May 6, 2025 • 41 mins
Pelicans radio play-by-play broadcaster Todd Graffagnini joins Jim Eichenhofer and Gus Kattengell on the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast to recap Yves Missi's 2024-25 NBA season.
“From the beginning of the (regular) season – when he was a piece coming off the bench – to December, when he was the starting center, averaging a double-double, named Rookie of the Month, he was a force. Not only scoring, but rebounding, blocking shots, offensive rebounding.” – Pelicans radio play-by-play broadcaster Todd Graffagnini on one of Missi’s impressive stretches of development
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome in to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, the official
podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans. A podcast dedicated to
everything you need to know about the squad here from players, coaches, broadcasters,
and those who cover the NBA on a daily basis.
It's time to flock up. The New Orleans Pelicans podcast
(00:29):
starts right now.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hello, we want to welcome once again into the New
Orleans Pelicans Podcast, the official podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans.
Mister Jimickenhofferpelicans dot Com does cat and go with you
as we continue our player profiles to look back at
the season in review. Starts reserves this week. Rookies. We
started off with mister Wes Johnson talking about Brandon Boston.
Now that brings us to a very interesting rookie. And
(00:56):
I say interesting because Jim, while we were in Nashville,
we were enjoying our We're planning how to go up
and down the streets and Honky Tonking and all that
and barbecue. I don't think anyone really expected. I don't
want to say that first, Oh, what a dunk by
eve Ma see on de Jonte Murray and I was
like that guy can fly. I think all of us
jumped up and made a mention of that. Little did
(01:19):
we know it might have been a little taste, little
preview what was to come in his rookie season.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah, I thought he was gonna be maybe one of
these guys that has an extremely high ratio of highlights
to points, which meaning like he has a bunch of highlights,
but he's not averaging necessarily. You know, he might average
four points a game, but he's almost averaging two dunks
a game to get those four points. So, yeah, I
thought he was going to be somebody that was going
to come along slowly, and he did not come along slowly. Gus.
(01:45):
He by the first game of the season, we already
were like, what the heck happened to this guy? What
got into him that he already looks this different compared
to what we saw back in Tennessee At the beginning
of October.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
T help discuss eve me sees rookie season. The radio
voice of your New Orleans Pelicans, Taographini, will sit down
with us and go over that. But Jim, before we
get into that, me c obviously helped as a rookie.
I feel this year, though again because of injuries, we
ended the season, seeing a lot of the Pell's rookies,
seeing a lot of guys that were hey dustin for
Birmingham and playing on here as well. Not only did
(02:17):
they help, they contributed to some wins and they made
good enough plays that we're talking about them going into
next year.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, I mean over the next three days with ev
me C today, Carlo Makovic Wednesday, and then Antonio Reeves
on Thursday, we're getting into details about how well how
much these guys contributed to the team. I'll throw a
couple numbers at you, Gus. I mean, the Pelicans finished
fifth in points scored by rookies this season. They had
they were second in rebounds, and then there were second
(02:44):
in block shots as well. With obviously Eve me Ce
and Carlo Makovich were the two best shot blockers on
the team this year in terms of total number of rejections.
So I mean, they had so much more of a
first year look to the roster or to the rotation
and than we expected. If you look at just for example,
two in the top five of teams that got points
(03:06):
from rookies this season, Washington was number one, not surprising,
Toronto number two, also not a surprise. Memphis three. That
was a little bit of a surprise considering that they
were a playoff team. They won forty eight games. Utah
was fourth and then the Pelicans were fifth, so they
kind of ended up in a group of other other
than Memphis. It was really a lot of teams that
(03:27):
you thought going into the season were going to use
a lot of young players and rely heavily on them.
So I mean good and bad. It was bad that
you know. The reason that that was the case partly
was because so many injuries happened to the Pelicans, obviously,
but I mean there's no doubt that it's invaluable the
experience that those three players I mentioned got during the season,
and they were I think each in their own way,
(03:49):
they were able to show that they have some potential
and some promise as far as what they can do
next season and beyond with New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
All right, Well, toddgraphing any Voice of your Pelicans over
in the radio side of things, had a up close
and personal look at eve MEC's rookie season and we
are often running to hear that. Now, all right, we
bring in the radio voice of her New Orleans Pellics.
Mister Todgraph and any as our player profiles continue, We've
done starters, we've done reserves, And one of the things
(04:18):
I look at is a player on this team that
probably was looked at as maybe a observe, a nice
building piece, or just hey, let's see what we got
in eve me see. Little did we know he would
be not only a starter, but Todd the team made
an effort towards the end of the year to let
the entire NBA know what kind of rookie campaign he had.
(04:41):
Just overall. Ballpark will get into specifics here in a second,
Eve Mecie Man from Nashville to.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Now unbelievable what he did this year. And look and
you heard coaches, you heard executives say, there is no
way that that anybody could have expected what actually happened
when they drafted this kid out of Baylor. And you're right.
(05:06):
He wasn't supposed to come in here and start and produce.
He was going to be a project. He had not
played a lot of basketball in his life. He was
a one and done at Baylor, picked up the game
at age sixteen. And look the thing about it, when
the Pelicans picked him at twenty one, they did pick
him as a position of need. They were looking for
(05:31):
a big man. So the fact that he was picked
that low, I mean, when you say that low and
for him to produce the way he did, you could
really make an argument that eve Mesy was the steel
of the draft. You really could, because nobody expected what
actually happened. And he didn't start Opening night, you know,
(05:54):
Daniel Tice was the starting center on opening Night against Chicago,
but eve Mesey came off the b I scored thirteen points,
had seven rebounds, and had three block shots, and John
de chazer Andeiro on the air going what in the
world is going on down there? Nobody could have even
dreamed of what he did. Who this kid can play?
And as the necessity turned out came for him to
(06:20):
be in the lineup, he was moved into the starting
role rather quickly and he didn't give it up the
rest of the year.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah. I mean, he was picked twenty first overall. And
I remember going back to last summer before the draft,
when you're going through different prospects, there wasn't really a
ton of excitement I think for people going into the
draft when you're picking that low, thinking that you're gonna
get somebody who's gonna contribute a ton, especially when you
take a guy who only played one year in college
and has only been a basketball player basically in a
(06:50):
serious way for about five years. So I mean that
part of it was pretty incredible that I think they
hit on that draft pick as well as you possibly
could have imagined. There's a bunch of that were drafted
before him who weren't as productive, didn't have as good
of a rookie year, didn't show as much even potential
as he did, which you would think at this stage
of his development that you're gonna see just the beginning
(07:12):
of what he can do. But I thought, you know,
you mentioned the first game of the season, it was
already like what is going on? Like this guy was
so impressive the first chance he got in a real game.
I guess the question to this, the answer to this
question might be all of them. But I'm curious, from
your perspective, what do you think was the jump or
the stretch that he made that was the most impressive
(07:34):
or the most eye opening, whether it was from you know,
summer league to preseason, preseason to the start of the season,
start of the season to you know, at the midway point,
What was the what were some of the stretches that
you thought were the most enlightening.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I guess it's a good question.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
I think it's from the start of the regular season
basically to the month of December, where he was named
Rookie of the Month. Yeah, I mean he averaged a
double double in the month of December. Wow, what more
can you say? You know me, I'm a double double guy.
Triple double. I love that stuff. And for him, again,
just so raw to make that. But I mean you
(08:09):
can make an argument to Jim on that question where
even from training camp to opening night, you didn't see
any anything that would have resembled what he did against
Chicago on opening night in any of the preseason games.
At any moment during training camp we were all there.
Nothing really jumped out. Did he have ability? Of course,
(08:32):
you know, he's seven feet tall. He's just very athletic,
and of course, as we saw as the year went on,
how athletic he really can be. And the ceiling is
still higher than at the end of the season. But
I think from the beginning of the regular season, where
he was, you know, kind of a put in peace
(08:54):
coming off the bench, backing up Daniel Tice to where
he became in December, where he's the start center for
the Pelicans. He's averaging a double double. He was named
Rookie of the Month, and he was just he was
a force and not only scoring, but rebounding, blocking shots,
offensive rebounding where you know they have the stats where
(09:16):
you know what is he doing against other rookies. Well
on the offensive glass. He was in the top five
of the NBA as far as offensive rebounds. This wasn't
just rookies, So he was making an impact in a
lot of facets other than just rebounding and blocking shots.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, you mentioned the month of December that he had.
One of the things that I noted in the written
piece that goes with this is that he he peaked
on the NBA dot Com Rookie Ladder at number one
on January first.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Oh, no, he was.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
He was in that.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
He was in the absolute mix, no question about it
at that point.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And you mentioned some of the different aspects of his
game that were impressive to me. When I think back
to training camp, what I saw was this guy's going
to be a really good finish around the basket. But
it didn't seem like he showed a lot else besides
that in terms of things that jumped off the page.
So I mean in terms of some of the areas
that he was really productive, especially for a rookie, especially
(10:11):
for a twenty year old. What do you think was
was there one area or maybe it was multiple areas
that were the most surprising to you in terms of
what you saw initially from his raw ability and then
what he was able to carry that over to during
the regular season.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I think what he did on the defensive end kind
of jumped out at me. I didn't expect all the
block shots, but he's just he's a natural. He really
really is. I think that is the one thing that
really surprised and me personally not I'm sure it didn't
surprise anybody in our organization because that's why he was drafted.
(10:47):
But what he did on the defensive end jumped out
at me. And you know, you say finishing Jim, and
look it was. You know, it's kind of a running joke.
He left so many points out on the board this
year because he was not able to finish a lot
of these dunks, and that's what some of the things
that he's going to get better at he probably could
(11:08):
have averaged. You know, he wound up averaging what about
eight eight points a game, nine nine a game, and
he eight eight point one rebounds a game.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
He could easily be.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
A double digit per night score offensively if he kind
of ties up the loose ends as far as finishing
and making his free throws, because he left a lot
of points at the free throw line as well.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
You know, it's obviously a completely different game when you're
talking about the regular season versus training camp. I thought
he finished really well in training camp. I don't remember
having any misdunks. I'm not really sure what the explanation
for that was of why that happened. When you get
into the regular season. Maybe you're rushing your shot a
little bit more because you're going against some of the
better centers in the NBA, that kind of thing. But
(11:54):
I'm guessing that that'll be something that he definitely improves
upon next year. You know, you talk about his defense
and his shot blocking. To me, it was the kind
of thing where I've mentioned this a couple times here
and there throughout the course of the season, that it
seemed like the referees weren't even sure how good of
a defensive player he was. They were calling goaltends on
him a few times where we had seen him play enough.
(12:16):
You know, obviously we're at every single game. We're watching
every single game. The referees are only catching the Pelicans
once every who knows, eight ten games or whatever depending
on their schedule. There's a couple times that they called
the goaltend on him and then you went to review
and it was like, Nope, that wasn't a goaltend. So
it just kind of showed that, like you said, the
word that you use was he's a natural. It seems
like his timing is just really good and obviously he's
got the length and the arms to be able to
(12:41):
swallow out of those shots.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I mean, Jim could you could make an argument that
he's got the most upside right now on this team.
I mean, think about where he ended the year, and
it just kind of fizzled at the end. You know,
he didn't play the last few games. You know, we
haven't even talked about his availability.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Right right, and his three games led the team in that.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And his ability.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Of course, the best ability is availability, but he played
hurt as well. He wasn't one hundred percent in a
lot of these games that he came to, he kind
of you know, some games he left early and you're thinking, uh,
is he going to come back the next game? How
is he going to handle this? And the next night
he was in the starting lineup. So that's something that
really we didn't talk a whole lot about at the
(13:27):
end of the year, when you know, we're just kind
of playing out the string. But the fact that Willie
Green was able to count on him night in and
night out has got to be one of his top qualities.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yeah, I mean, to that point, he played in seventy
three games, which was the most of anyone on the team.
There were only two players on the squad that played
at least sixty five games. He started sixty seven games,
and that was more than anyone else played in terms
of just total games.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
So I mean, just and did not begin the year
as a starter, right, he forced his way into the
starting lineup.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Now, Graft, one of the things I've been doing with
all of the guests is giving you I'll give you
two numbers. We've kind of called this pelistats this segment
of the podcast. So I'm gonna give you two numbers
and you can decide which one you like better, which
one you want to talk about In terms of eve
MESI first number is six, and that is his rank
among NBA players and offensive rebounds per game minimum of
(14:20):
sixty five appearances. He had three point five offensive boards
a night, the only guys ahead of him on the
list where demonte Sebonis led the league at three point eight.
Then it was a Vita Zubat's, Rudy Gobert, Jalen Duran
and Zachi Edie company. And then the second number is twelve,
which is his rank among NBA players, again minimum sixty
(14:41):
five games played. He was twelve in blocks per game,
at one point three ahead. Among the eleven players that
finished ahead of him, seven of them averaged more minutes
per game. So you're talking about it's not even really
necessarily a fair comparison of where he ranked in blocks.
But which of those do you do you like better?
The sixth in offensive rebounds per game or the twelfth
(15:03):
in blocks.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
I'm going the six It's just second chance points is
such an underrated stat to me, because I mean, we
talk about it on the other side, how you have
to finish possessions with defensively with a rebound and when
you get those offensive rebounds and those second chance points,
that is demoralizing to the other side. Again, we were
(15:26):
on the other end of it a lot this year,
so that that, to me is the most impressive things.
When you look at the group that he is in
right there, and again this isn't just rookies, this is
all across the NBA. I think that's the most impressive statistic,
Again considering somebody who's played basketball for five years.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yeah, I mean when you look forward now, when we
talk about what are some of the things that we
want to see from him in the future, I mean
going into next season, what do you think are some
of the things that he needs to focus on or
things that you want to see him come back with
to add to his game.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
He's got to bulk up, he's got to put on
some muscle, he's got Look, you know, I know recency
biased here, but you know, you watch what Rudy Gobert
did against the Lakers. Now you're not saying that Rudy
Gobert is going to go out there and take fifteen
foot jump shots. He's just there to rebound and dunk.
(16:23):
So yeah, you can get away with it. I'd love
to see even he develop a mid range you know, nothing.
He doesn't need to go out and start taking threes.
That's that's just not He took one three this year.
Yeah he attempted one, so he did. He did take
a shot at it. But I'd love to see him
be able to kind of broaden his offensive weaponry a
(16:47):
little bit. Get a hook shot. You know, he's seven
he's seven feet so if you're the dotted line, I
think he attempted a couple of them this year, but
just kind of add to the offensive arshoal. But he's
got to get stronger. He's got to get stronger, you know,
and he's got he's got a great body type, so
he'll be able to put on some weight without losing
(17:08):
and I'm talking about muscle weight without losing any type
of his athleticism and quickness. And he's just he's got
to finish better at the rim. That that, to me,
is what he needs to improve on, because the defense
and the rebounding, that's just going to get better with
more repetitions, with more games being played offensively. You got
(17:32):
to work on that in the gym, and this is
the time to do it. I mean, you've got to
be working on your game every single day to just
get better.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
You know. Last thing for me, and this is maybe
more of a comment than a question, but one of
the things I think is really interesting if you think
about the context of the league overall, to eve Mesi
is in a lot of ways, I feel like things
have changed, even in the last six or seven months
in terms of if you think about it, there's a
lot more teams in the NBA that are playing too
big bigs now than there were even if you will
go back to training camp, we were talking about, you know,
(18:03):
maybe the Pelicans are going to go really small, and
you wonder when there's so much discussion about that, not
just with New Orleans but across the league, you almost
start to think, like, do we do some of these
teams even need centers? Like is that position just being
kind of phased out? But it's funny to think. Now
you fast forward to where we are at this point
and you see teams like Minnesota using double bigs and
the other thing that's happened in the NBA too Cleveland yep.
(18:26):
Another trend that has affecting a lot of the centers
and the bigs now is We went through a period
in the NBA where teams were de emphasizing offensive rebounding
and just trying to get back on defense. It seems
like that's flipped a lot in the other direction now,
where teams are like, no, we want to offensive rebound,
we want to prioritize that, we want to take we
(18:47):
want to capitalize on some of these teams that go
really small against us and just overwhelm them on the boards.
We saw that in perhaps one of my favorite playoff
series of all time, when the te Wolves just you know,
completely bumped guarded the Lakers on the offensive boards. But
just to we're.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
On the same wavelength, and you almost took the words
out of my mouth. Ask the Lakers about playing small ball,
ask them it. You're you you going, You're always going
to have a need for a big man, you know.
And look, Jonas obviously was beloved here.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
He played three.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Years here, and he signed a free agent deal. We
weren't able to keep him. But I mean, just how
important was Yonas Valanciunas to this team for three seasons?
You just, again, somebody you could count on night in
and night out. You knew what you were going to
get every single game, and he was just he was
a big part of what we did for three years.
And that's that's a situation where eve mecI has an
(19:47):
opportunity now again, is he going to advance his offensive
game to where he's going to start stepping out and
taking threes. I mean, that couldn't hurt. I just don't
think it's necessary at this point of his development.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
And by the way, too, speaking of Jonis Valentunis, I
know there's probably a lot of people around here that
maybe didn't avidly follow the Sacramento Kings this season, but
he went back to not taking three pointers. He went
back to a game where he's you know, anchored in
the paint and a lot of times I don't think
he played a ton of minutes with some bonus, but
he's still he played with him, So he did.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
We we actually when we played them in Sacramento, they
were on the court at the same time. Yeah, the
game we played out.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
There, And so I think it's interesting to note that
he went through Jonas went through a few years, including here,
where there was a little bit of an emphasis of like, Okay,
we need you to take some three pointers. We need
you to help space the floor. Some of that depend
is contingent upon who he's playing with too. Obviously with
Zion it's more needed that he spaces the floor and
shoot threes. But I mean he he only went He
(20:49):
only took ten three pointers in the thirty two games
that he played with Sacramento this season. So it's part
of a trend. I think it's kind of going back
the other way. Interesting these centers to shoot.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Threes now because his first year here, I'll never forget it.
You know, We're in La At, you know, Crypto dot
Com Arena, We're playing the Clippers, and he went seven
for seven from three.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
I was one of the most fun memories, you know,
in my broadcasting couriers, was watching Yon. It's just out there,
just draining three after three and the Clippers could do
nothing about it. And now, I mean you said what
he took ten? He took ten, and so he he
made as many threes in that one game as he
took in thirty two games with the Zacker.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I never felt like he was super comfortable doing it either.
I felt like he was doing it because the guy
is the ultimate team guy. He's ultimate, Like you tell
him he needs him to do something and he'll jump
in line and be like, yes, I'll do that. But
I don't feel like that was really part of his natural,
natural game of like how he wants to play. So,
you know, some of these centers I think are maybe
gonna be able to get back into more of the
(21:47):
comfort zone of they like to play around the basket
and now their teams are going to allow them to
do that.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
And again, it'll be curious how Eve comes in, you know,
for training camp and we see how he will have
evolved from the end of the Sea two when we
get into training camp in October.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Well, I'll say this guy's as we wrap up. Joe
Dumars in a podcast after he was introduced as evp
here with the Pelicans, talking about bigs in the need
in the NBA, said, if you don't have them, becomes
a layup line for the other team. That's something to
think of because you have a player like that. And
Todd to add to your point, I think the thing
that's exciting if I'm a Pels fan is there certain
(22:23):
things I can't teach you either are or aren't right.
Guys that work hard, guys that have in innate athletic ability.
You either are a shot block or you're not. I'm
not saying I can't teach you do that, but I
thought it was very interesting early on. And Jim you
were there after practice one day early in the season
when he's playing well and making those shot blocks that
might even have to ben after Miles Turner block, which
(22:45):
to this day I can't believe that block right. And
he was specific as to how he sees the block.
He's picturing the floor, he's talking about how he sees
it on tape on film with the coaches earlier, so
(23:05):
he knows what that player is going to do. He
was specific about it. He's going to go to this hand,
so I'm gonna meet him here. And the other thing too, todd,
because that tells me you're you're studying and your understanding.
You're just not wildly jumping and swatting at it. There's
a science, or at least a forem and function to him.
And the other thing too that I thought that was
very interesting is when he talks about shot blocking, there's
(23:30):
no fear in that. You get dunked on, and get
dunked on. There's some players that won't do that and
put themselves in position like that in games, Jim and Todd,
you've seen him get dunked on and right back a player.
Two later, he'll get a big dunk on a block
on somebody. We saw it in Summer League. Zach Edy
dunked in him, I think right when he started the
game when they're playing memphisis summer league team, and then
(23:52):
two drives later he dunks on Zach Edy. You can't
teach that, Todd.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
And I know we gotta get going here, but you
just kind of jangled something in my memory. What was
the one thing and you're talking about going back to
training camp in preseason games, what was the one thing
we were really really concerned about me Si coming out
of training.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Camp exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
And how many times did we go back and say,
this year boy eves and fouled trouble again. Not too many,
Not too many went on as and again, go, that's
just your original point, Gus. The kid knows how to learn.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
He knows say I.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Can't do this, What am I going to do better
than that? Well, everyone said that's why they drafted him.
When they drafted him, they said he's a sponge, He's
a fast learner, and boy, we found that out very
quickly and in a very good way.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
He only had four games all season where he had
five files. He didn't fall out.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
And never followed out.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Of those four games, he had five fouls all of them.
The latest one was February twenty first. He had a
few at the beginning, relatively earlier in the season, but
that was the concern.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
We're like this, you know, he's got ability, he knows,
you know, how to play the game in a rookie sense,
but he's not going to be on the court long
enough to make an impact because he's going to be
on the bench with two fouls two minutes.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
That's so impressive in a couple of areas too, because
you're thinking about a guy that's trying to make plays, right,
you know, and hey, I'm just going to go try
to make a play and try to do that not
falling out, Jim. That's great. The only other thing that's
interesting I was just popping up. That just hit me
too when you think about it, is not only did
he not fill out, but it's a guy that just
you know, didn't play with a regular lineup. Todd, he
(25:45):
didn't play with all Star players and that you know
now full of games, so he's playing, well, we are shuffling.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
We were shuffling lineups forty six different lineups this year,
the one constant from the beginning of the season basically
the last week. Of course, he didn't play the last
couple games, but it was even.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
That's saying that's hard for a veteran to learn to
play with right with a consistent lineup, And here's a
rookie in a place where there's a lot of stuff
going on around you, and he was able to do it.
Not to file out like that really stands out.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Yeah, I mean, I think it'll be interesting going forward
next season and hopefully we get significantly infinitely better health
on the team overall. How that will affect him, It
seemed like he had to cover up so many mistakes
and so many breakdowns on the defensive end. Maybe that
added a little bit to his shot blocking numbers because
he had more opportunities. But I'm curious to see how
he does defensively with a more settled unit at that
(26:41):
end of the floor, and then offensively just being out
there with better players, guys that are more proven in
the NBA than what he did a lot of this season.
He's a really opportunistic offensive player, I would say, where
he can feed off of other guys and he could
throw down eli oops and lobbs. We saw him do
that a lot with Dejonte, but unfortunately that was also
an abbreviated part of the seas And so I mean, hey,
(27:01):
he plays center next season. He's out there with more
healthy guys and more of the frontline players that this
roster has, and I think that alone will help him
make a jump next season. But I mean, I just
I feel confident with all the stuff that you guys
talked about, with his work ethic and his intelligence, that
he's going to do that regardless. But I think there
are circumstances that I think will help him. That he
(27:23):
had to overcome a lot of different scenarios this season
that we never expected, but he did get to play
a lot more than we thought as well.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like we could
be talking about Eve Maci for a while. I hope,
so right, I hope. So it is telegraphing any radio
voice of your New Orleans Pelicans, thank you for your time.
You got it. Our things has always didograph you know,
it's interesting sitting here listening to it. Obviously we're part
of the radio broadcast, so I hear all the calls
and in between breaks. That was one of the players
that got him and John as excited as anybody Aaron
(27:52):
as well, part of the broadcast, even when you jumped
in there towards the end of the year. And I
think it's because there's certain things that are tangibles and intas.
Does that make sense, right, Things that you can see
other things you can't. And he brought up one. I'd say,
one of the things I love either are or you're
not that person that can play through injury. And on
a team like this that battled so much of it,
(28:12):
he'd go out, he'd come back in in games. He
really wouldn't miss very many games. He'd get popped, and
he would go and for a body frame like that
to be able to already have that, Jim, the stronger
he gets and the better he's going to get that
that makes me feel good. And the other is I
can't teach you whether or not you can block a
shot or you can react to that quickly. Yeah, that's
(28:33):
the word right there. Those are the two things that
I think of me see this year, I think of
a tough player that just instinctually does things around the goal.
Now we can refine it, Now we can work with you,
Now we can coach you to do those things. It's
just he's a very exciting player.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Man, he is, and I think one of the reasons
why people gravitated to him so much and liked him.
I think from the beginning and the even probably more
so as we got deeper into the season, we were
looking for silver linings. Often this season we were looking
for you know, the season wins wise went far below
what we were hoping it would be, and obviously with
all the injuries, it was just a constant negative stream
(29:13):
of news. To have a guy that you picked twenty
first and to have him develop and turn into the
player that he was, I mean, that was at least
one thing that you could point to and say, you know,
at least we got that positive from it. And it's
a huge it's a huge thing, especially when you think
about the hole that they had at the center position too,
so to be able to get a guy at that
(29:34):
late in the first round that turned into the player
that he is and showed the potential and just kind
of the rapid learning curve and also at a position
where the Pelicans needed a lot of thought that those
are a couple of reasons why he was such a
good story, even if the season overall for the team
did not go very well at.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
All, No doubt. Again, I'm excited to see what happens.
And I just think of Kelly o Linnink in that
time we got to hear him on Pelicans weekly. Guy
just really wants to like coach him, you know, and
just talk to him and do those things. I love
that because that's the other thing. Can you be instinctual,
can you be tough? Are you coachable? And everybody we
talked to this past season, Jim, you can tell him
(30:13):
one thing and he goes and does it. I love
the most. Earlier in the year, you were there, you're
sitting to you were standing to the right of me.
We're talking about his shot blocking, what he thinks and
he mentioned looking at video that morning before the game
and shoot around on what a player likes to do,
and he goes and does it. I think it was
around the time of the mouse turner block or he
had a string of some really good blocks where he
to go beart one of those they're big guys that
(30:34):
he did that on, but he specifically said, hey, he
likes to do this, so I knew where to go
at the ball. Jim That that to me just brought
a smile to my face.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Yeah, I mean, it just shows how attentive he is,
how studious he is about the game. I think in
the case that you're talking about, he was he was
kind of discussing the positioning of his body of saying,
like I need to I knew I needed to block
this shot with my left hand, and I needed to
turn my body a certain way to make sure that
there wasn't contact. I think it is something that we
talked a little bit with graft two. I think for
(31:06):
a lot of those reasons, the reason that he was
so detail oriented was part of why his foul trouble
didn't become as big of an issue as we thought
maybe it would be, or the way it is for
a lot of rookies that come into the league, especially
you know, seven foot or six to eleven guy who
only played one year in college. So yeah, I think
a lot of his mental parts of the game was
(31:27):
a huge reason why he was able to make the
progress that he did over the course of the season.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Well, I can't let you go without asking you the
most important question. Apparently on all of the national talk shows,
even behind your head more exciting players Steph Curry, Anthony Edwards,
That is a topic. Why because Golden State in Minnesota
get it on starting here on this Tuesday record on
May six, game one of a very interesting series. Look
(31:56):
that you don't have much time to rest here. They
had to go deep into their first round series to
get it and go. Man, I text you, I think
earlier or late in that series, but over the weekend
or before, said, is Steph Curry the most exciting player
to I think when Graf was here we were talking
about that. I just love watching him and what he
can do. He had a big game. Anthony Edwards year ago,
(32:20):
this time nationally never saying hey, is he the face
of the NBA? Is he the next Michael Jordan? So
now you got those two guys going at it. I'm
not gonna lie to you, dude. I'm not doing anything
tonight other than watching this game.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
I mean, I wouldn't argue with anyone who says either way,
who says like, oh, I love watching Anthony Edwards because
he's such an athletic player. He probably has I don't know,
five of the best dunks in the NBA over the
last couple of years just by himself or the people
who say I love watching Steph Curry. I mean, if
you look at the attendance of Golden State Road games,
I think there's a case there that he's the most
(32:53):
the biggest ticket, the guy that people want to see
the play the most across the whole NBA. So I
guess it just depends on what your taste is. If
you like the three point shooting, the guy that can
go for ten, make ten or twelve threes in a game,
can make six or seven in a quarter, you know
you go with Steph Curry. If you like the athleticism
of Anthony Edwards, And I mean it's not like he's
just a great athlete or a dunker. He also improved
(33:16):
his three point shooting a ton this year and just
has a lot of really shifty moves going to the basket.
So I mean, it's gonna be It is gonna be
a really interesting series. I thought that this matchup will
be a lot of fun to see what the Timberwolves do.
I'm also curious to see. I mean, the Timberwolves really
overwhelmed the Lakers with size in that first round series.
(33:36):
Can they do the same thing against Golden State? Because
Steve Kerr has leaned a lot more towards those smaller lineups,
partly because that's if you look at the talent that
the Warriors have. Their best players are wing players and
smaller guys.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
They're not.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
They don't have a lot of big centers who play
like traditionally down low. So that'll be something to watch
as far as how some of these matchups individually go
to see where the Timberwolves can can replicate a lot
of the things that were successful against the Lakers, because
I do think that Golden State is a pretty similar
team in terms of style of play of the Lakers.
(34:10):
Maybe Golden State has a little bit more ball movement.
They're not as much of a you know, ISO kind
of team. But but yeah, this will be this will
be fun. I mean, I think these these uh, you
knew the four teams that were going to remain that
we're gonna whoever which I recombination of four teams that
were left in the West. You knew it was gonna
be fun, and there was gonna be four really good
(34:30):
teams still playing.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I'm double checking. Where where do the Lakers go? I
thought there was I thought there were destined to be
the Western Confery.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Yeah, you know what, I think they got knocked out. Guys,
they're sitting at home.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Thundernuggets, Tea Wolves, Warriors in the West, Cavs, Pacers, Knicks,
Celtics over in the East. How many games this Tea Wolves? Woar?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Oh boy, I haven't made too many predictions.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
I wasn't ready.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
I just let me go. I think I'm gonna go
Tea Wolves in seven.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Give him a winner, Okay, t Wolves in seven? Wolves
and seven. Yeah, I'm leaning t Wolves on this aspect
of it. Jim. One of the things that I heard
a lot this week already starting is, you know, do
you put Anthony Edwards on Steph Curry? Indeed, because we
saw Houston try to do that, right and it worked
in game six where they tried to take anybody but
(35:22):
Steph to beat this, and Houston was a tall, physical
team like that. They just could make shots, I think
in game seven. So I'm interested in curious on that.
Now there's that whole notion. If I put one of
my best offensive players on Steph chasing him, running him around,
am I taking away from his offensive side? So yeah,
I think that's, you know, an interesting You gotta throw
(35:43):
a Draymond Green factor in there. Him and Rudy Gobert
right and drags more teas.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Draymond's also already getting close to the technical I think
you can only have. I think it's sixties that you
get and then the seventh one you get suspended. I
guess he already has four from the first round series.
It seemed like it seemed more like fourteen. But yeah,
he's and he also is getting close to the flagrant
foul penalties. So I think this is the Draymond Green challenge.
Let's see how many of these infractions I can get
(36:09):
in various categories before I get suspended for something.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
I mean, look, buddy, he'll need to drop with thirty
plus in that game seven to do that, I think,
Julius Randall, I'm with you. I'm gonna go tea Wolves six. Okay,
all right.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
You know, as I thought about it, I thought I
started to lean more towards maybe they can take him
out in less than seven Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I think they're gonna be fun games though, Yeah to
watch and again we talked about yesterday Thunder and Nuggets
and what they'll be able to do there as we focus.
I would see on the West and should be fun. Jim.
Always fun when I get a chance to sit here
and talk a little bit basketball with you. Thank you
so much for your timek you guys, don't forget to
go to Pelicans dot com. Jim has an incompanying piece
with our podcast on Everything you Hear, so there's something
(36:48):
to read to go to listen while you listen, rather
about Eve Mecie and the rookies this week, reserves starters
all up there as well. Plus we'll have an end
of the week lottery preview for you come up on Friday.
Thank you as always for tuning us in on the
New Orleans Pelicans podcast.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
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
(37:25):
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 (00:34):
Hello, we want to welcome once again into the New
Orleans Pelicans Podcast, the official podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans.
Mister Jimickenhofferpelicans dot Com does cat and go with you
as we continue our player profiles to look back at
the season in review. Starts reserves this week. Rookies. We
started off with mister Wes Johnson talking about Brandon Boston.
Now that brings us to a very interesting rookie. And
(00:56):
I say interesting because Jim, while we were in Nashville,
we were enjoying our We're planning how to go up
and down the streets and Honky Tonking and all that
and barbecue. I don't think anyone really expected. I don't
want to say that first, Oh, what a dunk by
eve Ma see on de Jonte Murray and I was
like that guy can fly. I think all of us
jumped up and made a mention of that. Little did
(01:19):
we know it might have been a little taste, little
preview what was to come in his rookie season.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Yeah, I thought he was gonna be maybe one of
these guys that has an extremely high ratio of highlights
to points, which meaning like he has a bunch of highlights,
but he's not averaging necessarily. You know, he might average
four points a game, but he's almost averaging two dunks
a game to get those four points. So, yeah, I
thought he was going to be somebody that was going
to come along slowly, and he did not come along slowly. Gus.
(01:45):
He by the first game of the season, we already
were like, what the heck happened to this guy? What
got into him that he already looks this different compared
to what we saw back in Tennessee At the beginning
of October.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
T help discuss eve me sees rookie season. The radio
voice of your New Orleans Pelicans, Taographini, will sit down
with us and go over that. But Jim, before we
get into that, me c obviously helped as a rookie.
I feel this year, though again because of injuries, we
ended the season, seeing a lot of the Pell's rookies,
seeing a lot of guys that were hey dustin for
Birmingham and playing on here as well. Not only did
(02:17):
they help, they contributed to some wins and they made
good enough plays that we're talking about them going into
next year.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, I mean over the next three days with ev
me C today, Carlo Makovic Wednesday, and then Antonio Reeves
on Thursday, we're getting into details about how well how
much these guys contributed to the team. I'll throw a
couple numbers at you, Gus. I mean, the Pelicans finished
fifth in points scored by rookies this season. They had
they were second in rebounds, and then there were second
(02:44):
in block shots as well. With obviously Eve me Ce
and Carlo Makovich were the two best shot blockers on
the team this year in terms of total number of rejections.
So I mean, they had so much more of a
first year look to the roster or to the rotation
and than we expected. If you look at just for example,
two in the top five of teams that got points
(03:06):
from rookies this season, Washington was number one, not surprising,
Toronto number two, also not a surprise. Memphis three. That
was a little bit of a surprise considering that they
were a playoff team. They won forty eight games. Utah
was fourth and then the Pelicans were fifth, so they
kind of ended up in a group of other other
than Memphis. It was really a lot of teams that
(03:27):
you thought going into the season were going to use
a lot of young players and rely heavily on them.
So I mean good and bad. It was bad that
you know. The reason that that was the case partly
was because so many injuries happened to the Pelicans, obviously,
but I mean there's no doubt that it's invaluable the
experience that those three players I mentioned got during the season,
and they were I think each in their own way,
(03:49):
they were able to show that they have some potential
and some promise as far as what they can do
next season and beyond with New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
All right, Well, toddgraphing any Voice of your Pelicans over
in the radio side of things, had a up close
and personal look at eve MEC's rookie season and we
are often running to hear that. Now, all right, we
bring in the radio voice of her New Orleans Pellics.
Mister Todgraph and any as our player profiles continue, We've
done starters, we've done reserves, And one of the things
(04:18):
I look at is a player on this team that
probably was looked at as maybe a observe, a nice
building piece, or just hey, let's see what we got
in eve me see. Little did we know he would
be not only a starter, but Todd the team made
an effort towards the end of the year to let
the entire NBA know what kind of rookie campaign he had.
(04:41):
Just overall. Ballpark will get into specifics here in a second,
Eve Mecie Man from Nashville to.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Now unbelievable what he did this year. And look and
you heard coaches, you heard executives say, there is no
way that that anybody could have expected what actually happened
when they drafted this kid out of Baylor. And you're right.
(05:06):
He wasn't supposed to come in here and start and produce.
He was going to be a project. He had not
played a lot of basketball in his life. He was
a one and done at Baylor, picked up the game
at age sixteen. And look the thing about it, when
the Pelicans picked him at twenty one, they did pick
him as a position of need. They were looking for
(05:31):
a big man. So the fact that he was picked
that low, I mean, when you say that low and
for him to produce the way he did, you could
really make an argument that eve Mesy was the steel
of the draft. You really could, because nobody expected what
actually happened. And he didn't start Opening night, you know,
(05:54):
Daniel Tice was the starting center on opening Night against Chicago,
but eve Mesey came off the b I scored thirteen points,
had seven rebounds, and had three block shots, and John
de chazer Andeiro on the air going what in the
world is going on down there? Nobody could have even
dreamed of what he did. Who this kid can play?
And as the necessity turned out came for him to
(06:20):
be in the lineup, he was moved into the starting
role rather quickly and he didn't give it up the
rest of the year.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah. I mean, he was picked twenty first overall. And
I remember going back to last summer before the draft,
when you're going through different prospects, there wasn't really a
ton of excitement I think for people going into the
draft when you're picking that low, thinking that you're gonna
get somebody who's gonna contribute a ton, especially when you
take a guy who only played one year in college
and has only been a basketball player basically in a
(06:50):
serious way for about five years. So I mean that
part of it was pretty incredible that I think they
hit on that draft pick as well as you possibly
could have imagined. There's a bunch of that were drafted
before him who weren't as productive, didn't have as good
of a rookie year, didn't show as much even potential
as he did, which you would think at this stage
of his development that you're gonna see just the beginning
(07:12):
of what he can do. But I thought, you know,
you mentioned the first game of the season, it was
already like what is going on? Like this guy was
so impressive the first chance he got in a real game.
I guess the question to this, the answer to this
question might be all of them. But I'm curious, from
your perspective, what do you think was the jump or
the stretch that he made that was the most impressive
(07:34):
or the most eye opening, whether it was from you know,
summer league to preseason, preseason to the start of the season,
start of the season to you know, at the midway point,
What was the what were some of the stretches that
you thought were the most enlightening.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I guess it's a good question.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
I think it's from the start of the regular season
basically to the month of December, where he was named
Rookie of the Month. Yeah, I mean he averaged a
double double in the month of December. Wow, what more
can you say? You know me, I'm a double double guy.
Triple double. I love that stuff. And for him, again,
just so raw to make that. But I mean you
(08:09):
can make an argument to Jim on that question where
even from training camp to opening night, you didn't see
any anything that would have resembled what he did against
Chicago on opening night in any of the preseason games.
At any moment during training camp we were all there.
Nothing really jumped out. Did he have ability? Of course,
(08:32):
you know, he's seven feet tall. He's just very athletic,
and of course, as we saw as the year went on,
how athletic he really can be. And the ceiling is
still higher than at the end of the season. But
I think from the beginning of the regular season, where
he was, you know, kind of a put in peace
(08:54):
coming off the bench, backing up Daniel Tice to where
he became in December, where he's the start center for
the Pelicans. He's averaging a double double. He was named
Rookie of the Month, and he was just he was
a force and not only scoring, but rebounding, blocking shots,
offensive rebounding where you know they have the stats where
(09:16):
you know what is he doing against other rookies. Well
on the offensive glass. He was in the top five
of the NBA as far as offensive rebounds. This wasn't
just rookies, So he was making an impact in a
lot of facets other than just rebounding and blocking shots.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, you mentioned the month of December that he had.
One of the things that I noted in the written
piece that goes with this is that he he peaked
on the NBA dot Com Rookie Ladder at number one
on January first.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Oh, no, he was.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
He was in that.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
He was in the absolute mix, no question about it
at that point.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And you mentioned some of the different aspects of his
game that were impressive to me. When I think back
to training camp, what I saw was this guy's going
to be a really good finish around the basket. But
it didn't seem like he showed a lot else besides
that in terms of things that jumped off the page.
So I mean in terms of some of the areas
that he was really productive, especially for a rookie, especially
(10:11):
for a twenty year old. What do you think was
was there one area or maybe it was multiple areas
that were the most surprising to you in terms of
what you saw initially from his raw ability and then
what he was able to carry that over to during
the regular season.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I think what he did on the defensive end kind
of jumped out at me. I didn't expect all the
block shots, but he's just he's a natural. He really
really is. I think that is the one thing that
really surprised and me personally not I'm sure it didn't
surprise anybody in our organization because that's why he was drafted.
(10:47):
But what he did on the defensive end jumped out
at me. And you know, you say finishing Jim, and
look it was. You know, it's kind of a running joke.
He left so many points out on the board this
year because he was not able to finish a lot
of these dunks, and that's what some of the things
that he's going to get better at he probably could
(11:08):
have averaged. You know, he wound up averaging what about
eight eight points a game, nine nine a game, and
he eight eight point one rebounds a game.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
He could easily be.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
A double digit per night score offensively if he kind
of ties up the loose ends as far as finishing
and making his free throws, because he left a lot
of points at the free throw line as well.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
You know, it's obviously a completely different game when you're
talking about the regular season versus training camp. I thought
he finished really well in training camp. I don't remember
having any misdunks. I'm not really sure what the explanation
for that was of why that happened. When you get
into the regular season. Maybe you're rushing your shot a
little bit more because you're going against some of the
better centers in the NBA, that kind of thing. But
(11:54):
I'm guessing that that'll be something that he definitely improves
upon next year. You know, you talk about his defense
and his shot blocking. To me, it was the kind
of thing where I've mentioned this a couple times here
and there throughout the course of the season, that it
seemed like the referees weren't even sure how good of
a defensive player he was. They were calling goaltends on
him a few times where we had seen him play enough.
(12:16):
You know, obviously we're at every single game. We're watching
every single game. The referees are only catching the Pelicans
once every who knows, eight ten games or whatever depending
on their schedule. There's a couple times that they called
the goaltend on him and then you went to review
and it was like, Nope, that wasn't a goaltend. So
it just kind of showed that, like you said, the
word that you use was he's a natural. It seems
like his timing is just really good and obviously he's
got the length and the arms to be able to
(12:41):
swallow out of those shots.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I mean, Jim could you could make an argument that
he's got the most upside right now on this team.
I mean, think about where he ended the year, and
it just kind of fizzled at the end. You know,
he didn't play the last few games. You know, we
haven't even talked about his availability.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Right right, and his three games led the team in that.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
And his ability.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Of course, the best ability is availability, but he played
hurt as well. He wasn't one hundred percent in a
lot of these games that he came to, he kind
of you know, some games he left early and you're thinking, uh,
is he going to come back the next game? How
is he going to handle this? And the next night
he was in the starting lineup. So that's something that
really we didn't talk a whole lot about at the
(13:27):
end of the year, when you know, we're just kind
of playing out the string. But the fact that Willie
Green was able to count on him night in and
night out has got to be one of his top qualities.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yeah, I mean, to that point, he played in seventy
three games, which was the most of anyone on the team.
There were only two players on the squad that played
at least sixty five games. He started sixty seven games,
and that was more than anyone else played in terms
of just total games.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
So I mean, just and did not begin the year
as a starter, right, he forced his way into the
starting lineup.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Now, Graft, one of the things I've been doing with
all of the guests is giving you I'll give you
two numbers. We've kind of called this pelistats this segment
of the podcast. So I'm gonna give you two numbers
and you can decide which one you like better, which
one you want to talk about In terms of eve
MESI first number is six, and that is his rank
among NBA players and offensive rebounds per game minimum of
(14:20):
sixty five appearances. He had three point five offensive boards
a night, the only guys ahead of him on the
list where demonte Sebonis led the league at three point eight.
Then it was a Vita Zubat's, Rudy Gobert, Jalen Duran
and Zachi Edie company. And then the second number is twelve,
which is his rank among NBA players, again minimum sixty
(14:41):
five games played. He was twelve in blocks per game,
at one point three ahead. Among the eleven players that
finished ahead of him, seven of them averaged more minutes
per game. So you're talking about it's not even really
necessarily a fair comparison of where he ranked in blocks.
But which of those do you do you like better?
The sixth in offensive rebounds per game or the twelfth
(15:03):
in blocks.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
I'm going the six It's just second chance points is
such an underrated stat to me, because I mean, we
talk about it on the other side, how you have
to finish possessions with defensively with a rebound and when
you get those offensive rebounds and those second chance points,
that is demoralizing to the other side. Again, we were
(15:26):
on the other end of it a lot this year,
so that that, to me is the most impressive things.
When you look at the group that he is in
right there, and again this isn't just rookies, this is
all across the NBA. I think that's the most impressive statistic,
Again considering somebody who's played basketball for five years.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Yeah, I mean when you look forward now, when we
talk about what are some of the things that we
want to see from him in the future, I mean
going into next season, what do you think are some
of the things that he needs to focus on or
things that you want to see him come back with
to add to his game.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
He's got to bulk up, he's got to put on
some muscle, he's got Look, you know, I know recency
biased here, but you know, you watch what Rudy Gobert
did against the Lakers. Now you're not saying that Rudy
Gobert is going to go out there and take fifteen
foot jump shots. He's just there to rebound and dunk.
(16:23):
So yeah, you can get away with it. I'd love
to see even he develop a mid range you know, nothing.
He doesn't need to go out and start taking threes.
That's that's just not He took one three this year.
Yeah he attempted one, so he did. He did take
a shot at it. But I'd love to see him
be able to kind of broaden his offensive weaponry a
(16:47):
little bit. Get a hook shot. You know, he's seven
he's seven feet so if you're the dotted line, I
think he attempted a couple of them this year, but
just kind of add to the offensive arshoal. But he's
got to get stronger. He's got to get stronger, you know,
and he's got he's got a great body type, so
he'll be able to put on some weight without losing
(17:08):
and I'm talking about muscle weight without losing any type
of his athleticism and quickness. And he's just he's got
to finish better at the rim. That that, to me,
is what he needs to improve on, because the defense
and the rebounding, that's just going to get better with
more repetitions, with more games being played offensively. You got
(17:32):
to work on that in the gym, and this is
the time to do it. I mean, you've got to
be working on your game every single day to just
get better.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
You know. Last thing for me, and this is maybe
more of a comment than a question, but one of
the things I think is really interesting if you think
about the context of the league overall, to eve Mesi
is in a lot of ways, I feel like things
have changed, even in the last six or seven months
in terms of if you think about it, there's a
lot more teams in the NBA that are playing too
big bigs now than there were even if you will
go back to training camp, we were talking about, you know,
(18:03):
maybe the Pelicans are going to go really small, and
you wonder when there's so much discussion about that, not
just with New Orleans but across the league, you almost
start to think, like, do we do some of these
teams even need centers? Like is that position just being
kind of phased out? But it's funny to think. Now
you fast forward to where we are at this point
and you see teams like Minnesota using double bigs and
the other thing that's happened in the NBA too Cleveland yep.
(18:26):
Another trend that has affecting a lot of the centers
and the bigs now is We went through a period
in the NBA where teams were de emphasizing offensive rebounding
and just trying to get back on defense. It seems
like that's flipped a lot in the other direction now,
where teams are like, no, we want to offensive rebound,
we want to prioritize that, we want to take we
(18:47):
want to capitalize on some of these teams that go
really small against us and just overwhelm them on the boards.
We saw that in perhaps one of my favorite playoff
series of all time, when the te Wolves just you know,
completely bumped guarded the Lakers on the offensive boards. But
just to we're.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
On the same wavelength, and you almost took the words
out of my mouth. Ask the Lakers about playing small ball,
ask them it. You're you you going, You're always going
to have a need for a big man, you know.
And look, Jonas obviously was beloved here.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
He played three.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Years here, and he signed a free agent deal. We
weren't able to keep him. But I mean, just how
important was Yonas Valanciunas to this team for three seasons?
You just, again, somebody you could count on night in
and night out. You knew what you were going to
get every single game, and he was just he was
a big part of what we did for three years.
And that's that's a situation where eve mecI has an
(19:47):
opportunity now again, is he going to advance his offensive
game to where he's going to start stepping out and
taking threes. I mean, that couldn't hurt. I just don't
think it's necessary at this point of his development.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
And by the way, too, speaking of Jonis Valentunis, I
know there's probably a lot of people around here that
maybe didn't avidly follow the Sacramento Kings this season, but
he went back to not taking three pointers. He went
back to a game where he's you know, anchored in
the paint and a lot of times I don't think
he played a ton of minutes with some bonus, but
he's still he played with him, So he did.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
We we actually when we played them in Sacramento, they
were on the court at the same time. Yeah, the
game we played out.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
There, And so I think it's interesting to note that
he went through Jonas went through a few years, including here,
where there was a little bit of an emphasis of like, Okay,
we need you to take some three pointers. We need
you to help space the floor. Some of that depend
is contingent upon who he's playing with too. Obviously with
Zion it's more needed that he spaces the floor and
shoot threes. But I mean he he only went He
(20:49):
only took ten three pointers in the thirty two games
that he played with Sacramento this season. So it's part
of a trend. I think it's kind of going back
the other way. Interesting these centers to shoot.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
Threes now because his first year here, I'll never forget it.
You know, We're in La At, you know, Crypto dot
Com Arena, We're playing the Clippers, and he went seven
for seven from three.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
I was one of the most fun memories, you know,
in my broadcasting couriers, was watching Yon. It's just out there,
just draining three after three and the Clippers could do
nothing about it. And now, I mean you said what
he took ten? He took ten, and so he he
made as many threes in that one game as he
took in thirty two games with the Zacker.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I never felt like he was super comfortable doing it either.
I felt like he was doing it because the guy
is the ultimate team guy. He's ultimate, Like you tell
him he needs him to do something and he'll jump
in line and be like, yes, I'll do that. But
I don't feel like that was really part of his natural,
natural game of like how he wants to play. So,
you know, some of these centers I think are maybe
gonna be able to get back into more of the
(21:47):
comfort zone of they like to play around the basket
and now their teams are going to allow them to
do that.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
And again, it'll be curious how Eve comes in, you know,
for training camp and we see how he will have
evolved from the end of the Sea two when we
get into training camp in October.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Well, I'll say this guy's as we wrap up. Joe
Dumars in a podcast after he was introduced as evp
here with the Pelicans, talking about bigs in the need
in the NBA, said, if you don't have them, becomes
a layup line for the other team. That's something to
think of because you have a player like that. And
Todd to add to your point, I think the thing
that's exciting if I'm a Pels fan is there certain
(22:23):
things I can't teach you either are or aren't right.
Guys that work hard, guys that have in innate athletic ability.
You either are a shot block or you're not. I'm
not saying I can't teach you do that, but I
thought it was very interesting early on. And Jim you
were there after practice one day early in the season
when he's playing well and making those shot blocks that
might even have to ben after Miles Turner block, which
(22:45):
to this day I can't believe that block right. And
he was specific as to how he sees the block.
He's picturing the floor, he's talking about how he sees
it on tape on film with the coaches earlier, so
(23:05):
he knows what that player is going to do. He
was specific about it. He's going to go to this hand,
so I'm gonna meet him here. And the other thing too, todd,
because that tells me you're you're studying and your understanding.
You're just not wildly jumping and swatting at it. There's
a science, or at least a forem and function to him.
And the other thing too that I thought that was
very interesting is when he talks about shot blocking, there's
(23:30):
no fear in that. You get dunked on, and get
dunked on. There's some players that won't do that and
put themselves in position like that in games, Jim and Todd,
you've seen him get dunked on and right back a player.
Two later, he'll get a big dunk on a block
on somebody. We saw it in Summer League. Zach Edy
dunked in him, I think right when he started the
game when they're playing memphisis summer league team, and then
(23:52):
two drives later he dunks on Zach Edy. You can't
teach that, Todd.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
And I know we gotta get going here, but you
just kind of jangled something in my memory. What was
the one thing and you're talking about going back to
training camp in preseason games, what was the one thing
we were really really concerned about me Si coming out
of training.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
Camp exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
And how many times did we go back and say,
this year boy eves and fouled trouble again. Not too many,
Not too many went on as and again, go, that's
just your original point, Gus. The kid knows how to learn.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
He knows say I.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
Can't do this, What am I going to do better
than that? Well, everyone said that's why they drafted him.
When they drafted him, they said he's a sponge, He's
a fast learner, and boy, we found that out very
quickly and in a very good way.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
He only had four games all season where he had
five files. He didn't fall out.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
And never followed out.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
Of those four games, he had five fouls all of them.
The latest one was February twenty first. He had a
few at the beginning, relatively earlier in the season, but
that was the concern.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
We're like this, you know, he's got ability, he knows,
you know, how to play the game in a rookie sense,
but he's not going to be on the court long
enough to make an impact because he's going to be
on the bench with two fouls two minutes.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
That's so impressive in a couple of areas too, because
you're thinking about a guy that's trying to make plays, right,
you know, and hey, I'm just going to go try
to make a play and try to do that not
falling out, Jim. That's great. The only other thing that's
interesting I was just popping up. That just hit me
too when you think about it, is not only did
he not fill out, but it's a guy that just
you know, didn't play with a regular lineup. Todd, he
(25:45):
didn't play with all Star players and that you know
now full of games, so he's playing, well, we are shuffling.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
We were shuffling lineups forty six different lineups this year,
the one constant from the beginning of the season basically
the last week. Of course, he didn't play the last
couple games, but it was even.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
That's saying that's hard for a veteran to learn to
play with right with a consistent lineup, And here's a
rookie in a place where there's a lot of stuff
going on around you, and he was able to do it.
Not to file out like that really stands out.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Yeah, I mean, I think it'll be interesting going forward
next season and hopefully we get significantly infinitely better health
on the team overall. How that will affect him, It
seemed like he had to cover up so many mistakes
and so many breakdowns on the defensive end. Maybe that
added a little bit to his shot blocking numbers because
he had more opportunities. But I'm curious to see how
he does defensively with a more settled unit at that
(26:41):
end of the floor, and then offensively just being out
there with better players, guys that are more proven in
the NBA than what he did a lot of this season.
He's a really opportunistic offensive player, I would say, where
he can feed off of other guys and he could
throw down eli oops and lobbs. We saw him do
that a lot with Dejonte, but unfortunately that was also
an abbreviated part of the seas And so I mean, hey,
(27:01):
he plays center next season. He's out there with more
healthy guys and more of the frontline players that this
roster has, and I think that alone will help him
make a jump next season. But I mean, I just
I feel confident with all the stuff that you guys
talked about, with his work ethic and his intelligence, that
he's going to do that regardless. But I think there
are circumstances that I think will help him. That he
(27:23):
had to overcome a lot of different scenarios this season
that we never expected, but he did get to play
a lot more than we thought as well.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like we could
be talking about Eve Maci for a while. I hope,
so right, I hope. So it is telegraphing any radio
voice of your New Orleans Pelicans, thank you for your time.
You got it. Our things has always didograph you know,
it's interesting sitting here listening to it. Obviously we're part
of the radio broadcast, so I hear all the calls
and in between breaks. That was one of the players
that got him and John as excited as anybody Aaron
(27:52):
as well, part of the broadcast, even when you jumped
in there towards the end of the year. And I
think it's because there's certain things that are tangibles and intas.
Does that make sense, right, Things that you can see
other things you can't. And he brought up one. I'd say,
one of the things I love either are or you're
not that person that can play through injury. And on
a team like this that battled so much of it,
(28:12):
he'd go out, he'd come back in in games. He
really wouldn't miss very many games. He'd get popped, and
he would go and for a body frame like that
to be able to already have that, Jim, the stronger
he gets and the better he's going to get that
that makes me feel good. And the other is I
can't teach you whether or not you can block a
shot or you can react to that quickly. Yeah, that's
(28:33):
the word right there. Those are the two things that
I think of me see this year, I think of
a tough player that just instinctually does things around the goal.
Now we can refine it, Now we can work with you,
Now we can coach you to do those things. It's
just he's a very exciting player.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
Man, he is, and I think one of the reasons
why people gravitated to him so much and liked him.
I think from the beginning and the even probably more
so as we got deeper into the season, we were
looking for silver linings. Often this season we were looking
for you know, the season wins wise went far below
what we were hoping it would be, and obviously with
all the injuries, it was just a constant negative stream
(29:13):
of news. To have a guy that you picked twenty
first and to have him develop and turn into the
player that he was, I mean, that was at least
one thing that you could point to and say, you know,
at least we got that positive from it. And it's
a huge it's a huge thing, especially when you think
about the hole that they had at the center position too,
so to be able to get a guy at that
(29:34):
late in the first round that turned into the player
that he is and showed the potential and just kind
of the rapid learning curve and also at a position
where the Pelicans needed a lot of thought that those
are a couple of reasons why he was such a
good story, even if the season overall for the team
did not go very well at.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
All, No doubt. Again, I'm excited to see what happens.
And I just think of Kelly o Linnink in that
time we got to hear him on Pelicans weekly. Guy
just really wants to like coach him, you know, and
just talk to him and do those things. I love
that because that's the other thing. Can you be instinctual,
can you be tough? Are you coachable? And everybody we
talked to this past season, Jim, you can tell him
(30:13):
one thing and he goes and does it. I love
the most. Earlier in the year, you were there, you're
sitting to you were standing to the right of me.
We're talking about his shot blocking, what he thinks and
he mentioned looking at video that morning before the game
and shoot around on what a player likes to do,
and he goes and does it. I think it was
around the time of the mouse turner block or he
had a string of some really good blocks where he
to go beart one of those they're big guys that
(30:34):
he did that on, but he specifically said, hey, he
likes to do this, so I knew where to go
at the ball. Jim That that to me just brought
a smile to my face.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Yeah, I mean, it just shows how attentive he is,
how studious he is about the game. I think in
the case that you're talking about, he was he was
kind of discussing the positioning of his body of saying,
like I need to I knew I needed to block
this shot with my left hand, and I needed to
turn my body a certain way to make sure that
there wasn't contact. I think it is something that we
talked a little bit with graft two. I think for
(31:06):
a lot of those reasons, the reason that he was
so detail oriented was part of why his foul trouble
didn't become as big of an issue as we thought
maybe it would be, or the way it is for
a lot of rookies that come into the league, especially
you know, seven foot or six to eleven guy who
only played one year in college. So yeah, I think
a lot of his mental parts of the game was
(31:27):
a huge reason why he was able to make the
progress that he did over the course of the season.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Well, I can't let you go without asking you the
most important question. Apparently on all of the national talk shows,
even behind your head more exciting players Steph Curry, Anthony Edwards,
That is a topic. Why because Golden State in Minnesota
get it on starting here on this Tuesday record on
May six, game one of a very interesting series. Look
(31:56):
that you don't have much time to rest here. They
had to go deep into their first round series to
get it and go. Man, I text you, I think
earlier or late in that series, but over the weekend
or before, said, is Steph Curry the most exciting player
to I think when Graf was here we were talking
about that. I just love watching him and what he
can do. He had a big game. Anthony Edwards year ago,
(32:20):
this time nationally never saying hey, is he the face
of the NBA? Is he the next Michael Jordan? So
now you got those two guys going at it. I'm
not gonna lie to you, dude. I'm not doing anything
tonight other than watching this game.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
I mean, I wouldn't argue with anyone who says either way,
who says like, oh, I love watching Anthony Edwards because
he's such an athletic player. He probably has I don't know,
five of the best dunks in the NBA over the
last couple of years just by himself or the people
who say I love watching Steph Curry. I mean, if
you look at the attendance of Golden State Road games,
I think there's a case there that he's the most
(32:53):
the biggest ticket, the guy that people want to see
the play the most across the whole NBA. So I
guess it just depends on what your taste is. If
you like the three point shooting, the guy that can
go for ten, make ten or twelve threes in a game,
can make six or seven in a quarter, you know
you go with Steph Curry. If you like the athleticism
of Anthony Edwards, And I mean it's not like he's
just a great athlete or a dunker. He also improved
(33:16):
his three point shooting a ton this year and just
has a lot of really shifty moves going to the basket.
So I mean, it's gonna be It is gonna be
a really interesting series. I thought that this matchup will
be a lot of fun to see what the Timberwolves do.
I'm also curious to see. I mean, the Timberwolves really
overwhelmed the Lakers with size in that first round series.
(33:36):
Can they do the same thing against Golden State? Because
Steve Kerr has leaned a lot more towards those smaller lineups,
partly because that's if you look at the talent that
the Warriors have. Their best players are wing players and
smaller guys.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
They're not.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
They don't have a lot of big centers who play
like traditionally down low. So that'll be something to watch
as far as how some of these matchups individually go
to see where the Timberwolves can can replicate a lot
of the things that were successful against the Lakers, because
I do think that Golden State is a pretty similar
team in terms of style of play of the Lakers.
(34:10):
Maybe Golden State has a little bit more ball movement.
They're not as much of a you know, ISO kind
of team. But but yeah, this will be this will
be fun. I mean, I think these these uh, you
knew the four teams that were going to remain that
we're gonna whoever which I recombination of four teams that
were left in the West. You knew it was gonna
be fun, and there was gonna be four really good
(34:30):
teams still playing.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I'm double checking. Where where do the Lakers go? I
thought there was I thought there were destined to be
the Western Confery.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Yeah, you know what, I think they got knocked out. Guys,
they're sitting at home.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Thundernuggets, Tea Wolves, Warriors in the West, Cavs, Pacers, Knicks,
Celtics over in the East. How many games this Tea Wolves? Woar?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Oh boy, I haven't made too many predictions.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
I wasn't ready.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
I just let me go. I think I'm gonna go
Tea Wolves in seven.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Give him a winner, Okay, t Wolves in seven? Wolves
and seven. Yeah, I'm leaning t Wolves on this aspect
of it. Jim. One of the things that I heard
a lot this week already starting is, you know, do
you put Anthony Edwards on Steph Curry? Indeed, because we
saw Houston try to do that, right and it worked
in game six where they tried to take anybody but
(35:22):
Steph to beat this, and Houston was a tall, physical
team like that. They just could make shots, I think
in game seven. So I'm interested in curious on that.
Now there's that whole notion. If I put one of
my best offensive players on Steph chasing him, running him around,
am I taking away from his offensive side? So yeah,
I think that's, you know, an interesting You gotta throw
(35:43):
a Draymond Green factor in there. Him and Rudy Gobert
right and drags more teas.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Draymond's also already getting close to the technical I think
you can only have. I think it's sixties that you
get and then the seventh one you get suspended. I
guess he already has four from the first round series.
It seemed like it seemed more like fourteen. But yeah,
he's and he also is getting close to the flagrant
foul penalties. So I think this is the Draymond Green challenge.
Let's see how many of these infractions I can get
(36:09):
in various categories before I get suspended for something.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
I mean, look, buddy, he'll need to drop with thirty
plus in that game seven to do that, I think,
Julius Randall, I'm with you. I'm gonna go tea Wolves six. Okay,
all right.
Speaker 3 (36:22):
You know, as I thought about it, I thought I
started to lean more towards maybe they can take him
out in less than seven Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
I think they're gonna be fun games though, Yeah to
watch and again we talked about yesterday Thunder and Nuggets
and what they'll be able to do there as we focus.
I would see on the West and should be fun. Jim.
Always fun when I get a chance to sit here
and talk a little bit basketball with you. Thank you
so much for your timek you guys, don't forget to
go to Pelicans dot com. Jim has an incompanying piece
with our podcast on Everything you Hear, so there's something
(36:48):
to read to go to listen while you listen, rather
about Eve Mecie and the rookies this week, reserves starters
all up there as well. Plus we'll have an end
of the week lottery preview for you come up on Friday.
Thank you as always for tuning us in on the
New Orleans Pelicans podcast.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
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
(37:25):
and Gcat Underscore seventeen. We'll see you next time, right
here on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast.
Host
Jim Eichenhofer
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