2023-2024 Regular Season Game 54: Oklahoma City Thunder (36-17) at Orlando Magic (29-24) - 7:30pm

[fendilim]

I hope jett lits it up lol

[Howard Mass]

OKC is really good but feel The Magic have thrown in the towel.

There is no middle for this team at times.

[SOUL]

Sometimes you gotta get punched in the mouth to wake up in terms of roster building. We have the semblance of something, but if you want to be GREAT then obviously there are a lot of things to do better.

Want the FO/team to wake up? Get embarrassed nationally by a team with the same amount of youth but actual shooters, and the whole commentary crew pointing out how bad we are at shooting.

Probably doing us a favor in the end.

[KillMonger]

PAOLO IS SPECIAL

Weltman wasting a second of this kid's career is criminal behavior.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't see this as "not cutting corners" or "not skipping steps" or some admirable ideal of patience... It's nothing but absurd roster construction despite holding a handful of chips...spare me the "family" crap too. Build a functional backcourt. Ridiculous.

Just because Paolo is on a rookie deal and under "Team Control" doesn't mean the FO should s**t on his All-Star early career.

I keep saying that we may not have as much time as people think.... We got to build it right but that doesn't mean it has to be super slow.... We found our stars to build around it's cool to step on the gas a little bit

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[OrlandoNed]

It's embarrassing how OKC can just make jump shots at will. If you can't shoot, you don't belong in a NBA rotation.

And Jett hits a 3 the second he touches the floor...

[Optimus_Steel]

the difference is a REAL superstar in SGA...not just a "rising star".

Suggs came out firing but he's just not that guy...SGA does it every night (no knock on Suggs). Suggs scoring 20 on a given night is like SGA scoring 40. They're a step ahead of us, but we're in good shape.

Took SVG about ten seconds to point out the obvious, glaring, gaping hole in our offense...terrible 3pt shooting, collapsing on Paolo, just the most obvious thing in the world. I don't know who we'll meet in the playoffs or play-in, but it will be uglier than tonight when a good team is locked in and completely prepared for a series vs ORL.

*now just picture Simons (or someone of his caliber) next to Suggs, launching 3's every time Paolo and/or Franz get doubled. now picture an ORL Magic guard taking a 3 and you expecting it to go in every time Why the f*** did this not get addressed?

We didn't lost this game because of SGA. We lost this game because of the same story has Miami game. They absolutely packed the paint and loaded up on Paolo.

And we missed relatively open 3's, that they give us instead of letting us drive.

Indeed and the turnovers and lack of attention to detail. Not rotating to their shooters.

[eyriq]

Weltman knows our backcourt is ****. He drafted AB and Jett

[basketballRob]

Wemby 10 blocks last night. Wendell with 11 in 28 games.

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[dsg2021]

OKC is just ten miles ahead of us. Just as young, long, and lengthy as us, a healthier and younger, better Isaac down low for them. More roster fit and synergy. I think they're having a fluke shooting year but they're so young that they won't need this much of a fluke shooting year moving forward. Then a better superstar than Paolo. But our silver lining is SGA is closer to 26 years old than Paolo Banchero is closer to 22 years old. I'm still so sad that my last three must-draft/trade-for-at-draft players were Luka, SGA, and Haliburton (check receipts).

The concerning part is Franz Wagner. He is playing maybe the worst game I've ever seen from him. I don't see any intelligence in his gameplay. I don't see any sharpshooting, he is 4-14 now and was 2-12 or something when the game wasn't dead yet. 32 3P% this year and 34 3P% in Career, both well below league average. Meanwhile, Paolo is about 36 3P% this year, always trending up with his efficiency. When the game is over so that the offenses can open a little more again, it is only Paolo who is dropping 23 efficiently right now. Like, when you look with your eyes and scout with fundamental basketball knowledge and understanding of bodies/athleticism versus other bodies/athleticism, you can clearly see Paolo is the superstar here and the one who always gets doubles every possession. And this is not terribly far of a Franz performance than his more average games, so I am kinda over with this narrative that advanced stats say Franz is better than Paolo and other young stars. And I seriously question what kind of contract I would give him, I feel like we can maybe have a sole superstar in Paolo and amazing, fitting pieces around him and go further in the next 5-10 years than we would with two maxed contracts on Franz and Paolo. It might also help us to keep flexibility and picks and assets if we did get a better 2nd star/1st star who likes being paired with Paolo.

[GameOver25]

Okeke 3pt barrage incoming. Okeke!!

[Optimus_Steel]

OKC is really good but feel The Magic have thrown in the towel.

There is no middle for this team at times.

Yup when it gets a little tough they just go on landslide

[JF5]

Yeah.. it was nice to hope for a Magical night... but against the #1 ( or is it #2 now??) Team in the West means this was the likely outcome

No it was not, OKC is a small team who can'r rebound and we are a big team scoring inside, if we only could play to out advantages and guard somebody...

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Wtf, Oklahoma has the 6th best offense and 5th best defense. This team is one of the best teams in the NBA while the Magic are a middle of the road team right now.

[RookieStar]

Yeah.. it was nice to hope for a Magical night... but against the #1 ( or is it #2 now??) Team in the West means this was the likely outcome

No it was not, OKC is a small team who can'r rebound and we are a big team scoring inside, if we only could play to out advantages and guard somebody...

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They might be considered a small team even with Chet, but they didnt get their #1(???) Spot by being just lucky. That means they beat the big teams like us...

[Optimus_Steel]

Sometimes you gotta get punched in the mouth to wake up in terms of roster building. We have the semblance of something, but if you want to be GREAT then obviously there are a lot of things to do better.

Want the FO/team to wake up? Get embarrassed nationally by a team with the same amount of youth but actual shooters, and the whole commentary crew pointing out how bad we are at shooting.

Probably doing us a favor in the end.

Agreed. That was my point, you articulated better

[KillMonger]

"Just surround Paolo". Sorry guy is not anywhere near a superstar yet.

Not too many were at 21 years old

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[Skybox]

So if we traded for Buddy Hield and Tyus Jones giving up 2 firsts do we think this game turns out any different

Buddy Hield went for srps and yes (on Buddy)...I'm not that high on Tyus. He's certainly not some elite shooter.

But, then again, you don't have to be elite to be a far better option than we throw out there at PG.

[ChosenSavior]

Sometimes you gotta get punched in the mouth to wake up in terms of roster building. We have the semblance of something, but if you want to be GREAT then obviously there are a lot of things to do better.

Want the FO/team to wake up? Get embarrassed nationally by a team with the same amount of youth but actual shooters, and the whole commentary crew pointing out how bad we are at shooting.

Probably doing us a favor in the end.

If we can make it to the playoffs, it will be a great learning experience to sure up this roster along with inflating the value on some of these guys in order to get trades done.

[Duke4life831]

The lack of shot makers was very obvious tonight (I know its been obvious all year). SVG calling it out on just how easy it is to collapse while defending against this offense. You would hope surrounding Paolo and Franz with plenty of shot making this summer is the #1 priority.

[Duke4life831]

The lack of shot makers was very obvious tonight (I know its been obvious all year). SVG calling it out on just how easy it is to collapse while defending against this offense. You would hope surrounding Paolo and Franz with plenty of shot making this summer is the #1 priority.

[SloNick Russia]

Lots of our shooting problems are internal, Paolo, Franz and Suggs not going anywhere, they just need time. There is no mistic guard who would come in and make 80% threes for us.

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