April 11, 2025 • 35 mins
On the latest New Orleans Pelicans Podcast for Friday, April 11, 2025, Pelicans.com’s Jim Eichenhofer and Gus Kattengell recap the Pelicans' final road game of the season in Milwaukee as the Pels get set for tonight's game against the Miami Heat at the Smoothie King Center.
They'll break down the recent performances from the Pelicans rookies and youth, reflect on this season's challenges, and look ahead to the 2025 NBA Draft.
Also, it's Friday, so Jim gives us his trending numbers and weekend showdown to watch.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome in to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, the official
podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans, a podcast dedicated to
everything you need to know about the squad here from players, coaches, broadcasters,
and those who cover the NBA on a daily basis.
It's time to flock up. The New Orleans Pelicans Podcast
(00:29):
starts right now.
Gus Kattengel (00:34):
All right, Hello, we want to welcome back to the
New Orleans Pelicans Podcast. Official podcasts of your New Orleans Pelicans.
And it is hard to believe that this is the
last regular season edition of the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast.
Is mister jimikanoffer us back in town with us?
Jim Eichenhofer (00:48):
Sir?
Gus Kattengel (00:49):
How strange does that sound? But this is the last
regular season issue. We've got a lot more podcasts to come,
sure season and stuff. Yeah, I mean, at times it
felt like the season was never going to end. But
then at the end last month or so, it seemed
like it flew by.
Jim Eichenhofer (01:02):
yeah, it was. It was a very accelerated pace. It
seemed like there was, you know, fifteen twenty games left.
I blanked and now there's only two games left. So yeah,
we're it's kind of crazy that we're at that point
right now.
Gus Kattengel (01:13):
It is kind of nuts when you think about it.
The road schedule portion of the season came to a
conclusion yesterday, Jim as they were on a very brief
road trip after coming back just for one game, taking
on the Nets and the Bucks. Yesterday it was in Milwaukee,
and this is what it sounded like on the Pelicans
radio network.
Todd Graffagnini (01:31):
Front court reads stop pop top of the key, good
five to stop the game. No look over to Kenona's
extra pass reads for three from the left quarter and
that is down in front of the Milwaukee bench.
Gus Kattengel (01:43):
Hells wearing the Bucks out on the out fifth and glass.
Who to funk And.
Todd Graffagnini (01:48):
I tell you what Doc Rivers said. You know what,
Giannis get back into the ball game though they only
have fifty seconds left in the first quarter.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Lope eight available for the Pels, Matcovich left wing three
or Yannis good for Carlo and has drives down a
eight takes on Gianna's head, the head raising in off.
Todd Graffagnini (02:07):
The top of the box. He usually left arm to
hold Yannis off and fortunate to not pick up an
offensive fouls. But then the soft test delay it in Keon.
Gus Kattengel (02:16):
Brooks Papa right week three.
Todd Graffagnini (02:17):
Yes, looking we have seen a lot of five points swings.
Gus Kattengel (02:20):
Go against the Pelicans this season.
Jim Eichenhofer (02:23):
That one goes in.
Todd Graffagnini (02:23):
Favor Canons drives through.
Jim Eichenhofer (02:27):
Get it to j r.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Re Are you serious for first layoff despite a ton
of contact by the box.
Todd Graffagnini (02:34):
Running the base line, and that at least seven offensive
rebouncer the pills cold more second chand points pink bounced
feet to Carlo. He's looking for It'll have some he
Carlo just posted Brook Lopez with a right hand. That
is a baptism. At halftime, Kenona is left in the
top three. The sweet stroke in a career high for knone. Well,
(02:55):
I'll tell you what if you keep shooting the threes
like that, you don't need to get to the foul
line at em for Lester five of eighty sir in
pain a dunk by mcovich. As again, Milwaukee just has
no interest in getting back after the missfree throw a
reverse off the lob from Elfred. That's assistem over twelve
(03:18):
for Peyton on a chest it to somebody finally gets it.
The reeves off the Curls, takes the shot, get it
back to Peyton, throw it down, load Mackovic out long
touch pass left corner key on Brook for three and
the shot clock cuser.
Gus Kattengel (03:31):
Just how you draw it up with the ball movement.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Tell you what that is.
Todd Graffagnini (03:33):
Fantastic ball movement. They moved it until they found the
wide open teammate who happened to be Keyam. Heels have
twenty three assists as a team. We'll get off to
Antonio Reeves went all along with AJ. Green takes him
to the rack off the glass, shots coming.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
Champagne confetti. It's time to celebrate. The Pelicans are going
to the free throw line. Look at our bench.
Todd Graffagnini (03:57):
They all got up.
Gus Kattengel (04:00):
N e Levin was the final. Head coach Willie Green
had this to say following the game.
Speaker 6 (04:04):
We love to teach, We love to see our young
guys grow. And I just told KB like he is right,
he's on the doorstep, and this is great experience for
him and the other guys playing against high level competition.
You know, they're making some mistakes, but a lot of positives,
and they get to play through some of their mistakes
(04:26):
against really good competition and now they can they can
go back and reevaluate and say, Okay, this is what
I'm doing well, and these are some areas that you
know I can improve in. And so that part of
it is fun Jim.
Gus Kattengel (04:40):
A handful of players had career highs there as well.
I mean, what were some of the things that you
take away in a game that the score kind of
looks like it got out of hand, But I thought
it was very competitive and is entertaining.
Jim Eichenhofer (04:51):
Yeah, I mean, especially the first half, I thought that
they were in the game. I feel like we're seeing this.
We've seen this a lot lately though, where it's like
you can see if you've been watching a lot of
these games, how you have to have talent. I mean,
they're at a disadvantage in terms of I mean just
numbers wise, they only had eight players available last night,
but also just guys that have been in the league
for a long time. But yeah, I mean between you know,
(05:13):
Jamal Kaine had a season high, Lester Kenyonis had a
season high. Keon Brooks Junior had a season high in scoring.
So the offense was was pretty much there. I mean,
they were down sixty two to fifty four at halftime,
which isn't bad, but we're seeing, you know, I keep
going back to this, just the level of defense that
they're playing. I mean, they just can't keep up with
some of these teams. The production that they're getting. I mean,
(05:34):
Milwaukee had close to eighty points in the second half
and they just weren't able to stay in the game.
We've seen that happen a lot lately, especially on the road,
where you know, you get down by fifteen, twenty points
and it's going to be impossible to come back when
you're not getting enough defensive stops.
Gus Kattengel (05:50):
Keon Brooks, one of those players had had twenty points
or more. Tamul Caine twenty, Kenyona has had twenty one
as well. Keon Brooks with twenty points for he knocked down.
Head coach Willie Green had this to say about him.
Speaker 6 (06:02):
What's most impressive about him is he he's a sponge,
So we can give him information. We can explain coverages defensively,
we can explain, you know, some concepts offensively, and we
see that he can pick it up and he can
adjust along the way. In games, it's hard to do
(06:24):
and so when you see players that can do that
on the fly and that quickly, that's a bonus to
have on with our group.
Gus Kattengel (06:31):
Jim, what is stood out from Keon's play the last
couple of weeks. Yeah, I mean, I think he's from
the beginning. I liked his potential as a three and
D guy, but he's also he's not just a three
point shore and in fact, mostly his offense has been
more slashing and get into the basket, maybe maybe making
some mid range shots. He had his best three point
shooting game last night against the Bucks though. Just his versatility, I.
Jim Eichenhofer (06:54):
Think, you know, that's one thing that Willie Green mentioned,
as well as just the fact that he feels like
he's kind of right right almost there as far as
being able to cement himself as an NBA player. Obviously
he's on a two way contract, spent a lot of
time in Birmingham, but he's really sees the opportunity to
play and contribute lately.
Gus Kattengel (07:15):
Anything else stand out from that game yesterday in terms
of like Kenyonas being able to get I guess his
career highs. Does it matter that you have all these
players that are getting all these career highs. I mean,
I think to me, it shows that the team is
really playing for this coach and really playing hard down
the stretch and getting their opportunities.
Speaker 7 (07:31):
Yeah.
Jim Eichenhofer (07:32):
I mean, I thought Kenyonis was really aggressive. He had
a really good second quarter where he had double figure
points in that period. Jamal Kaine has really come on
lately with some of his scoring. Yeah, I mean you ask,
is it important that they're getting career high in scoring.
I mean, I mean, I don't know necessarily in the
broad picture the scheme of things, if it matters that much,
but I mean it's probably better than they're not than
(07:53):
if they weren't getting their career highs in scoring. So yeah,
I mean, they're just having the opportunity. I mean, I
think it is nice if you're in their position where
obviously none of the guys are happy that there's been
a million injuries, but you know, when you start a
game and there's only eight players, there's only three guys
coming off the bench, that you're gonna be able to
go out there and just take a full swing and
(08:13):
you know, swing for the fences because it's not like
they're gonna be able to take somebody out and put
you know, take you out of the game and put
a bunch of guys in for you because you're not
playing well. It's just impossible. It was funny. At one
point on the TV broadcast last night, Joel Myers was
talking about Milwaukee taking clearing the bench and he's like,
both teams are gonna clear the bench, and he kind
of caught himself. Antonio stepped in and was like, we
(08:36):
can't really clear the bench. We don't really have extra guys.
We only have eight players. So it's just one of
those situations where it's like play with confidence and know
that you're not gonna get pulled from the game. And
I think a lot of times that helps a lot
as far as for a player to excel and play
well that they know that they're gonna get a good
amount of minutes. It's not like you're worried I'm gonna
(08:57):
play three or four minutes, make a couple of mistakes,
and then sit the rest to the game. I mean,
with the roster situation the way it is right now,
that's not a possibility for the coaching staff.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
No doubt.
Gus Kattengel (09:06):
Here's what Keon Brooks Junior had to say about the
way coaches coached him and giving the opportunity and giving
him those kind words as well.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
That means the world to me. You know, the season
not going away. We wanted to go. Those are some
games here down the stretch, but we got a lot
of young dudes that have a lot of talent and
I got a bright future ahead of us. And he's
continuing to coach every single day, So that's that's really important.
He's not throwing in the towel and going out every practice,
every game trying to maximize everything that we got. So
I can't be happy to have a coach like that
(09:33):
that continues to coach no matter whatever.
Gus Kattengel (09:35):
All right, So Jim, that puts to bed at least
the road schedule. Two more games to go, including tonight
against the Heat, quick turnaround, and in obviously Sunday we
wrap things up against OKC. But but in this stretch
of games here, and we were talking about in the
broadcast yesterday, with the guys up there in Milwaukee, I
thought the game against the Clippers, the Lakers, and even Milwaukee.
(09:56):
Here in Brooklyn, you're seeing competitive, fun action guys, and
above the room. Carlo's dunk poster man last night was
incredible over Lopez. So you've seen some nice play from
some of the rookies.
Jim Eichenhofer (10:08):
Huh, yeah. I think Carlo almost had two posters last night.
He had the one over Lopez that you mentioned. He
also had that reverse dunk where Alfred Payton threw him
along pass and I was not expecting that. I did
not think that he had you know, long pass, el
eu perverse dunk in his game. But he keeps being
impressive with some of the stuff that he can do athletically.
(10:30):
But yeah, I mean, I think if you look at
what the rookie the group of rookies have done in
particular in the month of April and over the last
five games, I think you're seeing that some of these guys,
I think, I mean eve Mesi is an exception to
this because he's been playing since the very beginning of
the season. He started the second game of the year.
He's leading the Pelicans in games played. He's been a
prominent part of the rotation pretty much from the first
(10:52):
game of the season where he did so well against
Chicago Bulls and opened eyes in the opener. But I
mean the other three of the other four rookies where
you're talking about Antonio Reeves, Carylo Makovich, Keon Brooks, I mean,
for example, all four of those guys, if you add
an ev mec two are in the top fifteen and
rookie scoring in the over the last five games, Antonio
(11:13):
Reeves averaging fifteen point four points, which is fifth among
all rookies in the NBA over that same span. I
think you're what you're seeing.
Todd Graffagnini (11:21):
You know.
Jim Eichenhofer (11:21):
Again, with the exception of eve mec who's shown this
all season, the other three guys I think have have
done enough stuff on the court that you say, you know,
if they had been getting playing time all season, they
would be getting a lot more recognition and credit for
how good of a rookie season they've had, you know. So,
I mean, I think that's definitely encouraging the fact that
(11:41):
you look at these guys and say, really, the only
thing in a lot of cases that prevented them from
being able to show what they could do is just
the opportunity, and they're getting that now and they're they're
doing a lot with it. I mean, another couple stats
too that I'll throw in there, and again, this is
among all rookies over the last five games. Eve mec
fourth and rebounding, Carlo Mecovic's thirteenth and rebounding. Antony Reeves
(12:04):
is third and three pointers made per game at two
point eight since the All Star break. If you look
at three point percentage, Antonier Reeves is first among all
rookies at forty seven point eight and he's twelfth among
all players across the NBA minimum fifty attempts, So of
all the players in the NBA that have taken at
least fifty since the break, he's twelfth in a three
(12:25):
point percentage. Carlo Makovic has eight straight games where he
scored ten plus points. And I think it's also interesting
to look at too, if you look at this recent
stretch of a handful of games, and I mentioned all
the guys that are in the top fifteen among rookies
in scoring average. Those four players, Antonio Reeves is only
the only one that really has what I would describe
(12:46):
as major minutes that he's played. He's average over thirty
minutes a game. They've really distributed the minutes in the
playing time pretty evenly among the rest of the guys.
So Antonio Reeves is the only one where you could say, Okay,
his averages are pretty high because he's played a good
amount of minutes. A lot of these other guys have
just been really productive in you know what I would call,
you know, modest amount of playing time. Keon Brooks has
(13:08):
average in twenty seven minutes over the last five games
that he's played, even Hee's averaged twenty six, Carlow's in
the low twenties. So I mean, it's not only it's
not just that these guys have been productive, but it's
they've beneficient as well. That it's not like they're just
out there on the court playing forty minutes a game
and the stats are a little misleading because they're out
(13:28):
there so much. They've really done a nice job of
taking an advantage of the time and the opportunity that
they've gotten.
Gus Kattengel (13:34):
You talking about taking advantage and getting an opportunity and
doing that, how much do you think it actually impacts
perhaps maybe some of the decisions that'll be coming next
week and over the summer things in nature. And I
say that because just at our studio and I'm not
you know, I'm not a front office personnel, but somebod
these games and some of the things that they're nice,
(13:55):
you know, right, And and I just I'm not picking
or it's drap you certain points from coach, but if
a head coach in the NBA in this case, Willie
Green says, this player's got an NBA body, this guy's
you know, the ability you just heard coach earlier talk
about with Keon Brooks junior, we can explain something to him.
(14:16):
He learns on the fly. He gets that going. He's
also mentioned that about Eves Mecie. He's talked about it
with Carlo Macovich. You're seeing like those are I think
Jim real, honest to goodness traits that if I'm this
organization I'm happy about and I want to continue to
grow and move on, that makes sense.
Jim Eichenhofer (14:35):
Yeah, I mean, those are all positives. I think There's
definitely been guys in the past here that have been
on two A contracts that probably, I mean a lot
of them didn't get this kind of opportunity, and if
they did get some semblance of this chance to play,
maybe they didn't show as many signs as far as
reasons to be optimistic about their future enthusiastic about what
their potential is down the road. So yeah, I mean,
(14:56):
I definitely think that, regardless of the circumstances, if you
hear your head coach say some of the things that
he said about players like Keon Brooks, that you have
to take that as a real positive going into the
off season. Obviously there's still two more games to play,
but I think for a lot of these guys. I mean,
maybe we'll see some of them again in the summer
league this year and going forward. I mean, it's definitely
(15:19):
something that you can build on and look to as
as reasons why you know, you you should be thinking
that it's possible that these guys have a have a
roll down the road. I mean you asked the question,
you know, how much does this affect next season? I
have no idea. I'll be totally honest with you, just
because we I mean, there's so many things that we
don't know in terms of the off season, in terms
(15:40):
of roster moves. Obviously there's a draft pick coming in
the first round, so I mean, how things are going
to be reshaped. It's really hard to say. I think
all of the only thing that these guys can do
that are rookies or players that are just trying to
carve out a spot in the NBA is just play
as well as they can and then go forget tape
out there.
Gus Kattengel (15:58):
Yeah exactly, not only here, but anywhere else. Because obviously
the Pels have done that too, right, they have gone
out and grabbed some players that can help.
Jim Eichenhofer (16:06):
I think other.
Gus Kattengel (16:06):
Teams will do that. You mentioned the offseason and draft
picks coming out well, first and fore most, you gotta
find out why you're picking.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Jim.
Gus Kattengel (16:14):
So, I just counted five Mondays. Five mondays from now
is May twelfth, that will be the lottery, So it
will tune in before a playoff game. We'll all hope
and see where that lottery pick will be. What can
you tell us about that?
Speaker 8 (16:29):
Now?
Gus Kattengel (16:30):
And you look at the standings. We have two games left.
Pretty much every team in the league has two to
three games. I feel like last night kind of solidified
in a block at least, right.
Jim Eichenhofer (16:40):
Yeah, I mean, I think it was pretty clear to
me even before last night of where the Pelicans are
probably going to finish. As far as I always like
to keep this less confusing, I call it the pre
lottery slot instead of saying like the fourth pick, because
obviously we don't know until May twelfth. But yeah, I mean,
based on the standings right now, because Philadelphia won their
(17:02):
most recent game against Washington, the Pelicans definitely will have
the third or fourth slot in the lottery, and it's
an extremely good chance unless you have a lot of
belief and confidence in the Charlotte Hornet's ability to win
two games in Boston this weekend Friday and Sunday that
the Pelicans are going to be in the number four
pre lottery slot. So if that's the case, that they're
(17:23):
going to have a twelve point five percent chance of
winning the lottery and getting the number one pick, and
they're gonna have a forty eight percent chance of picking
in the top four. If you add together the odds
of first, second, third, and fourth, that adds up to
approximately forty eight percent. So I mean, that's what we're
looking at right now. I mean, it's kind of a
coin flip of whether they're going to be in that
(17:43):
top four, and the twelve point five percent chance is
basically like a one in eight chance of ending up
with the number one pick. And but the thing is
is they've had less, had a smaller percentage than that
in the past and wanted I think it was about
six percent when they won it in twenty nine teen
and got Zion Williamson.
Gus Kattengel (18:01):
That's why I was going to ask you to, you know,
for people listening right now, the times that the Peals
have gotten the number one overall pick, that thirty plus wins.
Jim Eichenhofer (18:07):
Right, yeah, exactly, Yeah, they did not. I feel like
I have to keep reminding people of this because, as
you know, I'm I'm not a fan of.
Gus Kattengel (18:15):
I'm not a fan of what's going on right now.
I'm r I was texting board tim Y today, what
was it going into last night's games? Seven and forty three?
The combined win loss percentage of the bottom four teams
bottom four bottom five teams lee wise win loss record,
which includes the peals have won in their last ten games.
(18:38):
You know, like you'll see one in nine, two and
eight in team's last ten games if you combine all
the wins for the bottom five and all of the losses.
It was seven and forty three when I group texting guys,
and I can just picture you just rolling your eyes
because I mean, what are we doing?
Jim Eichenhofer (18:54):
You know, it's even beyond what the teams themselves are doing.
To me, what drives me crazy sometimes is like the
fan and media discussion about it, because I feel like
we always have to keep reminding people too that you
realize that if a team goes zero to eighty two,
they still only have a fourteen percent chance to win
the lottery. Now, so like win a game, right if so?
(19:15):
That's the part that I don't understand is I feel
like people are so maniacal about the idea of teams
need to lose, teams need to lose, team lose, that's
it's the last game of the season. And like theoretically, say,
every team in the lottery, the fourteen teams all have
their slot determined, and it doesn't matter what the outcome
of the games are on Sunday afternoon, because it's already
like this'll probably be the case for the Pelicans. They'll
(19:36):
probably go into Sunday with the fourth splot locked up,
and there's still gonna be people out there being like,
they gotta lose today, and I'm like, no, no, you
don't understand. You have to look at the standings. It
doesn't help. It's not like they give you more. It's
not like if Utah loses by fifty seven points on
Sunday that they get more lottery balls. Like it's based
(19:56):
on the standings. It's based on one loss record forty
seven brutal, right, well, but also possible based on the
way things have been going lately.
Gus Kattengel (20:04):
So yeah, that is very true. How about some news
of the week. I haven't had a chance to really
chat with you about it. How surprised I was surprised
with the King's decision, right, I mean coach coach Brown,
I don't know what the Aaron Fox was thinking following
and he lost the game. He was out of a
job the next day. A couple of months later, Memphis
has parted ways, and I'm like, huh, Denver, right, they
(20:28):
just won the NBA title two seasons ago. How surprised
have you been? Is this telling? Is this a trend?
Does that mean teams perhaps that we wouldn't think would
make changes at the and the end of the season
d or are these individual cases? How do you look
at this? How do you end lize?
Jim Eichenhofer (20:46):
You know? I mean before I say anything, I want
to mention too that I feel like one of the
things I've learned over the years is that there's always
more to the story than what you know. So within
these organizations, there's definitely more, And I feel like there're's
definitely been more things that have come out that people
have reported about the Denver situation and the Memphis situation
recently as well. But I mean, just in general, before
(21:08):
you get into the specifics of those situations. What blows
my mind is it feels like the regard for winning
has kind of going out the window, like it feels
like winning is being taken for granted so often. And
I know this isn't a brand new thing. I mean,
there's been coaches of the Year that have been fired
a lot. There was a stretch in the NBA there
(21:29):
where it seemed like people said, the last thing you
want to do if you're a coach is win Coach
of the Year, because within two years or so, you're
probably gonna get fired. Because there literally was a bunch
of guys that did that. And I think it's interesting
too if you look at the recent list of coaches
who've won championships that a bunch of those guys have
gotten fired as well in recent years. You know, Frank
(21:50):
Vogel won and he got fired. You know Boonholzer got
fired after he won with the Bucks, Like within two years,
Nick Nurse is not Toronto's coach anymore. So I don't
know it's to me. It's for one thing, it's hard
to relate to the idea of being like, well, we
want a championship, but that's not good enough, you know,
under circumstances where it's like I think I'll speak a
(22:14):
little bit for the fan base I think people here
are so hungry for wins, hungry to have a winning team,
hungry to have consistency to even get to that point.
So it's like, it's just hard for me to fathom
that you win a championship and then you're itching to
get rid of that coach within a year or two.
So I don't know. I don't know what the answer
to that is. I do think that, you know, this
(22:35):
is something that has come up a lot in the
NBA in recent years too, that it feels to me
and maybe I'm wrong, maybe my memory is off, but
I don't remember there being this many conflicts in the
past between head coaches and front offices, and it feels
like that's happening a lot more now, where it used
to be that the front office was like, Okay, we're
gonna do the GMing and we're going to do this.
(22:56):
We're not gonna get involved in all these other decision
that the coaches have traditionally made. And I think once
you let that happen, once you start having front offices
that get so heavily involved in the decision making that
the coaches traditionally have been left alone kind of to make,
You're going to have a lot more conflicts, and it
seems like that that's from the outside looking in, that
that's happening a lot. And I think in the Denver
(23:19):
and Memphis situation, we're hearing reports of, you know, conflict
about how you which players to play that used to
be a coach thing. GMS used to say, this is
what the coach's job is. I'll give you the players,
but it's your team and you're around them every day
in practice. I'm not gonna, you know, overstep or put
a ton of input into your day to day decisions
(23:40):
because I'm not around the team every day. So I
feel like there's just been a lot of there's a
lot of changes that have happened over the last five
ten years with the front office's relationship with coaches across
the league, and I think that's a huge factor. It
may be a factor every single time in the recent
ones that we've heard about lately. And it's funny you
mentioned you were surprised by the Mike Brown firing. It
(24:02):
was like that was just the that was like, hold
my beer, We'll show you what a real surprising firing
is when we do it with eight games left as
Memphis did and three games left like Denver did.
Gus Kattengel (24:12):
Again, it's just shocking, and especially when you know, again
we're not there. I don't know, we just look at
it from the outside, but it seemed like was it
to appease you know, a player that then not even
a week or two later says, trade me, and he's
no longer in the team. So now the coach and
that player team anywarts. It's crazy. And Sacramento's case, and
(24:32):
again I think what I take over you just said
is it's it's individuals. It's not a case by case
basis for some reason, although at the same time we
still don't understand it. I mean sure, I just I mean,
I don't know.
Jim Eichenhofer (24:43):
And the one thing I'll add into about the situation
with Denver is it sounds like from some of the
reporting that ESPN has done, or Tim McMahon talked about
this on Brian Windhorse podcast, that you know, Mike Malone
is a disciplinarian. He's a hard talking guy. He doesn't
mince war. And it's like, to me, you got to
be careful when you start to get to the point
(25:04):
where you can't let a coach coach. I mean, I mean,
I don't know if I'm saying this because my parents
were both teachers, but it's like, at a certain point
you have to have some authority. You can't just say, like, well,
if somebody's feelings get hurt, that means we have to
make a bunch of changes, because you're gonna be chasing
your tail if you do that, If you constantly are
trying to appease everyone, you're gonna have a revolving door.
(25:25):
And it's like you're gonna have a situation maybe where
you win a championship and three or four years later
you're looking around and like, what happened to that championship team.
I feel like there's a bunch of examples of that.
Phoenix was in the NBA Finals in twenty twenty one.
Look at where they are now after they under prevent
have kind of had a never ending cycle of head
coaching changes. Milwaukee won the championship that same year in
(25:45):
twenty twenty one. They've had multiple head coaches since then,
and you can't say that they're better off now than
they were a few years ago when they actually were
a complete championship contender. I don't know if you can
really say that right now. So it's one of those
things where it's like I see a lot of be
careful what you wish for in a bunch of these
circumstances as well, because if you're not content with success,
(26:08):
sometimes that turns into all of a sudden you have
way less success than you did when you were upset
about how you weren't. You know, when if your goal
is if you think we have to win two three
championships in a row or we're gonna be upset, You're
gonna be. You're gonna be. Really, You're gonna turn into
a lot of dysfunction and chaos and organization.
Gus Kattengel (26:26):
I don't even know how you It's not even the
phrase grass is green. On the other side, Mike Malone
was the same coach that he was two years ago
that got you to the finals, right Hudos was the
same coach that you know taught toughness on defense, that
same guy. These are the same coaches. And to your point,
all Mike Brown said was I have no idea what
Eric Fox is fouling over it. He had no business
(26:47):
being over there. He should be allowed to say that,
right I Because we're all thinking it, you know, we're
all going why why are we following a three point
shooter when I mean he's saying the same thing, and
if you're going to get fired as a coach for saying,
we sat there, We went over it. We went over
at practice. I drew up on the dry eraser board.
(27:09):
We told them he forty went in a huddle and
any for some reason went and did it. If that
is not allowed, well then you can't coach this period.
Jim Eichenhofer (27:17):
No, totally, one hundred percent agree with you. I mean,
this is a longer discussion for another show too, But
I also think that there's been a shift in the
time that I've been here too, and I'm not speaking
specifically about the Pelicans, just overall league wise. Sometimes I
feel like you have to remind people the players are
employees too. You can't treat them as though they run everything.
(27:38):
Every player in the league right now, including Lebron James,
is not going to play for thirty forty years, So eventually,
if you're in charge of an organization, every single player
you have will not be there. So you don't want
to change everything that you do based on their wishes
because eventually you'll still be in that position and they
won't be anymore. So I mean, I think that's something
that needs to be discussed in thought about as well,
(28:01):
is that, of course, you do everything you can to
make them happy, you do everything you can to create
a great working environment, but you can't you can't turn
over everything to them, right because they're at the end
of the day, there's still employees. They're you're not their employee.
But I feel like a lot of times that's what's
happening with some of these teams is that it's turned
(28:21):
It's like flipping the situation where it's like the players
are your boss. You start doing that and you're you're
in trouble.
Gus Kattengel (28:27):
Yeah, no doubt. Well maybe why san Antonia had so
much success, right, everyone knows you go to Santonio. This
is how he was saying, this is what it's going
to be. This is the type of player going to
be period, end of story.
Jim Eichenhofer (28:37):
Right.
Gus Kattengel (28:37):
They had some some ridiculous twenty plus years where you've
been a playoff team and I know they pick eight,
but that's still incredible where they're all winning Sea.
Jim Eichenhofer (28:46):
Yeah, and you have to get guys that buy into
that as well. If you get players that are coming
like Tim Duncan say, I'm willing to be coached. I'm
willing to be yelled at because I know that it's
at the end of the day, it's the best thing
for me in my career and the organization in the future.
That's the that's the ideal, that's the way that you
want things to be wrong.
Gus Kattengel (29:04):
I think Tony Parker was a great example of that.
A little resistant at first, took it and became a champion.
Jim Eichenhofer (29:10):
How about Manu Genobili who came off the bench for
a big chunk of his career. How many players are like,
I'm not coming off the bench. And to me, every
organization that runs into that situation that has a player,
you say, you know this guy, Manu Genobili, You remember him.
He came off the bench. If he can do it,
you can do it too.
Gus Kattengel (29:25):
So can you give me your best Charles Barkley Genobili impression.
Jim Eichenhofer (29:29):
Every time you would hit a three during a highlight?
Speaker 8 (29:31):
Genobil TGI Jim, It's Friday, which means mister Eichenhoffer as
a pair of things for us, trending numbers and.
Gus Kattengel (29:47):
Weekend showdown.
Jim Eichenhofer (29:50):
What are we starting with, Jim? You know what? Since
we just talked about the West a lot and some
of the coaching changes. Let's start with the weekend showdown,
so I couldn't narrow this down one game. And also
we have to say the Sunday games. I mean, who
knows going into that, because based on what happens tonight,
a lot of the impact of those games is gonna change.
But I picked for a Friday weekend showed down and
(30:12):
picked Memphis at Denver. The Grizzlies are in seventh place
in the West. The Nuggets aren't fourth. Really, I think
if Memphis loses this game, they're going to be in
the play in. So I think that's the most significant
element to that. I think if Denver right now, with
Denver being in fourth, if the Nuggets win tonight and
then they win Sunday, they're playing at Houston with the
(30:33):
Rockets obviously already have a spot locked up at the
two seed, so maybe Houston doesn't have a lot going
in that game. So I just think Memphis Denver tonight
is a huge swing game as far as the Grizzlies'
ability to avoid the play in, I think if they lose,
they're Also this is a crazy back to back that
they just played at home a late game last night
on TNT and then they're flying all the way to
(30:54):
Denver to play against the Nuggets. So that's the weekend
showed on for Friday. The weekend showdown for Sunday is
a two thirty game on ESPN same time as the
Pelicans Thunder. The Clippers are playing at Golden State. LA
is in fifth place right now, Golden State's in sixth,
So I mean, those are two teams that could end
up in the top six and we'll be trying to
(31:15):
avoid the play in tournament. I'm fascinated to see who,
for example, who ends up with the sixth seed and
has to probably match up against the Lakers because the
most likely the Lakers are going to finish third, Houston's
locked in at seventh, so or second. I mean, so
who are they going to play at seven? And I
know we talked about this recently, but just this is
such an interesting race as far as the seedings go.
(31:38):
And then lastly, the trending number, gus I'm gonna go.
Trending number is zero and that is you know, as
we record this at about eleven uro. Yes, as we
recorded this about eleven am. We haven't seen the injury
report yet for the Pelicans. But it's possible that zero
Pelicans who played in the January first game at Miami
out of the nine guys who appeared in that game
(31:58):
will play tonight against Miami.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Zero.
Jim Eichenhofer (32:01):
Yes, I mean for the starters from that game have
been shut down for the season. Trey Murphy, Herb Jones,
CJ McCollums, de Jontay Murray. Two of the nine guys
that played in that game for New Orleans, Daniel Tyson
and Jamonte Green aren't on the roster anymore. And then
the other three of the nine, Brandon Boston's been out
for a while, Jordan Hawkins missed some games with injury
if mecI also missed a game or two recently with injury.
(32:23):
So it's possible of those nine players that zero will
get to play a second time against the Heat for
New Orleans. If that doesn't sum up the way the
season has gone from a player availability standpoint, I don't
know what does I.
Gus Kattengel (32:37):
Was gonna say, if you could even begin to understand
what you just said, right, that is absolutely insane. That's Jim.
I can offer Jim on the score, I can offers
the way to give a follower there on X and
of course over on Pelicans dot Com we'll have postgame
analysis and then stuff going into that OKAC game, the
season finale. Look, we're gonna meet again on Monday and
(32:57):
do a podcast on the end of the season and
going into the postseason all but want to give people
real quick thirty seconds or so, what's coming up over
the next couple of weeks here as well. We're not
done next week. We're gonna do some player.
Jim Eichenhofer (33:10):
Profiles right right, Well, next week is I think we're
gonna do more kind of a broad review of the season.
And then the following week after that, which I believe
is the twenty first of April, we're gonna start with
season reviews. We're gonna have guests on to speak about
each player. Given the way the season is gone, this
(33:31):
maybe won't surprise people, but we actually have a list
of fourteen players that we're gonna be reviewing because in
terms of guys that played a significant amount of minutes,
that's how many we ended up with. Obviously, unfortunately several
guys season was over earlier in the year, whether it
was December, January, or February. But we'll have about three
(33:51):
weeks of almost three full weeks of player reviews. We'll
have Monday through Friday, the week of April twenty first,
the week of April twenty eighth, and then May fill
and then that's going to segue right into the lottery,
which we mentioned earlier as May twelfth. So I mean, yeah,
we're gonna have We're gonna be quite busy over the
next few weeks, even though we don't have any more
games after Sunday, no doubt.
Gus Kattengel (34:12):
And more importantly, I think next week you make your
four K debut.
Jim Eichenhofer (34:17):
I do four K debut.
Gus Kattengel (34:18):
Yes, we're gonna do a radio roundtable, video portion podcast.
It will be airing on the Gulf Coast Sports and
Entertainment Network.
Jim Eichenhofer (34:26):
Oh okay, I knew it was gonna be on Pelicans. Plus,
I didn't realize it's gonna be on the network. I'm
assuming it will be okay.
Gus Kattengel (34:31):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it will be regardless four K excellent.
Jim Eichenhofer (34:35):
Yeah, I'm not sure if they're ready for that.
Gus Kattengel (34:37):
I don't believe me. Same thing here as well. Thank you, Jim.
We will talk again on Monday here. I'll see you
tonight of course, and you will be part of Pelicans
ot at the end of the game. For the next
two games here as well Pells and Heat tonight at seven,
Pells and Thunder on Sunday at two thirty. Well, thank
you for listening to the New Orleans Pelicans podcast.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Thanks for listening to the New Orlands Pelicans Podcast. Join
us three times per week on pelicans dot com, the
Pelicans Mobile app, the iHeartRadio app, or where you get
your podcast, and be sure to give Jim and Gus
a follow on x at Jim Underscore I Can Offer
(35:18):
and Gcat Underscore seventeen. We'll see you next time right
here on the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast
Welcome in to the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast, the official
podcast of your New Orleans Pelicans, a podcast dedicated to
everything you need to know about the squad here from players, coaches, broadcasters,
and those who cover the NBA on a daily basis.
It's time to flock up. The New Orleans Pelicans Podcast
(00:29):
starts right now.
Gus Kattengel (00:34):
All right, Hello, we want to welcome back to the
New Orleans Pelicans Podcast. Official podcasts of your New Orleans Pelicans.
And it is hard to believe that this is the
last regular season edition of the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast.
Is mister jimikanoffer us back in town with us?
Jim Eichenhofer (00:48):
Sir?
Gus Kattengel (00:49):
How strange does that sound? But this is the last
regular season issue. We've got a lot more podcasts to come,
sure season and stuff. Yeah, I mean, at times it
felt like the season was never going to end. But
then at the end last month or so, it seemed
like it flew by.
Jim Eichenhofer (01:02):
yeah, it was. It was a very accelerated pace. It
seemed like there was, you know, fifteen twenty games left.
I blanked and now there's only two games left. So yeah,
we're it's kind of crazy that we're at that point
right now.
Gus Kattengel (01:13):
It is kind of nuts when you think about it.
The road schedule portion of the season came to a
conclusion yesterday, Jim as they were on a very brief
road trip after coming back just for one game, taking
on the Nets and the Bucks. Yesterday it was in Milwaukee,
and this is what it sounded like on the Pelicans
radio network.
Todd Graffagnini (01:31):
Front court reads stop pop top of the key, good
five to stop the game. No look over to Kenona's
extra pass reads for three from the left quarter and
that is down in front of the Milwaukee bench.
Gus Kattengel (01:43):
Hells wearing the Bucks out on the out fifth and glass.
Who to funk And.
Todd Graffagnini (01:48):
I tell you what Doc Rivers said. You know what,
Giannis get back into the ball game though they only
have fifty seconds left in the first quarter.
Speaker 5 (01:54):
Lope eight available for the Pels, Matcovich left wing three
or Yannis good for Carlo and has drives down a
eight takes on Gianna's head, the head raising in off.
Todd Graffagnini (02:07):
The top of the box. He usually left arm to
hold Yannis off and fortunate to not pick up an
offensive fouls. But then the soft test delay it in Keon.
Gus Kattengel (02:16):
Brooks Papa right week three.
Todd Graffagnini (02:17):
Yes, looking we have seen a lot of five points swings.
Gus Kattengel (02:20):
Go against the Pelicans this season.
Jim Eichenhofer (02:23):
That one goes in.
Todd Graffagnini (02:23):
Favor Canons drives through.
Jim Eichenhofer (02:27):
Get it to j r.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Re Are you serious for first layoff despite a ton
of contact by the box.
Todd Graffagnini (02:34):
Running the base line, and that at least seven offensive
rebouncer the pills cold more second chand points pink bounced
feet to Carlo. He's looking for It'll have some he
Carlo just posted Brook Lopez with a right hand. That
is a baptism. At halftime, Kenona is left in the
top three. The sweet stroke in a career high for knone. Well,
(02:55):
I'll tell you what if you keep shooting the threes
like that, you don't need to get to the foul
line at em for Lester five of eighty sir in
pain a dunk by mcovich. As again, Milwaukee just has
no interest in getting back after the missfree throw a
reverse off the lob from Elfred. That's assistem over twelve
(03:18):
for Peyton on a chest it to somebody finally gets it.
The reeves off the Curls, takes the shot, get it
back to Peyton, throw it down, load Mackovic out long
touch pass left corner key on Brook for three and
the shot clock cuser.
Gus Kattengel (03:31):
Just how you draw it up with the ball movement.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Tell you what that is.
Todd Graffagnini (03:33):
Fantastic ball movement. They moved it until they found the
wide open teammate who happened to be Keyam. Heels have
twenty three assists as a team. We'll get off to
Antonio Reeves went all along with AJ. Green takes him
to the rack off the glass, shots coming.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
Champagne confetti. It's time to celebrate. The Pelicans are going
to the free throw line. Look at our bench.
Todd Graffagnini (03:57):
They all got up.
Gus Kattengel (04:00):
N e Levin was the final. Head coach Willie Green
had this to say following the game.
Speaker 6 (04:04):
We love to teach, We love to see our young
guys grow. And I just told KB like he is right,
he's on the doorstep, and this is great experience for
him and the other guys playing against high level competition.
You know, they're making some mistakes, but a lot of positives,
and they get to play through some of their mistakes
(04:26):
against really good competition and now they can they can
go back and reevaluate and say, Okay, this is what
I'm doing well, and these are some areas that you
know I can improve in. And so that part of
it is fun Jim.
Gus Kattengel (04:40):
A handful of players had career highs there as well.
I mean, what were some of the things that you
take away in a game that the score kind of
looks like it got out of hand, But I thought
it was very competitive and is entertaining.
Jim Eichenhofer (04:51):
Yeah, I mean, especially the first half, I thought that
they were in the game. I feel like we're seeing this.
We've seen this a lot lately though, where it's like
you can see if you've been watching a lot of
these games, how you have to have talent. I mean,
they're at a disadvantage in terms of I mean just
numbers wise, they only had eight players available last night,
but also just guys that have been in the league
for a long time. But yeah, I mean between you know,
(05:13):
Jamal Kaine had a season high, Lester Kenyonis had a
season high. Keon Brooks Junior had a season high in scoring.
So the offense was was pretty much there. I mean,
they were down sixty two to fifty four at halftime,
which isn't bad, but we're seeing, you know, I keep
going back to this, just the level of defense that
they're playing. I mean, they just can't keep up with
some of these teams. The production that they're getting. I mean,
(05:34):
Milwaukee had close to eighty points in the second half
and they just weren't able to stay in the game.
We've seen that happen a lot lately, especially on the road,
where you know, you get down by fifteen, twenty points
and it's going to be impossible to come back when
you're not getting enough defensive stops.
Gus Kattengel (05:50):
Keon Brooks, one of those players had had twenty points
or more. Tamul Caine twenty, Kenyona has had twenty one
as well. Keon Brooks with twenty points for he knocked down.
Head coach Willie Green had this to say about him.
Speaker 6 (06:02):
What's most impressive about him is he he's a sponge,
So we can give him information. We can explain coverages defensively,
we can explain, you know, some concepts offensively, and we
see that he can pick it up and he can
adjust along the way. In games, it's hard to do
(06:24):
and so when you see players that can do that
on the fly and that quickly, that's a bonus to
have on with our group.
Gus Kattengel (06:31):
Jim, what is stood out from Keon's play the last
couple of weeks. Yeah, I mean, I think he's from
the beginning. I liked his potential as a three and
D guy, but he's also he's not just a three
point shore and in fact, mostly his offense has been
more slashing and get into the basket, maybe maybe making
some mid range shots. He had his best three point
shooting game last night against the Bucks though. Just his versatility, I.
Jim Eichenhofer (06:54):
Think, you know, that's one thing that Willie Green mentioned,
as well as just the fact that he feels like
he's kind of right right almost there as far as
being able to cement himself as an NBA player. Obviously
he's on a two way contract, spent a lot of
time in Birmingham, but he's really sees the opportunity to
play and contribute lately.
Gus Kattengel (07:15):
Anything else stand out from that game yesterday in terms
of like Kenyonas being able to get I guess his
career highs. Does it matter that you have all these
players that are getting all these career highs. I mean,
I think to me, it shows that the team is
really playing for this coach and really playing hard down
the stretch and getting their opportunities.
Speaker 7 (07:31):
Yeah.
Jim Eichenhofer (07:32):
I mean, I thought Kenyonis was really aggressive. He had
a really good second quarter where he had double figure
points in that period. Jamal Kaine has really come on
lately with some of his scoring. Yeah, I mean you ask,
is it important that they're getting career high in scoring.
I mean, I mean, I don't know necessarily in the
broad picture the scheme of things, if it matters that much,
but I mean it's probably better than they're not than
(07:53):
if they weren't getting their career highs in scoring. So yeah,
I mean, they're just having the opportunity. I mean, I
think it is nice if you're in their position where
obviously none of the guys are happy that there's been
a million injuries, but you know, when you start a
game and there's only eight players, there's only three guys
coming off the bench, that you're gonna be able to
go out there and just take a full swing and
(08:13):
you know, swing for the fences because it's not like
they're gonna be able to take somebody out and put
you know, take you out of the game and put
a bunch of guys in for you because you're not
playing well. It's just impossible. It was funny. At one
point on the TV broadcast last night, Joel Myers was
talking about Milwaukee taking clearing the bench and he's like,
both teams are gonna clear the bench, and he kind
of caught himself. Antonio stepped in and was like, we
(08:36):
can't really clear the bench. We don't really have extra guys.
We only have eight players. So it's just one of
those situations where it's like play with confidence and know
that you're not gonna get pulled from the game. And
I think a lot of times that helps a lot
as far as for a player to excel and play
well that they know that they're gonna get a good
amount of minutes. It's not like you're worried I'm gonna
(08:57):
play three or four minutes, make a couple of mistakes,
and then sit the rest to the game. I mean,
with the roster situation the way it is right now,
that's not a possibility for the coaching staff.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
No doubt.
Gus Kattengel (09:06):
Here's what Keon Brooks Junior had to say about the
way coaches coached him and giving the opportunity and giving
him those kind words as well.
Speaker 7 (09:12):
That means the world to me. You know, the season
not going away. We wanted to go. Those are some
games here down the stretch, but we got a lot
of young dudes that have a lot of talent and
I got a bright future ahead of us. And he's
continuing to coach every single day, So that's that's really important.
He's not throwing in the towel and going out every practice,
every game trying to maximize everything that we got. So
I can't be happy to have a coach like that
(09:33):
that continues to coach no matter whatever.
Gus Kattengel (09:35):
All right, So Jim, that puts to bed at least
the road schedule. Two more games to go, including tonight
against the Heat, quick turnaround, and in obviously Sunday we
wrap things up against OKC. But but in this stretch
of games here, and we were talking about in the
broadcast yesterday, with the guys up there in Milwaukee, I
thought the game against the Clippers, the Lakers, and even Milwaukee.
(09:56):
Here in Brooklyn, you're seeing competitive, fun action guys, and
above the room. Carlo's dunk poster man last night was
incredible over Lopez. So you've seen some nice play from
some of the rookies.
Jim Eichenhofer (10:08):
Huh, yeah. I think Carlo almost had two posters last night.
He had the one over Lopez that you mentioned. He
also had that reverse dunk where Alfred Payton threw him
along pass and I was not expecting that. I did
not think that he had you know, long pass, el
eu perverse dunk in his game. But he keeps being
impressive with some of the stuff that he can do athletically.
(10:30):
But yeah, I mean, I think if you look at
what the rookie the group of rookies have done in
particular in the month of April and over the last
five games, I think you're seeing that some of these guys,
I think, I mean eve Mesi is an exception to
this because he's been playing since the very beginning of
the season. He started the second game of the year.
He's leading the Pelicans in games played. He's been a
prominent part of the rotation pretty much from the first
(10:52):
game of the season where he did so well against
Chicago Bulls and opened eyes in the opener. But I
mean the other three of the other four rookies where
you're talking about Antonio Reeves, Carylo Makovich, Keon Brooks, I mean,
for example, all four of those guys, if you add
an ev mec two are in the top fifteen and
rookie scoring in the over the last five games, Antonio
(11:13):
Reeves averaging fifteen point four points, which is fifth among
all rookies in the NBA over that same span. I
think you're what you're seeing.
Todd Graffagnini (11:21):
You know.
Jim Eichenhofer (11:21):
Again, with the exception of eve mec who's shown this
all season, the other three guys I think have have
done enough stuff on the court that you say, you know,
if they had been getting playing time all season, they
would be getting a lot more recognition and credit for
how good of a rookie season they've had, you know. So,
I mean, I think that's definitely encouraging the fact that
(11:41):
you look at these guys and say, really, the only
thing in a lot of cases that prevented them from
being able to show what they could do is just
the opportunity, and they're getting that now and they're they're
doing a lot with it. I mean, another couple stats
too that I'll throw in there, and again, this is
among all rookies over the last five games. Eve mec
fourth and rebounding, Carlo Mecovic's thirteenth and rebounding. Antony Reeves
(12:04):
is third and three pointers made per game at two
point eight since the All Star break. If you look
at three point percentage, Antonier Reeves is first among all
rookies at forty seven point eight and he's twelfth among
all players across the NBA minimum fifty attempts, So of
all the players in the NBA that have taken at
least fifty since the break, he's twelfth in a three
(12:25):
point percentage. Carlo Makovic has eight straight games where he
scored ten plus points. And I think it's also interesting
to look at too, if you look at this recent
stretch of a handful of games, and I mentioned all
the guys that are in the top fifteen among rookies
in scoring average. Those four players, Antonio Reeves is only
the only one that really has what I would describe
(12:46):
as major minutes that he's played. He's average over thirty
minutes a game. They've really distributed the minutes in the
playing time pretty evenly among the rest of the guys.
So Antonio Reeves is the only one where you could say, Okay,
his averages are pretty high because he's played a good
amount of minutes. A lot of these other guys have
just been really productive in you know what I would call,
you know, modest amount of playing time. Keon Brooks has
(13:08):
average in twenty seven minutes over the last five games
that he's played, even Hee's averaged twenty six, Carlow's in
the low twenties. So I mean, it's not only it's
not just that these guys have been productive, but it's
they've beneficient as well. That it's not like they're just
out there on the court playing forty minutes a game
and the stats are a little misleading because they're out
(13:28):
there so much. They've really done a nice job of
taking an advantage of the time and the opportunity that
they've gotten.
Gus Kattengel (13:34):
You talking about taking advantage and getting an opportunity and
doing that, how much do you think it actually impacts
perhaps maybe some of the decisions that'll be coming next
week and over the summer things in nature. And I
say that because just at our studio and I'm not
you know, I'm not a front office personnel, but somebod
these games and some of the things that they're nice,
(13:55):
you know, right, And and I just I'm not picking
or it's drap you certain points from coach, but if
a head coach in the NBA in this case, Willie
Green says, this player's got an NBA body, this guy's
you know, the ability you just heard coach earlier talk
about with Keon Brooks junior, we can explain something to him.
(14:16):
He learns on the fly. He gets that going. He's
also mentioned that about Eves Mecie. He's talked about it
with Carlo Macovich. You're seeing like those are I think
Jim real, honest to goodness traits that if I'm this
organization I'm happy about and I want to continue to
grow and move on, that makes sense.
Jim Eichenhofer (14:35):
Yeah, I mean, those are all positives. I think There's
definitely been guys in the past here that have been
on two A contracts that probably, I mean a lot
of them didn't get this kind of opportunity, and if
they did get some semblance of this chance to play,
maybe they didn't show as many signs as far as
reasons to be optimistic about their future enthusiastic about what
their potential is down the road. So yeah, I mean,
(14:56):
I definitely think that, regardless of the circumstances, if you
hear your head coach say some of the things that
he said about players like Keon Brooks, that you have
to take that as a real positive going into the
off season. Obviously there's still two more games to play,
but I think for a lot of these guys. I mean,
maybe we'll see some of them again in the summer
league this year and going forward. I mean, it's definitely
(15:19):
something that you can build on and look to as
as reasons why you know, you you should be thinking
that it's possible that these guys have a have a
roll down the road. I mean you asked the question,
you know, how much does this affect next season? I
have no idea. I'll be totally honest with you, just
because we I mean, there's so many things that we
don't know in terms of the off season, in terms
(15:40):
of roster moves. Obviously there's a draft pick coming in
the first round, so I mean, how things are going
to be reshaped. It's really hard to say. I think
all of the only thing that these guys can do
that are rookies or players that are just trying to
carve out a spot in the NBA is just play
as well as they can and then go forget tape
out there.
Gus Kattengel (15:58):
Yeah exactly, not only here, but anywhere else. Because obviously
the Pels have done that too, right, they have gone
out and grabbed some players that can help.
Jim Eichenhofer (16:06):
I think other.
Gus Kattengel (16:06):
Teams will do that. You mentioned the offseason and draft
picks coming out well, first and fore most, you gotta
find out why you're picking.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Jim.
Gus Kattengel (16:14):
So, I just counted five Mondays. Five mondays from now
is May twelfth, that will be the lottery, So it
will tune in before a playoff game. We'll all hope
and see where that lottery pick will be. What can
you tell us about that?
Speaker 8 (16:29):
Now?
Gus Kattengel (16:30):
And you look at the standings. We have two games left.
Pretty much every team in the league has two to
three games. I feel like last night kind of solidified
in a block at least, right.
Jim Eichenhofer (16:40):
Yeah, I mean, I think it was pretty clear to
me even before last night of where the Pelicans are
probably going to finish. As far as I always like
to keep this less confusing, I call it the pre
lottery slot instead of saying like the fourth pick, because
obviously we don't know until May twelfth. But yeah, I mean,
based on the standings right now, because Philadelphia won their
(17:02):
most recent game against Washington, the Pelicans definitely will have
the third or fourth slot in the lottery, and it's
an extremely good chance unless you have a lot of
belief and confidence in the Charlotte Hornet's ability to win
two games in Boston this weekend Friday and Sunday that
the Pelicans are going to be in the number four
pre lottery slot. So if that's the case, that they're
(17:23):
going to have a twelve point five percent chance of
winning the lottery and getting the number one pick, and
they're gonna have a forty eight percent chance of picking
in the top four. If you add together the odds
of first, second, third, and fourth, that adds up to
approximately forty eight percent. So I mean, that's what we're
looking at right now. I mean, it's kind of a
coin flip of whether they're going to be in that
(17:43):
top four, and the twelve point five percent chance is
basically like a one in eight chance of ending up
with the number one pick. And but the thing is
is they've had less, had a smaller percentage than that
in the past and wanted I think it was about
six percent when they won it in twenty nine teen
and got Zion Williamson.
Gus Kattengel (18:01):
That's why I was going to ask you to, you know,
for people listening right now, the times that the Peals
have gotten the number one overall pick, that thirty plus wins.
Jim Eichenhofer (18:07):
Right, yeah, exactly, Yeah, they did not. I feel like
I have to keep reminding people of this because, as
you know, I'm I'm not a fan of.
Gus Kattengel (18:15):
I'm not a fan of what's going on right now.
I'm r I was texting board tim Y today, what
was it going into last night's games? Seven and forty three?
The combined win loss percentage of the bottom four teams
bottom four bottom five teams lee wise win loss record,
which includes the peals have won in their last ten games.
(18:38):
You know, like you'll see one in nine, two and
eight in team's last ten games if you combine all
the wins for the bottom five and all of the losses.
It was seven and forty three when I group texting guys,
and I can just picture you just rolling your eyes
because I mean, what are we doing?
Jim Eichenhofer (18:54):
You know, it's even beyond what the teams themselves are doing.
To me, what drives me crazy sometimes is like the
fan and media discussion about it, because I feel like
we always have to keep reminding people too that you
realize that if a team goes zero to eighty two,
they still only have a fourteen percent chance to win
the lottery. Now, so like win a game, right if so?
(19:15):
That's the part that I don't understand is I feel
like people are so maniacal about the idea of teams
need to lose, teams need to lose, team lose, that's
it's the last game of the season. And like theoretically, say,
every team in the lottery, the fourteen teams all have
their slot determined, and it doesn't matter what the outcome
of the games are on Sunday afternoon, because it's already
like this'll probably be the case for the Pelicans. They'll
(19:36):
probably go into Sunday with the fourth splot locked up,
and there's still gonna be people out there being like,
they gotta lose today, and I'm like, no, no, you
don't understand. You have to look at the standings. It
doesn't help. It's not like they give you more. It's
not like if Utah loses by fifty seven points on
Sunday that they get more lottery balls. Like it's based
(19:56):
on the standings. It's based on one loss record forty
seven brutal, right, well, but also possible based on the
way things have been going lately.
Gus Kattengel (20:04):
So yeah, that is very true. How about some news
of the week. I haven't had a chance to really
chat with you about it. How surprised I was surprised
with the King's decision, right, I mean coach coach Brown,
I don't know what the Aaron Fox was thinking following
and he lost the game. He was out of a
job the next day. A couple of months later, Memphis
has parted ways, and I'm like, huh, Denver, right, they
(20:28):
just won the NBA title two seasons ago. How surprised
have you been? Is this telling? Is this a trend?
Does that mean teams perhaps that we wouldn't think would
make changes at the and the end of the season
d or are these individual cases? How do you look
at this? How do you end lize?
Jim Eichenhofer (20:46):
You know? I mean before I say anything, I want
to mention too that I feel like one of the
things I've learned over the years is that there's always
more to the story than what you know. So within
these organizations, there's definitely more, And I feel like there're's
definitely been more things that have come out that people
have reported about the Denver situation and the Memphis situation
recently as well. But I mean, just in general, before
(21:08):
you get into the specifics of those situations. What blows
my mind is it feels like the regard for winning
has kind of going out the window, like it feels
like winning is being taken for granted so often. And
I know this isn't a brand new thing. I mean,
there's been coaches of the Year that have been fired
a lot. There was a stretch in the NBA there
(21:29):
where it seemed like people said, the last thing you
want to do if you're a coach is win Coach
of the Year, because within two years or so, you're
probably gonna get fired. Because there literally was a bunch
of guys that did that. And I think it's interesting
too if you look at the recent list of coaches
who've won championships that a bunch of those guys have
gotten fired as well in recent years. You know, Frank
(21:50):
Vogel won and he got fired. You know Boonholzer got
fired after he won with the Bucks, Like within two years,
Nick Nurse is not Toronto's coach anymore. So I don't
know it's to me. It's for one thing, it's hard
to relate to the idea of being like, well, we
want a championship, but that's not good enough, you know,
under circumstances where it's like I think I'll speak a
(22:14):
little bit for the fan base I think people here
are so hungry for wins, hungry to have a winning team,
hungry to have consistency to even get to that point.
So it's like, it's just hard for me to fathom
that you win a championship and then you're itching to
get rid of that coach within a year or two.
So I don't know. I don't know what the answer
to that is. I do think that, you know, this
(22:35):
is something that has come up a lot in the
NBA in recent years too, that it feels to me
and maybe I'm wrong, maybe my memory is off, but
I don't remember there being this many conflicts in the
past between head coaches and front offices, and it feels
like that's happening a lot more now, where it used
to be that the front office was like, Okay, we're
gonna do the GMing and we're going to do this.
(22:56):
We're not gonna get involved in all these other decision
that the coaches have traditionally made. And I think once
you let that happen, once you start having front offices
that get so heavily involved in the decision making that
the coaches traditionally have been left alone kind of to make,
You're going to have a lot more conflicts, and it
seems like that that's from the outside looking in, that
that's happening a lot. And I think in the Denver
(23:19):
and Memphis situation, we're hearing reports of, you know, conflict
about how you which players to play that used to
be a coach thing. GMS used to say, this is
what the coach's job is. I'll give you the players,
but it's your team and you're around them every day
in practice. I'm not gonna, you know, overstep or put
a ton of input into your day to day decisions
(23:40):
because I'm not around the team every day. So I
feel like there's just been a lot of there's a
lot of changes that have happened over the last five
ten years with the front office's relationship with coaches across
the league, and I think that's a huge factor. It
may be a factor every single time in the recent
ones that we've heard about lately. And it's funny you
mentioned you were surprised by the Mike Brown firing. It
(24:02):
was like that was just the that was like, hold
my beer, We'll show you what a real surprising firing
is when we do it with eight games left as
Memphis did and three games left like Denver did.
Gus Kattengel (24:12):
Again, it's just shocking, and especially when you know, again
we're not there. I don't know, we just look at
it from the outside, but it seemed like was it
to appease you know, a player that then not even
a week or two later says, trade me, and he's
no longer in the team. So now the coach and
that player team anywarts. It's crazy. And Sacramento's case, and
(24:32):
again I think what I take over you just said
is it's it's individuals. It's not a case by case
basis for some reason, although at the same time we
still don't understand it. I mean sure, I just I mean,
I don't know.
Jim Eichenhofer (24:43):
And the one thing I'll add into about the situation
with Denver is it sounds like from some of the
reporting that ESPN has done, or Tim McMahon talked about
this on Brian Windhorse podcast, that you know, Mike Malone
is a disciplinarian. He's a hard talking guy. He doesn't
mince war. And it's like, to me, you got to
be careful when you start to get to the point
(25:04):
where you can't let a coach coach. I mean, I mean,
I don't know if I'm saying this because my parents
were both teachers, but it's like, at a certain point
you have to have some authority. You can't just say, like, well,
if somebody's feelings get hurt, that means we have to
make a bunch of changes, because you're gonna be chasing
your tail if you do that, If you constantly are
trying to appease everyone, you're gonna have a revolving door.
(25:25):
And it's like you're gonna have a situation maybe where
you win a championship and three or four years later
you're looking around and like, what happened to that championship team.
I feel like there's a bunch of examples of that.
Phoenix was in the NBA Finals in twenty twenty one.
Look at where they are now after they under prevent
have kind of had a never ending cycle of head
coaching changes. Milwaukee won the championship that same year in
(25:45):
twenty twenty one. They've had multiple head coaches since then,
and you can't say that they're better off now than
they were a few years ago when they actually were
a complete championship contender. I don't know if you can
really say that right now. So it's one of those
things where it's like I see a lot of be
careful what you wish for in a bunch of these
circumstances as well, because if you're not content with success,
(26:08):
sometimes that turns into all of a sudden you have
way less success than you did when you were upset
about how you weren't. You know, when if your goal
is if you think we have to win two three
championships in a row or we're gonna be upset, You're
gonna be. You're gonna be. Really, You're gonna turn into
a lot of dysfunction and chaos and organization.
Gus Kattengel (26:26):
I don't even know how you It's not even the
phrase grass is green. On the other side, Mike Malone
was the same coach that he was two years ago
that got you to the finals, right Hudos was the
same coach that you know taught toughness on defense, that
same guy. These are the same coaches. And to your point,
all Mike Brown said was I have no idea what
Eric Fox is fouling over it. He had no business
(26:47):
being over there. He should be allowed to say that,
right I Because we're all thinking it, you know, we're
all going why why are we following a three point
shooter when I mean he's saying the same thing, and
if you're going to get fired as a coach for saying,
we sat there, We went over it. We went over
at practice. I drew up on the dry eraser board.
(27:09):
We told them he forty went in a huddle and
any for some reason went and did it. If that
is not allowed, well then you can't coach this period.
Jim Eichenhofer (27:17):
No, totally, one hundred percent agree with you. I mean,
this is a longer discussion for another show too, But
I also think that there's been a shift in the
time that I've been here too, and I'm not speaking
specifically about the Pelicans, just overall league wise. Sometimes I
feel like you have to remind people the players are
employees too. You can't treat them as though they run everything.
(27:38):
Every player in the league right now, including Lebron James,
is not going to play for thirty forty years, So eventually,
if you're in charge of an organization, every single player
you have will not be there. So you don't want
to change everything that you do based on their wishes
because eventually you'll still be in that position and they
won't be anymore. So I mean, I think that's something
that needs to be discussed in thought about as well,
(28:01):
is that, of course, you do everything you can to
make them happy, you do everything you can to create
a great working environment, but you can't you can't turn
over everything to them, right because they're at the end
of the day, there's still employees. They're you're not their employee.
But I feel like a lot of times that's what's
happening with some of these teams is that it's turned
(28:21):
It's like flipping the situation where it's like the players
are your boss. You start doing that and you're you're
in trouble.
Gus Kattengel (28:27):
Yeah, no doubt. Well maybe why san Antonia had so
much success, right, everyone knows you go to Santonio. This
is how he was saying, this is what it's going
to be. This is the type of player going to
be period, end of story.
Jim Eichenhofer (28:37):
Right.
Gus Kattengel (28:37):
They had some some ridiculous twenty plus years where you've
been a playoff team and I know they pick eight,
but that's still incredible where they're all winning Sea.
Jim Eichenhofer (28:46):
Yeah, and you have to get guys that buy into
that as well. If you get players that are coming
like Tim Duncan say, I'm willing to be coached. I'm
willing to be yelled at because I know that it's
at the end of the day, it's the best thing
for me in my career and the organization in the future.
That's the that's the ideal, that's the way that you
want things to be wrong.
Gus Kattengel (29:04):
I think Tony Parker was a great example of that.
A little resistant at first, took it and became a champion.
Jim Eichenhofer (29:10):
How about Manu Genobili who came off the bench for
a big chunk of his career. How many players are like,
I'm not coming off the bench. And to me, every
organization that runs into that situation that has a player,
you say, you know this guy, Manu Genobili, You remember him.
He came off the bench. If he can do it,
you can do it too.
Gus Kattengel (29:25):
So can you give me your best Charles Barkley Genobili impression.
Jim Eichenhofer (29:29):
Every time you would hit a three during a highlight?
Speaker 8 (29:31):
Genobil TGI Jim, It's Friday, which means mister Eichenhoffer as
a pair of things for us, trending numbers and.
Gus Kattengel (29:47):
Weekend showdown.
Jim Eichenhofer (29:50):
What are we starting with, Jim? You know what? Since
we just talked about the West a lot and some
of the coaching changes. Let's start with the weekend showdown,
so I couldn't narrow this down one game. And also
we have to say the Sunday games. I mean, who
knows going into that, because based on what happens tonight,
a lot of the impact of those games is gonna change.
But I picked for a Friday weekend showed down and
(30:12):
picked Memphis at Denver. The Grizzlies are in seventh place
in the West. The Nuggets aren't fourth. Really, I think
if Memphis loses this game, they're going to be in
the play in. So I think that's the most significant
element to that. I think if Denver right now, with
Denver being in fourth, if the Nuggets win tonight and
then they win Sunday, they're playing at Houston with the
(30:33):
Rockets obviously already have a spot locked up at the
two seed, so maybe Houston doesn't have a lot going
in that game. So I just think Memphis Denver tonight
is a huge swing game as far as the Grizzlies'
ability to avoid the play in, I think if they lose,
they're Also this is a crazy back to back that
they just played at home a late game last night
on TNT and then they're flying all the way to
(30:54):
Denver to play against the Nuggets. So that's the weekend
showed on for Friday. The weekend showdown for Sunday is
a two thirty game on ESPN same time as the
Pelicans Thunder. The Clippers are playing at Golden State. LA
is in fifth place right now, Golden State's in sixth,
So I mean, those are two teams that could end
up in the top six and we'll be trying to
(31:15):
avoid the play in tournament. I'm fascinated to see who,
for example, who ends up with the sixth seed and
has to probably match up against the Lakers because the
most likely the Lakers are going to finish third, Houston's
locked in at seventh, so or second. I mean, so
who are they going to play at seven? And I
know we talked about this recently, but just this is
such an interesting race as far as the seedings go.
(31:38):
And then lastly, the trending number, gus I'm gonna go.
Trending number is zero and that is you know, as
we record this at about eleven uro. Yes, as we
recorded this about eleven am. We haven't seen the injury
report yet for the Pelicans. But it's possible that zero
Pelicans who played in the January first game at Miami
out of the nine guys who appeared in that game
(31:58):
will play tonight against Miami.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Zero.
Jim Eichenhofer (32:01):
Yes, I mean for the starters from that game have
been shut down for the season. Trey Murphy, Herb Jones,
CJ McCollums, de Jontay Murray. Two of the nine guys
that played in that game for New Orleans, Daniel Tyson
and Jamonte Green aren't on the roster anymore. And then
the other three of the nine, Brandon Boston's been out
for a while, Jordan Hawkins missed some games with injury
if mecI also missed a game or two recently with injury.
(32:23):
So it's possible of those nine players that zero will
get to play a second time against the Heat for
New Orleans. If that doesn't sum up the way the
season has gone from a player availability standpoint, I don't
know what does I.
Gus Kattengel (32:37):
Was gonna say, if you could even begin to understand
what you just said, right, that is absolutely insane. That's Jim.
I can offer Jim on the score, I can offers
the way to give a follower there on X and
of course over on Pelicans dot Com we'll have postgame
analysis and then stuff going into that OKAC game, the
season finale. Look, we're gonna meet again on Monday and
(32:57):
do a podcast on the end of the season and
going into the postseason all but want to give people
real quick thirty seconds or so, what's coming up over
the next couple of weeks here as well. We're not
done next week. We're gonna do some player.
Jim Eichenhofer (33:10):
Profiles right right, Well, next week is I think we're
gonna do more kind of a broad review of the season.
And then the following week after that, which I believe
is the twenty first of April, we're gonna start with
season reviews. We're gonna have guests on to speak about
each player. Given the way the season is gone, this
(33:31):
maybe won't surprise people, but we actually have a list
of fourteen players that we're gonna be reviewing because in
terms of guys that played a significant amount of minutes,
that's how many we ended up with. Obviously, unfortunately several
guys season was over earlier in the year, whether it
was December, January, or February. But we'll have about three
(33:51):
weeks of almost three full weeks of player reviews. We'll
have Monday through Friday, the week of April twenty first,
the week of April twenty eighth, and then May fill
and then that's going to segue right into the lottery,
which we mentioned earlier as May twelfth. So I mean, yeah,
we're gonna have We're gonna be quite busy over the
next few weeks, even though we don't have any more
games after Sunday, no doubt.
Gus Kattengel (34:12):
And more importantly, I think next week you make your
four K debut.
Jim Eichenhofer (34:17):
I do four K debut.
Gus Kattengel (34:18):
Yes, we're gonna do a radio roundtable, video portion podcast.
It will be airing on the Gulf Coast Sports and
Entertainment Network.
Jim Eichenhofer (34:26):
Oh okay, I knew it was gonna be on Pelicans. Plus,
I didn't realize it's gonna be on the network. I'm
assuming it will be okay.
Gus Kattengel (34:31):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure it will be regardless four K excellent.
Jim Eichenhofer (34:35):
Yeah, I'm not sure if they're ready for that.
Gus Kattengel (34:37):
I don't believe me. Same thing here as well. Thank you, Jim.
We will talk again on Monday here. I'll see you
tonight of course, and you will be part of Pelicans
ot at the end of the game. For the next
two games here as well Pells and Heat tonight at seven,
Pells and Thunder on Sunday at two thirty. Well, thank
you for listening to the New Orleans Pelicans podcast.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Thanks for listening to the New Orlands Pelicans Podcast. Join
us three times per week on pelicans dot com, the
Pelicans Mobile app, the iHeartRadio app, or where you get
your podcast, and be sure to give Jim and Gus
a follow on x at Jim Underscore I Can Offer
(35:18):
and Gcat Underscore seventeen. We'll see you next time right
here on the New Orleans Pelicans Podcast
Host
Jim Eichenhofer
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