re: What to make of the Pelicans 0-4 start?

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hey are the worst team in the league, defensively, right now.

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the lakers tho

i actually just looked it up. the pelicans have the third worst defensive rating, the lakers have the second. there actually is a team with a worse defensive rating than both and the lakers literally gave up 40 in one quarter without a single point coming from a three last week to the kings

The coaching has been abysmal. The offensive system is incomprehensible. The defense has been atrocious. Guards are just blowing by on back door cuts, and teams are just draining 3s at ridiculous rates.

There was one time during the game last night in the 4th when the Pels cut it to 6. The Magic brought back in 3 starters. Gentry does nothing, leaves the same D-League lineup in. Within 30 seconds its back up to 13.

AD looks very visibly upset and frustrated. He can't get open. He can't buy a shot. His frustration has led to him loafing up and down the court.

Its not a good situation right now. I absolutely hated the Gentry hire at the time, and now I'm extremely pissed about it.

The injuries are bad but the losses still count.

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It's simple really. Pels continued the trend of pro teams hiring the same coaches who have failed in other places. It really is mind boggling.

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This times a million. Apart from brief interim stints, I bet there's not one coach who on their third head coaching tenure won a title. I know you can say that about people on their second head coaching tenure because Rick Carlisle did it. But not their third.

Here is an interview with Gentry after the game:


Interviewer: Alvin, obviously you're not happy.

Gentry: Oh, we got our arse kicked. We got our arse... kicked. It was sickening. We have several plays on offense and first several plays we turn the ball over, one for a dunk, another one that is going to set up a dunk. We got players who can't hang on to the ball... they out-hustled us, they out-toughed us. We stunk today. Not even close between that basketball team and our basketball team. Not even close. Ridiculous.

We have players injured, one who had his knee blown out. Couldn't play anybody. We stunk. Just stunk.

Interviewer: How about injuries...

Gentry: shite, we're down in everything. We don't have enough people right now. It'll be hard to practice this week.. effectively.

Interviewer: Do you take into account at all that Davis...

Gentry: I don't take into account shite! The only thing I take into account is that they kicked our arse today. That's what I take into account.

Interviewer: How'd Ish Smith look?

Gentry: Smith? Let me tell you something about Smith. He looked pretty good right? The Wizards cut him before he came to camp. Looked pretty good for us. Maybe that shows the difference between other teams and us. What do you think about that? Pretty good indication, huh? They won't even bring him to camp... shite... he looks like a star of the day for the Pelicans.

Interviewer: Alvin, was the effort there today?

Gentry: Eh, it was alright. You know, Gee takes the ball inside and gets a little hit and blows the lay-up. shite, I don't know if it's effort or not. It's horseshite basketball, I know that. horseshite.















Okay, I made that up... it was actually Jim Mora talking about the Saints.

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Injuries and firing Monty Williams was a rash decision. For most of his tenure he had a crap sandwich worth of bad players, plus injuries. Under difficult circumstances he did well.

I also never thought signing Holiday, Gordon and Evans was a good idea. They're good players but they're not going to win a title with Davis. We should have moved slowly and built through the draft. If anyone should have been fired, it was Dell Demps.

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I absolutely agree with all of this.

Season is still young. They'll will get it in gear once they're healthy

They need a pg bad

the roster wouldn't be a problem if we were healthy... how does all that happen in the freaking preseason?