**** New Orlean Pelicans (5-9) vs Minnesota Timberpups (3-11) - 7pm FSN ****

[_AIJ_]

Who will take DLo?

[Merc_Porto]

Who will take DLo?

Are we willing to get rid of Dlo, that's the question...

[Crazy-Canuck]

Poole is not an NBA player

[LesGrossman]

DLo playng and starting guarantee and chucking wildcard because he is KAT's buddy? Can a struggling franchise afford to agree to such deals?

[PharmD]

Who will take DLo?

I'd take Westbrook for him in a heartbeat

[Neeva]

DLo playng and starting guarantee and chucking wildcard because he is KAT's buddy? Can a struggling franchise afford to agree to such deals?

Dlo the perfect tank commander.

[Coxy]

How come our "2nd best player" (who didn't play) is also our worst player? We paid a top 3 unprotected pick for that max contract? C'mon man...

It's such an odd paradigm, but it's the truth.

[Jedzz]

How come our "2nd best player" (who didn't play) is also our worst player? We paid a top 3 unprotected pick for that max contract? C'mon man...

It's such an odd paradigm, but it's the truth.

How come the team has won as many games without their 1st best player and highest paid player, as with him?


Should we be asking any of these stupid questions? Yours or Mine? No.


We should be asking better ones. Like how this team of players was directed by Pobo/GM/Coaches into a record hole of 4-11, with three of the wins against the Spurs, Detroit, and Pelicans.

[Heimdal]

Does anybody believe Russell needed rest after playing 21 minutes the night before? I'm sure they sweat more after practice.

I find myself daydreaming: Rubio Beasley McDaniels Vanderbilt Towns

[Sugarless]

How come our "2nd best player" (who didn't play) is also our worst player? We paid a top 3 unprotected pick for that max contract? C'mon man...

It's such an odd paradigm, but it's the truth.

Not really, because he's not the second best player, only the second best scorer, and even that's debatable as Beasley is much more efficient.

Russell is a zero-effort, no defense, turnover prone scoring guard who plays for himself. That's not the second best player on any team.

It took all of one game with 'Angelo out and Rubio as the starter (and McLaughlin backing him up) surrounded by a bunch of random guys to see how big of a difference it makes to have a true floor general running things on offense and setting the tone on defense. The win was nice, but it wasn't even that important. You could see the difference throughout the game regardless of the score.

[PharmD]

How come our "2nd best player" (who didn't play) is also our worst player? We paid a top 3 unprotected pick for that max contract? C'mon man...

It's such an odd paradigm, but it's the truth.

How come the team has won as many games without their 1st best player and highest paid player, as with him?

Is that a serious question?

The obvious answer is "Because we've played 4 games with Towns (we're 2-2) and 11 games without him (we're 2-9)"

I mean, c'mon

[Jedzz]

It's such an odd paradigm, but it's the truth.

How come the team has won as many games without their 1st best player and highest paid player, as with him?

Is that a serious question?

The obvious answer is "Because we've played 4 games with Towns (we're 2-2) and 11 games without him (we're 2-9)"

I mean, c'mon

Sure, but you are missing the point. The team also has 4 total wins and Dlo was playing in 3 of those. I mean, c'mon. If we are looking for oversimplified answers and using a single win to gangtackle Dlo because he was absent I'm going to show you other sides to that worthless coin that have just as much baseless reason to them.

[Jedzz]

Does anybody believe Russell needed rest after playing 21 minutes the night before? I'm sure they sweat more after practice.

I find myself daydreaming: Rubio Beasley McDaniels Vanderbilt Towns

The point is worthless in the end. It may be valid as your opinion on the type of basketball you want to see. But it says nothing about the quality of wins possible should the team play dlo instead in that lineup. A lineup that HAS NEVER HAPPENED yet for Dlo either. Not even close.

Dlo Beasley McDaniels Vanderbilt Towns

Sounds like just as interesting lineup to me. More scoring punch, and a different style than if Rubio ran it. That's all. I also expect Dlo would care more about playing in that lineup vs playing babysitter to Culver/Edwards/Okogie and watching them initiate offense with players like Reid, Davis, Layman, Juancho as the only bigs. Because that's the reality that Dlo has been playing with and that's the reality of how the coaches were asking him to get along with these players. Even Rubio struggled with that BS. Didn't matter how much effort Rubio was putting in or not. Which people were starting to question, calling him slow and old looking, missing his own shots. How quickly everyone forgets. It's all about having a viable set of players on the court at one time.

I wish people could focus on the real problems to finally correct this team going forward.

[PharmD]

How come the team has won as many games without their 1st best player and highest paid player, as with him?

Is that a serious question?

The obvious answer is "Because we've played 4 games with Towns (we're 2-2) and 11 games without him (we're 2-9)"

I mean, c'mon

Sure, but you are missing the point. The team also has 4 total wins and Dlo was playing in 3 of those. I mean, c'mon. If we are looking for oversimplified answers and using a single win to gangtackle Dlo because he was absent I'm going to show you other sides to that worthless coin that have just as much baseless reason to them.

Can we also look to the full season's worth of data to see that we are far better whenever DLo is out of the game, always? And much better whenever Towns is in the game?

When Russell is on the court the team plays its worst defense – DRTG of 119.
When he is on the bench or taking a mental health day the team defense is at its best – DRTG of 98.

His defensive On/Off is the team’s worst: -21. For some context the 2nd worst defensive On/Off is Hernandez’s -12pts.

So, yes what about the offense?
With Russell the team scored 102 pts/100poss, without him they scored 103 pts.
For some, it might be a surprise, but even the offense is better without the "all-star"

He has been absolute poison to the defense and has made no difference to the offense. We beat the Pelicans with a DRTG of 106. I think we would have given up more points had DLo played.

[Jedzz]

Is that a serious question?

The obvious answer is "Because we've played 4 games with Towns (we're 2-2) and 11 games without him (we're 2-9)"

I mean, c'mon

Sure, but you are missing the point. The team also has 4 total wins and Dlo was playing in 3 of those. I mean, c'mon. If we are looking for oversimplified answers and using a single win to gangtackle Dlo because he was absent I'm going to show you other sides to that worthless coin that have just as much baseless reason to them.

Can we also look to the full season's worth of data to see that we are far better whenever DLo is out of the game, always? And much better whenever Towns is in the game?

When Russell is on the court the team plays its worst defense – DRTG of 119.
When he is on the bench or taking a mental health day the team defense is at its best – DRTG of 98.

His defensive On/Off is the team’s worst: -21. For some context the 2nd worst defensive On/Off is Hernandez’s -12pts.

So, yes what about the offense?
With Russell the team scored 102 pts/100poss, without him they scored 103 pts.
For some, it might be a surprise, but even the offense is better without the "all-star"

He has been absolute poison to the defense and has made no difference to the offense. We beat the Pelicans with a DRTG of 106. I think we would have given up more points had DLo played.

You are paying zero mind to what the team has been asking DLO to play with and how they have asked him to play alongside some of these others (which has been changing every game with all this trial and error). You are paying no mind to how badly people were just claiming Rubio was playing this season prior when he was stuck in those bad positions Dlo has been put into. It's like you are blaming Dlo for him sucking as well. When it's been every other decision the coaches have made that had hurt both of them this season.

I don't care about any of your numbers during all this trial and error bullst, value prodding of youngsters, games completely sold out on trying to get Layman/Juancho individually to build some stats, wasted losses, nonteam building, outside the original plan and terrible basketball. I don't expect Dlo to give a rats behind for this team when the coaches have done some of this stuff while Towns has been out. I'm not surprised by any of the outcomes given their decisions every game. I'm not surprised by his lack of engagement in some of these games.

It's very simple to me though to see some of you losing your minds over this and at the same time disregarding the 70 points and 98 minutes Dlo brought to the three wins he played in. Including the first two wins against Detroit and Utah where Karl played. Utah being the only good team they've beat so far. Why don't you look at those two games and try to tell us how much Dlo sucked? He was engaged even playing off ball often with idiots initiating too much. He was engaged because Towns was playing and the coaches hadn't completely pissed him off yet. But they were already well on their way to doing so. Queue Town's missing games and the fun that we had since.

Go ahead. Remove DLo from the team. We can circle back to the conversation after another 55 games or so and see how great it was.

[younggunsmn]

Brandon Ingram is exactly the kind of player we should be trying to mold Jaden McDaniels into, they have very similar skillsets and body type. Ingram was bad his first couple years too.

Rubio bringing the ball up running plays and Saunders calling actual playsets. Beautiful.
Isn't that how a team is supposed to function instead of dribble dribble dribble failed weakass pnr dribble dribble dribble chuck a step back 3?

If Saunders wants to keep his job he is going to have to take stronger control, even if it means pissing off his star players and his GM.
So many young guys and not enough quality vets.
Vanderbilt and Davis did a good job on Zion.
Vanderbilt needs to play and Juancho needs to sit, we need that energy, d, and rebounding much more than mediocre outside shooting.
Rubio and Jmac are high IQ guards who put the team first, though you can tell Rubio isnt there yet physically.

This is a young team with middle of the road talent, but if they play team basketball they are capable of being a .500 team that is in every game.

[Jedzz]

Brandon Ingram is exactly the kind of player we should be trying to mold Jaden McDaniels into, they have very similar skillsets and body type. Ingram was bad his first couple years too.

Rubio bringing the ball up running plays and Saunders calling actual playsets. Beautiful.
Isn't that how a team is supposed to function instead of dribble dribble dribble failed weakass pnr dribble dribble dribble chuck a step back 3?

If Saunders wants to keep his job he is going to have to take stronger control, even if it means pissing off his star players and his GM.
So many young guys and not enough quality vets.
Vanderbilt and Davis did a good job on Zion.
Vanderbilt needs to play and Juancho needs to sit, we need that energy, d, and rebounding much more than mediocre outside shooting.
Rubio and Jmac are high IQ guards who put the team first, though you can tell Rubio isnt there yet physically.

This is a young team with middle of the road talent, but if they play team basketball they are capable of being a .500 team that is in every game.

There are opinions on what type of basketball you want to watch. Those are fine. They might even seem logical. Doesn't mean they are the best possible usage of the roster the moronic Pobo/GM put together.

The roster is what it is. How best to get the most out of all of them is always the puzzle. You think this one win has solved that puzzle? You think Vanderbilt's and Davis' lack of outside shooting was enough because it worked this once? I agree their play is needed. Doesn't mean it's going to be enough scoring punch once playing better teams. Not if you also remove scorers like Dlo as well, etc.

The team just beat the 5-10 Pelicans. Give me a break. Puzzle solved alright.

I'm not going to argue against your highIQ arguments for Rubio/JMac. They are. But so is Dlo. We are simply looking at three players with three very different ways of playing PG.

Here's just a single alternative thought for you. Maybe one good thing that has been happening the past two to three games is that Vanderbilt and now McDaniels are starting to see real minutes. That's been building by the game. If we could go back to game three where Towns is out and insert Vanderbilt and McDaniels a lot more to usage could it have helped every game since? Sure it could of. If could have changed everything in some of those games since.

[younggunsmn]

I'm talking about playing structured team basketball.
And that starts with the guards.
It has been non-existent with D-Lo running the team.
He tries to be James Harden instead of getting other players involved.

And if there is one thing so many young players need, it's structure.

[PharmD]

Sure, but you are missing the point. The team also has 4 total wins and Dlo was playing in 3 of those. I mean, c'mon. If we are looking for oversimplified answers and using a single win to gangtackle Dlo because he was absent I'm going to show you other sides to that worthless coin that have just as much baseless reason to them.

Can we also look to the full season's worth of data to see that we are far better whenever DLo is out of the game, always? And much better whenever Towns is in the game?

When Russell is on the court the team plays its worst defense – DRTG of 119.
When he is on the bench or taking a mental health day the team defense is at its best – DRTG of 98.

His defensive On/Off is the team’s worst: -21. For some context the 2nd worst defensive On/Off is Hernandez’s -12pts.

So, yes what about the offense?
With Russell the team scored 102 pts/100poss, without him they scored 103 pts.
For some, it might be a surprise, but even the offense is better without the "all-star"

He has been absolute poison to the defense and has made no difference to the offense. We beat the Pelicans with a DRTG of 106. I think we would have given up more points had DLo played.

You are paying zero mind to what the team has been asking DLO to play with and how they have asked him to play alongside some of these others (which has been changing every game with all this trial and error). You are paying no mind to how badly people were just claiming Rubio was playing this season prior when he was stuck in those bad positions Dlo has been put into. It's like you are blaming Dlo for him sucking as well. When it's been every other decision the coaches have made that had hurt both of them this season.

I don't care about any of your numbers during all this trial and error bullst, value prodding of youngsters, games completely sold out on trying to get Layman/Juancho individually to build some stats, wasted losses, nonteam building, outside the original plan and terrible basketball. I don't expect Dlo to give a rats behind for this team when the coaches have done some of this stuff while Towns has been out. I'm not surprised by any of the outcomes given their decisions every game. I'm not surprised by his lack of engagement in some of these games.

It's very simple to me though to see some of you losing your minds over this and at the same time disregarding the 70 points and 98 minutes Dlo brought to the three wins he played in. Including the first two wins against Detroit and Utah where Karl played. Utah being the only good team they've beat so far. Why don't you look at those two games and try to tell us how much Dlo sucked? He was engaged even playing off ball often with idiots initiating too much. He was engaged because Towns was playing and the coaches hadn't completely pissed him off yet. But they were already well on their way to doing so. Queue Town's missing games and the fun that we had since.

Go ahead. Remove DLo from the team. We can circle back to the conversation after another 55 games or so and see how great it was.

Even in your 3 cherry-picked games the team is still 9 points better with DLo off the court. Even when he's on fire he's giving the points right back on the other end. Dude sucks.

[Jedzz]

I'm talking about playing structured team basketball.
And that starts with the guards.
It has been non-existent with D-Lo running the team.
He tries to be James Harden instead of getting other players involved.

And if there is one thing so many young players need, it's structure.

It's justt a different way to play. Yes, when your PoBo/GM and Coaches decide after the fact to start a bunch of low game IQ youngsters so much structured play might help them, I agree to that. I don't agree that should be the point to the seasion. I don't agree that this was the plan after the trade deadline last year when they added Dlo/Beasley/Juancho and resigned both Beasley and Juancho. These things aren't happening in a vacuum, and if they decided to all of a sudden want to start elementary kids soon than they should get off the pot and trade the vets they don't want anymore. Otherwise, those youngsters don't play until they can learn the game, see Gleague.