November 18, 2025 • 31 mins
New Orleans Pelicans radio color analyst John DeShazier joins Jim Eichenhofer and Gus Kattengell on the Pelicans Podcast for Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, to break down expectations for a James Borrego-led Pelicans team and evaluate the continued progression of the Pelicans rookies.
Later, Jim shares his player of the week, player to watch, and the trending numbers that will shape this week’s matchups on the Pelicans schedule.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the New Orleans Pelicans
Podcast. I'm Gus Kattengel.
Alongside Mr. Jim, I can offer pelicans.com and Mr. John the
Shazer Radio analyst for you NewOrleans Pelicans.
Looking forward to our conversations, although it is
that time of year, What I mean by that is it's it's a tough
time of season as the Pelicans have started out in a way that
(00:26):
now we are going in a different direction.
So James Borrego, the interim head coach for the Pelicans,
gentlemen, let's just start there because he spoke
extensively about what he's expecting his team to sort of do
and kind of in line and become an identity wise, if that makes
sense, John. Well, I mean, when you think
about it, had this team had an identity for the 1st 12 games,
(00:48):
you don't necessarily know what they were.
I don't know that they understood exactly what they
were or what they what, what theexpectations were or, or how
they were playing. So what James Borrego said was,
look, we want to play a certain way.
A couple of things he talked about was aggression and force
and joy because there was some strain on these guys.
You could kind of sense it whereyou had some games where was,
(01:11):
oh, here we go again, those kinds of things.
So you want to see these guys play with a little bit more joy,
obviously, because at the end ofthe day, it's a game.
Have fun, it's a game. All the guys grew up wanting to
do this, dreaming about doing this.
So now you're in your dream, have fun with it, but you also
got to be businesslike about it.And that's where the the force
(01:32):
and aggression comes with because I mean, this team, let's
face it, had had some passivity to it, you know, been pushed
around a little bit. And so now you got to stand up
and say, OK, we're not going, we're not going to take it.
We're we're not going to take it.
OK. You just can't be pushed around
in the NBA because you develop areputation and everybody sees
the film. It's out there for everybody to
(01:53):
see. And if one team pushes you
around, everybody says we can push you around.
So they really need to establishthat identity and and hopefully
going forward they're able to. Not sure if I can add any
singing to his lyrics, but no, Ithink one of the biggest things
that stood out to me that was almost a little bit jarring
listening to James Rago talk when he was first announced as
(02:16):
the interim head coach was he talked a lot about they need to
get their heads up. They need to be more positive.
I mean, you, I think you forget sometimes too that losing how
much of A toll it takes on players.
I mean, these guys are very obviously very well compensated.
They have amazing jobs, but you start out O and six and it kind
of effects you. And I mean, that was the thing
(02:36):
that it was almost a little surprising to hear, but it made
sense. And I I do think too, when you
look back at it, the first two games of the season, as much as
you say, like it's a couple games and there's still 80 games
left, I think those were really destructive.
If you think about, you know, you could have won the opener
against Memphis. You had a good chance to beat
the Spurs and didn't do it, lostin overtime of that game.
(02:57):
Next thing you know, you're playing some of the best teams
in the NBA and you're O and six.I thought that part of it was
was really had a big unfortunatenegative effect.
And the and the other thing too that he talked about that I took
note of was just the fact that he was going to make changes
immediately That and that was something that we saw in the
game Sunday against Golden State.
(03:18):
We're recording this before Monday's game against Oklahoma
City. But I mean, immediately he
changed the starting lineup. He changed some of the minutes
for different players. Carlo Mackovich played 20 plus
minutes for the first time this season.
He has a bunch of different ideas about playing faster.
So that part of it I wasn't surprised by though, because I
(03:38):
feel like almost every whenever you see a in season change at
head coach across the NBA, no matter what team it is, they
immediately will put their imprint on things, whether it's
how they determine who, who's going to play more, who's going
to play less, maybe the style ofplay a little bit.
So we saw that immediately though.
And I think the big thing was, and you referenced it again, the
playing with joy. You play basketball, but these
(04:02):
guys look like it was work. You know it, It's different when
you're playing and when it lookslike work.
It looks like they were laboringunder the weight of, OK, we're
we're 2 and 10. It doesn't feel like we're going
to win this game. And you get to a certain point
in the game where the pills haveplayed well and then all the
bottom falls out and it's almostlike an expectation.
It's hovering there. And when it happens, of course,
(04:24):
the heads go down. So you want to just get these
guys back to having fun, joy, playing with some kind of
purpose from that standpoint. Because really, again, it's a
it's a game now. You're playing for each other
and obviously you get compensated for it.
And at the end of the day, it's about wins and losses that far.
Willie Green's no longer the coach, but you can get there, I
think a little bit better if you're having fun at what you're
(04:45):
doing and you're really putting everything you have into it.
You know, you and Grav call it during the game contagious,
right? I mean, we saw it obviously in a
couple of games against the Pelicans where, you know, guys
are getting either career nightsor threes or falling away, where
there's Grayson Allen and Moses Moody.
But confidence has that other side to it.
And we've all been a part of it.And having been on the road this
(05:05):
season and you feel it. I remember being on the bus on
the way to Intuit Center and youknow what, we're trying to
remember the last win, and this was before the team got that
first win. It was along the lines of what
Jim was just saying. I know it's a new season.
I know it's a whole new everything, new players, new
rookies. But when you look at your phone
and you see March 30th as your last win and you're still
(05:27):
looking for that first win. And even in that game, you know
you had a chance against the Clippers.
So it it does. And you do feel that weight.
And that's why I thought it was interesting when James Borrega
was talking about holding on to the rope, you know, fighting on
the sword when you're down 20, down 10.
I thought that was remarkable inhis opening.
Hey, this is what I want this team to be.
(05:48):
Speech to media. He's referring and and knowing
that, hey, when we get down, we need to pick ourselves as he was
being very specific of when we've been down this season.
It's been hard for us to fight back.
And I think in that Golden Stategame, John, you said in the
broadcast you cut it down to 4, you know, so you were there and
you were battling. And I thought they did show a
little bit of that in his first.Game.
(06:09):
Yeah. You know, I mentioned the first
two games this season. That Clippers game was another
example of. I actually thought that was a
good example of you're down by alot, you fight back, but
ultimately you lose at the buzzer.
It's another case of you got to keep your heads up because it's
demoralizing to lose like that. Incidentally, Kawhi Leonard has
barely played since that game, which is another stroke of luck
for the Pelicans that has happened.
(06:30):
But I mean, I think when you I've seen it on both sides, when
you win, when you go on a big winning streak, you start to
think we're never going to lose again.
When you go on a losing streak, you start start to think you're
never going to win again. The other part of it too on the
court, I think when a team goes into a losing skid like they
were where they're O and six andthen 2 and 10, you start to try
to do stuff on your own. You start to think I'm going to
(06:51):
be the guy who's going to fix this and that's the last thing
you want. And the other thing that Borrego
talked about multiple times on the multiple days that he came
in was trust. And to me that that's a big
thing that we need to see as well is guys sharing the ball.
Another thing that he mentioned from his San Antonio background
that that was the one of the biggest principles that they
(07:12):
have there is move the ball, share the ball.
You you just have guys that kindof break plays off and they're
like, I'm getting well paid. There's a lot of pressure on me.
I'm going to be the one that wins us this game.
And then when that, if a bunch of guys all do that, you just
have chaos and you don't have kind of a team concept that is
going to help you win. Yeah, that becomes the mindset.
I can do a little bit more, I can do a little bit more, I can
(07:33):
do a little bit more and I can do a little bit more turns into
I can do it all instead of, OK, I got a teammate over there open
on the wing, but I'm going to take this shot anyway or this
offense. This this set calls for me to
swing the ball. I'm going to hold it and I'm
going to dribble it and I'm going to see if I can create
something. No, you got to trust what you've
been taught in practice and and your teammates.
(07:55):
That's the reason you guys practice together.
There's a reason you guys put upall the shots you do.
You got to trust that when you swing it, that guy's going to
make you right and he's going tomake that shot.
Because if you stop that trust, then all of a sudden you start
to overdo things and it becomes either a missed shot, a bad
shot, a turnover. Very few good things come out of
it. Last I think, I think against
(08:15):
against Golden State, we saw a couple of shot clock beating
threes where the ball stuck in guys hands and they were just
fortunate to get off a three andswish it.
But that's not a sustainable offense.
You can't win that way consistently and so you got to
be trusting with your teammates.It's interesting Coach Perego
talked about that specifically trust and also moving the
(08:35):
basketball around, but he specifically said it starts with
habits and he's like, it's not going to happen overnight.
It's not going to be a magic wand.
So I thought it's interesting you just said that because coach
literally said it starts with habit building.
So it's going to take a little bit.
But look, obviously if you're Coach Perego, we're going to
play the the part in the role here since we can have a little
fun. When I look at it, what am I
(08:55):
attacking? What are the areas of need?
Do I need to attack? Jim, I can start with you, but I
can I suggest something. How about transition defense?
I feel like every time I listen to the broadcast, it's either
graph or it's either JD after a pails bucket, there's a layup on
the other end. So I'm going to suggest to Coach
Berrego transition defense and Ihave another one which I'll get
to you later. You know, that was one of the
(09:16):
things I have on my list. This is only a 30 minute show,
so we had to keep it to a certain number and not go over
that. But yeah, I mean, I had
transition. I'll mention that first because
you brought it up. I want to have, I want to see a
box score line. It added to NBA stats where it
says points that you gave up after you scored immediately, it
(09:38):
seems like. And I've watched enough games
around the NBA to know that thisisn't just a Pelicans thing.
But it definitely is a specific problem here that we've seen
over and over again is how many times you score a layup or a
three-point or whatever it is and then at the other end within
445 seconds you're giving up a basket.
That's we have analytics for everything.
I feel like that needs to be tracked because that's been a
(09:59):
problem. Just getting back on defense has
been one of the biggest issues. One another thing I, I again, I
don't want to get too long into this, but on my list is
rebounding. It feels like I've talked about
this a little bit with some of the other media guys during the
Golden State game. It feels like sometimes that
defensive rebounding in particular is someone else's
job. It feels like if you watch the
(10:21):
players, it's like they're waiting for other guys to
rebound. And what we want to see is
completely the opposite of that,which is every guy on the court,
all five guys have the mentalitythat I need to grab this
defensive rebound. And if you have three guys
collide with each other and theystart to need to have wear, need
to have to wear helmets because they're getting, I'm fine with
that. But it it feels like that that's
(10:42):
been an issue so far is that they're giving up too many
offensive rebounds. You combine that with the
defensive play, which has been poor and it's just frustrating
because not only are you not getting a lot of first stops,
but now you're having to get a second and third and fourth stop
a lot of times. And then lastly, and maybe I'll
come back to more, but I want tolet JD chime in as well.
(11:03):
Finishing at the basket. This is something that's been a
problem. You can look at a bunch of
different stats that show that Gus wants dunks, but even even
just it's just been a problem. And and it's also another thing
to basketball analysts talk about this.
You see, you hear this on TV allthe time.
If you miss a layup on one end, you're almost always giving up a
basket at the other. So those are three areas.
(11:25):
There's more than that, but but I'll let JD go.
And I'll just I'll go with a vague finish, just finish
because that covers several areas like against Golden State,
we saw this team not finishing in transition, not finished fast
break four of eighteen from the field on fast breaks finishing
the end of quarters. They held Golden State to to 9
(11:47):
points for 10 1/2 minutes of thesecond quarter.
Golden State finished that quarter 8 and O 8 to nothing.
Then they finished the third quarter 7 to nothing because the
pills didn't finish the ends of those quarters.
And then that allow Golden Stateto take a four point lead and
make it 12 at halftime and then stretch out the lead at the end
of the third quarter after all the progress you had made.
(12:08):
And then of course, finishing around the basket because you go
into that game shooting 49% on layups for the season.
That number is astounding. That is astounding.
That's at the rim, folks, to kind of explain.
What? That is 49% from the field on
layups. That is obviously it's possible
(12:31):
because the bells are doing it right, but you wouldn't think
it's possible and you guys? Brought it up in the broadcast.
If you make half of that, I'm not a mathematician.
Jim's much better at that than Iam.
Right? But you keep saying the math
don't math. Yeah.
You said 4 of 18, so half of those would be 9.
If I just get a layup, that's two.
That's 18 points. You were down by as little as
four. I mean, 18 points that are right
(12:53):
there. It doesn't have to take anything
other than the layup. You just got to be able to
finish. You got to be able to finish.
And I know I understand some of that's blocked shots.
You got guards going in and theyhave shots blocked and shots
changed. But when you your opportunity is
there, especially for your bigs.And some of that goes to Zion
Williams not playing obviously, because he is the finisher.
But you've got to be able to finish when you get in those
(13:16):
positions because it's just rareto shoot a percentage like that
and be able to be successful. You got to be able to take
advantage. You know, I look at that number
too and I, I ask myself why is it so low and does this team not
have guys that can finish at thebasket?
And I don't think that's the case.
But I do think that some of whatwe talked about earlier in terms
of forcing things and trying to do too much is reflected in that
(13:39):
stat because some of these layups are contested.
You're not going to shoot 40 percent, 49% on layups if
they're all wide open and you'rejust strolling down the lane and
you got a easy shot. I mean, these are NBA players.
They're going to make 95% of those.
But a lot of these are contested.
A lot of these are, you know, you're trying to dribble around
two or three guys and then you get to the basket and there's
another guy coming over. It takes a lot out of you to be
(14:01):
able to finish that play. I feel like that's happening a
lot. And you know, another thing,
too, I said I was going to keep this list brief.
I'll throw in one more thing. The turnovers to me has been a
problem. This was something specifically
in the Golden State game that James Borrego talked about was
there was being too aggressive with your passes trying to.
(14:21):
I mean, if if you take these NBAplayers and you put them on a
pickup court somewhere in New Orleans, you can throw a ball
across the court. You can throw, there's three
guys defenders in the way. I can still make this pass.
But you can't do that in the NBA.
And it seemed like that that's happened a lot where you see a
pass and it's just like the decision making.
The process isn't there as far as risk reward if you're going
(14:42):
to throw a pass. If you're going to throw a risky
pass, it better be one that leads to a basket.
It can't be one out by the half court line where you're just
throwing it to to get it, get a guy the ball and there's a
defender in the way. So it's that windshield wiper
offense where you're just going around the perimeter.
And I kind of expect that from the young guys because Jeremiah
fear, sure, you can get away with that at Arizona Compass
prep in in Oklahoma and and at Maryland.
(15:05):
You can do that if you did it Queen.
But the veteran guys who are turning the ball over, those are
the guys who need to be the better caretakers because you've
been in these positions before. And so you understand how
precious it is to protect the basketball.
Now in the NBA, yeah, you ain't going to be clean.
You're going to have 1415 turnovers at least probably if
you're a good team. But when you get up to 192021,
(15:27):
now you're in jeopardy because you're taking away too many
opportunities for yourself. That's those are shots you don't
get. And they're probably extra
opportunities that the opponent gets.
And and the one thing I want to roll back to is I want to see
this. The Pelicans lead the league and
dunk attempts blocked because I want you to be going in there to
dunk it every time. And so I want you to lead the
(15:48):
league and dunk attempts blockedbecause yeah, I just I just want
to because I mean, there are guys on this team that Trey
Murphy get finished now Trey hada dunk block and I can't
remember against who, but then he shield away and it's like,
dude, no, no, no, you got a probably 40 plus vertical.
You got to go in there with somemalice and you got to be
fearless about it. You got to go in there now,
(16:09):
Jeremiah fears get a left-handedlayup block and he shies away.
And OK, you know, he's 64, he's a young guy and maybe you got to
build his confidence back up. But I don't want to see, you
know, Trey Murphy and Herb Jonesand those guys go in there and
shy away. Zion.
Yeah, I don't. Yeah, I don't want to see you
shy away. I want to see you going in there
attacking because that's going to be your highest percentage
(16:30):
and yeah, you're going to get someone blocked.
It's the NBA. These are the best athletes to
me in the world. You're going to have someone
blocked. To me, it's a mindset.
Yeah, right. It's a mindset.
And into your point, I'm going to, I'm going to add cosign and
add a little something to. I want to see the Pells lead the
league in broken hands. I mean, to your point, like
start with that mindset. When I try to drive or I go to
(16:50):
dribble, it's a fast break. I'm going to dunk.
Let the defense know you're going to the rim because right
now if I'm a defender, I'm goingtowards the glass because I
think more often than not you'regoing to lay it in.
That's just me. But look, I think in 60 seconds
here, we'll move on to some players.
I know JD talked about it good, but Jim, turnovers, defense,
(17:10):
rebounding, finishing, these arethings that sound like you can
work on and fix yourself, right?Is this different than I don't
have the talent to compete or play?
Do you think all of that is a confidence thing?
But I don't know. To me, if I'm a Pells fan, I'm
like, can we fix? And I'm like, well, these are
things you can fix, I think at practice and get better habits.
Yeah, I, I mean, I think a lot of this is just a team thing
(17:32):
too. I think the players are here and
one of James Borrego's biggest objectives right off the bat is
how do you get the team to contribute to improving some of
these areas? The finishing around the basket
to me too, is if if you watch some of the teams that the
Pelicans have played against that have so far the season,
they have really good chemistry and cohesion.
They're creating wide open shotsall the time.
(17:54):
So you're I mean, your layups rate is going to be so much
higher because there's just lessdefense there.
You're open all the time. The rebounding thing is, is a is
a team thing that I think that they can improve.
Yeah. I just think a lot of these
areas are you do have the players, but you have to figure
out as a team how to help each other be better in in in a lot
of different categories. Yeah, And some of it's just the
(18:16):
tweaks. I mean, when Jim talks about the
rebounding, how much of it is just, OK, nobody release until
we get the rebound? Yeah, don't really.
We're not leaking out. We're getting the rebound.
And I understand that might hurtthe fast break chances, but we
need to get the rebound. Otherwise everything is going to
pot anyway because they're goingto have two or three bites at it
and they're going to score. So everybody, you know, will
(18:38):
have no leaking out. OK, now in NBA I, I don't know
where this changed in life, but nobody boxes out.
Just box out a dude. I mean, every now and then when
you see a guy box, it is so glaring that you mention it,
man, that's a great box out by so and so and so.
I mean, it is so glaring. So what's so difficult about
that? You know, small things that we
(18:59):
take for granted can be implemented to make this a
better team. Just incremental improvements.
And that's coach Barrigo said. You know, it's a process and
you're trying to do it on the fly and now you're trying to do
it against really good NBA teamson the fly.
So you gotta be able to accept some setbacks along the way.
But some things can be implemented immediately that you
(19:20):
can do. JD, I like what you said about
not having guys leak out. I think it's a different thing
if it's a guard, if it's a pointguard that's leaking out and
maybe you can outlet to him if you get a defensive rebound.
But there's been times when I feel like we see one Pelicans
big under the defensive backboard and there's three
players on the other team going after the ball and you're
telling this one guy, OK, you'reyou, you're going to have to
(19:40):
fight off everybody to get this rebound.
So I mean, they need, they need the the forwards and the center
to be back on defense and focusing on that and
prioritizing that over trying toget out and run.
It just popped in my head. As we go to some players here, I
want to talk about Dallas. I remember going into that
Dallas game on the road and graph saying one of the things
(20:00):
was rebounding. Very key to rebound.
And to your point Jim, there wasalways 4 Pells jerseys around
the rim and in that first half when the Pells started out well
and route to their first win. They rebounded extremely well,
so it can be done. You got to want to do it.
You name their names here. Let's start with the rookies,
your impressions, man of what Jeremiah Fears and Derek Derek
Queen has been able to do now moving into the starting lineup,
(20:23):
both of them. Love it.
You know, Fears is at what, 414 points, 6 points a game and
right at 3 assists. He's learning as he goes.
He's shooting 43% or something like that from the field, but
34% from 3. But you're seeing the growth
now. He's a guy who's got to learn
how to kind of channel his speedand kind of throttle down and
(20:43):
he's got to be a little bit better in terms of his decision
making. But those are things that go
along with being a 19 year old point guard in the NBA.
There's a growth process that's going to have to happen.
And we see increments of it, though.
We see, you know, little flashesof it here and there where you
like, you know, OK, this, this guy's got it, he can do it.
And so we expect to see him continue to climb and, and it's
(21:07):
in there. It's in there now with queen.
I mean, you know what, big easy,big smooth, you know, smoothie
queen. Hey, hey, man, smoothie queen.
I, you can say what you want to say.
That's me. But I mean, he's a guy who you
look at it and he just seems older than 20.
He plays older than that. And not because he's not the
most athletic guy in the world, but because he he understands
(21:29):
the game. He understands leverage and
angles and you know, he's not the fastest dude in the world,
but he gets downhill. How does that happen?
You know, he doesn't have the best jumper in the world, but he
pump face God and they go forward and he's able to get
around them. How does that happen?
You know, he sees the floor wellfor a guy his size and for a guy
of of his ability and you can see it coming with him.
(21:52):
He's had a couple of rough gamesback-to-back, you know, single,
single figure scoring, but he's still rebounding.
He's still, you know, getting assist.
He and Fears have to guard against the turnovers.
But again, that's young guys andthat happens with young guys.
But he knows how to play. He just knows how to play.
So putting him in the starting lineup, which was coach
Borrego's first move, obviously needed for this team.
(22:15):
But he's a guy he was finishing games anyway.
So that tells you the importancehe has.
So let him play through his mistakes, let him learn on the
fly, Let him go into some games.And yeah, he might commit two
fouls in the first quarter and three in the first half.
Let him understand how to play that way because he's going to
have to because he's critical towhat this team wants to do.
I just want to find out from talking to him at some point,
(22:37):
how did he learn to play the wayhe does because you just don't
see it anymore. Did he have like an old head in
Baltimore who was like who sat him down when he was 12 years
old and said, let me explain to you how the game is played?
You don't need to play fast. You can just survey the court.
You can make decisions at your own on your own clock.
It feels like we see this with alot of international guys.
Some of the the best players in the league, but we don't see
(22:57):
that with some of the domestic guys anymore.
So I'm I'll be curious to hear from.
Him, if he went out there wrapped in ace bandages and
smelling like Icy Hot, it wouldn't surprise.
I mean, he's got that kind of game I love like.
You said you call it a lot during the broadcast, like the
driveway game too, right? I mean it's.
Just waiting in to do it. I think would would really stood
out to me and I don't know if this is the end all be all, but
(23:19):
I saw a lot of social media postafter the Golden State game.
I'm sitting there on the couch just kind of going with some
stuff and Draymond, you know, Green was giving him tidbits,
apparently speaking to like he kept seeing Derrick Queen's head
go up and down and nodding. So he was communicating that
because John, we talked about this on the broadcast.
You talked about his back-to-back games going into
(23:40):
the OKC game of of single digits.
The film's out on these two guys.
The film is out right where he likes to catch the ball, where
he likes to do it. Watch for the pass, watch for
the lob pass. He can dribble behind his back.
There was a turnover where somebody stole it.
So you mentioned it's the NBA. There are coaches, as I've seen,
whether it's the bus, whether it's the plane, their laptops
(24:00):
are open. They're cutting clips of
players. The word is out on them and
that's part of the learning process.
But I thought that was interesting.
You're seeing teams plan for these guys and now you're seeing
vets. Like I said, it's Draymond
Green. Say what you want about him, the
guy knows basketball. He has a high basketball IQ, and
for him to be giving them tidbits or just speaking to him
in a manner where Derrick Queen's listening and doing
(24:22):
that, I think that's a huge signof respect on the game.
Well, think of the. Yeah.
Think of the things he can learnfrom Draymond, though.
He can learn because Draymond isnot a physical freak.
He plays with angles and he plays with leverage.
Those kinds of things that Derrick Queen can learn from.
You know, he's saying, look, I'mnot a high flyer here either and
I'm going to the Hall of Fame, so maybe I can teach you some
things that can help you along the way.
(24:43):
Now, is he ever going to be a Draymond Green level defender?
Probably not. Yeah, but there for the IQ.
Style. But it's the IQ that you see
with Draymond Green, you know, you know, Draymond Green doesn't
want to shoot the ball, but he winds up with eight assists.
You know he's you know, he's a guy who who's undersized, but he
ends up with 9 rebounds knows. Where all the players?
Are yeah, he, he understands andand so that's one of those
(25:05):
things where as a big guy who actually is initiating the
offense, he can help. He can help Queen immeasurably,
I think if he listens to him. And it looks like those guys are
receptive to listening and learning.
I'm fine with Draymond's input as long as he's not talking
about fan interaction and ref interaction, those two things.
Let's leave that off the table. Keep it on the court, I'll say.
(25:28):
This, and I know we talked aboutit back in the day, you were
talking about specifically when it came to, you know, Yokich and
baby joke and stuff. And I've said on a broadcast, he
reminds me of having a little Draymond into him that he does
talk. He talks to players, he talks to
the officials. He hadn't got teed up that many
times if it had all this season and he controls himself that
composure. So I think it is interesting.
(25:49):
Real quickly. I want to do some players to
watch and some players to keep an eye on here with next couple
of games. Jim who's a who's a player of
the week, he's a player to watchfor.
You, you know, last season a lotof times when they didn't get
any wins, I said let's not do a player of the week this week,
but we will do one with Trey Murphy as the player of the week
for Week 4. He averaged 24 1/2 points.
He averaged 7 1/2 rebounds. He shot 503292 from in in
(26:14):
shooting splits. Obviously the 32 is a little bit
low for him. He also moved into second place
all time in three pointers made for Pelicans all in the
franchise history. He needs 57 to pass CJ McCollum.
So that's the player of the week.
The player to watch over the next seven days is going to be
Carlo Mackovic, partly because Ithink it's it's going to be
(26:37):
interesting to just monitor his role.
I mentioned earlier that the first game with James Borrego as
head coach, he played 20 minutesfor the first time this season.
So and also another reason I picked Carlo is because if you
look at the opponents over this period of time, they play Denver
with Jokic, they have Dallas's big guys, which they have a
whole series of of monsters in the front court, Kristaps
(27:00):
Porzingis from Atlanta, Vlusevicfrom Chicago.
And so, and also one quick thingabout Carlo, we we're we're, we
might track this throughout the season.
Trey Murphy now is leading with 18 dunks.
Carlo has 16 going into Monday'sgame.
So definitely something that we'll keep an eye on.
And then last thing, I have trending numbers for the four
(27:24):
opponents that the Pelicans haveover this period of time.
Denver, the number is 2. That's what they rank in offense
and defense. They're only 21st in defense
last season. So you see just a huge jump that
they've made so far. Dallas, the number is 99 and
that is how many points The Mavericks scored against the
Pelicans in the head to head game.
(27:44):
That was the third time this season that Dallas was held
under 100 points. But since then, over the next
six games, they scored at least 104.
And they've been way up offensively since they played
the Pelicans. So that might be the key is can
you keep them in check and keep them down to a a relatively low
number? Last couple teams, Atlanta, my
(28:04):
number is 6 for them. That's what they rank in defense
this season. They're also third in steals.
They have a bunch of guys that are disruptive, that are long,
that can wreak havoc with you. They've won a bunch of games
without Trey Young as well, so that's another thing that has
been interesting lately. And then lastly, Chicago that
they play next Monday. The trending number for them is
(28:26):
one in five and that is their Rd. record.
They're five and one at home, only one in five on the road.
Can you take advantage of that as we record this?
There's actually only two teams in the NBA that haven't won a
road game, shockingly. One of them is New York, the
other one is Indiana. However, the Knicks have only
played three Rd. games. So, and I, I look at that stat
(28:46):
and I say, how is it possible that you've only played three
Rd. games so far? I mean, I think the Pelicans
could use a little bit of that. It feels like they've only
played Rd. games up to this point.
Now, partly, but the reason Jim chose Carlo because y'all know,
I love Carlo because that's my dude and and I, I, I absolutely
I will take every bit of him that I can see because you know,
(29:08):
last year he finished the game, I think his last 5-6 games he
was averaging like 13 points andshooting 61% from the field.
This year he's shooting 69% fromthe field.
Now small sample size, only 22 or 32, but 2, two of six of
those are three. So take out the threes and he's
shooting like 77% from the field.
His opportunities need to increase.
Humbly, I say, because he dunks everything.
(29:31):
He dunks everything. He's aggressive at the rim and
in fact, he ended up having a basket taken away because he
grabbed a rim with one hand and dunked him with the other.
Which, by the way, we've never. Seen before, yeah.
We've never seen before, Yeah. Seen it in the dunk contest, was
not in the game. And so, you know, love to see
him play. In terms of the teams that the
Pels are facing, I just want to see how they handle, especially
(29:52):
more than anything, Oklahoma City and Denver, because
Oklahoma City basically tries totap you out.
They they suffocate you and theymake you not want to play.
They make you not want to finish, they make you not want
to compete. And if you're not of the right
mindset and the right aggression, they'll push you
(30:12):
around. They're going to be aggressive,
they're going to foul you, you know they're going to foul you.
You can't get upset with it. You can't get so discouraged by
it or or so distracted that you picked up technical fouls and
and and, and Flagrance. But understand going in that you
got to match that to play against them because that's the
way they play. That's been basically officiated
(30:33):
that way. That's been the exception to
where or the acceptance where officials say, well, that's just
how they play. So here we go.
So I want to say how they handlethat and the improvement against
Denver because Denver is a team now that looks like it's capable
of challenging OKC, really challenging OKC because of that
(30:54):
monster they got in the middle. And so you're going to have to
stand up against those two teamsand you get you get to find out
a lot about yourself against those two teams again, as you're
in transition, as you're trying to figure out what you're doing
under a new coach, an interim coach, And you get a chance to
put it out there on the floor. And it might be ugly.
I don't know, it might be ugly. But I think they'll learn a lot
(31:14):
about themselves in those two games especially.
Championship contending teams, MVPS, that's what the Pelicans
have had to contend with. While there is change going on
within the organization, that's the start of the season.
It's the NBA. It's not easy because you can
tell there's a lot to get into. And we will continue to hear on
the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast.
John is always a pleasure, Sir. Thank you guys.
I appreciate it. All right, we'll see you next
(31:34):
time on the New Orleans PelicansPodcast.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the New Orleans Pelicans
Podcast. I'm Gus Kattengel.
Alongside Mr. Jim, I can offer pelicans.com and Mr. John the
Shazer Radio analyst for you NewOrleans Pelicans.
Looking forward to our conversations, although it is
that time of year, What I mean by that is it's it's a tough
time of season as the Pelicans have started out in a way that
(00:26):
now we are going in a different direction.
So James Borrego, the interim head coach for the Pelicans,
gentlemen, let's just start there because he spoke
extensively about what he's expecting his team to sort of do
and kind of in line and become an identity wise, if that makes
sense, John. Well, I mean, when you think
about it, had this team had an identity for the 1st 12 games,
(00:48):
you don't necessarily know what they were.
I don't know that they understood exactly what they
were or what they what, what theexpectations were or, or how
they were playing. So what James Borrego said was,
look, we want to play a certain way.
A couple of things he talked about was aggression and force
and joy because there was some strain on these guys.
You could kind of sense it whereyou had some games where was,
(01:11):
oh, here we go again, those kinds of things.
So you want to see these guys play with a little bit more joy,
obviously, because at the end ofthe day, it's a game.
Have fun, it's a game. All the guys grew up wanting to
do this, dreaming about doing this.
So now you're in your dream, have fun with it, but you also
got to be businesslike about it.And that's where the the force
(01:32):
and aggression comes with because I mean, this team, let's
face it, had had some passivity to it, you know, been pushed
around a little bit. And so now you got to stand up
and say, OK, we're not going, we're not going to take it.
We're we're not going to take it.
OK. You just can't be pushed around
in the NBA because you develop areputation and everybody sees
the film. It's out there for everybody to
(01:53):
see. And if one team pushes you
around, everybody says we can push you around.
So they really need to establishthat identity and and hopefully
going forward they're able to. Not sure if I can add any
singing to his lyrics, but no, Ithink one of the biggest things
that stood out to me that was almost a little bit jarring
listening to James Rago talk when he was first announced as
(02:16):
the interim head coach was he talked a lot about they need to
get their heads up. They need to be more positive.
I mean, you, I think you forget sometimes too that losing how
much of A toll it takes on players.
I mean, these guys are very obviously very well compensated.
They have amazing jobs, but you start out O and six and it kind
of effects you. And I mean, that was the thing
(02:36):
that it was almost a little surprising to hear, but it made
sense. And I I do think too, when you
look back at it, the first two games of the season, as much as
you say, like it's a couple games and there's still 80 games
left, I think those were really destructive.
If you think about, you know, you could have won the opener
against Memphis. You had a good chance to beat
the Spurs and didn't do it, lostin overtime of that game.
(02:57):
Next thing you know, you're playing some of the best teams
in the NBA and you're O and six.I thought that part of it was
was really had a big unfortunatenegative effect.
And the and the other thing too that he talked about that I took
note of was just the fact that he was going to make changes
immediately That and that was something that we saw in the
game Sunday against Golden State.
(03:18):
We're recording this before Monday's game against Oklahoma
City. But I mean, immediately he
changed the starting lineup. He changed some of the minutes
for different players. Carlo Mackovich played 20 plus
minutes for the first time this season.
He has a bunch of different ideas about playing faster.
So that part of it I wasn't surprised by though, because I
(03:38):
feel like almost every whenever you see a in season change at
head coach across the NBA, no matter what team it is, they
immediately will put their imprint on things, whether it's
how they determine who, who's going to play more, who's going
to play less, maybe the style ofplay a little bit.
So we saw that immediately though.
And I think the big thing was, and you referenced it again, the
playing with joy. You play basketball, but these
(04:02):
guys look like it was work. You know it, It's different when
you're playing and when it lookslike work.
It looks like they were laboringunder the weight of, OK, we're
we're 2 and 10. It doesn't feel like we're going
to win this game. And you get to a certain point
in the game where the pills haveplayed well and then all the
bottom falls out and it's almostlike an expectation.
It's hovering there. And when it happens, of course,
(04:24):
the heads go down. So you want to just get these
guys back to having fun, joy, playing with some kind of
purpose from that standpoint. Because really, again, it's a
it's a game now. You're playing for each other
and obviously you get compensated for it.
And at the end of the day, it's about wins and losses that far.
Willie Green's no longer the coach, but you can get there, I
think a little bit better if you're having fun at what you're
(04:45):
doing and you're really putting everything you have into it.
You know, you and Grav call it during the game contagious,
right? I mean, we saw it obviously in a
couple of games against the Pelicans where, you know, guys
are getting either career nightsor threes or falling away, where
there's Grayson Allen and Moses Moody.
But confidence has that other side to it.
And we've all been a part of it.And having been on the road this
(05:05):
season and you feel it. I remember being on the bus on
the way to Intuit Center and youknow what, we're trying to
remember the last win, and this was before the team got that
first win. It was along the lines of what
Jim was just saying. I know it's a new season.
I know it's a whole new everything, new players, new
rookies. But when you look at your phone
and you see March 30th as your last win and you're still
(05:27):
looking for that first win. And even in that game, you know
you had a chance against the Clippers.
So it it does. And you do feel that weight.
And that's why I thought it was interesting when James Borrega
was talking about holding on to the rope, you know, fighting on
the sword when you're down 20, down 10.
I thought that was remarkable inhis opening.
Hey, this is what I want this team to be.
(05:48):
Speech to media. He's referring and and knowing
that, hey, when we get down, we need to pick ourselves as he was
being very specific of when we've been down this season.
It's been hard for us to fight back.
And I think in that Golden Stategame, John, you said in the
broadcast you cut it down to 4, you know, so you were there and
you were battling. And I thought they did show a
little bit of that in his first.Game.
(06:09):
Yeah. You know, I mentioned the first
two games this season. That Clippers game was another
example of. I actually thought that was a
good example of you're down by alot, you fight back, but
ultimately you lose at the buzzer.
It's another case of you got to keep your heads up because it's
demoralizing to lose like that. Incidentally, Kawhi Leonard has
barely played since that game, which is another stroke of luck
for the Pelicans that has happened.
(06:30):
But I mean, I think when you I've seen it on both sides, when
you win, when you go on a big winning streak, you start to
think we're never going to lose again.
When you go on a losing streak, you start start to think you're
never going to win again. The other part of it too on the
court, I think when a team goes into a losing skid like they
were where they're O and six andthen 2 and 10, you start to try
to do stuff on your own. You start to think I'm going to
(06:51):
be the guy who's going to fix this and that's the last thing
you want. And the other thing that Borrego
talked about multiple times on the multiple days that he came
in was trust. And to me that that's a big
thing that we need to see as well is guys sharing the ball.
Another thing that he mentioned from his San Antonio background
that that was the one of the biggest principles that they
(07:12):
have there is move the ball, share the ball.
You you just have guys that kindof break plays off and they're
like, I'm getting well paid. There's a lot of pressure on me.
I'm going to be the one that wins us this game.
And then when that, if a bunch of guys all do that, you just
have chaos and you don't have kind of a team concept that is
going to help you win. Yeah, that becomes the mindset.
I can do a little bit more, I can do a little bit more, I can
(07:33):
do a little bit more and I can do a little bit more turns into
I can do it all instead of, OK, I got a teammate over there open
on the wing, but I'm going to take this shot anyway or this
offense. This this set calls for me to
swing the ball. I'm going to hold it and I'm
going to dribble it and I'm going to see if I can create
something. No, you got to trust what you've
been taught in practice and and your teammates.
(07:55):
That's the reason you guys practice together.
There's a reason you guys put upall the shots you do.
You got to trust that when you swing it, that guy's going to
make you right and he's going tomake that shot.
Because if you stop that trust, then all of a sudden you start
to overdo things and it becomes either a missed shot, a bad
shot, a turnover. Very few good things come out of
it. Last I think, I think against
(08:15):
against Golden State, we saw a couple of shot clock beating
threes where the ball stuck in guys hands and they were just
fortunate to get off a three andswish it.
But that's not a sustainable offense.
You can't win that way consistently and so you got to
be trusting with your teammates.It's interesting Coach Perego
talked about that specifically trust and also moving the
(08:35):
basketball around, but he specifically said it starts with
habits and he's like, it's not going to happen overnight.
It's not going to be a magic wand.
So I thought it's interesting you just said that because coach
literally said it starts with habit building.
So it's going to take a little bit.
But look, obviously if you're Coach Perego, we're going to
play the the part in the role here since we can have a little
fun. When I look at it, what am I
(08:55):
attacking? What are the areas of need?
Do I need to attack? Jim, I can start with you, but I
can I suggest something. How about transition defense?
I feel like every time I listen to the broadcast, it's either
graph or it's either JD after a pails bucket, there's a layup on
the other end. So I'm going to suggest to Coach
Berrego transition defense and Ihave another one which I'll get
to you later. You know, that was one of the
(09:16):
things I have on my list. This is only a 30 minute show,
so we had to keep it to a certain number and not go over
that. But yeah, I mean, I had
transition. I'll mention that first because
you brought it up. I want to have, I want to see a
box score line. It added to NBA stats where it
says points that you gave up after you scored immediately, it
(09:38):
seems like. And I've watched enough games
around the NBA to know that thisisn't just a Pelicans thing.
But it definitely is a specific problem here that we've seen
over and over again is how many times you score a layup or a
three-point or whatever it is and then at the other end within
445 seconds you're giving up a basket.
That's we have analytics for everything.
I feel like that needs to be tracked because that's been a
(09:59):
problem. Just getting back on defense has
been one of the biggest issues. One another thing I, I again, I
don't want to get too long into this, but on my list is
rebounding. It feels like I've talked about
this a little bit with some of the other media guys during the
Golden State game. It feels like sometimes that
defensive rebounding in particular is someone else's
job. It feels like if you watch the
(10:21):
players, it's like they're waiting for other guys to
rebound. And what we want to see is
completely the opposite of that,which is every guy on the court,
all five guys have the mentalitythat I need to grab this
defensive rebound. And if you have three guys
collide with each other and theystart to need to have wear, need
to have to wear helmets because they're getting, I'm fine with
that. But it it feels like that that's
(10:42):
been an issue so far is that they're giving up too many
offensive rebounds. You combine that with the
defensive play, which has been poor and it's just frustrating
because not only are you not getting a lot of first stops,
but now you're having to get a second and third and fourth stop
a lot of times. And then lastly, and maybe I'll
come back to more, but I want tolet JD chime in as well.
(11:03):
Finishing at the basket. This is something that's been a
problem. You can look at a bunch of
different stats that show that Gus wants dunks, but even even
just it's just been a problem. And and it's also another thing
to basketball analysts talk about this.
You see, you hear this on TV allthe time.
If you miss a layup on one end, you're almost always giving up a
basket at the other. So those are three areas.
(11:25):
There's more than that, but but I'll let JD go.
And I'll just I'll go with a vague finish, just finish
because that covers several areas like against Golden State,
we saw this team not finishing in transition, not finished fast
break four of eighteen from the field on fast breaks finishing
the end of quarters. They held Golden State to to 9
(11:47):
points for 10 1/2 minutes of thesecond quarter.
Golden State finished that quarter 8 and O 8 to nothing.
Then they finished the third quarter 7 to nothing because the
pills didn't finish the ends of those quarters.
And then that allow Golden Stateto take a four point lead and
make it 12 at halftime and then stretch out the lead at the end
of the third quarter after all the progress you had made.
(12:08):
And then of course, finishing around the basket because you go
into that game shooting 49% on layups for the season.
That number is astounding. That is astounding.
That's at the rim, folks, to kind of explain.
What? That is 49% from the field on
layups. That is obviously it's possible
(12:31):
because the bells are doing it right, but you wouldn't think
it's possible and you guys? Brought it up in the broadcast.
If you make half of that, I'm not a mathematician.
Jim's much better at that than Iam.
Right? But you keep saying the math
don't math. Yeah.
You said 4 of 18, so half of those would be 9.
If I just get a layup, that's two.
That's 18 points. You were down by as little as
four. I mean, 18 points that are right
(12:53):
there. It doesn't have to take anything
other than the layup. You just got to be able to
finish. You got to be able to finish.
And I know I understand some of that's blocked shots.
You got guards going in and theyhave shots blocked and shots
changed. But when you your opportunity is
there, especially for your bigs.And some of that goes to Zion
Williams not playing obviously, because he is the finisher.
But you've got to be able to finish when you get in those
(13:16):
positions because it's just rareto shoot a percentage like that
and be able to be successful. You got to be able to take
advantage. You know, I look at that number
too and I, I ask myself why is it so low and does this team not
have guys that can finish at thebasket?
And I don't think that's the case.
But I do think that some of whatwe talked about earlier in terms
of forcing things and trying to do too much is reflected in that
(13:39):
stat because some of these layups are contested.
You're not going to shoot 40 percent, 49% on layups if
they're all wide open and you'rejust strolling down the lane and
you got a easy shot. I mean, these are NBA players.
They're going to make 95% of those.
But a lot of these are contested.
A lot of these are, you know, you're trying to dribble around
two or three guys and then you get to the basket and there's
another guy coming over. It takes a lot out of you to be
(14:01):
able to finish that play. I feel like that's happening a
lot. And you know, another thing,
too, I said I was going to keep this list brief.
I'll throw in one more thing. The turnovers to me has been a
problem. This was something specifically
in the Golden State game that James Borrego talked about was
there was being too aggressive with your passes trying to.
(14:21):
I mean, if if you take these NBAplayers and you put them on a
pickup court somewhere in New Orleans, you can throw a ball
across the court. You can throw, there's three
guys defenders in the way. I can still make this pass.
But you can't do that in the NBA.
And it seemed like that that's happened a lot where you see a
pass and it's just like the decision making.
The process isn't there as far as risk reward if you're going
(14:42):
to throw a pass. If you're going to throw a risky
pass, it better be one that leads to a basket.
It can't be one out by the half court line where you're just
throwing it to to get it, get a guy the ball and there's a
defender in the way. So it's that windshield wiper
offense where you're just going around the perimeter.
And I kind of expect that from the young guys because Jeremiah
fear, sure, you can get away with that at Arizona Compass
prep in in Oklahoma and and at Maryland.
(15:05):
You can do that if you did it Queen.
But the veteran guys who are turning the ball over, those are
the guys who need to be the better caretakers because you've
been in these positions before. And so you understand how
precious it is to protect the basketball.
Now in the NBA, yeah, you ain't going to be clean.
You're going to have 1415 turnovers at least probably if
you're a good team. But when you get up to 192021,
(15:27):
now you're in jeopardy because you're taking away too many
opportunities for yourself. That's those are shots you don't
get. And they're probably extra
opportunities that the opponent gets.
And and the one thing I want to roll back to is I want to see
this. The Pelicans lead the league and
dunk attempts blocked because I want you to be going in there to
dunk it every time. And so I want you to lead the
(15:48):
league and dunk attempts blockedbecause yeah, I just I just want
to because I mean, there are guys on this team that Trey
Murphy get finished now Trey hada dunk block and I can't
remember against who, but then he shield away and it's like,
dude, no, no, no, you got a probably 40 plus vertical.
You got to go in there with somemalice and you got to be
fearless about it. You got to go in there now,
(16:09):
Jeremiah fears get a left-handedlayup block and he shies away.
And OK, you know, he's 64, he's a young guy and maybe you got to
build his confidence back up. But I don't want to see, you
know, Trey Murphy and Herb Jonesand those guys go in there and
shy away. Zion.
Yeah, I don't. Yeah, I don't want to see you
shy away. I want to see you going in there
attacking because that's going to be your highest percentage
(16:30):
and yeah, you're going to get someone blocked.
It's the NBA. These are the best athletes to
me in the world. You're going to have someone
blocked. To me, it's a mindset.
Yeah, right. It's a mindset.
And into your point, I'm going to, I'm going to add cosign and
add a little something to. I want to see the Pells lead the
league in broken hands. I mean, to your point, like
start with that mindset. When I try to drive or I go to
(16:50):
dribble, it's a fast break. I'm going to dunk.
Let the defense know you're going to the rim because right
now if I'm a defender, I'm goingtowards the glass because I
think more often than not you'regoing to lay it in.
That's just me. But look, I think in 60 seconds
here, we'll move on to some players.
I know JD talked about it good, but Jim, turnovers, defense,
(17:10):
rebounding, finishing, these arethings that sound like you can
work on and fix yourself, right?Is this different than I don't
have the talent to compete or play?
Do you think all of that is a confidence thing?
But I don't know. To me, if I'm a Pells fan, I'm
like, can we fix? And I'm like, well, these are
things you can fix, I think at practice and get better habits.
Yeah, I, I mean, I think a lot of this is just a team thing
(17:32):
too. I think the players are here and
one of James Borrego's biggest objectives right off the bat is
how do you get the team to contribute to improving some of
these areas? The finishing around the basket
to me too, is if if you watch some of the teams that the
Pelicans have played against that have so far the season,
they have really good chemistry and cohesion.
They're creating wide open shotsall the time.
(17:54):
So you're I mean, your layups rate is going to be so much
higher because there's just lessdefense there.
You're open all the time. The rebounding thing is, is a is
a team thing that I think that they can improve.
Yeah. I just think a lot of these
areas are you do have the players, but you have to figure
out as a team how to help each other be better in in in a lot
of different categories. Yeah, And some of it's just the
(18:16):
tweaks. I mean, when Jim talks about the
rebounding, how much of it is just, OK, nobody release until
we get the rebound? Yeah, don't really.
We're not leaking out. We're getting the rebound.
And I understand that might hurtthe fast break chances, but we
need to get the rebound. Otherwise everything is going to
pot anyway because they're goingto have two or three bites at it
and they're going to score. So everybody, you know, will
(18:38):
have no leaking out. OK, now in NBA I, I don't know
where this changed in life, but nobody boxes out.
Just box out a dude. I mean, every now and then when
you see a guy box, it is so glaring that you mention it,
man, that's a great box out by so and so and so.
I mean, it is so glaring. So what's so difficult about
that? You know, small things that we
(18:59):
take for granted can be implemented to make this a
better team. Just incremental improvements.
And that's coach Barrigo said. You know, it's a process and
you're trying to do it on the fly and now you're trying to do
it against really good NBA teamson the fly.
So you gotta be able to accept some setbacks along the way.
But some things can be implemented immediately that you
(19:20):
can do. JD, I like what you said about
not having guys leak out. I think it's a different thing
if it's a guard, if it's a pointguard that's leaking out and
maybe you can outlet to him if you get a defensive rebound.
But there's been times when I feel like we see one Pelicans
big under the defensive backboard and there's three
players on the other team going after the ball and you're
telling this one guy, OK, you'reyou, you're going to have to
(19:40):
fight off everybody to get this rebound.
So I mean, they need, they need the the forwards and the center
to be back on defense and focusing on that and
prioritizing that over trying toget out and run.
It just popped in my head. As we go to some players here, I
want to talk about Dallas. I remember going into that
Dallas game on the road and graph saying one of the things
(20:00):
was rebounding. Very key to rebound.
And to your point Jim, there wasalways 4 Pells jerseys around
the rim and in that first half when the Pells started out well
and route to their first win. They rebounded extremely well,
so it can be done. You got to want to do it.
You name their names here. Let's start with the rookies,
your impressions, man of what Jeremiah Fears and Derek Derek
Queen has been able to do now moving into the starting lineup,
(20:23):
both of them. Love it.
You know, Fears is at what, 414 points, 6 points a game and
right at 3 assists. He's learning as he goes.
He's shooting 43% or something like that from the field, but
34% from 3. But you're seeing the growth
now. He's a guy who's got to learn
how to kind of channel his speedand kind of throttle down and
(20:43):
he's got to be a little bit better in terms of his decision
making. But those are things that go
along with being a 19 year old point guard in the NBA.
There's a growth process that's going to have to happen.
And we see increments of it, though.
We see, you know, little flashesof it here and there where you
like, you know, OK, this, this guy's got it, he can do it.
And so we expect to see him continue to climb and, and it's
(21:07):
in there. It's in there now with queen.
I mean, you know what, big easy,big smooth, you know, smoothie
queen. Hey, hey, man, smoothie queen.
I, you can say what you want to say.
That's me. But I mean, he's a guy who you
look at it and he just seems older than 20.
He plays older than that. And not because he's not the
most athletic guy in the world, but because he he understands
(21:29):
the game. He understands leverage and
angles and you know, he's not the fastest dude in the world,
but he gets downhill. How does that happen?
You know, he doesn't have the best jumper in the world, but he
pump face God and they go forward and he's able to get
around them. How does that happen?
You know, he sees the floor wellfor a guy his size and for a guy
of of his ability and you can see it coming with him.
(21:52):
He's had a couple of rough gamesback-to-back, you know, single,
single figure scoring, but he's still rebounding.
He's still, you know, getting assist.
He and Fears have to guard against the turnovers.
But again, that's young guys andthat happens with young guys.
But he knows how to play. He just knows how to play.
So putting him in the starting lineup, which was coach
Borrego's first move, obviously needed for this team.
(22:15):
But he's a guy he was finishing games anyway.
So that tells you the importancehe has.
So let him play through his mistakes, let him learn on the
fly, Let him go into some games.And yeah, he might commit two
fouls in the first quarter and three in the first half.
Let him understand how to play that way because he's going to
have to because he's critical towhat this team wants to do.
I just want to find out from talking to him at some point,
(22:37):
how did he learn to play the wayhe does because you just don't
see it anymore. Did he have like an old head in
Baltimore who was like who sat him down when he was 12 years
old and said, let me explain to you how the game is played?
You don't need to play fast. You can just survey the court.
You can make decisions at your own on your own clock.
It feels like we see this with alot of international guys.
Some of the the best players in the league, but we don't see
(22:57):
that with some of the domestic guys anymore.
So I'm I'll be curious to hear from.
Him, if he went out there wrapped in ace bandages and
smelling like Icy Hot, it wouldn't surprise.
I mean, he's got that kind of game I love like.
You said you call it a lot during the broadcast, like the
driveway game too, right? I mean it's.
Just waiting in to do it. I think would would really stood
out to me and I don't know if this is the end all be all, but
(23:19):
I saw a lot of social media postafter the Golden State game.
I'm sitting there on the couch just kind of going with some
stuff and Draymond, you know, Green was giving him tidbits,
apparently speaking to like he kept seeing Derrick Queen's head
go up and down and nodding. So he was communicating that
because John, we talked about this on the broadcast.
You talked about his back-to-back games going into
(23:40):
the OKC game of of single digits.
The film's out on these two guys.
The film is out right where he likes to catch the ball, where
he likes to do it. Watch for the pass, watch for
the lob pass. He can dribble behind his back.
There was a turnover where somebody stole it.
So you mentioned it's the NBA. There are coaches, as I've seen,
whether it's the bus, whether it's the plane, their laptops
(24:00):
are open. They're cutting clips of
players. The word is out on them and
that's part of the learning process.
But I thought that was interesting.
You're seeing teams plan for these guys and now you're seeing
vets. Like I said, it's Draymond
Green. Say what you want about him, the
guy knows basketball. He has a high basketball IQ, and
for him to be giving them tidbits or just speaking to him
in a manner where Derrick Queen's listening and doing
(24:22):
that, I think that's a huge signof respect on the game.
Well, think of the. Yeah.
Think of the things he can learnfrom Draymond, though.
He can learn because Draymond isnot a physical freak.
He plays with angles and he plays with leverage.
Those kinds of things that Derrick Queen can learn from.
You know, he's saying, look, I'mnot a high flyer here either and
I'm going to the Hall of Fame, so maybe I can teach you some
things that can help you along the way.
(24:43):
Now, is he ever going to be a Draymond Green level defender?
Probably not. Yeah, but there for the IQ.
Style. But it's the IQ that you see
with Draymond Green, you know, you know, Draymond Green doesn't
want to shoot the ball, but he winds up with eight assists.
You know he's you know, he's a guy who who's undersized, but he
ends up with 9 rebounds knows. Where all the players?
Are yeah, he, he understands andand so that's one of those
(25:05):
things where as a big guy who actually is initiating the
offense, he can help. He can help Queen immeasurably,
I think if he listens to him. And it looks like those guys are
receptive to listening and learning.
I'm fine with Draymond's input as long as he's not talking
about fan interaction and ref interaction, those two things.
Let's leave that off the table. Keep it on the court, I'll say.
(25:28):
This, and I know we talked aboutit back in the day, you were
talking about specifically when it came to, you know, Yokich and
baby joke and stuff. And I've said on a broadcast, he
reminds me of having a little Draymond into him that he does
talk. He talks to players, he talks to
the officials. He hadn't got teed up that many
times if it had all this season and he controls himself that
composure. So I think it is interesting.
(25:49):
Real quickly. I want to do some players to
watch and some players to keep an eye on here with next couple
of games. Jim who's a who's a player of
the week, he's a player to watchfor.
You, you know, last season a lotof times when they didn't get
any wins, I said let's not do a player of the week this week,
but we will do one with Trey Murphy as the player of the week
for Week 4. He averaged 24 1/2 points.
He averaged 7 1/2 rebounds. He shot 503292 from in in
(26:14):
shooting splits. Obviously the 32 is a little bit
low for him. He also moved into second place
all time in three pointers made for Pelicans all in the
franchise history. He needs 57 to pass CJ McCollum.
So that's the player of the week.
The player to watch over the next seven days is going to be
Carlo Mackovic, partly because Ithink it's it's going to be
(26:37):
interesting to just monitor his role.
I mentioned earlier that the first game with James Borrego as
head coach, he played 20 minutesfor the first time this season.
So and also another reason I picked Carlo is because if you
look at the opponents over this period of time, they play Denver
with Jokic, they have Dallas's big guys, which they have a
whole series of of monsters in the front court, Kristaps
(27:00):
Porzingis from Atlanta, Vlusevicfrom Chicago.
And so, and also one quick thingabout Carlo, we we're we're, we
might track this throughout the season.
Trey Murphy now is leading with 18 dunks.
Carlo has 16 going into Monday'sgame.
So definitely something that we'll keep an eye on.
And then last thing, I have trending numbers for the four
(27:24):
opponents that the Pelicans haveover this period of time.
Denver, the number is 2. That's what they rank in offense
and defense. They're only 21st in defense
last season. So you see just a huge jump that
they've made so far. Dallas, the number is 99 and
that is how many points The Mavericks scored against the
Pelicans in the head to head game.
(27:44):
That was the third time this season that Dallas was held
under 100 points. But since then, over the next
six games, they scored at least 104.
And they've been way up offensively since they played
the Pelicans. So that might be the key is can
you keep them in check and keep them down to a a relatively low
number? Last couple teams, Atlanta, my
(28:04):
number is 6 for them. That's what they rank in defense
this season. They're also third in steals.
They have a bunch of guys that are disruptive, that are long,
that can wreak havoc with you. They've won a bunch of games
without Trey Young as well, so that's another thing that has
been interesting lately. And then lastly, Chicago that
they play next Monday. The trending number for them is
(28:26):
one in five and that is their Rd. record.
They're five and one at home, only one in five on the road.
Can you take advantage of that as we record this?
There's actually only two teams in the NBA that haven't won a
road game, shockingly. One of them is New York, the
other one is Indiana. However, the Knicks have only
played three Rd. games. So, and I, I look at that stat
(28:46):
and I say, how is it possible that you've only played three
Rd. games so far? I mean, I think the Pelicans
could use a little bit of that. It feels like they've only
played Rd. games up to this point.
Now, partly, but the reason Jim chose Carlo because y'all know,
I love Carlo because that's my dude and and I, I, I absolutely
I will take every bit of him that I can see because you know,
(29:08):
last year he finished the game, I think his last 5-6 games he
was averaging like 13 points andshooting 61% from the field.
This year he's shooting 69% fromthe field.
Now small sample size, only 22 or 32, but 2, two of six of
those are three. So take out the threes and he's
shooting like 77% from the field.
His opportunities need to increase.
Humbly, I say, because he dunks everything.
(29:31):
He dunks everything. He's aggressive at the rim and
in fact, he ended up having a basket taken away because he
grabbed a rim with one hand and dunked him with the other.
Which, by the way, we've never. Seen before, yeah.
We've never seen before, Yeah. Seen it in the dunk contest, was
not in the game. And so, you know, love to see
him play. In terms of the teams that the
Pels are facing, I just want to see how they handle, especially
(29:52):
more than anything, Oklahoma City and Denver, because
Oklahoma City basically tries totap you out.
They they suffocate you and theymake you not want to play.
They make you not want to finish, they make you not want
to compete. And if you're not of the right
mindset and the right aggression, they'll push you
(30:12):
around. They're going to be aggressive,
they're going to foul you, you know they're going to foul you.
You can't get upset with it. You can't get so discouraged by
it or or so distracted that you picked up technical fouls and
and and, and Flagrance. But understand going in that you
got to match that to play against them because that's the
way they play. That's been basically officiated
(30:33):
that way. That's been the exception to
where or the acceptance where officials say, well, that's just
how they play. So here we go.
So I want to say how they handlethat and the improvement against
Denver because Denver is a team now that looks like it's capable
of challenging OKC, really challenging OKC because of that
(30:54):
monster they got in the middle. And so you're going to have to
stand up against those two teamsand you get you get to find out
a lot about yourself against those two teams again, as you're
in transition, as you're trying to figure out what you're doing
under a new coach, an interim coach, And you get a chance to
put it out there on the floor. And it might be ugly.
I don't know, it might be ugly. But I think they'll learn a lot
(31:14):
about themselves in those two games especially.
Championship contending teams, MVPS, that's what the Pelicans
have had to contend with. While there is change going on
within the organization, that's the start of the season.
It's the NBA. It's not easy because you can
tell there's a lot to get into. And we will continue to hear on
the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast.
John is always a pleasure, Sir. Thank you guys.
I appreciate it. All right, we'll see you next
(31:34):
time on the New Orleans PelicansPodcast.
Host
Jim Eichenhofer
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