RANKINGS: Should Trey Murphy or Zion Williamson LEAD Pelicans? Ranking Top 7 Players

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1:00Your team every day. Ranging the seven best Pelican sounds easy until you actually try it, try Murphy or Zion at the top. What about Dejante Murray, Jeremiah Fears, Derrick Queen, Benedict Mathurne. Can I interest you in a Jordan pool? Suddenly, there's way more questions than answers to who are actually the best players on this roster right now. It's Lockdown Pelicans. Let's go. You are Lockdown Pelicans, your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to Lockdown Pelicans. I'm your host Jake Madison. We are doing an exercise on Lockdown NBA. All of our hosts are going to rank the top 100 players in the NBA. We did this last year. These are the hosts that know these teams know these players really well. I think this is a very useful exercise as I kick my table here.

2:01I very much enjoy this one. I think it's really, really useful. To start and generate that list of who do you rank in the top 100, they've asked us to rank every player on the team that we cover. One to seven. Put them in order. Who's your first player to your seventh player? You could do fewer than seven, but no more than seven. Why not put in seven names here? I was like, this should be pretty simple. Then it's not. It's not as easy as you might think. You might think, hey, put Zion number one, but it's more complicated than that. Here's the thing. I didn't put Zion Williamson number one. How are you supposed to evaluate what he could be next season? This isn't ranking careers. This isn't ranking the overall ceiling of a player. It's ranking who you expect to be the best player for the 2627 season. That's a pretty important distinction, I think. I rank Trai Murphy number one on the team right now. He's the guy I probably have the fewest questions about. You know what his shooting is going to be like.

3:03You know the athleticism that he brings. You know that he can be a really good complimentary player. You know that his creation is continued to expand as well as his offensive game. He's entering the portion of his career where you kind of expect him to push towards being a fringe level all-star type of player here. The Trai Murphy number one and that's where it gets easy. And then it gets hard, right? Zion Williamson to me is also just a big question mark. I'm going to rank him to. I did the rankings. He's number two on this team. You know if you were to ask who's the most talented player, it's Zion Williamson. If you ask who has the highest ceiling, it's Zion Williamson. But if I also ask you this, you know who are you most confident will actually be one of their best players from October through April? Are you going to say Zion Williamson? You know look, Zion could make me look foolish, could make me look ridiculous for ranking him second because if he gives you 65 healthy games, buys into what Jamal Mosley wants defensively,

4:03finds a way to coexist with Derek Queen, unoffence and defense. He can easily be the best player on the team, right? But how much of a ranking for this season should be based on what Zion can be versus what we can reasonably expect him to be, right? There are concerns about him expanding his game. There's massive questions and concerns about his defense. Can he work off ball? His fit with Zion Williamson and there's still even going to be the injury history, even with all the social media stuff that he's posting. I still put him to, but he probably has a wider range of outcomes than almost any other player on this roster, right? Last year when I ranked the top 50, I put him 50th. He could be in the top 50 of the league, also could be at the bottom if he only plays 30 games, right? And then things get really interesting after that. How do you value Herb Jones? We literally just talked about this this week on the show. I think Herb Jones is underrated by his impact of what he brings.

5:07So I put him third on this team. You win the minutes with him, but yeah, there are big questions about his offensive game, you know, around with a new head coach that doesn't have the best track record of putting in good offenses. And at what point do you need to try and figure out the balance with that? But it's Herb Jones to me who's number three. Okay, but then where do you fit in Benedict, right? Let me give you these three players. Jeremiah fears, let's do this. Jeremiah fears versus Dejante Murray, right? I say versus they're not actually like fighting or anything like that, but I think this is an actual debate here. Dejante Murray is projected to be the starter on opening night, I would say. We'll get minutes. He's been a productive player. He's a former All-Star. He's dealt with injuries, but in the 14 games he played last year, look pretty good. Limited minutes should be healthier. No reason he can't get back to what he's been before. And that is a guy that ranks in the top 100, right? You know, fears is the, you know, potential to eclipse him in terms of ceiling here.

6:12You know, is there a point though if fears get steady minutes, that Dejante Murray, you know, he surpasses Dejante Murray in this sort of thing, right? I think it's kind of tougher. Are you going to rank the established player or are you going to bet on a leap here, I think? You know, if you need to win a game tomorrow, you're probably taking Dejante Murray. But if you're looking at who's the best player by March or April, I don't, I still lean towards Murray, but it could be fierce. Here's the other thing to factor into this too. The Pelicans do shift towards development. Hey, they're not winning games. They realize it's not, this team isn't as good. Do they reduce Murray's minutes and elevate fears his minutes? Is that going to make him a better player next year? You know, same thing for Benedict Matherin, you would assume he's going to have a pretty large role on this team. Is he starting? Is he coming off the bench? I, let's use him in his bench role, right? Coming off the bench and just being a microwave score, he's going to give you 18 points per game. So, there's questions about his efficiency, significant questions about his efficiency,

7:17right? Well, we actually think he's good or is it just kind of empty points on a potential bad team? How do you judge that kind of guy, right, in his defense? Not good. And then what about Derek Queen? You know, would you put him ahead of Matherin knowing what his ceiling is? You know, he can do a lot of things that are, that no other offensive players can do or very unusual for players of his size. You know, the creation, the touch, the passing, you know, the ability to operate with the ball here. But you also have real questions about what this team looks like defensively with him, what position he ultimately plays. And if they're trying to win games and we learn, Desaian Williamson and Queen Perry doesn't work and there's no reason to think it does, do his minutes go down like they did this past season? You know, are you ranking impact right now or talent that could explode this year? I think it's tough to try and figure out what to do with Derek Queen. What about Jordan Poole, right, similar kind of player to a Benedict Matherin, I think?

8:18You know, he's the established guy who's done it. I don't, I don't see him getting minutes to start with, but it's a new coaching staff. Maybe they just put him in. Where does he get a rank in this? And then you have someone like, you know, Eve Macy, who could be an opening night starter, who's been, you know, really improved with his rim protection last year. But you know, when you try and rank three through seven for me, right? Well, not even three through seven. Rank one through seven. Put them in order for me. I'm curious what y'all say in the comments. I have time to change my rankings a little bit. So maybe I'll use some of this here. You know, think about what you, here's what I want you to think about, right? Tell me, you know, confidently, what this guy is going to give you next season. Try and pretty confident on her, pretty confident, right? Even if the offense fluctuates, sayon. More so than other guys, because when he plays, you know what he's going to give you. But you know, Dejante is still coming back from the injury. Fuse is developmental.

9:19So is Queen here. Macy's kind of in that boat, but a little bit ahead of them, right? Math or done it, but not efficiently, not to warrant really, you know, a ton of interest around the league here. You know, my seven is set. I'm really interested in what yours are though, because, you know, I think people could have wildly different answers here. I could see Math or in being number three on this team. I could see Macy being number three on this team. But give me your top seven players in order in the comments. Tell me where you have Zion, Dejante, Fuse, Queen, all of that, because I think that's going to be, you know, really interesting to look at. Rank the roster for me. Let's see if you're, let's get the debate going here in the comments down below. Coming up next, I think you're going to see three Pelicans players in the top 100. But now let's, let's, let's look at this a little bit differently. Which other players have the biggest chance to jump into the NBA top 100 that Lockdown will do?

10:20This is a different conversation than the one we just had. Let's look at that coming up here next in today's episode of Lockdown Pelicans. Today's episode, Lockdown Pelicans, brought to you by Square, the system powering so many of the places we already know and love. So whether you're running a packed game day spot, a local restaurant, or growing a business, Square gives sellers the tools to run their businesses without making things more complicated. Square is going to bring payments, inventory, payroll, invoices, customer insights, and more together in one connected system. So whether you're a one location business or growing into multiple locations, Square gives you the tools to sell, manage, grow without needing an IT team to figure it all out. Look, I'm excited to watch college football. I'm going to go to a Tulane watch party, Roll Wave this weekend. I appreciate all those like local spots, right? They can handle a huge game day crowd without everything feeling chaotic. Like checkout, easy payments, everything moving smoothly so there's not a line form

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12:24If you're an everyday or let me know in the comments down below also rank it. I see even if I'm not commenting there every day, I definitely see all I promise. For your also don't forget you can watch us on the Gulf Coast sports and entertainment network every weekday at 10 30 a.m. Same place you watch your Pelicans play this season for your second listen. Lockdown NBA look they're covering everything going on around the association. If you want a deeper dive into the quiet Leonard stuff alongside the Clippers. Oh boy, make locked on NBA your second listen today. All right, we know that tray Murphy is a lock to be in the top 100 Zion Leamson is definitely a lock to be in there as well. And I think her Jones will make it in frankly, those were the three players the Pelicans had in the top 100 last year. Zion was 47. tray Murphy was 56. Herb Jones was 84th. I think tray might be higher. I think Zion will be around that maybe a little bit higher because he was healthy. Herb's probably going to finish around 80 or so.

13:25Jordan pool, by the way, was just outside the top 100. I think he technically finished like 103 or something along those lines when it came to it. It's like the others receiving votes here. Who do you think has the clearest path though? So my question is this, those are the three players, right? Who do you think of this team can jump into the top 100. This is this is somewhat different than who you're ranking fourth, right? If you're just like this guy is going to be solid this year, you might rank him fourth on the team. That doesn't necessarily get you into the top 100. If herb is going to rank somewhere between 80 to 85, right? Number four on this Pelicans team is not going to be ranked in the top 100. Who though? If we were to re-rank this at the end of next season, do you think has the clearest path towards jumping into the top 100. And basically, this is my question is, who do you think is the clearest path towards

14:26changing how the league views them this upcoming season? I think there are some pretty obvious names out there. Jeremiah Fears and Derek Queen are certainly there, right? They have breakout candidate potential. If Jeremiah Fears takes a real second leap as a score as a playmaker, he goes from promising young guard to someone that people are like, oh, that is a lead guard right there. And getting the recognition for it, Derek Queen maybe has the most upside because his skill set is unbelievably unusual. And if the defense becomes like just okay, like, survivable, the offense could be so high that it translates to winning in his reputation could rise pretty quickly. You also have Benedict Mathurin, right? I think the league kind of views him a certain way. I'm actually not sure where he ranked on this. I didn't even look that up. Let me see if I can find that. That's an interesting question actually where Mathurin finished into this.

15:26I'll pull it up here in a second. Does he rise? Was he even in there? Let's see. No, he didn't rank in the top 100 last year. It tells you what people think. And that's the guy coming off at the time like a finals appearance with that. He didn't even rank in there. So there's that. So is it Mathurin or is the league just like, no, this is like a gunner off the bench. We don't we don't rank him that highly in terms of winning or things like that. You know, just even me see if he really establishes himself as an elite shot blocker, rim protector. Does he rise up in there? You know, he could be the starting center and earn a lot of minutes. He has the ability to do that here. He also does you want to say Murray, right? He's kind of like the reverse case from everyone we've just talked about here. It's not upside. He's already been viewed as a top 100 level player many times in his career before. Could he reestablish himself there? You know, now that he's back in the starting lineup that he's now healthy or is the league kind of moved past him to a certain degree, I think here.

16:29It's all opening questions. It's all open questions, right? Like Murray seems like the safest choice that if when we do this, not right now, but a year from now. So before the 27, 28 season like you're going to be like, yeah, Murray's in the top 100 somewhere. That seems like a safe choice to put him in. He's going to give you and his defense is definitely fallen from where it used to be, but he's going to give you a defense. He'll give you, you know, he's a good rebounder for his position. He'll do some playmaking. You know, is he just a lock to be in the top 100 because, yeah, he's solid or just fierce. You know, as the lead guard, the guy that's going to have the ball in his hands is he going to be the player that's out there really, you know, playing and getting a minute. And if he can create a bunch of assists, right? If he starts to finish it, the rim better or draw fouls and go to the line, what does that start to look like for him? Did your pull of a chance at this? You know, if he somehow puts up 19 to 20 in night, could he sneak into this or is he

17:31just not going to get minutes? It's not going to happen. They're not going to care about his efficiency is not good. The defense, the overall impact is not particularly great. You know, it's interesting to think about. Also think though, you know, I'm curious, you know, rank your top seven and then give me kind of the guy that could be in the top 100 a year from now, right? Think about what actually gets a player ranked highly. I don't think it's just pure counting stats, right? Otherwise, pooled, math, or in would have been on this list a year ago and they were not. You know, is it winning? I think that goes a long way, right? That builds up your reputation. If you win, you must be doing something, right? Your impact must be positive and good. You tend to think of players on winning teams better, not always. Pool was thought of kind of strangely, I would say, with the Golden State Warriors. You know, is it two way impact? Is it a guy that could be good defensively and give you just enough offensively?

18:31Or sorry, defensively and give you just enough offensively, right? That's an Eve Misi. He's going to make an impact, it feels like, because he made a pretty positive impact last season for the New Orleans Pelicans. So he's got a strong chance, I think. You know, I think he, if you were kind of putting odds on him, he'd be ranked lower than you think you'd get like really good numbers per fandall on Eve Misi to make that jump of all of the Pelicans players. So I think that would be, you know, potentially a guy that I would really, really look at when it comes to this sort of thing. You know, I'm high on Misi. I think he's going to, you know, I don't, I just don't see how queen and Zion work together. So I think they're going to just default to Misi and that's going to be a big part of it. You know, but if Zion and Queen do work, what's Misi's role then? Then he's just coming off the bench and that's not going to get him in the top 100 here. I think it's a really interesting idea to try and pick. You know, I think it's fears are queen. I think hopefully one of them takes a leap forward. One of them takes a leap forward and if that's the case, you're going to feel really good

19:35about them kind of being on the next generation of things. And both of them could do it. They have very great skills offensively. Fiers, you know, love the, I like guard play that attacks the basket like that. That's just, you know, I love Russell Westbrook as a player. You know, again, even if he's not the most efficient, though at times he, well, anyway, I like that type of play. That's like what I like to watch and really, you know, I think it's awesome. The Kyrie Irvings, a great guy to watch too from that perspective of things. Fiers fits into that mold. So I'm very high on Jeremiah Fiers. Derek Queen though might have the most upside because how unique his skill set is when you get comps to Alper and Shenguin or Nicoli Yochich, you know, if you're looking up there at him, then all of a sudden, you know, if you get, if you scratch the surface of that potential, you're taking a big leap here. He's a guy that could do that too. So it'll be kind of interesting, I think, to see, you know, who it could be. Or maybe it's just De Jante Murray. It's old, reliable kind of when he's not hurt.

20:38You know, but Murray, you know, won't be, he's in a much better headspace, I'm sure, from what he's gone through the past couple of years. He's healthy. You know what he's going to give you, you know, he just needs to reestablish himself, not even get there in the first place. That's very doable there, right? Just look, trays in there, Zion's in there. Herb Jones should be in there, but I think it might be Jeremiah Fieres or Derek Queen with the biggest opportunity to dramatically change their league-wide reputation this year. So who do you think finishes in next year's top 100, not this coming year's next year's top 100 for the Pelicans? Give me the guy that you think has got the best chance at doing so. Coming up next, we get to talk about a player that I absolutely love. It's got kind of a tale of two halves though. I'm Pasia Stoyak of it. He's number 16 on our list of top 25 players in New Orleans NBA history. It's coming up here next. Today's episode of Longtime Pelicans brought to you by indeed.

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22:46Indeed.com slash podcast terms and conditions apply. To hire this is a job for indeed sponsor jobs. All right, thanks for making Lockdown Pelicans your first listen for your second listen. It's locked on saints with Ross Jackson. We're like almost at game week. Make locked on saints your second listen today also locked on LSU might be a must listen as well. Actually, that should be your second listen day with Matt Moscono, good friend of the show. All right, at number 16 on our list of top 25 players in New Orleans NBA history, we have Pasia Stoyakovich. Pasia is interesting because there are two very different versions of his New Orleans tenure. There's the version that mattered and then there's the version at the end where he was just basically a contract here. He signed to a big money deal in 2006 and the idea was pretty clear. This Paul needed shooting to play alongside him, David West needed space and the then Hornets needed somebody that defenses just could not leave and Pasia gave them that.

23:49This was not Pasia Stoyakovich from Sacramento. This was not the guy finishing in MVP voting. He was 29 when he arrived, but when he was healthy here, he was still one of the best shooters in basketball for his New Orleans Hornets tenure, by the way. The average 14.3 points per game, but more importantly shot 40.4% from 3.40. 4% from 3, over like 4 in a little bit of years here in New Orleans. If you were guarding Chris Paul in the pick and roll and David West is picking and popping all of those things, he can't help off of Pasia and that was the whole point of this. He stretched defenses so far and just made things so much easier for everybody else. On November 6, 20 2007, Hornets against the Lakers, Pasia scores 36 points and here's the ridiculous part of this. He makes 10 three pointers in that game. He was 10 for 13 from deep, that is the Pasia Stoyakovich experience in one game.

24:49You're trying to contain Chris Paul, you're worried about David West, you're worried about Tyson Chandler rolling and then Pasia hits 4.3s in a quarter and all of a sudden everything is easier for everybody else on that squad. That 0708 team really the center piece for his case being that high, the Hornets win 56 games, it's the best team in franchise history. Chris Paul was second in MVP voting, David West made the All Star team, Tyson Chandler was one of the best rim running big men in the league. Pasia, 77 games, 16.4 points and shot 44% from 3. The average three made threes per game that is absurd. You can point to the other guys there but Pasia is a bit of an unsung hero when it comes to that. In 12 playoff games that season, Pasia shot 55% from 3. It's just absurd. This wasn't someone who just stood around, this was someone who moved and was a huge part of why that offense was absolutely awesome to watch.

25:50I think Pasia gets a little bit underrated with that group. You remember CP3, you remember David West, you even remember Tyson Chandler kind of is the faces of the team, but Pasia was so key to it. He was also one of the literal faces, right? You remember the Pasia heads? He'd make a three and they run three Pasia heads down on the sideline behind the courtside seats. It was a lot of fun. Everyone loved those. The Pasia heads. If you know, you know, with that sort of thing here, he was so important. If his tenure ended there in New Orleans and that was the it, you could argue you'd be higher, I think, in a way. But look, after 08, injury started becoming a much bigger part of the conversation. He had back and neck issues that just did not make him the same kind of player ever again. When you got to the 2010-2011 season, you didn't even think of him as a basketball player anymore. That was at the time when like, expiring contracts mattered because you're going to have the decision in the off season, right? I think that's where this gets kind of strange.

26:53You had a big five year deal. In the final year, he was like a $14.5 million dollar expiring contract. That was a math. I can't even tell you all if you're younger and you don't understand how big a $15 million dollar expiring deal was. What could it be traded for? He was average just seven and a half points per game and fewer than 15 minutes that final season and just didn't have value. All we were asking was, what could that contract get you in a trade? You got you Jarrett Jack, David Anderson, Marcus Banks. He ended up winning a title that year, by the way, with the Dallas Mavericks. He was traded to Toronto, then cut from Toronto, then signed with Dallas. Got his ring. I'm actually very happy with the way that ended. But man, just like not an ugly end, but like going out with a whimper kind of thing with his tenure here, but he was so key on that 56-win team, you've got to rank him at least this kind of high, even if he wasn't one of the top three guys. What do you remember best about Pasia Stoyonkovich? It's partially the Pasia heads. That was a lot of fun. It was also like right around, you know, his end of his tenure is really when I started covering this team. Talked a lot about that contract, what it could get you or not, didn't get him much.

27:54All right, rank your top seven. Let me know in the comments down below. That's going to do for this episode of Lockdown Pelicans. As always, I'm your host, Jake Madison. Be back with y'all on Monday. Thank you for making Lockdown your first listen every day. For your second listen, find the Lockdown NBA podcast where there's no offseason. West Matt and Hayes keep you up to date on contract negotiations, rumors, and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan. Find Lockdown NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day.