RealGM

If I'm not mistaken, the Pelicans were the number 1 seed in mid December. Now they are tied with the Suns for the 8 seed. They have lost 13 out of their last 16. That's a scary fall. Yikes.

What's wrong? Are they that bad without Zion?

Dang! Yea Zion and Ingram are pretty big deals. And they might do a nice trade with future 1st's that aren't even their own. Still gonna try to win that ship this year, I hope. Should get a little easier in years to come.

They're playing without Ingram since forever.
Add all the games Zion has missed, add a few for McCollum who isn't having a great season anyway and that's your answer.
They will be great in the playoffs when healthy, make no mistake.

SUPERVILLAIN wrote:Are they that bad without Zion?

Was going to say that. But it can't be the only reason.

A team of CJ - Herb - Murphy - Ingram - Valanciunas (+ Alvarado, Nance, Graham,...) shouldn't lose 8 in a row. That's a solid team on paper. What happened?

Edit:
Sorry, forgot about Ingram's injury. There are not a lot of teams who would win games without their two best players.

-Luke- wrote:

SUPERVILLAIN wrote:Are they that bad without Zion?

Was going to say that. But it can't be the only reason.

A team of CJ - Herb - Murphy - Ingram - Valanciunas (+ Alvarado, Nance, Graham,...) shouldn't lose 8 in a row. That's a solid tram on paper. What happened?

Ingram was out for 6 of those games.

Bergmaniac wrote:

-Luke- wrote:

SUPERVILLAIN wrote:Are they that bad without Zion?

Was going to say that. But it can't be the only reason.

A team of CJ - Herb - Murphy - Ingram - Valanciunas (+ Alvarado, Nance, Graham,...) shouldn't lose 8 in a row. That's a solid tram on paper. What happened?

Ingram was out for 6 of those games.

Yes, I edited my post while you quoted me. I forgot about that.

I mean they lost the best player. Also Brandon Ingram just came back from an injury that kept him out for 2 months so he's not fully up to speed yet.

Hope this makes them panic and trade a lot for Fred VanVleet. They did miss out on Lowry the other year (luckily in hindsight) lol.

Zion was in mvp talk, why are you surprise ?

KGtabake wrote:They're playing without Ingram since forever.
Add all the games Zion has missed, add a few for McCollum who isn't having a great season anyway and that's your answer.
They will be great in the playoffs when healthy, make no mistake.

I'm not sure if I would say when, let's say if they are healthy (especially Zion).

Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson have missed a significant amount of time due to injury. The Pelicans have shown that they are one of the best teams in the NBA when healthy.

Same thing that’s wrong with the Clippers, two top dogs that are out for long stretches in the season. When they’re both healthy and clicking? Ain’t nothing wrong!

Offence is trash. Most teams would be trash offensively with their two best offensive players out. BI will come around.

Jonas was ejected a couple minutes into Saturdays game too, Then CJ and BI sat last night. We had the privilege of playing back to back, back to backs this week. Tuesday/Weds and then Saturday/Sunday. It’s just been an avalanche of if it can go wrong, it has.

For the most part, we also had a really really brutal schedule that we shouldn’t have expected to win. Nets with Durant, Celtics, Denver, Miami twice with full roster, Cleveland, Bucks, etc. it’s only this week with losses to the Wolves and Wizards that the fan base is starting to lose it.

Missing their 2 best players

They are tanking to help the lakers get Wenbanyama.

Yes, I know that's stupid because they get to choose if they swap picks, and the Pelicans have no chance of falling that far down, but just feels good to post this considering everyone kept saying this about the Lakers and Wenbanyama early in the season, but now Pelicans are actually looking like they will only move up a few spots with the pick swap.

I got laughed at for saying the Pelicans won't finish that far ahead of the standings compared to the Lakers, but everyone accounted for AD being injured and forgot to account for Zion and BI being just as injury prone.

-Luke- wrote:

SUPERVILLAIN wrote:Are they that bad without Zion?

Was going to say that. But it can't be the only reason.

A team of CJ - Herb - Murphy - Ingram - Valanciunas (+ Alvarado, Nance, Graham,...) shouldn't lose 8 in a row. That's a solid team on paper. What happened?

Edit:
Sorry, forgot about Ingram's injury. There are not a lot of teams who would win games without their two best players.

Honestly even without those 2, they are a pretty deep team on paper. Of course i'm not expecting them to be great but the advantage of a deep team is to sustain these kind of injuries in the regular season. They shouldn't lose 8 in a row and 13 of 16.

SUPERVILLAIN wrote:If I'm not mistaken, the Pelicans were the number 1 seed in mid December. Now they are tied with the Suns for the 8 seed. They have lost 13 out of their last 16. That's a scary fall. Yikes.

What's wrong? Are they that bad without Zion?

And Ingram. He only played 1 game. Take the two best players of any team and they would lose a lot, its not that complicated.

Like others have said, Zion has been out and Ingram has been out since late November. Ingram has played 2 games in their last 3, but he clearly is knocking off rust and getting back up to game speed, he just had 2 of his worst games in a long time and its clear as day he is still knocking off the rust.

So ya BI has missed 34 games, Zion has missed 22 games. Not surprising they're only 1 game above .500 when their top 2 guys have missed as many games as they have. But with that said, this is probably the biggest hole in this Pels team. BI and Zion to begin their careers are kind of the poster boys of guys you cant count on to stay healthy.

Jadoogar wrote:

-Luke- wrote:

SUPERVILLAIN wrote:Are they that bad without Zion?

Was going to say that. But it can't be the only reason.

A team of CJ - Herb - Murphy - Ingram - Valanciunas (+ Alvarado, Nance, Graham,...) shouldn't lose 8 in a row. That's a solid team on paper. What happened?

Edit:
Sorry, forgot about Ingram's injury. There are not a lot of teams who would win games without their two best players.

Honestly even without those 2, they are a pretty deep team on paper. Of course i'm not expecting them to be great but the advantage of a deep team is to sustain these kind of injuries in the regular season. They shouldn't lose 8 in a row and 13 of 16.

They are deep, but they're mostly young role players who aren't making plays with the ball in their hands.