Cavaliers vs Magic Series General Discussion Thread

[BadMofoPimp]

Could I get some reviews on bally sports. I am considering activating my subscription for the playoffs and then turning it off when the magic season is over. Would that work? Do you think they will black out home games even though they will likely sell out?

I absolutely refuse to get Bally and been streaming illegally for a sport that has been traditionally free across the board until Magic went downhill and got greedy.

[jezzerinho]

The playoffs is where oppositions get themselves familiar with what you're bad at and make you do that.

If we're self-scouting, what would you say are the glaring gaps offensively in each of our starters?

"Shooting" is kind of a given....

No great pick and roll ball handler. You can switch Franz/Banchero/Carter/Isaac without problem. Only pull up option is Paolo and he is inefficient. Obviously shooting from most positions.
You can put smaller guys on Franz and Paolo and they wont hurt you much most of the time.
Suggs or Franz need to develop some form of a midrange pull up. They are both fast but you can defend them with big separation after they cross the 3 point line. Paolo has better midrange but he is too slow reacting to double teams, his handle is too loose to dribble in a crowd.
I would say 3 point shooting is not even our biggest problem.

I think you hit the nail on the head here. If we get real penetration, Orl can collapse the D, pass from inside out and swing the ball to find the open shooter/cutter. But if you wall us off, only Paolo has the midrange game and even hes not efficient overall, so the oppo probably lives with that.

I think where we can mitigate.some of the absence of midrange and lack of pure pnr handler is developing a 2-man game. The MoJoe connection works for the bench but the starters need to get it clicking. Whether its Paolo with WCJ or Franz/Suggs with Paolo, we need to be smarter about how we work decent openings at the rim by playing through the D. Expecting Paolo to dribble through 3 guys and score efficiently on every trip is a pipe dream.

[tooler]

I think the series overall will probably come down to Donovan Mitchell. Not Suggs vs. Mitchell, just Mitchell in general. Great offense beats great defense. If we keep it close and he hits some daggers, then it will be hopeless. If he’s injured, or we get up early in the series and he starts to pout or something, then we have a chance. I’ll give it about 28.8%.

[basketballRob]

The Cavs media that I've heard seem confident that they'll win.

[Bensational]

I think the series overall will probably come down to Donovan Mitchell. Not Suggs vs. Mitchell, just Mitchell in general. Great offense beats great defense. If we keep it close and he hits some daggers, then it will be hopeless. If he’s injured, or we get up early in the series and he starts to pout or something, then we have a chance. I’ll give it about 28.8%.

Last year Mitchell went from a 61% TS% guy in the regular season to 52% TS% in the playoffs. The year prior he dropped from 57% regular season to 51% in the playoffs.

I’m not sure if it’s a growing trend or not - this postseason will probably give some indication - but there’s precedence of him being limited a lot more in recent playoffs at least.

[richi_v25]

Could I get some reviews on bally sports. I am considering activating my subscription for the playoffs and then turning it off when the magic season is over. Would that work? Do you think they will black out home games even though they will likely sell out?

I absolutely refuse to get Bally and been streaming illegally for a sport that has been traditionally free across the board until Magic went downhill and got greedy.

Same i was out of town for work and wanted to help out the Magic so i got the nba app to watch the games but was blacked out due to a Central Florida number. I was like well i can't help those that don't want to be helped back to illegal streaming i go.

[Residual-Heat]

If Fultz gets minutes, he can prove to be useful in this series. We would need him to lock in on defense against Garland and Mitchell, and push the pace on offense.

[basketballRob]

If Fultz gets minutes, he can prove to be useful in this series. We would need him to lock in on defense against Garland and Mitchell, and push the pace on offense.

He was completely lost on defense and offense against Milwaukee. I'm afraid he won't be able to stay in front of Garland or Mitchell

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[ORLMagicGirl15]

I'm not going to lie. I'm a little nervous for Paolo and Franz. This is their first playoff series and I hope they show up. Franz has struggled so much against the Cavs big man and Paolo has been inefficient. I hope they both come to play.

[Anti Chalmers]

We can beat anyone as long as Franz and Paolo plays well

[yoyojw17]

If Fultz gets minutes, he can prove to be useful in this series. We would need him to lock in on defense against Garland and Mitchell, and push the pace on offense.

He was completely lost on defense and offense against Milwaukee. I'm afraid he won't be able to stay in front of Garland or Mitchell

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A lot of deduction from 6 min of gameplay. lol

[Message Boar]

After giving it some thought, I like this matchup less for us than I initially thought. The question is if the week off helps the Cavs snap out of the funk they've been in for the last month+. Before that they were playing like one of the best teams in the nba.

What I see is a Cavs roster with way more scoring and shooting on it than we have. I think their small guards can be exposed on defense but the Magic don't really have the guard scoring to take advantage of that. Mobley will make life hard on one of Franz and Paolo and they have good rim protection in Allen to partially neutralize the one area of the court where we're good from. If we win, it will because we're able to out-physical them and bully them, grabbing loads of offensive boards and getting to the line (but the refs have not been friendly of late).

Objectively, I think a competitive Cavs in 5 is the most likely outcome, but it depends if the Cavs actually show up and play to their potential. Their fans don't seem to trust their coach at all, so hopefully we have an advantage there. I'm interested to see how our coaches perform in a playoff setting with adjustments etc.

[jezzerinho]

I think the series overall will probably come down to Donovan Mitchell. Not Suggs vs. Mitchell, just Mitchell in general. Great offense beats great defense. If we keep it close and he hits some daggers, then it will be hopeless. If he’s injured, or we get up early in the series and he starts to pout or something, then we have a chance. I’ll give it about 28.8%.

Last year Mitchell went from a 61% TS% guy in the regular season to 52% TS% in the playoffs. The year prior he dropped from 57% regular season to 51% in the playoffs.

I’m not sure if it’s a growing trend or not - this postseason will probably give some indication - but there’s precedence of him being limited a lot more in recent playoffs at least.

Further on the bright side, Garland seems to be in a bit of a funk lately, according to Cavs fans. With Mitchell just back, we could be in the fortunate position of being able to give extra attention to him without necessarily being heavily punished by Garland.

Theory is fascinating tho. Practice could be a different animal.

[RookieStar]

Wait... its on ESPN and 1pm?

[Optimus_Steel]

Wait... its on ESPN and 1pm?

Yup ESPN 1pm

[basketballRob]

If Fultz gets minutes, he can prove to be useful in this series. We would need him to lock in on defense against Garland and Mitchell, and push the pace on offense.

He was completely lost on defense and offense against Milwaukee. I'm afraid he won't be able to stay in front of Garland or Mitchell

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A lot of deduction from 6 min of gameplay. lol

We can play a 9-man rotation. The Kings looked much better last night when the starters all played 38 minutes, and if it was close, they would've only played 8 players.

Wendell 20
Paolo 38
Franz 38
Gary 30
Suggs 35
Isaac 30
Cole 24
Moe 20
Ingles 5 = 240




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[3ddman23]

Wait... its on ESPN and 1pm?

Game 1( and game 4) of the first round for all series are always national televised.
It's the middle games that get put on nba TV, ala game 2 & 3 for us.

[JBSouthpaw]

He was completely lost on defense and offense against Milwaukee. I'm afraid he won't be able to stay in front of Garland or Mitchell

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A lot of deduction from 6 min of gameplay. lol

We can play a 9-man rotation. The Kings looked much better last night when the starters all played 38 minutes, and if it was close, they would've only played 8 players.

Wendell 20
Paolo 38
Franz 38
Gary 30
Suggs 35
Isaac 30
Cole 24
Moe 20
Ingles 5 = 240

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So you have
Suggs/Cole
Gary/ Cole
Franz/Isaac/ Ingles
PB/Isaac
Wendell/ Moe
Don't hate it.
Not sure JI can go 30 MIn, he was getting gassed in long stretches.
We may need Goga a few minutes with their bigs
Cole can NOT guard Mitchell, 24 might be high for him unless he's on fire. Subbing strategy will be very important for Coach.

[basketballRob]

A lot of deduction from 6 min of gameplay. lol

We can play a 9-man rotation. The Kings looked much better last night when the starters all played 38 minutes, and if it was close, they would've only played 8 players.

Wendell 20
Paolo 38
Franz 38
Gary 30
Suggs 35
Isaac 30
Cole 24
Moe 20
Ingles 5 = 240

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So you have
Suggs/Cole
Gary/ Cole
Franz/Isaac/ Ingles
PB/Isaac
Wendell/ Moe
Don't hate it.
Not sure JI can go 30 MIn, he was getting gassed in long stretches.
We may need Goga a few minutes with their bigs
Cole can NOT guard Mitchell, 24 might be high for him unless he's on fire. Subbing strategy will be very important for Coach.

Ingles will probably play more than 5 minutes, and Franz can play some SG. Cole will probably match minutes with Merrill.

I think we need Isaac in with Wendell a lot when Allen is in the game. I remember him destroying Wendell on the pick and roll in one game that we played. Isaac could help cover for Wendell.

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[Knightro]

I would start Isaac at center and play him 30 MPG if his body can handle it.