to guard Levine, right?
Like, might go big. So think every game is going to
be a challenge. Every game is going to be an
education. But I certainly think he's up
(15:04):
for it. I think one of the things too
that's going to be interesting is Mark, since you get to talk
to players, Jim and I in the under 6 foot club.
Can you find out what Victor Wynn Banyama is doing Because
our home opener is going to be against the Spurs and I just
read something this week that he's up to like 7-5 or 77.
Can you please let us know how that goes?
(15:25):
You know what I mean? It's going to be interesting to
see him here personally real soon, but man what that that
team is going to be interesting and he looks special.
That's another guy, man, Like I,I, I hate when health ruins
stars, right? Like with Zion, with Jah, with,
(15:46):
with Wimby, the the those two guys, like I want to see Zion
against Wimby, like see how thatgoes and how they guard each
other. You, you know, I, I do think
that first game is going to be great.
I'm actually going to see Wimby,I think the night before they
play. Dallas right there, Opener.
(16:09):
Yeah. Yeah, so I'll be at that game,
but I mean, I don't know that Wimby is not really a play
against each other, but right, have they like so that would be
exciting to see, fun to see. And this is this is Zion's time,
man, to I think make it where people in San Antonio are
(16:30):
talking about him, right, where the league is talking about him
again. But we're talking about him, you
know, being a member of the Olympic team in 28.
They're like, to me, this is this is got to be personal for
him. You know, he's faced a lot of
Chris criticism, a lot of it, you know, half of it is to his
(16:52):
own detriment, right? But if he looks great, he's got
Joe's leadership, Willie's leadership, Troy's leadership.
There's a guy like Looney pushing him.
He's in amazing shape. Like I want to see him have a
season where people are talking about him and not wimpy, right?
(17:13):
Like he, he has that talent. You know, I've, I've talked to
some of his former teammates andthey're saying that like he has
talent to be the best player in the league.
And so I, I'm just really excited for him.
And, and the reason why you can't sleep on New Orleans
(17:34):
basketball is because of him. And so it's it's time for him to
have a full season. It's time for him to play in the
playoffs. It's time for him to, you know,
make New Orleans basketball relevant.
He has the game, he has a talent, he has the pieces around
him. He needs to be healthy.
They need to be healthy. And if, if New Orleans can be
(17:57):
healthy, I'm just, I'm just saying like this is a team that
you're going to have to show up against and they're going to be
fun to watch. Well, Mark, on that note, I'll
let our production team let let them know that need to take that
last minute and go ahead and play that before player
introductions. What you just said, because fans
would love to hear that and see that come to fruition.
(18:17):
Man, I love it. Mark Spears, senior NBA writer
and Scape and ESPN, man, always a pleasure to have you on.
Looking forward to checking in as the season goes on and see
where we are. So y'all y'all say going to meet
some jumbo as a gift for being on the show or something?
We can do that and Jim knows everybody, so he'll hook you up.
I think Mark knows more people than I do, but we'll, we'll,
(18:38):
we'll line that up for you, Mark.
I appreciate it now. Thank you, Mark.
Later. All right, Jim, as always, man,
that's fun when we have Mark Spears join us here.
But we, I got to ask you about that competitive nature and
especially the start of the season and you're going to bring
(19:00):
in something that you love to dohere on the podcast and that's
trending numbers and you're going to tie it into the start
of the season. And by the way, before I get
into this Gus, I am so happy theregular season is almost here.
I can't wait for games that count and for having something a
little bit more tangible to talkabout interviews, press
conferences and pre season games.
It's been fun, but let's get serious now, Gus.
(19:20):
So with that, the first trendingnumber is so the Pelicans play
Memphis on Wednesday in the season opener in FedEx Forum.
I actually have three trending numbers for them.
It's 5127 and 48 and that is their win totals over the last
three seasons. The reason that is notable is if
you think about it, the 27 is stands out between the 51 and
the 48, right? They also have a lot of injuries
(19:43):
already at the beginning of the season.
It does sound like John Morant is going to be ready for the
opener. That's at least what he said
recently. But I mean, they have guys like
Jaron Jackson, Brandon Clark, Zach Edie, you know, a bunch of
their bigs are going to be out of the lineup.
So I picked that trending numberbecause I think once again,
their injury in their health status is going to dictate a lot
of their season. They've been one of the best
(20:03):
teams in the West when they've been healthy as by, you know, 2.
They've had a couple 2 seeds last year they won 48 games.
They were one of the best teams in the West until the tail end
of the season when they fell offand had a head coaching change.
That kind of messed up the wholechemistry and the whole
situation. But the the health,
unfortunately, with the Pelicansand the Grizzlies.
(20:24):
That's been the thing that's if you're healthy, you're a good
team, if you're not, it's going to be a struggle.
And one other quick note too on that game to open the season out
of 82, Zion is four and four head to head against JA over
there six seasons. So hopefully for basketball
fans, we'll get a 9th opportunity for those two guys
to play against each other. It hasn't happened a lot and
it's something that I think has kind of robbed basketball fans
(20:47):
of just a fun matchup of those two guys being on the court.
Second trending number is San Antonio and that is 5.
The Pelicans play the Spurs Friday night in the home opener
in the Smoothie King Center 5 isthe number of games that Victor
Wenmanyama and Darren Fox playedtogether last season.
So there was a little excitementabout those two guys being
paired up and some of the pick and roll stuff that they can do
(21:09):
together. But because of Wemby's blood
clot issue and then Darren Fox also had an injury, they barely
got to play together in just those five games.
It sounds like Fox is also not going to be ready for the opener
this season. Think he has a hamstring injury
and so that's in doubt and it looks like he's not going to be
able to play. But they have a couple other
young guys in Dylan Harper who they drafted #2 overall.
(21:32):
And that's Bob Castle, who won Rookie of the year last season.
So, I mean, Fox probably isn't gonna play against the Pelicans,
but they have other guards who are going to step up and play
bigger roles and probably try toseize the opportunity that for
at least this stretch of the season when Fox isn't playing,
they're going to be relied upon to do a lot more.
So a lot of hype about Cooper flag, but Dylan Harper was
(21:54):
picked right after him and I think people are excited big
time about him. Last trending number, the third
team that the Pelicans are goingto play during the regular
season. On Monday they play the Boston
Celtics and the trending number I have for them is 4 because of
their top six guys. Basically the the six players on
the Celtics who started at least40 games last season.
(22:16):
Of those six players, four of them are gone play against the
So between Jayson Tatum, who's going to miss all or most
probably most of the season, at the very least, Drew Holiday,
they lost in the offseason, Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford
went to Golden State. So I mean, you're talking about
a completely different Boston team.
This is not the group that won the championship two years ago.
(22:39):
They have a lot of question marks based on the departure of
Porzingis Horford and also Luke Cornett, who went to the Spurs
at the center spot. It's it's anyone's guess in
terms of, you know, how they're going to feel that and who's
going to be able to, you know, take on the starting role and
have a lot of responsibility. But I think it also is worth
mentioning that even without some of those guys, the Celtics
(23:00):
don't have any more. They're still going to have on
opening night. They're going to have Jalen
Brown, who could average 30 a game this year.
You never know of Derek White and Peyton Pritchard.
So I mean, they have three of ofthe best.
They have a very good top three in terms of their guards.
And I think we're going to see alot of three pointers, I'm
pretty sure from that squad likedid last year.
I mean, people have been talkingabout maybe they'll break the
(23:21):
record for most threes in a gamethis season.
That wouldn't seem so. That's the first 3 opponents.
I think it's important for the Pelicans to get off to a good
start in those first three gamesbecause after that, as we've
discussed in previous episodes, they have one of the toughest 3
game Rd. trips that any team will have in the NBA all season,
and that is at Denver, at the Clippers, at OK C.
(23:41):
So get off to a good start and let's not be in a hole the way
that they were last year. We had to dig out of it the
entire 82 games. And all three teams you just
mentioned that they will play onthe road.
Mark Spears reference previous segment as they're ready.
So there you go. We'll see what happens, man.
Our thanks to Mark Spears for joining us.
And as always, thank you, Jim. And great stuff there.
(24:01):
As always, thank you for watching the New Orleans
Pelicans podcast. I'm Gus Katengel, we'll see you
next time right here. Thanks again.
Host
Jim Eichenhofer
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