Woj: So far, New Orleans is determined to re-sign center DeMarcus Cousins and hasn't invited trade offers on him. Teams are curious to study Memphis' plans with center Marc Gasol, but so far, they say they're planning to keep him.
That's a huge negative next to Harden. Not to mention he has fallen off a cliff defensively as well. These are two significant areas that we need our 5 to be great at.
We're trying to win a championship. Let's talk about Lebron; y'all talking about Josh Smith.. he's a JAG.
I'm still a fan of Boogie's talent but i agree with what you're saying here. I just wonder how much it's on him and how much it's on the enviroment, not trying to make excuses but, the Pelicans have been one of the worst organizations out there for years now, never been able to put together a solid roster or plan. I'm probably wrong but wouldn't be shocked to see him playing better basketball in a better enviroment. i Also wonder if he would be able to play the 4 next to Capela or DeAndre, he has really improved his 3pt shot, still not sure about his shot selection though, but again, maybe in a better enviroment...
On the defensive end I haven't been able to study them enough to answer that question. But it's a good question. How much of the defensive regression is him versus his teammates?
Yep, personally, while i always saw Boogie playing great defense only when he wanted, i still think enviroment always makes a big difference, and i'm not sold on his partners doing their part, starting from Davis, which is a superb talent on both ends and make big plays here and there, but to me he's still lacking in terms of understanding of the game, leadership and defensive presence, i think he could be much better. Rondo and Holiday are actually two guys i like on defense, Rondo was terrific in the playoffs last season before he got hurt, he was making a big difference for the Bulls on both ends, but maybe at this stage of his career he just has to save that for playoffs. He has been considered a cancer lately by a lot of people, but he's probably the only guy who brings some sort of leadership, experience and iq in that team, just look at them last season, they were freaking terrible, at least this season they're in the mix. Overall i don't know, i still think a lot of problems come from how they built the team over the years, enviroment is historically mediocre if not straight trash, probably zero basketball minds behind the scenes, poor leadership overall.