Slam N JamAndrew Schlecht and Alex Speers discuss the week of NBA Basketball, Who will win the Most Improved Player, the insane Cavs/Thunder game, Mazzula quotes, best and worst catch and shoot players, Pistons success and more. Then they are joined by Will Guillory of the Athletic to discuss the New Orleans Pelicans and if it’s possible to turn the team around this season, what Zion’s return means, and what kind of player they would want in the draft. Then the boys play a fun edition of Andrew vs. the Beat, a trivia game where Andrew is pitted against a beat writer.Host: Andrew Schlecht and Alex SpeersWith: New Orleans PelicansExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio/Video Editor: Jake Kleinberg Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What were the highlights from the recent Thunder vs. Cavs game?
No, think about a team that takes a lot of... Think about a team that takes a lot of threes. Derek White. Derek White's number two at 44% on almost six attempts. Okay. Peyton Pritchard? Peyton Pritchard's number one at 47.6% on 5.1 attempts per game. I'm heating up. I'm heating up. Brandon Miller. Not Brandon Miller. Think about a guy who's one of the best shooters ever, Al. Steph Curry.
Not Steph Curry, no. Klay Thompson. Damian Lillard.
Klay Thompson.
clay thompson 5.7 attempts 42.9 percent uh now think about a guy who is uh an attender rumors he's a rumor guy oh cam johnson cam johnson 5.5 attempts per game 44 and then think about a guy who's much more known for defense you would never ever put him on this list but the stats say put him on the list Defense never would be. But he has to take a lot of threes still takes a lot of threes.
It's five or more threes. This guy is actually taking five or more threes for consecutive years. OK, man, I have no idea. Lugens Dort is 42.5% from three this season on five attempts per game. He is fifth on the list. That's right. That Dort Moonball is going in. Okay, now let's go to the worst. Guys that are taking five or more threes per game.
These guys are all shooting 36% or worse from three on high volume.
Oh, man. I'm such a positive guy, Andrew. It's really hard to think of negatives like this.
There are a couple Boston guys on this list. Drew Holiday? No. He didn't take enough.
Jalen Brown? No. Tatum?
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Chapter 2: How is Cade Cunningham performing this season?
That's a good way to kind of pick up morale. But, yeah, I think... it has been much worse than I expected it to be, particularly when they got most of these guys back, because this is the team that is going to be moving forward. Right. You're going to have the Janta. You're going to have Trey Murphy, Herb Jones with Z. Of course, you always got to deal with the questions about his injuries.
But these are the guys they've invested in long term. And it just hasn't looked very good early on. Um, Maybe it gets better over time. Guys get to build some chemistry. DeJounte Murray's going through some stuff right now. But it's been really disappointing December on just how much they've struggled with most of their main guys.
So this season, it feels like a lost cause at seven and thirty one, but they still have to play forty four more games.
How do you anticipate like so many?
It does sound like a lot. How do you anticipate this franchise navigating the second half of the season? Like, do you expect Willie Green to remain as head coach? Do you think David Griffin's going to survive this? How will they approach this second half?
I think the number one thing is what you guys saw this week is them getting Zion Williamson back. Above all, that's the main priority is getting him on the court, seeing if he can last the rest of the season, how good he plays with his core. I think David Griffin, I would bet he's probably going to stick around. I think they like a lot of the stuff he's done with
outside of zion williamson you know drafting trey murphy drafting herb jones finding a bunch of these you know supporting cast guys uh i think you know and he's got done a pretty good job as far as finding people under him and doing it doing a lot of little stuff that they felt like wasn't getting done with dell dumps uh but i think willie green is going to be the big question during the second half of the season just because like we said he's had to deal with so much injury bad luck during the first half of the season i think it was tough for anybody to really look at you know
the job he was doing and say, man, this guy is the reason that they're losing these games. But I think you've got to be able to build on something during the second half of the season. You've got to be able to have, you know, more games like they had against the Wizards and less like they had against the Blazers with Zion out there, with these guys figuring something out.
I think, you know, if it continues on the trend that they're on right now, I would bet Willie Green won't be there next year. They'll probably end up going into a different direction. But I think they're going to try to give him a chance. They want to believe in Willie Green. I think one of the reasons they hired him was they wanted to invest in a young coach and have him be there long term.
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Chapter 3: What challenges are the New Orleans Pelicans facing?
This is a very good player.
Yeah, this is a very good basketball player.
Eastern Conference. Eastern Conference guard. God, this is really... This is really tough.
Oh, man. I'm just drawing a complete blank. I can't even lie to you. I'm going to go with... This is going to be completely off. I'll just say Victor Oladipo. I know he didn't make that many all-star games, but that's the only name that's popping into my head.
That is incorrect. Andrew, do you have a guess?
I don't think this guy made that many all-star games either.
Kyle Lowry? That is also incorrect. Now, one of my other hints I was going to add, I didn't know if it would give it away. The last team he played for was the Clippers. Does that help at all?
Anything. The last team he played for was the Clippers.
Yeah. It was?
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Chapter 4: Can Zion Williamson turn around the Pelicans' season?
0405.
0405?
Or was this the year after? The year after they were in OKC. I think maybe it was the year after.
I think this was the year before.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shoot.
What about J.R. Smith? There you go, Andrew. That's one point. That was the one I thought you'd have a chance at.
Yeah.
Any guesses for the other guy? I think Baron Davis was on that team. Baron Davis? Good guess. He was on the team, Andrew, but he didn't play enough games and hit enough threes. Any guesses, Will? And I will tell you, this is the guy who led the team in three-pointers made. It actually wasn't J.R. Smith. Wow.
Maybe Rasul Butler? Yeah.
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Chapter 5: What are the potential trade scenarios for the Pelicans?
Hilton Armstrong. What about Jason Smith? Oh, no. Cedric Simmons.
Yes.
Yes. I figured I'd trip you up with this because it wasn't a big. It was Herb Jones. Oh, dang it.
I thought about Herb. Dang it. I wanted to say Herb, but I thought I was going to be wrong.
Man. All right. The game is tied. Andrew, you have control of the board. Number three. Question number three. CJ McCollum tied a career high with 50 points in a game this week against the Wizards. There are only three players in New Orleans franchise history to score 50 points. Anthony Davis, CJ McCollum, and this player.
This feels like a trick question. Dan Dickow. Is it Dan Dickow? It's Dan Dickow.
That's the answer.
there's so many guys that you feel like probably that scored definitely scored a lot for the Pelicans but it's hard to imagine them actually scoring 50 right shoot did pages somehow do it like I don't know Andrew that is incorrect will do you know the answer
God, I really hope so because I tweeted this during the game, so it's going to look really crazy if I get this wrong. But I believe the answer is Jamal Mashburn.
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