Pelicans got a steal with the CJ McCollum trade

[Laimbeer]

He's really good, but his contract is pretty generous.

[Alonzo_Morning]

BI has taken a step forward, have you checked what the Pels record is this year without BI? They had a 2-13 record, worst team in the league. With BI they are in contention for a play-in spot, BI is also averaging his highest AST% of his career, his playmaking has improved significantly.

All they need is Zion back and the Pels will be competing for a top 6 playoff spot next season, whereas the knicks have already been eliminated from making the playoffs already.

No he hasn't taken a step forward.

You were saying?

That he's trash

[Duke4life831]

The crazy thing is (this is more of a testament on just how well BI has been playing in these playoffs), CJ hasnt even been all that good in the playoffs. Ya he's averaging 24ppg, but he's doing it on only 50 TS% and he is the biggest weak link on the defensive end.

Here is a crazy stat. So little playing time so these numbers get magnified and a lot of noise, but the eye tests back it up.

BI: +25.4
CJ: -30.3

Again lots of noise because the lack of minutes, but in the playoffs so far this has been easy to see. With BI on the court the Pels look like the better team in this series. Then when he sits and CJ gets his 5-6 minutes to run the offense to start the 2nd and 4th quarter without BI, its basically just turned into a lets just hope we dont give away too many points situation by the time BI gets back in.

I think 2 problems with CJ has shown in the series so far. His defense can be hard to hide. And PHX has good personnel to throw on him, Bridges has really kept CJ quiet for the majority of the series.

The Pels could really use a couple good CJ games to close out this series.

[Chuck Everett]

I personally think Pels are holding Zion out to trade him in the offseason. They don't want him to get hurt again and ruin his value.

[Duke4life831]

I personally think Pels are holding Zion out to trade him in the offseason. They don't want him to get hurt again and ruin his value.

That would be very dumb.

I actually think it would be the complete opposite. If the Pels wanted to trade Zion this summer, they would be the ones pushing to play him. At the moment Zion's trade value is at an all time low, all Zion would have to do is play 1-2 playoff games and drop his 27-7-4 on ridiculous efficiency and his value shoots right back up.

If Zion is at the point where he can't play 1-2 games without getting hurt, it wont matter if the Pels try to trade him this summer because there would be no way he would pass any kind of medical check by another team.

[Lalouie]

pels are pels

[Capn'O]

I personally think Pels are holding Zion out to trade him in the offseason. They don't want him to get hurt again and ruin his value.

That would be very dumb.

I actually think it would be the complete opposite. If the Pels wanted to trade Zion this summer, they would be the ones pushing to play him. At the moment Zion's trade value is at an all time low, all Zion would have to do is play 1-2 playoff games and drop his 27-7-4 on ridiculous efficiency and his value shoots right back up.

If Zion is at the point where he can't play 1-2 games without getting hurt, it wont matter if the Pels try to trade him this summer because there would be no way he would pass any kind of medical check by another team.

I dunno. Did you see what Morey just pulled? Keeping Zion as this unknown quantity may pay off rather than risk him looking like crap out there.

[Duke4life831]

I personally think Pels are holding Zion out to trade him in the offseason. They don't want him to get hurt again and ruin his value.

That would be very dumb.

I actually think it would be the complete opposite. If the Pels wanted to trade Zion this summer, they would be the ones pushing to play him. At the moment Zion's trade value is at an all time low, all Zion would have to do is play 1-2 playoff games and drop his 27-7-4 on ridiculous efficiency and his value shoots right back up.

If Zion is at the point where he can't play 1-2 games without getting hurt, it wont matter if the Pels try to trade him this summer because there would be no way he would pass any kind of medical check by another team.

I dunno. Did you see what Morey just pulled? Keeping Zion as this unknown quantity may pay off rather than risk him looking like crap out there.

But we all know he's not going to look like crap though. We've seen Zion play when he is bigger than he currently is, he was still an elite player. Its really 1 of 2 things

1. Zion is Zion and he's going to be the guy that gets you 27/7/4 on elite efficiency
2. Zion's body has completely broken down and he cant play anymore

At this point in Zion's career, there really isnt much middle ground. Again look at Zion now and look at him his rookie year (just physically speaking). He is in better shape now than he was then. He looks to be in the same shape weight wise as he was last year. The videos from practice and warmups show he still has the same bounce as he had last year. So I just dont see why he will all of a sudden suck now.

Now again if the point is that his body has completely broken down, well again if that is the case no team would trade for him because that will be found in the physical prior to the trade.

At the moment Zion's trade value is at the lowest its been. But all it will take is 1-2 games for people to see and be reminded what he looks like out on the court and his value will rise.

[Chuck Everett]

I personally think Pels are holding Zion out to trade him in the offseason. They don't want him to get hurt again and ruin his value.

That would be very dumb.

I actually think it would be the complete opposite. If the Pels wanted to trade Zion this summer, they would be the ones pushing to play him. At the moment Zion's trade value is at an all time low, all Zion would have to do is play 1-2 playoff games and drop his 27-7-4 on ridiculous efficiency and his value shoots right back up.

If Zion is at the point where he can't play 1-2 games without getting hurt, it wont matter if the Pels try to trade him this summer because there would be no way he would pass any kind of medical check by another team.

That all sounds well and good, but the guy clearly doesn't want to play in New Orleans. All I'm saying is, I wouldn't be shocked to see him wearing another uniform next season.

[Smirk]

That all sounds well and good, but the guy clearly doesn't want to play in New Orleans..

Based on what? What has he, his stepdad, or his agent said in this regard?

From everything we have heard, you don't have a clue what you are talking about.

[Michael Jackson]

I personally think Pels are holding Zion out to trade him in the offseason. They don't want him to get hurt again and ruin his value.

That would be very dumb.

I actually think it would be the complete opposite. If the Pels wanted to trade Zion this summer, they would be the ones pushing to play him. At the moment Zion's trade value is at an all time low, all Zion would have to do is play 1-2 playoff games and drop his 27-7-4 on ridiculous efficiency and his value shoots right back up.

If Zion is at the point where he can't play 1-2 games without getting hurt, it wont matter if the Pels try to trade him this summer because there would be no way he would pass any kind of medical check by another team.

That all sounds well and good, but the guy clearly doesn't want to play in New Orleans. All I'm saying is, I wouldn't be shocked to see him wearing another uniform next season.

while I get the feeling that he wants out of NO too, I trust the Pelican's to know better than I do since I have literally no conversations with him or his team and they do. They have more intel than us so they should have a better view of what to do with Zion than I will have. My gut is your opinion is right though.

[Duke4life831]

I personally think Pels are holding Zion out to trade him in the offseason. They don't want him to get hurt again and ruin his value.

That would be very dumb.

I actually think it would be the complete opposite. If the Pels wanted to trade Zion this summer, they would be the ones pushing to play him. At the moment Zion's trade value is at an all time low, all Zion would have to do is play 1-2 playoff games and drop his 27-7-4 on ridiculous efficiency and his value shoots right back up.

If Zion is at the point where he can't play 1-2 games without getting hurt, it wont matter if the Pels try to trade him this summer because there would be no way he would pass any kind of medical check by another team.

That all sounds well and good, but the guy clearly doesn't want to play in New Orleans. All I'm saying is, I wouldn't be shocked to see him wearing another uniform next season.

But that just goes back to my point then. If he doesnt want to be there and the Pels know he doesnt want to be there, why would they be overly cautious with him? They would be playing him right now to boost his trade value going into the summer.

And again if the point is they're afraid to play him because they know physically his body has completely given out on him that he could break down just from playing a couple games. Team's doctors will see this during the physicals and his value will tank then.

[Chuck Everett]

That all sounds well and good, but the guy clearly doesn't want to play in New Orleans..

Based on what? What has he, his stepdad, or his agent said in this regard?

From everything we have heard, you don't have a clue what you are talking about.

You literally cut my comment in half. Where I said what my sense is? I honestly don't care if you don't want to hear my thoughts. You can ignore it. After Chris Paul and Anthony Davis, you'd think a Pelicans fan would be numb to these guys wanting out, but apparently not.