2024-2025 Regular Season Game 33: New York Knicks (20-10) at Orlando Magic (19-13) - 7pm

[DiplomaticMagic]

How can AB ever be a PG if hes constantly picking up his dribble and giving the ball up to Goga above the 3pt line?? His handle is too weak and with his confidence being low, no way.

[Husky1]

My heart was hoping AB would be better than he has been during these injuries. He's had good games, and moments within games, but there's no consistency. I'm willing to be fair and accept that he's still very young.

Problem is, these jackasses in our FO had two (2) lotto picks in the same draft. Chances to take players who would have been much readier to play/contribute, and in areas in which we had obvious need. Black was always a project and Jett was always a **** moronic selection regardless of context. Neither one of these guys should have been drafted.

To add, they committed a lot of money to Cold & WCJ and paid KCP like he was a high caliber starter, and he’s nothing more than a decent role player. “Decent” is likely overstating the case.

This org needs a major front office overhaul.

X 100 brother!!

[basketballRob]

How can AB ever be a PG if hes constantly picking up his dribble and giving the ball up to Goga above the 3pt line?? His handle is too weak and with his confidence being low, no way.

He's still 20, and players can improve. His shooting has improved based on his FT shooting. Black hit his last 17-18 free throws

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[FFBlitzace]

For the record, my belief in AB has actually grown this year, despite his struggles. He has shown things, just not consistently. But inconsistency is a hallmark of young players, so I consider it just part of the deal.

And obviously everything gets easier for everyone all the way down the line when our two primary players are in the lineup. My only real disappointment with individual players lies with WCJ and Cole. They just haven't stepped up like we need them to. And it's not just the poor shooting, it's the whole game with them. To quote SVG after he was forced into playing Daniel Orton due to injuries: "He didn't even give us minutes." That's how I feel about WCJ right now.

[VFX]

I don't think any assessments or judgements should be made on any player until Franz and Banchero come back.

na man... Cole is broken. Jett can't even get minutes now. Gary isn't a crucial piece. Mo is out for over a year. We have plenty of expiring contracts, prospects, and picks to make a move for a guy like Cam Johnson.

That said, I reserve judgement on AB, JI, and WCJ until Franz and Paolo are back.

AB is the only player I give this leeway toward because he’s super young. Even then, I’m souring on his actual upside as an impact maker.

JI and Carter have been replaced by Goga, TDS, and the injury gods. I’d argue JI hardly makes an impact 90% of the time anymore. He’s playing with past money and knees at this point.

Cole, Gary, and Jett? Forget it.

This FO could move everybody except Paolo, Franz, Suggs, and Goga and I really wouldn’t care tbh. They won’t though. They need the good ol’ 5 years of Orlando Magic data to know whether to move players when they’ve lost all real value to any other team in the league.

[TheChaser]

Jesus. A couple of losses really changes the mood around here.

[SOUL]

Read on Twitter

[RookieStar]

Our bench makes more than our starters, yeah?

Since 3 of our starters are in their rookie deals and our starting C is making backup noney then yeah..

[richi_v25]

I hate that we lost to NY in Orlando, I hope once our guys get healthy we get to blow them out. Back to back plus the refs were donkey, I'm surprised we were even winning at one point.

[OrlandoNed]

I don't think any assessments or judgements should be made on any player until Franz and Banchero come back.

Sure you can. Guys who can't hit wide open 3s suck at shooting and need to be replaced. There. Assessed and judged.

[OrlandoNed]

I don’t want to be upset with the guys. I know they’re doing the best they can at the moment with the new roles they are giving and you can tell they are losing heart. But this FO has got to get some offense in the off season. We have to move away from Cole, Gary, and Wendell. They are awesome humans but they don’t help this ball club in the way we need them to in the games.

We keep waiting every single offseason for more offense but we get nothing but doubling, tripling and quadrupling down on freaking defense.

[Idiosyncratic]

I don’t want to be upset with the guys. I know they’re doing the best they can at the moment with the new roles they are giving and you can tell they are losing heart. But this FO has got to get some offense in the off season. We have to move away from Cole, Gary, and Wendell. They are awesome humans but they don’t help this ball club in the way we need them to in the games.

We keep waiting every single offseason for more offense but we get nothing but doubling, tripling and quadrupling down on freaking defense.

How are they quadrupling down on anything? They've barely had any offseasons with this group. They drafted a 40 percent 3 shooter in college this offseason and signed another. Let's see what they do going forward. Paolo is in his 3rd year, the team has barely had time to be built around him.

They recently just stunk enough to get the number 1 pick.

[ORLMagicGirl15]

I don’t want to be upset with the guys. I know they’re doing the best they can at the moment with the new roles they are giving and you can tell they are losing heart. But this FO has got to get some offense in the off season. We have to move away from Cole, Gary, and Wendell. They are awesome humans but they don’t help this ball club in the way we need them to in the games.

We keep waiting every single offseason for more offense but we get nothing but doubling, tripling and quadrupling down on freaking defense.

How are they quadrupling down on anything? They've barely had any offseasons with this group. They drafted a 40 percent 3 shooter in college this offseason and signed another. Let's see what they do going forward. Paolo is in his 3rd year, the team has barely had time to be built around him.

They recently just stunk enough to get the number 1 pick.

I think he means that the FO doesn’t really draft or sign a ton of offensive players the past 7 years in office.

[KillMonger]

I mean brass tax? The problem is and always been scoring/shooting..... At some point weltman is going to have to sh t or get off the pot....the only issue is if we can really address this this season...

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[RichCollab]

We are down 3 of our top 4 offensive players.

We would have zero wins if it wasn’t for defense.

I’m high on AB and seeing TDS becoming a rotational player.

Jett is more likely a complete miss but I don’t think he is a complete loss yet. His shooting touch could be Magic. I’m ok if we give him another season and a half.

JI concerns me more than WCJ. JI doesn’t seem right. I wonder if he is playing through something given we’re already down Paolo and Franz.

Goga seems to be a legit starter. Hoping the more minutes at starter helps him improve even more.

[pepe1991]

Read on Twitter

Since season started i can't shake off feeling that we play like those Thib Bulls, especially after we lost our Rose.
They kind a play too hard, treat regular season like it's playoffs and that wears them off mentally but most importantly, it take toll on their health.

When NBA team shoots THIS poorly for such a long period of time with roster make up that isn't perfect, but still isn't that incapable you have to start asking questions. Are they just flat out too tired to be focused on shooting once they get into shooting positions?

One of key reasons why very few teams try to be new Bad Boy Pistons or 2000s Spurs/Pistons is changed pace of a league and addition of more and more and more running. Oldest distance runned historic data i can find is from 2013 and Magic were running below 17 miles a game, now it's more than 18. Pace went up as well.

[Blue_and_Whte]

I’m not high on AB but he’s shown enough for a wait and see approach. Jett can’t even get mins over Cole or Harris despite being a legit 3pt shooter? Something’s not right… Anyone that’s useless right now. WCJ, Cole, Jett… Send em packing.
Monitoring a potential Kings fire sale…

[ogmagicfan]

Read on Twitter

Since season started i can't shake off feeling that we play like those Thib Bulls, especially after we lost our Rose.
They kind a play too hard, treat regular season like it's playoffs and that wears them off mentally but most importantly, it take toll on their health.

When NBA team shoots THIS poorly for such a long period of time with roster make up that isn't perfect, but still isn't that incapable you have to start asking questions. Are they just flat out too tired to be focused on shooting once they get into shooting positions?

One of key reasons why very few teams try to be new Bad Boy Pistons or 2000s Spurs/Pistons is changed pace of a league and addition of more and more and more running. Oldest distance runned historic data i can find is from 2013 and Magic were running below 17 miles a game, now it's more than 18. Pace went up as well.

I've been asking myself the same question for some time now and I'm somewhat convinced that we are using so much energy on defense we're hurting our legs on offense.

I would be more confident in that being the case if we've had more acquistions and players who have left the team since Mosley has stepped in so there were numbers to compare; but there really hasnt been much movement on that end. Atleast not enough to draw a conclusion on.

Mosley has done a helluva job building a culture and identity to a team that has lacked one since Dwight was here. However, it might be time to scale back a little bit on the effort/defense energy expenditure for offensive side/self preservation for the end of the season push and playoffs.

[SOUL]

that's a dangerous slope to go down to take the intensity of this team and what their personnel does well and tell them to not put in as much effort. it could make sense if we have some untapped offensive potential, but let's be honest, I don't think its affecting many people outside of Suggs or KCP. you aren't unlocking some crazy level of anybody else really.

the presence of franz/paolo actually lets them conserve energy by having to do less with responsibility as far as offensive roles. just been brutal with injuries so far to key players

[Jiwol]

I saw the score by an accident (I usually watch games from a replay without knowing the outcome) and have no intention of watching the game. Seems like NY have our number in those times when we are shorthanded.

That being said, we all see the shortcomings of the roster construction. Something's got to give. Too much of a salary dead weight on this team. Magic are paying like 70 million for the services of KCP, JI, Wendell, Cole and Harris. You could get a similar production (or a lack of if you wanna phrase it this way) for a fraction of those earnings. If the FO don't put their heads out of their collective ass, we will be screwed in no time after the extensions of Franz, Suggs AND Banchero kick in.

Someone mentioned he wouldn't be opposed to trading anyone except for the aformentioned 3 and Goga. And it seems like a correct approach. TDS is also worth keeping but after a stat sheet like the one yesterday it's hard to defend him right now... But we all know it's not gonna happen unless we get a new front office so no point dreaming.