2024-2025 Regular Season Game 19: Orlando Magic (11-7) at Charlotte Hornets (6-10) - 7pm

[KillMonger]

I couldn't watch a game but injury report was enough to know winner.
Pretty much every single Hornets PF and C is hurt. Their starting C should be home playing with his grandkids.

As for Lamelo, he is bit immature, but almost all people who grew up with camera stuck in their face are.
Guy was on WWE when he was 15. What majority of us did at age of 15? Beat meat and daydreamed about hoes. Let's be real.

He is still very young (23) and you hope that over some period of time he becomes more of Lonzo and less of Lavar.
Right now i don't see how his behavior is any different than young Kyrie for example. Talked smack, got into some awkward stuff, said some bit over a top things.
For crying out loud, Ja Morant was gun swinging at kids last year and people already forgot about it

Hornets are off to a bad start, but given they lost both Cs and both PFs it's not unexpected, and 5 of their losses were within 2 possession.

Sorry....didn't expect to read this from you

[eyriq]

You won't see this often: we got out-shot, out-rebounded, and had a lower FTr, but still won the game. LaMelo and Miller with 13/27 turnovers. Yikes.

[eyriq]

All that said, LaMelo did enough to win, his team let him down and Franz stepped up.

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[basketballRob]

Watch on YouTube

Seriously... this guy...

That's pretty hilarious. The reporter asked if it was the game plan to leave open the 3 pt shooters. You could tell it wasn't. That's just how bad their defense is, and it worked out in this game.

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[Knightro]

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[JoshuaPotter]

Well ok. I have never heard us play that badly in franchise history and still win. (I listen in on radio)

Win is win. On to the sweater vest thread.

[eyriq]

It's crazy that Cole/Jett/Franz/JI/Moe was the lineup that took control of the game. They had runs of 5-0, 11-0, and 5-0.

[Knightro]

All that said, LaMelo did enough to win, his team let him down and Franz stepped up.

LaMelo did play well! That’s not in question at all. I’ll say it again for like the 10th time, he is an unbelievably talented player.

He just doesn’t seem to get it. It just feels like he’s one of these guys who just doesn’t understand what it takes to consistently win, and thus doesn’t really care all that much when he loses.

And once a guy stops caring (or never cared to begin with) about whether or not his team wins, it can be really hard to get players to re-engage that feeling.

[The-Stallion70]

3 points in 59 combined minutes from their forwards (!)

[Knightro]

3 points in 59 combined minutes from their forwards (!)

I know he's a teenager and I know it was a weak draft, but this poor kid Salaün looks so brutal out there.

.288 from the floor
.275 from 3PT

His TOV% is higher than his USG% which seems like a made up stat.

Early returns have been yuck.

[Optimus_Steel]

Keep rewatching his highlights while you ignore the W/L record…

Who would you trade him for if you were the Hornets though, if he's as bad as you think lol

I don’t think he is bad at all. He is extremely talented. However I see a guy that is not serious, careless, not a leader, unwilling to rally the troops, undisciplined, bad decision maker, horrific defender. All those things filter down to the lesser players, makes it worse he is the PG. The Hornets may do good in bringing in a veteran with a domineering personality that can lead him because he incapable of leading.


Btw I don’t partake in theoretical trade talk after that infamous Chris Paul trade wish thread many years ago, broke me

[three3d]

This can’t be the real KCP right? Another O-fer from deep… it’s getting really old at this point. We’re nearly a quarter into the season and he’s shooting 22% from deep on 4 attempts per game.

Despite winning I still have to say this KCP experiment just isn’t working or feeling right. He was absolutely forgettable in last nights game and has provided little to no offensive treat all season. Down Suggs, Paolo, Harris, WCJ last night and Franz having a bad game till the 3rd was the perfect time for KCP to standout, yeah, I hardly recall him even being on the floor

[Bergmaniac]

It's quite amazing this game was close almost till the end despite the Hornets committing turnovers at a hilarious rate with nobody except LaMelo being able to score for them remotely efficiently and the Magic taking 20 more shots. It really showed how bad we shot from 3, they dared us to shoot them for most of the game and we kept bricking, it got to the point where Da Silva straight upo started passing on wide open looks and Black also being very hesitant to shoot. Thankfuly Isaac and Franz made some 3s in the fourth and we closed it out with the help of some great D. But a less shorthanded team would have punished such bad shooting night.

Defence was fantastic though and Cole finally looked like an NBA player, so there are some positives. And all away wins are good wins. A shame Harris got injured again, he looked good early on and was on a decent ministreak, hopefully it's not serious.

[VFX]

This can’t be the real KCP right? Another O-fer from deep… it’s getting really old at this point. We’re nearly a quarter into the season and he’s shooting 22% from deep on 4 attempts per game.

Despite winning I still have to say this KCP experiment just isn’t working or feeling right. He was absolutely forgettable in last nights game and has provided little to no offensive treat all season. Down Suggs, Paolo, Harris, WCJ last night and Franz having a bad game till the 3rd was the perfect time for KCP to standout, yeah, I hardly recall him even being on the floor

That was the litmus test IMO for KCP being a shred of anything.

Orlando was begging for dudes to step up and he has 1 total fg in this game in 30 minutes.
I get the argument that he isn't a high volume guy, but he's being guarded by bench players and was a total non factor offensively.

Suggs was out. Gary was out early. Only guy worse somehow was Jett. 23 minutes of nothing and bad defense.

Just a stupid signing so far.

[three3d]

This can’t be the real KCP right? Another O-fer from deep… it’s getting really old at this point. We’re nearly a quarter into the season and he’s shooting 22% from deep on 4 attempts per game.

Despite winning I still have to say this KCP experiment just isn’t working or feeling right. He was absolutely forgettable in last nights game and has provided little to no offensive treat all season. Down Suggs, Paolo, Harris, WCJ last night and Franz having a bad game till the 3rd was the perfect time for KCP to standout, yeah, I hardly recall him even being on the floor

That was the litmus test IMO for KCP being a shred of anything.

Orlando was begging for dudes to step up and he has 1 total fg in this game in 30 minutes.
I get the argument that he isn't a high volume guy, but he's being guarded by bench players and was a total non factor offensively.

Just a stupid signing so far.

There is a time and a place for him to step up and last night was that time he needed to step up. I get it. He’s still new and filling the team out and his role, but he also has championship pedigree and is the veteran on the team. The shots aren’t falling, he the guy that gathers the team together and figures out what the problem is. Get in there a@@ if need be. I know the legs are tired and they had a tough West Coast Rd. trip, followed by one game at home and then back on the road but still do something

[Knightro]

That was the litmus test IMO for KCP being a shred of anything.

Orlando was begging for dudes to step up and he has 1 total fg in this game in 30 minutes.
I get the argument that he isn't a high volume guy, but he's being guarded by bench players and was a total non factor offensively.

Suggs was out. Gary was out early. Only guy worse somehow was Jett. 23 minutes of nothing and bad defense.

Just a stupid signing so far.

Expecting a guy who has literally at no point in his NBA career ever even had a 20 USG% to suddenly at age 31 become something he's never been when the 30% USG% guy he was signed to play off of gets hurt is silly.

And to expect it for no other reason than he's being paid more than you think he's worth is just even sillier, man.

KCP was signed to be a high end role player. You might not like how much he's being paid, but that's what they signed him to do and he's certainly not going to magically become a guy who takes 15-18 shots and decides to call his own number in a game just because Paolo got hurt and isn't there.

But again, you know enough about basketball to understand all of this and there's a level of performance art to all of this outrage you have.

[basketballRob]

My hope is KCP finds his niche when the team is fully healthy. He's found a role in the past being a good role player on good teams. He's not going to be a 1, 2, or 3, even on a bad team.

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[JoshuaPotter]

That was the litmus test IMO for KCP being a shred of anything.

Orlando was begging for dudes to step up and he has 1 total fg in this game in 30 minutes.
I get the argument that he isn't a high volume guy, but he's being guarded by bench players and was a total non factor offensively.

Suggs was out. Gary was out early. Only guy worse somehow was Jett. 23 minutes of nothing and bad defense.

Just a stupid signing so far.

Expecting a guy who has literally at no point in his NBA career ever even had a 20 USG% to suddenly at age 31 become something he's never been when the 30% USG% guy he was signed to play off of gets hurt is silly.

And to expect it for no other reason than he's being paid more than you think he's worth is just even sillier, man.

KCP was signed to be a high end role player. You might not like how much he's being paid, but that's what they signed him to do and he's certainly not going to magically become a guy who takes 15-18 shots and decides to call his own number in a game just because Paolo got hurt and isn't there.

But again, you know enough about basketball to understand all of this and there's a level of performance art to all of this outrage you have.

Agree to disagree on this one knightro. I am starting to move towards this being a bad signing. You make good points, I do not expect him to do anything more or less then what he was paid to do in his contract.

He isn't delivering that. Not even close.

Frankly, and this is my opinion of him as a veteran, I expected way better shooting then we have gotten. This is obscenely bad. I keep waiting for him to get streaky, or announce that he is playing through injury. Something, anything to put me at ease and we haven't gotten it yet.

His defense is as advertised. That's about it.

[VFX]

That was the litmus test IMO for KCP being a shred of anything.

Orlando was begging for dudes to step up and he has 1 total fg in this game in 30 minutes.
I get the argument that he isn't a high volume guy, but he's being guarded by bench players and was a total non factor offensively.

Suggs was out. Gary was out early. Only guy worse somehow was Jett. 23 minutes of nothing and bad defense.

Just a stupid signing so far.

Expecting a guy who has literally at no point in his NBA career ever even had a 20 USG% to suddenly at age 31 become something he's never been when the 30% USG% guy he was signed to play off of gets hurt is silly.

And to expect it for no other reason than he's being paid more than you think he's worth is just even sillier, man.

KCP was signed to be a high end role player. You might not like how much he's being paid, but that's what they signed him to do and he's certainly not going to magically become a guy who takes 15-18 shots and decides to call his own number in a game just because Paolo got hurt and isn't there.

But again, you know enough about basketball to understand all of this and there's a level of performance art to all of this outrage you have.

Said nothing about his pay in this post other than him being a signing. Thats you parsing my other posts. He WAS their primary target when the dust settled from the blockbuster names.

He's an nba starter bro. Role player or not he took 4 shots and made 1 last night, against bench players, while Orlando had a depleted back court being propped up by 2 2-year players.

You keep claiming hes been absolute dog **** because Paolo isnt on the floor with him. Sorry, thats just making excuses.

So they either went after KCP knowing he was going to be a journeyman roleplayer defender or that he WAS as good as indicated in Denver as MORE than that. Either he's massively underperforming compared to his career numbers OR he was always just a guy that fills a VERY niche role in Orlando as a mentor we should have no further expectations from. IDK seems very convenient all of a sudden that he was NEVER a home run signing I heard about all offseason.

[eyriq]

Fultz was the key point of conflict and a primary reason to doubt this front office. He blocked AB, he brought negative spacing and reinforced the sense that the front office didn't value that factor, and he was a fan favorite which created a sense of frustrating inevitability.

Fultz saved this front office from themselves by unequivocally sucking. With him out of the equation it's easier to settle into a "I like this team" drum beat. Just my two cents on why more posters are highlighting positive developments and emphasizing positive outlooks vs last year.