2022-2023 Regular Season Game 33: Orlando Magic (11-21) at Houston Rockets (9-21) - 8pm

[I Rasharted]

The next five games are against teams with losing records.

I hope the Magic marketing team is working on their play-in campaign push.

[penny_nz]

Great come back win today, not the cleanest but this team is beginning to believe in themselves. I can't help but think how much of a difference Moe's demenour makes to that starting group, he's tough, niggly and has irrational confidence.

Paolo is just a stud and Franz is right there with him. Earlier in the season they didn't seem to be quite clicking together, but now they're the first in to congratulate each other and seem to be forging a great partnership.

Also can't take away from Fultz what he's bringing away from this squad, he's brought a much better effort on defense so far than in the past.

Paolo and Franz are a clear top tier in this starting unit. Fultz and Bol the tier below and Moe under that. Be interesting when WCJ comes back, because I think he's the better player, BUT Moe has been playing really well, and he's been a big part of this run of form. I'm a big believer unless your are an obvious star of the team, you need to earn your way back in if the team is winning...

[richi_v25]

We beat the best team in the NBA and now the worst, that's end to end so does that mean we're the NBA regular season champs?

[Skybox]

I'm teetering on the brink of wanting the Magic to just go ahead and be buyers.

Within reason of course.

They have a lot of expiring money they can play with.

I think that’s a lot more realistic than people saying, “we’ll just go sign that guy in FA”…it rarely happens anymore and it’s generally an overpay when it does. Trades (& drafting well) are the way.

If we could get long looks at our injured players, we could really see what we have vs what we think we have. Isaac could free up a significant big (WCJ, Bol, certainly Bamba) for a trade. A developing Suggs might make Cole more available. I’m pretty content with M. Wagner holding it down for now for $5.00 per game if WCJ might get us into Simons-level talks…etc

[Knightro]

I was on the knicks board... they have a stat about the leagues best iso defender... guess who is #1??? Its Paolo... whats even nore shocking? He is tied with...... Joe freakin Harris!!! Lol

What I love about stats like that is you're playing with house money. Maybe Paolo's not a great defender, but he's not a traffic cone either if he's leading the league in some sort of defensive metric. I don't care how noisy it is! It puts the ball back in the court of someone who thinks otherwise by eye test or reputation.

When he's locked in 1 on 1, Paolo's totally fine defensively. He's big and he he can move his feet.

His problem defensively is the same as most young players. He struggles navigating screens and pins and generally lacks awareness off the ball. But that's not usual at all for a rookie.

[tooler]

Be interesting when WCJ comes back, because I think he's the better player, BUT Moe has been playing really well, and he's been a big part of this run of form. I'm a big believer unless your are an obvious star of the team, you need to earn your way back in if the team is winning...

Looks like the 5 man starting lineup has a -8.4 rating. So Moe is playing with energy but the lineup still sucks. What's interesting is it's the most minutes we have on a 5 man lineup by a mile: 165 minutes vs. the next closest at 65 minutes. We've seen how they've built some chemistry together. Now we just need to put good players in the lineup and build that same chemistry.

[Bergmaniac]

Houston have found a great tanking formula - have 2 guards who love chucking and aren't good at playmaking handle the ball at all times. No wonder their tanking is going very well. It must be pretty frustrating playing with the Porter-Green duo and their chucking.

Anyway, another game where Franz and the bench were decisive. Kevon and Admiral transforming from tank commanders to productive rotation players has been huge for our wins lately. Bamba with another solid game too.

[Knightro]

Paolo and Franz are a clear top tier in this starting unit. Fultz and Bol the tier below and Moe under that. Be interesting when WCJ comes back, because I think he's the better player, BUT Moe has been playing really well, and he's been a big part of this run of form. I'm a big believer unless your are an obvious star of the team, you need to earn your way back in if the team is winning...

It's not a question to me. Wendell goes back in to the starting lineup.

The real question for me is Moe or Mo.

Moe's producing much better raw numbers, but Bamba's had a much better impact on winning during this run. It will be interesting to see how Mosley shakes it out.

I'll reiterate what I said before, the one thing I wouldn't do is keep Moritz in the SL and move him to PF next to Carter.

Moe, Mo and Wendell are all centers and really shouldn't be on the floor together at all.

[swarlesbarkley]

Continue to be impressed by Paolo and Franz.

Continue to be unimpressed by Jabari.

[basketballRob]

Continue to be impressed by Paolo and Franz.

Continue to be unimpressed by Jabari.

I'm glad I was always on the Paolo train!

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[GameOver25]

Continue to be impressed by Paolo and Franz.

Continue to be unimpressed by Jabari.

To be fair they have both Porter Jr and Green in the backcourt. He barely has any opportunity to showcase himself. It's annoying watching both of those guys ballhog their way to 20pts a game and still lose all the time.

[BCS]

Continue to be impressed by Paolo and Franz.

Continue to be unimpressed by Jabari.

Jabari is someone who would perform better with someone setting him up at this stage in his career. If he had Fultz setting him up for example he'd be looking a lot better.

But yeah...we seem to continue to do it with #1 picks, we nail them every time thankfully.

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[swarlesbarkley]

Continue to be impressed by Paolo and Franz.

Continue to be unimpressed by Jabari.

I'm glad I was always on the Paolo train!

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Lol glad you came around

[swarlesbarkley]

Continue to be impressed by Paolo and Franz.

Continue to be unimpressed by Jabari.

To be fair they have both Porter Jr and Green in the backcourt. He barely has any opportunity to showcase himself. It's annoying watching both of those guys ballhog their way to 20pts a game and still lose all the time.

Fair enough. But it highlights his main concern coming out of college: creating for himself. Pre-draft some people were saying that concern was overstated and he actually had those skills. Turns out, no his doesn't. His type of talent is great for a roster but someone you can typically find much much later in the draft.

Paolo, on the other hand, has mostly debunked his main concerns coming out of college.

[AaronB]

Continue to be impressed by Paolo and Franz.

Continue to be unimpressed by Jabari.

To be fair they have both Porter Jr and Green in the backcourt. He barely has any opportunity to showcase himself. It's annoying watching both of those guys ballhog their way to 20pts a game and still lose all the time.

Fair enough. But it highlights his main concern coming out of college: creating for himself. Pre-draft some people were saying that concern was overstated and he actually had those skills. Turns out, no his doesn't. His type of talent is great for a roster but someone you can typically find much much later in the draft.

Paolo, on the other hand, has mostly debunked his main concerns coming out of college.

Could you imagine Paolo on the Rockets and them playing their offense through him?

That would be a really good team if Green and Porter bought in.

Maybe one of the worse rebounding teams in the league, but really fun to watch offensively.

[JoshuaPotter]

Oh look, we won against a team we have at worst a 50-50 chance. I'll take it.

[tooler]

I actually liked what I saw from Jabari. He always seemed to be right near the play on defense. He had a couple one/two dribble takes into a smooth pull-up jump shot. But most of all, he looked like an actual bonafide rookie. You could see it in his eyes. (Just like how you can see in KPJ’s eyes that he’s a chucker and Jalen Green’s eyes that he’s still a bit of a knucklehead.)

Kids playing like grizzled veterans isn’t normal, so if I’m the Rockets, I wouldn’t be sweating Jabari at all.

[IllMagic04]

Jabari will be fine. That said the reason I wanted Paolo over him and Chet is because of shot creation. Paolo showed in college that he could create of the dribble. I also never thought Paolo was that bad defensively. His on ball D was rather good when motivated. It was his off ball that left alot to be desired. His 3 ball was hot and cold in college. Just like it is now and I believe its gonna get more consistent. I believed then and now that Paolo and Ivey will be the stars of the draft

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[RookieStar]

I was on the knicks board... they have a stat about the leagues best iso defender... guess who is #1??? Its Paolo... whats even nore shocking? He is tied with...... Joe freakin Harris!!! Lol

He had great ISO defense stats at Duke too. It's all the other stuff he is lacking yet. But most of this gets better with experience. We probably need a elite rim protector / help side shot blocker in the 3 big rotation in the future, because this will always be his weakness. Isaac would be perfect but you know...

Yeah.. the problem with our team is that we don't have them. LOL you would think with longbois like Bamba and Bol elite shotblockers are here... sad to say,m they don't have the defensive IQ for it.