FIRE WELTMAN

[jonbob17]

I'd say that based on players and assets Orlando is probably one of the 5 or so best teams situations in the league.

Looks they want to see what this core is capable of. Last year in the playoffs was a disaster, but Franz has leveled up, and Paolo had really leveled up at the start of the season. Why waste roster spots on 1 dimensional players if you can get your playmaking from the forwards and surround them with guys that can play defense.

Best situations for the next decade...imo
1. OKC
2. San Antonio - Wemby
3. Lakers - Luka (25)and it's LA
4. Denver - Jokic is still only 29 and he could end up being a top 3 player of all time
5. Cleveland - not sure where to rank them, but they have a lot of youngish guys
5. Magic
6. Houston
7. Minnesota - Edwards
8. Detroit

Look Dallas reached out to the Lakers about Luka, all they had to do was answer the phone. The Bulls called Weltman about Vucevic. Just take the calls.

I am not positive replacing KCP with Simons(or similar player) in the starting 5 makes the Magic a more dangerous team in the playoffs. Personally I would add Brogdon or Russell to the rotation and see what that kind of player could do for our half court offense just as a test for the offseason.

Could be worse...we could have just traded Luka away for an aging Anthony Davis....or we could be one of the dozen or so teams paying aging stars way too much under a cap that punishes them.

[jonbob17]

I do think Weltman is going to see his hand forced in a big way this offseason, and if he fails to comply he is going to be told they are not renewing his contract. It is ultimately up to him how stubborn he wants to be, and the team won't allow Paolo to get disgruntled and leave. As absentee as the Devos family is, they know their franchise history.

The bottom line is Paolo is due for a deal, and improving the team via free agency will likely be used as leverage by Miller and Paolo. Windhorst (of all people) may have done us a HUGE solid in reporting what he did about Weltman's inactivity because it finally ripped the veneer off of the one-sided messaging we have been getting.

I've been saying for years the team needed to make some moves to improve and it appears that time is now likely going to come this summer. Something is going to give.

Paolo is getting a max rookie extension. Nobody in their right mind is turning that down for less money, and playing out a contract without a guaranteed $280M+.. There is pretty good chance Paolo earns the Rose rule Max 30% if he can stay healthy and build on the early season improvements he had made.

[VFX]

I'd say that based on players and assets Orlando is probably one of the 5 or so best teams situations in the league.

Looks they want to see what this core is capable of. Last year in the playoffs was a disaster, but Franz has leveled up, and Paolo had really leveled up at the start of the season. Why waste roster spots on 1 dimensional players if you can get your playmaking from the forwards and surround them with guys that can play defense.

Best situations for the next decade...imo
1. OKC
2. San Antonio - Wemby
3. Lakers - Luka (25)and it's LA
4. Denver - Jokic is still only 29 and he could end up being a top 3 player of all time
5. Cleveland - not sure where to rank them, but they have a lot of youngish guys
5. Magic
6. Houston
7. Minnesota - Edwards
8. Detroit

Look Dallas reached out to the Lakers about Luka, all they had to do was answer the phone. The Bulls called Weltman about Vucevic. Just take the calls.

I am not positive replacing KCP with Simons(or similar player) in the starting 5 makes the Magic a more dangerous team in the playoffs. Personally I would add Brogdon or Russell to the rotation and see what that kind of player could do for our half court offense just as a test for the offseason.

Could be worse...we could have just traded Luka away for an aging Anthony Davis....or we could be one of the dozen or so teams paying aging stars way too much under a cap that punishes them.

I would put Houston and Minnesota above Orlando right now given the information we have post deadline. Both teams have movable assets to increase their win % and longevity. Orlando does not.

[RichCollab]

I'd say that based on players and assets Orlando is probably one of the 5 or so best teams situations in the league.

Looks they want to see what this core is capable of. Last year in the playoffs was a disaster, but Franz has leveled up, and Paolo had really leveled up at the start of the season. Why waste roster spots on 1 dimensional players if you can get your playmaking from the forwards and surround them with guys that can play defense.

Best situations for the next decade...imo
1. OKC
2. San Antonio - Wemby
3. Lakers - Luka (25)and it's LA
4. Denver - Jokic is still only 29 and he could end up being a top 3 player of all time
5. Cleveland - not sure where to rank them, but they have a lot of youngish guys
5. Magic
6. Houston
7. Minnesota - Edwards
8. Detroit

Look Dallas reached out to the Lakers about Luka, all they had to do was answer the phone. The Bulls called Weltman about Vucevic. Just take the calls.

I am not positive replacing KCP with Simons(or similar player) in the starting 5 makes the Magic a more dangerous team in the playoffs. Personally I would add Brogdon or Russell to the rotation and see what that kind of player could do for our half court offense just as a test for the offseason.

Could be worse...we could have just traded Luka away for an aging Anthony Davis....or we could be one of the dozen or so teams paying aging stars way too much under a cap that punishes them.

All the teams ahead of us have been actively making moves.

[Black and Blue]

I do think Weltman is going to see his hand forced in a big way this offseason, and if he fails to comply he is going to be told they are not renewing his contract. It is ultimately up to him how stubborn he wants to be, and the team won't allow Paolo to get disgruntled and leave. As absentee as the Devos family is, they know their franchise history.

The bottom line is Paolo is due for a deal, and improving the team via free agency will likely be used as leverage by Miller and Paolo. Windhorst (of all people) may have done us a HUGE solid in reporting what he did about Weltman's inactivity because it finally ripped the veneer off of the one-sided messaging we have been getting.

I've been saying for years the team needed to make some moves to improve and it appears that time is now likely going to come this summer. Something is going to give.

Paolo is getting a max rookie extension. Nobody in their right mind is turning that down for less money, and playing out a contract without a guaranteed $280M+.. There is pretty good chance Paolo earns the Rose rule Max 30% if he can stay healthy and build on the early season improvements he had made.

Paolo is definitely not turning anything down, but he and Miller will 100% use any leverage they have if they want changes. They have the ability to make the talks messy and this Magic franchise will want things done fast and neat.

[Skybox]

JOSH ROBBINS:
“It looks to me the team does not have enough shooting to be competitive. The team was 28th in 3-point shooting last season. It doesn’t seem the team added players with strong track records as shooters. Is shooting a concern?”

WELTMAN:
“We have a bunch of concerns, areas where we can improve on the court and off the court. But I would counter that (statement of yours). I can think of one shooter that we didn’t have last year: Terrence Ross (who was injured most of the season). I really think it’s hard to make broad statements about our team when we were just so banged-up last year.”

Buddy when this is a direct question AND answer from 2018 AND STILL IS A MAIN PROBLEM TODAY IN 2025 something is wrong .

He has a philosophy where you can teach shooting and solve the problem through player development. He's actually right you can it's a teachable skill. We're a young and developing team that's been primarily drafting for versatility and defensive upside and leaning on player development for improvement in shooting. That's the strategy for building this team and there's nothing wrong with it.

Fultz, Michael Carter Williams, and Elfred Payton disagree with that you can teach shooting idea

KCP checking in..."I used to be able to shoot until I got here"

[jonbob17]

I'd say that based on players and assets Orlando is probably one of the 5 or so best teams situations in the league.

Looks they want to see what this core is capable of. Last year in the playoffs was a disaster, but Franz has leveled up, and Paolo had really leveled up at the start of the season. Why waste roster spots on 1 dimensional players if you can get your playmaking from the forwards and surround them with guys that can play defense.

Best situations for the next decade...imo
1. OKC
2. San Antonio - Wemby
3. Lakers - Luka (25)and it's LA
4. Denver - Jokic is still only 29 and he could end up being a top 3 player of all time
5. Cleveland - not sure where to rank them, but they have a lot of youngish guys
5. Magic
6. Houston
7. Minnesota - Edwards
8. Detroit

Look Dallas reached out to the Lakers about Luka, all they had to do was answer the phone. The Bulls called Weltman about Vucevic. Just take the calls.

I am not positive replacing KCP with Simons(or similar player) in the starting 5 makes the Magic a more dangerous team in the playoffs. Personally I would add Brogdon or Russell to the rotation and see what that kind of player could do for our half court offense just as a test for the offseason.

Could be worse...we could have just traded Luka away for an aging Anthony Davis....or we could be one of the dozen or so teams paying aging stars way too much under a cap that punishes them.

All the teams ahead of us have been actively making moves.

OKC has 5 first round picks in the 2025 draft and are the favorite for the finals, , and they stood pat.
San Antonio has a future top 3ish player in the league, so they can spend whatever assets and money they want with little consequence.
Lakers, again Dallas called them(so did Charlotte)....would have been nice if the Magic or any other team called to check in on Luka.
Denver - best player in the world and they did nothing.

The Magic need to push their chips in when we know what we need, and can identify a player that can do that. This team isn't going to shoot 30% forever. What does a maximized Paolo and Franz relationship look like...we haven't seen that yet this year? We have to be patient


BUT once we do choose a lane I'd rather see us do something big instead of wasting our ammunition on a severely flawed player.

Lamelo Ball (24% of cap in 25-26)
Suggs (19%)
Franz (25%)
Paolo (10% next year and 25% after that)
Goga (5%)

Starting line up next year 83% of cap, compared to a team like Boston this year at 115% on their starting 5. That seems like something special. I think we could make a trade like that, but it would take some other teams and it sure would help if our current rotation guys started playing better.

[JF5]

Nah, they've done enough with drafting a Superstar core to warrant them 2 more years of work. I find it weird that nobody in this thread will give them grace given what we have.

I think this thread everyone is too angsty to let these things playout.

[magik9113]

Nah, they've done enough with drafting a Superstar core to warrant them 2 more years of work. I find it weird that nobody in this thread will give them grace given what we have.

I think this thread everyone is too angsty to let these things playout.

I've been taking the "let's wait until after the all-star break" approach for a good three weeks now, but my angst will grow to epic proportions as well if we don't see a big improvement following the break

[VFX]

Nah, they've done enough with drafting a Superstar core to warrant them 2 more years of work. I find it weird that nobody in this thread will give them grace given what we have.

I think this thread everyone is too angsty to let these things playout.

How generous of you to give them 2 more years, when in 2027 Paolo's max hits and they are effectively out of options and drafting with super late picks.

You know the job consists of more than winning the lottery and drafting in the top 10 right?

No trades for 4 years and now faced with direct evidence they aren't proactive in the league to improve the team?
Yeah fans.. your expectations are too high. Too angsty.

Are you just saying **** at this point to be contrarian?

[jonbob17]

Could you imagine how bad this losing streak and trade deadline would have felt if we had signed Paul George and he missed half of the season with the other guys while also kind of making us chase a bad trade because we were pot committed with an aging Paul George signed to 4/212M.

[VFX]

Could you imagine how bad this losing streak and trade deadline would have felt if we had signed Paul George and he missed half of the season with the other guys while also kind of making us chase a bad trade because we were pot committed with an aging Paul George signed to 4/212M.

Would have been as equally stupid as signing KCP.

[RichCollab]

Nah, they've done enough with drafting a Superstar core to warrant them 2 more years of work. I find it weird that nobody in this thread will give them grace given what we have.

I think this thread everyone is too angsty to let these things playout.

I have given them grace already. Action is required now.

[RichCollab]

Could you imagine how bad this losing streak and trade deadline would have felt if we had signed Paul George and he missed half of the season with the other guys while also kind of making us chase a bad trade because we were pot committed with an aging Paul George signed to 4/212M.

Would have been as equally stupid as signing KCP.

Let’s be Frank. I don’t think KCP was a bad signing.

Shooter
Great defender
Championship experience
Plays almost all games every season.

He is ment to be a 4th option.

The shooting hasn’t translated but it was a smart move. I’m giving FO credit where it’s due.

[VFX]

Could you imagine how bad this losing streak and trade deadline would have felt if we had signed Paul George and he missed half of the season with the other guys while also kind of making us chase a bad trade because we were pot committed with an aging Paul George signed to 4/212M.

Would have been as equally stupid as signing KCP.

Let’s be Frank. I don’t think KCP was a bad signing.

Shooter
Great defender
Championship experience
Plays almost all games every season.

He is ment to be a 4th option.

The shooting hasn’t translated but it was a smart move. I’m giving FO credit where it’s due.

-Displaced Suggs after an astronomical shooting season jump.
-Shooting didn’t translate. Career lows across the board.
-Championship experience didn’t translate. (Team worse)
-Doesn’t address ancillary playmaking in starting lineup.
-4th option is 2nd highest paid player pre-Franz deal.
-Disappears for quarters and games at a time. Only thing beneficial is that he took the place of Harris who is just collecting a paycheck at this point due to his signing.

Was a stupid signing. Said it at the time and my opinion hasn’t changed.

[three3d]

General Managers

1990-96: Pat Williams 278-296 .484%
1997-04: John Gabriel 310-324 .497%
2005 : John Weisbrod 36-46 .439%
2006. : Dave Twardzik 36-46 .439%
2007-12: Otis Smith 299-177 .628%
2013-16: Rob Hennigan 103-225 .324%
2017 : Hennigan/Matt Llyod 29-53 .354%
2018-21: John Hammond 121-188 .392%

PG DRAFTED
1991: Chris Corchiani
2000: Keyon Dooling
2001: Omar Cook
2003: Reece Gaines
2004: Antonio Burks
2015: Tyler Harvey
2020: Cole Anthony
2021: Jason Preston
2023: Anthony Black

PG/SG
2001: Jeryl Sasser
2005: Travis Diener
2021: Jalen Suggs

SG
1994: Brooks Thompson
1998: Miles Simon
2000: Courtney Alexander
2006: JJ Redick
2008: Courtney Lee
2011: DeAndre Liggins
2013: Victor Oladipo
2023: Andre Jackson


Took some time to go through GM and draft history looking for things that stood out. It’s never mattered who the GM was point guards and shooting guards have always been really bad drafts and/or ignored. All our GM’s except for Otis Smith have also finished with losing records. What are the odds every GM sucks , every GM ignores the need for play making guards?

[jjohns828]

Could you imagine how bad this losing streak and trade deadline would have felt if we had signed Paul George and he missed half of the season with the other guys while also kind of making us chase a bad trade because we were pot committed with an aging Paul George signed to 4/212M.

Would have been as equally stupid as signing KCP.

Let’s be Frank. I don’t think KCP was a bad signing.

Shooter
Great defender
Championship experience
Plays almost all games every season.

He is ment to be a 4th option.

The shooting hasn’t translated but it was a smart move. I’m giving FO credit where it’s due.

I disagree that KCP was a good signing. I said at the time that he was a fine player that didn’t fix the actual problems in our backcourt. I felt we needed a guard to take some of the playmaking pressure off of Franz and Paolo and KCP didn’t help with that at all. I think Weltman was overconfident on Suggs turning into a PG or Black developing more than he has and due to that we signed a free agent that didn’t help us where we needed help the most.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RichCollab]

Would have been as equally stupid as signing KCP.

Let’s be Frank. I don’t think KCP was a bad signing.

Shooter
Great defender
Championship experience
Plays almost all games every season.

He is ment to be a 4th option.

The shooting hasn’t translated but it was a smart move. I’m giving FO credit where it’s due.

-Displaced Suggs after an astronomical shooting season jump.
-Shooting didn’t translate. Career lows across the board.
-Championship experience didn’t translate. (Team worse)
-Doesn’t address ancillary playmaking in starting lineup.
-4th option is 2nd highest paid player pre-Franz deal.
-Disappears for quarters and games at a time. Only thing beneficial is that he took the place of Harris who is just collecting a paycheck at this point due to his signing.

Was a stupid signing. Said it at the time and my opinion hasn’t changed.

Team isn’t worse. Injuries are a reality. We are still reeling from them.

Suggs will be fine when he is healthy.

I completely disagree with your assertions. I guess I’m a homer though , right?

[VFX]

Let’s be Frank. I don’t think KCP was a bad signing.

Shooter
Great defender
Championship experience
Plays almost all games every season.

He is ment to be a 4th option.

The shooting hasn’t translated but it was a smart move. I’m giving FO credit where it’s due.

-Displaced Suggs after an astronomical shooting season jump.
-Shooting didn’t translate. Career lows across the board.
-Championship experience didn’t translate. (Team worse)
-Doesn’t address ancillary playmaking in starting lineup.
-4th option is 2nd highest paid player pre-Franz deal.
-Disappears for quarters and games at a time. Only thing beneficial is that he took the place of Harris who is just collecting a paycheck at this point due to his signing.

Was a stupid signing. Said it at the time and my opinion hasn’t changed.

Team isn’t worse. Injuries are a reality. We are still reeling from them.

Suggs will be fine when he is healthy.

I completely disagree with your assertions. I guess I’m a homer though , right?

Not necessarily.

You share the same displaced mentality that Weltman had this offseason. That acquiring a 3&D shooter changes the system, and therefore makes the offense better as a direct correlation.

This was an incorrect assertion that I have talked about ad nauseam. The issue was never directly related to shooting if you watched last nights game.

KCP isn’t even involved in the way Orlando’s offense is run.

Orlando lost Nate Tibbets to the WNBA as our offensive coordinator 2 seasons ago and Mosely promoted from within. I couldn’t even tell you who that person is currently. KCP was a dumb signing.

[Skybox]

Would have been as equally stupid as signing KCP.

Let’s be Frank. I don’t think KCP was a bad signing.

Shooter
Great defender
Championship experience
Plays almost all games every season.

He is ment to be a 4th option.

The shooting hasn’t translated but it was a smart move. I’m giving FO credit where it’s due.

-Displaced Suggs after an astronomical shooting season jump.
-Shooting didn’t translate. Career lows across the board.
-Championship experience didn’t translate. (Team worse) and, team body language is terrible- where’s the locker room hero with the championship pedigree’s influence?
-Doesn’t address ancillary playmaking in starting lineup.
-4th option is 2nd highest paid player pre-Franz deal. paid like 4th option, scoring like 10th
-Disappears for quarters and games at a time. Only thing beneficial is that he took the place of Harris who is just collecting a paycheck at this point due to his signing.

Was a stupid signing. Said it at the time and my opinion hasn’t changed.

Good player…having a bad stretch- likely because of awful fit and misguided vision from FO. KCP is probably pissed too…he didn’t come here to wreck his reputation and maybe even miss the playoffs…on the other hand, he DID come here because we agreed to pay him more than the team who won with him, who knows him better than anyone, and still wouldn’t commit to pay him what we did.