Karlo Matkovic can be a big UPGRADE for the New Orleans Pelicans alongside Zion Williamson

Karlo Matkovic can be a big UPGRADE for the New Orleans Pelicans alongside Zion Williamson

it’s all about Carlo matkovich who figuratively and literally stood out for the Pelicans in their third Summer League game I’ll tell you why if he plays like that the Pelicans will have actually upgraded at the center position it’s the Wednesday episode of Locked on Pelicans let’s [Music] go you are locked on Pelicans your daily New Orleans Pelicans podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday welcome to another edition of locked on Pelicans the daily podcast covering your favorite team the New Orleans Pelicans in NBA part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day available wherever you get your podcast and available on YouTube I’m your host Pelicans Insider credential member of the media Jake Madison at Nola Jake on Twitter here with yall on this Wednesday day after the Pelicans win their first Summer League game 8 um sorry they lost actually 90 to 85 they did not win that one they kind of had a push at the end and then played the foul game 90- 85 but the result doesn’t matter because we saw kind of maybe a breakout performance from Pelicans big man newest s Carlo makovic looking frankly fantastic and if he plays like he did and we’re going to really break down this game the Pelicans might have upgraded the center position because he did some things here that no one was able to do for New Orleans last season so we’re going to break it down in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account use code locked on MBA for $20 off your first purchase terms apply and of course thank you for making locked on Pelicans your first listen today and every day we’re here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team so please subscribe wherever you get your podcast join over 10,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube so I was I literally did what Friday show kind of being skeptical about Carlo matkovich and then on Monday I go wait okay the two performances in summer league were a little bit eye openening for me and after this third game where he played exceptionally well I might be a Carlo crazy at this point like I’m really coming around on this guy and frankly I was just wrong on him I’m a big like skeptical until you prove it guy I think he’s actually proven it and you know my usual caveat with Summer League it’s summer league he’s not playing against NBA level competition I don’t even know if this is as good as the G League to be perfectly honest with you it might be worse than that but he did some things here that make it he just stood out right like that’s the best way to put it let’s kind of get into his overall play right like he looked really Polished in this game and I think he adds a dimension to New Orleans they don’t have in another big man finished with 25 points on the night on 11 of of 13 shooting he missed just two shots two of three from Deep one of two from the line five rebounds an assist a steel three blocks just one turn over six fouls don’t read too much into that he looked good he did everything you kind of want from a prototypical big man here and someone that would fit right into New Orleans right he spaced the court made his threes great led the team in rebounds with some physical play at times like battling for boards then there was the rim protection three blocks he’s got some you know professional playing experience some g-league experience now he should look more polished than all of these other guys and if you go back to that summer league preview show I did when I was talking about Eve Mei the pans other Center here that we’re looking at I said it’s really tough for a big man to stand out or play well in summer league it’s just not really conducive for them because the guard play is largely subpar and big men need guards to get him the ball so it’s one thing to play the NBA with a lead guard like dejonte Murray and if you watch this game stayed up late to watch this game imagine dejonte Murray in him out there in the level of play that then it increases with all of that but Carlo made it really easy on the Pelicans guards and everyone there you know the biggest thing was him in the pick and roll and being a lob threat and the Pelicans if you go to the NBA.com stat site and this backs up the ey test didn’t run a ton of pick and roll plays for their big men last year right like it was a lot of get the ball to Zion let him do work but there wasn’t a ton of pick and roll action you didn’t see Ingram and Zion in the pick and roll very often and Zion finishing plays like that partially because he’s under siiz yonas V chunis is more of a postup big man than a pick and roll big man not a good roller to the rim anything like that doesn’t have the vertical spacing Carl movich does all of that acted as a lob threat in both regular pick and rolls and then short pick and rolls that originate around the free throw line and being that lob threat and rolling hard to the rim opens things up so one you saw guards looking for him just on the lob throw they were actually looking for Mei too and that was a good thing to see but makovic just made it easy on them just being bigger you know he’s got good size at 6′ 11 really good athleticism from him as well getting up high to flush some of those down and you saw it whether it was lob threats in the pick and roll finishing plays end to end dunks after a block all of that he just added a level of athleticism and polish that you’re probably not going to see from from Eve Mei just yet and that athleticism you didn’t have from yonas valent chunis last season and then it made things easy on everyone else and I don’t mean just as a play finisher look at what him being a threat in the pick and role did for someone like Jordan Ford who found tons and tons of space in the lane whether it’s for a floater or to get to the rim and Jordan Ford Off the Bench finished with 19 points on eight of 10 shooting he looked really good kind of as that secondary guy when he was out there with Carlo makovich and so this adds a dimension that the Pelicans haven’t had in a minute here I don’t know if Carlo’s going to be the starter if it’ll be Daniel Ty I don’t think it’ll be Eve Mei just yet and I think right now if you had to pick somebody there could be changes coming down the line it looks like it would be matkovic like pretty easy right like that’s really what I’m starting to kind of get the sense of and when you look at his play you could run him in the pick and roll with Zion Williamson imagine him as the Finish for a guy like Deon Murray even CJ McCullum would benefit from someone like him this was just the type of option that the Pelin did not have last season and more than that there’s some playmaking in him too so if the shots not there at The Rim he can pass out of it and so the ability to keep the ball moving be a play finisher along with rebounding pretty well in this game all of that kind of Screams some things here and again caveat of it being summer Le but it’s not easy for big men to truly look like this and this makes me pretty excited like I I had this one wrong on Friday now I said they might sign him but I wasn’t expecting this level of play and again it’s summerly keep that in mind right Jackson Hayes looked like an allor player so did nikil Alexander Walker they really struggled during the regular season he’s not going up against the level of competition some of those roles aren’t going to be there for him at the NBA level that they were here in summer league but you know what you’re looking for with him and this is where he kind of answered that is he moved well he knew when to roll he rolled hard too those are the type of things that you can do you can find space in the defense you might not be able to finish plays over guys that don’t jump or don’t have the court awareness to contest you but can you move to at least get in position if it’s contested it’s contested but at least you’re doing the thing and that is what Carlo makovich was doing out there on the court in this game he was eye openingly good now keep in mind that we’ve seen performances like this before this again I you’ve got to put it on I’m not ready to declare that he’s going to be a good starter anything like that right like a couple of years ago a year ago two years ago was it John Butler had a perfect scoring game for the Pelicans in summer league going six of six from three among some other shots he didn’t end up working out you know at the NBA level at all so there’s still that like a little bit of skepticism but this was an i opening performance in something that should make us pretty excited here if you’re a fan of the New Orleans Pelicans because he would fit in next to Zion Williams and he would fit in with Deon Murray and that is exactly the type of guy that the Pelicans needed so maybe David Griffin wasn’t lying when he said we’re pretty happy with the guys that we have at the center position so Carlo movich was definitely a bit of a revelation in this game couple players who weren’t were guys we wanted to see maybe a little bit more from Jordan Hawkins struggled shooting in this one Eve Mei had a couple of nice nice plays but looked a little bit lost out there and then Antonio Reeves Couldn’t Shoot let’s break down what we saw from them and then we’re going to talk about a name that I think could be a good addition to the team in Lonnie Walker I fourth that’s coming up here next couple of segments in today’s episode of Locked on Pelicans today’s episode of lockon pelicans is brought to you by game time look it’s the summer and that means if you’re traveling around maybe you want to check out a major league baseball game they just had the all-star break the games are going to be coming back I’m traveling to Los Angeles so I’m going to be sure to check out a Dodger game and I’m going to 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an account redeem code locked on MBA l CK o and NBA for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest prices guaranteed and thank you for making lock on Pelicans your first listen today and every day we’re here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team so please subscribe wherever you get your podcast join over 10,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well and tell a friend about the show convert some new Carlo crazies to the mix here after that performance in summer league we’re going to keep going five days a week for the foreseeable future may drop it to three days a week once you know at the end of this month we’ll see but this going to be hopefully a fun and interesting Pelican season there’s no reason to think it’s not going to be so please subscribe to lockon Pelicans wherever you get your podcast the number one Pelicans podcast and now for your second listen Ross Jackson host a lockon Saints make him your second listen today he’ll be there in Irvine for training camp giving you the bo boots on the ground perspective so let’s get into a couple of other summer league performances here and let’s start with Jordan Hawkins the guy was going to be the leader of the team struggling again to shoot he just doesn’t do well in summer league he did not play particularly well in Summer League last year and he was fine during his rookie year and he did some things that I liked from him in this game but the shooting just wasn’t there 0 for four from three three of six from the line including one free throw that what would have tied it or made it a one-point game finished with seven points on two of eight shooting it was pretty disappointing overall had a couple of offensive fouls on like his leg kickout too which they’re going to call almost every single time those weren’t ones that were like borderline they’re going to call that even if I don’t think there was like any like malicious intent behind it or anything honestly I did think his defense was pretty good he had three steals in this one and was active on that side of the ball and that is what he said he’s working the most on in summer league so you know from that perspective I think it’s been fine he showing effort there you’re seeing good size from him too and again he plays bigger than he is and contested shots well you know it’s weird that he wasn’t credited with blocks even though I thought he had like one or two maybe it was kind of like borderline or it just forced the Miss whatever it might be he did a good job on the defensive side of the ball we want to see the shooting from him but like I don’t know we know he’s a good shooter so I’m not overly worried about it you know he had a fine regular season I thought you know not amazing but fine what did you expect from him 14 overall you know Antonio Reeves also struggled to shoot in this one three of eight from the field 0 for two from three but moved the ball pretty well I thought four assists from him he finished with eight points again eight points on eight shots isn’t great he’s a second round pick you know he’ll he’ll I’m I’m assuming they’ll sign him to that second round minimum exception deal or maybe they’ll put him on a 2-a we’ll see but he’s going to spend some time with the G League like I don’t see him getting significant minutes right now at the NBA level again a guy that I’m pretty high on as a depth piece kind of end of bench guy I think he’ll be able to fill that roll out pretty nicely for an NBA career which look for someone taking where he was that’s not bad whatsoever we’ll see if they end up kind of giving him more minutes we’ll see if they shut down someone like Carlo or someone else and that allows Antonio Reeves to really step forward in this kind of uh roster and kind of have a chance to shine and maybe you want to kind of like shift the focus to them a little bit towards the end of summer Le we’ll see what they end up doing there the other guy though that we were really looking at was Eve Mei here not the best night for him only playing just you know 15 minutes in this game here he was in foul trouble and that’s kind of my big concern for him you know two of seven from the field you know had some nice activity early on but kind of faded as the game went on and wasn’t able to really make his presence felt four fouls in just 15 minutes is not great that was my concern when they drafted him would be able to kind of defend right away at the NBA level and I don’t know if he’s there just yet I mean it’s a third Summer League game you don’t want to read too much into it you know but that was an area that you wanted to kind of really see him impact things a little bit more and you saw the block shot so you see the athleticism there were a couple of good rebounds from him too he took a jumper which I don’t mind him taking at Summer League why not though um it it did not go well we could say that’s putting it mildly you know the one thing that stands out from for me with him through his play in Summer League when there’s been some struggles has been the ball movement and some of the passing and his ability to dribble he can be a mobile big and I think that’s going to be an important thing the ball doesn’t just stop when it gets to his hands it doesn’t just you know hit his hands and he doesn’t know what to do with it the hands are actually pretty good we saw improvement from game one to game two so I’m sure he’ll be able to learn from this and we’ll see some improvement in game four as well and then wherever the Pelicans end up in game five whoever they play and whatever they do with that one it was going to always be a project so the emergence let’s call it for at least right now of Carlo makovich I think is a really important thing um that it takes some of the pressure off of Eve Mei to be able to just kind of like work on things it’s okay you know again I don’t read too too much into summer league because we’ve been here before you know I’ve been doing this for almost 15 years now and you’ve seen some really good standout performances and then these guys don’t end up doing much at the NBA level or even in the G League too so kind of keep a grain of salt when it comes to like really good performances though I do agree that Carlos stood out but even when players struggle it’s great assault I’m not going to read too much into it as well a couple of y’all wanted to hear about Jordan Ford liked what we saw from him in this game you know the scoring was there I thought he like fit into the offense well you know I thought he did a good job of just kind of fitting in and doing what you want to see from him and had a very nice game like it was really as simple as as that and so you know for a guy that has some experience with you know the Sacramento Kings and all of that like I do like what we saw from him you know with the g-league last year and I do think that he can do a pretty decent job you know in summer league I don’t know if he’s a guy that’s going to get like significant minutes at the NBA level or if he’s just kind of more of a of a summer league guy here that’s kind of the feel that I get from him you know we’ll talk about filling out the end of the roster here could they go with him if he keeps playing well like yeah potentially I think but I also do think there’s other options that just kind of make more sense at the NBA level but he did a very good job in this one and I’m curious to watch more of him play and I liked how he fit alongside makovich in this game by the way shout out to hin Summer League head coach Aaron miles had a bunch of really great ATO plays including one for Jordan Hawkins to almost tie it at the end of the game off of that inbound where I forget who caught the ball in like a curl along the Baseline where you thought the play was going to be for him and then you had Jordan Hawkins moving off ball off an off ball screen to catch that pass that was a pretty great play they had one earlier to Jordan Ford who got kind of a give and go off an inbound pass to get a bucket that kept them in it as time was kind of running down I don’t look they lost their 0 for three here whatever I thought they did pretty well and I don’t really care at this point kind of about the summer league scores and things like that so was happy with what we saw overall from the Pelicans here particularly because Carlo Movic kind of broke out here Pelicans had 54 points in the paint compared to just 26 for the San Antonio Spurs here makovich Off the Bench really kind of a A Difference Maker Pelicans could not shoot from 3413 whereas you saw the San Antonio Spurs go 13 for 31 there’s a significant difference there that was the difference in the game but it’s summmer doesn’t matter win loss would have been nice but whatever not a big deal so if the Pelicans want to improve their actual roster for next season they basically have one open spot I have a guy that I would like to see them potentially go out inside and that’s Lonnie Walker and I’ll tell you why coming up here next in today’s episode of Locked on pelicans and thank you for making lock on Pelicans your first listen today and every day we’re here Monday through Friday the number one Pelicans podcast covering everything you want to know about this Pelicans team so please subscribe wherever you get your podcast join over 10,000 Pelicans fans on YouTube as well and are you watching Fox Sports or ESPN on your TV all day long do you have to turn down the volume without all that yelling make this switch to lock on sports today a free 24/7 Sports streaming Channel program for you every day to bring you the biggest stories without all the yelling lockon sports today brings you can’t miss analysis opinion news streaming 24/7 on YouTube with the free Amazon Fire TV channels app part of the lock on podcast Network your team every day so we’re going to wrap up the show kind of getting into the roster here for the New Orleans Pelicans they have one open roster spot if we assume they’re going to give Antonio Reeves a two-way or not a two-way sorry a second round minimum contract and we’ll get into the cap ramifications of that here in a second they essentially just have one open roster spot and after signing Carlo movich they are in the luxury tax they are in there at this point in time by about where did my cap numbers go here I want to say it was like two a little over $260,000 so not an extreme amount but once you sign Reeves to say a $1.2 million contract something along those lines and maybe that’s why they’re going to try and put him on a two-way to avoid the luxury tax hit that goes with that puts him about $1.4 million into it and I think that’s fine that gives him about 4 million $4.2 million or so somewhere in that range to spend before they hit this the first apron they could be cheap and try and Dodge the luxury tax I will criticize them I promise you if that’s the case I think they’ve just got to pay it this season because I do think there’s a guy that would actually add some maybe much needed depth for the New Orleans Pelicans and you know if you’re looking to still try and prove the roster I think there’s a couple of guys that could do it right we’ll look at another one in tomorrow’s show would a guy like Robert Covington make a ton of sense I think less so than Lonnie Walker ivth you know who’s a guard and maybe the Pelicans just want some more depth if they’re a little bit nervous about someone like Jordan Hawkins or they just want a little bit more experience last season for the Brooklyn Nets playing 58 games 9.7 points per game on 38% shooting from three for his career you know he’s a 36% shooter from three on like middle middle volume 4.7 attempts last season you know if you give him bigger minutes and he’s played you know a bigger role with the San Antonio Spurs at times you know he’s looked like he could be somewhat of a pretty good role player you know per 36 minutes that jumps to almost 10 three-point attempts per game on the minutes he played per game last season those are those are decent numbers and he’s you know a above average Defender not an elite Defender but someone that I do think could add some nice depth to this Pelicans team you know as your two guard something along those lines could be a spot starter for you should that need aise and I don’t think it really will at this point in time you know it would mean the Pelicans go deeper into the luxury TX but this is a move that I do think I’d like to see he’s a former guy that was picked just outside of the lottery his career numbers are 9.8 points per game 2.3 rebounds 1 and a half half assists with decent defense and a uh one and a half threes made per game I think that could be a useful play as an end of bench fill out guy I don’t think it’s a necessary move that the Pelicans need to make but if you’re going to pay the luxury tax signing him on a veteran minimum deal which is all he would get at this point in time I really don’t hate that idea whatsoever I want to see this team be as competitive as possible and if you don’t think that there’s going to be a big move for Brandon Ingram coming now getting a guy like Lonnie Walker I think could add some like real good end of bench depth does it replace kind of what niji Marshall gave you and his size on the wing no it doesn’t but it gets you somewhat close somewhat close he’s like you know slightly undersized but not horrifically I think that could be a good move given that you know the pcons have the roster spot and they might want to keep it open in case they make a lopsided trade or something like that later down the line we’ll see you know bran and Ingram for Jared Allen and one other player on the Cavaliers like fixes that roster spot problem could also save you a little bit of money too and get you under the luxury Tech so maybe there’s no need to do this move right now but signing him I do think could be a smart deal for the New Orleans Pelicans to fill out that depth again be competitive the West is really good here and also it takes away a guy that maybe other teams would sign he’s played for the Lakers before they’ve swung and missed and struck out on everybody that they’ve tried to get he wasn’t horrible for the Lakers wasn’t good for the Lakers but wasn’t horrible for the Lakers so maybe it would be a smart thing to try and take a piece off the board for another you know uh competitor seeing Gary Trent Jr go to the uh Minnesota temp till the Milwaukee Bucks you know takes away someone from the Lakers and other teams too I think this is something that could be a smart move for the Pelicans is just a little bit of insurance to injuries or something like that or you know maybe put some pressure or get some insurance for a guy like Jordan Hawkins depending on the struggles that he potentially could have though we hope he doesn’t you know and I think that means you don’t need to rely on Antonio Reeves to play a bigger role when maybe he’s not ready for that sort of thing just yet do you like the idea of Lonnie Walker IV do you think there’s someone else in the free agent Market that the Pelicans should sign let me know in the comments Down Below on YouTube and what you think also are you now officially a Carlo crazy I’m being converted here sorry for being late late to everything here jumping on the bandwagon though we’ll be talking more about him certainly for the rest of Summer leag here on the locked on Pelicans podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and that’s going to do it for this episode of Locked on Pelicans as always I’m your host Jake Madison at Nola Jake on Twitter I’ll be back with y’all tomorrow look at it off the kind of beaten path Center option DeAndre Aon for the Pelicans does that make sense is that the direction they should go or you just want to roll with Carlo movich we’ll talk about that in tomorrow’s episode of lock on pcin see you all then

Karlo Matkovic stood out figuratively and literally for the New Orleans Pelicans in their third Summer League game. Jake Madison breaks down how Matkovic brings a dimension that the Pels lacked last year next to Zion Williamson. And how if he is the starting center it opens thigs up even more for New Orleans. Plus, Yves Missi, Jordan Hawkins, and Antonio Reeves struggled. Does that mean the Pels should sign Lonnie Walker IV as a free agent?

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