Pelicans Tier List of Problems

zion

injuries

griffin

Zion being a 14 year old weeb fatass (40%)
Cheap ownership (30%)
Injury luck (15%)
Griff (10%)
Willie Green (5%)

1. Gayle has no idea wtf she's doing

You need to add Loomis to your list.

1) Half court offense is flat, predictable and boring. When we go against an elite defense (like OKC) its embarrassing. We need HEALTHY players who can create and score.

2) Worst defense in the NBA. Ok, maybe not Jazz bad, but Utah was admittedly tanking for Flagg. We try and suck. Wide open lanes to the rim and all the spacing a team needs to score at the 3. Coaches know its happening and cannot fix it. Its so frustrating. I look forward to seeing Herb come back, but we really crapped the bed giving away Dyson.

3) No identity - every night is a different lineup due to injury. I have to check the starting lineup more than the weather report. Players need consistency and leadership to win. We have ZERO. BI was the leader of this team by proxy and he pretty much quit last season till the trade. If Zion is supposed to be our current leader - holy hell no wonder.

4) Reputation - We are a joke. Playing second child to the Saints is not a good situation and it has impacted player satisfaction (& possibly health). Player talk sh"t about us as they leave. No free agent would consider us as an option unless they were just looking for a check. Our talent always leaves. It would take a miracle from heaven to change this. Even if we got the #1 pick next week, it might be too late.

5)The End - this team is packing for a sale and everyone knows it. NBA wants a new stadium, State is not going to pay for it. Lease is up and we are now riding an extension which takes us into 2029-30. I predict that will be our last season. There is simply no regional interest in a team that never wins. SKC is always empty unless they give out plush hats or Lakers play. People will not even watch this team for free on broadcast tv. You can call ownership cheap if you want, but remember her #1 sport is horses and this is basically like not feeding a dead horse.

Zion's availability (due to being fat)

Everyone else who matters availability (Murray, Trey, Herb, CJ)

Medical Staff - it's not a coincidence anymore. They are a problem and it needs to be fixed.






Ownership - has no idea what she's doing or how to run a successful business. This issue has become more important to me over the last year, whereas I wouldn't have even mentioned it a year ago. doesn't matter b/c it's not changing.

GM - incredible waste of assets since the AD trade. horrible roster building the last 5 years.

Coaching - matters the least, but is still important. If Zion was in shape and dominating while everyone else was mostly healthy, then we'd be winning and masking most coaching deficiencies.

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The End - this team is packing for a sale and everyone knows it. NBA wants a new stadium, State is not going to pay for it. Lease is up and we are now riding an extension which takes us into 2029-30. I predict that will be our last season.

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Agree, many of us here are counting the days until the Pels leave. It’s been a miserable experience having them in NOLA.

1. Injuries. Not saying Pels were heading for the finals or anything, but they were a 50-win team last season and, with average health, probably would have been again and in the top 6. It's easy to forget that.

1a. Zion. Injuries here as well, but additionally how much of that has been due to his own failures on conditioning and rehab? Hard to know for sure, but hamstrings, meniscus tears, foot fractures can all be impacted by being too heavy or not training properly for the rigors of the NBA. With Zion I've always thought it's not just a matter of being fat or out of shape: he's just too heavy to play the way he does and last a full season + the playoffs. He looked very good the second half of this season so maybe he's turned a corner on this issue, but his injury history is a. major, major factor in Pels future if he stays.

2. Willie/Griff. A couple of months ago I heard AD on his national radio show talking about how teams always come to reflect the personality of their head coach and/or GM to a large extent. He wasn't talking about the Pels but it was hard to miss the implication given some of his past comments about how the team plays and the club's failure to address these issues, such as end of game melt downs. I hope among Dumars first orders of business is to get all the crap off the walls about "joy" and "compassion. He should just stick a post-it note on the gym wall that says "win."

3. Shooting. Since Zion's early days it's been clear the Pels should surround him with shooters and more shooters. He has the gravitational pull of a black hole. Instead the Pels dealt assets for traditional big men, held on to BI long after it was clear he wasn't going to change his mid-range game and continued to play offensively challenged vets instead of developing its young draft picks. If Willie stays, Dumars really has to take him to the wood shed on this stuff.

For me stuff like ownership, the arena, the luxury tax (for now) are way, way down the list. If you win, no one cares about the arena. Boston Garden was a notorious dump for years in the Cs golden years. MSG isn't much better. Winning cures all that. I think a lot of criticism of the Pels is overstated. People mocked the Knicks and Lakers and Suns and many other front offices until they didn't. Not saying there aren't legit issues, but it's sometimes just lazy and cynical, like a lot of bros on a sub-reddit crapping on the widow owner.

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A good coach can fix a whole hell of a lot of problems. A bad one can create a whole hell of a lot too. Cause the guys are actually supposed to listen to Willie Green’s dumbass as part of their job description. Goddamn i can’t believe Willie Green isn’t #1 with a bullet on everyone’s list. He sucks and there’s not a single redeeming quality at this point as coach since he’s not molding 20 year olds anymore and we’re actually supposed to be trying to win.

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Nobody thinks willie is a great coach, but this isn’t college ball. Coaching in the NBA just doesn’t move the needle as much as players and front office. Superstars make coaches in this league.

Spoelstra is widely considered one of the best in the league (maybe the best) and Miami just had the worst point differential in a four game sweep of all time.

Success in the NBA comes when you
1) have a superstar
2) have a smart front office
3) are in an attractive market to free agents
4) have a good coach

I mean shite our most successful seasons in franchise history came with Byron Scott and Alvin Gentry. Scott even won Coach of the Year in 07-08

Keeping Willie is a joke. But the root problem there is ownership. The symptom is keeping the shitty coach.