Regular Season Game 13: Orlando Magic (5-7) at New York Knicks (4-9)

[Optimus_Steel]

Believe it or not, we're one of the best 1st quarter teams.
It's in french
blue is 1st, red 2nd, yellow third and green 4th quarter

Totally weird.

[MagicFrenchie]

look at phoenix graph lol

[paperboymafia]

Yeah that Phoenix graph looks painful

[PrimeThyme]

I think we should relax a little. We beat the Knicks. Clifford may be the first somewhat competent coach we've had since SVG, but we're still a pretty bad team. Just not bad enough to draft one of the incoming studs.

Now is the time to relax because at the end of this month when we go on our west coast road trip and play like 8 straight games vs playoff teams and on the road things will get put into perspective again.

Everyone should try to temper their expectations becuase after this easy part of the schedule things heat up fast again. Clifford has a long way to go still with this roster and it will be a big test for us to see how they handle things at the end of this month.

[MagicMadness]

I still have us in the 25-30 win range.

(Assuming no major trades.)

[vagnermagic]

What impressed me the most last night: how Simms played for the team, instead of driving and trying to finish no matter what.

He made really good plays going inside and feeding his teammates. That must have something to do with Clifford, right? The dude just played a total different type of basketball as opposed to what we're used to from him.

Well, don't know what happened, but I hope we get this J Simms for the rest of the season.

[magicman112]

I think we should relax a little. We beat the Knicks. Clifford may be the first somewhat competent coach we've had since SVG, but we're still a pretty bad team. Just not bad enough to draft one of the incoming studs.

Now is the time to relax because at the end of this month when we go on our west coast road trip and play like 8 straight games vs playoff teams and on the road things will get put into perspective again.

Everyone should try to temper their expectations becuase after this easy part of the schedule things heat up fast again. Clifford has a long way to go still with this roster and it will be a big test for us to see how they handle things at the end of this month.

The schedule makers usually send the Magic on an early season west coast road trip. It's almost a tradition at this point.

[drsd]

I'm 100% for the W's.

[drsd]

look at phoenix graph lol

I have no idea what it means, but these are the teams all below the bar: Cleveland, Phoenix, Washington AND Minnesota.

Whatever this graphic stands for it is somehow explains why Washington and Minnesota are underachieving.

[swarlesbarkley]

What impressed me the most last night: how Simms played for the team, instead of driving and trying to finish no matter what.

He made really good plays going inside and feeding his teammates. That must have something to do with Clifford, right? The dude just played a total different type of basketball as opposed to what we're used to from him.

Well, don't know what happened, but I hope we get this J Simms for the rest of the season.

That left-handed pass to Evan at the 3 was on fire. Defenses cram the paint whenever he has the ball so if he can pass like that consistently we'd have a ton of open looks and he becomes 6th man of the year material.

[OrlandoNed]

in other words usless pick

If the Magic has their core, except at PG were a FA max deal resolves that, than this sort of pick is perfect to solidify bench depth.

Someone explain to me how we get from this team and this talent, a lot of which are expiring this year, to NBA championship without a high draft pick. I just don't see it.

Only Philly tanked their way to the top. Historically, prudent trades (Boston), competence in the draft market (San Antonio), or FA signings (Golden State) have been the major paths to assembling an excellent team. Milwaukee has interestingly hit on most of these at the same time for their current early excellence.

Excuse me?

In what world is Milwaukee a better example of becoming excellent by hitting those building strategies than Golden State? The Bucks are just now stepping out of 1st round, 5-8 seed cannon fodder, Golden State is the team who has become beyond excellent.

How can you attribute most of Golden State’s rebuild to FA? The Warriors mainly became great through the draft by hitting their mid to late lotto (Curry, Klay, Barnes) and early 2nd round picks. (Green, Ezeli). They rounded out the roster with trades (Bogut) and cheap free agent signings. (Speights, Barbosa, Livingston) The only major free agent signing that made the Warriors excellent was Iggy. The draft picks the Warriors made, made up the core of one of the greatest teams in NBA history and broke one of the most unbreakable records going 73-9.

You might of been thinking of Durant when you assigned free agency to what made the Dubs great, but they were great before Durant even got there.

If I was to place the Bucks on the Warriors timeline, right now they’d be just past the season where they lost to the Spurs in a competitive conference semifinal and the year they lost to the Clippers in the first round. The Celtics last year were for the Bucks, what the Spurs were to the Warriors. If the Bucks were to imitate the Warriors timeline further they’d probably lose to the Pacers in a 4-5 first round matchup.

[OrlandO]

What impressed me the most last night: how Simms played for the team, instead of driving and trying to finish no matter what.

He made really good plays going inside and feeding his teammates. That must have something to do with Clifford, right? The dude just played a total different type of basketball as opposed to what we're used to from him.

Well, don't know what happened, but I hope we get this J Simms for the rest of the season.

That left-handed pass to Evan at the 3 was on fire. Defenses cram the paint whenever he has the ball so if he can pass like that consistently we'd have a ton of open looks and he becomes 6th man of the year material.

He regularly made passes like that to Speights when his drive got shutdown last season... probably the only type of pass he feels comfortable making. Was hoping to see him develop a connection like that with bamba on the 3pt line this year, but it hasn't really materialized yet.