2024-2025 Regular Season Game 8: Orlando Magic (3-4) at Oklahoma City Thunder (6-0) - 9:15pm ET

[dsg2021]

One thing for certain the posters that were fighting me about JI playing center? We can put that to bed now, he's not the same guy with the extra weight... I told yall he can't play center full time

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Might be too early to say that because what if he’s building up his conditioning like many players are in the beginning of a season. But yes, could also be a dead-on opinion too. Even a lighter 3/4 JI is tall enough to be out there with Paolo and Franz sometimes in crunch time. It just takes a little trust in sticking Paolo on beefier centers and JI on skinnier ones or non-scoring ones. Considering I don’t think Mosely has unlocked JI’s defense nearly enough as a 5 too, I’m starting to lean to a thinner, faster JI.

[Rainwater]

We lack a third option. Franz and Suggs were good enough.

Franz was not good enough; he is playing like a third when should be more.

[pepe1991]

I watched whole 3rd quarter and half of 4th. When SGA was guarded by 3 Magic players and still scored layup by splitting them, i tuned off.
Nothing really new to learn.

86 points (after still lowest by any team this year 85 points) .

I can't even be mad. OKC is elite team. SGA dribble penetration opens game for everybody, Holmgren caused like 8 missed layups but only in stats has 2 blocks. Jalen Williams is my MVP for most underrated nba player.

Suggs did his best playmaking impression. Since he is pretending to be PG he ofc, can't shoot, because last year he was catch& shoot guy. Off the dribble 3s are outside his talent level. It's just him and France who produce any sort of offense. But with so much mediocrity & limitations around them, and against good defensive and offensive teams like Cavs, OKC; Dallas, team gets buried within first 20 min.

Off the bench it's just brutal, nobody can handle the ball.
Only person worth mentioning aside from Suggs and Franz is Goga. Very nice game.

But guys... we had 3 players scoring in double figures. OKC had 5.

This year's offense looks exactly how i thought last year's offense will look like. Just flat out weaponless.


Banchero's injury is actually good thing for this team. it will take off rainbow lances from perception of team talent. You have 2 great players, very solid SG and after that it's just bunch of C & D level fillers.
At least whole "Isaac is great player" crap is finally dying off. Isaac is excellent defensive specialist who can play 20 min a week, gives you nothing on offense and is only playable as roaming PF, if you have enough talent to mask fact you play 4v 5 offense with him. So... would be massive on some Nuggets/ Pacers. (assuming he can stay healthy until playoffs, and i would not take that bet).

When you stick him and Harris /KCP/ Black you simply strip yourself from any sort of offensive talent.
Among players with worst +/- so far in top 11 in nba you have Mortiz Wagner and Isaac (among 420 who played).
One can't defend, other is as useful as ashtray on a motorcycle on offense.


Looking forward to Pelicans game, they seems to have enough injuries to make game even. 4 starters out. Sounds like fair game.



Ffs 85 than 86 points. I can't even. Good job Weltman, elite roster construction there, make sure you resign everybody this summer.
Great, i wasn't angry when i started typing, now i'm pissed

[DiplomaticMagic]

Even though Franz wasnt horrible this game, I think its pretty clear that he should have never gotten a max contract. Thats the contract you give to someone who can be a top 2 player on a championship team, and I really believe hes a #3.

[GelbeWand09]

Don't look at Keyonte's boxscore tonight

Too late. He snapped out of his funk in a big way

When AB shines, KG sucks. When KG shines, AB sucks. I dunno why...

Not so surprising. Keyonte is a guard who can get everywhere he wants on the court because of speed & handle but like many guards of his type got trouble finishing and shot comes and goes. It's just a matter of efficiency.

AB can't create much offense for himself yet. Without Paolo drawing double teams and the whole offense being a mess (BTW would look like a mess against those teams with Paolo too like VS Memphis) his life becomes much harder. He just can't create shot opportunities for himself like those speedster guards because he can't beat players without a pick. Just watch his shot attampts today. 2 drives when the defense wasn't set/close outs and the rest open 3pointers others created for him. The typical shots 3&d guys take.


Other topic: Who ever had the idea of Isaac bulking up should be fired.

[GelbeWand09]

People were saying that the Magic were too talented to be a bad team without Paolo but I don’t think that is true.

It was never true. Homers gonna homer.

We have tradeable assets but that's very different from solidified talent.

The other truth is our record would be the same with Paolo after these games and our offense would look like a mess too just not this bad. Because most of our roster problems doesn't go away against good teams and defenses just because of Paolo double teams & isos.

[Husky1]

I watched whole 3rd quarter and half of 4th. When SGA was guarded by 3 Magic players and still scored layup by splitting them, i tuned off.
Nothing really new to learn.

86 points (after still lowest by any team this year 85 points) .

I can't even be mad. OKC is elite team. SGA dribble penetration opens game for everybody, Holmgren caused like 8 missed layups but only in stats has 2 blocks. Jalen Williams is my MVP for most underrated nba player.

Suggs did his best playmaking impression. Since he is pretending to be PG he ofc, can't shoot, because last year he was catch& shoot guy. Off the dribble 3s are outside his talent level. It's just him and France who produce any sort of offense. But with so much mediocrity & limitations around them, and against good defensive and offensive teams like Cavs, OKC; Dallas, team gets buried within first 20 min.

Off the bench it's just brutal, nobody can handle the ball.
Only person worth mentioning aside from Suggs and Franz is Goga. Very nice game.

But guys... we had 3 players scoring in double figures. OKC had 5.

This year's offense looks exactly how i thought last year's offense will look like. Just flat out weaponless.


Banchero's injury is actually good thing for this team. it will take off rainbow lances from perception of team talent. You have 2 great players, very solid SG and after that it's just bunch of C & D level fillers.
At least whole "Isaac is great player" crap is finally dying off. Isaac is excellent defensive specialist who can play 20 min a week, gives you nothing on offense and is only playable as roaming PF, if you have enough talent to mask fact you play 4v 5 offense with him. So... would be massive on some Nuggets/ Pacers. (assuming he can stay healthy until playoffs, and i would not take that bet).

When you stick him and Harris /KCP/ Black you simply strip yourself from any sort of offensive talent.
Among players with worst +/- so far in top 11 in nba you have Mortiz Wagner and Isaac (among 420 who played).
One can't defend, other is as useful as ashtray on a motorcycle on offense.


Looking forward to Pelicans game, they seems to have enough injuries to make game even. 4 starters out. Sounds like fair game.



Ffs 85 than 86 points. I can't even. Good job Weltman, elite roster construction there, make sure you resign everybody this summer.
Great, i wasn't angry when i started typing, now i'm pissed

100% spot on. I was angry last year cos we were paying 35 million dead money to Fultz and Isaac who never played, this year its even worse. Cole, Gary, Mo and Isaac look unplayable. Thats over 40 million of dead money. People still praise Weltman.

[pepe1991]

Even though Franz wasnt horrible this game, I think its pretty clear that he should have never gotten a max contract. Thats the contract you give to someone who can be a top 2 player on a championship team, and I really believe hes a #3.

Max contracts were designed to sign your generational talents. Instead, nba GMs and FOs turned that into mockery.
Now every all star potential player gets one.
Franz
Fox
Adebayo
Ben Simmons

And many more. It's just "new normal". Players expect one as sort of recognition of value, teams give them out as sort of goodwill for future, but in reality they just hinder flexibility and steer the rebuild wheel into propelled mediocrity (treadmill).

Why OKC is so good this year ? Because they leveraged fact Holmgren and Williams are on cheap contracts, stacked talent around them and SGA and opened championship window. That team will in 2-3 years be way too expensive to keep, but it doesn't matter, they might win title before it closes. It's crazy how championship window for them works in revers. Where traditional rebuild would be waiting for stars to mature (and get expensive by default) they flipped a script.

[Message Boar]

Oh well I guess we might as well get some tough road games we probably would've lost anyway out of the way.

Do we have to look so consistently offensively inept, though?

[KillMonger]

We got to get our defense tightened up, that doesn't need to be affected by the loss of banchero.... We get our defense back to our standard and maybe we can work out the offense.... Hopefully more practice time will help a lot.... KCP need to hit shots, I think I saw something that said most of his shots have been rated wide open or open and he's been missing.... The silver lining could be there is no way we're THIS bad shooting

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[I Rasharted]

[RookieStar]

You know guys... even with Paolo we kinda expected this outcome.

[p0peye]

It sucks seeing how bad this team is without Paolo knowing that we are financially locked into it without much of a good way out.

Our only issue cap-wise is that Franz hasn't lived up yet to the max extension he got. I have been complaining about it, but truth is that it is still not a significant risk (yet). We pretty much can easily retool with some trades when we need to, but not as a knee-jerk reaction to having Paolo out.

I am willing to take wait-and-see approach if Black can run a point this season and trade for a PG in offseason if he can't. Drawback is that I simply can't watch these games, it's not basketball.

[zaymon]

We played well with Franz. I dont fully understand the critique. He wont be volume scorer becouse he doesnt shoot mid range shots. Its actually a good thing as a second option. I agree he should try more 3 pointers, but its not that he is not able to do that.
Tristan looks good as a rookie. He is also not a toast on defense.
Our contracts suggest we will try to be good in 2-3 years. We dont have Mitchell or SGA or Doncic in their primes. We have to accept it.

[Skybox]

Why OKC is so good this year ? Because they leveraged fact Holmgren and Williams are on cheap contracts, stacked talent around them and SGA and opened championship window. That team will in 2-3 years be way too expensive to keep, but it doesn't matter, they might win title before it closes. It's crazy how championship window for them works in revers. Where traditional rebuild would be waiting for stars to mature (and get expensive by default) they flipped a script.

If your young stars are ahead of schedule…that’s a gift. Surround them with players rather than more projects that kick the timeline down the road. Building after they’re maxed is much tougher. Good job Presti. That’s somebody recognizing what he had before years of evidence…that’s why he’s an NBA GM. Weltman’s “patience” is a rationalization for not confidently going forward with your player assessment and betting on your own vision being better than a bunch of RealGM hamandeggers.

No knock on AB or Jett personally, but those picks could have easily been part of a big move that boosted ORL’s core instead of drafting more kids to slow down a very fortuitous Suggs/Franz/Paolo haul.

[basketballRob]

The last 3 games have been against teams who could all be in the top 5 best defenses at the end of the season. Couple that with the complete shift in the way we play.

I think we have a competitive game against the Pacers.

We've had the 7th hardest schedule so far.

https://www.espn.com/nba/stats/rpi/_/sort/SOS

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[KillMonger]

i wish we had andrew nicholson right about now.....pure bucket getter lol

[The-Stallion70]

We can make posts overanalyzing the games but its just the same thing as in years past, we lack talent due to bad management.

[The-Stallion70]

Cole with 2 fugly bricks I love it lol

Kinda feel bad for him. He is definitely trending towards RJ Hampton's end here.

He's got a nice tradeable contract though.

He went from the lead player on the team to 6th man of the year talk to playing with the green goblins all in a few years, that's a crazy nose dive.

Guy played 3 minutes and still you're finding a way to **** on the guy

There are Black holes Damm near everywhere else on the roster.

[richi_v25]

Kinda feel bad for him. He is definitely trending towards RJ Hampton's end here.

He's got a nice tradeable contract though.

He went from the lead player on the team to 6th man of the year talk to playing with the green goblins all in a few years, that's a crazy nose dive.

Guy played 3 minutes and still you're finding a way to **** on the guy

There are Black holes Damm near everywhere else on the roster.

Against the end of the bench players and he still sucked, never liked Cole's selfish play so it's nice to finally see him where he belongs.