Speaking of structural problems

Forget about the cranes. Who is going to do something about shoring up these guys' joints?

New Orleans Saints starting running back Alvin Kamara and tight end Jared Cook have been ruled out for Sunday's Week 7 game against the Chicago Bears.

Kamara has been battling ankle and knee injuries, while Cook is sidelined with an ankle injury. Neither Kamara nor Cook practiced once this week.

This reminds me we need to catch back up with the Saints over here. To be fair, there's been a lot going on elsewise.  Anyway that defense is pretty good. Can they win with zero offensive players? Let's find out.

Meanwhile

Zion Williamson is going to be sidelined for weeks due to a right knee injury, according to ESPN. While sources confirmed it’s not a severe issue, it should force the No. 1 pick to miss several regular season games, delaying his highly-anticipated debut.

I haven't been wanting to say anything but I've had this nagging feeling Zion might end up being the kind of athlete who puts a lot of "wear and tear" on the knees and ankles. Maybe I'm wrong. Hope I am.

"Caretaker of incredible assets"

That's really great. Good one, Gayle.

For now, Benson said she will stick with the status quo, though as someone who sees herself less an “owner” and more “a caretaker of incredible assets”, she plans to address the issue at the league’s upcoming summer meetings in order to be as inclusive as possible.

“As with any word, phrase or expression, interpretations can be perceived differently,” she said in a statement. “That is in many ways why diversity, inclusion and openness is so important to companies and society. As with any expression, my intention and the intentions of the organization I am responsible for is never to be insensitive or insulting.

The "insulting" thing is that we are asked to maintain billionaires through massive public investments in subsidies and infrastructure creating profits that accrue to them. Brand them however you like.

Ralph is doing the hot take wrong

I'm fine with the "Pelicans become more popular than Saints" article in theory.  I don't buy it. But I get why you might build an argument for it at this point in time.  The Pelicans are about to draft Michael Hecht and "validate the business community" or something. And, as we all know, 2019 will probably be the Final Football Season In History.  But the thing that really moves the argument that basketball could overtake football in popularity from TAEK to plausible would be the phrase "traumatic brain injury."

NBA cap and trade

I have never understood anything about how the NBA financial infrastructure is supposed to work.  Protected picks, super-max contracts, non-qualifying veteran free agents, bi-annual cap exceptions, etc. etc. You need some kind of advanced degree.  (Yes, I hear you saying "NBA MBA" and you can shut up now.) 

Also it is possible to make trades that aren't really trades yet which leads teams to make draft picks that aren't really their draft picks.They belong to other teams, who may or may not have also already traded them.

Technically speaking, the Lakers will still be making that draft pick. Whomever is selected will still put on a Lakers hat when they go shake the commissioner’s hand on stage, and then they’ll meet with a slew of reporters and be asked multiple times in different ways about their thoughts on being drafted by a team they aren’t going to be playing for.

Even though everyone will be talking like that No. 4 pick is owned by New Orleans, or whichever team they may trade it to before Thursday, it still belongs to Los Angeles for now. Should New Orleans elect to keep the pick, rather than trading it, they will no doubt instruct the Lakers who to pick for them from any observations the front office is able to make from any last-minute pre-draft workouts they manage to organize.

Very important to put the correct hat on no matter what happens. 

Zion is already a disaster/hero

I have to admit I do not understand the world of Pelicans media very well.  The circle of local reporters and bloggers who follow the team tend toward a Benson boosterism of such magnitude that one can never fully trust the consensus there.  Maybe that isn't always true but it is usually at the back of my mind when I'm sifting through takes.  On the other hand, national sports media seem to have an anti-New Orleans agenda at work. I think this is probably just the usual large market bias but, for whatever reason, it's much more pronounced on the NBA beat than it is with the NFL. 

Anyway neither side strikes me as particularly reliable. Gayle is either an evil madwoman or the franchise's savior.  Zion Williamson is either under a moral obligation to reject the draft altogether and go to New York or he is extremely "excited" to "accept the things he cannot change" even though phrasing it that way definitely makes it sound like a burden.   Who knows what to believe?  

My guess is Zion will be the greatest thing to happen to the Pelicans since Anthony Davis was the greatest thing to happen to the Pelicans since Chris Paul was that too.  Meanwhile Fletcher Mackel can tell us about 500 different ways the Pels can trade him.  Until they finally do. 

Someone who is good at deals needs to explain this to me

Anthony Davis wants to go to L.A. eventually no matter what. So the Pelicans' options are trade him there now, trade him somewhere else now, trade him there at the end of the season, or trade him somewhere else at the end of the season.  I have no idea which of these works out the best for the Pels.  This says they probably ought to wait until the end of the season because... weird NBA rules and clauses and stuff.

A proclamation from Davis he wants to play in Los Angeles could affect his trade market, but the Pelicans have an incentive to wait until the offseason if they want to hear all offers. Davis is under contract for the 2019-'20 season with a player option in 2020-'21.

Waiting until the offseason to decide on any trade offers would allow the Boston Celtics, one of the league's most asset-rich teams, into the fray. They are currently precluded from making a trade for Davis unless it includes Kyrie Irving, due to the nature of their contracts. A trade with the Celtics could not be completed before July 1, when Irving's contract expires.

The NBA is strange and I never took the time to learn the alchemy of its salary cap and the rules governing transactions like this.  Maybe Gayle Benson will figure it out.

It's another quirk of the NBA that its teams and their stars tend not to get attached to the cities and fan bases they play for the way NFL players sometimes do.  Basketball players are permanently on tour more or less. They live everywhere and nowhere. (#NotAllBasketballPlayers, of course.  It's just, this is what the system tends to produce.)

And that's fine.  Good for Anthony Davis finally gaining some degree of control over his situation.  He's earned that, at least.  Anyway, it's a shame the Pelicans never made anything happen with one of the best players on the planet on their roster. They did have seven years to try and make it work, though.

Gayle Benson Attends Basketball Game

What a fantastic accomplishment for Gayle. It makes us all proud. It's nice, also that the games are so convenient to the very important work of finishing Tom's dumb branding project.

Benson has been meeting with winemakers in California between watching her Pelicans take on the Golden State Warriors in the second round of the NBA playoffs and plans to release a Cabernet and Chardonnay this fall. She is currently finalizing the plans for release and checking on future vintages.

“Mr. Benson always wanted to be in the wine business and had a passion for it,” teams spokesman Greg Bensel said. “He decided to make it a reality in 2014. It’s a true labor of love. He would be proud of the schedule that Mrs. Benson is keeping, that is for sure.”

Tom "had a passion," for wine making.  Almost makes it sound like Tom was out picking the grapes overseeing production and coming up with just the right blend and whatnot.  That's how Trump did his, right?

It would be nice if Gayle could do something useful and figure out a way to make her team's playoff games more accessible to local fans. Nobody even has that basic cable package anymore.  (Don't worry. The industry has a plan to suck you back in.) And 2018 seems to be the year when the telecoms figured out how to make sure you aren't sharing passwords to stream stuff.  I sure hope the Pels bounce back tonight.  Please tweet me the score if you can.

They all look the same, eh, Tom?

Finally, the details about how out of it Benson really is are starting to leak.

At one point, Henry's attorney, Chris Williams, asked Benson why he had testified that Henry had been with him during the Saints' Super Bowl victory when Henry had not been working for him at the time.

Benson acknowledged that he remembered neither where the Super Bowl had been played — Miami — nor who his assistant was at the time.

During another set of questions, apparently aimed at establishing how close Benson and Henry had been, Benson was shown a photo of the two men with Pelicans star Anthony Davis.

"Who is this?" Williams asked.

"It's Rodney and a basketball player," Benson said. "Oh, hell, I forget his name. Let me — he's a great player for us. Tell me his name, and I will tell you yes or no."

Williams said Anthony Davis.

Benson said, "Yes, that's it."

Before you get too worried, though, just remember that brain damage has been very very good for Benson over the years, financially speaking so this is probably fine.

QOTD

DeMarcus Cousins:

Someone recently asked Cousins if he enjoyed his first Mardi Gras experience in New Orleans.

"Did you see the pictures," Cousins asked incredulously, alluding to photos of him on a Zulu float with a pair of women's underwear on his head, a string of beads in one hand and a bottle of Hennessey in the other.

"Let's just say," Cousins added, "I fit right in."

I got one photo of that float. But the crowd was kind of thick and I didn't have a great shot of them. You can kind of see AD and Boogie behind the big phone there.




Anyway, they didn't have quite enough time after the trade to get it together this year. Next season, the Pelicans are gonna be an awful lot of fun, though.  

Pelicanizing

That's the basketball court at Laurence Square (corner Napoleon and Magazine) this morning.  Yesterday it received a pressure wash and coat of grey primer paint.

This was last done back during the summer of 2012 when the court was refurbished and rebranded by Richard's Disposal and the then New Orleans Hornets.







Signage near the court commemorates the dedication in a happy comic sans typeface beneath the now lost to history "Fleur-de-Bee" logo.



Just a few short months after this court was painted, the Hornets announced they would become the New Orleans Pelicans in 2013.  The newly painted court stayed the same, though. I wonder if they're fixing that today.  

Squabbling Bensons still can't get it together

The judge has had to go and reintroduce the stick.

A federal judge has scheduled a Dec. 8 trial date in Tom Benson's lawsuit seeking to take away ownership in the Saints and Pelicans from his estranged family, after weeks of settlement talks failed to produce a final agreement.

U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo on Thursday (Aug. 25) scheduled the trial and denied a mutual request by Benson and lawyers for his estranged heirs' trust funds to extend a delay in the case.

Milazzo ordered the trial after meeting with the lawyers in her chambers for a status update.

I know it's still a long shot but boy would I love to see this thing actually go to trial.  It won't (probably) because to let it get that far would be the worst nightmare of practically every owner in pro sports.

A trial in the case is expected to make public details of internal NFL and NBA financial information, the financial performance of the Saints and Pelicans, and Benson's personal wealth were expected to be aired.

So they'll have to settle. But it would be fun if they didn't.

Tom Benson almost got his pennies scrubbed

Whoops

The last-minute scramble to raise revenues during the recent special legislative session opened the possibility for the Saints and Pelicans to terminate their contract with the state, allowing the two professional teams to leave New Orleans.

The Saints, an NFL franchise, and the Pelicans, an NBA team, weren’t commenting Friday. But Louisiana Revenue Secretary Kimberly L. Robinson said the teams’s owners haven’t raised that threat during the negotiations held over the past few weeks to sort out the mess.

See the thing is back in 2009, Bobby Jindal agreed that Tom Benson, much like any other billionaire, really shouldn't be responsible for paying taxes in the state of Louisiana.  So they wrote into the most recent ransom agreement contract between the state and the Benson empire a clause which says that the Saints and Pelicans are free to go looking for a new home if we ever try anything so rude as to collect sales taxes from them.

As it turned out, though, Jindal's cunning plan to go around handing out free money to wealthy cronies wasn't such a great thing for the state budget.  Thus the massive fiscal crisis this year. Thus the mad scramble at the end of the special session to "scrub pennies" or remove sales tax exemptions like Benson's. Thus this little faux pas where they sort of accidentally actually included Benson in that.

So then that's great, right? The governor likes to say this thing is all about "shared sacrifice." Certainly Louisiana's wealthiest individual can contribute to the communal spirit of the hour. Eh... not so much. The plan is for lawmakers to rush back in and correct this grievous injury to Benson's sacred trust with the state during the next special session. (Hey thank god they screwed up the last one so badly that we need one now, right?)

Anyway, for now they're gonna have to go through the motions of collecting their sales taxes during what remains of the Pelicans season.  They'll just have to hand it all right back later. If you're at all worried about Benson's ability to bear this crushing financial burden in the meantime,  don't be.  The increase in Saints season ticket prices should more than make up for it. Renewals are due next week, by the way.

Sounds like they found the right coach

Keeps the star player happy anyway

The Pelicans were coming off of a 110-108 come-from-behind victory over the Houston Rockets at home on Saturday night but couldn't carry that performance over against the Magic.

"We just don't play hard all the time," Pelicans forward Anthony Davis said. "That starts with our first unit coming out and setting the pace and setting the tone for the rest of the game and setting the tone for the guys that sub in especially after halftime. That's kind of been our thing this year. It starts with the first unit and it starts with me."

Would it help if Mickey Loomis were more involved? Because that seems to be the plan.

How's Tom Benson doing?

On the cusp of the opening of Saints camp it's a good time to check on the richest man in Louisiana.

Louisiana car salesman Tom Benson built his fortune by funneling his earnings into a steady procession of auto dealerships, local banks and sports teams. Benson’s biggest asset, the New Orleans Saints football club, is worth $1.1 billion; it is one of the NFL’s more profitable teams despite their small market, thanks in part to scoring favorable stadium rental rates in exchange for staying in the Super Dome through 2025.

Attendance for Benson’s NBA team, the New Orleans Pelicans, has been up lately as the club improves on the back of its brilliant young star, Anthony Davis. He also owns a 26-story office building that’s named for him and the city’s Fox affiliate.

Forbes estimates Benson's worth at $1.9 billion today.  Last September they had him at $1.6 billion. Not bad for a guy going through a drawn out legal dispute with his family.  How has your year been?

Is Tom Benson even necessary?

Not a new idea on this blog, but given the massive public investment the state and city make in facilities and subsidies for the Saints and Pelicans, and given that both teams' trademarks are based on the names and symbols.. the public intellectual property.. of the city and region, isn't it a valid argument that the teams really belong more to us than they do to the billionaire who leeches off of the profits for.. some reason?

Just have the state claim the teams. We've already paid for them. Then nobody has to worry about Gayle v Rita anymore.

Here's John Oliver.

Bye Monty

People seemed to like him ok. But, at the same time, nobody thought he was particularly good at coaching the basketball team.  That can be a problem after a while.

But NBA teams frequently make changes after good seasons – and often they pay off. Case in point: the Warriors fired Mark Jackson last year after a 50-win season and under Steve Kerr Golden State was the winningest team in the league this year.

As much as anything though, this move comes after a Pelicans seasons when there were rumors – and even a few public comments – that indicated Demps and Williams did not agree on personnel decisions that Demps was making.

Demps handled the roster pretty well this year.. I thought so anyway.  Especially considering the numerous injury problems with its main cogs. Plus, adding Norris Cole and Quincy Pondexter probably made the difference in whether or not that team made the playoffs.

Anyway if you paid even the slightest bit of attention this year, you would have seen near constant dissatisfaction with Monty's game management.  At one point he asked his family to stop coming to games so that they wouldn't have to hear the booing.   He also didn't like it very much when Golden State fans cheered for their team. So it isn't clear what Monty thinks fans are for, really.   He'll get some quiet time now.

Stop saying we're not a basketball town

If your fans are booing the coach so much that he sends his family away, that sounds to me like they care about basketball.

We've reached peak offseason

Here's your Saints weird project player story for 2015.

Former Xavier University forward Sydney Coleman has dumped dunking - his favorite basketball feat - in favor of a new sport - a switch which if successful, will allow him to follow the unorthodox NFL path of All-Pro tight end Jimmy Graham.

Coleman wants to play for the New Orleans Saints.

He worked out for the Saints in late March, and is scheduled to showcase what he’s learned in a Friday workout. Coleman’s improvements, if substantial, could earn him an invitation to Saints mini camp.

Yeah that's not happening. Probably. 

Meanwhile actual basketball season is either over or not tonight. You'd better watch or else someone is bound to lecture you about bad fandom or something.

The greatest thing on the internet today

Your New Orleans Pelicans. Heroes.

Running in place

A pelican at Mardi Gras time 


Almost to the midpoint of the season and the Pelicans are still sitting at .500.  If you've followed them this year, you probably know enough by now to expect better.  They're not the best roster in the league but they do feature its most exciting young superstar and certainly enough supporting talent to qualify for the playoffs.   When everything is in gear, they can pretty much play with anyone.  But they're still just barely hanging in among the somewhat respectable.

The good news is, in New Orleans, Basketball Season doesn't begin in earnest until after Carnival.  I know it's fashionable to complain about this but I really don't think there's anything wrong with it. It's just a quirk of the local calendar, the franchise is going to have to work around.

Every NBA franchise operates within circumstances unique to its own market.  The Pelicans are always going to be second to the Saints during football season. They are far from the only basketball team in a football town.  They just have the added civic distraction of Carnival season to work around. I would argue that it's probably a worthwhile concession.

What this means, though, is if the Pelicans want to climb out of the basement in terms of average attendance, then they'll have to be out of the basement in the standings when the part of the year comes around when people are finally paying attention.  They've got about another month to do that.