Woj bomb- Magic decline Hezonja's 4th year Option

[pepe1991]

You cant just watch the games and even from the small sample size from Iwundu that we have you can tell his feel for the game, Bball IQ, Ball handling, and defense is already better than Mario's. He's a 4-year college guy so you can tell he's already much more polished than Mario is. I have no problem cutting bait with Mario and seeing what we have in Wesley. Mario had 3 years to show that he had at least one NBA skill, and he never was able to. That's on him.

There is no eviednece that Iwundu is good at anything but trying hard. He is 23 years old rookie ,second round pick. He can consider himelf lucky if he still has NBA job by the end of 2018. That's reality of NBA and second round picks with low ceiling.

Even if they play well in D league ( G league ) , most of second round picks never get fair shots at main roster. That's just how it goes in NBA. Let's not forget that Zimmerman was like 20-20 guy in G league and was one of first guys that got hooked after season was over.

You say he is more polished than Hezonja, that's laughable. guy was shooting 35% from the floor in preseason. He was just as terrible in summer league as well as far as i can remember. So yea, he is not good as Hezonja but in same time it means nothing. He is cheaper and , what's more important here , drafted by new stuff. It's natural to get some sort of "cleaning " after GMs are changed.

On some subjective note, i don't see IWundu ever being role player in nba. He brings nothing but good will . As far as skills go, - Devny Marble is real comparison. Guy that will dive for a ball from roof of the house, but that's closest thing he can do related to basketball at NBA level.
Being 4 years at college and being just "ok" despite being 4 years older than most players is red flag itself.

Spoiler:

see Kris Dunn

Way to small of a sample size to pull anything meaningful from the stats he's put up so far. Im just talking about his feel for the game and his bball IQ from what ive seen from my own eyes. He was able to be the primary ballhandler during his time on the court and showed some stuff defensively. His overall skillset seems more polished. His shot will be a work in progress, but he shot 38% from 3 his last year in college so I have some optimism that he can be a possible 3 and D guy at some point in his career. We will see. Has more of a chance this early in his career of becoming a role player than Mario does at this point.

Way to small of a sample size to pull anything meaningful from the stats he's put up so far.

yet you are one who said that he is "far more advanced" or something like that than Hezonja.
Not much but last year at college to support that.

I'm looking at his summer league stats: 5,6 ppg, 30,3% FG, 25% for 3, 66% free trows 3,8 rpg, 0,4 apg in 22 mpg. 5 games played. Moving to preseason, same thing- still below 40% FG, still can't hit 3s, still only thing he can do is rebound fine for position.

Again we talk about guy who is actually older than Hezonja. So his shot being "work in progress" for whatever reason is excuse wher for Hezonja there is no " work in progress" any more?

Look, i don't care to be fair, to me Hezonja has to be moved ,but in same time i would never bet any money on any second round pick, because stats and years of me tracking NBA simply back that argument up.


I'm not rooting against Iwundu, i'm just objective enough to not keep my breath on any second round pick until he pans out. Rember Robert Upshaw? Guy that was going to be lottery pick before his issues? Drafted in second round. Guy plays in Venezuela now. That's reality for most second round picks.

[bargnanimvp]

I think the Magic’s development system is more at fault than Mario in respect to his development. Mario looked decent during his first year. He shot the ball at a decent clip and looked athletic. The summer after year one was the beginning of his downfall. The Magic put him on a strength training program and Mario ended up putting on 20lbs of muscle. The extra weight put too much stress on his knees and that’s when his knee problems began. The extra weight and knee problems caused major problems with his shot and athleticism.

Had the Magic let Mario naturally grow into his body we could be looking at a very different player today. What a shame.

wasn't that the summer orlando asked him not to play in eurobasket or whatever and to work with their trainers over the off season and he refused them and went back to europe? He also needed to bulk up because he was being pushed around and he didn't have the handle or skillset to really be a two guard

[bargnanimvp]

I think the Magic’s development system is more at fault than Mario in respect to his development. Mario looked decent during his first year. He shot the ball at a decent clip and looked athletic. The summer after year one was the beginning of his downfall. The Magic put him on a strength training program and Mario ended up putting on 20lbs of muscle. The extra weight put too much stress on his knees and that’s when his knee problems began. The extra weight and knee problems caused major problems with his shot and athleticism.

Had the Magic let Mario naturally grow into his body we could be looking at a very different player today. What a shame.

This.

I really think the added weight training has affected Mario's overall game. He lost his athleticism when he got bigger.

You can recall that when he ran the PG duties during his rookie year, if he'd turn the ball over, you can expect see him making an attempt to make a chasedown block. You don't see that 2nd and 3rd year. Now you can see him making defensive plays like he is Chris Duhon. lol

Also probably lost confidence during last year's preseason when his lack of dribbling was exploited. I really think last year killed his confidence and has been tentative ever since.

Or maybe his athletecism was overblown and he was never as athletic as he was advertised. What about his shooting? Maybe it was just not that great to begin with. And yes he lacks condidence and he cant dribble whatsoever. For a guy that grew up being a PG his lack of dribbling is damming.

well we were told from him and his agent the reason he wasn't getting more minutes in euroleague was because they didn't like him and the fact he wanted to go to the nba, what if he just was never good enough or consistent enough to really break out in to the euro rotation?

[bargnanimvp]

He was actually around the league average on 3point percentage during his rookie year, even his ft numbers went down during his second year. He shot more attempts during his 1st year too.

Mario entered the league at 200lbs (as listed in draftexpress) and now listed at 218lbs.

He was a very good FT shooter which gave me hope after his rookie year but he was below league average as a 3pt shooter. I just dont buy that gaining some weight would affect his shooting or his dribbling that much. Also dont buy that he has had some type of knee injury, is that the excuse he will use forever?

Gaining weight, more lifting weights. Triceps biceps.

So Isaac should stay skinny getting bullied like Mario was as a forward because it might hurt his jump shot and cause him to suddenly have zero nba skills?

[bargnanimvp]

You cant just watch the games and even from the small sample size from Iwundu that we have you can tell his feel for the game, Bball IQ, Ball handling, and defense is already better than Mario's. He's a 4-year college guy so you can tell he's already much more polished than Mario is. I have no problem cutting bait with Mario and seeing what we have in Wesley. Mario had 3 years to show that he had at least one NBA skill, and he never was able to. That's on him.

There is no eviednece that Iwundu is good at anything but trying hard. He is 23 years old rookie ,second round pick. He can consider himelf lucky if he still has NBA job by the end of 2018. That's reality of NBA and second round picks with low ceiling.

Even if they play well in D league ( G league ) , most of second round picks never get fair shots at main roster. That's just how it goes in NBA. Let's not forget that Zimmerman was like 20-20 guy in G league and was one of first guys that got hooked after season was over.

You say he is more polished than Hezonja, that's laughable. guy was shooting 35% from the floor in preseason. He was just as terrible in summer league as well as far as i can remember. So yea, he is not good as Hezonja but in same time it means nothing. He is cheaper and , what's more important here , drafted by new stuff. It's natural to get some sort of "cleaning " after GMs are changed.

On some subjective note, i don't see IWundu ever being role player in nba. He brings nothing but good will . As far as skills go, - Devny Marble is real comparison. Guy that will dive for a ball from roof of the house, but that's closest thing he can do related to basketball at NBA level.
Being 4 years at college and being just "ok" despite being 4 years older than most players is red flag itself.

Spoiler:

see Kris Dunn

it depends on what you want out of a bench player playing like 12 minutes a night.
iwundu won't break the offence and will play solid defence and move well, hezonja will either do nothing at all with no defence or jack up horrible shots like he did in preseason and hurt the team.

[SOUL]

Iwundu is also a great rebounder for his size.

[bargnanimvp]

iwundu is never going to have the potential to be what Mario could be but just based on what mario has actually given us in a bench role iwundu looks like he can add more defensively and just iq wise than mario does. He won't be shooting like Mario can at times but if you just want a smart bench guy to hustle for 15 minutes a night iwundu looks better to me.

[pepe1991]

Iwundu is also a great rebounder for his size.

that's also only nba skill that he showed

[SOUL]

Iwundu is also a great rebounder for his size.

that's also only nba skill that he showed

Still young in his career!

[pepe1991]

Iwundu is also a great rebounder for his size.

that's also only nba skill that he showed

Still young in his career!

still not that young in general. Let's be 100% honest here, as long as Ross and Simmons are healthy he won't get any PT . Same with Hezonja.

[fendilim]

He was a very good FT shooter which gave me hope after his rookie year but he was below league average as a 3pt shooter. I just dont buy that gaining some weight would affect his shooting or his dribbling that much. Also dont buy that he has had some type of knee injury, is that the excuse he will use forever?

Gaining weight, more lifting weights. Triceps biceps.

So Isaac should stay skinny getting bullied like Mario was as a forward because it might hurt his jump shot and cause him to suddenly have zero nba skills?

Good question.

It highly depends on body type. How much his body can tolerate the change.

[swarlesbarkley]

I really don't blame our strength training team at all. I'm sure they saw that skinny Mario still had a lot of awkward movement (despite his athleticism) and realized he would get burned over and over again at the 2/3. They probably asked him to put on muscle to be a quicker 4 but it just didn't work out.

[bigpimpatl]

I see a lot of Iwundu in this thread...thought this was about Hezonja.

He’s had plenty of chances to prove himself. Good riddance.

[MagicStarwipe]

Yeah, come to think of it, I WAS getting confused if that was Arnold Schwarzenegger or Mario Hezonja out there.

[bargnanimvp]

Yeah, come to think of it, I WAS getting confused if that was Arnold Schwarzenegger or Mario Hezonja out there.

his biceps we're literally so big he couldn't raise his arms anymore

[RookieStar]

Yeah, come to think of it, I WAS getting confused if that was Arnold Schwarzenegger or Mario Hezonja out there.

his biceps we're literally so big he couldn't raise his arms anymore

we should do what the sixers did with their prize rookie Fults in terms of problems of the arms.

[Optimus_Steel]

Like 2 weeks ago there was someone saying they rather have Mario over Booker. Goodness.

Sent from my SM-N920V using RealGM mobile app

[fendilim]

To say that iwundu is better than mario is in denial of the fact that mario actually had a solid rookie year, not to mention that was under Scott Skiles. What happened from year 1 to year 2 is a big question mark but Mario has certainly proven to be an nba player than iwundu.

[Xatticus]

that's also only nba skill that he showed

Still young in his career!

still not that young in general. Let's be 100% honest here, as long as Ross and Simmons are healthy he won't get any PT . Same with Hezonja.

The important thing for a player of his age that reaches the NBA is to demonstrate development. He has the length, athleticism, and ball handling/court vision to become an effective NBA player. As long as he keeps improving, there will be a place for him on an NBA roster.

He obviously has some deficiencies in his game though. He leans forward too much on the defensive end instead of getting his stance down. He displays questionable decision-making at times when he has possession. He needs to keep improving his shot.

I've seen him compared several times to Devyn Marble, which I think is a terrible comparison. Marble wasn't a plus athlete. He really wasn't a plus anything at the NBA level.

I was quite high on Iwundu coming out of KSU. He was an absolute nobody early in his collegiate career; the sort of player you can find on almost any collegiate roster. What made him a legitimate NBA prospect is that he never stopped improving. Some players are just way behind their competition when they arrive in college. There are a lot of factors that impact the outcome of a player's career before they ever even reach college.

I'm not a fan of broad-sweeping generalizations based on things like draft position or age. There are obviously going to be correlative relationships between these factors and players' productivity in general, but I would never make a declaration about an individual based on factors that don't at all describe the characteristics of the individual. The odds are against Iwundu. That's as far as I would go. Then again, the odds were against Iwundu even getting drafted through almost the entirety of his collegiate career, yet here he is.

Iwundu obviously has some NBA quality tools. That alone puts him ahead of Marble or Zimmerman in my mind. The fall of Hezonja was in his lack of development. Iwundu's development is going to decide the fate of his NBA career.

[OrlandoDream]

To say that iwundu is better than mario is in denial of the fact that mario actually had a solid rookie year, not to mention that was under Scott Skiles. What happened from year 1 to year 2 is a big question mark but Mario has certainly proven to be an nba player than iwundu.

He proved to have a chance at being a rotational NBA player in his rookie year.....and ever since then has looked like a D-league reserve. Idk what happened but after his rookie year he has failed to improve and is now on his third year still making rookie mistakes. His bread and butter and the reason he was hyped was his shooting ability and athleticism. But he is shooting like crap and its hard to use your athleticism to get to the basket when you have the handles of a C. Three years of this is enough. The kid has plenty of chances to prove himself and has struck out. Time to move on and see what Iwundu can do. Iwundu will take 3-4 seasons to be an offensive threat but his defense, rebounding, and hustle is already more of a reason to keep him out there then Mario.

Love it or hate it, Mario Henzonja will go down as one of the all-time magic busts. To think we could have had Myles Turner, WCS, or even Stanley Johnson smh.