2023-2024 Regular Season Game 4: Orlando Magic (2-1) at Los Angeles Clippers (2-1) - 10:30pm

[ibraheim718]

Paolo has no legs.

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It's weird isn't it? I think I only remember 1 or 2 dunks so far.

[bigdogdylan5]

Hell this extends to Fultz too… maybe they are both in shooting slumps and they will be fine in a week or so. Christ we are 2-2 with our early schedule everyone would have signed up for that in a heart beat. It’s maddening that we have the 1st or 2nd ranked defense and we had back to back contending coaches compliment our defensive effort from such a young team but still it’s “Paolo and Fultz can’t shoot” and “Suggs sucks on offense”. Everyone on this team is busting their ass…

Count me in a similar camp to you. It is obvious that this is the direction we were headed and are still headed until further notice and see if the offense comes. I am not saying it was always the plan, the pieces though seem to have synergy.

An argument can be made this is the correct way. I would argue one of the hardest thing to do in the NBA is change culture and get superstars to take pride on defensive end. They are setting the tone early with these guys that the priority is defense. Gosh Mosley is saying it he says he doesn’t care if Paolo shoots bad as long as he defends. The simple fact is the magic haven’t had a top 20 offense in like 10 years. I think the fan base is fed up with hearing about defense I think if you gave a lot of fans true serum they would want a top offense rather than an actual championship contender. The magic fan base are starving for it. You can see it a lot I’m the posts everyone is hyper focused on the offense. Now the offense would need to come but for the culture they want to establish defense needs to be the focus. I feel like everyone wants us to skip steps.

[bigdogdylan5]

This season is a success for me if we’re a top 10 hopefully top 5 defense even if we’re like 25 in offense. That can be a 40 win team. Because when the schedule gets easier in the second half and we are at home most of the month of march we are just going to suffocate teams with our defense and effort. This first half schedule is kinda brutal but this team should make a big late run if injuries don’t kill us and we can keep this effort and intensity.

[basketballRob]

Paolo has no legs.

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It's weird isn't it? I think I only remember 1 or 2 dunks so far.

He's missing layups, jumpers, and FTs. All are signs of having no legs. Like I said before, I put this on the coaches.

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[ibraheim718]

Paolo has no legs.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

It's weird isn't it? I think I only remember 1 or 2 dunks so far.

He's missing layups, jumpers, and FTs. All are signs of having no legs. Like I said before, I put this on the coaches.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

And he played in the FIBA too. He looks like he lost some weight also.

[bigdogdylan5]

Paolo has no legs.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

It's weird isn't it? I think I only remember 1 or 2 dunks so far.

He's missing layups, jumpers, and FTs. All are signs of having no legs. Like I said before, I put this on the coaches.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

Like they worked him too hard in training camp?

I think FIBA is the interesting thing here you already took a guy who hit rookie wall hard last year and played a lot this summer and didn’t get a full offseason. Also remember he does have that hyper sweat thing and maybe we need to pace him more. Problem is he won’t respond well to load management but he will get hurt if he doesn’t have the legs. Also is he putting more effort on defense so he has less on offensive in his spurts

[Landshark]

I have deja vu to another season where our guys started off slow offensively, possibly because of having no legs due to defensive workload, and then it turned out ok in the end (maybe the 2018-2019 season with Steve Clifford?)

[JoshuaPotter]

This season is a success for me if we’re a top 10 hopefully top 5 defense even if we’re like 25 in offense. That can be a 40 win team. Because when the schedule gets easier in the second half and we are at home most of the month of march we are just going to suffocate teams with our defense and effort. This first half schedule is kinda brutal but this team should make a big late run if injuries don’t kill us and we can keep this effort and intensity.

Again I think we agree for the most part. I don't care how we win, so long as we win. This wont stop me from pointing out glaring weaknesses.

I was on record saying that a healthy Isaac / Suggs and Franz /WCJ having positive net defensive ratings sets us up as having a defensive identity. Combine that with our love of drafting length which is even more obvious based on this last draft and now you have a team of primarily defense.

We are still a ways off from the final product. 2-2 is no reason to panic. 2-2 and 1 loss being decided by a 3 ball and a couple free throws is not a reason to panic. 2-2 and 1 of the loss being part of a back to back where you are playing past midnight your time is not a reason to panic. Being 2-2 where one of your best players is 21 is no reason to panic.

I haven't had this much fun in years.

[Skybox]

When does a career trend not get called a "shooting slump"?

Are you talking about Fultz or Banchero? Fultz I think unfortunately the bell is ringing and is a career trend. Even if it is a slump his form has regressed so I don’t think he can be trusted any longer whether it’s his shoulder or in his head he is 7 years in the league.

For Paolo he is nowhere near what he can be. I think his defense has improved which I think was a focus point for him. I don’t get the panic about him, again not even 21 yet and asked to be a 1 or 2 option. I think people expecting him to be year 2 Luka need to adjust their expectations. Teams are game planning him well. He needs to shoot better so teams will respect that but I probably won’t panic till like next year.

Fultz 100%...he's, what 6 years. Paolo is one week