Official 2023-2024 Magic General Season Thread

[eyriq]

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[Bensational]

Pretty gross we’ve got guys trying to talk down the success of the team just to try to protect their opinions on how the team should be handled.

You notice that too, eh?

Yeah, it’s lame. A 2nd year team that was only expected to compete for a play-in spot is fighting for home court advantage and we’re being told this is now the ceiling of the team. We’ve got Suggs emerging as a #3 option, Isaac finding form, and a couple of studs still in the stable. This team has a bright future, and it’s a shame people want to try to block that light just to throw shade.

[eyriq]

Pretty gross we’ve got guys trying to talk down the success of the team just to try to protect their opinions on how the team should be handled.

You notice that too, eh?

Yeah, it’s lame. A 2nd year team that was only expected to compete for a play-in spot is fighting for home court advantage and we’re being told this is now the ceiling of the team. We’ve got Suggs emerging as a #3 option, Isaac finding form, and a couple of studs still in the stable. This team has a bright future, and it’s a shame people want to try to block that light just to throw shade.

Damn, you're spitting poetry! Love it.

I do think all the decision points we are debating heavily are peripheral with marginal impact on future outcomes. Perhaps people don't want to recognize that?

[Def Swami]

I think the team needing to improve on offense goes without saying. You can be impressed by how well the team has done in the regular season, while acknowledging the team still has a long ways to go for sustained success. But in the grand scheme of where the franchise was and the expectations they had for themselves before the season, the team has more than exceeded them. Everything they do from here on for this season is a bonus in my eyes.

I believe this was actually a big reason the Magic didn't make any moves at the trade deadline. I've been a harsh critic of the Magic front office over the years, but standing pat made too much rational sense. The guys in the front office and Mosely are not idiots. They know we need better guard play and shooting. But, there was also no reason to waste assets on a bandaid solution for a playoff run that will likely end in a first round exit anyway. They'll likely go into the offseason winning several games above .500, a playoff appearance, top 5 defense in the NBA, and 3 legit pillars for the franchise in Suggs, Wagner, and Banchero, and a coach they can believe in for the first time since Van Gundy. We're in great position. They're playing with house money at this point.

Every thing from here in this season is gravy. It's all about experience and getting this young team to learn to play meaningful games in March to June. You can already see in the 2 games against playoff teams (Knicks and Pacers), the Magic were not ready for the physicality or intensity of late season games that matter. They were not ready to handle defenses packing the paint or ignoring a player's existence. They're first playoff appearance is going to be a rude awakening. Their anemic offense is going to be exposed in the playoffs. I'm already prepared for it. And that's okay for this season.

We go into the offseason with cap space and all our own draft picks. It's a big off-season for the front office. They'll have to address their weaknesses this summer. If they don't, that would be mismanagement. They can't bring back the same team next year and expect the same results, and I don't believe they're delusional enough to believe their offense will magically go from bottom third to top third without any changes.

The only things that really disappointed me this season was Franz's 3 point shooting. I imagine he's not nearly as bad as he has shot it this year. He's probably closer to his first 2 seasons. The Magic will need to address shooting around Wagner and Banchero, but that shouldn't let those 2 guys off the hook also. They'll both have get better as shooters themselves. The other thing was Jett Howard. The Magic have not given me a reason to believe that kid is good at all this season. I still don't understand why they decided to reach for Howard. For a team that lacks high volume, high efficiency shooting/scoring, it feels like an L to consistently believe Houstan and Harris are better options than the guy they spent the 11th pick on.

But other than that, there's a lot to be satisfied by. Banchero getting better was not a given. He's shown steady improvement with a real chance to be a go to guy. Suggs being a legit 3&D guy has been the best and most surprising development in my eyes. He went from train wreck to legit starting 3&D guy on a good team. The team's defense is legitimate. Mosely has gotten guys to buy in on that end. The Magic have had one of the best benches in the league all year. Anthony, Morwitz, and Isaac have found their roles off the bench. Goga has proven to be a great find!

Overall, we're in a great spot in my eyes. We used to have the Orlando Magic Fan Confidence Poll. I might bring it back at the end of the season. I'd say I'm at a 9/10. I'm excited by the future of the team. We've got a great cast of players and assets. It's up to the front office to take this team from good to great this off-season.

[eyriq]

Just to expand in the marginal impact of topics we are debating let's look at what we aren't heavily debating.

Not debating...
The Mosley extension
The Franz, Suggs, and Paolo extensions
Fultz having no future here

We are debating...
Harris's future
JI's future
Cole's future
AB and Jett player development
WCJ's future
PG job description
Center job description
Optimal role players
How to use pre-extension cap space
Executive performance
Key drivers of over performance
Team building philosophy
Etc

We are aligned on the coach and the core and that is what, 70% of what will determine our future success?

[thelead]

Just to expand in the marginal impact of topics we are debating let's look at what we aren't heavily debating.

Not debating...
The Mosley extension
The Franz, Suggs, and Paolo extensions
Fultz having no future here

We are debating...
Harris's future
JI's future
Cole's future
AB and Jett player development
WCJ's future
PG job description
Center job description
Optimal role players
How to use pre-extension cap space
Executive performance
Key drivers of over performance
Team building philosophy
Etc

We are aligned on the coach and the core and that is what, 70% of what will determine our future success?

JI’s future still being debated is wild to me. Are we watching the same games?

[basketballRob]

The Magic will have the 10th best record in the NBA tonight. We're currently 11th, but the loser of the Kings vs. Knicks game will fall to 11th tonight, and we'll move up to 10th.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

[eyriq]

Just to expand in the marginal impact of topics we are debating let's look at what we aren't heavily debating.

Not debating...
The Mosley extension
The Franz, Suggs, and Paolo extensions
Fultz having no future here

We are debating...
Harris's future
JI's future
Cole's future
AB and Jett player development
WCJ's future
PG job description
Center job description
Optimal role players
How to use pre-extension cap space
Executive performance
Key drivers of over performance
Team building philosophy
Etc

We are aligned on the coach and the core and that is what, 70% of what will determine our future success?

JI’s future still being debated is wild to me. Are we watching the same games?

It's a contact year for a catastrophically injury prone player. I mean yeah he's good. He was drafted high for a reason. Can he stay healthy? Can you rely on him?

[Bensational]

You notice that too, eh?

Yeah, it’s lame. A 2nd year team that was only expected to compete for a play-in spot is fighting for home court advantage and we’re being told this is now the ceiling of the team. We’ve got Suggs emerging as a #3 option, Isaac finding form, and a couple of studs still in the stable. This team has a bright future, and it’s a shame people want to try to block that light just to throw shade.

Damn, you're spitting poetry! Love it.

I do think all the decision points we are debating heavily are peripheral with marginal impact on future outcomes. Perhaps people don't want to recognize that?

I think a lot of the stuff we’re talking about is already factored in by the team, but the team is happy to give players more time to develop and solve those problems internally in the future before bringing in outside help. Suggs went from one of the league’s worst shooters to an elite 3&D guy, and if you’ve got guys you believe will put the effort in to improve then you back that. That’s why I think the team will give this squad at least one more season together with Black, Howard and Houstan inheriting larger roles.

But some things aren’t going to be addressed to the degree people want it to be. They want to see a fast paced, high volume shooting and scoring team, which is the opposite to how we’re built. We could bring in Curry and his 3pa’s would probably drop just because of the grind-it-out pace we choose to play with. One reason I believe that’s successful is because heavy shooting teams get a lot of their rhythm from volume and runs, but we slow them down between offensive sets which stifles that rhythm. We’ll see an improvement in shooting but it will likely come from more wide open looks as the team improves passing and trusting the perimeter with the shot clock going down, because that’s the game we play.

[thelead]

Just to expand in the marginal impact of topics we are debating let's look at what we aren't heavily debating.

Not debating...
The Mosley extension
The Franz, Suggs, and Paolo extensions
Fultz having no future here

We are debating...
Harris's future
JI's future
Cole's future
AB and Jett player development
WCJ's future
PG job description
Center job description
Optimal role players
How to use pre-extension cap space
Executive performance
Key drivers of over performance
Team building philosophy
Etc

We are aligned on the coach and the core and that is what, 70% of what will determine our future success?

JI’s future still being debated is wild to me. Are we watching the same games?

It's a contact year for a catastrophically injury prone player. I mean yeah he's good. He was drafted high for a reason. Can he stay healthy? Can you rely on him?

You see his role expanding game by game and Mosley is trusting him more and more. He has played more games than WCJ… and that’s with the expected games missed on back-to-backs. He is 100% part of the future IMO.

[eyriq]

JI’s future still being debated is wild to me. Are we watching the same games?

It's a contact year for a catastrophically injury prone player. I mean yeah he's good. He was drafted high for a reason. Can he stay healthy? Can you rely on him?

You see his role expanding game by game and Mosley is trusting him more and more. He has played more games than WCJ… and that’s with the expected games missed on back-to-backs. He is 100% part of the future IMO.

I'm ok with that, but it's not an obvious choice IMO. WCJ is another injury prone player. I think selling high on injury prone players that are playing well is a viable idea.

[Knightro]

Like I always say…

Multiple things can be true at the same time. It actually flabbergasts me how some of y’all can’t seem to understand that other people think this way.

This season can be considered a wildly successful one for the organization and also one that has been very entertaining for the fans.

At the very same time it is completely fine to recognize and acknowledge that the organization very likely (definitely?) needs to upgrade anywhere from 3 to 5 of their current rotation players to take the next step from “team showing progress” to “team capable of contending for a championship.”

Those of us on this board who point out the latter don’t have any sort of agenda. Frankly it’s insulting to suggest that anyone on this board is actively trying to lessen anything this team has accomplished.

We just want more.

The goal isn’t to just be trending in the right direction, ya know?

[thelead]

It's a contact year for a catastrophically injury prone player. I mean yeah he's good. He was drafted high for a reason. Can he stay healthy? Can you rely on him?

You see his role expanding game by game and Mosley is trusting him more and more. He has played more games than WCJ… and that’s with the expected games missed on back-to-backs. He is 100% part of the future IMO.

I'm ok with that, but it's not an obvious choice IMO. WCJ is another injury prone player. I think selling high on injury prone players that are playing well is a viable idea.

WCJ is replaceable (although I would keep him as a backup in a perfect world). DPOY-caliber 7 footers are not… even if he only plays 20 mpg right now.

[RookieStar]

Record is what it is man. Nobody else is counting other teams record like this. Not sure why even our own fans are listing reasons as if there isn't reasons for every team lol. Injuries to star players are unfortunate but some teams are more uniquely equipped to handle it than others. And we could only dream of being a team that takes care of bad teams. Pacers wished they didn't struggle with under .500 teams or else they'd easily be ahead of us.

Same with playoffs, always asterisks with injuries or shots being lucky or whatever it is. Gotta take advantage of it.

It literally only matters if front office/fans excuse is pointing at the record as a reason not to improve obvious areas of need (shooting/guard/upgrading depth in general) .. but most people feel pretty much the same in terms of where we can improve and what we expect in the playoffs.. it's funny so many people thought we were barely a playin team and now worried about "not making it out of the first round" like its a failure.

Most back to backs in the league, most rest disadvantaged games in the league, most 3 in 4 nights.. extremely road heavy schedule until now (I think leading with 36). There was a stat a month or two into the season where Orlando was the only team that didn't play another team with their #1 scorer out, that obviously changed after because we were able to dodge quite a few big names, but it was something crazy like some teams getting 7-8 of those and we had 0.

Also we may not have had huge injuries (knock on wood) to our best 3 guys, but still a lot of ticky tack stuff with Ingles out for a time, Gary/Isaac/Fultz out for times and no B2Bs, WCJ early on, Franz for a week or two. No matter what people say about WCJ/Fultz now.. it was VERY unsure and foreboding to have to start a 3rd stringer and rookie and expect them to fill in, and they obviously did great (even though our bench carried us).

We're a weird team currently where depth injuries seem to do more damage than one of Franz/Paolo being out.

Only recently have we had the luxury of the entire team being healthy. Team has done well in the face of adversity and then also benefit from other teams having unfortunate injuries.. but that's part of the game. As long as people aren't delusional from it.

Because as some here said, there are games when our starters win it, some games where our bench wins it. Also, the difference with our bench and others is, some teams still have their star/scorer/starter play with the bench unit while us actually plays a lot minutes with an entire new 5man lineup.

I dunno if it is by design with this FO because of its experience with injuries/player loss but it sure lucked out that aside from a Suss/Franz/PB injury, we aren't as worried as before.

[eyriq]

Like I always say…

Multiple things can be true at the same time. It actually flabbergasts me how some of y’all can’t seem to understand that other people think this way.

This season can be considered a wildly successful one for the organization and also one that has been very entertaining for the fans.

At the very same time it is completely fine to recognize and acknowledge that the organization very likely (definitely?) needs to upgrade anywhere from 3 to 5 of their current rotation players to take the next step from “team showing progress” to “team capable of contending for a championship.”

Those of us on this board who point out the latter don’t have any sort of agenda. Frankly it’s insulting to suggest that anyone on this board is actively trying to lessen anything this team has accomplished.

We just want more.

The goal isn’t to just be trending in the right direction, ya know?

The reason you catch strays is for comments that fail to recognize that most of the improvement will come from the improvement in core players. Capping the teams development because they don't follow your build preference ignores the growth rate that comes from improvement in core players and will always come off as sacrificing things we should be celebrating for pet talking points.

[RookieStar]

Like I always say…

Multiple things can be true at the same time. It actually flabbergasts me how some of y’all can’t seem to understand that other people think this way.

This season can be considered a wildly successful one for the organization and also one that has been very entertaining for the fans.

At the very same time it is completely fine to recognize and acknowledge that the organization very likely (definitely?) needs to upgrade anywhere from 3 to 5 of their current rotation players to take the next step from “team showing progress” to “team capable of contending for a championship.”

Those of us on this board who point out the latter don’t have any sort of agenda. Frankly it’s insulting to suggest that anyone on this board is actively trying to lessen anything this team has accomplished.

We just want more.

The goal isn’t to just be trending in the right direction, ya know?

Uh im confused... isn't it the goal of every rebuilding team to be trending in the right direction?

But yes, considering that thread/discussion in the offseason on where we would be right now, I myself though that at best we would be 6th at worst fighting in the 10th spot. So.... very very successful SO FAR ( cuz the season ain't over yet lol)

[Optimus_Steel]

Exceeding expectations in everyday life: great

Exceeding expectations in Magic board: dark clouds

[Optimus_Steel]

Read on Twitter

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The Miami record is a shocker. Turns out we are decent against good teams.

[Bensational]

At the very same time it is completely fine to recognize and acknowledge that the organization very likely (definitely?) needs to upgrade anywhere from 3 to 5 of their current rotation players to take the next step from “team showing progress” to “team capable of contending for a championship.”

Those of us on this board who point out the latter don’t have any sort of agenda. Frankly it’s insulting to suggest that anyone on this board is actively trying to lessen anything this team has accomplished.

We just want more.

The goal isn’t to just be trending in the right direction, ya know?

In Paolo’s 2nd year, as we approach the playoffs for the first time after our rebuild, you’re already saying “meh, not good enough. I want more.”

I don’t think you realise how much your own words betray you. Labelling the team’s success “fool’s gold” and making comments like “the dirty little secret is this is the team’s ceiling” wreaks of agenda - that agenda being a claim the team will struggle unless PG and shooting are addressed with significant upgrades. A claim that the team is disproving with every win. Wins you’re now claiming are misleading. No agenda? Sure.

Trending in the right direction is a big spectrum and multi-season approach. Not many teams become contenders after their franchise player’s 2nd season. Apparently it needs to be said: this team will have more seasons like this where we compete at a high level but aren’t ready to contend for a championship. Trending in the right direction will still be a top priority, if not the main one.

[RookieStar]

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The Miami record is a shocker. Turns out we are decent against good teams.

Im acutally shocked at PHO... 6-7? They only faced 13x teams in the top 10?? Where almost everyone else faced 20x?