April 21, 2025 • 25 mins
On this episode of the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, Will Guillory of The Athletic joins Jim Eichenhofer and Gus Kattengell to recap Zion Williamson’s 2024-25 NBA season.
They dive into Zion’s improved conditioning, defensive leap, court vision, and what he must do this offseason to stay on the court and reach his full potential. It’s the first of 14 Pelicans player recaps coming this offseason.
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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 podcasts 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 to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast,
official podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans. Gus Catt and
Gel Jim Ike can offer. It is the post season edition,
as in it's no longer the season, so it's post
season edition. Does that make any sense to you?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I think so.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yes, normally postseason that we're thinking postseason as in playoffs, Right,
I gotcha.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I see where you're going there.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yea yeah. Bottom line though, our SA is done in
terms of this campaign, the twenty twenty four to twenty
twenty five, but New Orleans Pelicans Podcast wants to take
a look back at the season. While we didn't get
the goals accomplished that the team wanted. Jim, there's still
a lot to get into. We've touched on it the
last couple of weeks. And oh, by the way, there's
(01:17):
been changes here as well, So the next couple of
weeks kind of a reset, looking back at several players individually.
You'll give us the number here in a sec and
also moving forward the next chapter of this organization under
Joe Dumars, which we'll touch on shortly.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Yes, Gusin, We've lined up some of the best Pelicans
basketball minds to sit down and chat with us over
the next few weeks. Basically the next three weeks, every
weekday from now until into May, we will be reviewing
a player on the Pelicans podcast. This week, we're gonna
start with Zion Williamson today, Trey Murphy Tuesday, CJ McCollum Wednesday,
(01:54):
Herd Jones Thursday, and then wrapping up on Friday with
Dejonte Murray.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So we ended up with.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
A total of fourteen players that we're going to look
back at, and we found a nice, little convenient kind
of cutoff for the minutes played. So any player who
played over five hundred and four minutes for the Pelicans
this season. I don't know if you noticed the symbol
there with that number, but five O four I see.
(02:22):
So Kelly Olnok, for example, played five hundred and eight
minutes for the Pelicans. So every player that played as
much as he did or more, we will be talking
about on this podcast over the next few weeks. And
by the way, obviously it has to be a player
that's finished the season with the Pelicans. We're not going
to be talking about the three players among the seventeen
that played that many minutes that are not on the
(02:43):
roster now.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
But we have fourteen players.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
We have seven different guests lined up, starting with Will
Gillery of the Athletic who will be joining us Monday
and Tuesday this week. But that's the plan. This has
become kind of a tradition that we've done a bunch
of years. I'm not sure how many years it has been,
but I'm looking forward to doing that and always love
talking to some of the basketball excerpts that we have
(03:07):
set up for interviews.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No doubt we're gonna lead things off, and that's the
baseball term, Jim as my little league season has already
started here as well with Will Gilliery, who is not
only doing is he just the double duty guy? He really,
honestly is, right, A little petals, a little heat in
the past.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Now, yeah, maybe triple duty with the heat and the
Grizzlies and the Pelicans. Yeah, he's had an eventful last
little stretch here with you know, he covered the Grizzlies
a little bit during the regular season. Now he's on
the beat for them in the playoffs. Experienced on Sunday
a fifty one point loss, So I can't imagine how
that was a lot of fun covering that. But yeah,
(03:46):
he's he's gonna be, I think, with Memphis throughout the
duration of their playoffs stay, which based on Game one,
might not be that long. But either way, he's he's
he's grinding with Memphis throughout the rest of their playoff run.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
All right, no doubt. It should be interesting to see
what he looks at at two players in particular that
I would say, Am I wrong? And we'll talk about
it with him here in a second. But moving forward,
when I think of the New Orleans Pelicans, or at
least right now, when I think of New Orleans Pelicans,
are they the top two players right now that can
really light a spark on the floor.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yeah, I mean, I think they might be the two
most talented guys. I mean, they're both in their mid twenties,
so there's a lot of runway left in their career.
There's a lot of room for them to continue to improve.
But yeah, I would say that these are two of
the headliners and two of the guys that we thought
it would work really well to have Will Gillery come
in and talk specifics about them. I mean, Will is
(04:42):
very good, as people will hear at breaking down some
of the finer details and it's really enjoyable just sitting
around and listening to him talk basketball and some of
the intricacies of Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
All right, Jim, well, let's get rocking and roland Zion Williamson.
We'll start things off for us Will Gillery of the Athletic,
his thoughts on Z's season and in the future when
it comes to Williamson joining us. Now, mister will Gilery
of the Athletic, Jim, I can offer always a pleasure
when we have him on. Is so much to get
into covering a little bit of the Memphis Grizzlies playoff
(05:19):
in postseason run here as well.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
But look, we start.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
With you, sir, with the player of players on this
team that gets the attention, and the attention is for
a lot of reason. Zion Williamson before Jim peppershe with
the hardest questions in podcast postseason reviews. Just your overall thoughts, man,
when you look at this season, I don't know. I
was a board one of Elon Musku's ships and I
(05:42):
went and tested it and flew to Mars, so I
didn't see the season described to me Zion season man.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
I will tell you you probably I want to say,
you probably didn't have to watch it, but it's very
similar to previous seasons we've seen before, right where you know,
when he was on the court, there was so promise,
and I would say this season in particular, I thought
it was the best he ever played.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
When he was on the court, he showed the shape
he was in.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
You saw, you know, the way he was moving around,
the way he was able to get to his shots.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
But he was just able to control the game so often.
I thought it was the best he's ever played.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
But like so often previously in his career, you know,
we didn't get to see as much as we wanted
because of injuries, because of other circumstances, and he only
ends up playing thirty games, and I think, you know
that number would have been inflated a little bit more
if he played until the end of the season.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
You know, by the end, they were kind of just.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Leaning on some of the young guys and they kind
of cut you know, some of those guys season short early.
But overall, I thought there was some promise there was Zion.
But in the end, it's about what it's always about
was Zion, which is availability, and unfortunately he wasn't available
enough for this team this year.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
We're talking to everyone as we go through the series
about kind of maybe some of the more behind the
scenes aspects of some of these players. Obviously, we have
you know, one of the top Pelicans writer on the
show with us right now besides myself, and so I
wanted to ask you about Zion in terms of, you know,
you mentioned he thought that this was some of the
(07:11):
best basketball that he's played in his career. What did
you see in terms of the difference in his approach
to conditioning or the level that he got in that
area and or how that impacted the way that he performed.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Sorry, that was gonna be the first thing I mentioned.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
You know, I think you saw you know, him consistently
putting in the work off the court to get himself
right physically.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I mean whenever we would go to practice, we would
always see him doing well.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
You know, the one thing you always see when you
walk into practices guys getting up shots right, everybody's getting
enough free throws, getting up extra three pointers.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
And every time we were.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Walking we would see Zion running, or Zion on the bike,
or Science is doing some type of extra conditioning. I
think that was a consistent thing with him, just you know,
wanting to get his body right. I thought it was
definitely the lightest we've seen him look throughout his career,
and that you know, what's that focus. I thought he
just saw his explosiveness go up to a different level
this year. In some ways, I thought it was very
(08:07):
duke like, Duke Zion like, and the way he was
kind of playing above the rim, blowing past guys and
isolation situations. I mean, he's such a dominant force anytime
he's on the court, but when he's playing with that
level of explosiveness, with that.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Level of quick twitch, he's just impossible to stop.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
And then he you mix in you know, his improved passing,
his understanding of where double teams are coming from. H
He's just a force out there when he's got that
level of focus and that level of conditioning. I think
that the big question for him now is going into
an off season relatively healthy, how can he maintain that,
how can he build on it going in the next year.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I think those are going to be big questions.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
But I think, you know, the big step for him
was kind of figuring out that routine, figuring out the
process that he feels comfortable with to.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Get his body to this point.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
And you saw what it's supposed to look like now,
so he set that standard. Now he has to meet
that standard consistently going forward.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
You know, well, I'm going to get into a couple
of stats with you related to Zion in a second,
but one of the things I wanted to touch on too
was so his minutes per game this season went from
thirty one point five last season to twenty eight point
six this season, but he also still set career highs
in a bunch of different categories, including rebounds and assists.
(09:25):
What do you think was the area that you saw
the most improvement for him going You know, this was
a sixth season. A lot of times guys kind of
level off when they get this far into their career,
but what do you think was the area that you
noticed the most or like the most about the jump
that he made.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I think there's no question to defense.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
And I think we saw this, you know, toward the
end of last season as he was starting to you know,
round out into shape and kind of figure out some
of the things that has worked for him this year
with his body. I think, you know, for so much
in his career, frankly, he was a liability on that right.
He was a guy that teams would attack to kind
of point him out and want to attack him in
pick and rolls. And I think this year he was
(10:05):
such a he was so good at being able to
time out steals, being able to get out and transition,
come over from the weak side and get blocks. And
I think a lot of times we would see him,
you know, ask to take on that challenge in one
on one situations, to say, I want to guard a
Kawhi Leonard. I want to be able to take on
Anthony Edwards in a switch situation.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
If he's trying to attack me, Hey, let him try
to bring me over in a pick and roll. I'll
take the switch. I'll and I'll guard these.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
Guys one on one and hold my own and I
think we saw him do that more than ever, And
I think part of the reason why it was so
frustrating early in his career is because we knew he
had this in him, right. We saw a lot of
this stuff when he was at Duke. The way he
can impact the game defensively with his strength, with his
explosion of all of the stuff that makes him great
on offense. We saw him apply some of those things
(10:51):
on defense as well, And when he's kind of dominated
on both ends of the court, that's when you start
getting in the superstar level talk where he can play
at an all NBA level. He's up there with those
guys all the way at the top of the NBA
because of everything he does offensively and the way he
can use his defensive skills to create offense for himself
for others. So I think that was the huge stuff
(11:14):
for him, because we know this team relies so much
on switching ball screens, allowing Herb Jones, Trey Murphy, all
of those guys to be disruptive in that way, and
not having Zion Williamson be a guy that they needed
to protect in those situations.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
It was a huge stuff.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
So what you're saying is he was much less of
a pigeon this season, in a term that Drahn Morant
has mentioned a few times in recent weeks, that he
was not targeted as much as he had been in
the past.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Jim, I love when you get on a new NBA slang.
It's always a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
I'm gonna throw a couple numbers at you here from
Zion season, and I want you to, you know, maybe
pick which of the two that you would like to
discuss or which one kind of stands out to you
the most. The first number is two point seven, and
that is stops for thirty six minutes for Zion this season,
which was a significant jump from his previous career high
of two point one per thirty six minutes. And then
(12:10):
the second number is three, which is he had three
games of ten plus assists this season. In the previous
one hundred and eighty eight games that he played, he
had four games where he had ten or more assists.
So which of those two numbers do you like, the
two point seven, the stocks per thirty six or the
three games he had with ten plus assists.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
Yeah, we just foul to talk of defense and we
can talk about his passing, and I think that's an
area of this game we've seen, you know, gradual improvement
throughout his career. And what makes Zion so unique is
the fact that he's literally double team more than anybody
else in the NBA. I would say he's probably triple
team more than anybody else in the NBA. Whenever this
guy has the ball, you got to send multiple bodies
(12:50):
this way, You got to send extra help to keep
him away from the rim.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
And I think throughout the course of his career, even.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
You know, with limited on court action because of injuries,
you've seen him just more understanding of how teams are
defending him, where that health defenders coming from, where to
make that early pass, and just continue to improve over time.
And I think it makes them even more dangerous as
an offensive weapon, where he can get to his spots consistently,
but also he's able.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
To find those three point shooters on the weak side.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
He's got a lot better at finding ev Mec in
that dunker spot, throwing libs up the even me c
up at the rim. We saw that game against Minnesota
where he pointed out Carlo Makovic to cut from the
corner and then he throws the lot pass to Macovich
and it connects on the alley.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
You've dunk.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Those are That's the stuff you see over a time
where a guy just gets comfortable in his game, understanding
NBA defenses, understanding how teams want to attack him. And
I think that's what's really developed over time. And that's
the unfortunate part about the amount of time that he's missed,
because the only way you can get better at that
stuff is reps. Right, it's on court, it's seeing the
(13:53):
stuff in action. And I think he's been able to
make these improvements despite you know, playing thirty games in
a season, missing big chunks of seasons, and it kind
of tells you, you know, what type of mind he has.
We talk about his physical gifts all all the time,
but we I don't think we give him enough credit
for his mind for the game, his IQ to what
he's able to read the floor because of the reasons
(14:13):
I said, because he sees so many double teams and
people throw so many bodies at him, he's got to
be able to see the game differently and understand, you know,
these help defenders differently. And I think the more he
improves as a passer, just the more difficult is going
to be to defend him, especially when you got you know,
Trey Murphy, you know, stretching out to thirty feet where
I mean, how can you defend Zion at the rim
(14:35):
and Trey Murphy at the three point line? Is really difficult.
So I think that's something that you want to continue
to see them improve upon over time. Is just that
compliment of each other and understanding, you know, how to
attack defenses when they throw some of these young coverages
at Zion.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Lastly, for me on Zion, I mean, I think some
of this might be obvious, but what do you want
to see from him next season? What do you want
to see it from him going forward? I mean, what
do you think are some of the goals that he
should make for this offseason and then kind of going
forward in his career.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
I mean, obviously want to just stand on the court, right,
just staying healthy, staying consistent with his routine, being in
great shape.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I think that'll put him in position to at least,
you know, have better odds.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Right, some of the stuff you can't control, right, some
of the injuries we've seen him sustain is like stuff
that's just you know, out of your control. Like at
the end of the season, we saw him take the
hard fall of Minnesota and miss a couple of games
due to the back injury.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
But you want to.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
See him do whatever he can to avoid the hamstring
injuries that have become a real issue.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
For him in the past.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
And I think, you know, we talked about other guys
like Stephan Curry with his ankles or a big part
of the STEP's routine in the offseason is strippen in
his legs, strengthen in his ankles to avoid future ankle problems.
And I think Zion needs to take those same measurements
with his hamstrings, just with his lower half in general,
to put himself in a better situation to avoid some
(15:57):
of these injuries. But also, you know, something that we
talked about a lot with Zion is just adding that
little mid range jumper to his game, being comfortable stepping
in the eight feet ten foot jumpers where teams are
just giving you so much space, it's just easy to
step into some of these shots, and you know, just
add that little part to his games to give defensive
(16:18):
to think about. I mean, obviously they're not gonna teams
are going to dare him to take jumpers regardless.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Even if he makes three, four to five in the game.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
But just having that that second thought for defender, that
that level of hesitation where you're not sure what he's
going to do.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I think that's going to make it even more difficult.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
To defend him. So I think that's the one thing
I would like to see. It is just a little
couple more midies a game, and just also just of course,
just continuing to improve defensively and understanding where to be
what to do in certain situations.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
For we let you go.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I just your opinion on this. Kim and I have
talked a little bit about this during the season, and
I think probably you and I here as well, if
you were asked, you just happen to be walking by
ownership management and whatever and ask you what about the
minutes restriction. I'm in favor of maybe starting the season
that way twenty eight thirty thirty two, something like that
nature post All Star break, then bump them up and
(17:11):
just I don't know it worked. He was efficient. I
don't know if it put him in a mindset of
being aggressive because he's just so many only minutes and
you know that he had the night. I don't know,
how do you stand on.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
That, Well, Jim could tell you're sitting next to me
during games that I'm not a huge fan of the
minutes restriction.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
That's where we differ a little bit. It drove me
kind of crazy this year, so off.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
To the fourth quarters was watching Zion sit on a
bench while some of these leads were slip away. I
do think I can understand, like, hey, it worked right.
He played so well under the minutes restriction he was
able to stay relatively healthy towards the end of the season.
But in general, I mean we're talking a difference of
like what maybe four or five minutes during the course
of games. I mean the difference between playing twenty eight
(17:56):
minutes and playing thirty four minutes. We're talking about just
two three minute stretches in the first half and second half.
So I think a lot of this is just, of course,
you want to be safe, you want to be precaution there.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
But some of this stuff, Man, you got to let
a guy play.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
You gotta let a guy figure this out, because at
some point he's going to play, He's going to have
to play thirty five, thirty eight plus minutes if you
want to win big games, So he's got to be
able to build up that conditioning. I think you hear
a lot of mixed players talk about this, where they say, Hey,
so much of the outside world complains about our minutes,
that Tims plays us too much, But we're conditioned for
this throughout the course of the season. We played big
(18:30):
minutes all year, so when we get to the playoffs,
it's not a big difference for us.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
And I think with Zion, I think you need to
give him to the.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
Point where he just doesn't feel set playing twenty eight
minutes every game, because that's not how you win games.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Of course, Zion's numbers were really good.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
He looked really good playing twenty eight minutes during the
second half of the season, but they lost a lot
of those games, and I would say partially because of
those stretches where he was on the bench. You know,
I would tweet out a lot during the season, Hey,
Zion Williamson was a pluck four in this game, but
the Peals lost eight. You know, that was something we
saw consistently during the course of the second half of
the season. So I think you just got to prepare
(19:06):
him to get to the next level of his game,
being able to play big minutes, consistently, being able to
show up, consistently, playing back to backs, all of the
stuff he would demand from any other superstar around the NBA.
Of course, his track record is different. There's a level
of caution you got to bring in with Zign because
of his body, because of his injury history. For the
end of the day, he's got to be able to
(19:27):
take this this load on at some point, and you
got to start at some point to put that on him.
And I think just leaving him when a minister restriction
kind of limits him and limits the team as well
because of the level of impact he makes when he's
out there.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Mister Will Gillory the Athletic has always appreciate the time
and thank you for the knowledge, sir.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Thanks. I appreciate Joe our.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Thanks to Will of the Athletic who, again, as Jim said,
he'll probably be covering half the Western Conference by the
time an Eastern Conference. It's given him a third of
the league. What do you think looks like the whole
Gold Coast?
Speaker 4 (19:58):
I think Will can handle it, although I do wonder
if after the season that he just went through covering
various teams and controversies and Jimmy Butler and Memphis firing
their coach if he's ready for a little breather right now,
if the Grizzlies get knocked out, maybe we'll see will
on a beach shortly thereafter.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Yeah, I would.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
I don't know if he could cover a boring season
now you think about it, right, I mean, from player
trades to dismissals, all that and more. All right, Look,
as we mentioned, the playoffs are underway in the Western Conference.
We're going to focus on here on the pod, Jim
because after all that swhear the Pelicans play there as well. Look,
we've seen some things have been pretty impressive. Okay, See
(20:35):
that first game against Memphis was like, hey, we are
the number one seed, but Clippers Nuggets on Monday, and
on Tuesday got Grizzlies and Thunder, which stands out about
those two series so far.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Yeah, I mean, I think Clippers Nuggets was probably the
best game of the weekend, of the first two days
of the playoffs. I mean, it was really compelling basketball,
just the fourth quarter. I saw somebody tweet it. I
think after Saturday's game something to the effect of this
feels like a completely different sport than what we witnessed
over the previous six months. And I think the Nuggets
(21:09):
Clippers was definitely the best example of that of just
the intensity goes up so much and you're locked in
on every single possession. The guys sitting out games or
sitting out back to backs, that's over. There's no more
back to backs. So it was a really it was
a really fun watch on Saturday afternoon to watch that game,
and it was also a crazy ending where I mean,
(21:30):
the Nuggets are up by one, there's about a three
second difference between the shot clock and the game clock,
and Russell Westbrook attacks the rim with like twelve seconds left.
He did that in the regular season two and I'm
just wondering, Like, the guy's awesome player, he's been an
MVP before, but it's like there's like a time and
score situation thing that I feel like, if you're a
(21:50):
Nuggets fan, you got to be losing your mind over that,
because it just almost it burned them in a regular
season in a game against Minnesota, and it almost costs
them again against the Clippers. They were able to pull
out the win in overtime, but Yeah, that was a
really great opener, and I'm looking forward to the rest
of that series as well as far as the Grizzlies
and Okase goes. I mean, I can't believe how one
(22:13):
sided that game was. And by the way, I hate
to even bring this up, but they mentioned how the biggest,
the most one side. There's been two games in the
history of the NBA Playoffs where the final margin was
fifty eight points. Unfortunately, one of them was two thousand
and nine when Denver played here in Game four that
first round series. So I was kind of rooting a
little bit for Okay See to break that record so
that that wouldn't be the case anymore, that New Orleans
(22:34):
wouldn't be in the record books. But either way, I mean,
it was ninety four to forty seven. I remember at
one point. You don't see too often deep in the
third quarter that a team has twice as many points
as their opponent. But yeah, you mentioned this second ago.
It was just impressive by the thunder that it seemed
like they've been waiting around for the last ten days
or so just for their chance to just show people like,
(22:56):
not only were we the one seed in the West,
which is impressive on its own, but they lapped the field.
They won like, what was it, fifteen more games than
everybody else. They ended up with sixty eight wins wins,
which was the seventh most wins in the history of
the league. So, I mean, there's nothing else you could say,
but that was just what a showing by them to
just come out and just thump Memphis in every every way.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Were you surprised?
Speaker 4 (23:19):
I was surprised that it was that big of a margin,
But I mean you would say that with any playoff game.
I think any team that's in the playoffs, you don't
expect them to be down fifty five in the second
half or.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Whatever it's to put in so much effort just to
get to that game right to get there as well.
That's another thing that I thought about that stands out
to me.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
If you remember back to twenty two when the Pelicans
or even last year are it wasn't as much the
case in twenty four as in twenty two. The Pelicans
had a really hard fought play in game to get
into the playoffs against the Clippers. Then less than two days,
less than forty eight hours later, they had to turn
around play game one against Phoenix. They lost that game.
(23:57):
They looked a little worn out, maybe more mental and
emotionally then physically, and then they came back in one
game two at Phoenix. I just think it's a hard
turnaround to be going from. And in the memphisis case,
they played the late game on Friday night and then
they played the earliest game on Sunday. So I mean,
it was a rapid thing, and I don't think it
is I don't think it's the kind of thing where
it's like your legs are gone. I think it's just
(24:19):
hard to get ramped back up mentally to play, you know,
the best team in the league record wise, in such
a short turnaround. So maybe Memphis in game two will
look better. But I mean that was about as discouraging
as it gets as far as an opener to a series.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, no doubt about it. Well again, we're off and
run in thirteen more player profiles to come your way.
Trey Murphy will be next, and that will also be
with mister Will Gillery. Be sure to check those out
and all of these on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast. Anyway,
you get those as well. Plus of course you can
literally go to the team's website, and of course this
week we'll have plenty of coverage on Joe Dumars becoming
(24:53):
the new vice president of basketball Operations for your Pelicans,
so stick around for that. In the meantime, Thanks for listening,
mister Jim Ikanoffer, thank you, Thanks Gus, I'm Gus Katangil.
We'll see you next time on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
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
(25:25):
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 podcasts 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 to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast,
official podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans. Gus Catt and
Gel Jim Ike can offer. It is the post season edition,
as in it's no longer the season, so it's post
season edition. Does that make any sense to you?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
I think so.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yes, normally postseason that we're thinking postseason as in playoffs, Right,
I gotcha.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
I see where you're going there.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yea yeah. Bottom line though, our SA is done in
terms of this campaign, the twenty twenty four to twenty
twenty five, but New Orleans Pelicans Podcast wants to take
a look back at the season. While we didn't get
the goals accomplished that the team wanted. Jim, there's still
a lot to get into. We've touched on it the
last couple of weeks. And oh, by the way, there's
(01:17):
been changes here as well, So the next couple of
weeks kind of a reset, looking back at several players individually.
You'll give us the number here in a sec and
also moving forward the next chapter of this organization under
Joe Dumars, which we'll touch on shortly.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Yes, Gusin, We've lined up some of the best Pelicans
basketball minds to sit down and chat with us over
the next few weeks. Basically the next three weeks, every
weekday from now until into May, we will be reviewing
a player on the Pelicans podcast. This week, we're gonna
start with Zion Williamson today, Trey Murphy Tuesday, CJ McCollum Wednesday,
(01:54):
Herd Jones Thursday, and then wrapping up on Friday with
Dejonte Murray.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So we ended up with.
Speaker 4 (01:59):
A total of fourteen players that we're going to look
back at, and we found a nice, little convenient kind
of cutoff for the minutes played. So any player who
played over five hundred and four minutes for the Pelicans
this season. I don't know if you noticed the symbol
there with that number, but five O four I see.
(02:22):
So Kelly Olnok, for example, played five hundred and eight
minutes for the Pelicans. So every player that played as
much as he did or more, we will be talking
about on this podcast over the next few weeks. And
by the way, obviously it has to be a player
that's finished the season with the Pelicans. We're not going
to be talking about the three players among the seventeen
that played that many minutes that are not on the
(02:43):
roster now.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
But we have fourteen players.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
We have seven different guests lined up, starting with Will
Gillery of the Athletic who will be joining us Monday
and Tuesday this week. But that's the plan. This has
become kind of a tradition that we've done a bunch
of years. I'm not sure how many years it has been,
but I'm looking forward to doing that and always love
talking to some of the basketball excerpts that we have
(03:07):
set up for interviews.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No doubt we're gonna lead things off, and that's the
baseball term, Jim as my little league season has already
started here as well with Will Gilliery, who is not
only doing is he just the double duty guy? He really,
honestly is, right, A little petals, a little heat in
the past.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Now, yeah, maybe triple duty with the heat and the
Grizzlies and the Pelicans. Yeah, he's had an eventful last
little stretch here with you know, he covered the Grizzlies
a little bit during the regular season. Now he's on
the beat for them in the playoffs. Experienced on Sunday
a fifty one point loss, So I can't imagine how
that was a lot of fun covering that. But yeah,
(03:46):
he's he's gonna be, I think, with Memphis throughout the
duration of their playoffs stay, which based on Game one,
might not be that long. But either way, he's he's
he's grinding with Memphis throughout the rest of their playoff run.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
All right, no doubt. It should be interesting to see
what he looks at at two players in particular that
I would say, Am I wrong? And we'll talk about
it with him here in a second. But moving forward,
when I think of the New Orleans Pelicans, or at
least right now, when I think of New Orleans Pelicans,
are they the top two players right now that can
really light a spark on the floor.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yeah, I mean, I think they might be the two
most talented guys. I mean, they're both in their mid twenties,
so there's a lot of runway left in their career.
There's a lot of room for them to continue to improve.
But yeah, I would say that these are two of
the headliners and two of the guys that we thought
it would work really well to have Will Gillery come
in and talk specifics about them. I mean, Will is
(04:42):
very good, as people will hear at breaking down some
of the finer details and it's really enjoyable just sitting
around and listening to him talk basketball and some of
the intricacies of Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
All right, Jim, well, let's get rocking and roland Zion Williamson.
We'll start things off for us Will Gillery of the Athletic,
his thoughts on Z's season and in the future when
it comes to Williamson joining us. Now, mister will Gilery
of the Athletic, Jim, I can offer always a pleasure
when we have him on. Is so much to get
into covering a little bit of the Memphis Grizzlies playoff
(05:19):
in postseason run here as well.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
But look, we start.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
With you, sir, with the player of players on this
team that gets the attention, and the attention is for
a lot of reason. Zion Williamson before Jim peppershe with
the hardest questions in podcast postseason reviews. Just your overall thoughts, man,
when you look at this season, I don't know. I
was a board one of Elon Musku's ships and I
(05:42):
went and tested it and flew to Mars, so I
didn't see the season described to me Zion season man.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
I will tell you you probably I want to say,
you probably didn't have to watch it, but it's very
similar to previous seasons we've seen before, right where you know,
when he was on the court, there was so promise,
and I would say this season in particular, I thought
it was the best he ever played.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
When he was on the court, he showed the shape
he was in.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
You saw, you know, the way he was moving around,
the way he was able to get to his shots.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
But he was just able to control the game so often.
I thought it was the best he's ever played.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
But like so often previously in his career, you know,
we didn't get to see as much as we wanted
because of injuries, because of other circumstances, and he only
ends up playing thirty games, and I think, you know
that number would have been inflated a little bit more
if he played until the end of the season.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
You know, by the end, they were kind of just.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
Leaning on some of the young guys and they kind
of cut you know, some of those guys season short early.
But overall, I thought there was some promise there was Zion.
But in the end, it's about what it's always about
was Zion, which is availability, and unfortunately he wasn't available
enough for this team this year.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
We're talking to everyone as we go through the series
about kind of maybe some of the more behind the
scenes aspects of some of these players. Obviously, we have
you know, one of the top Pelicans writer on the
show with us right now besides myself, and so I
wanted to ask you about Zion in terms of, you know,
you mentioned he thought that this was some of the
(07:11):
best basketball that he's played in his career. What did
you see in terms of the difference in his approach
to conditioning or the level that he got in that
area and or how that impacted the way that he performed.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Sorry, that was gonna be the first thing I mentioned.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
You know, I think you saw you know, him consistently
putting in the work off the court to get himself
right physically.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I mean whenever we would go to practice, we would
always see him doing well.
Speaker 5 (07:38):
You know, the one thing you always see when you
walk into practices guys getting up shots right, everybody's getting
enough free throws, getting up extra three pointers.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
And every time we were.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Walking we would see Zion running, or Zion on the bike,
or Science is doing some type of extra conditioning. I
think that was a consistent thing with him, just you know,
wanting to get his body right. I thought it was
definitely the lightest we've seen him look throughout his career,
and that you know, what's that focus. I thought he
just saw his explosiveness go up to a different level
this year. In some ways, I thought it was very
(08:07):
duke like, Duke Zion like, and the way he was
kind of playing above the rim, blowing past guys and
isolation situations. I mean, he's such a dominant force anytime
he's on the court, but when he's playing with that
level of explosiveness, with that.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Level of quick twitch, he's just impossible to stop.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
And then he you mix in you know, his improved passing,
his understanding of where double teams are coming from. H
He's just a force out there when he's got that
level of focus and that level of conditioning. I think
that the big question for him now is going into
an off season relatively healthy, how can he maintain that,
how can he build on it going in the next year.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I think those are going to be big questions.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
But I think, you know, the big step for him
was kind of figuring out that routine, figuring out the
process that he feels comfortable with to.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Get his body to this point.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
And you saw what it's supposed to look like now,
so he set that standard. Now he has to meet
that standard consistently going forward.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
You know, well, I'm going to get into a couple
of stats with you related to Zion in a second,
but one of the things I wanted to touch on too
was so his minutes per game this season went from
thirty one point five last season to twenty eight point
six this season, but he also still set career highs
in a bunch of different categories, including rebounds and assists.
(09:25):
What do you think was the area that you saw
the most improvement for him going You know, this was
a sixth season. A lot of times guys kind of
level off when they get this far into their career,
but what do you think was the area that you
noticed the most or like the most about the jump
that he made.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
I think there's no question to defense.
Speaker 5 (09:43):
And I think we saw this, you know, toward the
end of last season as he was starting to you know,
round out into shape and kind of figure out some
of the things that has worked for him this year
with his body. I think, you know, for so much
in his career, frankly, he was a liability on that right.
He was a guy that teams would attack to kind
of point him out and want to attack him in
pick and rolls. And I think this year he was
(10:05):
such a he was so good at being able to
time out steals, being able to get out and transition,
come over from the weak side and get blocks. And
I think a lot of times we would see him,
you know, ask to take on that challenge in one
on one situations, to say, I want to guard a
Kawhi Leonard. I want to be able to take on
Anthony Edwards in a switch situation.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
If he's trying to attack me, Hey, let him try
to bring me over in a pick and roll. I'll
take the switch. I'll and I'll guard these.
Speaker 5 (10:30):
Guys one on one and hold my own and I
think we saw him do that more than ever, And
I think part of the reason why it was so
frustrating early in his career is because we knew he
had this in him, right. We saw a lot of
this stuff when he was at Duke. The way he
can impact the game defensively with his strength, with his
explosion of all of the stuff that makes him great
on offense. We saw him apply some of those things
(10:51):
on defense as well, And when he's kind of dominated
on both ends of the court, that's when you start
getting in the superstar level talk where he can play
at an all NBA level. He's up there with those
guys all the way at the top of the NBA
because of everything he does offensively and the way he
can use his defensive skills to create offense for himself
for others. So I think that was the huge stuff
(11:14):
for him, because we know this team relies so much
on switching ball screens, allowing Herb Jones, Trey Murphy, all
of those guys to be disruptive in that way, and
not having Zion Williamson be a guy that they needed
to protect in those situations.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
It was a huge stuff.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
So what you're saying is he was much less of
a pigeon this season, in a term that Drahn Morant
has mentioned a few times in recent weeks, that he
was not targeted as much as he had been in
the past.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Jim, I love when you get on a new NBA slang.
It's always a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
I'm gonna throw a couple numbers at you here from
Zion season, and I want you to, you know, maybe
pick which of the two that you would like to
discuss or which one kind of stands out to you
the most. The first number is two point seven, and
that is stops for thirty six minutes for Zion this season,
which was a significant jump from his previous career high
of two point one per thirty six minutes. And then
(12:10):
the second number is three, which is he had three
games of ten plus assists this season. In the previous
one hundred and eighty eight games that he played, he
had four games where he had ten or more assists.
So which of those two numbers do you like, the
two point seven, the stocks per thirty six or the
three games he had with ten plus assists.
Speaker 5 (12:29):
Yeah, we just foul to talk of defense and we
can talk about his passing, and I think that's an
area of this game we've seen, you know, gradual improvement
throughout his career. And what makes Zion so unique is
the fact that he's literally double team more than anybody
else in the NBA. I would say he's probably triple
team more than anybody else in the NBA. Whenever this
guy has the ball, you got to send multiple bodies
(12:50):
this way, You got to send extra help to keep
him away from the rim.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
And I think throughout the course of his career, even.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
You know, with limited on court action because of injuries,
you've seen him just more understanding of how teams are
defending him, where that health defenders coming from, where to
make that early pass, and just continue to improve over time.
And I think it makes them even more dangerous as
an offensive weapon, where he can get to his spots consistently,
but also he's able.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
To find those three point shooters on the weak side.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
He's got a lot better at finding ev Mec in
that dunker spot, throwing libs up the even me c
up at the rim. We saw that game against Minnesota
where he pointed out Carlo Makovic to cut from the
corner and then he throws the lot pass to Macovich
and it connects on the alley.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
You've dunk.
Speaker 5 (13:32):
Those are That's the stuff you see over a time
where a guy just gets comfortable in his game, understanding
NBA defenses, understanding how teams want to attack him. And
I think that's what's really developed over time. And that's
the unfortunate part about the amount of time that he's missed,
because the only way you can get better at that
stuff is reps. Right, it's on court, it's seeing the
(13:53):
stuff in action. And I think he's been able to
make these improvements despite you know, playing thirty games in
a season, missing big chunks of seasons, and it kind
of tells you, you know, what type of mind he has.
We talk about his physical gifts all all the time,
but we I don't think we give him enough credit
for his mind for the game, his IQ to what
he's able to read the floor because of the reasons
(14:13):
I said, because he sees so many double teams and
people throw so many bodies at him, he's got to
be able to see the game differently and understand, you know,
these help defenders differently. And I think the more he
improves as a passer, just the more difficult is going
to be to defend him, especially when you got you know,
Trey Murphy, you know, stretching out to thirty feet where
I mean, how can you defend Zion at the rim
(14:35):
and Trey Murphy at the three point line? Is really difficult.
So I think that's something that you want to continue
to see them improve upon over time. Is just that
compliment of each other and understanding, you know, how to
attack defenses when they throw some of these young coverages
at Zion.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Lastly, for me on Zion, I mean, I think some
of this might be obvious, but what do you want
to see from him next season? What do you want
to see it from him going forward? I mean, what
do you think are some of the goals that he
should make for this offseason and then kind of going
forward in his career.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
I mean, obviously want to just stand on the court, right,
just staying healthy, staying consistent with his routine, being in
great shape.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I think that'll put him in position to at least,
you know, have better odds.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Right, some of the stuff you can't control, right, some
of the injuries we've seen him sustain is like stuff
that's just you know, out of your control. Like at
the end of the season, we saw him take the
hard fall of Minnesota and miss a couple of games
due to the back injury.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
But you want to.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
See him do whatever he can to avoid the hamstring
injuries that have become a real issue.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
For him in the past.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
And I think, you know, we talked about other guys
like Stephan Curry with his ankles or a big part
of the STEP's routine in the offseason is strippen in
his legs, strengthen in his ankles to avoid future ankle problems.
And I think Zion needs to take those same measurements
with his hamstrings, just with his lower half in general,
to put himself in a better situation to avoid some
(15:57):
of these injuries. But also, you know, something that we
talked about a lot with Zion is just adding that
little mid range jumper to his game, being comfortable stepping
in the eight feet ten foot jumpers where teams are
just giving you so much space, it's just easy to
step into some of these shots, and you know, just
add that little part to his games to give defensive
(16:18):
to think about. I mean, obviously they're not gonna teams
are going to dare him to take jumpers regardless.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Even if he makes three, four to five in the game.
Speaker 5 (16:24):
But just having that that second thought for defender, that
that level of hesitation where you're not sure what he's
going to do.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
I think that's going to make it even more difficult.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
To defend him. So I think that's the one thing
I would like to see. It is just a little
couple more midies a game, and just also just of course,
just continuing to improve defensively and understanding where to be
what to do in certain situations.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
For we let you go.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I just your opinion on this. Kim and I have
talked a little bit about this during the season, and
I think probably you and I here as well, if
you were asked, you just happen to be walking by
ownership management and whatever and ask you what about the
minutes restriction. I'm in favor of maybe starting the season
that way twenty eight thirty thirty two, something like that
nature post All Star break, then bump them up and
(17:11):
just I don't know it worked. He was efficient. I
don't know if it put him in a mindset of
being aggressive because he's just so many only minutes and
you know that he had the night. I don't know,
how do you stand on.
Speaker 5 (17:24):
That, Well, Jim could tell you're sitting next to me
during games that I'm not a huge fan of the
minutes restriction.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
That's where we differ a little bit. It drove me
kind of crazy this year, so off.
Speaker 5 (17:35):
To the fourth quarters was watching Zion sit on a
bench while some of these leads were slip away. I
do think I can understand, like, hey, it worked right.
He played so well under the minutes restriction he was
able to stay relatively healthy towards the end of the season.
But in general, I mean we're talking a difference of
like what maybe four or five minutes during the course
of games. I mean the difference between playing twenty eight
(17:56):
minutes and playing thirty four minutes. We're talking about just
two three minute stretches in the first half and second half.
So I think a lot of this is just, of course,
you want to be safe, you want to be precaution there.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
But some of this stuff, Man, you got to let
a guy play.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
You gotta let a guy figure this out, because at
some point he's going to play, He's going to have
to play thirty five, thirty eight plus minutes if you
want to win big games, So he's got to be
able to build up that conditioning. I think you hear
a lot of mixed players talk about this, where they say, Hey,
so much of the outside world complains about our minutes,
that Tims plays us too much, But we're conditioned for
this throughout the course of the season. We played big
(18:30):
minutes all year, so when we get to the playoffs,
it's not a big difference for us.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
And I think with Zion, I think you need to
give him to the.
Speaker 5 (18:37):
Point where he just doesn't feel set playing twenty eight
minutes every game, because that's not how you win games.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Of course, Zion's numbers were really good.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
He looked really good playing twenty eight minutes during the
second half of the season, but they lost a lot
of those games, and I would say partially because of
those stretches where he was on the bench. You know,
I would tweet out a lot during the season, Hey,
Zion Williamson was a pluck four in this game, but
the Peals lost eight. You know, that was something we
saw consistently during the course of the second half of
the season. So I think you just got to prepare
(19:06):
him to get to the next level of his game,
being able to play big minutes, consistently, being able to
show up, consistently, playing back to backs, all of the
stuff he would demand from any other superstar around the NBA.
Of course, his track record is different. There's a level
of caution you got to bring in with Zign because
of his body, because of his injury history. For the
end of the day, he's got to be able to
(19:27):
take this this load on at some point, and you
got to start at some point to put that on him.
And I think just leaving him when a minister restriction
kind of limits him and limits the team as well
because of the level of impact he makes when he's
out there.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Mister Will Gillory the Athletic has always appreciate the time
and thank you for the knowledge, sir.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Thanks. I appreciate Joe our.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Thanks to Will of the Athletic who, again, as Jim said,
he'll probably be covering half the Western Conference by the
time an Eastern Conference. It's given him a third of
the league. What do you think looks like the whole
Gold Coast?
Speaker 4 (19:58):
I think Will can handle it, although I do wonder
if after the season that he just went through covering
various teams and controversies and Jimmy Butler and Memphis firing
their coach if he's ready for a little breather right now,
if the Grizzlies get knocked out, maybe we'll see will
on a beach shortly thereafter.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Yeah, I would.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
I don't know if he could cover a boring season
now you think about it, right, I mean, from player
trades to dismissals, all that and more. All right, Look,
as we mentioned, the playoffs are underway in the Western Conference.
We're going to focus on here on the pod, Jim
because after all that swhear the Pelicans play there as well. Look,
we've seen some things have been pretty impressive. Okay, See
(20:35):
that first game against Memphis was like, hey, we are
the number one seed, but Clippers Nuggets on Monday, and
on Tuesday got Grizzlies and Thunder, which stands out about
those two series so far.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
Yeah, I mean, I think Clippers Nuggets was probably the
best game of the weekend, of the first two days
of the playoffs. I mean, it was really compelling basketball,
just the fourth quarter. I saw somebody tweet it. I
think after Saturday's game something to the effect of this
feels like a completely different sport than what we witnessed
over the previous six months. And I think the Nuggets
(21:09):
Clippers was definitely the best example of that of just
the intensity goes up so much and you're locked in
on every single possession. The guys sitting out games or
sitting out back to backs, that's over. There's no more
back to backs. So it was a really it was
a really fun watch on Saturday afternoon to watch that game,
and it was also a crazy ending where I mean,
(21:30):
the Nuggets are up by one, there's about a three
second difference between the shot clock and the game clock,
and Russell Westbrook attacks the rim with like twelve seconds left.
He did that in the regular season two and I'm
just wondering, Like, the guy's awesome player, he's been an
MVP before, but it's like there's like a time and
score situation thing that I feel like, if you're a
(21:50):
Nuggets fan, you got to be losing your mind over that,
because it just almost it burned them in a regular
season in a game against Minnesota, and it almost costs
them again against the Clippers. They were able to pull
out the win in overtime, but Yeah, that was a
really great opener, and I'm looking forward to the rest
of that series as well as far as the Grizzlies
and Okase goes. I mean, I can't believe how one
(22:13):
sided that game was. And by the way, I hate
to even bring this up, but they mentioned how the biggest,
the most one side. There's been two games in the
history of the NBA Playoffs where the final margin was
fifty eight points. Unfortunately, one of them was two thousand
and nine when Denver played here in Game four that
first round series. So I was kind of rooting a
little bit for Okay See to break that record so
that that wouldn't be the case anymore, that New Orleans
(22:34):
wouldn't be in the record books. But either way, I mean,
it was ninety four to forty seven. I remember at
one point. You don't see too often deep in the
third quarter that a team has twice as many points
as their opponent. But yeah, you mentioned this second ago.
It was just impressive by the thunder that it seemed
like they've been waiting around for the last ten days
or so just for their chance to just show people like,
(22:56):
not only were we the one seed in the West,
which is impressive on its own, but they lapped the field.
They won like, what was it, fifteen more games than
everybody else. They ended up with sixty eight wins wins,
which was the seventh most wins in the history of
the league. So, I mean, there's nothing else you could say,
but that was just what a showing by them to
just come out and just thump Memphis in every every way.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Were you surprised?
Speaker 4 (23:19):
I was surprised that it was that big of a margin,
But I mean you would say that with any playoff game.
I think any team that's in the playoffs, you don't
expect them to be down fifty five in the second
half or.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Whatever it's to put in so much effort just to
get to that game right to get there as well.
That's another thing that I thought about that stands out
to me.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
If you remember back to twenty two when the Pelicans
or even last year are it wasn't as much the
case in twenty four as in twenty two. The Pelicans
had a really hard fought play in game to get
into the playoffs against the Clippers. Then less than two days,
less than forty eight hours later, they had to turn
around play game one against Phoenix. They lost that game.
(23:57):
They looked a little worn out, maybe more mental and
emotionally then physically, and then they came back in one
game two at Phoenix. I just think it's a hard
turnaround to be going from. And in the memphisis case,
they played the late game on Friday night and then
they played the earliest game on Sunday. So I mean,
it was a rapid thing, and I don't think it
is I don't think it's the kind of thing where
it's like your legs are gone. I think it's just
(24:19):
hard to get ramped back up mentally to play, you know,
the best team in the league record wise, in such
a short turnaround. So maybe Memphis in game two will
look better. But I mean that was about as discouraging
as it gets as far as an opener to a series.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, no doubt about it. Well again, we're off and
run in thirteen more player profiles to come your way.
Trey Murphy will be next, and that will also be
with mister Will Gillery. Be sure to check those out
and all of these on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast. Anyway,
you get those as well. Plus of course you can
literally go to the team's website, and of course this
week we'll have plenty of coverage on Joe Dumars becoming
(24:53):
the new vice president of basketball Operations for your Pelicans,
so stick around for that. In the meantime, Thanks for listening,
mister Jim Ikanoffer, thank you, Thanks Gus, I'm Gus Katangil.
We'll see you next time on the New Orleans Pelicans podcast.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
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
(25:25):
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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