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One thing I did learn tonight: Cole handles the press just as bad as Duhon. He is always going to have to play with a better ball handler.

thelead wrote:

Knightro wrote:Let me be clear...

*Of course* this was not the preferred outcome for tanking purposes. But they were bound to win at least one more game this year.

They'll probably win another one before the year is over if we're being honest with ourselves.

It's just not that big of a deal. Teams rarely lose 15-20 games in a row even if they're actively tanking.

That's what was said every year we've sucked and we have yet to be in the right draft slot. Excuse me if I'm exhausted after a decade of sucking. We've wasted an 1/8th of a human's life expectancy watching this garbage. The FO should be pulling the plug on a lot of these players.

In order for this draft to not be a failure, who would you say we have to walk away with with our top pick? Feel free to list as many players as you’d like.

Rick Rolled wrote:

thelead wrote:

Knightro wrote:Let me be clear...

*Of course* this was not the preferred outcome for tanking purposes. But they were bound to win at least one more game this year.

They'll probably win another one before the year is over if we're being honest with ourselves.

It's just not that big of a deal. Teams rarely lose 15-20 games in a row even if they're actively tanking.

That's what was said every year we've sucked and we have yet to be in the right draft slot. Excuse me if I'm exhausted after a decade of sucking. We've wasted an 1/8th of a human's life expectancy watching this garbage. The FO should be pulling the plug on a lot of these players.

In order for this draft to not be a failure, who would you say we have to walk away with with our top pick? Feel free to list as many players as you’d like.

The Magic need to get one of the top 5. The way our luck is, we'll end up with the 6th pick. That's everyone's fear.

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thelead wrote:That's what was said every year we've sucked and we have yet to be in the right draft slot. Excuse me if I'm exhausted after a decade of sucking. We've wasted an 1/8th of a human's life expectancy watching this garbage. The FO should be pulling the plug on a lot of these players.

I get it, but also like... it happens.

I just don't know what else to say about it. NBA teams win games sometimes. The amount of teams that rattle off 15 game losing streaks like it's nothing is just really low.

OKC beat last year's EC Finals team last night. The Pistons have won 3 times in their last 7 games. The Wolves have won 3 in a row.

Sometimes teams win even if their front office is trying to lose.

Gary Harris has been playing like absolute crap for like a month straight. Tonight he randomly had his best game of the entire season. Should the Magic have not been playing him? His poor play had been one of the biggest reasons they had lost the last six they lost.

Rick Rolled wrote:

thelead wrote:

Knightro wrote:Let me be clear...

*Of course* this was not the preferred outcome for tanking purposes. But they were bound to win at least one more game this year.

They'll probably win another one before the year is over if we're being honest with ourselves.

It's just not that big of a deal. Teams rarely lose 15-20 games in a row even if they're actively tanking.

That's what was said every year we've sucked and we have yet to be in the right draft slot. Excuse me if I'm exhausted after a decade of sucking. We've wasted an 1/8th of a human's life expectancy watching this garbage. The FO should be pulling the plug on a lot of these players.

In order for this draft to not be a failure, who would you say we have to walk away with with our top pick? Feel free to list as many players as you’d like.

Life is all about probabilities. There are no Shaq or Tim Duncan's (absolutely sure things) in this draft but there are good prospects. Cade is probably the 'best' prospect, but it is possible that Suggs and/or Green are better. But no matter who you think is the best, you can't draft the 'best' prospect if they are not on the board when it's your turn. If we finish 5th overall, we have a higher probability of landing 6-9 than 1-5. Would you rather have a higher probability of surviving an illness or would you say 'eh, it's only a 10% difference, we'll see what happens.'

Knightro wrote:

thelead wrote:That's what was said every year we've sucked and we have yet to be in the right draft slot. Excuse me if I'm exhausted after a decade of sucking. We've wasted an 1/8th of a human's life expectancy watching this garbage. The FO should be pulling the plug on a lot of these players.

I get it, but also like... it happens.

I just don't know what else to say about it. NBA teams win games sometimes. The amount of teams that rattle off 15 game losing streaks like it's nothing is just really low.

OKC beat last year's EC Finals team last night. The Pistons have won 3 times in their last 7 games. The Wolves have won 3 in a row.

Sometimes teams win even if their front office is trying to lose.

Gary Harris has been playing like absolute crap for like a month straight. Tonight he randomly had his best game of the entire season. Should the Magic have not been playing him? His poor play had been one of the biggest reasons they had lost the last six they lost.

Gary Harris is fine. But why is WCJ playing if he's on a minutes restriction? Why is Ennis playing? Yes, OKC won but they did everything possible as a FO to set them up for failure. If we sat WCJ, Ennis, Ross and Okeke, I could live with a win however bad it is because there wouldn't be much more you could do. Other teams are getting fined for tanking and teams like OKC openly shut down a good healthy player (Horford) to 'focus on youth development'. But guess what? That is the same team that drafted Durant, Harden, and Westbrook. It's not like Sam Presti is viewed like a good GM though... right?

https://okcthunderwire.usatoday.com/2021/03/26/thunder-end-trade-season-with-34-future-draft-picks-from-2021-2027/

At least Washington will go up 2 games on the Bulls. I believe the Bulls hold the tiebreaker if the end up tied.

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Knightro wrote:

thelead wrote:That's what was said every year we've sucked and we have yet to be in the right draft slot. Excuse me if I'm exhausted after a decade of sucking. We've wasted an 1/8th of a human's life expectancy watching this garbage. The FO should be pulling the plug on a lot of these players.

I get it, but also like... it happens.

I just don't know what else to say about it. NBA teams win games sometimes. The amount of teams that rattle off 15 game losing streaks like it's nothing is just really low.

OKC beat last year's EC Finals team last night. The Pistons have won 3 times in their last 7 games. The Wolves have won 3 in a row.

Sometimes teams win even if their front office is trying to lose.

Gary Harris has been playing like absolute crap for like a month straight. Tonight he randomly had his best game of the entire season. Should the Magic have not been playing him? His poor play had been one of the biggest reasons they had lost the last six they lost.

I thought it was strange that we brought back Ennis. This was unnecessary and it might cost us something going forward. I thought the front office was committed to the tank by keeping Ennis and Ross out with minor issues, but him playing tonight makes me wonder. There really isn't any reason to have Ennis on this roster at this point. I'd assume nobody was interested in giving up a 2nd-round pick for him at the deadline and I'd guess that no playoff teams were interested in signing him outright if we released him, but why is he playing for us right now?

Aside from that, there is only so much that can be done. You can't tell the coach and players not to try. We are going to run into some other bad rosters along the way and wins will happen from time to time.

thelead wrote:

Rick Rolled wrote:

thelead wrote:
That's what was said every year we've sucked and we have yet to be in the right draft slot. Excuse me if I'm exhausted after a decade of sucking. We've wasted an 1/8th of a human's life expectancy watching this garbage. The FO should be pulling the plug on a lot of these players.

In order for this draft to not be a failure, who would you say we have to walk away with with our top pick? Feel free to list as many players as you’d like.

Life is all about probabilities. There are no Shaq or Tim Duncan's (absolutely sure things) in this draft but there are good prospects. Cade is probably the 'best' prospect, but it is possible that Suggs and/or Green are better. But no matter who you think is the best, you can't draft the 'best' prospect if they are not on the board when it's your turn. If we finish 5th overall, we have a higher probability of landing 6-9 than 1-5. Would you rather have a higher probability of surviving an illness or would you say 'eh, it's only a 10% difference, we'll see what happen.'

Thanks for the quick reply. I have zero interest in winning games now and would obviously prefer to have the highest lotto odds. I just admittedly haven’t watched a ton of college basketball/G-League games and was curious if there were some elite prospects out there worth getting fired up over ala Luka a few years back. Highlight reels can only show so much. From what I can gather, we need to walk away with Cade or one of the Jalens. Basically falling out of the top 4 would be the worst case scenario. While I’m not completely pissed off tonight, I can certainly agree that better measures have to be taken moving forward. Chuma is probably gone for the season. Bacon needs to come down with a mystery ailment and WCJR can be benched. That should hopefully get the job done. I’ll join you on the enraged train if we beat Detroit Or Minnesota.

Rick Rolled wrote:

thelead wrote:

Rick Rolled wrote:
In order for this draft to not be a failure, who would you say we have to walk away with with our top pick? Feel free to list as many players as you’d like.

Life is all about probabilities. There are no Shaq or Tim Duncan's (absolutely sure things) in this draft but there are good prospects. Cade is probably the 'best' prospect, but it is possible that Suggs and/or Green are better. But no matter who you think is the best, you can't draft the 'best' prospect if they are not on the board when it's your turn. If we finish 5th overall, we have a higher probability of landing 6-9 than 1-5. Would you rather have a higher probability of surviving an illness or would you say 'eh, it's only a 10% difference, we'll see what happen.'

Thanks for the quick reply. I have zero interest in winning games now and would obviously prefer to have the highest lotto odds. I just admittedly haven’t watched a ton of college basketball/G-League games and was curious if there were some elite prospects out there worth getting fired up over ala Luka a few years back. Highlight reels can only show so much. From what I can gather, we need to walk away with Cade or one of the Jalens. Basically falling out of the top 4 would be the worst case scenario.

The top 5 are locks, it's up in the air after that. That's why it's important to get a top 5 out of this draft.

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basketballRob wrote:

Rick Rolled wrote:

thelead wrote:
Life is all about probabilities. There are no Shaq or Tim Duncan's (absolutely sure things) in this draft but there are good prospects. Cade is probably the 'best' prospect, but it is possible that Suggs and/or Green are better. But no matter who you think is the best, you can't draft the 'best' prospect if they are not on the board when it's your turn. If we finish 5th overall, we have a higher probability of landing 6-9 than 1-5. Would you rather have a higher probability of surviving an illness or would you say 'eh, it's only a 10% difference, we'll see what happen.'

Thanks for the quick reply. I have zero interest in winning games now and would obviously prefer to have the highest lotto odds. I just admittedly haven’t watched a ton of college basketball/G-League games and was curious if there were some elite prospects out there worth getting fired up over ala Luka a few years back. Highlight reels can only show so much. From what I can gather, we need to walk away with Cade or one of the Jalens. Basically falling out of the top 4 would be the worst case scenario.

The top 5 are locks, it's up in the air after that. That's why it's important to get a top 5 out of this draft.

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So one of Cade/Suggs/Green/Mobley/Kuminga, correct?

basketballRob wrote:

Rick Rolled wrote:

thelead wrote:
Life is all about probabilities. There are no Shaq or Tim Duncan's (absolutely sure things) in this draft but there are good prospects. Cade is probably the 'best' prospect, but it is possible that Suggs and/or Green are better. But no matter who you think is the best, you can't draft the 'best' prospect if they are not on the board when it's your turn. If we finish 5th overall, we have a higher probability of landing 6-9 than 1-5. Would you rather have a higher probability of surviving an illness or would you say 'eh, it's only a 10% difference, we'll see what happen.'

Thanks for the quick reply. I have zero interest in winning games now and would obviously prefer to have the highest lotto odds. I just admittedly haven’t watched a ton of college basketball/G-League games and was curious if there were some elite prospects out there worth getting fired up over ala Luka a few years back. Highlight reels can only show so much. From what I can gather, we need to walk away with Cade or one of the Jalens. Basically falling out of the top 4 would be the worst case scenario.

The top 5 are locks, it's up in the air after that. That's why it's important to get a top 5 out of this draft.

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I would say that the top 5 is a lock but Kuminga is definitely the 5th pick in his own tier. I'll be shocked if someone passes on the other 4 for Kuminga TBH. And that's not to say that Kuminga can't become the best player in this draft but you would have to hope that he improves his scoring efficiency because it is terrible right now... but he might be the best NBA ready athlete in the whole draft.

thelead wrote:

basketballRob wrote:

Rick Rolled wrote:
Thanks for the quick reply. I have zero interest in winning games now and would obviously prefer to have the highest lotto odds. I just admittedly haven’t watched a ton of college basketball/G-League games and was curious if there were some elite prospects out there worth getting fired up over ala Luka a few years back. Highlight reels can only show so much. From what I can gather, we need to walk away with Cade or one of the Jalens. Basically falling out of the top 4 would be the worst case scenario.

The top 5 are locks, it's up in the air after that. That's why it's important to get a top 5 out of this draft.

Sent from my SM-G950U using RealGM mobile app

I would say that the top 5 is a lock but Kuminga is definitely the 5th pick in his own tier. I'll be shocked if someone passes on the other 4 for Kuminga TBH. And that's not to say that Kuminga can't become the best player in this draft but you would have to hope that he improves his scoring efficiency because it is terrible right now... but he might be the best NBA ready athlete in the whole draft.

He's still only 18 1/2 and would've probably dominated college basketball if he chose that route.

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basketballRob wrote:

thelead wrote:

basketballRob wrote:The top 5 are locks, it's up in the air after that. That's why it's important to get a top 5 out of this draft.

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I would say that the top 5 is a lock but Kuminga is definitely the 5th pick in his own tier. I'll be shocked if someone passes on the other 4 for Kuminga TBH. And that's not to say that Kuminga can't become the best player in this draft but you would have to hope that he improves his scoring efficiency because it is terrible right now... but he might be the best NBA ready athlete in the whole draft.

He's still only 18 1/2 and would've probably dominated college basketball if he chose that route.

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No doubt. When I first found a Jalen Green G-League video, I was more impressed by 'that other kid' on his team... come to find out, it was Kuminga and wasn't on everyone's top 5 radar yet. The FT% is just super concerning to me. No one is guarding him on that shot regardless of what league, team, or competition... and he could only make 63%. Everything else screams star to me but I just can't overlook that stat from a wing player that will likely live at the line.

Message Boar wrote:

BDill012 wrote:Losing streak is over ...

The debate on whether that is good or bad is on.

Is it really a debate at this point?

Might be able to debate if we should've/could've done more to actively throw this game, however.

Players and coaches aren’t going to “throw games” they don’t care about the draft nor should they.

Blue_and_Whte wrote:

Message Boar wrote:

BDill012 wrote:Losing streak is over ...

The debate on whether that is good or bad is on.

Is it really a debate at this point?

Might be able to debate if we should've/could've done more to actively throw this game, however.

Players and coaches aren’t going to “throw games” they don’t care about the draft nor should they.

players? sure....coaches? yes and maybe not? all common sense says that coaches shouldn't care but if you're a treadmill team with no other viable way to get top shelf talent you think the Front office is going to keep you around as a coach if you're forever on the treadmill? This is a real opportunity to try to at least secure our floor in this draft....top 5 are guys with star talent after that it's up in the air, there is a drop-off....other teams have no shame in what they're trying to do why can't we follow suit? Do as romans do, is that the saying? One pick away from Embiid....one pick away from porzingis.....Luka/trae.....i'm not saying that whatever guy we get is going to instantly turn us around BUT this kind of talent could shorten our rebuild time by quite a bit....i just wish the FO would tuck in their pride and just go for it....only ten games left

thelead wrote:One thing I did learn tonight: Cole handles the press just as bad as Duhon. He is always going to have to play with a better ball handler.

Thenproblem with Cole he has one gear and that’s alaways to attack. You have to be patient with playing the full court press. And of course, he has height limitations.

Like I said in a previous post, I think Cole has the ability to adjust and learn things.

Small sample size of 7 games, but Cole is averaging 16.1 PPG, 6.0 APG and shooting .439% from the floor, .387 from three and .750 from the line since moving back into the starting lineup once MCW got hurt.

Bringing Ennis back for a tank battle. Magic move

It's very hard to sell tanking to a team. Especially to unrestricted free agents... " Man we will sit you down for no reason so we can have somebody better than you next year" .... and his answer is probably :



Also with amount of young unproven players, non of them will accept fact they suck and roll over, especially when they ( finally) see on other side inferior team to them. We lost 6 in a row, ofc guys got exited when they saw they can win.