Bol Bol Discussion Thread: Long-Term Starter or Reserve?

[pepe1991]

When it comes to language, in litearlly all eastern europe countries Bol means pain. So his name is Pain Pain

[zaymon]

When it comes to language, in litearlly all eastern europe countries Bol means pain. So his name is Pain Pain

In polish its ból so its close

[CLosP]

Give Bol all of Bamba’s minutes if possible. If he has any trade value, it may be time to move on from Mo finally.

[fateis007]

He has been a pleasant suprise, he is actually making Bamba look terrible right now. He is 30-40 lbs lighter then him, yet crashes the glass, shows effort, gets a lot of blocks and is pretty agile for his size.

Kind of wish he would grow into his body more and become our center. But going by his dad's frame, I doubt it.

[Skybox]

Bamba should become the 3rd stringer giving all the minutes to Bol. Their NBA calibre are different to an extreme that I wonder if Bamba should just be waived.

Honestly, is Bol even a center? It's like the continuous Isaac debate...he's grabbing boards and taking off dribbling. He's getting his blocked shots (I'd guess the majority?) closing out on perimeter shots. He's driving to the hoop and laying it in - not necessarily posting up. He's as tall as a center but...

He's different

[jezzerinho]

Bamba should become the 3rd stringer giving all the minutes to Bol. Their NBA calibre are different to an extreme that I wonder if Bamba should just be waived.

Honestly, is Bol even a center? It's like the continuous Isaac debate...he's grabbing boards and taking off dribbling. He's getting his blocked shots (I'd guess the majority?) closing out on perimeter shots. He's driving to the hoop and laying it in - not necessarily posting up. He's as tall as a center but...

He's different

Is Bamba a center? Weakside blocks and 3s and little else.

Just an observation! Bol is your positionless posterboy. I don't know what he is..

[NavalAviator94]

Bamba should become the 3rd stringer giving all the minutes to Bol. Their NBA calibre are different to an extreme that I wonder if Bamba should just be waived.

Honestly, is Bol even a center? It's like the continuous Isaac debate...he's grabbing boards and taking off dribbling. He's getting his blocked shots (I'd guess the majority?) closing out on perimeter shots. He's driving to the hoop and laying it in - not necessarily posting up. He's as tall as a center but...

He's different

Is Bamba a center? Weakside blocks and 3s and little else.

Just an observation! Bol is your positionless posterboy. I don't know what he is..

I would like to see Bol in the starting line up with some plays run for him. Banchero is your defensive 5 at 6'10 250. I was originally thinking about Banchero in this scenario if Isaac came back healthy. Cleveland might be a good test?

[Optimus_Steel]

Bol has been awesome but we cannot play Bol and Bamba at the same time. Bamba needs to ride the bench.

[NavalAviator94]

A good article on Bol Bol's background. I completely forgot his father died in 2010.

https://www.sportskeeda.com/basketball/who-bol-bol-evaluating-career-trajectory-far-nba

[Bensational]

I was excited for Banchero and Franz this season, but Bol has been a complete surprise and looks like a fantastic redemption pick up from WeHam.

Between Bol, Banchero and Franz we’ve got 3 giants who can put the ball on the floor and get into the paint, draw defenders and then make a pass to an open cutter or shooter. If all 3 maximise that and run lanes and develop chemistry then the NBA needs to watch out.

Losses be damned, for the first time in 10 years I feel like I see a future for this team!

[clyde21]

LETS GO BOL BOL

[Black and Blue]

My wife watching the game at MSG with me last night: “This Bol guy on the Magic is pretty good. What’s his first name?”

Me: “You’re never going to believe this…”

[p0peye]

Watching him play is fun and I wish the kid all the health in the world going forward. If he can stay on the floor health-wise, he will carve a career in NBA.

With Bol and Moe in the team, there is not many minutes left that can justly go to Bamba. That boy has worn out his welcome.

[Knightro]

Read on Twitter

[Skin]

He has certainly given us a reason to finally unite the forum on the topic of Mo Bamba.

There's no reason to defend Bamba anymore. Bol has given us a superior player. Let the trade scenarios begin!

[pepe1991]

He has certainly given us a reason to finally unite the forum on the topic of Mo Bamba.

There's no reason to defend Bamba anymore. Bol has given us a superior player. Let the trade scenarios begin!

There was never reason to defend Bamba's peformances other than subjective , superficial need to defend player only and just only because team used lottery pick selection to get him. And deflecting any objective critic with "you are hater", "you are troll" comments.


Instad, what most of people did, was blamed on Vuc, blamed it on Clifford, blamed it Birch,blamed it on just about everybody but Bamba. It was never Bamba's fault for anything.
How much Bamba cares about basketball? Season goes to lockdown and he gains 40 pounds of fat and muscle and can't walk up and down the court for 5 min. Litearlly, 5 min and guy was grasping for air like a fish out of water where conditioning team has to shut him down for rest of a season to avoid injury. 5 min! Litearlly people in their 60s were in better physical shape than 22 years old 6th overall pick.
And STILL forum couldn't get through their heads that guy is basically 3 point shooting version of Jah Okafor. Person that has clear attitude issues, doens't really like basketball, doesn't enjoy working out on his game, he is in nba because he is + 7foot tall and because that's easiest way for him to get money.


Bol's love for basketball has been questoined in past. He isn't perfect athlete, he doesn't have perfect body, he has been injury prone. But you see guy on the floor who fights to prove doubters wrong.

Bamba... Bamba with every move proves that previous "haters" were not haters, rather people that could see truth

[drsd]

He has certainly given us a reason to finally unite the forum on the topic of Mo Bamba.

There's no reason to defend Bamba anymore. Bol has given us a superior player. Let the trade scenarios begin!

When M-Wagner returns, the Magic has its back-up big rotation.

I really lie Bol and M-Wagner off of the bench behind Banchero and Carter.



In conclusion: Mr. Wagner, please return healthy quickly !


..

[VFX]

He has certainly given us a reason to finally unite the forum on the topic of Mo Bamba.

There's no reason to defend Bamba anymore. Bol has given us a superior player. Let the trade scenarios begin!

There was never reason to defend Bamba's peformances other than subjective , superficial need to defend player only and just only because team used lottery pick selection to get him. And deflecting any objective critic with "you are hater", "you are troll" comments.


Instad, what most of people did, was blamed on Vuc, blamed it on Clifford, blamed it Birch,blamed it on just about everybody but Bamba. It was never Bamba's fault for anything.

I don’t think anyone blamed Vuc for Bamba sucking. People just didn’t understand why the front office used a top lotto pick on a Center after multiple seasons of Vuc leading the team in minutes and usage. The pick made no sense whatsoever for the position of the team.

Even if their bright idea was to trade Vuc initially, then you don’t make that deal unless you know for sure you are getting a starting caliber Center in return. Surprise! Thats exactly what they ended up doing anyway with WCJr in the Chicago deal.

People blamed Clifford because he never gave Bamba minutes AT ALL. Now we know why. This just further highlights how bad the FO is at gauging talent and making impactful draft selections. Bamba was never seeing the floor because Clifford’s job is to win games.

Bol is someone that has the measurements and the drive during games to be impactful. He’s everywhere on the floor. He’s not even a Center and I don’t believe Bamba is anything but one. Therefore, I don’t see a correlation at all between the two players other than both being freakishly long and tall.

[jonbob17]

He has certainly given us a reason to finally unite the forum on the topic of Mo Bamba.

There's no reason to defend Bamba anymore. Bol has given us a superior player. Let the trade scenarios begin!

There was never reason to defend Bamba's peformances other than subjective , superficial need to defend player only and just only because team used lottery pick selection to get him. And deflecting any objective critic with "you are hater", "you are troll" comments.


Instad, what most of people did, was blamed on Vuc, blamed it on Clifford, blamed it Birch,blamed it on just about everybody but Bamba. It was never Bamba's fault for anything.

I don’t think anyone blamed Vuc for Bamba sucking. People just didn’t understand why the front office used a top lotto pick on a Center after multiple seasons of Vuc leading the team in minutes and usage. The pick made no sense whatsoever for the position of the team.

Even if their bright idea was to trade Vuc initially, then you don’t make that deal unless you know for sure you are getting a starting caliber Center in return. Surprise! Thats exactly what they ended up doing anyway with WCJr in the Chicago deal.

People blamed Clifford because he never gave Bamba minutes AT ALL. Now we know why. This just further highlights how bad the FO is at gauging talent and making impactful draft selections. Bamba was never seeing the floor because Clifford’s job is to win games.

Bamba has been horrible this year, but it has been 4 games.

Bamba was just fine last year, and the year before that was ok too in his limited minutes. Granted you want to do better than a back up big with your 6th pick, but as far as I know the Magic don't have some sort of AI that is able to accurately predict the future development of 19 year old kids.
Vuc was a low efficiency post playing big prior to drafting Bamba. He scored a lot, because the Magic had shots to spare, so he got them. He was below average defender for a big. Vuc was nothing special when we drafted Bamba, probably ranked 20-25th amongst centers at the time.

Vuc turned into something different when he started shooting 3s and got a little more comfortable as a passer. Even then he was a volume scorer on a bad team putting up big numbers.

Bamba as a prospect was pretty interesting given his length, shooting, and projection. Sometimes guys don't work out for all sorts of reason. Maybe it is lack of motivation, seems like. It could also very well be that the loss of reps and game time under clifford is the reason, or just discouragement from coaching style, different players respond to different styles. Let's be serious Clifford is a grinder, and it isn't for everyone, and his lifecycle as a coach is about 3 years until the players get sick of it.

We won't know. We've got Bamba for the rest of the year, and then that is probably that, unless there is some sort of miraculous turn around. The pick was a bust, but at the 6th pick it's probably less than 50% turn into a starter. As bad as Bamba has been this year he probably carves out a long career as a back up 5.

[Tarheel]

He has certainly given us a reason to finally unite the forum on the topic of Mo Bamba.

There's no reason to defend Bamba anymore. Bol has given us a superior player. Let the trade scenarios begin!

There was never reason to defend Bamba's peformances other than subjective , superficial need to defend player only and just only because team used lottery pick selection to get him. And deflecting any objective critic with "you are hater", "you are troll" comments.


Instad, what most of people did, was blamed on Vuc, blamed it on Clifford, blamed it Birch,blamed it on just about everybody but Bamba. It was never Bamba's fault for anything.

I don’t think anyone blamed Vuc for Bamba sucking. People just didn’t understand why the front office used a top lotto pick on a Center after multiple seasons of Vuc leading the team in minutes and usage. The pick made no sense whatsoever for the position of the team.

Even if their bright idea was to trade Vuc initially, then you don’t make that deal unless you know for sure you are getting a starting caliber Center in return. Surprise! Thats exactly what they ended up doing anyway with WCJr in the Chicago deal.

People blamed Clifford because he never gave Bamba minutes AT ALL. Now we know why. This just further highlights how bad the FO is at gauging talent and making impactful draft selections. Bamba was never seeing the floor because Clifford’s job is to win games.

Bol is someone that has the measurements and the drive during games to be impactful. He’s everywhere on the floor. He’s not even a Center and I don’t believe Bamba is anything but one. Therefore, I don’t see a correlation at all between the two players other than both being freakishly long and tall.

I think for me it's because Bamba never plays like a center - he camps at the 3 and doesn't like banging down low with the bigs. The role Bamba tries to play Bol is better at, which is why Bol should get Bamba's minutes.

If Bamba played like a traditional big then their roles wouldn't overlap.