2023-2024 Regular Season Game 37: Minnesota Timberwolves (25-10) at Orlando Magic (21-15) - 7pm

[eyriq]

I'm on Okeke Island. The boy can defend and I believe in his shot. I think he's a viable rotation caliber wing and will not be surprised if a team paid a first for him.

[RichCollab]

Injuries, tired legs, and Okeke needed to be the occasional 2nd stringer (possibly 12-15 on the roster) and not a starter was our problem last night.

Not that it was Okeke specifically, the symbolism of it matters. When your 3rd string needs to score and play 1st string minutes / defense / offense and not spot minutes things can fall of the wheels quickly and it did.

I have other thoughts. The main one being we just need to get healthy. Otherwise, I think notwithstanding some glaring issues. I think we have done great riding the storm. Paolo is the guy to build around.

Okeke is the 15th man on our roster.

Yes. He is has been put in a position that you can't do and expect to win. To be fair, it makes little sense to bench Black in favor of Okeke because as many have said.

"If you play Black extended minutes expect to lose."

Somehow this doesn't apply to the 12-15th guys?

We want to put Black in positions to build confidence. With a depleted roster, there are situations you may prefer not to oppose him to as they can be counter productive.

[JoshuaPotter]

I'm on Okeke Island. The boy can defend and I believe in his shot. I think he's a viable rotation caliber wing and will not be surprised if a team paid a first for him.

You typically have in depth analysis to back up your opinion as it becomes more of a hypothesis. What homework did you have?

Also praise Keyonte!

[eyriq]

I'm on Okeke Island. The boy can defend and I believe in his shot. I think he's a viable rotation caliber wing and will not be surprised if a team paid a first for him.

You typically have in depth analysis to back up your opinion as it becomes more of a hypothesis. What homework did you have?

Also praise Keyonte!

I'm all gut on this one lol

[Skybox]

I'm on Okeke Island. The boy can defend and I believe in his shot. I think he's a viable rotation caliber wing and will not be surprised if a team paid a first for him.

You typically have in depth analysis to back up your opinion as it becomes more of a hypothesis. What homework did you have?

Also praise Keyonte!

I'm a fan of Okeke (as 12th man) but I don't know if he even gets a srp back...IF FO is sitting on their thumbs this summer, might as well re -sign him cheap, but I wouldn't hesitate to let him expire or move him sooner for something shinier. I like what he (occasionally) brings...he did pretty well trying to stay in front of Trae - which is nearly impossible for anyone. His team defense is always intelligent and unspectacular...like he prevents things intelligently by position, rather than anything dramatic. If he could just hit his 3's more reliably - he's a good, versatile guy to have on the deep bench...By all accounts, also a great locker room guy.

Wouldn't shock me if he was a throw-in, salary filler in a trade and did really well elsewhere. On a cheap deal- you could do a lot worse.

[JoshuaPotter]

Okeke is the 15th man on our roster.

Yes. He is has been put in a position that you can't do and expect to win. To be fair, it makes little sense to bench Black in favor of Okeke because as many have said.

"If you play Black extended minutes expect to lose."

Somehow this doesn't apply to the 12-15th guys?

We want to put Black in positions to build confidence. With a depleted roster, there are situations you may prefer not to oppose him to as they can be counter productive.

This must be why we never played Chuma! Wait.....

[basketballRob]

Black has played elite defense against guards.

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[The-Stallion70]

You can tell that while both teams are good on defense, the Magic rely more on athleticism and flying around, which leads to sprained ankles and pulled muscles and blunt force injuries. Minny is just disciplined, tall, thick and well schemed. I think that is why they are more healthy halfway through the season. We need to adjust our style to survive 82 game seasons.

I don't think it's style as much as experience. Young teams aren't supposed to be good on defense in the first place.

Their team plays Edwards and McDaniels big minutes, McDaniels is their main defensive guy on the perimeter, the issue is not necessarily youth.

[The-Stallion70]

Just an observation from attending in person last night (other than the TWolves are huge)

We already had 6 players out, but throughout the game we kept having players wincing though injuries even though they stayed in. Minny, however, had no such issues or drama, even though they play extremely physical. You can tell that while both teams are good on defense, the Magic rely more on athleticism and flying around, which leads to sprained ankles and pulled muscles and blunt force injuries. Minny is just disciplined, tall, thick and well schemed. I think that is why they are more healthy halfway through the season. We need to adjust our style to survive 82 game seasons.

Yes...the in-person realities of relative size are sometimes very unexpected. I used to sit down low all the time and, for example, Aaron Gordon at the time was lean and thin) and clearly not as tall as Hezonja. Pat Garrity was huge (I stood right next to him and while he touched his toes, I swear his hips were near my chest height)...anyway, I'm interested how big Ant Edwards looked...on TV, he looked nearly as tall and much thicker than our own in-house monster, Paolo.

What did you make of Ant?

Paolo is bigger than Ant but most of Paolo's weight appears to be in his legs. He doesn't quite have the LeBron, Giannis upper body. He's still big though.

Ant was always scouted as being a muscular freak, literal almost body builder type body.

[Residual-Heat]

I'm on Okeke Island. The boy can defend and I believe in his shot. I think he's a viable rotation caliber wing and will not be surprised if a team paid a first for him.

I like his defense, but have zero faith in his shooting. He's a career 32% shooter, showing no improvement at all and 25 years old. He's a FA next season. I wish his shooting could become consistent, but the signs arent positive. Unfortunately, i think its time to move on.

[tiderulz]

I'm on Okeke Island. The boy can defend and I believe in his shot. I think he's a viable rotation caliber wing and will not be surprised if a team paid a first for him.

I like his defense, but have zero faith in his shooting. He's a career 32% shooter, showing no improvement at all and 25 years old. He's a FA next season. I wish his shooting could become consistent, but the signs arent positive. Unfortunately, i think its time to move on.

this, i barely see him as a role player. hasnt done enough to be more than an end of bench guy

[OrlDave]

I'm on Okeke Island. The boy can defend and I believe in his shot. I think he's a viable rotation caliber wing and will not be surprised if a team paid a first for him.

I like his defense, but have zero faith in his shooting. He's a career 32% shooter, showing no improvement at all and 25 years old. He's a FA next season. I wish his shooting could become consistent, but the signs arent positive. Unfortunately, i think its time to move on.

Agreed. We don't have much room on this team for end-bench players who can't shoot. Caleb is an example of the prototype bench guy we need, shooter with good defense. Jett has the potential to be a good bench guy eventually. Chuma needs to take a shooting jump if he wants to stay on the team.

[Ugly0598]

Hope Fultz can get more minutes. But he was missing layups and shooting bad 2-7.

[Jaxfann]

For those of you who actually decided to put yourselves through this and watch this game, did you really expect any other result?

Our team is short handed, missing our second best player and barely squeeked by the last wins, winning by extremely slim margins.

We were going up against the loaded Timberwolves who were fully healthy and had the second best record in the league.

Our team is a defensive minded team that doesn't give themselves any breaks with hot shooting. Our team was stupidly built based on this notion that our guys can just play the best defense of their life night after night for 82 games.

I dont think we have a bad team because I think Paolo and Franz make us competitive by themselves but I don't think it is a sustainable basketball philosophy to expect our guys to play the kind of defense the front office expects of them night after night.

Totally agree - not sustainable!

[p0peye]

Hope Fultz can get more minutes. But he was missing layups and shooting bad 2-7.

We might be willing to trade him to Salt Lake if you make a good offer.

[Ugly0598]

Hope Fultz can get more minutes. But he was missing layups and shooting bad 2-7.

We might be willing to trade him to Salt Lake if you make a good offer.

I wouldn’t mind Fultz as an expiring.

[p0peye]

Hope Fultz can get more minutes. But he was missing layups and shooting bad 2-7.

We might be willing to trade him to Salt Lake if you make a good offer.

I wouldn’t mind Fultz as an expiring.

It's a competitive market out there.

[fateis007]

some of you guys are nuts sometimes.

okeke is one season away from being out of the league.

dude has shown nothing to prove he is any better then some of the guys killing the gleague right now.

in 4 years, just a ton of injuries, a broken shot, and 1 breakout game where he played some good defense.

stats wise hes dreadful even a third stringer, he is almost unplayable at this point

you could argue Mo Bomba put up 10x better stats, and we literally just let him walk and he got a minimum

what is okeke going to get? i stil remember when he had that 18/10/6/4 game against MIA and we thought he was going to actually be a player in this league, now hes a 15th man

[p0peye]

Haters. Okeke is new Moe Harkless.

[pepe1991]

Haters. Okeke is new Moe Harkless.

Chuma Chuma Chuma can't you see?
Sometimes your airball just hypnotize me
And i just love your flashy missed layups
Guess that's what happends when you miss draft combine weight up