One big takeaway from Josh Hart’s live podcast with Jrue Holiday

What can we takeaway from Josh Hart’s podcast? What does it mean for the rest of the Pelicans season? Let’s read way too much into this!

Okay, the Pelicans are 2-8, a handful of starters are banged up, and Jrue Holiday is averaging career shooting lows in pretty much every measurable category. Coming out of the gates like this is not what was supposed to happen, and if you have already hit the panic button, I can’t say that I blame you. But the thing about shooting slumps and losing streaks is that the math has a tendency of working itself out.

Market corrections happen in the NBA all the time – You just have to be patient and trust that it’s coming. Fans have the luxury of being able to hit the panic button when things are going bad and celebrate when they magically turn around. The players themselves, well, they are a little more trained to relax in those tough stretches, because they have been through them before. They know not to panic, and to just keep shooting.

On Sunday night, I attended a live recording of the Lightharted Podcast with Josh Hart at Republic NOLA. The Pelicans newcomer has been hosting his own podcast with his childhood friend Matt Hillman since June of this year, frequently bringing on guests ranging from professional athletes to gaming CEOs.

His first guest on Sunday was Jrue Holiday. I have to say, in all the years I’ve been a fan of this team – and Holiday in particular – I can’t recall a time where I’ve seen more personality out of Jrue. Josh, Jrue, and Hillman chopped it up for a while, talking about everything from childhood upbringings, to draft day anxiety, to being embraced by New Orleans.

They took questions from the audience, interacted with the crowd, and were gracious enough to spend time with people who admire their craft from a distance. It was fun getting to see a side of these guys that you don’t see in media availability sessions that can seem robotic. But the thing that stuck out to me the most was how relaxed, calm, and generally in good moods these guys were.

Granted, this was only about 24 hours removed from the first road win of the season in Charlotte, but their record was still 2-7 and the Pelicans did not play particularly well in that game. I guess I expected these two to just walk around in a constant state of anxiety because we have lost some games we shouldn’t have lost. I mean, I do a pretty good job of not bringing work problems home with me, but I don’t have thousands of people who pay money to hopefully see me succeed at my job.

But despite the record and all the other reasons there are to panic with this team, those two guys carried themselves in that setting like they knew that better days were ahead – like it was just a matter of time before the math worked itself out.

It’s funny how often we get caught up as fans and wonder why the players aren’t as distraught over a losing streak as we are. It’s easy to forget that as much as we care, we aren’t as invested as them. And when it comes down to it, we aren’t the ones who have to right the ship.

Jrue Holiday’s offensive struggles aren’t going to be fixed by how much I worry about them – they are going to be fixed by Jrue Holiday. On that night, he struck me as someone who knew that the market correction was coming and that his career worst 36% shooting to start the season was only temporary.

We should take a deep breath, realize that this season has only just begun, and let the math work itself out before hitting the panic button. The man largely in charge of turning things around certainly seems to be taking that approach. Perhaps, we should follow his lead.