Official Speculation Thread '20-'21 VII: Magic Expected To Retain Core

[OrlandO]

Man it will be tough to get at bottom 3

Not so sure it will be all that tough. The standings since losing starting PG and relying on rookie PG...



Cole would need to develop very quickly, what's left of the team would need to get and stay healthy, and weltman would have to make a move. Otherwise we're trending bottom 5 with a great chance to be bottom 3, especially if we're still awful at the deadline and have no excuse to hang onto expiring fournier for the tankiest part of the season.

[basketballRob]

Not sure Fournier would even start on another team. Defense is vital at his position.

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[MagicFan101]

This is why Orlando would never get this guy but it is also why I wanted this guy when his price was low.

Getting right up in the face of Ben Simmons and letting him know what he thinks of him.

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[pepe1991]

I'm looking at our advanced stats, and nah, there is no way this is not stelth tanking from front office. This team is horrid.

Our record is still very, very inflated. There are 15 teams in nba today with positive record ( counting ones with .500 record). We somehow only played 4 games against them.

Our other advanced s tats:
27th in net rating
28th in ppg
26th in points differential
27th in offensive rating
19th in defensive rating
30th in TS%

Among our rotation players, Gordon and Evan ( and Ennis, somehow) are only ones with positive net rating.

But so many nba teams are flat out bad that it will take ( too much) time until they figure they are lottery team.
Upcomming games:
Sacramento- winable
Clippers- lol
x2 Raptors- they play like crap so maybe winable
x2 Bulls- winable
Blazers- McCullum, Nurkic out
Warriors- mediocrity, winable
Sacramento- winable
Suns- probably L
Knicks- winable
Warriors again- winable
x2 Pistons- should be wins

So they will be in middle of a season with record not much worst .500 because other teams will engage in tank....They already did...

[drsd]

[It is indeed saddening that the Magic is a better team with Aminu.

When does he return ?!?!?!?

Aminu (knee) will not play Monday against Charlotte.

The veteran went through practice early last week, so there was hope that his season debut would follow close behind, but thus far that has not been the case. The forward has not played since November of 2019, so conditioning will likely be the final barrier before he's cleared for game action.


soo... i assume within week or two he should be back, probably mid February?

I presume Aminu starts upon return immediately. With Carter-Williams and Bamba presumably fit as well, the Magic depth chart in a couple weeks could look like:
Anthony/Carter-Williams/Bone
Fournier/Ross/Mané
Aminu/Ennis/Bacon
Gordon/Clark
Vučević/Birch/Bamba


Any new word on Okeke? The Magic could actually use more forward depth.


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[jonbob17]

What is up with Okeke? Bone bruise in knee is so generic. It it on the inside corner of his knee like Isaac's or something? Are we looking at half the season? Can the press ask about these things and get a straight answer?

[drsd]

Cole would need to develop very quickly, what's left of the team would need to get and stay healthy, and weltman would have to make a move. Otherwise we're trending bottom 5 with a great chance to be bottom 3, especially if we're still awful at the deadline and have no excuse to hang onto expiring fournier for the tankiest part of the season.

To be fair, Carter-Williams, Fournier and Gordon have all missed time during the stretch of games you discuss.

Specifically the Magic bench has been horrible because G-league level talent is getting significant minutes over the last games.

[drsd]

What is up with Okeke? Bone bruise in knee is so generic. It it on the inside corner of his knee like Isaac's or something? Are we looking at half the season? Can the press ask about these things and get a straight answer?

The quote on 1 Jan. was "Magic rookie Chuma Okeke to miss 'several weeks' with knee injury".

Definition of "several" is, and I quote, "more than two but not many."

CBS-sports is speculating it will be a 4-week absence, which means he would be back next week. Will he?

But this good news:

Magic head coach Steve Clifford said Okeke (knee) has been involved in the team's practice sessions since Tuesday, Philip Rossman-Reich of OrlandoMagicDaily.com reports.

Okeke isn't believed to have advanced to full-contact, full-court work just yet, so he doesn't appear on track to make it back in action before the end of January. That said, Okeke looks to be trending toward the early end of the three- to four-week recovery timeline he received when he was diagnosed with a bone bruise in his left knee, so he could be ready to play again in early February. Before going down with the injury, the 2019 first-round pick had averaged 3.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 18.2 minutes per game over five appearances.

[RookieStar]

What is up with Okeke? Bone bruise in knee is so generic. It it on the inside corner of his knee like Isaac's or something? Are we looking at half the season? Can the press ask about these things and get a straight answer?

The quote on 1 Jan. was "Magic rookie Chuma Okeke to miss 'several weeks' with knee injury".

Definition of "several" is, and I quote, "more than two but not many."

CBS-sports is speculating it will be a 4-week absence, which means he would be back next week. Will he?

But this good news:

Magic head coach Steve Clifford said Okeke (knee) has been involved in the team's practice sessions since Tuesday, Philip Rossman-Reich of OrlandoMagicDaily.com reports.

Okeke isn't believed to have advanced to full-contact, full-court work just yet, so he doesn't appear on track to make it back in action before the end of January. That said, Okeke looks to be trending toward the early end of the three- to four-week recovery timeline he received when he was diagnosed with a bone bruise in his left knee, so he could be ready to play again in early February. Before going down with the injury, the 2019 first-round pick had averaged 3.0 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 18.2 minutes per game over five appearances.

Good news indeed. I prefer him waaaaaay more than Clark. Eye-test he already looks taller than Clark, dunno about speed though.

So yeah, we finally can see if he is effective as a 3 in our rotation

[pepe1991]

So according to stats, Pelicans without Zion are second best defense in nba, and with him they are second worst.
This is what happends when bunch of 12 years old fanboys create hype and delusion about usage in modern basketball of 6'6- no jumpshot , no floor vision -center.

[MaKiaVeLi7]

As per The Athletic, the Pelicans officially admit readiness to listen to offers for Lonzo Ball and JJ Redick.

Do you guys think trying to field an offer in this case is "too hard" for our "exceptionally bold" FO? (as Weltman complained earlier before the season started)

Redick has played like crap so far but he might just need to change the scenery, he's an experienced vet after all and shouldn't have problems in terms of being productive. He'd be a nice addition in terms of shooting and vet leadership. I'd love to see him in a Magic uni again. Why not finish his career with us? That'd be great.



Lonzo is a whole another story. He might demand to start especially given Fultz is out for a long time. Are we ready to start a new PG experiment??? Not sure it's a smart move.

Do you think we might join as a 3rd team in a multi-player deal with Pelicans and other parties? It seems like Pels are determined to re-shuffle their roster and a multi-team deal might be possible. Wizards should be on the brink of tearing their dysfunctional bunch of players...finally. They might be interested as well.

Oubre is available. Brooklyn is on the look for any deal that might deliver them some frontcourt help and vet defenders. Sacramento is reportedly shopping Buddy Hield and Bjelica.

There is some ground for deals around the league with all those reports and injured players.

Thoughts?

[KillMonger]

bro....you really think our FO is going to do anything? They are the epitome of derelict

[j-ragg]

Yeah even if we had a front office that wasn’t just two old statues, JJ wants to go somewhere to win. Not somewhere to tank. If he wanted to lose he’d stay in New Orleans.

[MaKiaVeLi7]

Probably wishful thinking...my bad. I just really hope we get rid of Fournier and do something...anything.

JJ would be nice though, probably 0.01% chance of happening, but... Dreaming is still free, right?!?

WeHam, surprise us! Do anything other than juggling with 2nd rounders and pretending to evaluate players from the previous era for 4 frikin years. And stop with all the golfing sessions. Do your J-O-B !!!

[basketballRob]

I could see Lebron going after JJ.

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[KillMonger]

Probably wishful thinking...my bad. I just really hope we get rid of Fournier and do something...anything.

JJ would be nice though, probably 0.01% chance of happening, but... Dreaming is still free, right?!?

WeHam, surprise us! Do anything other than juggling with 2nd rounders and pretending to evaluate players from the previous era for 4 frikin years. And stop with all the golfing sessions. Do your J-O-B !!!

I do believe though that a decision is coming....i don't have any source on that but i guess it's a gut feeling or something that's just in the air.....We will see soon enough because i hear that our schedule gets really tough going forward and if we keep going on losing streaks then that might force them to stop sitting on their hands and put those hands on phones....Evan needs to go.....AG? some might want to keep him but for me? I don't think his value has been any higher and we should capitalize....Vuc? i'm 50/50 on him i think Vuc can work on this team but maybe not as a number 1 option....Vuc should get you a good haul but i don't think he should be traded if we don't get a good haul.....either way something's got to give

[pepe1991]

Tank tank tank

[yoyojw17]

https://www.nba.com/magic/news/8-reasons-orlando-magic-are-better-3-point-shooting-team-lately-20210126

Damn... If vuc keeps shooting this up ... He'll have the best shooting season for a big man in history.

Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Lol. But that's an impressive development

[pepe1991]

https://www.nba.com/magic/news/8-reasons-orlando-magic-are-better-3-point-shooting-team-lately-20210126

Damn... If vuc keeps shooting this up ... He'll have the best shooting season for a big man in history.

Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Lol. But that's an impressive development

ehh, it's not really development, it's just expending existing range.
At age of 22, in second year of his career, he shot better from long 2 ( 42,4%) that's better than any Magic player but Fournier this year.
He always had nice,smooth long stroke, but when he was drafted , in 2012, nba centers flat out did not shoot 3s. Frye was only one i can recollect, Spance Hayes ,but he sucked at everything else... Both were bench players.

In general when you have career 45% mid range shooter, there is no reason why he can't shoot 3s , if he does not have broken shooting mechanics. It's just shame that he did not shoot threes until 2016-17. He probably always had enough talent to do so.

[MartinsIzAfraud]

Tank tank tank

If they do in fact move Fournier we could be bottom 3 with how rough our schedule is.