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Should we throw in the towel?

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Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#1 » by byeganyo » Sun Feb 2, 2025 2:59 am

IMO - No, but the FO probably is thinking otherwise, so lets have a knee jerk thread. Having already a mediocre offense Orlando lost its best bench scorer for the year and no effort has been made to find his replacement, so it's hard to believe that being competitive is the goal for the year. Of course Mo Wagner is not the main reason we are sucking, but this inactivity is a sign that another season of evaluating (god knows what) is on the table.

The chances for home court in playoffs seem gone, if Miami get their **** together when they trade Butler chances for escaping the play in seem gone too. So why bother? Right now Orlando have the 12th draft pick, but with a stable tanking they can reach N9 easily and then hope to strike gold in the lottery. Weltman will be happy to draft another project and wait till he get kicked out. Fans of organic growth or whatever should be happy too.

So instead of looking for an instant upgrade that its not coming lets try to shop KCP around to a contender and hope to get some value back. It would have been nice to try and send JI to a team that its dumb enouggh to see him as a difference maker, but that's not happening..
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#2 » by Knightro » Sun Feb 2, 2025 3:05 am

No.
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#3 » by ogmagicfan » Sun Feb 2, 2025 3:10 am

The moves we make (or dont make) before the trade deadline will tell us if we will throw the towel or not.

Do I think we should? I'm leaning towards yes. Too many players banged up, and our 2023 draft class looking like a disaster has what was once our greatest strength (depth) looking like our weakness.

I just cant envision us making it to the 2nd round, which would be a "win" for the season. Even if we make trades for any of the players we've been linked to (outside of Fox, but that would be a near all-in move with us sending 3 1sts). I dont think the players available match up with what we fully need and are just supplimental adds to improve somewhat in a category.

Now if this was a draft class like 2024, I'd say absolutely not, but this draft class is pretty good & deep.
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#4 » by three3d » Sun Feb 2, 2025 3:15 am

I think there’s just so much wrong with this team poor ownership, bad front office, really **** assistant coaching staff, bad player fit. So much to fix before we even get to the players .
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#5 » by Skybox » Sun Feb 2, 2025 3:26 am

NO...if you make a significant move or two - that could energize the team to get the defensive intensity back to match the inherent talent that's still here. Just fix your problems- backing off is exactly how teams on the rise stagnate, hit a disappointing plateau and crumble rather than continue their ascension...keep moving forward or you'll sink (like TOR, ATL, SAC, IND until recently).

We've got plenty of injuries to blame our problems on - even if it's more than that. Take the excuses, shake things up. Screw this "organic" "family" "wait and see" crap and build a winning team. The FO has a lot of the big stuff already in house and more than enough tradable assets to do their jobs for a change. The struggles truly even make it easier for them to pull the trigger.
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#6 » by eyriq » Sun Feb 2, 2025 3:51 am

I mean, our Net Rating is TANKING hard. Something has to give.

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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#7 » by ORLMagicGirl15 » Sun Feb 2, 2025 4:26 am

No. This team need a vet point guard and shooters.
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#8 » by Dubious Kitty » Sun Feb 2, 2025 4:36 am

Yes this team is absolutely done for
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#9 » by MasterGMer » Sun Feb 2, 2025 4:49 am

No.

The biggest thing we fans do not know is how this team is headed towards. Right now? Just too much negativities around the team now even with both Franz and Paolo back. We do not know what the FO will do. To go all in on another star or keep depending on the organic rebuild. Did we have success doing that? Yes, in the early part of the season. But injuries really derailed the process.

Now we are in the shadow having no clue what the next step is. Should we make a marginal trade at trade deadline? Idk. We shouldn't. Because it won't solve anything to reach our ultimate goal. Should we go all in like DeAaron Fox? We could. But how much does it cost. Does that accelerate the timeline and eventually being impatient? Should we wait and do nothing? Idk either. We most likely will do that.

Anyway. This trade deadline should be real interesting and we can learn a lot from this Thursday. See you guys
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#10 » by anothermagicfan » Sun Feb 2, 2025 4:50 am

Not an option. You don't build a winning team by losing with the core your building around. Time to get back to playing tough gritty basketball. Who knows what's going to happen at the trade deadline. My guess is nothing. We get some rest at the all-star break and play better for the rest of the season.
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#11 » by eyriq » Sun Feb 2, 2025 5:07 am

I think two things are clear.

1. We need Suggs back
2. We need to trade for shooting

The defense is trending down but this isn't the critical trend. The shooting has fallen off a cliff and is 100% the critical trend. If we can see this Weltman can see this. I am extremely confident we will address this at the deadline.
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#12 » by OrlandoDream » Sun Feb 2, 2025 5:10 am

Anyone not named Paolo, Franz, Suggs and Goga should be on the market. Get us a point guard and some NBA level players that can make 3s. Mosley needs to hire an offensive coordinator or he is going to get fired. This offense which I know is already lacking shooters is embarrassing. No NBA team with this much talent should be shooting in the 30%.
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#13 » by rcklsscognition » Sun Feb 2, 2025 5:14 am

Problem with all of this is we don’t have perfect information. It could be that if we were the real GM we would know if we really have a chance at a good trade or not.

I’m either all in or all out. We are either going to find our future PG or solution to this problem in a trade this week or we are going drafting aka tanking.

There is no way we play into home court, that ship has sailed. So we are looking at a road series against Cleveland, NY, Boston, Milwaukee, or who knows Indy, maybe Miami.

We aren’t winning that series without a trade.

So the alternative is to fire the coaching staff, trade a bunch of people in the offseason, and draft someone this summer that might actually be decent.
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#14 » by fateis007 » Sun Feb 2, 2025 5:38 am

we need a real pointguard, and honestly. Coach needs to hand over the keys to the offense, and we need to bring someone in to take over and recreate our offense. This offense is absolutely dreadful and he is leading it. Our defense has kept us going but this is just bad.
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#15 » by BlueBalls » Sun Feb 2, 2025 5:48 am

Yes. It’s the pragmatic move to make. There is not a fix for this team available, because the biggest problem is Weltman. I do not want that **** cantaloupe **** around with this team’s assets any more than he already has. Grayson Allen, Collin Sexton, Nurkic, etc. These guys cost a lot more than they’re worth and they won’t make this team better in any meaningful way.
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#16 » by JT3000 » Sun Feb 2, 2025 8:11 am

Should we throw in the towel? Well the team already is, so what difference does it make what we think?
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#17 » by SOUL » Sun Feb 2, 2025 8:24 am

rcklsscognition wrote:Problem with all of this is we don’t have perfect information. It could be that if we were the real GM we would know if we really have a chance at a good trade or not.

I’m either all in or all out. We are either going to find our future PG or solution to this problem in a trade this week or we are going drafting aka tanking.

There is no way we play into home court, that ship has sailed. So we are looking at a road series against Cleveland, NY, Boston, Milwaukee, or who knows Indy, maybe Miami.

We aren’t winning that series without a trade.

So the alternative is to fire the coaching staff, trade a bunch of people in the offseason, and draft someone this summer that might actually be decent.


Nobody in the NBA thinks like this at all.. not even the Bulls who have been begging their franchise to blow it up. If it did, the Pacers would've blown up their team earlier in the year, as would have the Bucks, Sixers, Wolves, Nuggets, all who were healthier and had stars on their team.

Our fans are super fickle if they think a bad losing streak with a bunch of guys coming off of injuries are going to make them "blow it up".
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#18 » by The-Stallion70 » Sun Feb 2, 2025 10:16 am

Miss Fultz now? :D

He was better than Da Silva, Black or KCP

KCP is not better than Gary was last year.

We're also missing Ingles' iq

Last in pace and 29th in offensive rating

The team is basically one good offensive player, one high volume inefficient offensive player and a bunch of defenders.

We had more depth and continuity last year.
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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#19 » by basketballRob » Sun Feb 2, 2025 11:15 am

We'll likely have a stretch where we win 15-20 at some point this season and have a shot at winning a first round matchup.

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Re: Should we throw in the towel? 

Post#20 » by T-Cat » Sun Feb 2, 2025 12:02 pm

eyriq wrote:I think two things are clear.

1. We need Suggs back
2. We need to trade for shooting

The defense is trending down but this isn't the critical trend. The shooting has fallen off a cliff and is 100% the critical trend. If we can see this Weltman can see this. I am extremely confident we will address this at the deadline.


Yes Suggs is important but he doesn't solve our true point guard woes neither is he an starting 2 guard because of his inconsistent shooting plus the guy is injury prone!

We have a potential Marcus Smart player on our team that needs a role as a sixth man that gives us energy and hustle. PERFECT :D

Now we would be foolish not to have our hands in the 2025 NBA draft, this the only way this team can get better talent at a good affordable value.

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