That is indeed a pretty hot take. I’ve been thinking about ways to juggle these lineups when Fultz and WCJ come back. For the sake of keeping the ball in Paolo and Franz’s hands in the starting unit, maybe this would be an option:

PG - Ingles SG - Suggs SF - Franz PF - Paolo C - Isaac

Gets a little more shooting in the lineup, we lose nothing defensively at the 5, and the ball won’t stick.

Second unit then could be pretty filthy too. This is an outrageous bench.

Fultz Cole Harris Mo WCJ

Unfortunately that sends Goga and AB back to the end of the bench and out of the rotation, but I’m not sure in which of these two units I could slot them in and honestly say they’re an upgrade.

I think everyone saw his potential. He could just never stay healthy.

He’s my favorite. I saw he was even at a road game in Chicago a little bit back.

Also, presumably rich AF, because I couldn’t afford that seat one time, let alone all the times.

This sounds like coping. Maybe it isn’t. Either way, I am disappointed tonight. I wanted to see the Magic make the cut and I had convinced myself they were basically a lock.

The Raptors had a very weird schedule, too. Late start, then a flurry of IST games all at the end.

5 teams in a group, though, so it was always going to be a little wonky. No possible way to have everyone playing at the same time on any day, let alone the final day. Always gonna be one team left without a dance partner.

The tiebreaker is a little goofy for this. In a normal round robin format, you’d only do point differential to break a tie where there is no existing head to head advantage. Perfect scenario: Magic, Celtics, Nets all at 3-1, with no head to head advantage.

But the key to that is you only count the scores of the games from the teams who are tied. So for Group C, the only games that would traditionally matter should’ve been Magic vs Nets, Magic vs Celtics, and Celtics vs Nets. If you add just those scores up, the Nets would actually have been the winner for Group C.

Why the NBA chose to use all games to break the tie vs just the relevant games is beyond me. Had to be that way for the wildcard, of course, with an absence of like games to compare against, but within the grouping? Strange decision.

I think that’s a huge question to answer. Goga has been exactly what we needed, when we needed it, but who provides the better path forward? I don’t really know what to think right now.

I agree with all of that, but how does it happen if the unusual happens and we actually have a 100% healthy roster? A 12 man rotation seems unlikely. Maybe Old Man Jingles gets pushed out, but oddly enough, he has impressed me too with his YMCA dad game. Ultimately, like you said, nice problem to have and things have a tendency to work themselves out.

Looking way way ahead…a playoff rotation has to be tightened up even more. That would be a tough one. Unless we just bucked convention and kept going 10+ deep.

I noticed that too. And then nobody expanded on it, like they knew all along. But I’m not sure they did.

Ok who just shit themselves when JI went down

They probably legitimately have no idea lol

That’s my man, too lol. I asked about him last year, not sure if I ever got a good answer who he is or what he does. But he was even in Chicago for a game last week.

Isaac had such a quick hook in the 4th that I thought he was hurt.

Mostly I was just happy to see no Anthony Black in the 4th quarter with the score that tight. Give me Cole all day instead.

Something weird about Jett’s form. That right leg is wonky.

Aaron Gordon looks like he’s spent all his time away from Orlando living under a bridge

I mean…it ain’t farfetched at all if this keeps up.

Seems like JI is on a pretty obvious minutes restriction. I can’t see them vastly changing his role any time soon. It’s definitely not a talent thing, they’re just babying him (with good reason, given the past few years).

I think Moe is sustainable. He’s always produced offensively when given minutes. He just has to do enough defensively to justify keeping him out there, which can get dicey.

We’re missing three starters ourselves, so I’m not cutting the Bucks any slack.

He’s an absolute psychopath hustler and I have no idea how anyone could watch him play and not love what he brings to the table. Dude is all heart and emotion.