2023-2024 Regular Season Game 58: Orlando Magic (32-25) at Atlanta Hawks (24-32) - 7pm

[thelead]

I find it interesting that we went away from Suggs running the offense... which was working in the first half...

I see these posts a lot but a lot of it is team's game plan to take things away that work rather than us willingly going away from something that is working. If we're able to identify it from the couch, coaches who get paid to do this for a living can tell their team to adjust. There's only so many counters we have with our current offensive talent.

Yet we let Suggs rot on the bench while Dejounte scored 14 points right after Mose pulls him with 5:48 to go in 3rd. Dejounte played the entire quarter. He scored 2 point on Suggs in 6:12 in the 3rd. And proceeded to score 14 in the remaining 5:48. Suggs had tallied a whopping 18 minutes up to that point.

Mose did not adjust there. It's okay to call it out. It's not news to anyone that Suggs is our best perimeter defender.

[richi_v25]

Man Black sucks, I can't believe we wasted a high pick on him, really 4 points in 30 minutes? Don't get started on Nepo baby Jett.

[ORLMagicGirl15]

I know the stats say that Paolo doesn't help us in wins...but what my eyes just saw says something completely different. I don't think anyone knew what they were supposed to do out there without Paolo. And that's sad because we had 4 point guards available.

[Bensational]

Adam Silver’s RealGM burner account has been uncovered y’all!

C’mon man, you’ve got little to no insight into what other teams would’ve done on draft night.

The Magic's front office is both the least creative and least aggressive in the entire NBA. You know this.

Could they have taken somebody like Lively 11th overall and then turned around and actually attempted to get aggressive and creative and looked to traded up from their 2nd round pick 36 to like the early 20s using a future asset and still very likely gotten Howard there?

I think it's at least possible that could have happened and they never even remotely considered the possibility.

And then to put the cherry on top, not only did they pick Jett earlier than he probably deserved to go, but apparently he's so raw and bad that he can't even sniff the floor for a team that's absolutely desperate for shooting.

That’s a long way of saying “correct, I have no idea what other teams would’ve done on draft night had Jett been available”.

And in the event we picked someone else and Jett blew up for another team we’d have another Cole/Maxey situation for WeHam. I’d give Jett til year 3 before forming a firm opinion on him.

[KillMonger]

Franz issue is he became a two level scorer when he was 2.5 or 3 levels.... For whatever reason he completely discarded the midrange out of his game except for floaters.... He's either driving or shooting a 3 but for him to take a step forward he has to shoot those middys like he did in his second year.... They're locking up the paint, dejounte Murray just killed us in that 3rd with just middys for the most part

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[thelead]

Man... we're likely going to be a lotto team if we don't get into the top 6. Not sure I like our chance of getting there without JI.

We're 1-3 against Miami, and 1-3 against Atlanta.

[Knightro]

I find it interesting that we went away from Suggs running the offense... which was working in the first half...

I see these posts a lot but a lot of it is team's game plan to take things away that work rather than us willingly going away from something that is working. If we're able to identify it from the couch, coaches who get paid to do this for a living can tell their team to adjust. There's only so many counters we have with our current offensive talent.

Yet we let Suggs rot on the bench while Dejounte scored 14 points right after Mose pulls him with 5:48 to go in 3rd. Dejounte played the entire quarter. He scored 2 point on Suggs in 6:12 in the 3rd. And proceeded to score 14 in the remaining 5:48. Suggs had tallied a whopping 18 minutes up to that point.

Mose did not adjust there. It's okay to call it out. It's not news to anyone that Suggs is our best perimeter defender.

Suggs played 28 minutes tonight. He plays 26.7 MPG on the season.

I'm not sure what the reason is exactly, whether it's the organization trying their best to save his body from all the little knocks and dings he picks up every night, or if it's how much energy he expends defensively every night - but it's beyond clear at this point that the Magic do not see Suggs as a heavy minute player at this time.

He has only played over 32 minutes five times the entire season. That's just the way it is with him.

[KillMonger]

Man Black sucks, I can't believe we wasted a high pick on him, really 4 points in 30 minutes? Don't get started on Nepo baby Jett.

It's funny to me people still crying about this.... Sack up man and deal with it, what's done is done

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[byeganyo]

Man... we're likely going to be a lotto team if we don't get into the top 6. Not sure I like our chance of getting there without JI.

We're 1-3 against Miami, and 1-3 against Atlanta.

this is not a disaster, if we were in win now mode, moves would have been made, maybe missing the playoffs could be better in the long run, proving that the team need some upgrades.

[SOUL]

Franz issue is he became a two level scorer when he was 2.5 or 3 levels.... For whatever reason he completely discarded the midrange out of his game except for floaters.... He's either driving or shooting a 3 but for him to take a step forward he has to shoot those middys like he did in his second year.... They're locking up the paint, dejounte Murray just killed us in that 3rd with just middys for the most part

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I agree actually, he needs a bit of wiggle in his game.

He seems so mechanical at times. Like he's a beast when he gets rolling and then other times he sort of has that Ryan Anderson style of game which is.. fine but not elite.

[msmoore66]

Fultz is done man.

In first half Houstan scored 12 out of our 51 points off like 5 shots.

Boys are tired tho, no big deal

Exactly!

[ORLMagicGirl15]

I now understand why Paolo felt like he needed to play these games. Still glad he took the game off so that he can begin to feel better.

[msmoore66]

Magic were -23 in the minutes Franz didn't play tonight.

But according to Last Guardian Franz sucks!!

[SOUL]

I felt in my heart this was 80% a loss but I will lose my **** if we lose to Brooklyn again lol

[richi_v25]

Man Black sucks, I can't believe we wasted a high pick on him, really 4 points in 30 minutes? Don't get started on Nepo baby Jett.

It's funny to me people still crying about this.... Sack up man and deal with it, what's done is done

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It's true, what's funny is i like Black, his vlogs on YouTube were pretty good just wished he had a little bit more offensive this season. Suggs/Cole were unwatchable their first year too hopefully he figures it out.

[SOUL]

https://twitter.com/JJudahIsaac/likes

Look at the most recent like!! Hoping it's not bad

[Message Boar]

Schedule loss, can't believe we were favored. I bet the Vegas sharps were all over that.

Hope JI's injury doesn't turn out to be anything too severe.

[ChosenSavior]

Just give me good news on JI. Already over this game. Energy was off from the tip so was really hard to get into the game.

[ogmagicfan]

Franz issue is he became a two level scorer when he was 2.5 or 3 levels.... For whatever reason he completely discarded the midrange out of his game except for floaters.... He's either driving or shooting a 3 but for him to take a step forward he has to shoot those middys like he did in his second year.... They're locking up the paint, dejounte Murray just killed us in that 3rd with just middys for the most part

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I think what weirder, and I wish someone would write a deep dove article about is how Franz has added sonething in his bag for his in between game, then goes away from it completely a couple months into the season

Last year it was the Dirk esque turnaround. He was doing it every game then randomly around like New Years he cut it out his game completely.

This year it was the 7-10 ft floater, he was spamming it so much to begin the season, but a lil before he got injured he did the same thing and pretty much stopped doing it, now he does it a fraction of the frequency.

I dont mind him cutting out the floater because it wasnt as effective especially once he got tired and he wasnt drawing many fouls on it, but I'm curious the decision making process behind it all and if either have contributed to his slow shooting starts the past 2 seasons

[SOUL]

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