2023-2024 Regular Season Game 65: Indiana Pacers (35-29) at Orlando Magic (37-27) - 6pm

[thelead]

Offense is hard when you have no shooters, but I'd say it's even more hard when you have nobody that can break people down with their dribble. With Suggs out, it's non-existent. And he's not even amazing at it.

Black can't yet.

Gary and Caleb don't like to dribble much.

Cole actually can but he's not a PG so it's either good or ugly.

Ingles can only do it in a P&R.

Franz/Paolo can up to a point but they usually end in isos.

Fultz can but nobody cares about his offense and he's broken.

Suggs is okay at it, but for our two best player's strengths, it works.

I keep asking myself...

How do the Magic take the next step next season?

Banking on nothing more than internal improvement from Paolo, Franz, Suggs and Black just isn't enough.

They need all those guys to keep getting better *and* use their cap space and additional assets to upgrade Fultz, Harris and Ingles. And maybe Cole and Carter too.

We have to move off of Cole. He's a scorer that brings nothing else and is at 53.9% TS% in his 4th year.

Sadly, we don't have enough cap space for two big signings.

[CocoaFan]

The Magic look like a really tired team to me. Playing high pressure defense for the entire season is going to wear a team down. Paolo and Franz look cooked. Playing Paolo with the 2nd unit almost the entire 3rd quarter doesn't seem to work and is wearing Paolo down. He does a lot of iso plays and it disrupts the chemistry with Moe, Ingles, and Cole. It would be great if Isaac can increase his minutes to take those from Paolo.

[Howard Mass]

If it makes anyone feel better, Washington beat Miami in their own building tonight.

[Bensational]

You’ve been beating the drum for a new PG since last offseason. The team is currently fighting for home court advantage in the playoffs. It clearly hasn’t been as debilitating as you’ve made out. It’s become meaningless chicken little complaints at this stage. Changes will happen in time and improvements will be made, just let it happen and stop crucifying the guys on rookie scale contracts for not being a veteran playoff presence already, and maybe applaud the level of overachievement they’ve accomplished.

Or just put “I want a new PG for the Magic” in your sig to save yourself typing it- because at this stage we all know that’s where most of your comments will end up.

This is where you lose me. I'm critical because I don't trust the front office to build the roster out in a way that will make them an actual championship contender. I'm thinking about this big picture, beyond just this season. How do the Magic level up next year and beyond?

I'm NOT down on the progress of the players on the roster or this season at large whatsoever. Not in the slightest. It's been a lot of fun and I'm pleased with the development of a lot of the guys. Regardless of what happens with the playoffs/play-in. This year has been a successful one.

That said...

What I am going to push back every time on this REALLY BAD TAKE that the Magic don't need a better option than what they have right now at point guard because A. Paolo and Franz have the ball a lot and we couldn't possibly want to take it out of their hands at all and B. we have a 20 year old guard on the roster who never dribbles and has played almost 1100 minutes and recorded just 86 assists for the entire season.

The Magic have a very good defense and play a style (slow pace, force turnovers, don't give up OREB to limit opponent FGA) that most teams just don't really play. They are a zagging team in a league full of teams that are zigging. That's why they're winning games.

They're 23rd in offense.

They're 27th in turnovers.

They're dead last in 3PT made *and* 3PT attempted.

Addressing the point guard position would help all of these things.

Maybe you should have some trust since they’ve assembled a team that is fighting for home court advantage in the playoffs in Paolo’s 2nd year and without having to chase major additions? That alone should earn them a grace period to continue as they are and eventually address those roster weaknesses. For now though? It’s infinitely more valuable to see how far Paolo and Franz can go alone whilst giving Suggs and Black minutes to learn and grow.

You say you’re thinking big picture but you still seem to lack awareness of where the team is in its development timeline. They aren’t contending or ready for contender dressings. And if that player is just a short term fix how do you ensure there’s a suitable replacement for them when the team is ready to compete?

You just have an approach that wants to skip steps compared to what the team is doing, which could also be encouraging the team to zig with the rest of the league when zagging is their strength.

Just consider this: Houston is 28-29 with FVV and 1-6 without him. We’re 37-27 without him, and we’ve kept the ball in the hands of our developing players so that we learn not to go 1-6 without him. I guarantee Paolo is learning more from this than he would from being Siakam next to Fred.

[thelead]

If it makes anyone feel better, Washington beat Miami in their own building tonight.

Knicks have 61 pts with 6 minutes to go in the 4th. That makes me feel a bit better.

[Bensational]

We have to move off of Cole. He's a scorer that brings nothing else and is at 53.9% TS% in his 4th year.

Cole’s contract will be perfectly priced to move him this summer. I continue to have a strong hunch that there’s a plan to get him to NY, and he took a below market value deal to ensure it will happen.

But I’m conflicted because I feel like Cole has also become pretty core to the team’s culture, but maybe that starts to evolve after this season.

[thelead]

We have to move off of Cole. He's a scorer that brings nothing else and is at 53.9% TS% in his 4th year.

Cole’s contract will be perfectly priced to move him this summer. I continue to have a strong hunch that there’s a plan to get him to NY, and he took a below market value deal to ensure it will happen.

But I’m conflicted because I feel like Cole has also become pretty core to the team’s culture, but maybe that starts to evolve after this season.

Trade him for whatever and bring in Jrue Holiday on a massive overpay. Culture (and many other problems) fixed.

[Knightro]

I think one thing that people don't *really* want to admit because of how fun it is to win more than you lose is that this season has been a bit of fool's gold.

The Magic have absolutely FEASTED on bad teams at home and on bad teams period.

They're 22-6 against the 12 teams under .500.
They're 15-22 against the 16 teams over .500.

(the only team they haven't played yet is New Orleans)

[eyriq]

This loss doesn't really inspire any grand assumptions. I'm just disappointed. I did see this as a toss-up game and I saw the New York game as a disadvantage. So really, I'm not that disappointed. We've won every other game I thought would be toss-ups so far. We'll bounce back and finish top six.

I liked AB's energy in the second half. He picked it up. I'm really concerned about Franz's outside shot. JI continues to remind us that he's the X Factor for a scenario where we advance out of the first round.

[Optimus_Steel]

Strange night in The association Miami looses at home to Wsh. Cleveland blown out at home vs Nets. Knicks/Sixers playing a mid 1990s game.

[ORLMagicGirl15]

I think one thing that people don't *really* want to admit because of how fun it is to win more than you lose is that this season has been a bit of fool's gold.

The Magic have absolutely FEASTED on bad teams at home and on bad teams period.

They're 22-6 against the 12 teams under .500.
They're 15-22 against the 16 teams over .500.

(the only team they haven't played yet is New Orleans)

It’s not fools gold, it is just part of the process. The teams that are in the same range might have the same splits or similar. When we started this season we as a fanbase wanted to make the playin. This team is learning how to win. We’re not quite there, we need a shooting and a floor general. We’ll get there.

[Kent]

I think one thing that people don't *really* want to admit because of how fun it is to win more than you lose is that this season has been a bit of fool's gold.

The Magic have absolutely FEASTED on bad teams at home and on bad teams period.

They're 22-6 against the 12 teams under .500.
They're 15-22 against the 16 teams over .500.

(the only team they haven't played yet is New Orleans)

You're not wrong. And I get what you're saying here.

The Magic *ARE* a good team. But not close to contending yet.

You and I aren't saying anything we didn't already know. But overall, we're ahead of where we thought we'd be coming into this season which is awesome.

[Knightro]

You say you’re thinking big picture but you still seem to lack awareness of where the team is in its development timeline. They aren’t contending or ready for contender dressings. And if that player is just a short term fix how do you ensure there’s a suitable replacement for them when the team is ready to compete?

Answer this question for me...

Let's say the Magic end up winning 46 games this season.

Would you be ok with winning fewer games than that next season, or is your expectation for them to win more games than that?

[ORLMagicGirl15]

One thing for certain the these next few years, someone on this team need to learn to take over a game. And the front office has got to get us a point guard and shooters.

[SOUL]

I think one thing that people don't *really* want to admit because of how fun it is to win more than you lose is that this season has been a bit of fool's gold.

The Magic have absolutely FEASTED on bad teams at home and on bad teams period.

They're 22-6 against the 12 teams under .500.
They're 15-22 against the 16 teams over .500.

(the only team they haven't played yet is New Orleans)

Eh, this seems a bit like those clickbaity titles "10 things you secretly DONT want to know about the ORLANDO Magic" Knicks and Heat also have bad records against + .500 teams, Cavs have only 1 more win but 4-5 less games I think.

Ironically, I thought we were better last year at taking games off of better teams but blowing games versus the bad ones, so I'll take it still. We're the 5th youngest team that was expected to fight for a play-in spot this year and now people are legit questioning whether we deserve to be in or should be a lotto team because we're probably not going to win a series.. which nobody thought we would going into this year.

We also have wins against the Celtics, Heat, Bucks, Suns, Minny, Denver x2, NY x3, Indy x2, etc. Not all terrible but a step in the right direction.

[RookieStar]

Yeah... MIA lost as well.. so not much movement in the standings

[byeganyo]

I'm less worried about a large Suggs contract than a Franz one at this point. He's deserving of one, but that three pointer needs to get right. Can't just be a Wizards-Pistons destroyer merchant.

He is deserving **** so far, he has shown promise, but this is the first season he is playing competitve basketball, fighting for playoffs, being taken seriously and so far he is playing bellow everyone's expectation. Suggs and JI have stepped up and silenced the critics, Franz has started having some, thats the story of the season.

[eyriq]

I think one thing that people don't *really* want to admit because of how fun it is to win more than you lose is that this season has been a bit of fool's gold.

The Magic have absolutely FEASTED on bad teams at home and on bad teams period.

They're 22-6 against the 12 teams under .500.
They're 15-22 against the 16 teams over .500.

(the only team they haven't played yet is New Orleans)

I'm what context is this fools gold??

Here's what I interpret you're getting at: "Executives should have replaced Fultz and they didn't and now we got this fools gold top 6 performance. I told you so."

Doesn't work like that brother. Doesn't mean you're wrong that they should have replaced Fultz, he clearly regressed. But saying this is fool's gold doesn't cut it. The defense is legit, not sure what you think is fraudulent there. Paolo is an all-star, Franz is a two-way rising star, Suggs is a two-way stud. So again, not sure what you think is fraudulent there. This team is well coached and has one of the best young cores of all time to build around.

[KillMonger]

Yeah we need to lock Suggs up, wonder what his contract going to look like?

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[VFX]

I hate the offense.

I don’t really care why it’s terrible iso garbage and taking contested 3’s early in the shot clock, but it’s terrible and needs to be fixed.