Somebody Is LYING To Us...

Coach Mosley is lying to us. As the Pelicans snap a four-game winning streak with a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves last night, a lot of questions are being asked once again about why he switched up the lineup that was already winning to going back to something that was losing. We're going to talk about it inside this edition of Pelicans Digest. What's good with it, my people It's Mel, so the Mic back once again inside Pelican's Digest Thank you so much for tapping in with us on this Saturday. And last night, it started off fun, but then it got ugly fast as the Pelicans lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves last night, 115-109 And The Pelicans had, you can see at certain points of the game, the Pelicans had chances to win. But the main topic of discussion today is why did he go back, Jamal Mosley, as a matter of fact, go back to the DeJounte Murray, Jeremiah Fears lineup, the two-guard lineup with those two guys. It once again produced disastrous results And the evidence is there that you're undefeated without this lineup and you're winless, well, maybe one win, with this same lineup So a lot of questions are being asked, and I got proof, I think I got the evidence that shows that Jamal Mosley is lying to us about why he did what he did, and we're going to talk about that inside this episode, but first, got to let you know that this episode is brought to you by Calshi, who's trying to put some money in your pocket, some extra money in your pocket, with $55 added to your account On Calshi, you're trading directly against other users, not the house like traditional sportsbooks. You're buying yes or no contracts on the outcome of events across sports, politics, or even the weather. 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And if you look at the box scores on this, you had a strong offensive night for Jeremiah Fierce, even though it looked slow at a lot of points. He had 24 points. Carlo Barea started the first half on fire, the first quarter especially on fire, and then he went ice cold after that. But the main point of contention is Zion Williamson and then Trey Murphy. Getting 17 shots combined. Zion with 10, Trey with 7. And Dejounte Murray, as you can see, was the lowest rated Pelican on the night outside of Ben Mathurin with a minus 7, only scoring 7 points and 2 rebounds and 4 assists. As Ayo Dasamu went off with 26 points. And listen, there's a lot we can point to in this game. Um. The first thing I want to discuss is Carlo. Like, Carlo came out on fire, started cooling off in the second half, and then he pretty much got sacked for the rest of the game for the most part. Only 17 minutes of action. Why was that? Why was that? You still had a good opportunity with him to get spacing out there, and I get it. Carlo could be a little flimsy on defense from time to time. But, you know, that is one of the reasons where things started to fall apart. in turn, as far as Carlos in his early threes, were able to stretch Minnesota's floor. Zion deserves a third quarter rally, which he didn't get. And we'll get into that in a minute as well. Murray's fourth quarter lead quickly disappeared. He put the team back into a lead, but then that got erased immediately due to his poor defense. And Minnesota controlled the closing stretch. That's pretty much where things began to turn for the Pelicans. The other issue, of course, was Jeremiah Fears. Jeremiah Fears scores 24 points as the guard fit with him and Murray continues to not produce. Very good results with his team. And we've seen it over and over again that Fears and Murray together don't work out. And I can chalk up Fears' struggles to his youth. I can chalk that up to him just being young and still learning a lot on the fly. I can chalk that up to that. And that's why I can't be hard on Fears. What I can be hard on is the guy that's been in the league for several years, was once an all-star, only has seven points. And play an Ole defense at certain points of the game. What I mean by Ole is somebody's charging towards the paint, and he goes, Ole, and lets him go by him. These two just don't work together, and we keep talking about this ad nauseum. The stats show it. In all these games with Jeremiah Fears so far in the first nine games, you can see the games where I think outside of the one game on November 2nd, he does well when he doesn't have Murray on the floor beside him. Right now, he's averaging 14.8 per game. And again, I can chalk that up to his youth and him learning. But if you look at these stark numbers about how they are together versus apart, together, there's a minus 14. And look at the defensive rating, 122. Their defense gets, everything about this team gets totally worse when both of them are on the floor. You get even numbers when either one or the other is on the floor. But without both of them on the floor, everything skyrockets to a plus 22. And the defensive rating an 88. And again, I can chalk up Fears to youth. Murray, I cannot. I cannot do that. So whenever his role is on the floor, as far as Jeremiah Fears is on the floor, his role changes. He gets more active when it comes to assists. Um, pardon me. Without Murray, he gets active with assists. He has six assists, and the ball moves around better as opposed to when Murray's on the floor. So I don't know what more evidence Jamal Mosley and the rest of these guys need to see in order for this to continue. I just don't. It makes no sense to me. And that's been the reaction all across social media today As of. Fears was getting burned by Dossimo at certain points of the game, three times in the fourth quarter by losing his man because these guys don't fight through screens or fight over screens. They switch out, and then Paul gets who he wants, He wants either a big center like Zion on him or somebody that he can speed past. Dossimo was just taking it straight to the rack on him, and he was way faster. So, again, for the 20th time, I can chalk this up to his youth. The main focus and the main problem and the main issue to everybody that's been watching these games is Herb Jones not being on the floor as he fouled out as the rotation continues to draw scrutiny. And that was a lot of frustration fouls that I saw from Herb Jones as far as the refs not giving him the calls, not calling it evenly whenever he was on the floor. And you can see that the frustration is starting to grow with him. As far as, you're putting me in as some sort of a bench enforcer. That's not my role. That is not his role to be some sort of enforcer. But this video that I'm about to present to you was from Jamal Mosley's presser last night. When he was asked directly, was asked directly by Rod Walker of the Times-Picayune, why did you go, why did Herb Jones not start? I want you to listen to his answer. When you start a line-up, you just have to... Put her back on the bench. What kind of went into that decision? You know, I think what went into that decision was because the ability for Carlo in that moment was to space the floor. And that's what was part of the Rudy Gobert scenario. And you saw what happened with Carlo being able to knock shots down, to stretch the floor in that scenario. Those guards being able to guard Paul early on, I thought they did a good job early. Again, that's part of the beauty of the depth of the team, being able to figure out exactly what is the right combination on the floor at any given time in any given game. Did y'all hear this, man? He said he did not start Herb Jones because of Carlo Banchero. What does Carlo, who plays the center position, have to do with starting your best defensive player? This dude is lying to us. He started it because Joe Dumars is telling him to start. Don't start Murray over Herb Jones. And if you recall, a couple of weeks back, Fletcher Mackle got this video of Joe Dumars talking to Herb Jones, I guess trying to explain what their process is. But for Jamal Mosley to get up there when he's asked a direct question about why you didn't start Herb Jones. Oh, because of Carlo. We needed Carlo in the spacing. What? What? Are you serious? That's your answer? No, dude, say it. Joe Dumars don't want me to play Murray because we want to keep his trade value going up. Because that was a foolish answer, man. That was a foolish answer. There's no way you can convince me otherwise. And of course, he's not going to throw his bosses under the bus. He ain't going to sit there and ever say that Joe Dumars isn't doing this. He's not going to say that. But for him to give that answer? Come on, bro. Dude is lying to us, bro. He's lying to us. The other thing that was baffling about last night was Jalen Suggs only getting 10 minutes of action. Granted, he had four turnovers, but you still didn't give him enough time to sort of rectify his mistakes. You give Fierce more leeway than you do Suggs. I see nights where Fierce has had four or five turnovers and he don't go to the bench immediately, but Queen does. Thank you. Not giving him a chance to try to cook and get his offense and stuff going, especially in the second half, was another detriment. And again, that's why we keep having all these questions. Don't necessarily agree with Herb's not starting. We just don't get it. Nobody seems to understand why and also why Derrick Queen got so few minutes. So, the questions we continue to ask is why pair both guards to start? And yes, Herb's foul removed a late-game option, which was disastrous at the end of the day because LaMelo Ball started getting hot and started cooking along with Dasamu. Queen's turnovers complicates calls for more minutes. But again, you're giving Fears more leeway than you do Queen. That continues to be baffling to everybody, and especially y'all in the comments. Y'all have been saying this for days. Vince Hicks says, enjoy the game, but two things I don't agree with. Well, three, Herb not being on the floor more. Your DNP, Carlo MacAvic, he's a game changer, and DQ playing center is just stupid to me. I also think Zion should play the three and start either DQ or Carlo at the four. Don't like the two ball-dominated scoring point guards. Ball tends to stick, especially with Murray. Make the hard choice and start one of the others. And I agree with Vince. So, and the other thing is, Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy not being able to get shots. 17 shots combined between the two of them. Zion only had 10 shots on the night. Was 5 of 10. Out of half of those shots, he missed. He was driving to the paint and he missed a lot of shots. But the other issue was, of course, Jonathan Kuminga, in my opinion, was holding him, grabbing him, and the rest wasn't calling it. Well, on the flip, that's why you saw Zion at certain points in the game. That's why Zion ended up with a technical foul at one point because he got tired of being grabbed and held, and they're not calling it. And so it was difficult for them to get the ball into Zion throughout the night. And you can say the same thing about Trey Murphy. Minnesota is a top-five defensive team, and they found a way to neutralize Trey Murphy and make sure that he didn't get the ball despite him having two steals and a block. But Trey Murphy also gave up a lot of points to a lot of different guys because he doesn't slide his feet on defense. The minute he gets in front of a guy, he plants. And guys shoot right on by him. The only time we saw Trey Murphy slide his feet is in the game against Memphis when he slid his feet against Ty Jerome. That was the one time that we saw him provide some good defense in this situation. But the fact that neither one of these guys can get that many shots up It's a problem, and one of the reasons why I think that is is because, once again, you got Murray out there on the floor in Fears, and the ball sticks. The ball doesn't move around when the two of them are on the floor, and Trey can't get open. The front office needs to worry about the roster construction and let the coaches coach the team. It's that simple, but we're not seeing that. I really do think management is dominating these lineups. My question for management is what these questions should be asked by the press. Does Mosley have final say on rotations? Are there mandates on starts or minutes? Because you're giving more minutes to Benedickt Mathurin and to JaVale Murray instead of the guys that are getting you wins. And how should development and winning be balanced? Those are the questions y'all need to be asking management the next time they decide they want to get in and talk. So, what should Jamal Mosley change first, if he has the power to even change it? Stagger Murray and Fears? B, start Herb alongside one guard? Or C, prioritize Zion and Trey Touchett? I say you got to do all three. But let me know your thoughts as we wrap up this edition of Pelican's Digest. Hit that subscribe button if you haven't done it yet. This is where you get the best analysis, opinions, and more about the New Orleans Pelicans. And join us tomorrow night for another live stream as we live stream Pelicans versus Clippers. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the weekend. I'll holla at you.