2023-2024 Regular Season Game 54: Oklahoma City Thunder (36-17) at Orlando Magic (29-24) - 7:30pm

[Howard Mass]

I haven't heard Paul Porter say "Shaquille O'Neal" like that in 28 years. It gives me chills.

[BCS]

The best rotation for the rest of the year would be.

Starters:

Black
Suggs
Franz
Paolo
Isaac (play him 5-6 mins per quarter, also Goga depending on matchup)

Bench:

Fultz
Harris
Ingles (I prefer Jett but that is unlikely)
Moe
WCJ

That 10 man rotation is the best balance between starters and bench players. Starters with your 2 star players with 3 elite defenders . Bench allows Fultz to play on ball surrounded by shooters.

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[Def Swami]

We were outclassed by a better team. Simple and plain. Our team is our team for the year. The goals are to simply make the playoffs and call it a victory. We'll probably make the playoffs and get swept in round 1.

But, if they run this team back without any significant upgrades in shooting and scoring, the front office deserves a ton of criticism. This isn't going to fly next season. It took Shaq and Stan 90 minutes to diagnose the '23-'24 Orlando Magic. Fix your glaring issues, or just hand the team over to someone who will.

[eyriq]

Shaq pimped out on a throne is hilarious

[JF5]

Had a chance to get a head start on restructuring the team at the deadline.... Wanted to stand pat and keep the family together for a play-in/off run... This team isn't viable enough to make noise, we got a whole team full of streaky shooters at best.... Embarrassing, at least we didn't lose to the spurs but still.... You'd want a better account of yourself on national TV... Only to have the play by play clown you and point out the most obvious problem everybody can see except our front office.

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Make noise? You mean instead of winning 1 playoff games they'd win 2, maybe?

This delusional belief by adding 1-2 new players with young star players and young core in general who've never playoffs before would be some sort of dark horse is laughable. They won't even make it out of the 1st round.

On top of that they'd have to build enough chemistry within a 2 month time span. They wouldn't be able to really rely on more advance offensive sets.

It's about getting experience. Next year will be about advancing/being competitive enough.

don't want to hear none of this man, lakers were able to damn near bring in a whole new team at the deadline last season and had enough time to gel.....i don't expect the same result.....i just expect the front office to do their jobs and start addressing problems and they easily could've.....the answer we got was more or less we didn't want to break up the family and block development...so are we not trying to win games? i don't know with this front office

I didn't know we had an 38 year old LeBron James and a 30 year old Anthony Davis on our team. Because when I look at this Magic roster I see a 21 year old Sophomore in Paolo Banchero and a 22 year old Junior in Franz Wagner who are literally in their first season of being high usage players. You're making it seem like these guys have been in the league at least 5-6 years and they've hit the beginning of their primes.

[BadMofoPimp]

I haven't heard Paul Porter say "Shaquille O'Neal" like that in 28 years. It gives me chills.

I went to 17 games his rookie season and every time he touched the ball, we would start yelling "Shaquille O'Neal" like that because he scored every time he touched the ball and by the time we were on the "neal" part the ball would be going into the bucket.

[richi_v25]

I really miss Fultz from last year being almost automatic from the mid and the occasional 3 plus Cole from the beginning of the season going off for 20 pts... oh well that's as good as our guards have been in a minute.

[tiderulz]

We were outclassed by a better team. Simple and plain. Our team is our team for the year. The goals are to simply make the playoffs and call it a victory. We'll probably make the playoffs and get swept in round 1.

But, if they run this team back without any significant upgrades in shooting and scoring, the front office deserves a ton of criticism. This isn't going to fly next season. It took Shaq and Stan 90 minutes to diagnose the '23-'24 Orlando Magic. Fix your glaring issues, or just hand the team over to someone who will.

that and horrible PG play.

[Optimus_Steel]

We were outclassed by a better team. Simple and plain. Our team is our team for the year. The goals are to simply make the playoffs and call it a victory. We'll probably make the playoffs and get swept in round 1.

But, if they run this team back without any significant upgrades in shooting and scoring, the front office deserves a ton of criticism. This isn't going to fly next season. It took Shaq and Stan 90 minutes to diagnose the '23-'24 Orlando Magic. Fix your glaring issues, or just hand the team over to someone who will.

Indeed

[VFX]

Make noise? You mean instead of winning 1 playoff games they'd win 2, maybe?

This delusional belief by adding 1-2 new players with young star players and young core in general who've never playoffs before would be some sort of dark horse is laughable. They won't even make it out of the 1st round.

On top of that they'd have to build enough chemistry within a 2 month time span. They wouldn't be able to really rely on more advance offensive sets.

It's about getting experience. Next year will be about advancing/being competitive enough.

As much as you might think this is a good point…

The argument wasn’t only about the trade deadline this season… it was the offseason and prior season as well.

the Magic who were still in the business of losing games last year and trying to be in the running of potentially getting that French freak who is now in San Antonio or getting a high draft pick NEEDED to make trades last year? Really?

I can't stop laughing at this

The delusions are hilarious.

So no argument as usual? Yeah.

Your cope is that Orlando is “just young” getting blown out at home to a team just as young lmao.

You’re delusional thinking zero moves could have been made to make Paolo’s and Franz job easier for this team in their development. Kinda like OKC has perfectly done for many years leading up to drafting Chet and JWilliams.

You must think this FO has done an amazing job. I think RealGM is too real for you. Go check out Reddit with all the other homers sucking this FO up like they work for Magic marketing team or something .

[CocoaFan]

If AB doesn't replace Fultz and Howard doesn't replace Harris after the all-star game this FO truly has no direction. Everyone knows we aren't winning anything in the playoffs and not developing your young talent over 2 guys that won't be on the roster next year is incompetence at it's finest.

[eyriq]

For all the negativity about the front office they've clearly initiated a slow motion rebuild of the backcourt. Fultz and Harris are expiring and they invested lotto picks in their replacements.

There was even smoke about a trade for a PG and shooter at the deadline, indicating that they considered speeding up the rebuild. They know what we need. The smoke about trading WCJ is especially interesting.

If Candace Parker is pointing out our terrible shooting on national television, I'm sure Anthony Parker is well aware of what is needed. Hell, everyone knows if we're being honest. Whether they can actually get the job done and grab the right players is the real question. We have no clue if Weltman and Parker are capable of building a competent roster.

Exactly. The critique of this front office is like a sirens call, tantalizing but ultimately a distraction from how good the team is. The plan is clear and we have the assets to execute.

[Duke4life831]

Hope people understand this team is still quite young

Yes but so is OKC. Obviously, the big difference is 1) They have an MVP caliber player in his prime 2) They chose/developed shooter while we chose/developed #family

OKC are a better team because they have a better front office. They constructed a roster that makes sense and didn’t waste 4-5 seasons doing nothing drafting busts.

I think the main thing to remember to keep into perspective is this SGA's 6th season in the league and 5th with OKC and this is the 1st year that theyve had a winning record. Theyve also drafted some busts over that time. Up until the 2022 draft, these were the 1st round picks since they acquired SGA.

Bazley: Bust
Poku: Bust
Mann: was out of their rotation when they traded him
Giddey: Who isnt looking all that great for the 6th pick

Dort was a great undrafted find and they seem to have hit HRs with the 2022 draft with Chet and Jaylen. But again we are looking at year 5 of OKC having SGA and it being SGA's 6th season in the league. They're much further along in the process and again this is year 1 of having a winning record. This is still just year 2 for Paolo and year 3 for Suggs/Franz. So the core is still much younger than the OKC one (at least in NBA experience).

[JF5]

We were outclassed by a better team. Simple and plain. Our team is our team for the year. The goals are to simply make the playoffs and call it a victory. We'll probably make the playoffs and get swept in round 1.

But, if they run this team back without any significant upgrades in shooting and scoring, the front office deserves a ton of criticism. This isn't going to fly next season. It took Shaq and Stan 90 minutes to diagnose the '23-'24 Orlando Magic. Fix your glaring issues, or just hand the team over to someone who will.

This all the way

[ORLMagicGirl15]

That jacket they gave to Shaq is awesome!!!

[fateis007]

We were outclassed by a better team. Simple and plain. Our team is our team for the year. The goals are to simply make the playoffs and call it a victory. We'll probably make the playoffs and get swept in round 1.

But, if they run this team back without any significant upgrades in shooting and scoring, the front office deserves a ton of criticism. This isn't going to fly next season. It took Shaq and Stan 90 minutes to diagnose the '23-'24 Orlando Magic. Fix your glaring issues, or just hand the team over to someone who will.

Well Shaq did say he wanted to come in and be President on air and literally said he would get us shooters. LMAO. oh lord.

[eyriq]

That jacket is NICE. Wow. I think this franchise is turning a corner

[CocoaFan]

I really miss Fultz from last year being almost automatic from the mid and the occasional 3 plus Cole from the beginning of the season going off for 20 pts... oh well that's as good as our guards have been in a minute.

The elephant in the room that is never mentioned is his TOS is bothering him again. His 3 point shot at the end of last year was starting to look normal. I had high hopes for him this year then every time you saw him shoot he had that hitch in his shot again. Too bad for him he seems like a really good guy.

[eyriq]

If AB doesn't replace Fultz and Howard doesn't replace Harris after the all-star game this FO truly has no direction. Everyone knows we aren't winning anything in the playoffs and not developing your young talent over 2 guys that won't be on the roster next year is incompetence at it's finest.

Music to my ears! That's on Mosley, though, right?

[VFX]

Yes but so is OKC. Obviously, the big difference is 1) They have an MVP caliber player in his prime 2) They chose/developed shooter while we chose/developed #family

OKC are a better team because they have a better front office. They constructed a roster that makes sense and didn’t waste 4-5 seasons doing nothing drafting busts.

I think the main thing to remember to keep into perspective is this SGA's 6th season in the league and 5th with OKC and this is the 1st year that theyve had a winning record. Theyve also drafted some busts over that time. Up until the 2022 draft, these were the 1st round picks since they acquired SGA.

Bazley: Bust
Poku: Bust
Mann: was out of their rotation when they traded him
Giddey: Who isnt looking all that great for the 6th pick

Dort was a great undrafted find and they seem to have hit HRs with the 2022 draft with Chet and Jaylen. But again we are looking at year 5 of OKC having SGA and it being SGA's 6th season in the league. They're much further along in the process and again this is year 1 of having a winning record. This is still just year 2 for Paolo and year 3 for Suggs/Franz. So the core is still much younger than the OKC one (at least in NBA experience).

The difference is that Orlando kept their scrub team of Vuc/Fournier/ and AG while OKC was actually building something and landing prospects LIKE SGA while Orlando was drafting Bamba and half-assing an actual rebuild.

The same idiots today were the ones telling you that team was “fun to watch” and “tanking was bad” up until they traded them all away AT THEIR REQUEST. Now earning Paolo at #1 and changing their tune about the merits of the draft we sit here saying “wow we could use X” like nothing mattered in any year leading up to this.

Front offices don’t require 5-6 years to acquire players to fix obvious problems.