The Ringer: Can the Orlando Magic Bend the NBA Game Before It Breaks Them?

[Redwood]

I said "he will never be reliable" as in going forward, that's very different than saying he has never been reliable. And honestly you're splitting hairs, the guy has had major injuries and missed significant time in each season except for one, that's a guy who will, once again, never be reliable. He's going to have to put together 2-3 healthy seasons to prove me wrong.

[drsd]

So far: Suggs has shot 31.4% from three. And that is the high from the starters, as Caldwell-Pope is 30.8%, F-Wagner is 30.6%, Banchero is 30.0%, and Carter is 21.0%.

It is a lie that this season's failures are about injuries. This season sucks becasue the Magic is the worst distance shooting team in 20 years and the 4th worst ever.

Of the 17 Magicians who have worn blue on the court, only four or north of Mendoza: Joseph, M-Wagner, Anthony, and da Silva. The other 14 have been anywhere from bad to horrible. This cannot be white-washed into some excuse.

To game 30, the Magic was 18-12. M-Wagner, Orlando's best 3-ball shooter goes down, and since then it has been a 11-21 record.
Correlation or causation????
You decide.
(( spreading the court matters! ))

In conclusion, we now know that the Caldwell-Pope and Harris signings were horrible. Orlando has no SGs that can, well, shoot. It's in the F***King job title.

..

[I Rasharted]

It is a lie that this season's failures are about injuries

Correct. The injuries obviously are not helping, but the biggest issue, as this article makes clear, is that the vision for the team is fundmentally flawed. The only way the Magic can move forward and capitalize on the Banchero/Wagner era is to fire Weltman (and maybe Mosley) and make the trades/changes necessary to become a normal, successful team with a chance at contending.

Regarding the vision for the team--I can't quite believe that Weltman looked around the league, saw that three-point shooting was dominant, and said, "I'll assemble a team of tall sort-of positionless guys to make shooting threes a little harder! That'll do it!" Without realizing that the three is so overpowered and so overused that the only thing that will fix it is a nerf by the NBA itself. And that those tall positionless guys might not make for a very good offense. I'm staggered. Anyway:

The Magic turned that force into a way of life—and in the fall of 2023, they put it in writing. As a clarifying exercise during training camp, Mosley brought his team together in the film room and let them set their own priorities. They would play with grit. They would be accountable to each other. They would stay connected. The Magic hashed out an identity, together, and put it into a contract for every player to sign.

They do this in middle-school classrooms. Embarrassing.

“Part of it is being comfortable with the rock so that it’s not even a thought,” Suggs says. “Where dribbling and handling the ball under pressure isn’t something that I’m actively thinking about. So I can do that second nature while I’m putting the team together and orchestrating us into spacing and into sets and accomplishing what we wanna do.”

Facepalm. Our "PG" has to convince himself to be comfortable dribbling under pressure. Forcing Suggs to be what he isn't is detrimental to both him and the team.

Regarding this season's comically abysmal ORL three-point shooting, I think it's fair to guess that the effort they expend on defense leaves little in the tank for offense. Simple as. The simplest answer is usually the right one.

The only question about the offseason is: with Weltman so obviously infatuated with his brilliant idea of having tall guys and no PG and not wanting to stray from that blueprint, what kind of deal are we going to see? Doubt it's going to be anything major. I think we're stuck, barring Weltman's firing, which isn't going to happen. Ah well.

[Flannerz]

If all the our players are playing sh*te apart from Franz and Paolo, we won't have many assets to make a big trade

[89Magicfan]

If all the our players are playing sh*te apart from Franz and Paolo, we won't have many assets to make a big trade

Which is why some of us are pissed with the FO because the values of some players were hot and we didn’t strike. Not even flinch.

[Fortune Teller]

Weltman with some quotes that should please the masses.

Sounds like this was an evaluation year and he is waiting for the right time to strike. This deadline with Suggs hurt and being in the play-in was probably not the correct time.

Which we have been saying and it makes sense, but I understand why people are skeptical.

I think the inconsistent minutes for AB, Jett and TDS kind of undermine it a bit though personally. I get that Jett seems like a lost cause and TDS kind of seems like he is what he is, but I still don't like them getting pulled from games so quickly. AB gets the most consistent minutes of them, but even Mosley defaults to Cole over him most of the time now. I just think they could have leaned a little more into player development especially when the alternatives also stink.

I trust Mosley's player development, I really do. That said, I also agree with you. AB is better than Cole but Cole is the safety blanket? Jett is terrible but so are other options, so why the inconsistency in opportunities? It's been a half-assed player development program for AB and Jett.

I'm not sure how, or why, Mosley would've "developed" AB and Jett any differently. This team was the 5th seed last year and took their playoff series to a Game 7. Why would anyone have viewed this season as a player development year? This was a year to take the next step, not give mediocre young players unearned reps in the hope that they learn to dribble and shoot. The three best players are all 23 and younger anyway. Surround them with talent and complementary pieces. Trade some of these players and picks you've been hoarding for the past several years and actually improve the team.

[MartinsIzAfraud]

If all the our players are playing sh*te apart from Franz and Paolo, we won't have many assets to make a big trade

you've got AB and then might just be able to tell a team KCP year is a fluke. Outside of those 2 you're going to have to attach a 1st to move WCJ, Cole etc etc.

Tradeable Pieces- AB, KCP & 1st round picks
WTF do we do pieces- WCJ
Salary Filler- Cole, Gary, Isaac, Jett

[Idiosyncratic]

Sounds like this was an evaluation year and he is waiting for the right time to strike. This deadline with Suggs hurt and being in the play-in was probably not the correct time.

Which we have been saying and it makes sense, but I understand why people are skeptical.

I think the inconsistent minutes for AB, Jett and TDS kind of undermine it a bit though personally. I get that Jett seems like a lost cause and TDS kind of seems like he is what he is, but I still don't like them getting pulled from games so quickly. AB gets the most consistent minutes of them, but even Mosley defaults to Cole over him most of the time now. I just think they could have leaned a little more into player development especially when the alternatives also stink.

I trust Mosley's player development, I really do. That said, I also agree with you. AB is better than Cole but Cole is the safety blanket? Jett is terrible but so are other options, so why the inconsistency in opportunities? It's been a half-assed player development program for AB and Jett.

I'm not sure how, or why, Mosley would've "developed" AB and Jett any differently. This team was the 5th seed last year and took their playoff series to a Game 7. Why would anyone have viewed this season as a player development year? This was a year to take the next step, not give mediocre young players unearned reps in the hope that they learn to dribble and shoot. The three best players are all 23 and younger anyway. Surround them with talent and complementary pieces. Trade some of these players and picks you've been hoarding for the past several years and actually improve the team.

I mean I understand that point to an extent even if I disagree with it. Just because you finished a year with an average net rating and took another team who was pretty average 7 games doesn't mean you no longer need to develop players. Even if they were the best team in the league they can still stand to add rookies and give them a chance. They obviously should have added better pieces, the offseason was horrible, but that doesn't mean they also can't ever develop a rookie. That notion makes no sense in this new CBA, I'm sorry.

And even then I am mostly talking about the recent games and the injury riddled games where he will yank TDS after 7 minutes or play Cole way more than AB or Gary way more than Jett when to me it is mostly pointless at this point.

[bigdogdylan5]

This is the summer for Weltman. Unfortunately I think he is going to be hamstrung. That WCJ contract is going to make things extremely tough. I am sure when he signed it Weltman thought it would be tradeable and it was very low risk but now that WCJ might be one of worst contracts in the league after his value drove off into the Grand Canyon. Our only hope is someone values Isaac and Anthony with our draft picks. Though teams are going to squeeze us on Isaac’s value. I don’t see the point guard out there that fixes this. Trae is intriguing but we would have to give Atlanta a crazy favorable package that we probably don’t even have to trade him in division. I think we’re stuck with WCj and KCP and we have to be praying they restore some of their value.