VFX wrote:Knightro wrote:VFX wrote:This team will only be successful right now because of its defensive identity.
Paolo + Franz + Suggs have to be insurmountably better offensively for anything to be vastly different than last season.
The FO doubled and tripled down on the position-less no lead ball handler/ initiator at the point of attack and re-upped on the dual defensive guard 3-D back court that don’t create much off the dribble.
We know the defense is going to be A+ top 3-5 in the league. The bigger question is going to come down to the offense and whether it looked as garbage as it did most of last season.
The good news on this front IMO is that there are some clear areas from Franz and ESPECIALLY from Paolo where things can and should improve.
If Franz changes literally nothing from last season and simply shoots 36% from 3PT like he did in year 2 instead of 28% in year 3, he will make 27 more threes on the season and the Magic will score 81 more points across his 72 games played.
That alone would bump the Magic's offensive rating from 22nd to 19th. And that's if literally nothing else improves for him.
Despite being obviously skilled, Paolo was a below average shooter from basically everywhere on the court the last two years. Heading into year 3, is it time to see some positive efficiency momentum from at least one area of the floor out of him.
People bemoan the lack of shooting, but all that really means Paolo and Franz aren't good enough shooters yet. Time for them to grow up and make threes. A bounce back from Cole would be really helpful as well.
Suggs, Black, Isaac, Carter and Harris all were above average 3PT shooters last year. KCP is an above average 3PT shooter. TDS and Jett project to be above average shooters if they crack the rotation.
Yes I think internal development is really the only avenue to get significantly better offensively, on a player to player basis, based on the fact they added nobody new to the mix other than KCP.
My much bigger concern is less about the young guys getting collectively better as shooters and more about the system. That to me is more important than guys having slightly elevated fg% and 3p% on the same volume.
What I mean by all that boils down to:
Is the offense easier or more difficult to produce?
Is the ball moving well or is it getting stuck whenever Paolo touches it?
Are guys standing around on offense ball watching?
Are defenses still not keeping players honest because its too predictable?
Is Carter more or less productive standing on the perimeter than in the dunkers spot?
Has any of this improved since last season?
Those kind of questions.
I'm not too concerned with the defense or the natural progression of player development from guys that are 19-24 years old. I care more about whether Mosely's offense is answering those questions.
I am strapped in for a "more or less the same" from Mosely.
Seeing what we saw and not changing the roster or so far hiring a well known offensive coach should be the canary in the coal mine in terms of what to expect. The mere idea that he is hiding a Savant offense scheme after all this years is well. Hilarious if true, and possibly malpractice if not.
Remember at some point we did have a sorta healthy Fultz who could have done more with the offense in the right scheme. Ingles proved that some of our players can do pick and roll offense and the fact we saw more Iso then that tells me it was Ingles who was the player coach and not the other way around.
It's why we may never see playmaking from anyone who doesn't have a ball hog score of 20%+ or more.
Off my stool.
