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Thb, I like Cole a lot and you can see why I made this post.

He was our leading scorer last season. And before his injury, he was shooting lights out and had a 38 points game.

If you look back after each win, you can see the votes that Cole won it most of the time.

Could he make a jump this year considering all that? Could he take over Fultz and come out as a starter because of his shooting and fit with Suggs?

i don't understand the bias towards Cole on this board. I guarantee you if Cole was a Top 5 pick, instead of the 15th pick, our board will have vastly different opinions on him. You can see that from Suggs.

Could this be Cole's year to make the leap? Could it be his year on Magic team?

I rate Cole ahead of consensus on this board, which isn't saying a ton in reality.

With a defence-minded coach, Cole will always find it hard to be a starter, as he's a horrible on-ball defender. That's a bad thing for guards, esp if you have combo guard ambitions.

That said, he's not terrible off ball and his offensive bag is prob the best on the team. I firmly believe it's easier to teach an NBA player with skills to use them judiciously than it is to teach skills to someone with few or none.

And that's what Cole has to learn. What will probably be the best learning device for him is the guy we drafted at Number 1. Whereas Franz is deserving of more time on-ball, he's not the very demanding kind. Paolo looks like the demanding kind.

Between Wagner and Banchero, Cole isn't anymore going to have the luxury of incessantly burning clock or trying ill-advised moves. He's going to be made to play within the system more and that should do wonders for him and his efficiency.

If he can't adapt, he'll be a break-glass-in-emergency bench scorer. I tend to think he will be better. While his scoring and efficiency dropped as the year progressed, his playmaking improved markedly. He's learning.

He can't learn to be taller and longer, so D will always be an issue. But he's a trier, which coaches and teammates notice. Fans should too, but Cole seems to have few of those.

If he could up his efficiency by shooting better from 3 and getting to the line more, I like him as a 25-30 mpg 6th man at the 1/2. Fultz is better at running an offense by a wide margin and I don't see that changing, and Fultz also seems significantly better on D.

If he can be our Poole/Herro, I'd be thrilled with that role for him. I just want to see him pick his spots a bit more intelligently, which contrary to some on this board, he did get better at over the course of his rookie and sophomore seasons imo. I think you're right to point out that before his injury last year, he had a great start. Hopefully that wasn't just a hot shooting streak and he can be closer to his pre-ASB form from last season as the norm rather than the aberration. If so, I think he could be a roster mainstay for years to come.

I'd like to see him float down for the corner threes and other movements off of Franz and Paolo.
Seth Curry please.

Plenty of similar players Cole should research to see why they were successful. Jalen Brunson is his size and one he should watch

tiderulz wrote:Plenty of similar players Cole should research to see why they were successful. Jalen Brunson is his size and one he should watch

Brunson weighs like 35 lbs more.

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ill be surprised if Cole doesnt lead us in scoring again this year, but will be more efficient this year

Cole Gonna Provem all Wrong!!!

BTW, why is he playing in his boxers?

The Effect wrote:ill be surprised if Cole doesnt lead us in scoring again this year, but will be more efficient this year

I can't see that he will have the ball in his hands as much, if everyone stays healthy.
He could be 3rd is my guess.
I think the scoring will be pretty balanced, I could see 4 over 15, but none over 17.

basketballRob wrote:

tiderulz wrote:Plenty of similar players Cole should research to see why they were successful. Jalen Brunson is his size and one he should watch

Brunson weighs like 35 lbs more.

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and? you are saying there is nothing Cole could learn from Brunson's play at a similar size?

I'd love it to be "the year" for any of our core players, but Cole is the one i think the least of. I just dont see it with his horrible efficiency/ball hog mentality, along with his atrocious on ball defense.

I hope I am wrong and that he does blow up, but I just dont see it. I'd much rather have Fultz running the offense with Paolo and Franz being our 1-2 punch, than see Cole chuck up 16 shots a game.

One of these guards has to pop for the Magic to have any success in the future. Maybe it's Cole. Maybe it's Suggs. But someone has to be good in order for this thing to make sense going forward.

Its propably better for the magic if its not Cole Anthony year. His style of play doesnt lead to winning basketball, he needs the ball and he misses to many reads. I hope he comes from the bench in limited role and actually contributes to winning.

tiderulz wrote:

basketballRob wrote:

tiderulz wrote:Plenty of similar players Cole should research to see why they were successful. Jalen Brunson is his size and one he should watch

Brunson weighs like 35 lbs more.

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and? you are saying there is nothing Cole could learn from Brunson's play at a similar size?

He doesn't have the strength that Brunson has.

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What Cole has on his side is that the majority of his problems are within his control.

The question is whether or not he is coachable and able to truly change the way he plays and approaches the game.

Cole is obviously a fantastic teammate. Sometimes “not coachable” gets mistaken for “bad attitude” which is not the case here. Cole simply strikes me as a kid who grew up around the NBA, felt destined for stardom, was told he was next. Can you get that person to alter their approach when they have not so far?

Hence, I do not see Cole being anything more than our younger T-Ross spark plug scorer off the bench.

Cole is destined to be a back up pg in this league. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

His issue is that he needs to get better on ball defense and better awareness off ball to score. Right now he’s basically a chucker that needs the ball in his hands to do anything remotely positive. He’s a good rebounder and can be a decent volume scorer in the second unit.

That all being said, he shouldn’t be starting at all. I doubt his ability to run an efficient offense and he’s by all measures a one way player,

Gonna be interesting to see who emerged as our future 6th man. Cole or Jalen. Cole has better offense. Jalen has better defense. Who will fix their weaknesses first...

Skin wrote:Gonna be interesting to see who emerged as our future 6th man. Cole or Jalen. Cole has better offense. Jalen has better defense. Who will fix their weaknesses first...

Maybe both will be our 6th men when we get Poole and Fultz becomes a star

nicnac215 wrote:

Skin wrote:Gonna be interesting to see who emerged as our future 6th man. Cole or Jalen. Cole has better offense. Jalen has better defense. Who will fix their weaknesses first...

Maybe both will be our 6th men when we get Poole and Fultz becomes a star

This requires Anthony and Suggs to be compatible. For that to be true, they both need to be able to guard both backcourt slots interchangeably. That is believable as core-bench players.


One would have to believe in this rotation.
2023/24
Fultz/Anthony
Poole/Suggs
F-Wagner/Okeke
Banchero/Isaac
Carter/Bamba

It’s incredible to me that Cole, who is such a fantastic teammate, plays such a selfish brand of basketball. I would love for him to pass more, be more selective when shooting and play better defense.

But, we forget how young he is, 3rd year, 22 years old.I believe he will improve this year but he has to do that without having the freedom from last year.

A lot of our players benefited from the injuries we had last year, so it will be interesting to see how they adjust when there are more players available who need development time as well. Good luck coach Mosley. I do not envy his job at all.