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_____________________VS___________

_________46-36 (14-15 Regular Season Record)_______________25-57 (14-15 Regular Season Record)
______________5th Eastern Conference_______________________________13th Eastern Conference

It's finally here. The 2015-2016 NBA season is upon us, thank God. The off-season seemed to drag on for way too long.

Representing the most powerful city in the world, YOUR Washington Wizards hope to improve on last season's 5th place Eastern regular season finish. Head Coach Randy Wittman has installed a faster offense that includes a lineup featuring a stretch 4, which the Wiz used effectively in last season's playoffs. With the departure of F Paul Pierce to LA, F Kris Humphries (for now) is the man to replace Pierce at the position. He'll be backed up by F Drew Gooden and newcomer Jared Dudley. The hope is that spreading the floor will benefit PG John Wall and C Marcin Gortat and provide both players with room in the paint to operate. Key to the Wizards hopes for improvement are the ongoing development of SF Otto Porter and SG Bradley Beal. PF/C Nene, when healthy, will come off the bench to spell Gortat and (hopefully) anchor the second unit and feast on opposition bench players.

Orlando comes off of a difficult year. C Nikola Vucevic has posted outstanding offensive numbers. The off-season addition of PG C.J. Watson will allow local fave G Victor Oladipo to move off of the point and onto the wing, where he'll be able to concentrate on playing attacking offensive ball. While the team is relatively young, the Magic are still in their rebuilding process.

Let's meet the starting lineups. (All stats below reflect 2014-2015 regular season numbers).

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_______PG John Wall, 6'4" (Kentucky)__________________PG C.J. Watson, 6'2" (Tennessee)
________17.6 ppg, 10.0 apg, 4.4 rpg______________________10.0 ppg, 3.6 apg, 2.9 rpg


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_______SG Bradley Beal, 6'5" (Florida)__________________SG Victor Oladipo, 6'4" (Indiana)
________15.3 ppg, 3.1 apg, 3.8 rpg_______________________17.9 ppg, 4.1 apg, 4.2 rpg


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_______SF Otto Porter, 6'8" (Georgetown)__________________SF Evan Fournier, 6'7" (France)
________6.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 0.9 apg_______________________12.0 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 2.1 apg


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____PF Kris Humphries, 6'9" (Minnesota)______________PF Tobias Harris, 6'9" (Tennessee)
________8.0 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 0.9 apg________________________17.1 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 1.8 apg


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______C Marcin Gortat, 6'11" (Poland)______________C Nikola Vucevic, 7'0" (USC)
________12.2ppg, 8.7 rpg, 1.3 bpg______________________19.3 ppg, 10.9 rpg, 0.7 bpg

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What: Wizards at Magic
Where: Amway Center --- Orlando, FL
When: 7:00 p.m. EST
TV: Comcast SportsNet, NBA League Pass, Quasi-legal internet streams
Radio: WNEW 99.1 FM

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Woo-hoo! The regular season is here. Can YOUR Washington Wizards kick off the year with a win and start gathering their nuts in sunny Florida?

Drop your thoughts, predictions, and opinions below.

Go Wizards!

Wall and Beal look like they both just smoked some Glen Rice Bud if you know what I mean.

Humphries looks like he just realized jet fuel can't melt steel beams.

Some good memories:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff_oH3Td1-A[/youtube]

Hmm.. I'm pretty sure Elfrid Payton will start as PG, he's been resting because of minimal hamstring injury but he's been feeling good the last few days. Oladipo was moved to SG last season with short backup stints at PG while Payton was resting. That won't happen this season I think, as Oladipo is much better suited as SG and we have Watson and Napier now as backup PGs.

Aaron Gordon will be on minutes restriction because of foot bruise, but he could as well start over Fournier at SF as he's been reported to being fine.

I think it will be like this:

PG: Payton
SG: Oladipo
SF: Gordon
PF: Harris
C: Vucevic

6th: Fournier

Bench: Hezonja, Frye, Dedmon, Watson, Napier, Smith, Nicholson, Marble

Can't wait for the season to start. Hope for a good game!

AddiFB wrote:Hmm.. I'm pretty sure Elfrid Payton will start as PG, he's been resting because of minimal hamstring injury but he's been feeling good the last few days. Oladipo was moved to SG last season with short backup stints at PG while Payton was resting. That won't happen this season I think, as Oladipo is much better suited as SG and we have Watson and Napier now as backup PGs.

Aaron Gordon will be on minutes restriction because of foot bruise, but he could as well start over Fournier at SF as he's been reported to being fine.

I think it will be like this:

PG: Payton
SG: Oladipo
SF: Gordon
PF: Harris
C: Vucevic

6th: Fournier

Bench: Hezonja, Frye, Dedmon, Watson, Napier, Smith, Nicholson, Marble

Can't wait for the season to start. Hope for a good game!

Thank you for this. I thought Payton was out for a while, injured. Gordon too.

I'm gonna make changes to the OP later.

Hope you guys have a good year.

Orlando is like that quote about Brazil. “Brazil is the country of the future — and always will be”. They have so much talent I've coveted in drafts (Aaron Gordon, Vic 'Dipo, Nikola, Tobias, etc) I'm always waiting for them to instantly grow up mature and break out. Got a feeling they will surprise this year.

Will be interesting to see how well they shoot from the perimeter. None of them are particularly knock down shooters but they can get hot. If the perimeter D holds and we hit a decent clip from distance ourselves I think we ought to win. Also will be interesting to see how well ORL plays D with Skiles at the helm. They should be improved. I'd attack Nikola a lot in the P n R early to see if he can stop Gortat.

doclinkin wrote:Orlando is like that quote about Brazil. “Brazil is the country of the future — and always will be”. They have so much talent I've coveted in drafts (Aaron Gordon, Vic 'Dipo, Nikola, Tobias, etc) I'm always waiting for them to instantly grow up mature and break out. Got a feeling they will surprise this year.

I love Dipo, but I think the other players are overrated because they don't play both ends. Toby and Vuc don't do enough on the defensive side, and Gordon and the Elf can't shoot. They're all capable of improving on those weaknesses, but are they gellin? They added shooting in Frye and Hezonja and Fournier, but I wouldn't bet on them this year mainly because of interior defense.

Expecting a W with Washington's transition game and 3pt shooting to be the difference.

Magic have a lot of trouble guarding the PnR because of Vucevic. And Wall-Gortat PnR opens up the three point shooting, statistically last year ORL was one of the worst teams defending the 3pt line.


Excited to see how Tobias Harris looks after getting his new deal this summer, I've been high on him for some years and snagged him in fantasy bb - looking for big things this season.

AddiFB wrote:Hmm.. I'm pretty sure Elfrid Payton will start as PG, he's been resting because of minimal hamstring injury but he's been feeling good the last few days. Oladipo was moved to SG last season with short backup stints at PG while Payton was resting. That won't happen this season I think, as Oladipo is much better suited as SG and we have Watson and Napier now as backup PGs.

Regardless of who starts, it's about time that Oladipo moves off the ball. Never liked the experiment of him at PG. I expect him to have a good season at SG.

How do you feel about Harris and Fournier at the forwards? Especially with Vucevic not being a great defender? Will your frontcourt get overpowered this year?

I expect this to be a 5+ point win for the Wiz while they score around 110 points. The Orlando defense inside is very weak, so Gortat pnr should be effective. I expect the Wizards to play fast and to get a healthy amount of fast break points or at least generate easy baskets before the Orlando defense can get set. On the other side of the ball, Hump/Gooden are going to have a tough time with Harris and Vuc always plays well vs us. Ultimately I think the winner is the team with the better backcourt. Wall and Beal should be up to the task, even though I think Dipo and Payton are going to be a top tier backcourt in the future.

LyricalRico wrote:

AddiFB wrote:Hmm.. I'm pretty sure Elfrid Payton will start as PG, he's been resting because of minimal hamstring injury but he's been feeling good the last few days. Oladipo was moved to SG last season with short backup stints at PG while Payton was resting. That won't happen this season I think, as Oladipo is much better suited as SG and we have Watson and Napier now as backup PGs.

Regardless of who starts, it's about time that Oladipo moves off the ball. Never liked the experiment of him at PG. I expect him to have a good season at SG.

How do you feel about Harris and Fournier at the forwards? Especially with Vucevic not being a great defender? Will your frontcourt get overpowered this year?

Oladipo wasn't ever intended to be the PG. His rookie year at that spot was more to up his ability with the ball, improve his handling I think. They were clearly not trying to win that year so it didn't matter.

Our PF situation is kinda odd but interesting. We don't have that typical defensive big body at the four, but Dedmon can play that position and he's a good defender and getting better offensively. He'll play at C more though. We have to guys who probably will switch at the forward positions, Gordon and Harris. Both are a bit undersized at the four, but they could have the upper hand when it comes to speed and mobility, Gordon specifically. We also have Frye at the four, but he can't guard a fire hydrant but he does create spacing with his shooting. We also have Andrew Nicholson, has plenty of offensive moves and a good scorer, but like Frye, can't guard a postbox. Oddly enough we ranked #1 in protecting the paint during the preseason. That's an area we will improve on under Skiles, but #1 is a major fluke

At the SF position we're fine. Gordon will play at the three more than four I think. He's a great on-ball defender and has the ability to run the court for chase down blocks. He's very athletic. I mean VERY.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oAVpphEHzs[/youtube]

If we'd have Dedmon at the four in some situation, we could also play Harris at the SF. Other guys who can play the SF are, like you said, Fournier, but also Hezonja. Both are good-to-great shooters. Mario has elite shooting touch, but needs to find his shooting rythm. He didn't shoot badly during pre-season, he's still adjusting to the NBA game. He does need to work on his defense though, but that will come and he does have great defensive capabilities. Both Hezonja and Fournier are very capable slashers and finishers.

Our guards have great defensive abilities, but lack of defensive strategy over the last 2-3 years wasn't good for them. That will change with Skiles. Can't wait to see how they evolve over the season and under a proper, defensive minded coach. Won't happen overnight and we Magic fans should be patient. We'll have plenty of highlights!

All in all, we have the ability to outrun teams with faster, more athletic forwards and guards. Interestingly, Vucevic likes faster pace, so that might suit him well. I guess we'll find ourselves in trouble against bigger, stronger teams, but I'm curious to see how that works out. Will we be able to outrun, outplay them with athleticism and speed or will we be overpowered? We'll just have to find out I guess.

Orlando has a lot of good prospects with high floors. They really need a couple of those guys to break out and become stars. Kinda like the Boston Celtics, only with better prospects and a worse coach.

It always depresses me when I see a team with so many assets. They have 7 decent young players/prospects. We tanked almost as long as they did, and have 4. EG really did a poor job of building depth for the future.

AddiFB wrote:

LyricalRico wrote:

AddiFB wrote:Hmm.. I'm pretty sure Elfrid Payton will start as PG, he's been resting because of minimal hamstring injury but he's been feeling good the last few days. Oladipo was moved to SG last season with short backup stints at PG while Payton was resting. That won't happen this season I think, as Oladipo is much better suited as SG and we have Watson and Napier now as backup PGs.

Regardless of who starts, it's about time that Oladipo moves off the ball. Never liked the experiment of him at PG. I expect him to have a good season at SG.

How do you feel about Harris and Fournier at the forwards? Especially with Vucevic not being a great defender? Will your frontcourt get overpowered this year?

Oladipo wasn't ever intended to be the PG. His rookie year at that spot was more to up his ability with the ball, improve his handling I think. They were clearly not trying to win that year so it didn't matter.

Our PF situation is kinda odd but interesting. We don't have that typical defensive big body at the four, but Dedmon can play that position and he's a good defender and getting better offensively. He'll play at C more though. We have to guys who probably will switch at the forward positions, Gordon and Harris. Both are a bit undersized at the four, but they could have the upper hand when it comes to speed and mobility, Gordon specifically. We also have Frye at the four, but he can't guard a fire hydrant but he does create spacing with his shooting. We also have Andrew Nicholson, has plenty of offensive moves and a good scorer, but like Frye, can't guard a postbox. Oddly enough we ranked #1 in protecting the paint during the preseason. That's an area we will improve on under Skiles, but #1 is a major fluke

At the SF position we're fine. Gordon will play at the three more than four I think. He's a great on-ball defender and has the ability to run the court for chase down blocks. He's very athletic. I mean VERY.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oAVpphEHzs[/youtube]

If we'd have Dedmon at the four in some situation, we could also play Harris at the SF. Other guys who can play the SF are, like you said, Fournier, but also Hezonja. Both are good-to-great shooters. Mario has elite shooting touch, but needs to find his shooting rythm. He didn't shoot badly during pre-season, he's still adjusting to the NBA game. He does need to work on his defense though, but that will come and he does have great defensive capabilities. Both Hezonja and Fournier are very capable slashers and finishers.

Our guards have great defensive abilities, but lack of defensive strategy over the last 2-3 years wasn't good for them. That will change with Skiles. Can't wait to see how they evolve over the season and under a proper, defensive minded coach. Won't happen overnight and we Magic fans should be patient. We'll have plenty of highlights!

All in all, we have the ability to outrun teams with faster, more athletic forwards and guards. Interestingly, Vucevic likes faster pace, so that might suit him well. I guess we'll find ourselves in trouble against bigger, stronger teams, but I'm curious to see how that works out. Will we be able to outrun, outplay them with athleticism and speed or will we be overpowered? We'll just have to find out I guess.

Thanks for the break down. Always love it when another team's fan come to this site with insight about his squad.

Hope you'll stick around and post during and after the game.

I've got the Magic as my sleeper team to make the playoffs as a 7th or 8th seed, and playing in Orlando has always been kinda tough for us, so I expect a tough game. I think we win a close one by like 3 or 4.

Higga wrote:I've got the Magic as my sleeper team to make the playoffs as a 7th or 8th seed, and playing in Orlando has always been kinda tough for us, so I expect a tough game. I think we win a close one by like 3 or 4.

We had an equipment manager moonlighting as a coach the past few years, with the young talent we have, I expect the 7,8th seed as well. Hopefully it's not just homer glasses speaking now.

Goodluck tonight, BUT not that much good luck

What do you guys expect from Beal this year? I always loved that kids stroke, best looking one since Ray ray.

I think most posters here are less sanguine about Beal's contract year than the general NBA public. I've even seen general board posters argue in a most serious and convicted tone that Bradley Beal is a better NBA player than John Wall, which is just ridiculous. The thing that the Wizards' board fans know is that Beal really hasn't improved much year-over-year since entering the league. I think we're generally holding out hope that this year is THE LEAP, but not so confident that it'll happen.

That's what I gather to be the general board consensus, though I certainly don't speak for everyone. Personally, I think that this will be Bradley's best year in the league by a small-to-moderate margin, and the Wizards will have little option but to max or nearly max him in the offseason. His huge 2016 contract will be more a matter of the league-wide perception of his basketball contributions (however misguided) and the skyrocketing salary cap.

Is Pudgedly playing tonight?

willbcocks wrote:Orlando has a lot of good prospects with high floors. They really need a couple of those guys to break out and become stars. Kinda like the Boston Celtics, only with better prospects and a worse coach.

It always depresses me when I see a team with so many assets. They have 7 decent young players/prospects. We tanked almost as long as they did, and have 4. EG really did a poor job of building depth for the future.

I'd much rather be in our position than Orlando's. Orlando has a bunch of prospects, but none other than Oladipo really figures to be anything more than a league average starter. Wall is way better than anyone on that roster will be, and Beal and Porter will probably be better than everyone but maybe Oladipo.

They've managed to get a bunch of the type of guys whom GM's dread to have when rookie contracts expire. They're good enough to want crazy money up to and including the max, but they're definitely not good enough to be value contracts at a max salary.