2023-2024 Regular Season Game 45: Orlando Magic (23-21) at Memphis Grizzlies (17-27) - 8pm

[Knightro]

Didn't watch the game, a sound decision in hindsight. Probably not gonna watch many of them unless we have basketball players next to Franz and Paolo.

What happened to Suggs?

Banged knees on a screen early in the first quarter and limped off.

Didn’t look terrible, but he didn’t come back in.

[byeganyo]

Make a damn trades. What's the purpose of draft picks & assets if they can't play and you are wasting cheap years of Franz and Paolo on teams that are not funcional?

Well, this should be asked after each game - what was the point of drafting Howard - he has played 42 minutes so far, halfway through the season not a full NBA game yet, actually in terms of minutes played he is 49th!! among the rookies this season, so without a significant injury he is getting the minutes that a late 2nd round pick should be expecting...
he may turn everything around and become an elite player, but then why not free minutes for him from the start...
Really mindless decision no matter how the pick pans out.

[zaymon]

Make a damn trades. What's the purpose of draft picks & assets if they can't play and you are wasting cheap years of Franz and Paolo on teams that are not funcional?

Well, this should be asked after each game - what was the point of drafting Howard - he has played 42 minutes so far, halfway through the season not a full NBA game yet, actually in terms of minutes played he is 49th!! among the rookies this season, so without a significant injury he is getting the minutes that a late 2nd round pick should be expecting...
he may turn everything around and become an elite player, but then why not free minutes for him from the start...
Really mindless decision no matter how the pick pans out.

Its pretty evident and also they said it before the season they want rookies to earn their minutes. Some players thrive given minutes from the start and some not. It was a calculated decision no matter how pick pans out

[byeganyo]

Make a damn trades. What's the purpose of draft picks & assets if they can't play and you are wasting cheap years of Franz and Paolo on teams that are not funcional?

Well, this should be asked after each game - what was the point of drafting Howard - he has played 42 minutes so far, halfway through the season not a full NBA game yet, actually in terms of minutes played he is 49th!! among the rookies this season, so without a significant injury he is getting the minutes that a late 2nd round pick should be expecting...
he may turn everything around and become an elite player, but then why not free minutes for him from the start...
Really mindless decision no matter how the pick pans out.

Its pretty evident and also they said it before the season they want rookies to earn their minutes. Some players thrive given minutes from the start and some not. It was a calculated decision no matter how pick pans out

Well, it's a lie, Chuma has played 10 times as many minutes as Howard and he hasnt earn a thing in the past season. Im not saying he is the answer to anything, but that this pick should have been traded for someone that can get more than 40 minutes if that was the plan.
And even it isnt a lie its a dumb plan, because who else does ti?

[cedric76]

Jett s time will come and everybody Will eat Crows

[yoyojw17]

Make a damn trades. What's the purpose of draft picks & assets if they can't play and you are wasting cheap years of Franz and Paolo on teams that are not funcional?

Well, this should be asked after each game - what was the point of drafting Howard - he has played 42 minutes so far, halfway through the season not a full NBA game yet, actually in terms of minutes played he is 49th!! among the rookies this season, so without a significant injury he is getting the minutes that a late 2nd round pick should be expecting...
he may turn everything around and become an elite player, but then why not free minutes for him from the start...
Really mindless decision no matter how the pick pans out.

Its pretty evident and also they said it before the season they want rookies to earn their minutes. Some players thrive given minutes from the start and some not. It was a calculated decision no matter how pick pans out

exactly. in some cases... handing over the keys can be a detriment to ones career in the long run too. you manage them appropriately. Based on what i saw of AB in college... there is more to see than what we have.... buuuuuuuut i'm sure they are taking him along slowly even though he was getting minutes. can't have everyone experimenting at the same time. this is franz and paolo's time to make leaps and bounds.... AB and Jett will have their chance...especially with a year of being a professional under their wing. Going into the summer.... they will have an idea of what they need to do to get better.

another note... JJJ has grown a lot especially under these conditions. no longer just a jump shooting lob threat.... but he's diversified his game and i gobbling it up on the interior. something that has bothered me about paolo and wcj. Post play has been part of the their games and i know it's there... shoot... even chuma.... but everyone wants to be a jump shooter. Now... i'm happy that people are working on their jumpshots and 3's... but... post moves and game is a great tool to have just as much! USE YOUR ATHLETICISM AND YOUR SIZE.... that's one of the things that separates us.

[Skybox]

This is a fairly healthy lottery team right now…face it and decide what’s next. If you believe it’s a playoff-caliber roster, then Mose is terrible or the FO is calling the shots to showcase assets. Either way, it’s bad right now and seems fairly obvious that the roster construction is atrocious…if they make a significant move- they’re doing their job and utilizing mismatched talents as assets (which they should)…if they double-down on redundant skill sets with gaping holes across the roster, I just don’t know what to say. There is talent across the roster but poor fits are just as obvious…the stage is set for today’s frustration to become next week’s victory.

If we have the same team on Feb 9…I’d be completely on-board with wholesale firing of the FO. The 3-D chess BS would, at that point, be clearly revealed as cowardly inactivity not patient genius.

I want to believe they have cleverly set the table for this moment…we’ll see soon.

[SOUL]

The least of our worries is playing more young guys on a roster full of young guys. If we didn't pick Black at 6, Jett would be getting minutes. Coaches do not want to play rookies unless they have to.

[Bergmaniac]

What most annoyed me in this game was the stretch between 7:30 and 4:30 left of the third quarter where the Grizzlies were floundering on offense, made a bunch of bad turnovers and bad shots in a row and we let them off the hook with some terrible play on the fast break and boneheaded turnovers on our own. That's where we should have made a decisive run but we didn't. Of course we still had chances and predictably tightened up the defence in the fourth which gave us a shot. But it never should have been this close against such a shorthanded team.

112.8 ORTG against a Memphis team which played an 5'8' guy for 14 minutes and Kennard for 30 minutes just won't go it done. I like Black as a long term prospect but if we want to make the playoffs we really can't have him play extended minutes, offensively he is just not ready. Cole is just embarassing lately and Fultz shows some flashes but his completely refusal to shoot from outside is hindering the team. Ingles is also on a bad streak lately, his passing hasn't been as sharp as it was most of the season and his shooting has been off.

We are down to 25th in ORTG, with the gap to the 24th ranked Chicago growing, and the only teams behind us are the blatantly tanking ones and Memphis, who have had Ja out almost all season, Bane has missed 20+ games and Adams, whose offensive rebounding is huge for their offense, has been out all year. We are also currently dead last in 3 point percentage and makes. The only players in the whole roster with a TS% above the league average are the centres - nobody else (Suggs is right at the league average). Our three PGs have made a total 71 threes all season, that's 1.57 threes per game. That's really depressing in the 3 point era. And the guy wresponsible for the vast majority of this is shooting 32% from 3.

Paolo is down to 53.6 TS% and while a lot of this is on him and his shot selection, he is certainly not helped by our horrendous spacing and lack of playmaking. None of our PGs get him easy looks more than once in a blue moon and they are all killing his spacing, even Cole who is getting ignored on the perimeter a lot lately, no wonder given his current percentages. I don't know what more our management needs to make a move.

[eyriq]

For my like-minded peeps

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[eyriq]

Also, JI played 22 mins. If he can continue to ramp up and play every game there won't be a bigger factor behind a strong second half.

[trebone]

As well as the Cavs have been playing with Garland out, I think we should throw a big offer for Garland, Magiv and Cavs have similar issues with players who overlap skill sets. Fultz/Jett 3 1sts for Garland, hes on a long term deal and still fits the timeline with franz and paolo

[eyriq]

Also, shots fired at Mosley and they aren't wrong.

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[Bergmaniac]

For my like-minded peeps

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Starting or not, Goga and Black should play together a lot more than they are currently doing. The lineups with Black playing without Goga have been really bad all season, especially lately, while the Goga/Black lineups has been surprisingly solid on offense and excellent on defense - https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612753&Season=2023-24&SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&PlayerIds=1641710,1629048

[eyriq]

For my like-minded peeps

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Starting or not, Goga and Black should play together a lot more than they are currently doing. The lineups with Black playing without Goga have been really bad all season, especially lately, while the Goga/Black lineups has been surprisingly solid on offense and excellent on defense - https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612753&Season=2023-24&SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&PlayerIds=1641710,1629048

Yeah man, we need a trade if for no other reason than simplifying the decisions on rotations.

[pepe1991]

Problem with Goga & Black is that they contribute to nothing on offense outside of garbage points.

Black has second lowest offensive rating on a team.

Black now played 19 games ( out of 42) where he scored below 4 points. That should be your PG/SF ? Yea... that's not how league is played nowdays. He is project, but if you gonna play him 30 min a game you can kiss playoffs goodby.

Goga's only offense are dunks and point blank shots. On team that has so terrible offensive rating, he is just yet another floor spacing killer.

[Def Swami]

Very unserious team. Super unserious approach to a game you should win in a playoff race. All the way from the coaching staff down to the players.

Again, 8 missed free throws, a lot of missed wide open 3's, and a lot of mental lapses on defense (leaving really good shooters open for practice level 3 point shots and letting Jaren Jackson Jr. just body Wendell Carter Jr.). Mosely had no answers for trying to corral the Grizzlies shooters, but credit to Taylor Jenkins for actually coaching a really good gameplan to get his guys open shots. The Magic were not ready for it. Similar to the game against Cleveland, I almost thought the Magic had not even read a scouting report of the team they were playing. It took until the mid-4th quarter for Mosely to just go to an all length lineup with AB, Wagner, Banchero, Isaac, and Carter, which actually worked but ultimately proved to be too late.

The Magic consistently find ways to beat themselves. It's super frustrating to watch. The team needs to add some shooting, no doubt. But there's an approach to the game in which the team actually values each possession on each side of the ball that they have to adopt as well. Adding Tyus Jones isn't going to make Carter Jr. hit a free throw in the final minute of a 1 point game or make Wagner not cough up a live ball turnover on an unnecessary cross court pass to Isaac in the opposite corner. Value the game and value the possession!

[Def Swami]

Also, shots fired at Mosley and they aren't wrong.

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Mosely knew it too. Had no choice to but to break Isaac's weird minutes restriction to just get length out there to keep up in the 4th.

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[zaymon]

What most annoyed me in this game was the stretch between 7:30 and 4:30 left of the third quarter where the Grizzlies were floundering on offense, made a bunch of bad turnovers and bad shots in a row and we let them off the hook with some terrible play on the fast break and boneheaded turnovers on our own. That's where we should have made a decisive run but we didn't. Of course we still had chances and predictably tightened up the defence in the fourth which gave us a shot. But it never should have been this close against such a shorthanded team.

Our guys start to panic when game becomes more chaotic. No one can hold the ball, stupid passes, running into group of people. Only Suggs seem to move well in those situations. I dont know if this bell thing made our players release more adrenalin in those situations or what ?

[Skybox]

For my like-minded peeps

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Starting or not, Goga and Black should play together a lot more than they are currently doing. The lineups with Black playing without Goga have been really bad all season, especially lately, while the Goga/Black lineups has been surprisingly solid on offense and excellent on defense - https://www.pbpstats.com/wowy-combos/nba?TeamId=1610612753&Season=2023-24&SeasonType=Regular%2BSeason&PlayerIds=1641710,1629048

Yeah man, we need a trade if for no other reason than simplifying the decisions on rotations.

Goga and Black is better but still not good. Change the roster. Sussing out the best lineup on a badly assembled roster shouldn't be the goal.