Post#437 » by dsg2021 » Thu Apr 25, 2024 6:28 am
I would start Jalen Suggs, Caleb Houstan, Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero, Jonathan Isaac.
I would also consider starting Goga, replacing Caleb. But my gut says that Caleb starts and plays for like 5 minutes, spacing it out and sharing his confidence to shoot. Caleb and JI know what to do when they catch it. We're at Home now, it's going in the net tonight.
Goga now eats much of Wendell's minutes. And Black is eating the 'Kelle minutes on a trial basis too.
I want Garland to go for 30-40+ from the perimeter to beat me. I'm not happy with CLE averaging 94, because I bet we can make them average 80. So I'm stopping all their guards from driving easily, I am stopping this 9 offensive rebounds from Allen in one game, and this twin towers that's going on with Mobley. Goga, you're up. I would have been playing you in parts of the last 10 games of the regular season, but you're a pro, I expect you to get hot from cold.
I would give Franz the ball early on, PnR's and set plays, whatever the F he wants, to get him going into that mode we've seen before, where everything is getting easy for him in the 2nd half, but now it starts from the 1st quarter. But also because, I am taking him out 2 minutes earlier than Paolo, to stagger him him into the 2nd Unit a little bit with his brother and Joe. Yes, of course Mo is getting his 20 minutes minimum. I also think Joe will shine more once the rest of the players have woken up from a coma and showed up with a pulse in how to shoot a basketball.
Then I am instructing the Magic players on a couple of things very bluntly. "I am glad that in the regular season you guys were master geniuses at drives and cuts and passes, and this meant not taking an early open shot."
"But we're not in the regular season right now. Your guys' offense is absolutely atrocious to watch in the Playoffs."
"It's not that I don't want to stop you guys from the clever drives, cuts and passes. It's that I see you guys hesitating on open shots just because it's early in the shot clock or just because there's 6 seconds left and you're not 100% confident like Steph Curry. Stop that weak sh it."
"We're so bad that taking open shots with 15 on the shot clock is actually a really good idea right now. Mid-range shots are cool again, too."
"And when you drive, let's play a game with that. I dare you guys to drive and look to score from it almost half the time. That's right, if you "drived and dished" 2-3 times without trying to score from it, get that weak sh it out of here. I don't care if you get poster blocked, I want you to fly your body into there, exact a price on their bodies and try to score on that sh it. We're the Magic. They score 80 on our defense, and we drive like freight trains into their bodies on the way to 90. Magic in 6."
