Cole World: Orlando Magic Select Cole Anthony at #15

[pepe1991]

Worst case Telfair best case Jordan Clarkson. That range...

This is a little too harsh for me.

I think Anthony’s jumper is better than his percentages indicate.

His percentages were dragged down more by his desire to take low percentage shots, not his ability/inability to make high percentage shots.

If he had a busted form or bad mechanics, I’d be more worried about his potential as a shooter. It feels like more of a “this guy needs to be reigned in” problem then a “this guy can’t shoot” problem.

Finishing in traffic on the other hand, that does feel like it is a legitimate problem.

well its Pepe so what did you expect

Go back and read what this board said about Cole Anthony last 5 weeks.
Spoiler alert: he played 0 games since that.

Narrative didn't change just because he got drafted to XY team.

He is low efficiency, high usage, ball dominant chucker who showed basically zero desire or skills to run offense. We talk about 30% usage rate, 4 assist a game player
( for comparison sake, 30% usage rate is Lebron James averaging 27 ppg, 6 assists or Westbrook averaging 23 ppg and 11 apg ) , it's unheard of that lead guard on 30% usage rate has so little assists.

Does it help that he is son of career backup PG?

I wish him nothing but best, i just don't see logic. Magic passed on Bey who would fil need and position and probably was BPA. Not to mention missing on Nesmith for 1 pick.

I won't lose sleep over 15# pick high bust potential. But this draft selection is definition of head scratcher

[Last Guardian]

Maybe a good backup to Fultz. Someone who plays with the likes of Iwundu and Birch and gets to take all the shots.

[spinedoc]

This isn't Jameer Nelson, its Steve Francis and I'm totally cool with it. Fultz can guard the two and facilitate on offense, great pick for 15.

[magicfan217]

I think it's really easy to focus on the micro and lose sight of the macro....this guy would have been a top 5 pick this time last year. He played a very small sample size of games as a true freshman at UNC, where he was playing hurt. I dont know if he's gonna be a star or not, but at 15 this is gamble that seems well worth it.

[MagicFan101]

Maybe a good backup to Fultz. Someone who plays with the likes of Iwundu and Birch and gets to take all the shots.

That will surely be his role at the start of the season.

If / when we move on from Evan his role should expand. We saw Fultz + DJ quite often. Clearly they are willing to go with such a lineup. Cole should be able to fill that role well.

[PrimeThyme]

I think Anthony’s jumper is better than his percentages indicate.

His percentages were dragged down more by his desire to take low percentage shots, not his ability/inability to make high percentage shots.

If he had a busted form or bad mechanics, I’d be more worried about his potential as a shooter. It feels like more of a “this guy needs to be reigned in” problem then a “this guy can’t shoot” problem.

His shot release at his size gives me some concerns. I've been going back and watching tape on him, && I can absolutely foresee it being a problem. To what degree? I'm not sure, but you can go back and watch his first game against ND and there are at least 3 times in the highlight tape alone where he had to pump fake or pass up a shot mid-air because the longer defender guarding him bothered it.

Outside of that, I tend to agree with you on his percentages. It's worth noting that North Carolina had horrendous spacing last season as well. Especially when he came back from injury. The team that drafted him does as well though so it remains to be seen how he will look with our second unit or what moves we make In the upcoming weeks.

I'm not expecting anything major.

[cedric76]

Could he be the steal of the draft?

Watch on YouTube

[MaKiaVeLi7]

I disagree, I think this is a really good fit for Orlando, and will be pretty good long term.

Kid was hurt and came back six weeks after surgery to a 'meh' UNC team that was not going to do anything with him being the lone guy providing any meritable offensive worth. When a defense can key in on a single guy, especially a guy who had sat for six weeks, of course he is going to look subpar and look bad.

He wasn't one hundred percent, he admits that, people he played with admitted that, and the coach putting so much pressure on him to be THE guy with nobody there to help him while not being truly well would probably admit it too.

Look, I get he did a lot of things bad, but let's not throw out context to state hate because it suits a narrative. The guy was a top 3 prospect, pre-injury he was a top 5 draft pick. He fell to us when everyone else was gone, we had the choice of trying to go up, or just taking what could potentially be a killer scorer.

We chose to grab him and I get it, he wasn't your guy, and he sure as hell wasn't mine, but he is here now. He hasn't played a single minute of NBA basketball and we are already getting angry and hating on him and for what? Being a competitor and not sitting out the rest of the season because he got hurt? Because his shooting percentage isn't shiny because his team was atrocious? Because he tried to do too much and was literally playing as hard as he could to get Ws with a subpar team?

Give me a break.

Man stop right there.
If you are hurt, does that mean you have to chuck shots, make wrong decisions, turn the ball over and show zero trust in your teammates?
He is playmaker who doesn't make anybody around him better nor he even tries to engage rest of a team into team offense. Guy in 22 games took 142 three point attemps on 88 assists. He doesn't care about anything but his own shots. And it shows.

Just look for example amount of shots to amount of assists he made AS PLAYMAKER.

Haliburton 242 shots- 142 assists
Lewis ( also trigger happy) 449 FGA- 162 assists
Maxey - 351 shots- 99 assists
Prichard 442 shots- 172 assists

Cole Anthony - 345 shots- 88 assists

From all point guards in first round that was selected, he has worst offensive rating. Once again, mostly because he is point guard who just hogs ball and doesn't run offense well.

I don't care, 15# pick is a wash, but before draft i said that i would not tuch player who is only interested into hoisting jumpshots. That strenghts vs weaknesses picture where for point guard only strenght is rebounding is as laughable as it gets.

Who is he suppose to trust on that team to pick up the work load? The next best Offensive weapon averages 16 and the next best is a 12ppg scorer. The rest? All sub 10 ppg and non factors offensively.

You are begging him not to Chuck shots and pass around. I am saying he was told to take those shots because the quality of his team was meh and if it wasn't he would have made more plays for others.

I don't get it, really I don't. His team was a dumpster fire, he played hurt, and was focused on by defenses. His fg % ain't gonna blow me away under those conditions and I'm not blaming him for playing selfish because most people know he was asked to do that.

Once again, not the guy I wanted, but I can live with it. I'm not going to throw him under the bus before the bus has even started to roll. If we are talking about how bad he is in the middle of the season with NBA level talent around him? Then you get to complain, but if he is lighting it up, and you decide to change your tune, I'm bringing this up again.

Being solely rooted in stats is one thing, but being blind to circumstance and context is a completely other thing.

But even I can eat crow and if he sucks, then that will be my turn to fess up, but I get the feeling he is not going to suck, and a lot of people are going to look like fools for judging his one season on a team with only 2 ten point or more scorers so harshly.

Come on, Pepe! Why so negative and biased from the beginning???

At least wait to see him play a couple of games and then start bashing him.
I know everyone had some favorite players in the draft. Obviously, you had yours and Cole Anthony isn't one of them, but why being so negative without a reason???

As ARandomStranger pointed out, he had a very bad supporting cast in UNC. Even your arguments and stats you brought up regarding shots taken vs. assists made seem to confirm the exact same thing when you try to analyze them and not only see the disparity or the FG% and say in a heartbeat: "Naaah, too many shots, too bad FG%, this guy sucks."

That's not smart. I don't particularly like our FO, but say what you want about them, they have some old-school draft and evaluating approach when it comes to these young prospects and they do their homework, getting to know their mentality, their background, their BBIQ, their toughness, etc. (Yes, Bamba is not there yet.)

Hating on a talented scorer and explosive guard because he's not "your guy" without giving him a chance is just stupid and not productive. Of course, he won't be what we really look for and hope, for now. He's 20 years old. How can he be D.Lillard or Steph Curry or Jamal Murray or Baron Davis or anyone...We need to wait and see and have that conversation in 2 years, not now. Now is the time to support him.

Hell, this team and Magic's fanbase desperately need some excitement and joy, not blind hate and searching for anything negative about our players. Some fans are just too used to being down and negative about anything and everything...I guess that's what happens after our dumb rebuild and disaster Henny era.

[PrimeThyme]

It just really makes me very nervous to casually explain away all of a player’s struggles due to the circumstances around him.

Even if all that stuff is 100% accurate and it was the worst UNC team in decades, it was still *North freaking Carolina* hoops.

You would hope to see a player who is that talented would actually be able to overcome his obstacles and not be ruined by them.

It makes me particularly nervous due to the fact that so many scouts and fans, including myself, did the exact same thing with another 6'3 point guard who came out of a school in North Carolina a couple of years ago. DSJ put up relatively inefficient numbers and failed to impress but most of it was explained away due to the bad team he played on and the knee injury he suffered the year before.

Sounds familiar. It's also worth noting that DSJ had a significantly higher TS% then Cole during their one year at college and has failed to shoot above 40% in 2 of his 3 years in the league so far. We got Cole with the 15th pick in the draft though, so it would make sense that there would be higher risk, I just think it's important for people to be careful chalking up all his struggles in college to those two things.

There are legitimate red flags which is why he could have been on his way to falling in the mid-late 20's or even the second round.

[tiderulz]

Yes, i would have preferred Nesmith too, but isnt Okeke supposed to fit the mold of a 3 & D SF? guess we will have to see.

I don't think he is, no.

Okeke is a PF to me. I think he could be a really good one too, but he's a 4 in my eyes.

any reason why he couldnt be a SF? just because he played PF in college?

[MaKiaVeLi7]

This isn't Jameer Nelson, its Steve Francis and I'm totally cool with it. Fultz can guard the two and facilitate on offense, great pick for 15.

Meer is not a bad ceiling for a young NBA prospect, but I agree. That's not what we are having here. Cole Anthony is a different player, nothing like Nelson in terms of his style of play.

Much more athletic, a better scorer and slasher. Way better shot creator and defender. Passing skills are not elite yet but will get there if he puts the work in with Cliff's coaching staff. Elite rebounder from the PG/SG position, noone's even close from this draft class. I really like rebounding guards, this is what the modern style of basketball dictates, in case your coach allows you to push the tempo in transition, we need those rebounds from our guards. Fultz and Cole will rebound well for us.

Also having real basketball players as teammates will do wonders for his shots-to-assists ratio that seems to be a huge argument against his game.

I already said yesterday, call me crazy but this guy reminds me a young Damian Lillard...and I stress on "YOUNG", not today's monster Lillard. He also has some Jamal Murray in him, which is not bad at all.

Sure, the guy has a lot to work on his game, but who is a finished product after college. Maybe in the 80s or early 90s some draftees were, but only after 4 years of college. Not the case anymore.

Cole would make his haters look stupid sooner rather than later, which is a good thing, Magic will be rolling with a dynamic duo Fultz-Anthony when they both work on their weaknesses and get accustomed to each other on the floor together. The future for Magic's backcourt looks bright now.

I'm really excited about December 22nd. I hope we won't be disappointed early on. Isaac is missing but we still have a lot to be playing for, especially given the changes with the play-in tournament craziness the league is implementing this season.

[tiderulz]

This is a little too harsh for me.

I think Anthony’s jumper is better than his percentages indicate.

His percentages were dragged down more by his desire to take low percentage shots, not his ability/inability to make high percentage shots.

If he had a busted form or bad mechanics, I’d be more worried about his potential as a shooter. It feels like more of a “this guy needs to be reigned in” problem then a “this guy can’t shoot” problem.

Finishing in traffic on the other hand, that does feel like it is a legitimate problem.

well its Pepe so what did you expect

Go back and read what this board said about Cole Anthony last 5 weeks.
Spoiler alert: he played 0 games since that.

Narrative didn't change just because he got drafted to XY team.

He is low efficiency, high usage, ball dominant chucker who showed basically zero desire or skills to run offense. We talk about 30% usage rate, 4 assist a game player
( for comparison sake, 30% usage rate is Lebron James averaging 27 ppg, 6 assists or Westbrook averaging 23 ppg and 11 apg ) , it's unheard of that lead guard on 30% usage rate has so little assists.

Does it help that he is son of career backup PG?

I wish him nothing but best, i just don't see logic. Magic passed on Bey who would fil need and position and probably was BPA. Not to mention missing on Nesmith for 1 pick.

I won't lose sleep over 15# pick high bust potential. But this draft selection is definition of head scratcher

my comment was that you are very harsh on players like you are the end all be all of scouting. like your hate on Trae

[pepe1991]

Man stop right there.
If you are hurt, does that mean you have to chuck shots, make wrong decisions, turn the ball over and show zero trust in your teammates?
He is playmaker who doesn't make anybody around him better nor he even tries to engage rest of a team into team offense. Guy in 22 games took 142 three point attemps on 88 assists. He doesn't care about anything but his own shots. And it shows.

Just look for example amount of shots to amount of assists he made AS PLAYMAKER.

Haliburton 242 shots- 142 assists
Lewis ( also trigger happy) 449 FGA- 162 assists
Maxey - 351 shots- 99 assists
Prichard 442 shots- 172 assists

Cole Anthony - 345 shots- 88 assists

From all point guards in first round that was selected, he has worst offensive rating. Once again, mostly because he is point guard who just hogs ball and doesn't run offense well.

I don't care, 15# pick is a wash, but before draft i said that i would not tuch player who is only interested into hoisting jumpshots. That strenghts vs weaknesses picture where for point guard only strenght is rebounding is as laughable as it gets.

Who is he suppose to trust on that team to pick up the work load? The next best Offensive weapon averages 16 and the next best is a 12ppg scorer. The rest? All sub 10 ppg and non factors offensively.

You are begging him not to Chuck shots and pass around. I am saying he was told to take those shots because the quality of his team was meh and if it wasn't he would have made more plays for others.

I don't get it, really I don't. His team was a dumpster fire, he played hurt, and was focused on by defenses. His fg % ain't gonna blow me away under those conditions and I'm not blaming him for playing selfish because most people know he was asked to do that.

Once again, not the guy I wanted, but I can live with it. I'm not going to throw him under the bus before the bus has even started to roll. If we are talking about how bad he is in the middle of the season with NBA level talent around him? Then you get to complain, but if he is lighting it up, and you decide to change your tune, I'm bringing this up again.

Being solely rooted in stats is one thing, but being blind to circumstance and context is a completely other thing.

But even I can eat crow and if he sucks, then that will be my turn to fess up, but I get the feeling he is not going to suck, and a lot of people are going to look like fools for judging his one season on a team with only 2 ten point or more scorers so harshly.

Come on, Pepe! Why so negative and biased from the beginning???

At least wait to see him play a couple of games and then start bashing him.
I know everyone had some favorite players in the draft. Obviously, you had yours and Cole Anthony isn't one of them, but why being so negative without a reason???

As ARandomStranger pointed out, he had a very bad supporting cast in UNC. Even your arguments and stats you brought up regarding shots taken vs. assists made seem to confirm the exact same thing when you try to analyze them and not only see the disparity or the FG% and say in a heartbeat: "Naaah, too many shots, too bad FG%, this guy sucks."

That's not smart. I don't particularly like our FO, but say what you want about them, they have some old-school draft and evaluating approach when it comes to these young prospects and they do their homework, getting to know their mentality, their background, their BBIQ, their toughness, etc. (Yes, Bamba is not there yet.)

Hating on a talented scorer and explosive guard because he's not "your guy" without giving him a chance is just stupid and not productive. Of course, he won't be what we really look for and hope, for now. He's 20 years old. How can he be D.Lillard or Steph Curry or Jamal Murray or Baron Davis or anyone...We need to wait and see and have that conversation in 2 years, not now. Now is the time to support him.

Hell, this team and Magic's fanbase desperately need some excitement and joy, not blind hate and searching for anything negative about our players. Some fans are just too used to being down and negative about anything and everything...I guess that's what happens after our dumb rebuild and disaster Henny era.

Let me show you what actually people thought about Cole Anthony before all the crap started 10 hours ago and he joined Magic





Ben was only one who kind a liked him. Common sense was " if Brandon Jennigs younger brother was in draft "

[tiderulz]

Man stop right there.
If you are hurt, does that mean you have to chuck shots, make wrong decisions, turn the ball over and show zero trust in your teammates?
He is playmaker who doesn't make anybody around him better nor he even tries to engage rest of a team into team offense. Guy in 22 games took 142 three point attemps on 88 assists. He doesn't care about anything but his own shots. And it shows.

Just look for example amount of shots to amount of assists he made AS PLAYMAKER.

Haliburton 242 shots- 142 assists
Lewis ( also trigger happy) 449 FGA- 162 assists
Maxey - 351 shots- 99 assists
Prichard 442 shots- 172 assists

Cole Anthony - 345 shots- 88 assists

From all point guards in first round that was selected, he has worst offensive rating. Once again, mostly because he is point guard who just hogs ball and doesn't run offense well.

I don't care, 15# pick is a wash, but before draft i said that i would not tuch player who is only interested into hoisting jumpshots. That strenghts vs weaknesses picture where for point guard only strenght is rebounding is as laughable as it gets.

Who is he suppose to trust on that team to pick up the work load? The next best Offensive weapon averages 16 and the next best is a 12ppg scorer. The rest? All sub 10 ppg and non factors offensively.

You are begging him not to Chuck shots and pass around. I am saying he was told to take those shots because the quality of his team was meh and if it wasn't he would have made more plays for others.

I don't get it, really I don't. His team was a dumpster fire, he played hurt, and was focused on by defenses. His fg % ain't gonna blow me away under those conditions and I'm not blaming him for playing selfish because most people know he was asked to do that.

Once again, not the guy I wanted, but I can live with it. I'm not going to throw him under the bus before the bus has even started to roll. If we are talking about how bad he is in the middle of the season with NBA level talent around him? Then you get to complain, but if he is lighting it up, and you decide to change your tune, I'm bringing this up again.

Being solely rooted in stats is one thing, but being blind to circumstance and context is a completely other thing.

But even I can eat crow and if he sucks, then that will be my turn to fess up, but I get the feeling he is not going to suck, and a lot of people are going to look like fools for judging his one season on a team with only 2 ten point or more scorers so harshly.

Come on, Pepe! Why so negative and biased from the beginning???

At least wait to see him play a couple of games and then start bashing him.
I know everyone had some favorite players in the draft. Obviously, you had yours and Cole Anthony isn't one of them, but why being so negative without a reason???

As ARandomStranger pointed out, he had a very bad supporting cast in UNC. Even your arguments and stats you brought up regarding shots taken vs. assists made seem to confirm the exact same thing when you try to analyze them and not only see the disparity or the FG% and say in a heartbeat: "Naaah, too many shots, too bad FG%, this guy sucks."

That's not smart. I don't particularly like our FO, but say what you want about them, they have some old-school draft and evaluating approach when it comes to these young prospects and they do their homework, getting to know their mentality, their background, their BBIQ, their toughness, etc. (Yes, Bamba is not there yet.)

Hating on a talented scorer and explosive guard because he's not "your guy" without giving him a chance is just stupid and not productive. Of course, he won't be what we really look for and hope, for now. He's 20 years old. How can he be D.Lillard or Steph Curry or Jamal Murray or Baron Davis or anyone...We need to wait and see and have that conversation in 2 years, not now. Now is the time to support him.

Hell, this team and Magic's fanbase desperately need some excitement and joy, not blind hate and searching for anything negative about our players. Some fans are just too used to being down and negative about anything and everything...I guess that's what happens after our dumb rebuild and disaster Henny era.

are you new to the forum, Pepe has been negative on here for the past 2 years

[MaKiaVeLi7]

Who is he suppose to trust on that team to pick up the work load? The next best Offensive weapon averages 16 and the next best is a 12ppg scorer. The rest? All sub 10 ppg and non factors offensively.

You are begging him not to Chuck shots and pass around. I am saying he was told to take those shots because the quality of his team was meh and if it wasn't he would have made more plays for others.

I don't get it, really I don't. His team was a dumpster fire, he played hurt, and was focused on by defenses. His fg % ain't gonna blow me away under those conditions and I'm not blaming him for playing selfish because most people know he was asked to do that.

Once again, not the guy I wanted, but I can live with it. I'm not going to throw him under the bus before the bus has even started to roll. If we are talking about how bad he is in the middle of the season with NBA level talent around him? Then you get to complain, but if he is lighting it up, and you decide to change your tune, I'm bringing this up again.

Being solely rooted in stats is one thing, but being blind to circumstance and context is a completely other thing.

But even I can eat crow and if he sucks, then that will be my turn to fess up, but I get the feeling he is not going to suck, and a lot of people are going to look like fools for judging his one season on a team with only 2 ten point or more scorers so harshly.

Come on, Pepe! Why so negative and biased from the beginning???

At least wait to see him play a couple of games and then start bashing him.
I know everyone had some favorite players in the draft. Obviously, you had yours and Cole Anthony isn't one of them, but why being so negative without a reason???

As ARandomStranger pointed out, he had a very bad supporting cast in UNC. Even your arguments and stats you brought up regarding shots taken vs. assists made seem to confirm the exact same thing when you try to analyze them and not only see the disparity or the FG% and say in a heartbeat: "Naaah, too many shots, too bad FG%, this guy sucks."

That's not smart. I don't particularly like our FO, but say what you want about them, they have some old-school draft and evaluating approach when it comes to these young prospects and they do their homework, getting to know their mentality, their background, their BBIQ, their toughness, etc. (Yes, Bamba is not there yet.)

Hating on a talented scorer and explosive guard because he's not "your guy" without giving him a chance is just stupid and not productive. Of course, he won't be what we really look for and hope, for now. He's 20 years old. How can he be D.Lillard or Steph Curry or Jamal Murray or Baron Davis or anyone...We need to wait and see and have that conversation in 2 years, not now. Now is the time to support him.

Hell, this team and Magic's fanbase desperately need some excitement and joy, not blind hate and searching for anything negative about our players. Some fans are just too used to being down and negative about anything and everything...I guess that's what happens after our dumb rebuild and disaster Henny era.

Let me show you what actually people thought about Cole Anthony before all the crap started 10 hours ago and he joined Magic





Ben was only one who kind a liked him. Common sense was " if Brandon Jennigs younger brother was in draft "

Sure, as I said, some like the guy, some are OK with the pick and some dislike him. That's normal.

I can also give you a list of guys who suppport the pick and are happy with Cole:
The Real Dalic, Optimus_Steel, nymets1, 3ddman23, Anfernee1, The Effect, Kent, JBSouthpaw, IllMagic04, ARandomStranger....just to name a few.

Hating on someone just because he's not your guy (yet) is not smart.

Cole has the skillset this roster desperately needs and high potential. If he lives up to it (which is the case for most of the young players in any draft), we'll be set with our backcourt for years to come. Give him a chance and let's support him first before we actually have some NBA stats and data to criticize him.

[The-Power]

It feels like more of a “this guy needs to be reigned in” problem then a “this guy can’t shoot” problem.

He played much more like a PG in HS, where he wasn't a chucker at all. Again, I don't people appreciate how bad this UNC was on offense and how poorly it fit a PG like Cole Anthony. Even Trae Young's team, as limited as it was, was a better fit around Trae. If you have offensive creators and finishers next to him, Cole won't take a lot of bad shots when he didn't even do that in HS.

[spinedoc]

This isn't Jameer Nelson, its Steve Francis and I'm totally cool with it. Fultz can guard the two and facilitate on offense, great pick for 15.

Meer is not a bad ceiling for a young NBA prospect, but I agree. That's not what we are having here. Cole Anthony is a different player, nothing like Nelson in terms of his style of play.

Much more athletic, a better scorer and slasher. Way better shot creator and defender. Passing skills are not elite yet but will get there if he puts the work in with Cliff's coaching staff. Elite rebounder from the PG/SG position, noone's even close from this draft class. I really like rebounding guards, this is what the modern style of basketball dictates, in case your coach allows you to push the tempo in transition, we need those rebounds from our guards. Fultz and Cole will rebound well for us.

Also having real basketball players as teammates will do wonders for his shots-to-assists ratio that seems to be a huge argument against his game.

I already said yesterday, call me crazy but this guy reminds me a young Damian Lillard...and I stress on "YOUNG", not today's monster Lillard. He also has some Jamal Murray in him, which is not bad at all.

Sure, the guy has a lot to work on his game, but who is a finished product after college. Maybe in the 80s or early 90s some draftees were, but only after 4 years of college. Not the case anymore.

Cole would make his haters look stupid sooner rather than later, which is a good thing, Magic will be rolling with a dynamic duo Fultz-Anthony when they both work on their weaknesses and get accustomed to each other on the floor together. The future for Magic's backcourt looks bright now.

I'm really excited about December 22nd. I hope we won't be disappointed early on. Isaac is missing but we still have a lot to be playing for, especially given the changes with the play-in tournament craziness the league is implementing this season.

Agreed. He's a scoring pg that pounds the rock a bit too much and doesn't get others involved often enough. He has some learning to do. Obviously Francis is the ceiling, but that's who he reminds me of, same size too. He can play with Fultz at the same time to cover each others strengths and weaknesses, and because of his size, Fultz can defend the sg. But, if you need a go to scorer, Cole could be that guy. Its not that he breaks down defenses and finds the open man well yet, but he can get to the hole almost at will and shoot very well for the position. Scoring is what we needed, and we did well in not only filling a position, but finding one that far down the board.

[cedric76]

It s funny last year at the same time, people wanted us to tank so we could draft him in the top 3, cole had a meh year and now people r calling him a bust lol

[MaKiaVeLi7]

Who is he suppose to trust on that team to pick up the work load? The next best Offensive weapon averages 16 and the next best is a 12ppg scorer. The rest? All sub 10 ppg and non factors offensively.

You are begging him not to Chuck shots and pass around. I am saying he was told to take those shots because the quality of his team was meh and if it wasn't he would have made more plays for others.

I don't get it, really I don't. His team was a dumpster fire, he played hurt, and was focused on by defenses. His fg % ain't gonna blow me away under those conditions and I'm not blaming him for playing selfish because most people know he was asked to do that.

Once again, not the guy I wanted, but I can live with it. I'm not going to throw him under the bus before the bus has even started to roll. If we are talking about how bad he is in the middle of the season with NBA level talent around him? Then you get to complain, but if he is lighting it up, and you decide to change your tune, I'm bringing this up again.

Being solely rooted in stats is one thing, but being blind to circumstance and context is a completely other thing.

But even I can eat crow and if he sucks, then that will be my turn to fess up, but I get the feeling he is not going to suck, and a lot of people are going to look like fools for judging his one season on a team with only 2 ten point or more scorers so harshly.

Come on, Pepe! Why so negative and biased from the beginning???

At least wait to see him play a couple of games and then start bashing him.
I know everyone had some favorite players in the draft. Obviously, you had yours and Cole Anthony isn't one of them, but why being so negative without a reason???

As ARandomStranger pointed out, he had a very bad supporting cast in UNC. Even your arguments and stats you brought up regarding shots taken vs. assists made seem to confirm the exact same thing when you try to analyze them and not only see the disparity or the FG% and say in a heartbeat: "Naaah, too many shots, too bad FG%, this guy sucks."

That's not smart. I don't particularly like our FO, but say what you want about them, they have some old-school draft and evaluating approach when it comes to these young prospects and they do their homework, getting to know their mentality, their background, their BBIQ, their toughness, etc. (Yes, Bamba is not there yet.)

Hating on a talented scorer and explosive guard because he's not "your guy" without giving him a chance is just stupid and not productive. Of course, he won't be what we really look for and hope, for now. He's 20 years old. How can he be D.Lillard or Steph Curry or Jamal Murray or Baron Davis or anyone...We need to wait and see and have that conversation in 2 years, not now. Now is the time to support him.

Hell, this team and Magic's fanbase desperately need some excitement and joy, not blind hate and searching for anything negative about our players. Some fans are just too used to being down and negative about anything and everything...I guess that's what happens after our dumb rebuild and disaster Henny era.

are you new to the forum, Pepe has been negative on here for the past 2 years

Not exactly new to the forum. I am following you guys for the past 10+ years, I am a longtime Magic fan since the Penny-Shaq days.

I used to post here years ago under a different name but never got out of touch with the forum. Just decided to create a new profile recently and be more active.

And yes, I am aware of Pepe's mood swings, sometimes I agree with him, sometimes not. He's a good poster, he just tends to overreact on a regular basis.

[MaKiaVeLi7]

It s funny last year at the same time, people wanted us to tank so we could draft him in the top 3, cole had a meh year and now people r calling him a bust lol

Overreacting as usual. That's the reason why hardcore fans like us should never be allowed anywhere near any team's front offices. NBA GMs should be cold-blooded stats nerds with a superhuman ability to sniff out talent and making it count.