Official 2023-2024 Magic General Season Thread II

[zaymon]

I love how we're arguing over who might play bc we finally have a decent team, not too long ago we were starting non NBA players, this is so much better.

Thats true, some competition for minutes is a nice thing. We are propably arguing over minutes which are still not locked. Being sure who will and who wont play so early in the summer with so young of a squad doesnt make sense.
Ps. TDS is a strong player to get after lottery in a supposed weak draft. I would take him over Cole and propably over Okeke.( although Chuma was a good prospect with size and shooting just injured and too passive of a character)

[eyriq]

Do we maintain a top 3 defense?

[eyriq]

We won less games than you'd expect for a top ranked defensive team. Our offense really stunk. If we can maintain this defensive foundation though our future is extremely bright.

The below is the defensive rank and the average wins for a team with that defensive ranking, along with a 95% confidence for where the mean actually is. So, if you are the number two ranked defense, which Orlando was last season, and win less than 52 games, you underperformed.

1: 54.65 wins (95% CI: 52.58 - 56.73)
2: 54.65 wins (95% CI: 52.89 - 56.41)
3: 52.73 wins (95% CI: 50.45 - 55.02)
4: 51.79 wins (95% CI: 49.48 - 54.10)
5: 50.58 wins (95% CI: 47.60 - 53.56)
6: 49.44 wins (95% CI: 46.39 - 52.50)
7: 48.47 wins (95% CI: 45.83 - 51.11)
8: 47.05 wins (95% CI: 44.76 - 49.33)
9: 47.56 wins (95% CI: 44.79 - 50.33)
10: 45.95 wins (95% CI: 43.08 - 48.83)
11: 46.82 wins (95% CI: 44.69 - 48.96)
12: 42.38 wins (95% CI: 39.76 - 45.01)
13: 43.98 wins (95% CI: 40.69 - 47.26)
14: 41.37 wins (95% CI: 39.19 - 43.56)
15: 41.39 wins (95% CI: 38.78 - 44.01)
16: 41.30 wins (95% CI: 38.26 - 44.33)
17: 38.08 wins (95% CI: 34.94 - 41.21)
18: 34.35 wins (95% CI: 31.08 - 37.61)
19: 37.10 wins (95% CI: 34.23 - 39.96)
20: 34.07 wins (95% CI: 31.49 - 36.65)
21: 34.68 wins (95% CI: 31.84 - 37.52)
22: 33.76 wins (95% CI: 30.97 - 36.56)
23: 32.25 wins (95% CI: 29.07 - 35.43)
24: 32.47 wins (95% CI: 29.10 - 35.85)
25: 29.76 wins (95% CI: 26.55 - 32.98)
26: 28.29 wins (95% CI: 24.57 - 32.01)
27: 26.35 wins (95% CI: 23.37 - 29.33)
28: 25.04 wins (95% CI: 22.05 - 28.03)
29: 24.62 wins (95% CI: 21.14 - 28.10)
30: 24.15 wins (95% CI: 20.43 - 27.87)

[Knightro]

Do we maintain a top 3 defense?

If Suggs, KCP and Isaac all stay relatively healthy, absolutely.

[eyriq]

Do we maintain a top 3 defense?

If Suggs, KCP and Isaac all stay relatively healthy, absolutely.

The defense was largely driven by creating turnovers and defensive rebounding. Middle of the pack in eFG% and bottom 6 in foul rate. There is room for improvement. JI can still be scaled up, he wasn't even in the top ten in minutes played.

[Knightro]

Do we maintain a top 3 defense?

If Suggs, KCP and Isaac all stay relatively healthy, absolutely.

The defense was largely driven by creating turnovers and defensive rebounding. Middle of the pact in eFG% and bottom 6 in foul rate. There is room for improvement. JI can still be scaled up, he wasn't even in the top ten in minutes played.

I don’t see any reason why either one of those things (forcing turnovers or defensive rebounding) should decline. Do you?

[eyriq]

If Suggs, KCP and Isaac all stay relatively healthy, absolutely.

The defense was largely driven by creating turnovers and defensive rebounding. Middle of the pact in eFG% and bottom 6 in foul rate. There is room for improvement. JI can still be scaled up, he wasn't even in the top ten in minutes played.

I don’t see any reason why either one of those things (forcing turnovers or defensive rebounding) should decline. Do you?

No, no reason. Our point of attack defense should be consistently elite with the likes of Suggs, KCP, AB, and Harris on the perimeter, and our huge wings allow elite switchability.

I'm excited. I've been trying to talk myself into a stagnant season but we have reason to believe there could be another nice jump in store for us.

Do you think the offense improves enough to jump above 50 wins?

[Knightro]

I'm excited. I've been trying to talk myself into a stagnant season but we have reason to believe there could be another nice jump in store for us.

Do you think the offense improves enough to jump above 50 wins?

I’m not overly confident in the offense being good, no.

They were already not very good at moving the basketball and creating easy opportunities with the pass last year, and on top of that lost probably their best pure playmaker in Ingles. Losing Joe was low key big IMO as he carried much bigger load offensively than his USG% would indicate.

I think they’ll be great defensively, great rebounding and play with great effort which will be enough to beat a LOT of bad teams. Just not all that confident they can score efficiently enough to beat the best of the best consistently.

[The-Stallion70]

Team will go as far as Paolo abd Franz take us

[BadMofoPimp]

Can't see where the defense doesn't get better with KCP helping perimeter defense pending health issues. But, this team is so deep that the 10th man can even spot start in some situations. I can see this team changing lineups and rotations based on who they play and give others rest when needed.

[eyriq]

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[eyriq]

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[drsd]

We won less games than you'd expect for a top ranked defensive team. Our offense really stunk. If we can maintain this defensive foundation though our future is extremely bright.

Really interesting!

As to, "Our offense really stunk", being 30th in the league in made three-balls is not acceptable for a playoff team.

I am convinced that "playmaking" is not the immediate need; it's distance shooting. Caldwell-Pope could do wonders for this team's record!

52 wins here we come!

[drsd]

Team will go as far as Paolo abd Franz take us

Beyond my and-1, Suggs needs to learn to accept this. I don't think he is there yet.

[JBSouthpaw]

We won less games than you'd expect for a top ranked defensive team. Our offense really stunk. If we can maintain this defensive foundation though our future is extremely bright.

Really interesting!

As to, "Our offense really stunk", being 30th in the league in made three-balls is not acceptable for a playoff team.

I am convinced that "playmaking" is not the immediate need; it's distance shooting. Caldwell-Pope could do wonders for this team's record!

52 wins here we come!

You are right about KCP, If we add his 3pt attempts (4pg) to the Magic's attempts last year, we'd be about 14/15. These are all net additions since Fultz didn't take any.
Doing the same with his Made 3pts, it would put us around 19.
The THREAT of KCP at the 3pt line should do wonders for PB and Franz driving.

[Knightro]

Really interesting!

As to, "Our offense really stunk", being 30th in the league in made three-balls is not acceptable for a playoff team.

I am convinced that "playmaking" is not the immediate need; it's distance shooting. Caldwell-Pope could do wonders for this team's record!

52 wins here we come!

Not enough three pointers is the symptom, not the cause.

[yoyojw17]

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Gotta love Jett's maturity. He looks like he will be paying dividends at the 11th pick.... And doubters will be happily changing their tune.

[drsd]

Really interesting!

As to, "Our offense really stunk", being 30th in the league in made three-balls is not acceptable for a playoff team.

I am convinced that "playmaking" is not the immediate need; it's distance shooting. Caldwell-Pope could do wonders for this team's record!

52 wins here we come!

Not enough three pointers is the symptom, not the cause.

We know we are never going to agree on this. But I will add that the Magic was 23rd in 3pt FG%. Moving that up to top-15, and this team is already scoring enough to be a near contending team, without any other changes.

Last year the 15th team was at 36.7% and the 15th team on attempts was on 35.3 3pt attempts per game. If the Magic get to there, 13.0 3pt makes per game, an improvement of 2.0 makes (that won't be 6 pnts, as there would be less 2-ball attempts in those maths; but it does sound like 3 points better - with no other changes).

The Magic only need to be mediocre on their 3-ball to be a top ten team.

[yoyojw17]

Really interesting!

As to, "Our offense really stunk", being 30th in the league in made three-balls is not acceptable for a playoff team.

I am convinced that "playmaking" is not the immediate need; it's distance shooting. Caldwell-Pope could do wonders for this team's record!

52 wins here we come!

Not enough three pointers is the symptom, not the cause.

We know we are never going to agree on this. But I will add that the Magic was 23rd in 3pt FG%. Moving that up to top-15, and this team is already scoring enough to be a near contending team, without any other changes.

Last year the 15th team was at 36.7% and the 15th team on attempts was on 35.3 3pt attempts per game. If the Magic get to there, 13.0 3pt makes per game, an improvement of 2.0 makes (that won't be 6 pnts, as there would be less 2-ball attempts in those maths; but it does sound like 3 points better - with no other changes).

The Magic only need to be mediocre on their 3-ball to be a top ten team.

KCP addition.... Suggs maintaining or even improving.... Dell stay as well at least or improve with his hand fully healed.... Paolo improving.... And positive regression from Franz .. I see no reason why we can't make up for it.

Shoot even our bench is more capable than in the past .

There is a world where we stay a top defensive team and hit the middle of the pack .... Or better in 3s in the near future.

[JoshuaPotter]

Ok ill bite.

Remember that collectively our defense just went from elite to adding another elite player. Defense works great and at a point peaks. The idea is, the better the defense you have, the more the team can have energy for offense.

We arguably added significant defensive tools that are no slouch in KCP. We have proven defensive young players in AB. As well as tempo setters like Suggs / Isaac. We also got rid of or benched key players that were injured last year.

Defense at this point can just remain top 1-10 while allowing more energy on offense.