Lowe ranks Pelicans at #3 on League Pass Rating

He and Kevin Arnovitz talk about Pels injuries at the beginning of the new podcast.

LINK

Lowe says that we're "paying the piper" for trading multiple players/picks for Jrue and Reke. Arnovitz intelligently notes that "no team could easily handle losing ~6 of their top 10 players."

I've told this board several times how jealous I am of the Pels TV broadcast team. I freaking love Joel Myers, and Wesley is solid. Watched them on league pass regularly. And Houston's is just awful.

So this blurb on the Rockets made me

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the broadcast table features the league’s shrillest group of homers. Bill Worrell, the play-by-play guy, is a legend, and both Clyde Drexler and Matt Bullard — the third man, like Hollywood Hogan — know more basketball than I ever could. It’s a shame the rah-rah nonsense and complaints about officiating drown out the insights.

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Dead. On. Sorry for the hijack.

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I'm disappointed he didn't give well deserved props to Joel and Wes

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That's basically the whole reason why I read the article. I feel cheated.

from lowe's "35 predictions" article today

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10. Anthony Davis Wins MVP and Defensive Player of the Year This could be our chance to vanquish the silly notion that the MVP has to go to someone from one of the league’s top two or three teams. The Pelicans can barely field an NBA rotation right now, and Davis, Mr. Limitless, is going to put up monster numbers while keeping them afloat until the cavalry arrives. If Davis emerges as the league’s best two-way player and carries a battered New Orleans team to the no. 6 seed, he should have a chance at history. Calling Davis for Defensive Player of the Year is premature, but I can’t find a safer choice. Rudy Gobert will get a lot of preseason votes, and he was the league’s best rim protector last season. But his résumé is limited and teams are ready for him now. Ibaka never made the mini-leap required for him to win this award, and all the other classic big-man candidates — Marc Gasol, Howard, Noah, Roy Hibbert — have slipped. Kawhi Leonard has a real chance to repeat, and Draymond Green is a multi-positional monster. But Davis already smothers people of all sizes one-on-one, and he has the raw tools of a dominant help defender.

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11. New Orleans Jumps at Least 10 Spots in Points Allowed per Possession The Pellies ranked 22nd last season, even while putting up stingy numbers when Davis and Omer Asik shared the floor. The team defense was an uncoordinated mess. Erman, the team’s lead assistant, will change that after playing a central role in Golden State’s rise from laughingstock to juggernaut. He lives and breathes defense. He might not have a single non-paper plate in his apartment. I would have called a top-10 finish if New Orleans were in the ballpark of healthy, but it’s not, and a 10-spot jump is plenty.

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The league is so poor on wings who can shoot 3s and adequately defend both shooting guards and small forwards that I could see a team like New Orleans talking itself into Nick Young — even with Young’s deal running three more seasons

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The league is so poor on wings who can shoot 3s and adequately defend both shooting guards and small forwards that I could see a team like New Orleans talking itself into Nick Young — even with Young’s deal running three more seasons

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Swaggy P plays defense? I honestly don't know, but based in his chucker reputation I always assumed that he didn't.

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22. Denver Finally Cuts Bait on at Least One Veteran

In the past, Denver has asked a ton for Wilson Chandler — two firsts, or one quality young player and a first, per league sources — but it feels inevitable that it’ll come down on that price once it falls hopelessly out of the playoff race. On the flip side, the contract extensions for Chandler and Danilo Gallinari increased their trade value; teams have more cap space than they can spend, and they’d be happy to fill some of it with one of those guys. The most likely outcome is that no deal happens, but that’s boring. Chandler feels gettable, so I’ll go out on that limb.

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Really Denver? 2 1sts for Chandler? Hopefully they come down, because he seems like one of the more realistic targets at SF.

On a related note, his prediction that KD resigns in OKC for 1 year is interesting both in that it makes sense and how it impacts every team targeting KD. Unless things fall apart in OKC this season, it seems like you'd need to act as if KD won't be a FA next season. To me that means trading Gordon/Ryno this season rather than overpaying to keep them next season should be a priority.

The KD comment is definitely interesting, especially since it would align him with GOATbrook's pending free agency.

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I don't think you are getting takers for Gordon

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I meant more package one or both with our 2016 pick. This is a bit unrealistic, but a Gordon + Ryno for Tobias Harris and Channing Frye kind of deal. Something like that is what we should be aiming for.