2023-2024 Regular Season Game 44: Cleveland Cavaliers (25-15) at Orlando Magic (23-20) - 7pm

[Skybox]

You aren't solving anything with $25M of defensive center who only catches lobs and creates no spacing.

Your main problem is incompetent guard play, and no playmaking from backcourt.
Watching Suggs & Black as "guards" pretending to do something would be comical, if it's not tragic.
They have no clue what they should be doing. Just give up ball to Franz or Paolo and move away.

Percentile of pick&roll plays by our guards:
Fultz 54th
Suggs 21
Black 20
Anthony 32

It's impossible to play offense in fashion where guards are apsolutley worthless with ball in their hands. You think Claxton would solve any of it?


Cs like him are created by point guards.
Why Claxton's efficiency went from near 70% TS to 65%? Well that's fall from Kyrie to Spance Diwiddie.
Why Deandre Jordan had career in first place? Because CP3.
Why Capela was overpayed? Because it was Harden, not some average joe who was dumping ball to him.



Get a point guard. Asap. Than do cosmetic changes.

You're running with half of the story (mine at least)...I suggest taking away (unnecessary) offensive versatility at the C spot (WCJ-we don't need that) with the understanding that you MUST improve your backcourt scoring & playmaking at the same time...if I could only do one or the other - the backcourt is obviously the more glaring gaping hole that must be addressed first. My point is do both and be EVEN better defensively with a single-minded defensive guy at C...and I wouldn't want to pay a C $25m...as I specifically addressed with Claxton. Gafford is about the same $$ as WCJ but with half of the offensive potential and versatility and twice the shotblocking.

I agree that JUST adding Claxton does very little for us-but adding a scoring/playmaking/shooter guard (even if his defense is sub-par) and adding Claxton makes us better overall on both ends of the court. A defensive Center is more impactful than a second defensive-minded guard and a weak Center.

I like Black as a reserve (for the foreseeable future) but pairing him with Suggs is ludicrous. Also ludicrous is casually designating Suggs as PG. I'm happy to keep AB, but would move him if, say ATL, lusted for him next to Trae. Same with WCJ - very good versatile player-happy to keep him as a rotation big, but not the right guy to start next to our forwards.

[Bensational]

This is just goofy stuff man.

You can't just look at the box score and declare the gameplan was a failure based on how the shot attempts ended up getting dispersed while blatantly ignoring the context of how the game actually flowed and how those shot attempts actually came about.

That has literally nothing to do with any sort of "gameplan" - the shooters happened to miss and the ball happened to bounced to him and once he secured the OREB, he decided put up shots with two feet in the paint because he's over 82% on shots from 0-3 feet.

Wendell from 0-3 feet is quite literally from a statistical standpoint one of the best, if not the single best shot, the Magic could generate in a given possession.

How come the context doesn’t continue through to how heavily guarded he was on his putback attempts?

When he’s surrounded by Allen and 2 other bigs around him? Was he 82% on his 0-3ft shots last night? No, he wasn’t. The context of a multi game average can have zero bearing on any given game. Players have cold nights and bad matchups and coach adjusts accordingly.

Listen to yourself - you’re actually trying to justify that the strategy that gave us a 30 point blowout loss was a good one. Or if not that, it was a strategy that was out of our control, ignoring the multitude of different lineups we’ve seen over the past few weeks.

It's just really silly to ignore how the game is actually flowing and just making cold judgements based on the box score.

Ok, I’ll remember to make sure my game-thread comments are considered through a filter of season average context in future. Thank you for your service in ensuring the integrity of this thread

[Knightro]

How come the context doesn’t continue through to how heavily guarded he was on his putback attempts?

When he’s surrounded by Allen and 2 other bigs around him? Was he 82% on his 0-3ft shots last night? No, he wasn’t. The context of a multi game average can have zero bearing on any given game. Players have cold nights and bad matchups and coach adjusts accordingly.

Listen to yourself - you’re actually trying to justify that the strategy that gave us a 30 point blowout loss was a good one. Or if not that, it was a strategy that was out of our control, ignoring the multitude of different lineups we’ve seen over the past few weeks.

Ok, I’ll remember to make sure my game-thread comments are considered through a filter of season average context in future. Thank you for your service in ensuring the integrity of this thread

I maintain what I have said from the moment you made the original statement.

Bemoaning the "gameplan" as a terrible one for no other reason than one player specifically got a couple of more shots than you think he should have gotten is ridiculous and makes you look like you have no idea what you're actually talking about.

I stand by it 100%. It was a silly remark not based in any sort of understanding of what was actually happening on the floor.

[thelead]

We still at it, huh?

[ORLMagicGirl15]

Listening to Paolo’s post game interview, I realize that he is way to nice to the players. Call them out P for not watching film. Also let the coaches no that there is no plan when the offense is stagnet.

As you all know, I finally came around to being a Paolo fan… I will still say he needs to learn how to attack the rim and not shy away from contact and his FT shooting is a real problem, but am bought in now on potential…

And of course, now that I’m bought in, can start to see the momentum for him asking out of Orlando… This FO has built this roster with rose colored glasses… If all of our players consistently played to to their capability, we could complete, the problem is they are either hurt and/or only play to their capability 20% of the time… And if they don’t get Coach Mo someone that can guide him on schemes/preparation/personnel rotations then we will hover at .500 for the foreseeable future… You can see the frustration starting…

Go out and pay what you need to get a Van type to be an assistant?

Go out and get a Draymond, Pat Beverly type who will light a fire under these players?

Okay, so Paolo is in his second season. He has yet to make a playoff run. He had yet to lead this team into success. He himself have not made an all-star team, all-nba, or has been an MVP or DPOY candidate. No real status to demand anything of this front office. At no point is there a seed planted for him to ask out. He essentially has captured a city that is ready to rock with him and an office that wants to build around him. As far as we know, he is probably perfectly fine except maybe he’d like more exposure. But we have time for all of that.

We as a city is restless because we haven’t had any type of success for a while but that’s not on Paolo he just got here and it’s going to take time and patience on both ends. He’ll be fine. This front office do need to be a bit more aggressive but we’re going to be okay.