Ime Udoka after Valanciunas, Pelicans beat Rockets

they did goto him did you not watch the game - he had 3 FGA because they were collapsing the paint forcing him to make the right read and for Rockets to beat them from 3…

6-22 1st half

Brooks took 0 3’s and he prob is our best 3pt shooter
Bari 0-2
Holiday 0-3
Jeff Green 0-2
Amen 0-1

Outside of Bari .. none of those players should shoot 3s

Holiday shouldn’t even see court anymore

 

For real. Sengun can play in any offense, there's no compatibility issue there except maybe slightly needing to improve his 3pt shot for some situations.

With FVV, yes there are some compatibility issues but nothing major. Would it be better if he could also run a fast pace and throw a lob? Sure, but FVV does so much that helps Jalen and no one is a PERFECT fit. It's good to slow Jalen down sometimes. The defense and assists from FVV are incredible, and that helps get Jalen some easy buckets and be hidden on defense (since FVV/Brooks take the tough assignments). FVV is a capable off ball shooter.

More likely: the team hasn't perfected the balance of which type of offense to use and Pelicans are a VERY good defensive team who were missing one of their worst defenders. They played great defense and clearly had not forgotten our previous encounter.

Jalen wasn't bringing it like this earlier in the season and remember he was averaging like 20-25 minutes for a while so maybe there's a micro-adjustment to be made by Udoka - nothing major. It's kind of like if we acquired a big scorer and the team is figuring out how much to go to him and how much to stick to our bread and butter in FVV-Sengun. Games like this become the film sessions that help them figure it out.

 

I like Udoka, but some of tonight is on him. There is PLENTY of blame to go around for this one, but his leaving Holiday out there as long as he did was a mistake. Cam should have played more. His rotations were not great.

Our power forwards were literally useless. The worst combined effort from a position group that I've honestly EVER seen in a game before, at any level. Jabari Smith and Jeff Green combined for no points and 1 rebound tonight in 37 minutes. WTF was that?!

One of the most frustrating games of the year in my opinion. This team needs a shakeup before the trade deadline.

 

Udoker is gambling but I think we are grasping at straws here, Ime is working with a limited roster not talentwise but experience wise.

He has to get creative every darn game, that is not easy at all. Every game there is something wrong.

 

This couldn't be further from the truth. In fact only FVV/JeffGreen/Holiday are clearly better in a slow half court style. Sengun was almost this good offensively in an average pace last season (we are one of the slowest in the NBA this season last I checked). Look at his game, he lacks a 3pt shot and is a creator - of course pace would help him create and negate his lack of a 3pt shot when he's not the primary playmaker.

Cam, Tari, Jalen, Amen for sure would excel in a faster, less half-courty game. Jabari it's tough to tell, he is doing better this season, but I bet he would've done better this season no matter the pace we chose.

Our core is Sengun/JG/Jabari/Tari/Cam/Amen. All but Jabari have looked same or better in an average pace (compared to slow pace). We've never really seen them in a fast pace. That's not a halfcourt style core. That's the core we're designing the team around.

 

Jabari looked way off. Our spacing was pretty poor. We completely blew 4-5 EASY fast breaks by not passing or passing to the crowd. Elementary school stuff. It caught up with us eventually

 

It is hard for even the most veteran teams to stick with it when you miss every damn wide-open three.

You have to make open shots in the NBA, period.

 

Holiday is a good shooter he just missed

 

I tend to agree and Holiday is a non factor on the road, he better make those at Home.

We are going swimming either way with Minnesota and Indiana coming up soon.....

Atlanta on the road, yummy.

 

This is why I don't want him in the ALL STAR game let him go to Cancun and rest for 4 day son the beach and recharge.

DD

 

I mean it is an honor, he is most likely on the reserve list.......the coaches are very likely to select veterans over him.

 

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

No one wants to hear it - but even adding veterans and a great coach isn’t going to take a bottom 3 team and turn them into a playoff team.

This is going to take time. Guys like Smith, Green, Sengun, Eason were basically neglected by the prior coaching staff. They will take time to learn the right way to play and improve and grow.. but it is happening.

Also the Rockets are in the West- look at the teams in the West, how many of them are the Rockets clearly better than?

Udoka got them to believe they could win and that he would get them to grow as players and as a team - but he isn’t a miracle worker.

The positives are that Jalen Green has MAYBE woken up. I remember his rookie season, he looked like a genuine bust for a good part of the season before it clicked for him… same thing this season, took a long time but it may have clicked.

The rookies both are rapidly improving and contributing… Eason and Smith are clearly improved and Sengun is doing Sengun things.

 

Outrebounded 56-29. Pelicans cams in and kicked their *ss

 

Facts...

This team is both thrilling and frustrating, because of their collective potential, and their collective youth.

It is frankly AMAZING the level that they are playing at considering that 6 of these guys are 19-22...

A lack of consistency and professionalism is exactly what we should expect.

(Still hurts to lose!!!)

 

Can we sticky this? Pin it so everyone can see it?

The only way for us to make the playoffs this year is to forfeit our future to acquire experienced guys. That’ll get us bounced early for a few years until we start rebuilding all over again. I can’t believe so many of you are fixated on the need to make the play-in and are willing to give up years of potential for a quick semi-fix.

 

Period.

Full stop.

 

Technically the Play In is only 1 or 2 Wins away so it is not like it is unattainable.......

The problem is fans are too hung up on it......on one hand.

On the other hand, if they just signed a normal backup big instead of Landale, it would have been better.

 

The good news

Valencinas didn’t drop 70 on us.
It was very clear we couldn’t guard him one on one.

center needed

 

Indeed, when Zion is out, and JV becomes one of the focal points of the offense, he's a walking 20/10 pretty much against anyone.

 

Yeah, it’s not like Valanciunas is some scrub, he’s a legitimate borderline All-Star type talent who is unselfish enough to be used as a role player even at the expense of his own game. No shame in being outplayed by him every once in a while…as long as we win most of the games