2023-2024 Regular Season Game 13: Orlando Magic (7-5) at Indiana Pacers (7-4) - 5pm

[Optimus_Steel]

Rewatching the game and it was great to hear that crowd quiet like it was a rec center game because we completely demoralized them out of it. We absolutely destroyed that team, #1 offense coming and we made them look like Flamenco, our perimeter defense was flying around and smothered away 3pt looks and our paint defense shut them down. We got them off kilter then on offense they were aggressive taking the ball right down their throats, it was haymaker after haymaker. We haven’t dominated a game like this since the Dwight glory days, good things are coming for this team.

[drsd]

Box score thoughts:

The Magic won the FG% battle and won the game.
Most of the other stats are skewed by terrible scrub play at the end of the game (TOs, FG attempts, giving up offensive rebounds, etc).
But one thing held up: Orlando dominated in FT attempts and made FTs.


Happy thoughts: Orlando made 35 FTs.
Sad thoughts: yet again the 3rd quarter was lost.

[zaymon]

I am still on the bandwagon of Markelle Fultz. When is he going to come back?

Hear me? Redemption time, Markelle!

I still think Markelle has the skills, size and ball handling to be a very good PG in the league. He's shown flashes which proves to me he is in the best shape of his life starting the season. But injury hurts and he's been out. And also he hasn't nailed a 3pt shot yet especially after he has greatly improved his mechanics shooting the ball this offseason.

I am also a Wendell fan. I think with Wendell, because of his defense and rebounding, his game can take us to another level.

But let's pray injury doesn't derail us from our goal.

This upcoming week is probably going to test us to see how good we are. If we come away with Ws, I am very hopeful we are a REAL good team in the Eastern Conference if not there yet

flashes? did i see that right?


we're talking about somebody thats currently in their 7th season....I know that he hasn't played a ton of basketball on the court due to injuries but is it really apt to be using terms like "potential" and "flashes" for someone that's pushing 10 seasons in? i mean he's about to hit his 10 year pension lol..... Not just you but i see that around on social media and i'm like do they still think markelle is a rookie or something?

Dude, had you a chance to see any Magic games after the All-Star last season? Or you just hate Fultz for some reason? His knee issue is real due to number of games he missed already, who knows how limited was he in games he played.
I will never understand this delusional hate towards a Magic player who plays hard for us.
Guess same people suggested to cut JI for years.

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Yes we are delusional. In real world Markelle made multiple all star games and just last year led his team to nba finals. We are just ungrateful becouse we lost in 7 games and Fultz was too trigger happy missed game buzzer 3 after hitting 5 threes in a row.
Its so funny that people who defend him are mostly using terms like "hate", "delusion", while his sceptics are using real data and screenshots of our set plays. You cant make it up. Maybe stop offending other people, and start doing some research before you form an opinion ?
Ps. I am against retaining Fultz and i was defending Isaac for the last few years. Another false narrative.

[Skybox]

Oh sure. Why not. A lot of good and clear upgrades for Fultz in the PG spot esp since Cole cant cut it to be the starter and Black isnt ready yet for full PG duties.

But in a trade deadline, who is giving away a good PG? Especially for Fultz who is needing a new contract even with a pick attached? Only tanking teams blowing it up right?

Moving away from the hypnotically, I really don't know who is out there. But if the magic don't plan on resigning Fultz, which I don't think they plan on doing, they need to move him or lose him for nothing. The fact that they are playing so well without him should give the team reason to look at options that can help improve the team.

What if Markelle is resigned 15M per year? Would you do that? Cole got a great contract extension. Maybe Fultz too...

Absolutely not…what’s with the bargain hunting? You get to play 5 guys at a time…each slot can make a huge difference. We’re challenged by having so many young relatively inexperienced unpolished guys right now. But, at the same time, we’re blessed to have cap space because of it…invest in a really good player instead of cheering how many good deals you got!!

$15 wouldn’t be a good deal anyway for a team that already has 3+ backup PGs and zero starter quality floor generals.

[RichCollab]

So Fultz starts when he is back healthy.

[Skybox]

[url][/url]

Moving away from the hypnotically, I really don't know who is out there. But if the magic don't plan on resigning Fultz, which I don't think they plan on doing, they need to move him or lose him for nothing. The fact that they are playing so well without him should give the team reason to look at options that can help improve the team.

What if Markelle is resigned 15M per year? Would you do that? Cole got a great contract extension. Maybe Fultz too...

Maybe that's the best-case scenario for our future. We resign Fultz to a reasonable amount $ and trade him a year later in order not to lose him for nothing.

Converting his contract via trade into valuable assets such as picks/young players/veteran talent of need would be an extremely good opportunity in the next 1.5-2 years when we'll be an even scarier team with a greater appetite.

Fultz has trade value at the trade deadline…as an expiring contract for a team that can actually utilize cap space in the summer. That value is now compounded by the new CBA which punishes teams, not just with fiscal penalties that billionaires laugh at, but very real limitations on how teams can bail themselves out of bad deals by making trades, etc. Lots of teams might value getting off $17m (& more if it’s not just him) and picks. Very few would have interest in an extremely limited, oft- unavailable PG that’s not good enough to start for US ( in a PG rich league)…for the millionth time, what team is calling saying “Fultz is just what we need- name your price”?

If we re-sign him, we’re stuck with him. If he walks, someone will take a short-term swing with him and might just strike gold (like we hoped). Nobody is giving up something more for a re-signed Fultz than an expiring Fultz (which is, effectively, a piece of paper)…to be fair, that’s what Gary Harris was in the AG trade, but he’s regained his game. We traded an (at the time) overpaid AG for a first, a prospect(Hampton), and an “expiring piece of $17m paper”…that trade worked for both because DEN used AG perfectly and Harris got his game back and re-signed a series of team friendly deals…but that WAS NOT the vision at the time the deal was made.

[Skybox]

flashes? did i see that right?


we're talking about somebody thats currently in their 7th season....I know that he hasn't played a ton of basketball on the court due to injuries but is it really apt to be using terms like "potential" and "flashes" for someone that's pushing 10 seasons in? i mean he's about to hit his 10 year pension lol..... Not just you but i see that around on social media and i'm like do they still think markelle is a rookie or something?

Dude, had you a chance to see any Magic games after the All-Star last season? Or you just hate Fultz for some reason? His knee issue is real due to number of games he missed already, who knows how limited was he in games he played.
I will never understand this delusional hate towards a Magic player who plays hard for us.
Guess same people suggested to cut JI for years.

Sent from my SM-G9750 using RealGM mobile app

Yes we are delusional. In real world Markelle made multiple all star games and just last year led his team to nba finals. We are just ungrateful becouse we lost in 7 games and Fultz was too trigger happy missed game buzzer 3 after hitting 5 threes in a row.
Its so funny that people who defend him are mostly using terms like "hate", "delusion", while his sceptics are using real data and screenshots of our set plays. You cant make it up. Maybe stop offending other people, and start doing some research before you form an opinion ?
Ps. I am against retaining Fultz and i was defending Isaac for the last few years. Another false narrative.

Yeah…it’s gotta be Hate, whenever someone lays out a case against Fultz after all these years…so tiresome

Remember, we pulled him off the scrap heap. He was a long shot to even be in the league by now. ORL has been generously patient and saved his career with time and big contracts, but to act like this is just the beginning of an illustrious renaissance starting now is a little tough to continue defending. We tried a bold experiment and rehabbed him from among the biggest draft busts in history to “mediocre but useful” player. That’s where it ends for ORL, but he’ll have a job somewhere in the NBA and his grandkids will have money.

[The-Stallion70]

Is this team a better lead guard away from being legit good like right now? Maybe...

Yea, or....

Maybe Ingles is actually really good....

[The-Stallion70]

Why did this devolve into another Fultz spat?

[pepe1991]

i'm so fed up with Fultz talk. Why every thread turns into endless debate about him?

[eyriq]

Suggs is a force of nature

[Knightro]

ffs i was so damn exited to watch this game, like, whole last week, just to get ill and vomit whole day and fall asleep one damn hour before a game and wake up few min after game finished (well..i blacked out in like 30 sec after i checked score on espn )

Looks like great win, i'll try to rewatch whole game.

We are 8-5 guys !

Hell yeah Pepe!

[tooler]

I watched the first half and it looked like the Pacers had no juice. The Magic played good defense but they didn't even look like they were at full speed. Just walled off the paint and the Pacers had to take the ball out of the basket a lot so they couldn't get much going in transition.

Indiana needs just enough defense to be able to dig deep for a few possessions and breathe some life into the game. They got the crowd into it on one play where Franz got blocked or had a pass stolen, not sure which, then I think they got an and-1 on the other end. Of course then I think we drove right down the lane to put an end to it.

[Bergmaniac]

Amazing overall performance, everything was clicking for us until garbage time (which was brutal, but who cares). Dominant defence and on offense we were getting great looks at the rim all game. Goga was excellent defensively, he keeps surprising me this year. Banchero's improvement as a defender from last season is also very noticeable and a welcome sight. Suggs and Black were really good defensively too and so was Franz. The starting unit defence seems like it's sustainable long term and when their offense gets going we are very hard to beat.

Ingles running the pick and roll is just beautiful to watch, especially after all the years where we have had ballhandlers who were mediocre at best at this.

Gary Harris with another excellent game.

The Pacers looked strangely liveless though, our defence was excellent but not excellent enough to make them look like the worst offense in the league, the long break seems to have messed their rhythm, but that's their problem.

Jett looked pretty awful in garbage time, but it's garbage time, way too early to give up on him. But it's hard to see how he will find minutes this year.

[eyriq]

Are we building the Grind House Grizzlies?

[basketballRob]

Haliburton apparently insinuated that the refs were partially to blame.

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[Residual-Heat]

Haliburton apparently insinuated that the refs were partially to blame.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

[Audi]

After coming off of 32 assists and 0 TOs over the last two games, Halliburton ended up with more TOs than assists against us.

That only happened ONCE in the entirety of last season.

The defense is real.

[Rainwater]

So Fultz starts when he is back healthy.

Yes, i think he will.

[Rainwater]

ffs i was so damn exited to watch this game, like, whole last week, just to get ill and vomit whole day and fall asleep one damn hour before a game and wake up few min after game finished (well..i blacked out in like 30 sec after i checked score on espn )

Looks like great win, i'll try to rewatch whole game.

We are 8-5 guys !

I think someone hacked your account, you’ve changed, lol.