re: Someone Defend Willie’s Coaching

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I lean the other way. Zion has led us to huge wins and recently too. He took over the Bucks game. He took over the Clippers game. He took over the Pistons game. The Bucks and Pistons games were without another true guy that the defense had to worry about. Zion definitely is still a work in progress and has things to work on. However, if utilized properly, he is definitely good enough to take over and win games.

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I know we need Zion to be even more aggressive but like I've hinted at all season, I'm just 100% certain in my mind that Zion is told to go easy the 1st 6 minutes of the game. It makes no logical sense otherwise that Zion is uber aggressive for 3.5 quarters, but the 1st 6 minutes he's a complete afterthought on offense.


With Phoenix, you see Booker start out hot immediately and Phoenix rides the hot hand. With the Pels, you see Zion start out with Beal on him and for 6 minutes, we gave the ball to Zion to facilitate and make a play one time...WITH BEAL GUARDING HIM!

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Coach Green has done about as well as you can ask with the roster construction he has to work with.

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That's a hard disagree

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Pels are a good team with two huge holes at Center and Point

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Val is a solid center, Willie does not know how to use him.

I don't think it's fair to say we have huge holes at center. We have a hole at the backup center, and the problem is Willie plays that backup center more minutes than the clearly superior starting center.

Val - 28
Nance - 10
Zion/committee - 10


That would be an infinitely better way to use the center position than Val 18 minutes and Nance 30.

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Coach Green has done about as well as you can ask with the roster construction he has to work with.

That's a hard disagree

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OK, defend a roster construction of:
Jose - point
CJ - wing
Zion - wing
BI - wing
TM3 - wing
Dyson - wing
Herb - wing
Hawk - wing
Naji - wing
Ryan - wing
JRE - wing
Nance - Center (6'7")
Val - Center (immobile)
Zeller - Center (where's Cody?)

I like Val as a backup big you use for certain matchups but if you can't see his offensive/defensive deficiencies, and why you can't play him for extended minutes, I don't know what to tell you. We know he can't move in perimeter space but he's also slow in the paint. Pass in the post results in 6-7 dribbles to get into position, not a very good passer out of the paint, not a good outlet passer, no lob-threat, and can't move in the paint to help-defend.

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I like Val as a backup big you use for certain matchups but if you can't see his offensive/defensive deficiencies, and why you can't play him for extended minutes, I don't know what to tell you. We know he can't move in perimeter space but he's also slow in the paint. Pass in the post results in 6-7 dribbles to get into position, not a very good passer out of the paint, not a good outlet passer, no lob-threat, and can't move in the paint to help-defend.

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Jonas has posted up 196 times this year.
He scores 1.08 points per possession. That's the same as KAT and AD. The only big men ahead of him in that category that have over 100 possessions this season are Porzingis, Embiid, and Jokic.
He gets fouled 18% of the time. The only big men with a higher rate are Porzingis, Embiid, Nurkic, Turner, AD, and Wemberjammer.
He turns it over 10% of the time. The only big men turning it over less are Bam, Portis, Drummond, Ayton, AD and Vucevic.


Defensively against the post, he gives up .89 points per possession. The guys with a lower PPP are Hartenstein, Zubac, JJJ, Nurkic and AD.


JV is 11th in the league in PPP as the roll man in PnR action at 1.28 PPP
JV is 1st in the league defending the PnR giving up only 0.75 PPP. (i think that is only factoring his defender, not the ball handler)

There are only 6 big men in the league that are more efficient at converting offensive rebounds into points than JV.



JV is an excellent center in the NBA, and when used correctly can postively impact the game. That doesn't mean he doesn't have his shortcomings, or has games where he's not a good fit to be successful, but he's a damn good 5 in this league.

Man really big Pels fan. We still are in the hunt. Lets just pull together to get the guys over the hump.

Just so I understand where the "pro-JV" folks are coming from...do they actually believe...IF... the Pels are unable to work a trade for Val & decide to just let him "walk"...another playoff team will jump in & sign him for decent money...and then have him start (& even MORE importantly...finish) for their team?

If many answer that with a "yes"...I can understand why there is so much disagreement among us...on the present & future value...of JV with the Pels.

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I don't disagree that Val is a good NBA player. He just doesn't fit with what this team wants to be as a 25+ minute player.

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The issue is you should not pick your team style/scheme then try to force everyone into those roles.

You should rather pick your team style/scheme based on the players you have and adapt accordingly.

We're doing the former when we should be doing the latter.

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Problem is Pels have to alter how they want to play if you want to adjust to what Val does well.

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If altering the way you play is the best way to maximize the team, then that is what you should do. But sticking to the scheme that gives Nance more minutes than Val, with the way Nance is playing, is not going to max out wins right now.

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Pels are trying to figure out how to move from being a good team to an elite team and more Val minutes is not going to get you there.

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Maybe not long term, but based on this roster, more Val minutes than Nance are the best way to get the most out of this specific team.

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Or move forward with more non-center lineups, as some on the board suggest. Just don't think its a Val v Nance issue.

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True


Right now, other than the random games we go small which is few and between, it's basically Nance getting the bulk of the minutes, closing and most of the 2nd half minutes.

In reality, for any matchup we'd be better off with :

Val - 28 min
Nance - 8-10 minutes
Zion/committee - 10-12 minutes

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Until Zion is no longer a Pelicans player...the Pels' "style/scheme" will be whatever the bosses think will be best for Zion

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The issue is that IMO the scheme is nowhere near close to what is best for Zion. So the bosses are picking a style that does not fit Zion either on purpose or not on purpose of which either way is very concerning.

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Just the way it is...and the harsh truth is...JV is nowhere near what Zion needs out on the court with him. The fact that the bosses (not just Willie)...apparently favor a player like Nance over JV...should make it abundantly clear...exactly what they think of JV's value to the Pels.

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But again, that doesn't matter as long as Val on the team. Trade him at the deadline, let him walk this offseason. But as long as he IS on the team, we should build the best scheme around our best players and not playing inferior players because we can run a scheme we like that isn't actually better than the one the bosses don't like.

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For sure, I don't disagree that Val is a good NBA player. He just doesn't fit with what this team wants to be as a 25+ minute player. Can he play 25+ minutes and be effective? The answer is yes, he's proved that, albeit against marginally talented teams. Problem is Pels have to alter how they want to play if you want to adjust to what Val does well.

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I would agree. While he actually does well when he plays with Zion, he'd be better off playign more staggered minutes without him, and we actually try to play a bit more through him in the post to force the double team and get the defense scrambling to defend everyone.

Instead we just have him go set high screens and roll to the goal, even though he's really not a guy anyone cares about rolling to the goal. His biggest threat as a roll man is getting position and getting offensive rebounds.
JV setting picks and rolling isn't his strength. He's not terrible at it, but doign it with ZIon on the court is dumb b/c it allows the opposing center to just set in the lane.

JV has set 148 picks this year and rolled to the goal.
Zion has done that 20 times this year. 20 times have we had this athletic monster set a pick and roll to the goal. Trey has done it 27 times