2023-2024 Regular Season Game 68: Toronto Raptors (23-44) at Orlando Magic (39-28) - 6pm

[MagicMatic]

I mean.. ideally come playoffs Isaac is starting at Center and Carter is the first one off the bench.

Respectfully, I cannot agree. M-Wagner needs Isaac. Thus they work well on a unit together!

This.

But may I add M.WAgner, Jingles and Cole ( defensive midgets all of them ) needs Isaac to cover for them.

The problem is that you aren't relying on your bench for entire quarters at a time in the playoffs. You need to rely on your best guys. Hockey lineup switches aren't going to work as well as Mosely thinks.

[JoshuaPotter]

Respectfully, I cannot agree. M-Wagner needs Isaac. Thus they work well on a unit together!

This.

But may I add M.WAgner, Jingles and Cole ( defensive midgets all of them ) needs Isaac to cover for them.

The problem is that you aren't relying on your bench for entire quarters at a time in the playoffs. You need to rely on your best guys. Hockey lineup switches aren't going to work as well as Mosely thinks.

Do we have a precedence that he will use the hockey 10 man line change in the playoffs? Serious question.

I'm sitting here, probably not the only man thinking. That whatever we have just double downed on, we just double downed on it for 4 years. Here is hoping he likes adjusting.

[jezzerinho]

I assumed they were restricting his minutes out of fear that he would be reinjured or at least limiting his minutes to ease him back into a bigger role.

I see no other possible scenario where the playoffs aren’t the time to maximize his role and increase his playing time. He’s proven that he’s capable and that he is enough of a difference maker that he needs to be on the floor. There would be no other reason to restrict his minutes in a playoff situation. That’s why he’s being paid.

Maybe!

I will need to actually see that happen before I believe it's actually happening.

I don't think it's realistic to expect him to go from 18-20 MPG in the regular season to 28-30 MPG in the playoffs with the flip of a switch though.

If they're gonna ramp him up, it makes sense (to me at least) to do it over the final 2-3 weeks of the season.

This has been a talking point I have been waiting to have all season. The Isaac end game. Are we just load management because this is who he is, or are we load managing because "this is who he is, but we are saving him for something."

I suspect we will find the answer out. When that answer comes about, his contract either becomes "worth it" so to speak or we realize he isn't worth it because health forever prevents his availability.

While I do not think we should see him 40 minutes per game. Him starting depending on the matchup, and getting up to 25m+ I do not think is unrealistic.

I would really love to know the science behind this tactic by the Magic. Because, to me, it screams of once-bitten-twice-shy.

I'd be amazed if there was some medical precedent behind playing a guy who has had multiple joint injuries fewer than 25 minutes per game. Why exactly? Because after 20 minutes your joints have loosened up so much you're at a greater risk of strainimg them? Sounds unlikely.

Because after 20 minutes you get fatigued and you make biomechanical errors while trying to attack/defend? I mean, i guess its conceivable.

But this plan to never let JI play more than 20 or so minutes seems stupidly prescriptive and binary to me. It doesnt - at first glance - appear very rooted in science. To be honest it seems (pun very much intended) like a knee-jerk response.

[RookieStar]

Respectfully, I cannot agree. M-Wagner needs Isaac. Thus they work well on a unit together!

This.

But may I add M.WAgner, Jingles and Cole ( defensive midgets all of them ) needs Isaac to cover for them.

The problem is that you aren't relying on your bench for entire quarters at a time in the playoffs. You need to rely on your best guys. Hockey lineup switches aren't going to work as well as Mosely thinks.

To be honest, I do not know about coach Mos thinking in that. Logic, history and plain common sense would tell everyone that you play your best 8man rotation ( 9 for foul trouble ) during POs.

However, our lineups during the RS have never made sense to me. We threw in a whole new 5man lineups like it was nothing and strangely enough, it worked. Those bench 5 even faced off starters of the opposing teams and held grown for our own starters to come back and dominate a tired SL of theirs.

Maybe these last 2-3 weeks of RS would see us tighten our lineups for the POs ( hopefully). I mean we already saw Black and Goga benched, Fultz losing his starting spot, JI slowly ramping his minutes up, etc etc

[SOUL]

The only person playing playoff lineups right now is Thibs. Only time we get full bench units lately is at the end of the 1st, early 2nd. We only have it in the second half of games if we're playing a bad team and we want to keep Franz/Paolo minutes closer to 32-34 rather than 36-38.

[Bensational]

Rotations are shortening in the lead up to the playoffs, and I’m expecting Fultz to start losing minutes unless he can shake the rust off. But I think we carry extra depth through next season as well, just knowing how injury prone our older players have been.