March 10, 2025 • 31 mins
On the latest New Orleans Pelicans Podcast for Monday, March 10, 2025, Pelicans.com’s Jim Eichenhofer and Gus Kattengell recap this weekend's games and break down the play of rookies Antonio Reeves and Karlo Matković.
Later, Jim gives us his player of the week and player to watch plus his spoiler scale for the Pelicans' upcoming games against the Clippers, Magic, and Spurs.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome in to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, the official
podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans, a podcast dedicated to
everything you need to know about the squad. Here from players, coaches, broadcasters,
and those who cover the NBA on a daily basis.
It's time to flock up. The New Orleans Pelicans Podcast
(00:29):
starts right now.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hello everyone, and.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Welcome to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, your official podcast
of your New Orleans Pelicans. Mister Jimikenofferpelicans dot Com Gus
Katrigell with you on this Monday, March tenth, getting ever
so closer to Saint Patrick's Day, which I believe is.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
A week away.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Are you you're irish? Jim?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I am not.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
I do not have any Irish bone in my body.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
No, not a little bit head.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
No, how about Saint Patrick's Day?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Uh still, no, you're not.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
You're not, Jim O. Eichenhoffer.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
No, Yeah, I mean I gotta figure if you just
put it like an oh, you know cat and gel
you know, yeah, I married a Cunningham, so I guess
I'm you know, I don't know if it helps or not.
Always tell a carver, because clearly you look at him
and you look at me.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
We very you know, we.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Look look very iris, very ies And he was like, Mom,
I'm not iris. I'm like no, well, buddy, you kind
of have that in you. Yeah, you know so anyway,
but that's a week away. Got a week's worth of games, Jim.
We talked about it the last time we chat it
with everyone on Friday. It's we're in that stretch where
we either have a game every other day or back
to back or two sprinkled in the middle of this
(01:38):
last stretch. Final five week seventeen games now left, including
starting tomorrow with the Clippers. Last night, the second half
of a back to back. Will get over the weekend
and your thoughts over it. But dude, it's gotta get.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Right to it. It was the play of the night.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
Now, Marian, don't leave him alone. Straight away, three off
to the left. We got a brink. That's the shots.
You gotta have him take. Rebound Hawkins, get it down
the floor, barth on this goodness, Allie, you to Trey
Murphy and a reverse dump.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
You cannot be serious. Caught it, knew where he was
and finished.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
All right, Jim, where you were sitting when you saw
that play take place?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
How did you feel I.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Couldn't believe it.
Speaker 6 (02:20):
I mean, I haven't seen many three sixty elle oops
where the guy spins almost completely in the air as
he catches the ball and then dunks it.
Speaker 7 (02:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (02:29):
I'd have to really go back through the the NBA
archives to try to find a similar play like that.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
It was very unique.
Speaker 6 (02:35):
I mean you could tell by the reaction of the
Pelicans players on the bench too, that they were all
kind of just stunned because it's just not something that
you see very often.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
If ever, yeah, no doubt Dray Murphy on the dunk.
Speaker 8 (02:45):
Yeah, like those like those really long passes like that,
it's kind of tough to catch it like straight on.
Speaker 7 (02:50):
So like there's times where you kind of have to
turn and try to catch it. And I feel like
I got up high enough and I just try to
turn into the basket my leg. I clipped. I was
gonna go full sixty, but it was two forty.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I guess head coach Willie Green.
Speaker 9 (03:05):
It was ridiculous Trey being able to catch it, spin
in mid air, go finish it. I mean, on time
on target pass, but then the catch and finish was
was insane.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Antonio Reeves were going to talk a little bit more
about coming up in our second segment today.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Had this to say on.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
The dunk, that was ridiculous.
Speaker 10 (03:24):
I jumped out the bit so fast when I seen them, like, whoah,
you know, so that was a that was a good,
good play.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
But Jim, what's even more ridiculous? As Trey Murphy said
that wasn't the first time he did that in high school?
Speaker 7 (03:35):
Yeah, but not NBA obviously since you haven't seen it, so,
but yeah, high school I did.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Now we've talked about your high school basketball. Probablyss have
you ever seen a three sixty dunk like that in
high school?
Speaker 7 (03:45):
No?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
But by the.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
Way, though Gus doesn't, isn't it doesn't it annoy you
when you try to do his three sixty and the
defender gets a piece of your foot.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
This probably happened to you recently.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Right, Well, I thought it was a foul. I thought
he kind of tried to undercut him a little bit there,
little booty.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
But but anyway, it was an incredible play to see
his lessism. Look, Jim, it's one of the reasons we've
talked about Trey Murphy throughout the season why he has
to all of us all star potential written all over
him because he can play above the rim. The guy
competed in the dunk contest, the guy competed in a
three point contest, so he can shoot the shot that
(04:22):
right now the NBA is about, he can play above
the rim. To me, those are already two elements that
have you on your way to being a top player
in this league. And it's just refining now those things
and improving every year, which is something that he's done.
But when you see plays like that, it's simply this Jim.
Not everybody can do it.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
It's that simple. He's one of the few people that
can do it.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Yeah, I mean, not only.
Speaker 6 (04:45):
Did he compete in the dunk contest, but I mean
he had a chance to win that otherwise. Unfortunately mac
McClung has decided to just take over the dunk contest
for this almost this entire decade. But yeah, no, I
mean I think the fact that I mean, for one thing,
we'll talk about this a little bit later too, that
Trey Murphy hasn't shot three as well, but he's still
averaging over twenty points per game, and I think that
(05:07):
speaks a lot to the fact that he's branched out
so much that he's not completely reliant on my shots
going in tonight. Therefore I'm scoring a bunch of points. Okay,
my SHOT's not going in, so I'm not being very productive.
He's kind of hit that middle ground now where he
can score in other ways, and I mean catching seventy
foot lu passes and doing a three sixty or a
(05:27):
two forty I guess as part of that game as well.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
I think what's more remarkable is the fact he thought
he had more than a tank.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
He could have done a lot more of that.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
But again, as what I'm saying, when you got a
player like that, that's something else.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
All right.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Look, Pelic is on a four game losing streak at
two games over the weekend. Jim, it was a nice experience. Again,
thank you to everybody Amid City Yacht Club for the
watch party. We'll have another one coming up here at
Fat Harry's towards the end of the month.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I believe on a Friday should.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Be a lot of fun against Minnesota Pels in Minnesotas.
When you see that in the schedule, we'll remind you.
But it's coming up that's gonna be really fun. The game,
not so much, head coach Will the Green.
Speaker 9 (06:04):
I mean, honestly, they just punked us all night, just
across the board, especially on the defensive side, the rebounding side,
and transition on defense. And you know I'm included. I'm
in that too. Our approach to the game was poor.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
So you got to come home, get on a flight,
play a black back to back against obviously Memphis, who's
there were number one in pace that they were a
really good team, they're high up in the Western Conference standings.
What did coach think of the effort despite the three
point loss one o seven to one oh four last night.
Speaker 9 (06:38):
I loved our resiliency and our ability to stick together.
You know, That's what I said to the guys. You know,
after coming off of a tough loss to Houston, traveling
back to back against another really good Western Conference team.
I loved our approach to the game tonight. You know,
still some things we got to clean up, but overall,
(06:59):
you know, no argument with the effort in our ability
to step on the floor and compete at a high level.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
Yeah, I mean it was a much better performance overall.
And you know he used the word effort there at
least once, maybe more than that in his postgame comments.
I mean, coming off of the performance Saturday, it was
really glaring how poor the defense was. It seemed like
the Rockets were able to do pretty much whatever they wanted.
They took advantage and capitalized on every mistake that the
(07:25):
Pelicans made, which they were abundant in terms of how
many errors they made.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
So I thought that was the biggest thing.
Speaker 6 (07:32):
I mean, we're going to talk about some of the
individual players that are getting more of an opportunity to
play more right now or specifically Sunday night and then
going forward. But I thought, you know, at the other
end of the floor, defensively, I mean, they held the
Grizzlies to forty one percent shooting from the field. They
were twenty seven percent on threes. You know, in that
(07:52):
one clip the radio guys were talking about John Morant,
you know, it seemed like they did a decent job
of you know, giving him three point shots, even that
when he's wide open, because that certainly beats the alternative
of letting him drive into the paint and just destroying
you by getting to the basket or dishing off to
guys because he collapses the defense and all of a
sudden they've got two or three wide open three point shooters,
(08:14):
guys that are better three point shooters than John Moran
in terms of you know what they've shown throughout their career,
especially this season where he struggled from.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
The three point line.
Speaker 6 (08:22):
But then later in the game in the fourth quarter,
Moran again, you know, he didn't don't want to say
he took over, but he definitely had some stretches where
it was like this guy again in the fourth quarter
in New Orleans is going to New Orleans, is gonna
do some serious damage. And there's you know, they did
a decent job of containing the Grizzlies overall, like I said,
with some of those offensive numbers, but then in the
(08:44):
fourth quarter he again made some big plays.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, that third quarter, Jim, I almost feel like, unfortunately,
if the Pels struggle or miss playoff seating like the
day last year, that third quarter for some reason has
always been a bugaboo. Ay thirty to fifteen third quarter frame.
Last night, head coach Willie Green.
Speaker 9 (09:05):
You know, we got to continue to come out of
halftime and understand that, look, we haven't had really good
third quarters. Let's let's have a better approach. But you know, teams,
they have a say so they make adjustments just like
we're trying to. And they're coming out playing with Forrest
missed a couple of shots, a couple turnovers, and it
led to some easy baskets for them. So just something
(09:26):
that we got to continue to look at, look at
on tape, work work at it in practice, and just
have a better approach to it.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
And Jim, I think a lot of it has to
do with, you know, some of the lineups you're you're
using right now that haven't maybe started the third quarters,
like Jordan Hawkins starting you know, things that our dage
or so because some fans may hear them be like
you know how to start it? Well, no, it's not.
Do you know how to start the third quarters? You
don't have the Jean Tam Murray and Herb Jones that
are starting the third quarter in others, right, I mean
(09:54):
you have different lineups you know that are doing it.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
And I was, by the way too, I was curious
while you're playing that to look up whether you know,
if there's some stats that back up that the Pelicans
have really struggled in third quarters this season compared to
other periods, and because you know, sometimes sometimes we fool
ourselves a little bit. I say this about free throw shooting,
that people only notice it when it's bad, and so
sometimes I feel like a lot of seasons people think
(10:19):
that the team's free throw shooting is worse than it is,
and you could say the same thing about third quarters
and any other area. But they actually are twenty ninth
in net rating in third quarters the Pelicans this season.
They're twenty sixth in second quarters. And I have to
look up some of these other quarters, but it definitely
shows from that statistic at least that the third quarter
(10:40):
has been more of a problem than some of the
other periods of their twenty eighth and first quarters as well.
So I mean, I'm sure no matter what quarter you
look at, no matter what segment, it's not gonna be great.
But it definitely does bear out at least a little
bit that the third quarter has been their weakest quarter
of the season.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
No doubt, we'll see, As we said, seventeen games remain.
There's a lot of things that you can continue to
work on here and have people get some time. One
thing that is interesting that I want to get into
is a pair of players that are going to get
a lot of minutes. And look, we got to see
them this summer, Jim, when we all were together for
(11:16):
Summer League in Las Vegas, Carlo Makovic had some really
big games. You know, I feel about Antonio Reeves. I
just think that guy is really going to grow in
this organization. And you're starting to see some of that
right now. It's interesting Trey Murphy as he was growing
to the player he is right now. When he used
to knock down the threes, Todd used to have a
saying he's given to someone else athletic.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
Well, John, I'm looking at our lineup right now. Is
Makovich takes a right corner?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Three?
Speaker 5 (11:43):
And he answered that question as Carlo's corner has emerged
here thirty to twenty.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Eight, And wow, Trey Murphy's corners now Carlo's corner.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's very interesting and Ty praise you like that.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
And then our guy, Antonio Reeves commit to take that
shot up top Reeves another three. Oh oh, and that
one a little deeper than the last one in Reeves
is two for two and now six points.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I'm sorry, miss Jackson, he's.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
If you know, you know Jalen Wells underneath pick pocket,
Kelly Olennox up the floor, Bruce Brown drives in, dump
it off, bounce past the Reeves for the right quarter
three and the heat check for the rookie. Hey yeah,
forty seven thirty three.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Tell you so, I gotta listen to the broadcast.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
You'll understand the references.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
And then finally have.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
Cut it to five, and now Steve Reeves come out
with Makovich leaked out, dump.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
It down to Carlo and throw it down with two hands.
Carlos quarter my foot.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Carlo rim right fine by Reeves, Tomkovich.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
I don't think we could find a better series of
highlights for the next discussion here between these two players.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
Huh yeah, boy uh graphing JD are having a blast
up there. I did not realize how much fun there that.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Extra headsets If you'd like, I could put one on.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
You listen to the game.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Yeah no, I mean, I think Carlo had his second
double double of the season last night. He's definitely been
on the court so much more. I'll give you a
couple stats. He's now played in seventeen straight games, and
of those seventeen games, he's played at least fifteen minutes
sixteen times. Only one time he hasn't reached that level.
(13:29):
Of the first forty eight games, he only played in
ten and he only played fifteen plus minutes twice. So
I mean, we're just getting to see him so much
more on the floor. And I mean he did well
in the in the G League, and he played ten
games in the G League, he averaged basically eighteen points
and ten rebounds, shot fifty nine percent from the field,
shot thirty eight percent on threes, So he definitely showed
(13:50):
some of that skill at a different level as far
as being able to make those corner threes and knock
down some jumpers. So that that's been a really nice
development from what we saw from him before where he
was on the summer league team. I don't know necessarily
if we if I thought that he would have games
where he'd be taking multiple three pointers and making multiple
three pointers in the NBA, but he's doing a really
(14:12):
nice job lately.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I think one of the things that in our conversation
we had with him just a couple of weeks ago
for the podcast, a player that's very appreciative of his opportunity,
a player that also is trying to get better, and
he's one of those players that puts in that extra work,
does the film study, trying to learn.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
The game from that nature.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
I think when you think of Antonio Reeves, you know,
it's kind of along that lines there as well. But
before we get to him, I think there's something that
I thought stood out on Saturday. Again, he had a
nice game, even though the team didn't get to win.
But Andrew Lopez, television SLI reporter who always comes on
and hangs out with us here as well, got a
chance to chat with him in the locker room, and
(14:52):
it was one of the things that really stood out
more than anything, was him understanding what needs to happen
every game.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Right, A lot of.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Times we'll put on a game, we'll cover a game,
we're thinking of the end result or you know, things
that nature, but we not not forget because you've been
really good at pointing this out, Jim. These remaining games,
they're very specific and important to certain players, right, whether
it's what's your role next year, how do you develop
this year? Can you show coach under the lights in
an NBA game against stars and good teams that you
(15:23):
can play or not? You know?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So I think it's important listen to the conversation.
Speaker 8 (15:27):
Last month or so, you've been getting a lot more minutes.
Just how much more comfortable are you starting to feel
out there?
Speaker 7 (15:32):
Well? A lot. I think a lot of coaches started
to trust me, And I think that's a great thing.
Working now in the same things that we did for
the season, And I just think we got to stay
on the same pace, working harder every day, be available,
and be consistent. And I think that's some got to
like grow on and like you be consist of it.
(15:53):
There's been times this year where you've you've kind of
been the five.
Speaker 8 (15:55):
There's been times this year where you've played these big
lineups with either Eve out there or Kill out there.
How much more comfortable are you in these lineups where
you know we're going big? Essentially, I think.
Speaker 7 (16:05):
It's still get get in there. You know, some games
are good, Like you saw some games wasn't that good?
You know, it just defends probably the team the shooting night.
You know, sometimes if I make shots, he's gonna be like, oh, yeah,
this functions. Sometimes if he don't, is gonna be like,
oh does this really work. It's kind of like a
process thing. I guess, like you know, still learning experience.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I mean, you you can't fake it, Champ and me.
I can teach you all about it. I can show
you as much film as you want. I can tell
you what I did when I was there until you
go through it. And I think that's what I heard
from Carlo there. Yeah, And I think he's he's definitely
making strides. I mean I feel like he you know,
he'll throw in a game once in a while. Maybe
it's definitely happening less frequently lately where you say, okay,
(16:48):
he had kind of one of those rookie games where
his performance dipped a little bit, but I mean, this
was a really good weekend for him. He only he
averaged about twenty five minutes a game over the two
games against the Rockets and the Grizzlies. And despite that,
you know, relatively you know, modest number, he averaged twelve points,
nine rebounds. He was also ten for twelve from the
field in those two games, So, I mean, he was solid.
(17:09):
This is the kind of production that you get from
a back up front court guy. You got to be
really happy with that.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
So the fact that he's been able to do that
in his rookie season and Like I said, it's not
like he's been part of the rotation for a long time.
It's really been only the last couple months that we've
seen him consistently on the court. So I definitely think
that that part of it is encouraging.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
No doubt, Antonio Reeves he's another player that again, these minutes,
these final seventeen games are going to matter for him.
You heard Carlos say, look, coach is starting to trust me.
We know one thing with head coach Willa Green, you
got to show it at practice and in in the
minutes you get. You got to prove that he can
trust you to be on that court when you have
(17:49):
a guy like Antonio Reeves that we saw just in
the last I guess weekend, right, I mean some steals,
some threes, things that nature. What is it that stands
out to you about him?
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (17:59):
I think his defense has been encouraging too. I mean,
he's done a pretty good job of guarding some of
these talented players that the Pelicans have been going against.
His offense, you know, he played that in the clip
from Graff and JD. The fact that he was making
threes last night was big, So I thought that was
one of his better games. That might have been his
(18:20):
maybe his second or third best game of the season.
Hands down, the game that he had a Cleveland, where
he scored thirty four points, was his number one on
the list. But I mean the twenty he had twenty.
He played twenty two minutes against the Grizzlies last night.
That was the third most playing time he's played this season.
He's had four games this season of playing twenty plus minutes.
Last night was the first time that he's played double
(18:42):
digit minutes in a non blowout since the February thirteenth
win against Sacramento right before the All Star break, that
game that went into overtime. I think it's also worth
noting too that in the four games that he has
played at least twenty minutes, his efficiency in production has
been very good. Obviously, these numbers are helped a lot
by the outstanding, incredible performs he had against Cleveland, But
(19:03):
when he's played, you know, twenty or more minutes, he's
shooting twenty three for forty three from the field, and
he's nine for twenty on three. So I mean, I
think it's it's a lot more. It's a lot fair
to judge some of these players by how do they
play when they get to a good chunk of minutes,
as opposed to trying to add together. You know, maybe
they play eight games and every single one of those
(19:24):
eight is a game that the team's up or down
by twenty five and they're playing the last few minutes
of the fourth quarter.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Really kind of hard to evaluate that.
Speaker 6 (19:32):
So when he you know, he gets opportunity like last night,
where he plays those twenty two minutes and he does
what he does, I think that that's also a good sign.
The fact that you know, when he's getting out there
and he's able to get into a rhythm, he's been
pretty productive and made a pretty big impact in the game.
And I mean I think was a big reason why,
for instance, the Pelicans were up by seven at halftime.
(19:53):
He definitely was a was a big factor. And then
in the second half they put him back in the
game because he and gave him more important key minutes
in the fourth quarter because he had played so well
earlier in the night.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I thought was interesting too. And the conductor Chris Moran
noted out right before that the Pelicans had two attempts
to tell a game with a couple of three point shots,
coach doing offensive defensive substitutions for Jordan Hawkins and Antonio Reeves.
So but you know, back to the point what Carlos
said and what you're seeing here, Coach is like, all right,
he's my defensive guy. He trusts his defense to go
(20:26):
out there. And it's something I thought it was interesting
you started out with him. Here's what he had to
say after the game.
Speaker 10 (20:30):
Just staying ready, to stay on focused on teammates, trusting me,
trusting the process, and just going out there giving it
out of that.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
As far as staying ready, we've seen the last couple
of weeks, especially the week and a half, right, he's
been going back and forth to Birmingham. This team's had
a history of that. Jose Trey, Jordan Hawkins, now Antonio Reeves,
Carlo Makovich. Doing all those things helped me.
Speaker 10 (20:52):
I like, just getting a lot of reps he in
getting up and down the floor, and you know that's
how when I as soon as I come up here ready,
so you know that process is just going up and
down and try to get reps in. It helps a lot.
Speaker 6 (21:06):
Yeah, I mean if the thing is interesting too, if
you look at what he's done in Birmingham. He's played
eleven games for them in the G League. He's averaged
almost twenty five points a game. His shooting splits are
forty seven percent from the field, forty two from three,
and eighty from the foul line. So I mean, he's
he's been very good at that level. So it's it's
nice to see him get the opportunity to do this
(21:28):
in NBA games, and I'll be curious to see over
the last seventeen games of the season how much more
we see of him. But I think to one of
the things that you said your point earlier, I think,
if you're if you're a second round pick, and you
you know, he's he had a great college career, he
was a great score But if you can identify, Okay,
if I show that I can hold up on the
(21:48):
defensive end and I can do some good things there
and be disruptive, that maybe that'll be my ticket to
more playing time. I think that's a really intelligent way
to look at the game, and maybe that'll be something
that he can make his one of his calling cards
of Okay, I'm a guy that they can trust defensively
and that he can take on some of the tougher
(22:09):
assignments that they have to.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Do by finding a role. I mean, it just is
what it is, right, I mean, look, you've talked about
this and it's a very good point. This team hass talent.
I think you touched on it in warm up back
on Saturday with you know a lot of players inside
of twenty five years old that are on this roster.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
It is what it is. I know fans don't want
to hear it.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
And when you get injured the way you have and
you lose starters the way you have for months or
for seasons and stuff, it's hard to win in a
game where you have five players on the court at
one time. To your point that you've brought up, when
most of your roster, a good third, if not half
of your roster are talented, legit NBA players are starters.
(22:52):
I mean, there's only so many places for you to
stick them in. And we're not even talking about whatever
the Pels may get in the draft this year. So
I think it is that's something you just pointed out of.
If I'm Antonio Reeves, I want to stick around, how
do I do that? Where can I fit? Here's what
he had to say about goals for the rest of
the season.
Speaker 10 (23:10):
Make sure I give it effort, try to help the
team as much as possible when I get out there.
And you know, this is my rookie season, you know,
so you know I'm still learning.
Speaker 6 (23:20):
Yeah, I mean, I think to what you said earlier too.
I mean, another aspect of this roster is it's not
just that they have a lot of talent. It's that
they have a lot of offensive talent. So if you're
a player at the beginning of your career, if you're
a rookie like Antonio Reeves too, and you watch the
season unfold, whether it's from the sideline here at the
Smoothie King Center in a game that you're not playing at,
(23:40):
or from afar when you're in Birmingham, you got to
it's not that hard to pinpoint. Okay, this team needs
more better defense. This team needs to get more guys
on the defensive end. We've talked about all season how
the rankings and where they rate defensively. Inefficiency has been
in the bottom tier. So you're not going to be
there's almost no rookie unless you're a lottery pick who
comes in like Zion and is saying Okay, I'm gonna
(24:03):
average twenty twenty five points a game. Much more likely
than the fact that you're going to have the ball
all the time and get a bunch of shots is
you're gonna have to figure out your niche in some
other way because there's too many guys ahead of you
in the pecking order in terms of what the where
the offense is gonna run, and who's gonna be getting
touches and shots. So I think that's another reason why
if he can make his mark defensively over the last
(24:26):
month plus of the regular season, that would be something
that he could, you know, hang his hat on and
go into the offseason saying, you know, I made a
difference at that end of the floor.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Again, it's one of the things that in the final
seventeen you pay attention to some of these players and
what they can do, and you want to see progress.
You want to see them get better, no doubt. Let's
see what takes place with Antonio Rehus and Carlo Matkovic.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Well, it's a Monday, thankfully, Jim is always our Friday.
Speaker 10 (24:56):
It's time for mister Eichenhoffer to give his players of
the Week and a player to watch for this week,
which he got bid God.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
Let's start with the player of the week for Week
twenty of the season, and that was Zion Williamson.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Played in three of the four games.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
He averaged twenty five point seven points, shot fifty six
percent from the field, averaged four assists, one point three steals,
and one block per game. He still, by the way,
two Gus has his forty six game streak of having
a steal or a block intact. So even though Saturday's game,
which was the last game that he played and did
not go great for the Pelicans, he picked up a
(25:34):
couple steals to keep that streak going. And so we'll
see how long he can extend that and we'll look
ahead to that. The player to watch in Week twenty one,
I'm gonna go with Trey Murphy. By the way, he
averaged twenty one point three points over these four games.
He shot fifty percent from the field, only twenty two
percent from three to eighty three percent on free throws,
(25:57):
and his fifty eight game streak with at least one
three pointer made. Unfortunately that ended Saturday at Houston. But
I think one of the reasons why I made him
the player to watch over these next three games that
the Pelicans are gonna play is just to see him,
you know, continue to make progress and probably bounce back
a little bit from you know, he's very uncharacteristic to
(26:17):
see him shoot threes, you know, at a low level.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
So I'm sure he'll.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
Get hot at some point very soon. And by the
way too for him individually, not sure how much he's
gonna match up specifically with some of these players. But
if you look at the Pelicans schedule this week you're
talking about, you know, the Clippers have Kawhi Leonard, the
Magic have Franz Wagner and Paulo Bancaro, Spurs have Devin Vassel,
(26:42):
So I mean they're gonna be going up against a
bunch of talented guys. The latter three of those are
all young players, similar to Trey Murphy, where they're trying
to you know, make a statement of where they are,
and the among the better young players in the NBA
than Kawhi Leonard obviously is had a game winner Sunday
night and has established over time how good of a
(27:03):
player he is. So we'll see what happens with those guys.
And then lastly, the spoiler scale now, I think, Gus,
this is actually pretty tame this week because you're talking about,
you know, teams that are in kind of play in
position and then a team that's you know, kind of
on the fringes now of trying.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
To stay in the play and race.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
So Tuesday night they play the Clippers, who are thirty
five and twenty nine. That's eighth place in the Western Conference.
I gave that one on the Spoiler scale a seven,
which is actually the highest of any of these games
this week. The Clippers are one game out of sixth
place behind Golden State right now, so that race is
pretty tight and pretty close. They're also vying with the
(27:45):
Wolves and the Kings. Basically there's four teams that are
kind of battling for six through ninth. I would say
that's kind of its own tier. The Mavericks right now
are in tenth. That's you know, there's a couple teams
right behind them as well. But the Clippers are seven
on the spoiler scale. Thursday game against Orlando, which is
also a seven o'clock home game, the Magic are thirty
and thirty five. They're in eighth place in the East,
(28:08):
and unfortunately for them, they've been in kind of a tailspin.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Lately where they've really struggled over their.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
Last bunch of games. They actually had a five game
losing streak before they had a really nice win at
Milwaukee on Saturday, but before that they were really struggling.
I mean two of those five wins were also to
the Raptors, who haven't been very competitive this year. I
think the Magic have suffered a lot with Jalen Suggs's
injury that he's going to be out for a while now.
(28:36):
So I gave that one a five on the spoiler
scale because it's kind of right in the middle. It's,
you know, the Magic definitely have a lot to play for,
but I don't know if their status is going to
change too much from where they are. They're going to
be a play in team and they're probably going to
be somewhere in that mix. That's they're not going to
be in the top six in the East. And then lastly,
the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday at seven thirty the
(28:56):
game in Texas. I gave that one a four on
the spoiler scale because the Spurs really, unfortunately for them,
have really kind of played themselves out of realistic contention
for a playing spot. They're twenty six and thirty six
right now, they're in thirteenth place. They're four and a
half games out of tenth. They have a couple teams
even between them and Dallas, which is in tenth. And honestly,
(29:18):
the Pelicans really did a lot of damage to them
in the games on February twenty third and twenty fifth
by sweeping that baseball series when the Spurs were here.
I mean, if you think about it, the Spurs win
those If they win those games, they're only two and
a half out, but instead they're four and a half out.
So I mean, it's really a tall order right now
for the Spurs over their last twenty games to be
able to get back in the race. And it also
(29:40):
has not helped at all that they're only three and
seven since Wemby was ruled out for the season, So
they're definitely in a stretch right now where they're having
a hard time getting wins. So gave that one a
four just to review. Clippers seven, magic five, Spurs four.
Kind of a middling week, kind of a mediocre week
for the spoiler scale, And I'm sure there's going to
(30:01):
be some higher numbers on on the scale as we
get closer to the end of the regular season.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Yeah, no doubt. I'm very interested on your Friday, April
fourth spoilers.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Scale game, the next Lakers game.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Look at you, you know exactly what?
Speaker 6 (30:15):
Yeah, and I mean I'll be curious to see where
where they where they move in the standings too, now
that they're supposed to be without Lebron apparently for a
week or two at least, they said so, I mean
it's a.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Very severe growing injury.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
I don't know if Yeah, I'm not going to comment
on growing.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
We almost like we almost lost them by the way
on that uh what was it?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
The It wasn't a flop.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
It was the most egregious offensive defensive foul leverage. You
see that?
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, offensive, it wouldn't go.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, I just thought of the Seinfeld episode back into
the left when I saw that highlight.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
You know what it is?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
What it is, mister jimiakh and Offer Repelicans dot Com.
Thank you so appreciate your time. Thanks guys, We'll see
you on Wednesday. We'll talk about tomorrow night's game with
the Pelicans host the Clippers. You've been listening to the
Pelicans potodcast on.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Wherever you listen to the New Orleans Pelicans podcast.
Speaker 7 (31:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Thanks for listening to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast. Join
us three times per week on pelicans dot com, the
Pelicans Mobile app, the iHeartRadio app, or where you get
your podcast, and be sure to give Jim and Gus
a follow on x at Jim Underscore I Can Offer
(31:25):
and Gcat Underscore seventeen. We'll see you next time right
here on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast
Welcome in to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, the official
podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans, a podcast dedicated to
everything you need to know about the squad. Here from players, coaches, broadcasters,
and those who cover the NBA on a daily basis.
It's time to flock up. The New Orleans Pelicans Podcast
(00:29):
starts right now.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hello everyone, and.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Welcome to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, your official podcast
of your New Orleans Pelicans. Mister Jimikenofferpelicans dot Com Gus
Katrigell with you on this Monday, March tenth, getting ever
so closer to Saint Patrick's Day, which I believe is.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
A week away.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Are you you're irish? Jim?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I am not.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
I do not have any Irish bone in my body.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
No, not a little bit head.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
No, how about Saint Patrick's Day?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Uh still, no, you're not.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
You're not, Jim O. Eichenhoffer.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
No, Yeah, I mean I gotta figure if you just
put it like an oh, you know cat and gel
you know, yeah, I married a Cunningham, so I guess
I'm you know, I don't know if it helps or not.
Always tell a carver, because clearly you look at him
and you look at me.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
We very you know, we.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Look look very iris, very ies And he was like, Mom,
I'm not iris. I'm like no, well, buddy, you kind
of have that in you. Yeah, you know so anyway,
but that's a week away. Got a week's worth of games, Jim.
We talked about it the last time we chat it
with everyone on Friday. It's we're in that stretch where
we either have a game every other day or back
to back or two sprinkled in the middle of this
(01:38):
last stretch. Final five week seventeen games now left, including
starting tomorrow with the Clippers. Last night, the second half
of a back to back. Will get over the weekend
and your thoughts over it. But dude, it's gotta get.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Right to it. It was the play of the night.
Speaker 5 (01:53):
Now, Marian, don't leave him alone. Straight away, three off
to the left. We got a brink. That's the shots.
You gotta have him take. Rebound Hawkins, get it down
the floor, barth on this goodness, Allie, you to Trey
Murphy and a reverse dump.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
You cannot be serious. Caught it, knew where he was
and finished.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
All right, Jim, where you were sitting when you saw
that play take place?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
How did you feel I.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Couldn't believe it.
Speaker 6 (02:20):
I mean, I haven't seen many three sixty elle oops
where the guy spins almost completely in the air as
he catches the ball and then dunks it.
Speaker 7 (02:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I don't know.
Speaker 6 (02:29):
I'd have to really go back through the the NBA
archives to try to find a similar play like that.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
It was very unique.
Speaker 6 (02:35):
I mean you could tell by the reaction of the
Pelicans players on the bench too, that they were all
kind of just stunned because it's just not something that
you see very often.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
If ever, yeah, no doubt Dray Murphy on the dunk.
Speaker 8 (02:45):
Yeah, like those like those really long passes like that,
it's kind of tough to catch it like straight on.
Speaker 7 (02:50):
So like there's times where you kind of have to
turn and try to catch it. And I feel like
I got up high enough and I just try to
turn into the basket my leg. I clipped. I was
gonna go full sixty, but it was two forty.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I guess head coach Willie Green.
Speaker 9 (03:05):
It was ridiculous Trey being able to catch it, spin
in mid air, go finish it. I mean, on time
on target pass, but then the catch and finish was
was insane.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Antonio Reeves were going to talk a little bit more
about coming up in our second segment today.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Had this to say on.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
The dunk, that was ridiculous.
Speaker 10 (03:24):
I jumped out the bit so fast when I seen them, like, whoah,
you know, so that was a that was a good,
good play.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
But Jim, what's even more ridiculous? As Trey Murphy said
that wasn't the first time he did that in high school?
Speaker 7 (03:35):
Yeah, but not NBA obviously since you haven't seen it, so,
but yeah, high school I did.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Now we've talked about your high school basketball. Probablyss have
you ever seen a three sixty dunk like that in
high school?
Speaker 7 (03:45):
No?
Speaker 4 (03:46):
But by the.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
Way, though Gus doesn't, isn't it doesn't it annoy you
when you try to do his three sixty and the
defender gets a piece of your foot.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
This probably happened to you recently.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Right, Well, I thought it was a foul. I thought
he kind of tried to undercut him a little bit there,
little booty.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
But but anyway, it was an incredible play to see
his lessism. Look, Jim, it's one of the reasons we've
talked about Trey Murphy throughout the season why he has
to all of us all star potential written all over
him because he can play above the rim. The guy
competed in the dunk contest, the guy competed in a
three point contest, so he can shoot the shot that
(04:22):
right now the NBA is about, he can play above
the rim. To me, those are already two elements that
have you on your way to being a top player
in this league. And it's just refining now those things
and improving every year, which is something that he's done.
But when you see plays like that, it's simply this Jim.
Not everybody can do it.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
It's that simple. He's one of the few people that
can do it.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
Yeah, I mean, not only.
Speaker 6 (04:45):
Did he compete in the dunk contest, but I mean
he had a chance to win that otherwise. Unfortunately mac
McClung has decided to just take over the dunk contest
for this almost this entire decade. But yeah, no, I
mean I think the fact that I mean, for one thing,
we'll talk about this a little bit later too, that
Trey Murphy hasn't shot three as well, but he's still
averaging over twenty points per game, and I think that
(05:07):
speaks a lot to the fact that he's branched out
so much that he's not completely reliant on my shots
going in tonight. Therefore I'm scoring a bunch of points. Okay,
my SHOT's not going in, so I'm not being very productive.
He's kind of hit that middle ground now where he
can score in other ways, and I mean catching seventy
foot lu passes and doing a three sixty or a
(05:27):
two forty I guess as part of that game as well.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
I think what's more remarkable is the fact he thought
he had more than a tank.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
He could have done a lot more of that.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
But again, as what I'm saying, when you got a
player like that, that's something else.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
All right.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Look, Pelic is on a four game losing streak at
two games over the weekend. Jim, it was a nice experience. Again,
thank you to everybody Amid City Yacht Club for the
watch party. We'll have another one coming up here at
Fat Harry's towards the end of the month.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I believe on a Friday should.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Be a lot of fun against Minnesota Pels in Minnesotas.
When you see that in the schedule, we'll remind you.
But it's coming up that's gonna be really fun. The game,
not so much, head coach Will the Green.
Speaker 9 (06:04):
I mean, honestly, they just punked us all night, just
across the board, especially on the defensive side, the rebounding side,
and transition on defense. And you know I'm included. I'm
in that too. Our approach to the game was poor.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
So you got to come home, get on a flight,
play a black back to back against obviously Memphis, who's
there were number one in pace that they were a
really good team, they're high up in the Western Conference standings.
What did coach think of the effort despite the three
point loss one o seven to one oh four last night.
Speaker 9 (06:38):
I loved our resiliency and our ability to stick together.
You know, That's what I said to the guys. You know,
after coming off of a tough loss to Houston, traveling
back to back against another really good Western Conference team.
I loved our approach to the game tonight. You know,
still some things we got to clean up, but overall,
(06:59):
you know, no argument with the effort in our ability
to step on the floor and compete at a high level.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
Yeah, I mean it was a much better performance overall.
And you know he used the word effort there at
least once, maybe more than that in his postgame comments.
I mean, coming off of the performance Saturday, it was
really glaring how poor the defense was. It seemed like
the Rockets were able to do pretty much whatever they wanted.
They took advantage and capitalized on every mistake that the
(07:25):
Pelicans made, which they were abundant in terms of how
many errors they made.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
So I thought that was the biggest thing.
Speaker 6 (07:32):
I mean, we're going to talk about some of the
individual players that are getting more of an opportunity to
play more right now or specifically Sunday night and then
going forward. But I thought, you know, at the other
end of the floor, defensively, I mean, they held the
Grizzlies to forty one percent shooting from the field. They
were twenty seven percent on threes. You know, in that
(07:52):
one clip the radio guys were talking about John Morant,
you know, it seemed like they did a decent job
of you know, giving him three point shots, even that
when he's wide open, because that certainly beats the alternative
of letting him drive into the paint and just destroying
you by getting to the basket or dishing off to
guys because he collapses the defense and all of a
sudden they've got two or three wide open three point shooters,
(08:14):
guys that are better three point shooters than John Moran
in terms of you know what they've shown throughout their career,
especially this season where he struggled from.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
The three point line.
Speaker 6 (08:22):
But then later in the game in the fourth quarter,
Moran again, you know, he didn't don't want to say
he took over, but he definitely had some stretches where
it was like this guy again in the fourth quarter
in New Orleans is going to New Orleans, is gonna
do some serious damage. And there's you know, they did
a decent job of containing the Grizzlies overall, like I said,
with some of those offensive numbers, but then in the
(08:44):
fourth quarter he again made some big plays.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, that third quarter, Jim, I almost feel like, unfortunately,
if the Pels struggle or miss playoff seating like the
day last year, that third quarter for some reason has
always been a bugaboo. Ay thirty to fifteen third quarter frame.
Last night, head coach Willie Green.
Speaker 9 (09:05):
You know, we got to continue to come out of
halftime and understand that, look, we haven't had really good
third quarters. Let's let's have a better approach. But you know, teams,
they have a say so they make adjustments just like
we're trying to. And they're coming out playing with Forrest
missed a couple of shots, a couple turnovers, and it
led to some easy baskets for them. So just something
(09:26):
that we got to continue to look at, look at
on tape, work work at it in practice, and just
have a better approach to it.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
And Jim, I think a lot of it has to
do with, you know, some of the lineups you're you're
using right now that haven't maybe started the third quarters,
like Jordan Hawkins starting you know, things that our dage
or so because some fans may hear them be like
you know how to start it? Well, no, it's not.
Do you know how to start the third quarters? You
don't have the Jean Tam Murray and Herb Jones that
are starting the third quarter in others, right, I mean
(09:54):
you have different lineups you know that are doing it.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 6 (09:57):
And I was, by the way too, I was curious
while you're playing that to look up whether you know,
if there's some stats that back up that the Pelicans
have really struggled in third quarters this season compared to
other periods, and because you know, sometimes sometimes we fool
ourselves a little bit. I say this about free throw shooting,
that people only notice it when it's bad, and so
sometimes I feel like a lot of seasons people think
(10:19):
that the team's free throw shooting is worse than it is,
and you could say the same thing about third quarters
and any other area. But they actually are twenty ninth
in net rating in third quarters the Pelicans this season.
They're twenty sixth in second quarters. And I have to
look up some of these other quarters, but it definitely
shows from that statistic at least that the third quarter
(10:40):
has been more of a problem than some of the
other periods of their twenty eighth and first quarters as well.
So I mean, I'm sure no matter what quarter you
look at, no matter what segment, it's not gonna be great.
But it definitely does bear out at least a little
bit that the third quarter has been their weakest quarter
of the season.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
No doubt, we'll see, As we said, seventeen games remain.
There's a lot of things that you can continue to
work on here and have people get some time. One
thing that is interesting that I want to get into
is a pair of players that are going to get
a lot of minutes. And look, we got to see
them this summer, Jim, when we all were together for
(11:16):
Summer League in Las Vegas, Carlo Makovic had some really
big games. You know, I feel about Antonio Reeves. I
just think that guy is really going to grow in
this organization. And you're starting to see some of that
right now. It's interesting Trey Murphy as he was growing
to the player he is right now. When he used
to knock down the threes, Todd used to have a
saying he's given to someone else athletic.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
Well, John, I'm looking at our lineup right now. Is
Makovich takes a right corner?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Three?
Speaker 5 (11:43):
And he answered that question as Carlo's corner has emerged
here thirty to twenty.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Eight, And wow, Trey Murphy's corners now Carlo's corner.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's very interesting and Ty praise you like that.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
And then our guy, Antonio Reeves commit to take that
shot up top Reeves another three. Oh oh, and that
one a little deeper than the last one in Reeves
is two for two and now six points.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I'm sorry, miss Jackson, he's.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
If you know, you know Jalen Wells underneath pick pocket,
Kelly Olennox up the floor, Bruce Brown drives in, dump
it off, bounce past the Reeves for the right quarter
three and the heat check for the rookie. Hey yeah,
forty seven thirty three.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Tell you so, I gotta listen to the broadcast.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
You'll understand the references.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
And then finally have.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
Cut it to five, and now Steve Reeves come out
with Makovich leaked out, dump.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
It down to Carlo and throw it down with two hands.
Carlos quarter my foot.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Carlo rim right fine by Reeves, Tomkovich.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
I don't think we could find a better series of
highlights for the next discussion here between these two players.
Speaker 6 (12:58):
Huh yeah, boy uh graphing JD are having a blast
up there. I did not realize how much fun there that.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Extra headsets If you'd like, I could put one on.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
You listen to the game.
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Yeah no, I mean, I think Carlo had his second
double double of the season last night. He's definitely been
on the court so much more. I'll give you a
couple stats. He's now played in seventeen straight games, and
of those seventeen games, he's played at least fifteen minutes
sixteen times. Only one time he hasn't reached that level.
(13:29):
Of the first forty eight games, he only played in
ten and he only played fifteen plus minutes twice. So
I mean, we're just getting to see him so much
more on the floor. And I mean he did well
in the in the G League, and he played ten
games in the G League, he averaged basically eighteen points
and ten rebounds, shot fifty nine percent from the field,
shot thirty eight percent on threes, So he definitely showed
(13:50):
some of that skill at a different level as far
as being able to make those corner threes and knock
down some jumpers. So that that's been a really nice
development from what we saw from him before where he
was on the summer league team. I don't know necessarily
if we if I thought that he would have games
where he'd be taking multiple three pointers and making multiple
three pointers in the NBA, but he's doing a really
(14:12):
nice job lately.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
I think one of the things that in our conversation
we had with him just a couple of weeks ago
for the podcast, a player that's very appreciative of his opportunity,
a player that also is trying to get better, and
he's one of those players that puts in that extra work,
does the film study, trying to learn.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
The game from that nature.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
I think when you think of Antonio Reeves, you know,
it's kind of along that lines there as well. But
before we get to him, I think there's something that
I thought stood out on Saturday. Again, he had a
nice game, even though the team didn't get to win.
But Andrew Lopez, television SLI reporter who always comes on
and hangs out with us here as well, got a
chance to chat with him in the locker room, and
(14:52):
it was one of the things that really stood out
more than anything, was him understanding what needs to happen
every game.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Right, A lot of.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Times we'll put on a game, we'll cover a game,
we're thinking of the end result or you know, things
that nature, but we not not forget because you've been
really good at pointing this out, Jim. These remaining games,
they're very specific and important to certain players, right, whether
it's what's your role next year, how do you develop
this year? Can you show coach under the lights in
an NBA game against stars and good teams that you
(15:23):
can play or not? You know?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So I think it's important listen to the conversation.
Speaker 8 (15:27):
Last month or so, you've been getting a lot more minutes.
Just how much more comfortable are you starting to feel
out there?
Speaker 7 (15:32):
Well? A lot. I think a lot of coaches started
to trust me, And I think that's a great thing.
Working now in the same things that we did for
the season, And I just think we got to stay
on the same pace, working harder every day, be available,
and be consistent. And I think that's some got to
like grow on and like you be consist of it.
(15:53):
There's been times this year where you've you've kind of
been the five.
Speaker 8 (15:55):
There's been times this year where you've played these big
lineups with either Eve out there or Kill out there.
How much more comfortable are you in these lineups where
you know we're going big? Essentially, I think.
Speaker 7 (16:05):
It's still get get in there. You know, some games
are good, Like you saw some games wasn't that good?
You know, it just defends probably the team the shooting night.
You know, sometimes if I make shots, he's gonna be like, oh, yeah,
this functions. Sometimes if he don't, is gonna be like,
oh does this really work. It's kind of like a
process thing. I guess, like you know, still learning experience.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
I mean, you you can't fake it, Champ and me.
I can teach you all about it. I can show
you as much film as you want. I can tell
you what I did when I was there until you
go through it. And I think that's what I heard
from Carlo there. Yeah, And I think he's he's definitely
making strides. I mean I feel like he you know,
he'll throw in a game once in a while. Maybe
it's definitely happening less frequently lately where you say, okay,
(16:48):
he had kind of one of those rookie games where
his performance dipped a little bit, but I mean, this
was a really good weekend for him. He only he
averaged about twenty five minutes a game over the two
games against the Rockets and the Grizzlies. And despite that,
you know, relatively you know, modest number, he averaged twelve points,
nine rebounds. He was also ten for twelve from the
field in those two games, So, I mean, he was solid.
(17:09):
This is the kind of production that you get from
a back up front court guy. You got to be
really happy with that.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
So the fact that he's been able to do that
in his rookie season and Like I said, it's not
like he's been part of the rotation for a long time.
It's really been only the last couple months that we've
seen him consistently on the court. So I definitely think
that that part of it is encouraging.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
No doubt, Antonio Reeves he's another player that again, these minutes,
these final seventeen games are going to matter for him.
You heard Carlos say, look, coach is starting to trust me.
We know one thing with head coach Willa Green, you
got to show it at practice and in in the
minutes you get. You got to prove that he can
trust you to be on that court when you have
(17:49):
a guy like Antonio Reeves that we saw just in
the last I guess weekend, right, I mean some steals,
some threes, things that nature. What is it that stands
out to you about him?
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (17:59):
I think his defense has been encouraging too. I mean,
he's done a pretty good job of guarding some of
these talented players that the Pelicans have been going against.
His offense, you know, he played that in the clip
from Graff and JD. The fact that he was making
threes last night was big, So I thought that was
one of his better games. That might have been his
(18:20):
maybe his second or third best game of the season.
Hands down, the game that he had a Cleveland, where
he scored thirty four points, was his number one on
the list. But I mean the twenty he had twenty.
He played twenty two minutes against the Grizzlies last night.
That was the third most playing time he's played this season.
He's had four games this season of playing twenty plus minutes.
Last night was the first time that he's played double
(18:42):
digit minutes in a non blowout since the February thirteenth
win against Sacramento right before the All Star break, that
game that went into overtime. I think it's also worth
noting too that in the four games that he has
played at least twenty minutes, his efficiency in production has
been very good. Obviously, these numbers are helped a lot
by the outstanding, incredible performs he had against Cleveland, But
(19:03):
when he's played, you know, twenty or more minutes, he's
shooting twenty three for forty three from the field, and
he's nine for twenty on three. So I mean, I
think it's it's a lot more. It's a lot fair
to judge some of these players by how do they
play when they get to a good chunk of minutes,
as opposed to trying to add together. You know, maybe
they play eight games and every single one of those
(19:24):
eight is a game that the team's up or down
by twenty five and they're playing the last few minutes
of the fourth quarter.
Speaker 4 (19:30):
Really kind of hard to evaluate that.
Speaker 6 (19:32):
So when he you know, he gets opportunity like last night,
where he plays those twenty two minutes and he does
what he does, I think that that's also a good sign.
The fact that you know, when he's getting out there
and he's able to get into a rhythm, he's been
pretty productive and made a pretty big impact in the game.
And I mean I think was a big reason why,
for instance, the Pelicans were up by seven at halftime.
(19:53):
He definitely was a was a big factor. And then
in the second half they put him back in the
game because he and gave him more important key minutes
in the fourth quarter because he had played so well
earlier in the night.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I thought was interesting too. And the conductor Chris Moran
noted out right before that the Pelicans had two attempts
to tell a game with a couple of three point shots,
coach doing offensive defensive substitutions for Jordan Hawkins and Antonio Reeves.
So but you know, back to the point what Carlos
said and what you're seeing here, Coach is like, all right,
he's my defensive guy. He trusts his defense to go
(20:26):
out there. And it's something I thought it was interesting
you started out with him. Here's what he had to
say after the game.
Speaker 10 (20:30):
Just staying ready, to stay on focused on teammates, trusting me,
trusting the process, and just going out there giving it
out of that.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
As far as staying ready, we've seen the last couple
of weeks, especially the week and a half, right, he's
been going back and forth to Birmingham. This team's had
a history of that. Jose Trey, Jordan Hawkins, now Antonio Reeves,
Carlo Makovich. Doing all those things helped me.
Speaker 10 (20:52):
I like, just getting a lot of reps he in
getting up and down the floor, and you know that's
how when I as soon as I come up here ready,
so you know that process is just going up and
down and try to get reps in. It helps a lot.
Speaker 6 (21:06):
Yeah, I mean if the thing is interesting too, if
you look at what he's done in Birmingham. He's played
eleven games for them in the G League. He's averaged
almost twenty five points a game. His shooting splits are
forty seven percent from the field, forty two from three,
and eighty from the foul line. So I mean, he's
he's been very good at that level. So it's it's
nice to see him get the opportunity to do this
(21:28):
in NBA games, and I'll be curious to see over
the last seventeen games of the season how much more
we see of him. But I think to one of
the things that you said your point earlier, I think,
if you're if you're a second round pick, and you
you know, he's he had a great college career, he
was a great score But if you can identify, Okay,
if I show that I can hold up on the
(21:48):
defensive end and I can do some good things there
and be disruptive, that maybe that'll be my ticket to
more playing time. I think that's a really intelligent way
to look at the game, and maybe that'll be something
that he can make his one of his calling cards
of Okay, I'm a guy that they can trust defensively
and that he can take on some of the tougher
(22:09):
assignments that they have to.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Do by finding a role. I mean, it just is
what it is, right, I mean, look, you've talked about
this and it's a very good point. This team hass talent.
I think you touched on it in warm up back
on Saturday with you know a lot of players inside
of twenty five years old that are on this roster.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
It is what it is. I know fans don't want
to hear it.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
And when you get injured the way you have and
you lose starters the way you have for months or
for seasons and stuff, it's hard to win in a
game where you have five players on the court at
one time. To your point that you've brought up, when
most of your roster, a good third, if not half
of your roster are talented, legit NBA players are starters.
(22:52):
I mean, there's only so many places for you to
stick them in. And we're not even talking about whatever
the Pels may get in the draft this year. So
I think it is that's something you just pointed out of.
If I'm Antonio Reeves, I want to stick around, how
do I do that? Where can I fit? Here's what
he had to say about goals for the rest of
the season.
Speaker 10 (23:10):
Make sure I give it effort, try to help the
team as much as possible when I get out there.
And you know, this is my rookie season, you know,
so you know I'm still learning.
Speaker 6 (23:20):
Yeah, I mean, I think to what you said earlier too.
I mean, another aspect of this roster is it's not
just that they have a lot of talent. It's that
they have a lot of offensive talent. So if you're
a player at the beginning of your career, if you're
a rookie like Antonio Reeves too, and you watch the
season unfold, whether it's from the sideline here at the
Smoothie King Center in a game that you're not playing at,
(23:40):
or from afar when you're in Birmingham, you got to
it's not that hard to pinpoint. Okay, this team needs
more better defense. This team needs to get more guys
on the defensive end. We've talked about all season how
the rankings and where they rate defensively. Inefficiency has been
in the bottom tier. So you're not going to be
there's almost no rookie unless you're a lottery pick who
comes in like Zion and is saying Okay, I'm gonna
(24:03):
average twenty twenty five points a game. Much more likely
than the fact that you're going to have the ball
all the time and get a bunch of shots is
you're gonna have to figure out your niche in some
other way because there's too many guys ahead of you
in the pecking order in terms of what the where
the offense is gonna run, and who's gonna be getting
touches and shots. So I think that's another reason why
if he can make his mark defensively over the last
(24:26):
month plus of the regular season, that would be something
that he could, you know, hang his hat on and
go into the offseason saying, you know, I made a
difference at that end of the floor.
Speaker 4 (24:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Again, it's one of the things that in the final
seventeen you pay attention to some of these players and
what they can do, and you want to see progress.
You want to see them get better, no doubt. Let's
see what takes place with Antonio Rehus and Carlo Matkovic.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Well, it's a Monday, thankfully, Jim is always our Friday.
Speaker 10 (24:56):
It's time for mister Eichenhoffer to give his players of
the Week and a player to watch for this week,
which he got bid God.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
Let's start with the player of the week for Week
twenty of the season, and that was Zion Williamson.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Played in three of the four games.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
He averaged twenty five point seven points, shot fifty six
percent from the field, averaged four assists, one point three steals,
and one block per game. He still, by the way,
two Gus has his forty six game streak of having
a steal or a block intact. So even though Saturday's game,
which was the last game that he played and did
not go great for the Pelicans, he picked up a
(25:34):
couple steals to keep that streak going. And so we'll
see how long he can extend that and we'll look
ahead to that. The player to watch in Week twenty one,
I'm gonna go with Trey Murphy. By the way, he
averaged twenty one point three points over these four games.
He shot fifty percent from the field, only twenty two
percent from three to eighty three percent on free throws,
(25:57):
and his fifty eight game streak with at least one
three pointer made. Unfortunately that ended Saturday at Houston. But
I think one of the reasons why I made him
the player to watch over these next three games that
the Pelicans are gonna play is just to see him,
you know, continue to make progress and probably bounce back
a little bit from you know, he's very uncharacteristic to
(26:17):
see him shoot threes, you know, at a low level.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
So I'm sure he'll.
Speaker 6 (26:21):
Get hot at some point very soon. And by the
way too for him individually, not sure how much he's
gonna match up specifically with some of these players. But
if you look at the Pelicans schedule this week you're
talking about, you know, the Clippers have Kawhi Leonard, the
Magic have Franz Wagner and Paulo Bancaro, Spurs have Devin Vassel,
(26:42):
So I mean they're gonna be going up against a
bunch of talented guys. The latter three of those are
all young players, similar to Trey Murphy, where they're trying
to you know, make a statement of where they are,
and the among the better young players in the NBA
than Kawhi Leonard obviously is had a game winner Sunday
night and has established over time how good of a
(27:03):
player he is. So we'll see what happens with those guys.
And then lastly, the spoiler scale now, I think, Gus,
this is actually pretty tame this week because you're talking about,
you know, teams that are in kind of play in
position and then a team that's you know, kind of
on the fringes now of trying.
Speaker 4 (27:22):
To stay in the play and race.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
So Tuesday night they play the Clippers, who are thirty
five and twenty nine. That's eighth place in the Western Conference.
I gave that one on the Spoiler scale a seven,
which is actually the highest of any of these games
this week. The Clippers are one game out of sixth
place behind Golden State right now, so that race is
pretty tight and pretty close. They're also vying with the
(27:45):
Wolves and the Kings. Basically there's four teams that are
kind of battling for six through ninth. I would say
that's kind of its own tier. The Mavericks right now
are in tenth. That's you know, there's a couple teams
right behind them as well. But the Clippers are seven
on the spoiler scale. Thursday game against Orlando, which is
also a seven o'clock home game, the Magic are thirty
and thirty five. They're in eighth place in the East,
(28:08):
and unfortunately for them, they've been in kind of a tailspin.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Lately where they've really struggled over their.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
Last bunch of games. They actually had a five game
losing streak before they had a really nice win at
Milwaukee on Saturday, but before that they were really struggling.
I mean two of those five wins were also to
the Raptors, who haven't been very competitive this year. I
think the Magic have suffered a lot with Jalen Suggs's
injury that he's going to be out for a while now.
(28:36):
So I gave that one a five on the spoiler
scale because it's kind of right in the middle. It's,
you know, the Magic definitely have a lot to play for,
but I don't know if their status is going to
change too much from where they are. They're going to
be a play in team and they're probably going to
be somewhere in that mix. That's they're not going to
be in the top six in the East. And then lastly,
the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday at seven thirty the
(28:56):
game in Texas. I gave that one a four on
the spoiler scale because the Spurs really, unfortunately for them,
have really kind of played themselves out of realistic contention
for a playing spot. They're twenty six and thirty six
right now, they're in thirteenth place. They're four and a
half games out of tenth. They have a couple teams
even between them and Dallas, which is in tenth. And honestly,
(29:18):
the Pelicans really did a lot of damage to them
in the games on February twenty third and twenty fifth
by sweeping that baseball series when the Spurs were here.
I mean, if you think about it, the Spurs win
those If they win those games, they're only two and
a half out, but instead they're four and a half out.
So I mean, it's really a tall order right now
for the Spurs over their last twenty games to be
able to get back in the race. And it also
(29:40):
has not helped at all that they're only three and
seven since Wemby was ruled out for the season, So
they're definitely in a stretch right now where they're having
a hard time getting wins. So gave that one a
four just to review. Clippers seven, magic five, Spurs four.
Kind of a middling week, kind of a mediocre week
for the spoiler scale, And I'm sure there's going to
(30:01):
be some higher numbers on on the scale as we
get closer to the end of the regular season.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
Yeah, no doubt. I'm very interested on your Friday, April
fourth spoilers.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Scale game, the next Lakers game.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Look at you, you know exactly what?
Speaker 6 (30:15):
Yeah, and I mean I'll be curious to see where
where they where they move in the standings too, now
that they're supposed to be without Lebron apparently for a
week or two at least, they said so, I mean
it's a.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Very severe growing injury.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
I don't know if Yeah, I'm not going to comment
on growing.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
We almost like we almost lost them by the way
on that uh what was it?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
The It wasn't a flop.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
It was the most egregious offensive defensive foul leverage. You
see that?
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Yeah, offensive, it wouldn't go.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
Yeah, I just thought of the Seinfeld episode back into
the left when I saw that highlight.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
You know what it is?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
What it is, mister jimiakh and Offer Repelicans dot Com.
Thank you so appreciate your time. Thanks guys, We'll see
you on Wednesday. We'll talk about tomorrow night's game with
the Pelicans host the Clippers. You've been listening to the
Pelicans potodcast on.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Wherever you listen to the New Orleans Pelicans podcast.
Speaker 7 (31:04):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Thanks for listening to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast. Join
us three times per week on pelicans dot com, the
Pelicans Mobile app, the iHeartRadio app, or where you get
your podcast, and be sure to give Jim and Gus
a follow on x at Jim Underscore I Can Offer
(31:25):
and Gcat Underscore seventeen. We'll see you next time right
here on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast
Host
Jim Eichenhofer
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!