drsd wrote:pepe1991 wrote:By looking at Hawks 2020-21 and Grizzlies 2021-22 season i think some of us have healhy scepticism about overachiving in one year by lot of things working in our favor, that aren't really sustainable long term, and creating false sense that team emerged, by mostly just ignoring weaknesses.
Hawks had crappy defense , had 41-31 record, had whole bunch of lottery picks playing better ( than they turned to be) , with several role players being unusually healthy or in career years. For example , Cam Reddish shot 65% for 3 vs Bucks in ECF and Hunter had great sophmore season, Capela & Bogdan had career years. Capela was 6th in DPOY and looked like top 8-ish C. Bogdan was 2,5% FG below 50-40-90 split and looked like top 10 SG. Oh and Gallinari had unusually healthy year and was probably best streach PF off bench.
Next year, things reverted to normality, and they got trashed in playoffs by Heat in round 1.
Memphis Grizzlies in 2021-22 had 4th best defense and 5th best offense. Whole roster was overachiving and mostly made out of young, hungry players. They passed first round. Lost to Warriors. No big deal. Future is bright.
Next year they have even better defense ( 2# ) but offense starts to slip ( 15). They win less games, go to playoffs, get outclassed in first round by 7th seeded Lakers. Not that they lost, they got trashed in 3 out of 6 games.
Right now we have Suggs having career year, Isaac having first healthy year since 2019, Harris first healthy year in past 4-5 years, Ingles is being big part of our offense at age of 36, Mortiz Wagner is having career year. We have very little to no injuries but Fultz, who's abstence is addition by substraction.
On top of that we are only middle pack team that has been healthy whole year long. Cavs, Knicks, Raptors, Bulls, Pacers, Hawks, Heat, 76ers all deal with way bigger problems. Some of them don't have top 3 players aveliable for near 50+ games.
Driving home conclusion, without taking lot of things in considiration would be dangerous and even dumb. Our record against teams over. 500 is telling. We built our record mostly by beating bad teams and being excellent at it.
Every year there is one team that leapfrogs in regular season, sucks itself into own hype ,and gets kicked in bu** next year. Don't be that team. Make hard decisions based on logic digging deep into weaknesses, not riding high horse thinking you arived.
To expand: the Magic is currently:
24-6 against sub500 teams and
15-22 against 500 teams.
But at least the Magic has the tie-breaker with the Knicks.
..
also have the tie-breaker w the pacers
) but the comment is Magic related. Franz got the Fastest avg defensive speed for a 20+ PPG scorer in the NBA. Maybe explains his efficieny drop this year. He uses a ton of energy at the defensive side compared to other scorers. 
