Zion talked extensively about his rehab last night

Doesn't matter. We have seen this movie before. We have lost 30 games already. Embrace the tank. Move on for God's sake.

Exactly, we have spent 4 of his 5 years in the league coddling him when we know he needs to be pushed. Stan knew it and he pushed him and got results. From the way Z was talking it seems like DJ was pushing him also, so hopefully we put some more hardasses around him like that.

Some encouraging stuff, but there is still something about Z that makes me uneasy. He just seems tense and on edge about himself. I know he takes a lot of crap in the media, but I'd feel better if, at this point, he was just like: "I get it. I've missed more than half my games in New Orleans. The team can't be successful if that continues. I can't reach my goals as a player if that continues. I'm out to prove I can stay on the court and will do everything I can personally to make that happen." He's not a bad dude. But I'm looking for him to mature into a leader who takes personal responsibility for being a top player in the league, not a guy who mainly wants to "have fun."

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We’re 7-30. To even get into sniffing range of the play in we would have to go 34-11 the rest of the way, which will not even remotely come to fruition. The tank is done, y’all need to quit worrying about that. The 4 worst records haven’t been very lucky in the lottery in recent years.

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I've tried explaining this as well. People have a hard time understanding this.

We are finishing bottom 8. As you said, we'd have to play .500 ball or better from here on out just to be in that 8th spot.
Ideally we start winning some games and look better in the middle of the season, then start shutting guys down towards the end, and finish in that 5-6 range. The difference in ping pong ball from last to 5th isn't that big at all.


Wizards are finishing last.
Jazz, Raptors, Hornets are all going to be bottom 5 teams.
Blazers and Nets are going to start losing more soon and will finish in that bottom 8, although I think the Blazers are trying to win with their youn guys. The Nets are goign to make trades to get worse.
That's 6 teams that don't want to win, and also don't have the talent to win if they were trying.
There's no one else in the West that will fall below us, unless Curry goes down with a season ending injury, maybe.
The Pistons somehow look like they want to win and are 12 games up on us.
The only other team outside of those 6 I could see us finishing ahead of is the Bulls, if they makes trades to get worse in the next few weeks.

So again, it's going to be extremely difficult for us to not finish bottom 8 even if we were to go 25-20, which we will not.

I don't want to finish bottom 8. I want bottom 4.

Trading CJ and BI should help get there.

Honestly, as long as we don't fire Willie, I think we'll be ok. He's a truly terrible tactician.

I think there should be four goals the rest of the season.

1. Finish bottom 5.
2. Trade CJ and BI
3. Develop Missi and Hawkins (give them ALL the minutes)
4. Develop chemistry between Murray, Herb, Zion and Missi

Bonus: If you get a god father offer for Zion, take it. Unlikely.

I hope he score 40 plus for 10 games and that Griffs has balls enough to trade him. I don’t care if becomes a future all star. Get him out of New Orleans

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I don't want to finish bottom 8. I want bottom 4.

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I do'nt want to finish 8th either, but to me it makes little difference if it's last or 5th. It's luck at that point.
You've been shown that finishing bottom 4 guarantees nothing.
14% chance to get a top 4 pick compared to 10.5% is the difference in last and 5th. 6th is 9%.


Last year draft order and where they finished:
1. Hawks 10th
2. Wizards 2nd
3. Nets 9th
4. Spurs 5th
5. Pistons 1st
6. Hornets 3rd
7. Blazers 4th



2023:
1. Spurs 3rd
2. Hornets 4th
3. Blazers 5th
4. Rockets 2nd
5. Pistons 1st

2022:
1. Magic 2nd
2. Thunder 4th
3. Rockets 1st
4. Kings 7th
5. Pistons 3rd

2021:
1. Pistons 2nd
2. Rockets 1st
3. Cavs 5th
4. Raptors 7th
5. Magic 3rd
6. Thunder 4th

2020:
1. Wolves 3rd
2. Warriors 1st
3. Hornets 8th
4. Bulls 7th
5. Cavs 2nd
6. Hawks 4th

2019:
1. Pelicans 7th
2. Grizzlies 8th
3. Knicks 1st
4. Lakers 11th
5. Cavs 2nd
6. Suns 3rd
7. Bulls 4th



So on average, only 2 of the bottom 4 teams are getting top 4 draft slots. The 5th worst record has finished in the top 4 slots at the same 50% of the time. The 7th/8th spot has finished in the top 4 25% of the time. the 6th spot looks to be extremely unlucky.

It's luck. Yes it would be ideal to finish bottom 5, but the talent on the Pelicans is vastly superior to the bottom 4 teams in the league, and there's 2 more that will likely make trades to get worse. If we are relatively healthy, it will be hard to finish in the bottom 4.

He just played a whole game in a sleeveless jersey where you could see his body composition. It’s cold in Louisiana right now, yall are psycho worrying about the man wearing a puffer jacket.

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This NOW

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in most cases you don’t get the biggest return on players until the summer. Hence why we will wait

Do this shite for a year. Then I’ll start to buy in. Seen this thing WAY too many times.