Game ??: Miami @ Orlando (The Tank Must Roll On, 7:30 PM EST)

[fklt]

if you look hammond's drafting patterns; most of the time he goes for the project with his higher pick, and role player with the lower one. parker being an exception with its position of course.

And I'm feeling like none of his role-player picks ever panned out enough to be contributors. my current take on iwundu sadly is that he is the latest addition to the hammond role player tree that will be out of the league in 4-5 years.

[bobbeaver]

Jury is out. I didnt give up on Mario until preseason camp this year. Everyone here did.

But to see him now. He has confidence. He doesnt look like a bust, but he doesn’t exactly look like a first scoring option yet either.

I think he will be a first scoring option rather soon. Lets put it this way. To be a proficient and fully confident scorer you need to shoot without thinking and get alot of touches and plays. His 28 pt game was like that. He didnt think but just let loose. For that to happen on consistant basis you need minutes, game time and a somewhat of a free hand. Last year i dont count so in reality he is a second year NBA player but first time he can make mistakes. He still doesnt get a ton of touches. But its clear he has that silkiness in his shot and speed. Vogel also needs to allow him to be that. I still remember the time he had like 10 pts no misses n he yanks him out of d game for a full quarter.

It would take a lot of injuries for him to be the first scoring option. Especially dj and simmons, since they are the ones usually teamed with Mario atm. Especially for the second unit.

It would be interesting to see what happens with Mario though when the guys get back. I think we can move Ross or somebody to free up minutes for him.

Thats my point though. That is something a coach should decide and want. Only than can he be the first option. To me he is much silkier than either of them with bigger upside and much more of a team player at the same time. Those two are ball hogs and force plays. I mean even with Simmons there he is what? 14 point avg in last 8 games since he had extended minutes with limited touches. If he gets a consistency on 3 (which is likely but only if he has playing time) and gets into the zone... mind you he is playing very efficiently for someone who has played so few games.
Smart coaches like Kerr feed the players in the zone and help em to succeed, even if its couple of such players. He is flexible about who it is. And other players see it and help em aswell and feed them because they want to win. Vogel seams to be very rigid about that sort of thing.

[PennytoShaq]

if you look hammond's drafting patterns; most of the time he goes for the project with his higher pick, and role player with the lower one. parker being an exception with its position of course.

And I'm feeling like none of his role-player picks ever panned out enough to be contributors. my current take on iwundu sadly is that he is the latest addition to the hammond role player tree that will be out of the league in 4-5 years.

Not sure about that. Iwundu looks like a guy who could be a quite solid reserve. He understands how to switch on d and his on ball defense is quite good. His offense is fairly basic but his level of confidence is going up rather quickly and he is developing some nice nba moves.

No way im jumping to conclusions on a guy who has barely played 10 games yet. If he sucks after 2 years, than fine, but right now I see a guy who has been improving out there compared to this summer.

[drsd]

13th man isn’t an asset, they are a footnote in a trade for salary purposes.

Respectfully I disagree. For one, we are talking about a 2nd round rookie who should reasonably project to be "better." (maybe a 10th man). Secondly, such players are never throw-ins to trades as they do not make enough salary to justify that for either team; such players are part of trades the same reason AAA players are part of trades in MLB - such players have unknown upside worth a flier on.

Anyhow, back to my way-back original thought, I believe Iwundu belongs in today's NBA. That basically means I see him as a top-400 player.


..

[drsd]

Pushing my way through this game and Orlando's rebounding is appalling. Looking at the stat line, Orlando gave up -6 on offensive boards and -5 on defensive boards. THat's 11 friggen wasted chances. Generally that's about 12 points surrendered on the boards. Awful!


..

[pepe1991]

How was Iwundu doing in G league?

[fendilim]

If iwundu can improve his shot, i think he can can have a longer than 5 year career.

[Furinkazan]

is mario a still a bust??

Jury is out. I didnt give up on Mario until preseason camp this year. Everyone here did.

But to see him now. He has confidence. He doesnt look like a bust, but he doesn’t exactly look like a first scoring option yet either.

not everyone
I actually said he will prove you all wrong.

[Gomagic44]

I think 1 good game is a horrible sample size. If you look at his time with us as a whole, he has been a bust.

“Croatian Kobe” smfh


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

[bobbeaver]

I think 1 good game is a horrible sample size. If you look at his time with us as a whole, he has been a bust.

“Croatian Kobe” smfh


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

You mean 8 good games right? out of 10. He is averaging 14 ppg since he got big minutes. with the amount of touches he gets and so few real games under his belt, after serious mental blocks for so long i would say that is rather good. You wouldnt? Or good games you consider only if they go near 30 points?
I dont think i need even mention what he went through to get a real chance to play like this. Or do i? So im not sure how you quantifiy this stint at the Magic.

[Optimus_Steel]

is mario a still a bust??

IMO, he never was... he had a typical rookie year from being a project player...

Second year he started out cold then Vogel just ignored him completely... when he started getting playing time again... vogel specifically told him to only focus on defense so that's what he did... that's why you saw a lot of arm chair couch gm's say he's a bust... because all they focus on is offense...

Also have to put in mind Vogel and his staff already had their offensive players made up so he was bound to fail on that end regardless...

Same story this season as his second year... being completely ignored until all the injuries came about...

He looks like he's finally putting things in order... It also looks like he doesn't give a f**k no more and is going to play his game... if you listen to his interviews... he's the type of player that will do anything a coach would ask of him... the thing is you don't give that privilege to Vogel and i think he realizes that he made a mistake in doing so..

It's just that once everyone gets healthy he has to step aside and wait for another opportunity next season for another team...

He said it himself... skiles was planning big things for him and that got taken away when Vogel came along... it happens and you just go along with the program...

I think Vogel could had ruined his career... luckily for him ( sorry, I don't mean it as a good thing about the injuries) the injuries happened... even now weham realizes they made a mistake in listening to Vogel and said they can still resign him...

A lot of this is my opinion and I'm sure many will disagree with me...

I really think he can be a key player for Orlando...

Imagine a lineup of

Doncic
iwundo
Hezonja
Gordon
Isaac

That would be my dream lineup for Orlando next season

You are completely underestimating how bad Mario played last year. He was given opportunities early on and he was awful. Even in the preseason he was awful. He was one of the worst players in the league last year and that is not hyperbole.

Sent from my [device_name] using [url]RealGM mobile app[/url]

[PennytoShaq]

It's true. Last year Mario was one of the lowest rated players in basketball. And many of us stuck with him that season until he really bottomed out this preseason.

[pepe1991]

is mario a still a bust??

IMO, he never was... he had a typical rookie year from being a project player...

Second year he started out cold then Vogel just ignored him completely... when he started getting playing time again... vogel specifically told him to only focus on defense so that's what he did... that's why you saw a lot of arm chair couch gm's say he's a bust... because all they focus on is offense...

Also have to put in mind Vogel and his staff already had their offensive players made up so he was bound to fail on that end regardless...

Same story this season as his second year... being completely ignored until all the injuries came about...

He looks like he's finally putting things in order... It also looks like he doesn't give a f**k no more and is going to play his game... if you listen to his interviews... he's the type of player that will do anything a coach would ask of him... the thing is you don't give that privilege to Vogel and i think he realizes that he made a mistake in doing so..

It's just that once everyone gets healthy he has to step aside and wait for another opportunity next season for another team...

He said it himself... skiles was planning big things for him and that got taken away when Vogel came along... it happens and you just go along with the program...

I think Vogel could had ruined his career... luckily for him ( sorry, I don't mean it as a good thing about the injuries) the injuries happened... even now weham realizes they made a mistake in listening to Vogel and said they can still resign him...

A lot of this is my opinion and I'm sure many will disagree with me...

I really think he can be a key player for Orlando...

Imagine a lineup of

Doncic
iwundo
Hezonja
Gordon
Isaac

That would be my dream lineup for Orlando next season

You are completely underestimating how bad Mario played last year. He was given opportunities early on and he was awful. Even in the preseason he was awful. He was one of the worst players in the league last year and that is not hyperbole.

Sent from my [device_name] using [url]RealGM mobile app[/url]

he got some chance early in his second season but after few weeks had period of two and half months where he collected 20 or more min once and 10 or more min 3 times i belive with lot of DNPs in between.

[WeAreVenom]

is mario a still a bust??

IMO, he never was... he had a typical rookie year from being a project player...

Second year he started out cold then Vogel just ignored him completely... when he started getting playing time again... vogel specifically told him to only focus on defense so that's what he did... that's why you saw a lot of arm chair couch gm's say he's a bust... because all they focus on is offense...

Also have to put in mind Vogel and his staff already had their offensive players made up so he was bound to fail on that end regardless...

Same story this season as his second year... being completely ignored until all the injuries came about...

He looks like he's finally putting things in order... It also looks like he doesn't give a f**k no more and is going to play his game... if you listen to his interviews... he's the type of player that will do anything a coach would ask of him... the thing is you don't give that privilege to Vogel and i think he realizes that he made a mistake in doing so..

It's just that once everyone gets healthy he has to step aside and wait for another opportunity next season for another team...

He said it himself... skiles was planning big things for him and that got taken away when Vogel came along... it happens and you just go along with the program...

I think Vogel could had ruined his career... luckily for him ( sorry, I don't mean it as a good thing about the injuries) the injuries happened... even now weham realizes they made a mistake in listening to Vogel and said they can still resign him...

A lot of this is my opinion and I'm sure many will disagree with me...

I really think he can be a key player for Orlando...

Imagine a lineup of

Doncic
iwundo
Hezonja
Gordon
Isaac

That would be my dream lineup for Orlando next season

You are completely underestimating how bad Mario played last year. He was given opportunities early on and he was awful. Even in the preseason he was awful. He was one of the worst players in the league last year and that is not hyperbole.

Sent from my [device_name] using [url]RealGM mobile app[/url]

Yeah, I think we have to remember that if a player is benched that long it's usually for a reason.......

I'm sure Vogel nor management want to hold him back.

[MagicStarwipe]

The reason is we think we're a playoff team rather than a team in the developmental stage. If we're going to lose a ton of games every year, may as well give the 5th pick in the draft plenty of minutes and opportunities to work things out whether he struggles or not. Can't have him getting DNP's all season and then go out and win 20 games. It's ridiculous. And I'm not even necessarily a believer in Mario.

[SOUL]

The reason is we think we're a playoff team rather than a team in the developmental stage.

The issue isn't that we feel like that this year, it's that we've felt like that the past 3-4 years after accumulating 5 young players in a row and expecting them to win suddenly the next year with not much development as far as trying to let them grow together and really give the keys to them while playing in a style that suits them. Mind boggling stuff. A lot of the fans felt the same way, so it's not only on the management. If you're really in on tanking, you NEED to have patience and not only for a year.

[BadMofoPimp]

Bam just might be the steal of the draft right after Mitchell. Dude is freaking legit.

[John Murdoch]

Hezonja looks like good ,rotation player right now ,if he keeps improving ( 22 years old ) he can be solid contributor to Magic or some other team. I would like to see him at SF instad of PF

uhhh they didnt pick up his option

[ChosenSavior]

Hezonja looks like good ,rotation player right now ,if he keeps improving ( 22 years old ) he can be solid contributor to Magic or some other team. I would like to see him at SF instad of PF

uhhh they didnt pick up his option

He knows that. Hammond has talked about resigning him though if both parties can agree to it. Doubt he's in a Magic uniform after this year though.

[tiderulz]

Hezonja looks like good ,rotation player right now ,if he keeps improving ( 22 years old ) he can be solid contributor to Magic or some other team. I would like to see him at SF instad of PF

uhhh they didnt pick up his option

He knows that. Hammond has talked about resigning him though if both parties can agree to it. Doubt he's in a Magic uniform after this year though.

yeah, he has no reason to re-sign with us. He will view it as 3 years of opportunity to play him and not get much time. He will go somewhere else that will commit more playing time to him