Fortune Teller wrote:Weltman has been here 7 years and has been completely incapable of adding 3-point shooting (really any shooting) to this team.
He totally blew the 2023 draft. We didn't need more 20-year-old rookies, but he drafted two of them anyway. Worse, neither is good enough to even make the rotation, even though Orlando has the absolute worst backcourt in the NBA (and second-worst isn't close). He should've traded the picks to address obvious weaknesses on this roster. Now we have two stiffs who probably don't even have much trade value (certainly not as much value as they had as numbers 6 and 11 on draft night).
Then he let the trade deadline pass despite having several expiring contracts and guys on rookie deals, in additional to future firsts. He's never added a top-tier free agent, so this summer's cap space is useless. It just feels like all windows have closed while he sat on his hands.
I agree with half of this.
First, yeah… Weltman and Co. sit on their hands WAY too much thinking that there is this golden window of opportunity to acquire everything this team so badly needs all at once. Why they haven’t done this in a step by step process blows my mind. There were MULTIPLE guys today that just had zero business on the floor. Carter is supposedly a starter and plays like he’s 6’5 on defense.
I’ve said it before that they haven’t BUILT around their core once in subsequent windows. The idea that your longer tenured role players fall into place around your more recently drafted core is just mind numbingly dumb for a number of reasons. Now, this isn’t ALL needing to be addressed at once, but rolling everyone out there and expecting better results with NO additions whatsoever is ridiculously stupid assuming they want to be in the playoffs “gaining experience”. Those deadlines and offseason came and went with nothing addressed.
Where I disagree is the analysis on the rookies. For whatever reason, Mosely thought it was a better investment to play guys that will/should not be here next season (Fultz and Gary Harris) over guys that are absolutely going to be here (Black and Howard).
Today’s game was a great example of WHY that decision is dumb. Not only are you not giving them so-called “valuable experience”, but your justification for forgoing that decision resulted in worse results. You don’t get worse than 0 points and bad decision making. I don’t get how other posters here are attempting to justify this. The game just spoke for itself and frankly has been the last few weeks.