2024-2025 Regular Season Game 21 and NBA Cup Game 3: Orlando Magic (13-7) at Brooklyn Nets (9-10) - 7:30pm

[golfreak]

The Magic will win Group A of the NBA Cup with a win in New York on Tuesday.

They also will advance as the wild card in the NBA Cup with any loss of less than 37 points to the Knicks.

Not quite.
Bucks or Pistons lose by only a pts, then Orlando can only lose by around 30 pts.

[Message Boar]

I see that Cory Joseph, once again, knew about the point differential. Didn't he do that in one of the other cup games, too?

[SOUL]

Anybody still moaning about not getting Claxton? Still don't think he is that impressive for his price tag.

[GelbeWand09]

Anybody still moaning about not getting Claxton? Still don't think he is that impressive for his price tag.

Only Center I'm sorry about not getting is Hartenstein. Too bad he choose New York over us. He is the super saiyajin version of Goga as a traditional defensive big and offense sets better screens than Carter. He had already awesome advanced stats in LA.

[GelbeWand09]

Wildcard would be the worst case outcome, unless the Knicks obliterate us

Didn't we score 73 points last time there

Yea but I think was the 3rd game in 4 days.

[drsd]

(I don't want to trade AB)

Orlando keeps playing like they're the Celts, NOBODY is getting traded.

Seriously, Orlando was near perfect here. yes the perimeter defense could have been a bit tighter. But if that was becasue the guards were more focused on offense, I think we can live with that - notably when the interior defense is so strong.

[Skybox]

(I don't want to trade AB)

Orlando keeps playing like they're the Celts, NOBODY is getting traded.

Seriously, Orlando was near perfect here. yes the perimeter defense could have been a bit tighter. But if that was becasue the guards were more focused on offense, I think we can live with that - notably when the interior defense is so strong.

Keep in mind who they are playing

[Knightro]

The Magic will win Group A of the NBA Cup with a win in New York on Tuesday.

They also will advance as the wild card in the NBA Cup with any loss of less than 37 points to the Knicks.

Not quite.
Bucks or Pistons lose by only a pts, then Orlando can only lose by around 30 pts.

I made a typo and put 37 instead of 31. My bad.

[Knightro]

Read on Twitter

I know a lot of people are banging the “see Carter is actually a 4!” drum, but the more accurate way to describe it is that he and Goga are both playing center simultaneously given what they’re being asked to each do.

And it’s working.

[yoyojw17]

Anybody still moaning about not getting Claxton? Still don't think he is that impressive for his price tag.

Only Center I'm sorry about not getting is Hartenstein. Too bad he choose New York over us. He is the super saiyajin version of Goga as a traditional defensive big and offense sets better screens than Carter. He had already awesome advanced stats in LA.

He was my hope for the summer as with many..... But we could not match the OKC price tag that's for sure. We simply got outbid by a team that was further along than we were. But we shored up our team pretty well still.

[Last Guardian]

Wendell is playing well. I just dont see how he fits when Paolo comes back.

I think he is better suited at PF. And Goga is playing too damn good to sit him down. And we have Isaac and Moe on the bench. Even TDS is stepping up (think he might be a 3 right now).

Our depth is legit.

AB has been shakey last few games though

I made the Wendell elephant thread. I thought he would be odd man out. But I'm thinking more Moe now. Dell has the lateral movement of a wing and the weight of a C, he's a problem at PF.

[Optimus_Steel]

Damm proud of this team. We are choking out teams and having fun doing it. They just dread having to go thru multiple hounding guards then rangy bigs that clogged things up. It was only a matter of time for KCPs offense to explode. Apparently having a pregnant wife about to give birth was stressful, who would have thought that? He has a track record, he was bound to snap out of it, his defense had been stellar regardless.

[Optimus_Steel]

Wendell is playing well. I just dont see how he fits when Paolo comes back.

I think he is better suited at PF. And Goga is playing too damn good to sit him down. And we have Isaac and Moe on the bench. Even TDS is stepping up (think he might be a 3 right now).

Our depth is legit.

AB has been shakey last few games though

I made the Wendell elephant thread. I thought he would be odd man out. But I'm thinking more Moe now. Dell has the lateral movement of a wing and the weight of a C, he's a problem at PF.

Its a committee thing. Depending of matchups, health, etc. Mo is not going anywhere.

[Skybox]

Read on Twitter

I know a lot of people are banging the “see Carter is actually a 4!” drum, but the more accurate way to describe it is that he and Goga are both playing center simultaneously given what they’re being asked to each do.

And it’s working.

I like it and I like both players...good to deploy all of that size we've coveted. Will be interesting to see how it works against stronger teams. NYK is not big, but they're good at both forward spots - let's see who can impose their will upon the other.

[Catledge]

Wendell is playing well. I just dont see how he fits when Paolo comes back.

I think he is better suited at PF. And Goga is playing too damn good to sit him down. And we have Isaac and Moe on the bench. Even TDS is stepping up (think he might be a 3 right now).

Our depth is legit.

AB has been shakey last few games though

I made the Wendell elephant thread. I thought he would be odd man out. But I'm thinking more Moe now. Dell has the lateral movement of a wing and the weight of a C, he's a problem at PF.

If it were up to me, TDS/Harris would get pushed to the bench and Isaac would be the backup SF next to WCJ and Moe in the second unit.

Really, in a healthy rotation, Isaac would sub in for Franz early, and then Franz would come back to run the offense in the second unit with his brother and Wendell.

[Bergmaniac]

Another comfortable win, our players are very confident right now and it shows in their performances. The offense was quite bad when Franz was on the bench, but we dominated so much with him on the court it didn't matter much. Great to see KCP finally shooting well and being confident to take tougher 3s. Wendell was also really good.

It's very nice that we are beating comfortably the weaker teams even wihout Paolo, it's a major step. But i want to see how we look against the teams which were supposed to be contenders in the East, the schedule so far has given us only 2 such games, one was the Cavs game where Paolo had just been injured and Franz sill didn't look 100% after his illness, plus both Goga and Wendell were out. The other was against the Sixers which are awful this year and Embiid looked nowhere near full fitness. I want to see how we will do against the Celtics, Knick and the Bucks.

[drsd]

I know a lot of people are banging the “see Carter is actually a 4!” drum, but the more accurate way to describe it is that he and Goga are both playing center simultaneously given what they’re being asked to each do.

And it’s working.

Caldwell-Pope is 10-15 with the longball when Carter and Bitadze co-start.

Is this anything?

[GelbeWand09]

Another comfortable win, our players are very confident right now and it shows in their performances. The offense was quite bad when Franz was on the bench, but we dominated so much with him on the court it didn't matter much. Great to see KCP finally shooting well and being confident to take tougher 3s. Wendell was also really good.

It's very nice that we are beating comfortably the weaker teams even wihout Paolo, it's a major step. But i want to see how we look against the teams which were supposed to be contenders in the East, the schedule so far has given us only 2 such games, one was the Cavs game where Paolo had just been injured and Franz sill didn't look 100% after his illness, plus both Goga and Wendell were out. The other was against the Sixers which are awful this year and Embiid looked nowhere near full fitness. I want to see how we will do against the Celtics, Knick and the Bucks.

Thats the problem of our whole situation for me now. I'm super happy how good we play since Franz's flu is gone but we had a super easy schedule so far + all the teams were injured. We havent played any top defense that we struggled with last year yet, except the Clippers game and this game looked like last year. The only example of this kind of game with Paolo was Memphis and that looked like last year too.
So far we do exactly the same thing we have done last year, just without Paolo and even better defense. We beat all bad & mediocre teams & are great at home. Which is super empressing. But I have still no clue how much better we are. We should be (much) better with how much better both our stars looked so far but i still have my doubts how we look in a halfcourt game vs good defenses when Paolo doesnt get the ball on a roll and has to create in standstill situations & our lack of a speedy ballhandler & backcourt creation could led to sub 95-90 pts games again.

Super happy about our situation but still kinda clueless.

[sebaloz]

But we could not match the OKC price tag that's for sure.

It was possible. After signing KCP we had only $30.495123 M left to offer Hartenstein, but we could have offered bigger deal. Maybe not frontloaded, but more guaranteed money.

OKC actual offer
24/25 $30.526316 guaranteed
25/26 $29.000000 guaranteed
26/27 $27.473684 fully not guaranteed
=$59.526316 guaranteed

ORL possible counter offer
24/25 $30.495123 guaranteed
25/26 $32.01987915 guaranteed
26/27 $33.6208731075 fully not guaranteed
=$62.51500215 guaranteed

ORL possible max offer
24/25 $30.495123
25/26 $32.01987915
26/27 $33.6208731075
27/28 $35.301916762875
=$131.437792020375

viewtopic.php?p=114124888#p114124873

[yoyojw17]

But we could not match the OKC price tag that's for sure.

It was possible. After signing KCP we had only $30.495123 M left to offer Hartenstein, but we could have offered bigger deal. Maybe not frontloaded, but more guaranteed money.

OKC actual offer
24/25 $30.526316 guaranteed
25/26 $29.000000 guaranteed
26/27 $27.473684 fully not guaranteed
=$59.526316 guaranteed

ORL possible counter offer
24/25 $30.495123 guaranteed
25/26 $32.01987915 guaranteed
26/27 $33.6208731075 fully not guaranteed
=$62.51500215 guaranteed

ORL possible max offer
24/25 $30.495123
25/26 $32.01987915
26/27 $33.6208731075
27/28 $35.301916762875
=$131.437792020375

viewtopic.php?p=114124888#p114124873

From a financially responsible standpoint.... We couldn't match it. I meant. They probably had a plan.... And I don't think it would have included signing KCP and IHart. It would would have been one or the other... And at predetermined max amounts they would spend. Personally and I might be wrong ... We pitched at IHart.... Got whiff that OKC was coming in hot ... And then went and said ... KCP you da man.... Then shored up or center position with that money.

Maybe if we didn't have suggs and Franz negotiations in the same off-season.... Things might have looked different. I don't know.