Road to a Championship start here, 2022 Draft.

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Up 8 at the half, it would be nice to see this team come out with a fire to put the Jazz away.

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Start of the 2nd, Zion was on court with 2 shooters Murphy, CJ & ball pressure Daniels. AAAhhhh.

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Pels have 8 TO's, Utah 3 steals.
Utah have 9 TO's, Pels 7 steals.

Anyone want to take a guess how Utah managed to turn the Pels over to pace possession. 4 travelling violations. Pels are forcing steals, refs are turning the Pels over.

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Utah to start the 3rd, 6 FT's & another travelling TO for NO's

Chance to take the lead LMAO.

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Glad Pels pulled this one out so I can say this in a win. NBA is fake ****.

Utah +10 on the line & of the Pels 14 TO's, the refs turned them over 9x, 6 travelling violations, 3 charges. lol

9 extra possessions, is a potential 27pts, add in the + 10FT's, you are looking at potential 37pt impact created by the officials. None is arguing the validity of the travelling violations, it's the selective nature of calling it.

Olynyk was walking on his screens, I didn't see any moving violations called. Dunn was palming the ball, you see any palming violations ? me neither.

Just the other day the General board told me the NBA turns a blind eye to travelling, lol. Not 1, 2 but 6 against the Pels in this one.

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Nance was easily the player of the game, good to have him back.

Nice to see that they're looking to try & balance the rotations better.

Still not a fan of the starting lineup. CJ had a good shooting night & they still lost the 3rd Q. Granted the FT line aided the Jazz 8pt comeback but the starters struggled in combination.

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I was looking forward to this one to see if there was progression. Pels break the Utah curse & end a 5 game skid against the sub 500 team while playing 5 on 8.

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Woke up this morning to an expected take.... TRADE JONAS lol

Instead of defending Jonas, I will try to explain the cause & effect.

In terms of fit. The team is supposed to be building around Zion & what we know is currently a non optimal starting rotation. In a 2 man pairing concerning Zion.

Zion, Jonas is +6.5 vs starters mostly & due to the mins Daniels was allowed to start.
Zion, BI +3
Zion, Herb -1

Zion, CJ -3, starting, bench, with & without Jonas. Spacing, no ball pressure
Zion, Daniels +9, mainly starting, reason for Jonas & Zion's + rating. Ball pressure, no spacing

Last night the rotation off the bench was Nance (rim protection), Zion, 2 shooters (Murphy/CJ) & Daniels (ball pressure). It was a good balanced rotation in relation to the starting 5, playing 5 on Herb defensively.

Nance was good last night but take Daniels ball pressure out of that bench rotation, what happens ?

The discussion has always been about finding the right offensive & defensive balance. Put a defensive rim protector in the starting rotation without Daniels ball pressure & see what happens when teams zone you. I'm at a point where I would like to see Jonas traded just so I could get some kicks.

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Larry's post game interview was IMO spot on & encouraging for me to hear.

Here's the thing..

What he's saying in that interview should also apply to the starting unit. There's a 172 minutes & a -6 rating that suggests something needs to give & I know they know it but IMO, they're looking in the wrong direction.

What they want or rumored to want, is to replace Jonas with Allen's defense.

Here's the problem with this solution. There's 2 sides of the court to consider.

Half the issue with the current starting rotation is the offensive overlap with Zion, BI & CJ. When CJ dominates the ball, Zion becomes nothing more than a low usage, defensive liability. You can get away with 2 of the 3 but the 3 proves to be too much of the same. So replacing Jonas might rectify some of the rim protecting issues, it doesn't address the offensive issues with the rotation.

The difference between swapping Jonas for a rim protector or CJ for ball pressure, is this..

Jonas doesn't require the ball in his hands to produce offensively 15/10/2.5 on (56/37/80) efficiency. Whereas CJ's 19/4/4 is on 44% efficiency. Jonas is low usage efficiency production, his 15pts is on 10 FGA's, whereas CJ is averaging 16 attempts a game for an additional 4 pts. Jonas doesn't need the ball in his hands or plays to put up his 15pts on 10 shots, whereas CJ has to take touches away from either BI or ZIon, to get his 19 on 44% efficiecny. So for Jonas to be effectively replaced by a defensive rim protector, you'd have to believe there's no offensive overlap.

With CJ down, Pelicans have 9 starts, 88mins of proof that ball pressure while playing 4 on 5 has the starting unit at a net +22. Can you see Allen who doesn't have Jonas 3 level gravity or efficiency rectifying this offensive issue when teams run a zone to have a comparable result to what you've seen with Daniels over CJ ?

This team in believing a rim protector will solve the starting unit's issues, will be sadly mistaken. They will get better rim protection though.

What has me encouraged is I've noticed there's an effort to have Daniels on court with Zion.

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Lakers are 1 game out of 6/7 seed Mavs/Pels, 1.5 games up on GS for 11th seed.

OKC bricking all their open 3's is the only reason Lakers are not currently 500. with only a half game over GS.

Would love a lotto ticket this season but I have my theory as to why Pels have been getting the whistle they have during this easy portion of their schedule. I need to watch some Mavs games to see what type of whistle they're getting.

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I went to the Hawks board to see Murray's status in trade & I saw Pascal's name attached to Murray +

& it hit me. A Raptor insider on the general board thread talking about blowing up the Pels roster, suggested they could reroute CJ if Pels traded CJ & picks for Pascal. I ignored this suggestion because Pascal doesn't make sense for this team on several levels. However learning of Atlanta's interest in Pascal for Murray.

NO's trade - (CJ, pick/s) for (Murray, Okongwu)
Raptors trade - (Pascal) for (CJ, pick/s) they reroute CJ as suggested
Atlanta trade - (Murray, Okongwu) for (Pascal)

Financially Murray signed a team friendly deal at 18m, Okongwu could fill the backup 5 at 8m 5yrs. Needless to say besides Murray being more of a point man & 2 way player for a better overall fit, he's also younger & cheaper. Whereas with Allen, the fit is on the defensive end, where you lose Jonas 3 level efficiency in the tradeoff & at 20m he also doesn't match Jonas production value at 15m. That brings me to the addition of Okongwu. Pels add a young cheap defensive big man who can hit an open 3 & play small ball 5, with potential to his game, to solidify the backup 5, at 8m 5yrs. They not only plug holes but they save money long term.

(CJ 30m +) for (Murray 18m & Okongwu 8m) >>>>>>> (Jonas 15m +) for (Allen 20m)

Better fit, better cost production, better value & better depth. Also helps NO's to shed money if they choose to

Jonas - Okongwu/Nance
Zion - Nance
BI - Murphy
Herb - Hawkins/Jose
Murray - Daniels/Jose

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With Murray NO's don't have to choose between Daniels defense & CJ's spacing.
With Allen, NO's give up Jonas 3 level efficiency for defense.

In trading CJ's max with pick/s, you're getting the younger 2 way point man Murray on a team friendly 18m in combination with a cheap young defensive big at 8m to address the depth issue at the 5, give the team another small ball 5 option.

In trading Jonas with pick/s for Allen, you're trading Jonas 3 level offensive efficiency for defense & an additional 5m per. Basically trading one problem for another.

Laying out the financial aspect of the trade

Jonas -(15m)
Zion - (34m/36m/39m/42m/44m)
BI - (33m, 36m)
Herb - (12m/12m/13m/14m)
Murray - (18m/23m/27m/29m/31m)

Starters with Murray over CJ, (15m less in 23, 10m less in 24) This money saved has gone to Okongwu at the backup 5, Quality depth at 8m/5yrs

Okongwu - (8m/14m/15m/16m/16m)
Nance - (10m/11m)
Murphy - (3m/5m/RFA)
Hawkins - (4m/4m/5m/7m)
Daniels - (5m/6m/7m)
Jose - (2m/2m)

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HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

What a great way to start the year with a win over the Lakers. Looks like 5th time was a charm, hot shooting game from CJ. What a difference having more than one big man. Nance was great again as Pels hold Davis to under 50% from the field & Laker low -17 as their most impactful player. Some may not understand the effect of Davis having to play physical & above his weight agains

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HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

What a great way to start the year with a win over the Lakers. Looks like 5th time was a charm, hot shooting game from CJ. What a difference having more than one big man. Nance was great again as Pels hold Davis to under 50% from the field & Laker low -17 as their most impactful player. Some may not understand the effect of Davis having to play physical & above his weight against Jonas only to have Nance come in with his speed & athleticism. You could also see James slowing down late 3rd. Which brings me to JOSE, JOSE, JOSE, JOSE....

Say what you want, Jose's ball pressure on Lebron was the difference in this game & the reason Lebron was tired after 3 both mentally & Physically. People will point to Jose's 4 steal but it would be important to state 3 were him literally ripping the ball out of Lebron's hands, He visibly had him frustrated that he had to play hard to keep up.

The area that had me most concerned... Even on the FT line in a 20pt win.

Austin flop FT Reaves is carving out a nice career being Lebron's teammate.

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The talking heads have gone quiet outside a bad loss. I need to know, is Zion still fat & not give a **** ?

LMAO

26 on 8-12 shooting efficiency, 4 rebs, 6 assist in 30 mins

WOW, he lost that weight quick. lol

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HERB JONES - 3-5 from 3

& it hasn't gone unnoticed that Daniels has hit some big corner 3's recently 1-1 tonight, on a much needed bucket.

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If OKC didn't brick all their wide open 3's Lakers would be currently 1 game under 500, a half game up on GS for the 11th seed, while getting a very favorable whistle on the year. Either Davis or Lebron go down for 2-3 weeks & it could be their season.

Heat, Grizzlies, Clippers up next.

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Anyone take a look at LA's closing schedule ?. They've had such an easy schedule to date, as I've pointed out, most of their wins have come against teams with under 5 wins, that from FEB 28, they face only 4 teams under 500, 5 games, in their last 23, with Pels hosting the last game of the season.

Check this remaining schedule out FEB 28

Suns, Clippers, Washington, Denver, OKC, Sacramento, Bucks, Minnesota, Sacramento, Dallas, Hawks, Philly, Indiana, Bucks, Memphis, Indiana, Nets, Toronto, Washington, Cavs, Minnesota, GS, Memphis,

Ending with Pels at home

Minnesota 2x
Bucks 2x
Denver
Philly
Clippers
Sacramento 2x
Pels
Dallas
Suns
Indiana 2x
Memphis
Hawks
Nets
Toronto
Washington 2x

Out of the teams with losing records, Washington is the only bottom feeder. Memphis have turned a leaf, Hawks , Nets & Toronto are not walk over teams despite their losing records. The last game of the season could be a fun home game for the Pels.

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It's going to take some good fortune but as of today, Lakers share the 13th draft slot with Houston.

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A poster points to Jonas +3 & Nance +17 as indication of Jonas fit.

Lets talk fit - With Nance injured Jonas is in most of the lineups over 30 minutes together -

Jonas - Zion - BI - Herb - CJ = 196 minutes -5
Jonas - Zion - BI - Herb - Daniels = 88 minutes +22.
Jonas - Ryan - Herb - CJ - Hawkins = 35 minutes +12
Jonas - Zion - BI - Herb - Hawkins = 31 minutes +12

In the 4 lineups in which Jonas has played 30 minutes or more there's only one negative lineup. The one with 4 offensive options. The solution to this lineup is to replace one of the vets with either a rim protector or ball pressure.

INance - Zion - BI - Herb - CJ = 14 minutes +28 coming off the 20pt Laker blow out & Utah. Lakers now 500.

Knowing you can replace either C or PG for defense & upgrade to date rim protector vs ball pressure

Jonas - Zion - BI - Herb - Danoels = 88 minutes +22 - (Mavs, Denver, Kings 2x, Clippers, Utah 2x, Bulls, Wolves)
Nance - Zion - BI - Herb - CJ = 14 minutes +28 - (Utah, Lakers)

+17 vs the Lakers means they were +9 vs Utah when this same poster claimed a better fit lol. To match the consistency of ball pressure vs cleanup & hot shooting, you've got at least 70 more minutes to fairly compare. Not factoring SOS.

Pointing out Jonas doesn't fit, is misleading at best playing in the same starting lineup. Nance is also coming off the bench for most of that 14 minutes vs Jonas starting. Whereas Daniels minutes came against the toughest portion of the schedule with no depth from 1 big man to 3 shooters being out to a current healthy squad.

The starting unit & Daniels didn't get burn in this game for an equal comparison of fit.

If you weren't saying this about CJ when the team was balling with Daniels, be honest & show your hate for Jonas don't hide behind the word fit.