Winning contributes to winning. Look at Jordan, his confidence and hate of losing made him a legend. Same for Kobe, and many other before them. If we can win, win. If we can’t, well, that’s nothing new - and something magic fans are used to.
Defense wins the respect of coaches, not the media. Our offense has been dreadful to watch some games. The media gets more stuck on players and not teams, good scoring teams get hyped up.
In fairness to OKC they look much better than us, and they are getting hyped like their play warrants.
Guys We Should Inquire About:
If we’re lucky (which we aren’t)…
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Rookie deals move pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss your entire development. It’s the NBA circle of life. Rookies are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Trades do exist because… They must do, or do not, there is no try.
No WCJ, No Harris. Both guys would have really helped.
Trae Young showed exactly why this team is not ready yet. We have zero offensive identity. The defense is there at times, but the offense is just so inefficient. Most of our guys are taking 2 or 4 free throws, and not shooting those great. If we can’t shoot well, we can make it up with good playmaking, FT’s, getting rebounds, and limiting turnovers.
Jalen Suggs! Amazing defense, and finally a game where he was extremely efficient on offense. That was a huge positive.
If my grandma had wheels she could be a bicycle. If these guys shot like last year, we’d be better. We don’t have a human torch. We have to hope they get out of the funk to last year numbers, and that Cole becomes a legit option.
When we were 2-0 I called this with how bad the offense looked. I said that Cole would take the starter spot, and eventually earn the most minutes at Guard. People said I was on crack.
Newsflash, the higher scoring team wins. Cole can score, but he needs to rotate better on D to get those starter minutes. The part I got wrong was Harris would lose the most minutes. Harris probably needs more minutes too, so we can create space for Paolo and Franz who are getting focussed on by defenses. The odd man out is Fultz, because teams are daring him to shoot and he can’t, and his minutes need to come down because it kills spacing.
Paolo is doing things beyond offense, and we don’t have a weak bench. Others can step up if he’s going to start slow scoring. He needs to expand his offense some, and he’ll be fine. He’s playing D, passing, rebounding, etc. We just need to be patient.
This reaction is way too soon. We are three games in, with a good looking team against poor talent. The game against a playoff team went to the wire, and the team shot terrible.
Paolo is franchise level talent. Him not fitting in is not my concern right now. He was ROY and looked great last year. He’s not a one-trick guy, so if he can rebound, pass, play D - it’s ok if he starts slow offensively.
Refs ruined this one, but Magic’s offense is not NBA playoff level. We need to make a trade for a scorer - badly.
Magic have had 10 more shots than the Lakers. They just can’t score with efficiency.
Why is Ingles getting minutes?!?!
Fultz must have spent his office season at the Slim Jim factory, because his shot is jerky. Meanwhile AD looking like he’s playing against kids at the YMCA. Put JI on the man!
No, I’m a fan of predictions. This sub seems to hate them. I’m just saying I love the optimism, but I’ve been a fan too long to think the way you do.
Situational: Cole, JI, Mo, Harris
If I had to guess, that’s our big game rotation. Depending on injuries/matchups/foul trouble we will go deeper.
2 games in guys. My body is ready, but the mind won’t let me think such toxic thoughts until we see games against great teams.
I think he’s NOT going to get minutes until he shows something in practice and garbage time. It was a close game, so you can’t put him in when you’re a coach trying to win.
He does enough though, that despite the sour puss people here, I think he gets some rotational minutes once we have an injury or he proves himself with great defense and play making.
It’s nice if he does, but I don’t care if Paolo goes off. We know on this sub how good him, Franz, and WCJ are. They are our foundation. I’m looking for Cole, Fultz, Suggs, Harris, JI, Black, Jet, and others to show their skills so we can see if we’re actually the playoff team us homers think we are. The 4 to 7 deep type guys are who will push as into a legit team. We know our core should improve, but Fultz and Suggs especially need to prove if they deserve starting spots.
I was a fan, but it was the wrong environment. He’s not meant to be a first or second option, and Denver is perfect because he has less pressure on him offensively, and his man-to-man defense really shines there.
He had some great moments, but not a hometown hero. Wanting a trade was fine, and the team direction was horrible at the time. The return on that trade was not a high-point for this team.
In basketball you always want to pass to where you think a player will be, not where they are right now. NBA writers don’t get that when it comes to the teams they didn’t expect to be good.
Tell us where you think a team will go, take that risk. So few writers do that, because it’s less safe. So right now you have writers that don’t say much about OKC and Orlando, and last year it was the Kings. I think the Kings got it worse than us last year.