Official Speculation Thread ‘17-18’: XVIII: The Long Wait Continues

[fendilim]

Didnt someone say Elfrid will be better now because he has ber teammates?

PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME

Elfrid Payton had an up-and-down preseason opener Sunday in Chicago, making a few bad passes that led to turnovers. In his second game Monday, Payton’s best statistic was seven assists and no turnovers, as he showed his passing ability, finding Davis and others for close-range hoops or wide-open three-pointers. Payton added seven points and two blocks. On one of those swats, he impressively used his 6-foot-4 frame and length to block a jumper by Atlanta lottery pick Trae Young in a halfcourt situation.

https://www.nba.com/pelicans/news/preseason-postgame-wrap-hawks-116-pelicans-102

Hmmmmmmmm

Pelicans lost by 14points, fyi. Lol

[MagicStarwipe]

Lol, as usual.... Y'ALL all the ones that keep talking **** and bringing him up. Pepe, take it up with the Pelicans writer who watched the game. fendilim, it's preseason and you brought it up.

Peace.

[SOUL]

Lol, as usual.... Y'ALL all the ones that keep talking **** and bringing him up. Pepe, take it up with the Pelicans writer who watched the game. fendilim, it's preseason and you brought it up.

Peace.

The funny thing is, people that like Payton have pm'd me over the summer saying how ridiculous some of the comments are here, which for the most part (besides the occasional crazy statement) have been statements like "Payton isn't as bad as you guys say he is, he can be helpful to the Pelicans." Like... people get mad at that.

Meanwhile, read the Sixers gamethread and quite a few posters are still arguing FOR the use of Vucevic as a top option for the 6th straight year and trying to sell him as efficient when every efficiency stat proves otherwise.



Definitely some delusion going on, and I don't think it's from the people saying "Payton can be helpful to the Pelicans". It's not even a relevant point anymore because he's not on the team. Payton outgrew his usefulness here which is why he got moved, but I certainly think he can provide more use to Jrue, Randle, and Davis than what we have. Time for people to start looking at Vuc and realizing the same thing.. which has been true for a few years now.

[pepe1991]

Lol, as usual.... Y'ALL all the ones that keep talking **** and bringing him up. Pepe, take it up with the Pelicans writer who watched the game. fendilim, it's preseason and you brought it up.

Peace.

Why don't you root for Pele now?
If you are Magic fan , why da hell you have need to defend guy who was shipped for second round pick, and who Suns pretty much cut midway through a season because he sucked?

I just don't get it.

And no Soul, most posters, you included, viewed him as big thing.
It's enough to open Payton threads from 2017 to see it.
I remember you claiming he is best player on a team.

[MagicStarwipe]

Lol, as usual.... Y'ALL all the ones that keep talking **** and bringing him up. Pepe, take it up with the Pelicans writer who watched the game. fendilim, it's preseason and you brought it up.

Peace.

Why don't you root for Pele now?
If you are Magic fan , why da hell you have need to defend guy who was shipped for second round pick, and who Suns pretty much cut midway through a season because he sucked?

I just don't get it.

And no Soul, most posters, you included, viewed him as big thing.
It's enough to open Payton threads from 2017 to see it.
I remember you claiming he is best player on a team.

Why do you defend Mario who's option wasn't even picked up and was let go for nothing?

Being the best player on the team for a season and stretches of other seasons on THIS team makes him a "big thing"?

I have no desire to get into Payton debates here.

You people need to let it go.

[pepe1991]

Lol, as usual.... Y'ALL all the ones that keep talking **** and bringing him up. Pepe, take it up with the Pelicans writer who watched the game. fendilim, it's preseason and you brought it up.

Peace.

Why don't you root for Pele now?
If you are Magic fan , why da hell you have need to defend guy who was shipped for second round pick, and who Suns pretty much cut midway through a season because he sucked?

I just don't get it.

And no Soul, most posters, you included, viewed him as big thing.
It's enough to open Payton threads from 2017 to see it.
I remember you claiming he is best player on a team.

Why do you defend Mario who's option wasn't even picked up and was let go for nothing?

Being the best player on the team for a season and stretches of other seasons on THIS team makes him a "big thing"?

I have no desire to get into Payton debates here.

You people need to let it go.

Because unlike Payton who was given 4 years of free reign ,Mario got half of the season to show anything, but at that point team already failed to pick up his option.
Mario literally did not play during his second season at all. Jodie Meeks, one year guy, who missed 30 games more than Hezonja (due injury, where Hezonja was DNPed ) played only 200 min less than Hezonja.
CJ Watson, who was beyond terrible, and who retired after that season- played more than Hezonja.
It was one of most idiotic situations in team history.

[FFBlitzace]

There has always been this bizarre disconnect where Payton haters adamantly insist that his vocal defenders were under a delusion where they viewed him as a star player. No matter how many times it was pointed out that there was a difference between defending him against inaccurate hyperbolic statements on here and declaring him a star in the making, it still gets brought up.

[pepe1991]

There has always been this bizarre disconnect where Payton haters adamantly insist that his vocal defenders were under a delusion where they viewed him as a star player. No matter how many times it was pointed out that there was a difference between defending him against inaccurate hyperbolic statements on here and declaring him a star in the making, it still gets brought up.

I can only talk about my personal experience , when his defenders were claiming he is better than Tony Parker was when he won finals MVP award, what a hell you can assume from it but that they view him as a star?

If you go on official speculation thread from 2017 you will find huge debate who is better shooter, Payton or Westbrook.

"How Payton made me fall in love with basketball "thread was a thing in 2017 or '16, not sure any more.
One whole summer his fans claimed he is best Magic player.
When he had few triple doubles after ASG in 2017 forum was flooded with his fans.

it took his fans 4 full years to admit he is bad on defense. Before that "elite" and "above average "was common word used for his D.

[tiderulz]

Didnt someone say Elfrid will be better now because he has ber teammates?

PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME

Elfrid Payton had an up-and-down preseason opener Sunday in Chicago, making a few bad passes that led to turnovers. In his second game Monday, Payton’s best statistic was seven assists and no turnovers, as he showed his passing ability, finding Davis and others for close-range hoops or wide-open three-pointers. Payton added seven points and two blocks. On one of those swats, he impressively used his 6-foot-4 frame and length to block a jumper by Atlanta lottery pick Trae Young in a halfcourt situation.

https://www.nba.com/pelicans/news/preseason-postgame-wrap-hawks-116-pelicans-102

Hmmmmmmmm

Pelicans lost by 14points, fyi. Lol

and Payton was -10 on the floor. the day before, 2-10, 4 pts, 4 assists, 3 to. as we have seen for his career, still very inconsistent

[PennytoShaq]

Payton had some nice games for the Suns too, at first.

[Def Swami]

I'll never lose sleep over Payton now that Briscoe is on the team.

[SOUL]

Payton had some nice games for the Suns too, at first.

To be fair, he did have a knee injury. Also if people can shush his good play there, it makes no sense to point at the bad play around that time when previously those people were predicting he would play good at the end of the year when it didn't matter. When he sucked/got hurt it was "see, that's who he is!" even though they were anticipating the end of year good play. It goes against their own argument.

It's almost as if he evens out into a completely average point guard/low-end starter/great backup, but the detractors won't let that die for some reason until everybody gets on board with him being completely awful or playing in China or something.

[PennytoShaq]

Payton had some nice games for the Suns too, at first.

To be fair, he did have a knee injury. Also if people can shush his good play there, it makes no sense to point at the bad play around that time when previously those people were predicting he would play good at the end of the year when it didn't matter. When he sucked/got hurt it was "see, that's who he is!" even though they were anticipating the end of year good play. It goes against their own argument.

It's almost as if he evens out into a completely average point guard/low-end starter/great backup, but the detractors won't let that die for some reason until everybody gets on board with him being completely awful or playing in China or something.

I personally was sick of seeing a guy who had an inconsistent motor, was lazy on D and could not shoot well. It was not even about him personally, I like him a lot. He is extremely chill and unassuming in person. But the Magic need a PG who can do all the things I just mentioned. Especially in a starter.

I personally think he is one step towards playing out of the NBA. If he regresses in NOLA, that could be it. PG is a very deep position and even flawed guys like DJ who can at least shoot from deep are more valuable to teams right now.

[woosah]

https://www.nba.com/pelicans/news/preseason-postgame-wrap-hawks-116-pelicans-102

Hmmmmmmmm

Pelicans lost by 14points, fyi. Lol

and Payton was -10 on the floor. the day before, 2-10, 4 pts, 4 assists, 3 to. as we have seen for his career, still very inconsistent

LOL. How about some context both ways. He played the most minutes because Gentry is trying to get him comfortable with the starters because you know, it's PRESEASON,and that is the only reason he was player of the game so idk what Fendi is trying to say with posting they lost. So what? I guess you're good with the Knicks winning but Mario having 8 pts and 5 turnovers and being -1? He balled out huh?

The Pelicans took a first-half lead of 57-51 paced by 16 points from Anthony Davis, 13 from Jrue Holiday, 11 from Randle and seven assists with five points by Elfrid Payton.

"Our first unit played really well, and I felt good about that," Gentry said. "AD and those guys looked good. That group did a good job for the most part." Payton's ability to see the floor and make the right pass will be important as he steps in to fill the role that Rajon Rondo left behind."I liked how Elfrid looked," Gentry said. "I wanted to play him a little extra to get him acclimated, and he's adjusting well."

Shortly after Randle left the game, starters Davis, Holiday, Payton, and E'Twaun Moore also went to the bench. The Pelicans were outscored 37-14 in the third quarter, leading to the Hawks victory.

He's the only one (from the projected starters) that stayed in with a unit that did not play well. The only reason Randle was barely a plus because he got hurt and taken out before Payton. He did his job and had a nice game. I don't know why this board stays obsessed with him.

[J the Drafter]

Our entire team has played under the oversight of an unqualified training staff for the past couple years. I think they can be blamed for quite a bit of our players’ struggles with injuries and “apathetic” play. What people have seen as lazy play could perhaps be attributed instead to insufficient physical preparation.

Also, Payton typically doesn’t provide more than fifteen points a game, but if he doesn’t have a double-digit assist number something is wrong.

[woosah]

I can't wait for that article breaking down the magic defense this year. Since so many place such importance on articles it will be interesting to see the spin since 'the problem' was removed and the magic defense is still *** as ever.

[PennytoShaq]

Assuming and hoping the Magic defense will be bad so you can try and regain traction in an argument about a former player is the very definition of petty.

[j-ragg]

Espn+ article on guys bonuses they can get this year. AG was part of it.

The forward position in the Eastern Conference has a void with LeBron James in the West, and Gordon finally has a coach in Steve Clifford who brings stability to the organization, giving him a chance to earn a $500,000 bonus by making his first All-Star team.

Gordon's two additional potential bonuses that would be added to his $21.6 million salary: All-NBA and All-Defense nods.

[PennytoShaq]

Espn+ article on guys bonuses they can get this year. AG was part of it.

The forward position in the Eastern Conference has a void with LeBron James in the West, and Gordon finally has a coach in Steve Clifford who brings stability to the organization, giving him a chance to earn a $500,000 bonus by making his first All-Star team.

Gordon's two additional potential bonuses that would be added to his $21.6 million salary: All-NBA and All-Defense nods.

If he just chills and lets the game come to him he can make it happen. It’s when he forces things and starts trying to be a fancy ball handler at the top of the key that everything breaks down.

I think he could pull this off this year. It is definitely a key storyline for us.

[fendilim]

https://www.nba.com/pelicans/news/preseason-postgame-wrap-hawks-116-pelicans-102

Hmmmmmmmm

Pelicans lost by 14points, fyi. Lol

and Payton was -10 on the floor. the day before, 2-10, 4 pts, 4 assists, 3 to. as we have seen for his career, still very inconsistent

dudem didn't you read, he said its the preseason. sheesh.