Previewing the Cleveland Cavaliers and New Orleans Pelicans with Jake Madison

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On today's show, the Caves are back in action on Saturday night, taking on the New Orleans

Pelicans, Jake Madison from Lockdown Pelicans, stops by to give insight on that matchup

and where he thinks the calves might have the advantage.

We'll dive in next right here on Lockdown Caves.

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Jake Madison from Lockdown Pelican stops by today.

We preview Saturday night's game, just as a warning.

This was recorded on Thursday, prior to the caps taking on the bulls and prior to the

Pelicans beating the clippers on Thursday night.

So some of this stuff might be just a tad dated, but we didn't try and keep it evergreen.

We talked about what's been going on with the Pelicans because they've been a better

team lately.

They have won seven of their last 11 games after beating the clippers on Thursday night.

But we do also talk about where the Cleveland Cavaliers who have and mobile has been playing

very, very well.

That's a hint right there, but where they could have an advantage over the Pelicans on Saturday

night.

So now, here's my conversation with Jake Madison.

Jake, the last time we talked, things weren't necessarily going all that well for the Pelicans.

And I wouldn't necessarily call this season the greatest one in New Orleans, basketball

history.

I turned around recently, New Orleans and four full disclosure here.

We are recording this on Thursday afternoon, so the Pelicans are going to play the clippers

on Thursday night, the caps will play the bulls on Thursday night.

So things might change a little bit between now and the time you're listening to this

episode.

But as of right now, New Orleans is six and four in its last 10 games.

If not, lost a game by more than like five points or 10 points since the beginning of

March.

Like, what has made this Pelicans team a much more formidable foe than what their record

might say?

You know, I think there's a couple of things, right?

Like first and foremost, it's health that they're healthy for the first time in what feels

like forever.

And a big part of that is also Dejonte Murray coming back and a lot's been made of Jason

Tatum's return from injury, but Murray went through a very similar thing and looks kind

of better than he did before.

And so since he's come back for this team immediately into the starting lineup as they're

starting point guard, you now have something that can organize your offense.

His defense trailed off at Atlanta from his time in San Antonio, but he still can be

a very good, impactful defender.

And so he's brought that to this team as well.

And you've seen their defense grow.

He also is just like a dog, man.

You know, those guys, those guys that just go out there and like fight, right?

And when you have those type of players, it raises the level of everybody else on the

team when you have someone diving through loose balls, someone that's actually communicating

on defense.

So you've seen them kind of find a little bit more of an attitude, I think.

That kind of grit that they were definitely lacking earlier on in the year.

So I think, you know, him coming back, the team just overall being healthy.

Yeah, when you have your best players on the court, you're going to look a whole lot

better.

And I think it's also interim coach James Borrega, right?

He was finalist for your job, the Cavaliers job, a couple of years ago, as someone that

is like finally kind of getting some of his concepts in the offense looks kind of fundamentally

different from where they did earlier on in the year where they're much less Zion centric,

maybe using Zion off ball a little bit more.

And that seemed to work pretty well.

It's empowered guys like a, you know, a tray Murphy, it's given Sadiq Bay more opportunities

to play one on one in isolation, you know, and because of all this, now that they're playing

with some energy, they get out in transition and they run.

That's the easiest points are going to be able to score.

And that just kind of equates to not a good team.

They're not a good team, but they are certainly not a bad team like they were previously.

And that's a step in the right direction if nothing else, and especially for a team

that doesn't have its own first round draft pick, which is a different conversation

that we don't need to get into today, although I will be asking about Derek Queen a little

bit later on.

But you mentioned having their best players available, and one guy that has been consistently

available, at least as of late, has been Zion Williams, and I believe he said a career

best mark for consecutive games played a little bit ago.

Right.

Like how do you evaluate what his season has been like?

You know, it's interesting.

It's a tale of two seasons, and even though he's playing well, now he's getting a lot

of credit for being healthy.

This does fall in line with kind of previous years from him.

He doesn't show up in shape.

We've seen pictures of him and how he looks, but he's not in game shape, right?

Like there's definitely a difference between going and working out and looking great, and

then being able to actually go and do this.

It's why I work out every day with my cardio sucks because I don't like running, right?

Like there's a huge difference there on that sort of thing.

So, you know, he came into the year.

We had big expectations immediately gets hurt.

He doesn't quite look like himself even before all of that, but then kind of comes back

from the injury early, which is important and worth mentioning, but then also plays

himself into shape and now look at him, right?

And I think making the offense less Zion Williams centric has really, really helped him.

That's going to save some wear and tear on his legs on his body here.

And so because of that, he's allowed to just be really, you know, efficient offensively,

because what he has these bursts where he just takes over again completely.

He still looks like Zion Williams and niphing through the defense.

He finishes at the rim like a guard.

And when you have a big man that can do that and drop owls, it's going to lead to some

really good things for your offense.

But now that Trey Murphy is also shooting a whole lot more and all of that, like it opens

the court for him a little bit, I think, too.

So you're seeing spacing get a little bit better because there's more offensive threats

and those things defensively, he sucks defensively, he is not just going to be blunt about

it.

But offensively, he's not looking good.

That's kind of a choice, I think, last year, in limited minutes, he looked pretty good

defensively.

This year, like, not at all.

So there's still some of the questions concerns around Zion Williams and like we've seen.

But offensively, man, dude, dude's kind of clicking right now.

Is that the biggest area where you think the calves might have an advantage over New Orleans?

It's just being able to potentially attack Zion Williams and whether it's in pick and

roll situations, depending on who he's defending or even getting him with Evan Mowley

matched up against him because you're at Alan not complaining this game.

When you look at this specific matchup, is that the thing you say, okay, the calves probably

have the pelicans in this spot?

So looking at it, to me, it does come down to the big man matchup.

I wouldn't necessarily say Zion Williams in.

I think it depends on which big Zion Williams in his plane with.

And this has been a big problem for New Orleans all season long.

He and Derek Queen just don't work together defensively, right?

Like they're just both bad defensive bigs and it's one thing to hide one of them.

And Derek Queen doesn't start, right?

The starting line up is going to be Murray, Trey Murphy, Herb Jones, Zion Williams in

Sedique Bay.

Herb Jones is kind of playing center in that lineup.

You can hide Zion Williams in enough in that.

It's really tough to hide two negative defensive bigs.

One of them will be able to be targeted.

So I think it's less about Zion, but just targeting whoever, you know, the term NBA teams

uses who's the pigeon, right?

And so when you have those two bad defensive bigs out, you're going to be able to get that

matchup on one of them and target whichever one it is and you're fine with either one

and it makes your life being kind of easier when it comes down to it.

So that at least offensively for the Cavaliers is what I'll see them doing.

The puggins will try and mitigate that by trying to, you know, throw multiple different

lineups out there until they find one that works.

If you have noticed this over the past two games, they get out to a slow start.

It's not working for whatever reason.

And James Brego is like deep into the bench playing 10 guys in the first quarter sometimes,

really trying to just kind of find the right combination that will work.

So if the Cavaliers do that, you'll see New Orleans really trying to just really quickly

I think on the fly.

It might be Carlo McEvich who is really impactful for the team in the game against the Clippers.

That's not really good defensively.

Eve Macy has sometimes come in and been able to be a bit more of a rim protector.

He can defend on the perimeter.

They're going to try different combinations to find out kind of what counters what the

Cavs are trying to do on offense.

But I agree it's like the big man battle.

It's also going to matter on the offensive glass, right?

The Cavaliers are a pretty good offensive rebounding team.

The Pelicans are not a good defensive rebounding team.

That's really where it might come down to also in those second chance points in those

opportunities.

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I want to ask about Derek Queen because I don't know that he's necessarily been as much

a part of the conversation lately in terms of like the national perspective from the

Pelicans because early on in the season, and he had some bright spots certainly, but

it was all about they really traded this pick that could be, you know, could turn into

AJ DeVance or Darren Peterson or name whoever's going to be at the top of this draft for

Derek Queen, which is an unfair way to look at Derek Queen the basketball player.

So what have you thought of him just as a rookie in the way that he's looked so far in his

NBA career?

Yeah, you know, he's had some highs and lows, right?

And I think part of this is part of the conversation is also around that trade, right?

But not that they gave up so much for Derek Queen.

It's just this team has no reason to be bad.

And so rookies tend to just not help you win, right?

So the Pelicans are trying this kind of two timeline approach and it that just never has

ever worked in the history of the NBA.

No, you're shaking me right?

No.

I mean, look at the Warriors.

Like the Warriors tried the two timeline approach and they think now to it.

It screws up both sides of things and that's a little, that's my larger concern around

this team.

But so because they trade away that pick, they have no reason to try and be bad.

So you may as well go out and try and win games and look, they're going to try and win

games next year.

They want to be a playoff team next year or two.

It takes rookie.

It takes guys drafted like three years to really, really impact winning at a significant

enough level.

I think at the NBA, that's not probably not going to be the case for Derek Queen next

year either.

So because they're trying to win games, they've taken him out of the starting line up.

They put him on the bench because yeah, he wasn't helping him do that.

But that also then sacrifices some of the development around him.

That's why he's just not part of the national conversation as much.

If he was still starting, I think you'd see some pretty good stat lines from him and things

like that.

But because he's taking a lesser role right now there, you're just not seeing it.

And so it's that kind of straddling two timelines approach that doesn't really work and was

maybe short-sighted on the Pelicans for thinking too rookie, drafted in the top 14, 13.

We're really going to be that kind of impactful and help them make the playoffs this year.

And even as they played better right over the past month or so, they're really beating

up on bad teams.

Like the Cavaliers are going to kind of be that first true test of like, oh, this is

an elite team.

How do we match up with them?

If New Orleans comes in and loses by 20, which I think is a possibility here, like it

kind of says a lot.

So Derek Queen, I think, has still been good.

You know, he's developing a three point shot.

He's been making those and taking those more recently, like that's a bit of a game changer

for him, fitting next to Zion Williamson offensively.

He's done some good things defensively too.

He can definitely get to a spots on offense or seeing him draw more fouls, which is great.

So this will be an interesting matchup with Moebley.

But yeah, like, I don't know, they're trying to do two things and you can't do two things.

It's hard to be good at two things when you really need to just try and focus on being

good at one thing.

And this is not Pelican specific, but I think the quicker that teams learn that, the

better off they are.

But you brought up James Burego earlier, who has the interim tag is head coach of the

Pelicans right now.

After they fired Willie Green, like, I don't know, 10, 15 games in the season, not very

deep.

Like, why they went into the season in season coaching change this year.

Right.

And it feels like it happened three years ago, because this season has been so long.

And there's a discussion to be had about whether or not he should have been fired this past

off season instead of, yes, it's basically, but watch the season down the toilet because

of it.

Now, Burego is the interim coach.

And do you expect him to be the full time head coach of the Pelicans this summer?

What do you think happens with that situation?

Because he is a guy that one does have had coaching experience.

And two has been sought after on market.

You mentioned earlier that he was a finalist for the Caveshead coaching position that went

to Kenny Ackinson.

I think the Caves are happy with that decision, but that doesn't take away from who Burego

is as a coach.

No, it's going to come down to this and the Pelicans fans that are listening to this

are not going to be happy, but they get it clear going with this and I get it why it's

just his ownership want to be cheap or not.

That's what it comes down to, right?

Look, this is known as a cheap franchise.

They're one of two franchises that has never paid the luxury tax, the other being the

Charlotte Hornets, not that this team has really ever had a roster that's worthy of paying

the luxury tax for to be fair to them, but it comes down to they want to be cheap.

Burego's doing a pretty good job.

I don't think he's an elite head coach, but I also think there's five head coaches

that win you games, five head coaches that lose you games and 20 coaches somewhere in

the middle in there, right?

If Burego's in the middle and you can get him cheap, like, okay, I don't think you're

going to find a better head coach at what his like price point would be.

So if you're kind of looking at it through that lens, yeah, they should make Burego the

full time head coach.

He's got this team playing hard.

There's something to be said for getting the buy-in of players, a lot to be said for that

actually.

So if you want to go cheap, yeah, you can do that.

If you want to swing for the fences, you need to go after a Michael Malone, a Taylor Jenkins,

but this team isn't going to pay $10 million for a top of the line NBA head coach.

So if you're not going to do that, yeah, keep the guy that's already in house.

That's doing a good job and just kind of elevate him.

The wild card in this is Troy Weaver, Joe Dumars, you know, is the executive vice president

of basketball operations, hired Troy Weaver previously of the Detroit Pistons to kind

of be the second in command, more or less like run the actual like player or personnel

side of the team.

Troy Weaver likes his Troy Weaver guys.

We've seen that with some of the acquisitions they've made in the offseason, Derek Queen's

a Troy Weaver guy, Siddiq Bay is a Troy Weaver guy, even Jordan Poole as well.

You know, we had heard how, you know, when he was in Detroit, they wanted to hire Kevin

Oli over Monty Williams for that faithful season and ownership over road that.

Does Troy Weaver finally get to hire Kevin Oli?

Darvin Ham is a name that he's been linked to repeatedly.

I saw them talking before the Bucks were in town, before that game, before, you know,

the wild card is Troy Weaver just going to go get a Troy Weaver guy.

And if he does that, he's just going to pick whoever he wants.

Yeah, I think that's a fascinating thing to follow this off season because this, this

Pelicans roster, like in games are played on hardwood, they're not played on paper.

I say this all the time.

This roster is better than its record.

This, this team is not as bad as some of the worst teams, like at this point, it's better

than its record.

They've not always played like it.

They've not always been healthy.

And that's a big part of the reason why, but at some point, you just have to wonder,

is this team cursed?

That could be a very real person.

There's that factor in doing too, man, especially in a city like New Orleans, a lot of

food going on down there, man.

Yes.

But that is Jake Madison.

Go on.

Oh, no, I mean, you nailed it.

That's it.

Yeah, it's, it's crazy things happen in that city.

And sometimes they seem to affect the basketball team.

But that's Jake Madison.

You can check out more of his Pelicans take.

They're reporting that he does over at locked on Pelicans.

He does as good of a job covering that team as anybody in the NBA.

Jake, thank you so much for the time, man.

Of course.

Thanks, Danny.

Big thank you to Jake Madison for stopping by.

If you want more of the Pelicans, go check out his podcast, lock down Pelicans.

He does a great job down there in the cab.

Take on the Pelicans six o'clock Eastern time start in New Orleans, better team than

the record says they certainly have been playing much better lately.

But the Cavaliers are favorite favorites.

And this is a game that even if down to the Mitchell and Jalen Tyson do not play, a game

the Cavs should still be able to find a way to win.

And I will have you covered afterwards right here over at locked on Cavs and at my sub

sec the inside shot.

So make sure you subscribe to both of those things and hit that thumbs up button and the notification

bell on YouTube.

If you've not done so already, and I'll be back a little bit later on Saturday night

talking more about the Cleveland Cavaliers taking on the New Orleans Pelicans.

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