2023-2024 Regular Season Game 51: Orlando Magic (27-23) at Miami Heat (26-24) - 7:30pm

[JF5]

We also should go back to the AB/GOGA lineup, its the only time we had some elite defense to outweight our offensive struggles.

No.

That would make too much sense and would be apolitical.

The team just went 3-2 on a tough cross country road trip. And they ended up winning 3 in a row at one point. It was a very successful road trip.

You're acting like this team lost some bad games to teams that weren't supposed to beat them.

[DiplomaticMagic]

I can't imagine a world where we beat Miami in a play-in game.

I really hope we make some moves by Thursday afternoon.

[drsd]

We also should go back to the AB/GOGA lineup, its the only time we had some elite defense to outweight our offensive struggles.

No.

That would make too much sense and would be apolitical.

The team just went 3-2 on a tough cross country road trip. And they ended up winning 3 in a row at one point. It was a very successful road trip.

You're acting like this team lost some bad games to teams that weren't supposed to beat them.

And-1

[drsd]

Sing it with me: "Orlando needs shooting, Orlando needs shooting"

Box score thoughts:

Orlando lost the FG% battle and lost the game.

The Magic got DRUBBED in eFG% differential.
Yet the Heat dominated the boards over the Magic.
The Magic also lost the TO battle (badly)
That coupled to the Heat not only having a higher FG%, they also took more FG attempts. Sad.


p.s. once the Magic solves FG%, the next thing we can all winge about is the lack of a Magic Center that can consistently pull down 10 boards per game. That will be neither Carter nor Bitadze.

[p0peye]

Didn't watch the game, but boxscore tells me Markelle had a monster game. He hit a 3!!

[jezzerinho]

Well, just about the perfect game to illustrate - with a day left - that the Magic needs offense and guard play urgently.

So, thx Miami, I guess...

[Husky1]

That Ingles 11 mill and Cole 13 mill salaries look like absolute shockers at this point. Ingles can’t move anymore, and Cole……

[zaymon]

The rotation during our 9 game winning streak is looking less and less random.
Carter while good doesnt provide enough rim protection. Thats why we look different with JI on the floor.
I love Suggs, but he is so up and down, and his shooting is slowly starting to fade. I think he would be much better coming from the bench as jolt of energy. Him starting just inreases his next contract and we know that we need a lot more shooting from our backcourt, unless we trade one of Franz/Paolo for a 3 point specialist which wont happen.
Fultz with his best game of the season still not that impacful. We cant rely on him.
Paolo is getting a little frustrated. Big move is not necessary but we should get at least one guard who can shoot becouse our backcourt is a joke.

[Redwood]

Didn't watch the game, but boxscore tells me Markelle had a monster game. He hit a 3!!

And got to the FT line, absolutely insane game for him.

[Tarheel]

We got beat down by a team that knows how to beat us, plain and simple. Couldn't buy a bucket for chunks of the game either.

I saw someone on Twitter say that it's no bad thing to lose a game in that fashion (showing how we'll be defended in the playoffs) the day before the trade deadline.

Separate issue, as we'd have lost regardless, but chalk another one up for dreadful officiating. It's getting quite consistently bad. Hopefully the league does something with it.

[drsd]

Fultz was 50% with the longball in this game. Gotta resign this guy!


Those keeping score: yes Fultz has now made a three pointer. As in one; a single made threeball. He took 2 this game, which is the first time he shot from behind the arc since October. Really. That's not a mistype.

[Skybox]

Saw this posted on reddit:

Number of players averaging 13+ PPG:

6: Atlanta, Miami

5: Boston, Cleveland, Charlotte, Houston, Portland

4: Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Indiana, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Sacramento, Toronto, Utah

3: Brooklyn, Dallas, Golden State, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Washington

2: Orlando (Paolo and Franz)

...

Yeah, we need scoring talent. It's cool and I agree we should get AB and Goga more minutes, but if we're serious about being semi-competitive this year, we can't have streaky offensive players from everybody but our best players.

That is a huge, indefensible stat. If your third offensive (through 15th) threat is this comically inept…you’re not being serious.

[Skybox]

The rotation during our 9 game winning streak is looking less and less random.
Carter while good doesnt provide enough rim protection. Thats why we look different with JI on the floor.
I love Suggs, but he is so up and down, and his shooting is slowly starting to fade. I think he would be much better coming from the bench as jolt of energy. Him starting just inreases his next contract and we know that we need a lot more shooting from our backcourt, unless we trade one of Franz/Paolo for a 3 point specialist which wont happen.
Fultz with his best game of the season still not that impacful. We cant rely on him.
Paolo is getting a little frustrated. Big move is not necessary but we should get at least one guard who can shoot becouse our backcourt is a joke.

It’s getting really “homer” to continue praising this roster by individual strengths…
Suggs is a future star because he shoots well twice a month…how many years and extensions before we say “defensive specialist “
Carter is a “floor spreader”…chooses not to do it?
Fultz, Ingles, and AB are “floor generals”…without assists or meaningful points
Houstan and Harris are “3&D” without reliably doing either to a notable degree

They all have strengths and can be excused, one by one, but this is not a functional roster without competent offense after #1 and #2

[zaymon]

The rotation during our 9 game winning streak is looking less and less random.
Carter while good doesnt provide enough rim protection. Thats why we look different with JI on the floor.
I love Suggs, but he is so up and down, and his shooting is slowly starting to fade. I think he would be much better coming from the bench as jolt of energy. Him starting just inreases his next contract and we know that we need a lot more shooting from our backcourt, unless we trade one of Franz/Paolo for a 3 point specialist which wont happen.
Fultz with his best game of the season still not that impacful. We cant rely on him.
Paolo is getting a little frustrated. Big move is not necessary but we should get at least one guard who can shoot becouse our backcourt is a joke.

It’s getting really “homer” to continue praising this roster by individual strengths…
Suggs is a future star because he shoots well twice a month…how many years and extensions before we say “defensive specialist “
Carter is a “floor spreader”…chooses not to do it?
Fultz, Ingles, and AB are “floor generals”…without assists or meaningful points
Houstan and Harris are “3&D” without reliably doing either to a notable degree

They all have strengths and can be excused, one by one, but this is not a functional roster without competent offense after #1 and #2

I think we have only one glaring need that we have to fix quick and thats a guard who can run pick and roll. We can live with WCJ, we can live with Suggs shaky shooting, at least until next year, but we dont have functional offense without such a guard.

[Knightro]

Miami just plays a very professional style and always has under Spo.

Despite their talent, they aren't really all that great at outright beating you.

But if you make mistakes? If you turn it over, if you complain to the refs instead of getting back, if you don’t give appropriate effort on the defensive glass, they’ll take advantage of all of those lazy missteps and kill you with that.

Literally how they beat Orlando twice this season.

[fateis007]

We also should go back to the AB/GOGA lineup, its the only time we had some elite defense to outweight our offensive struggles.

No.

That would make too much sense and would be apolitical.

The team just went 3-2 on a tough cross country road trip. And they ended up winning 3 in a row at one point. It was a very successful road trip.

You're acting like this team lost some bad games to teams that weren't supposed to beat them.

Our offense and shooting is dreadful. We were down 10+ points in the first quarter in 3 of the games from not being able to score. Isaac won us 2 of those games, with him being able to come in and create a lineup of 4 guys at 6'11", and we played some ridic defense to compensate for our dreadful shooting.

The problem? The guy is very fragile, and without him in those 2 games, we likely get blownout.

Stop being in denial, if we hit the playoffs today we are going to get swept and easily. You simply can not have the worst 3 point shooting team in the nba. They will all do exactly what Miami did, just load up on Franz and Paolo, and let the worst scoring team in the nba do what they do.

Someone just posted that we are the only team in the nba with 2 guys scoring over 13 PPG, some have as much as 6.

It's getting ridic already.

We are not in a wait in see mode. Franz and Paolo have proven they can be our top 2 guys, but they need more help and Isaac sadly cant be counted on to lead an elite defense and save our ass.

I would put pretty much anyone on the table to upgrade our guard play and probably only keep Suggs because atleast he is proving to be a 3 and D guy (but id bench him easily for someone like Monk that can create offense)

[pepe1991]

The rotation during our 9 game winning streak is looking less and less random.
Carter while good doesnt provide enough rim protection. Thats why we look different with JI on the floor.
I love Suggs, but he is so up and down, and his shooting is slowly starting to fade. I think he would be much better coming from the bench as jolt of energy. Him starting just inreases his next contract and we know that we need a lot more shooting from our backcourt, unless we trade one of Franz/Paolo for a 3 point specialist which wont happen.
Fultz with his best game of the season still not that impacful. We cant rely on him.
Paolo is getting a little frustrated. Big move is not necessary but we should get at least one guard who can shoot becouse our backcourt is a joke.

It’s getting really “homer” to continue praising this roster by individual strengths…
Suggs is a future star because he shoots well twice a month…how many years and extensions before we say “defensive specialist “
Carter is a “floor spreader”…chooses not to do it?
Fultz, Ingles, and AB are “floor generals”…without assists or meaningful points
Houstan and Harris are “3&D” without reliably doing either to a notable degree

They all have strengths and can be excused, one by one, but this is not a functional roster without competent offense after #1 and #2

Because all of them are situational role players that aren't consistant nor can bring something every game. I mean, vast majority of players in nba, who aren't stars are like that. Some better. Some worst.

Like, this is literally 9 games sample of one nba player



One game he is scoring 20, other 2.

This guy averages 9ppg, 3 rebounds, 2,6 assists. Shoots -48% FG, 41% for 3.

Our starting SG averages 12 ppg, 3,3 rpg, and 2,4 assists. Shoots 44% FG, 38% for 3.

First guy got very moderate 3 yeras $41M contract.

Suggs will probably get 4 years $80-100M for averaging 3 points more , doing nothing else all that better.

That's just NBA in nutshell. Paying big money for role players is idiotic, yet most teams do so in fear of losing them for nothing.

oh that guy is Josh Green, Josh Green is 7 months older than " just unwrapping untapped potential" Suggs.

People just have their favorites & players they dislike and find ways to reforge their view.

Wendell being scapegoated in favor of Goga is example of people being exited about novelity of something over objective, critical thinking.

People complain about shooting & spacing on ne side, than talk how we should start slow footed 7 footer who does apsolutley nothing outside 3 feet.



Our role players are just that- role players. We, like any other fanbase tend to overhype them in hope they can be more, because we watch them every game and through 82 games season and several years, they all have some big moments, and make you think they can be more. As we ignore other 95% of games where - they can't.

[Bergmaniac]

We did pretty much everything possible to lose this game. Dumb turnovers, lazy D at times, especially in transition, whining to the refs instead of going back, poor outside shooting, etc. And for once Isaac's minutes were bad defensively and we couldn't make up for the usual problems during them.

Franz with a disaster game on offense, 7 turnovers and so many of them were just horrible.

Cole is even scared to shoot now, so why is he even playing? If he is not going to shoot much, what's he giving you?

Ingles has looked really old lately, I think he shouldn't play without Isaac and should play more sparingly in general.

Those keeping score: yes Fultz has now made a three pointer. As in one; a single made threeball. He took 2 this game, which is the first time he shot from behind the arc since October. Really. That's not a mistype.

And he was actually asking for the ball on quite a few possessions when he was spotting up at the three point line, for the first time in forever. He was usually ignored by his teammates though for obvious reasons. But at least he wasn't scared to shoot and ask for the ball on the perimeter for once.

In fairness to him he had a decent game, but it goes to show how low the standard is for him in some areas when making a single three and getting to the line once is a highly notable occasion. But again, if he is going to spend 80% of the possessions offball, why play him in the first place?

[JBSouthpaw]

Miami just plays a very professional style and always has under Spo.

Despite their talent, they aren't really all that great at outright beating you.

But if you make mistakes? If you turn it over, if you complain to the refs instead of getting back, if you don’t give appropriate effort on the defensive glass, they’ll take advantage of all of those lazy missteps and kill you with that.

Literally how they beat Orlando twice this season.

Yep, they are pros. You can't turn the ball over 4-5 times in the 1st 8 min of a game and expect to come back from that.
Being down like that to good teams takes us out of how we play best.

Our possessions to start the game:
TO
Missed shot
Missed shot
TO
TO
Score
Missed shot
TO
Missed shot
Missed shot.
2 missed FTs.
score is 2-11, we got close but Miami played smarter.

[Skybox]

The rotation during our 9 game winning streak is looking less and less random.
Carter while good doesnt provide enough rim protection. Thats why we look different with JI on the floor.
I love Suggs, but he is so up and down, and his shooting is slowly starting to fade. I think he would be much better coming from the bench as jolt of energy. Him starting just inreases his next contract and we know that we need a lot more shooting from our backcourt, unless we trade one of Franz/Paolo for a 3 point specialist which wont happen.
Fultz with his best game of the season still not that impacful. We cant rely on him.
Paolo is getting a little frustrated. Big move is not necessary but we should get at least one guard who can shoot becouse our backcourt is a joke.

It’s getting really “homer” to continue praising this roster by individual strengths…
Suggs is a future star because he shoots well twice a month…how many years and extensions before we say “defensive specialist “
Carter is a “floor spreader”…chooses not to do it?
Fultz, Ingles, and AB are “floor generals”…without assists or meaningful points
Houstan and Harris are “3&D” without reliably doing either to a notable degree

They all have strengths and can be excused, one by one, but this is not a functional roster without competent offense after #1 and #2

Because all of them are situational role players that aren't consistant nor can bring something every game. I mean, vast majority of players in nba, who aren't stars are like that. Some better. Some worst.

Like, this is literally 9 games sample of one nba player



One game he is scoring 20, other 2.

This guy averages 9ppg, 3 rebounds, 2,6 assists. Shoots -48% FG, 41% for 3.

Our starting SG averages 12 ppg, 3,3 rpg, and 2,4 assists. Shoots 44% FG, 38% for 3.

First guy got very moderate 3 yeras $41M contract.

Suggs will probably get 4 years $80-100M for averaging 3 points more , doing nothing else all that better.

That's just NBA in nutshell. Paying big money for role players is idiotic, yet most teams do so in fear of losing them for nothing.

oh that guy is Josh Green, Josh Green is 7 months older than " just unwrapping untapped potential" Suggs.

People just have their favorites & players they dislike and find ways to reforge their view.

Wendell being scapegoated in favor of Goga is example of people being exited about novelity of something over objective, critical thinking.

People complain about shooting & spacing on ne side, than talk how we should start slow footed 7 footer who does apsolutley nothing outside 3 feet.



Our role players are just that- role players. We, like any other fanbase tend to overhype them in hope they can be more, because we watch them every game and through 82 games season and several years, they all have some big moments, and make you think they can be more. As we ignore other 95% of games where - they can't.

That's what I said...one by one, they have a defensible skill...but we don't have a legitimate offensive (reliable, consistent) provider after the first 2...I don't know if a viable PG could be considered a role player, but we need that ROLE and shooting roles more than we need all of these other roles filled (again and again).