2023-2024 Regular Season Game 55: New York Knicks (33-21) at Orlando Magic (29-25) - 7pm

[eyriq]

WCJ is nice enough, a fringe starting big. Considering we have draft equity to invest somewhere though he's an obvious upgrade target.

Edit: draft equity and cap space

[bigdogdylan5]

Ok this is my damn point… We won a game by 16 points but we can’t appreciate Paolo absolutely balling or Houston spacing and hitting shots. We just spent a whole page of posts taking WCJ to task for not having a good rebounding game. I am not saying we shouldn’t bring it up but damn this is relentlessly negative.

[TheChaser]

Damn. Somethin has been up with me. I was scrolling on IG and was stoked! Thought this happened tonight. Proud of these guyss. Hard, tough loss to a Thunder team that's a year or so ahead of us in competitiveness, turn around while missing Suggs, MF, and Harris and pull out a win against a team that the media has been in love with for a few weeks now. At some point, you have to sit back and realize that we have 30 wins pre allstar break and a much more favorable schedule afterwards. JI looks to be coming around. We have a week to get healthier. We were hoping to be in the play in contention and we are but if we go on a solid run like some of us have thought looks likely and is kinda looking likely, then we could really work some decent post season positioning. Idk man. Life has been legit hard af this last year, so i'm damn proud of these dudes. It's not yall's fault that my wife passed and how much I miss her, but f**k, at some point youre just finding stuff to whine about and pick apart. Were lucky this team is where its at FINALLY. my b for sounding like a grump, but damn it man.

[ChosenSavior]

Damn. Somethin has been up with me. I was scrolling on IG and was stoked! Thought this happened tonight. Proud of these guyss. Hard, tough loss to a Thunder team that's a year or so ahead of us in competitiveness, turn around while missing Suggs, MF, and Harris and pull out a win against a team that the media has been in love with for a few weeks now. At some point, you have to sit back and realize that we have 30 wins pre allstar break and a much more favorable schedule afterwards. JI looks to be coming around. We have a week to get healthier. We were hoping to be in the play in contention and we are but if we go on a solid run like some of us have thought looks likely and is kinda looking likely, then we could really work some decent post season positioning. Idk man. Life has been legit hard af this last year, so i'm damn proud of these dudes. It's not yall's fault that my wife passed and how much I miss her, but f**k, at some point youre just finding stuff to whine about and pick apart. Were lucky this team is where its at FINALLY. my b for sounding like a grump, but damn it man.

Thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family on the loss of your wife. You have no need to apologize about your emotions. We got you brother.

[tooler]

I think one of the reasons there is nitpicking is because the margin for error with this team is so small. When your offense is terrible and your point differential for the season is +0.5, you have to be perfect on defense and with rebounding. Every little mistake is the difference between a win or a loss.

Once the front office balances the roster (heh) then I hope things loosen up a bit.

[BadMofoPimp]

Ok this is my damn point… We won a game by 16 points but we can’t appreciate Paolo absolutely balling or Houston spacing and hitting shots. We just spent a whole page of posts taking WCJ to task for not having a good rebounding game. I am not saying we shouldn’t bring it up but damn this is relentlessly negative.

Reminds me of the Magic forum during Dwight's Magic prime. Some people are eternally negative.

[eyriq]

Ok this is my damn point… We won a game by 16 points but we can’t appreciate Paolo absolutely balling or Houston spacing and hitting shots. We just spent a whole page of posts taking WCJ to task for not having a good rebounding game. I am not saying we shouldn’t bring it up but damn this is relentlessly negative.

Reminds me of the Magic forum during Dwight's Magic prime. Some people are eternally negative.

Man I remember that, the amount of moaning against Lewis and Otis was exhausting.

[BadMofoPimp]

Ok this is my damn point… We won a game by 16 points but we can’t appreciate Paolo absolutely balling or Houston spacing and hitting shots. We just spent a whole page of posts taking WCJ to task for not having a good rebounding game. I am not saying we shouldn’t bring it up but damn this is relentlessly negative.

Reminds me of the Magic forum during Dwight's Magic prime. Some people are eternally negative.

Man I remember that, the amount of moaning against Lewis and Otis was exhausting.

Hedo and Scott for sure and sometimes Meer. It never ends on RealGM!

[bigdogdylan5]

Ok this is my damn point… We won a game by 16 points but we can’t appreciate Paolo absolutely balling or Houston spacing and hitting shots. We just spent a whole page of posts taking WCJ to task for not having a good rebounding game. I am not saying we shouldn’t bring it up but damn this is relentlessly negative.

Reminds me of the Magic forum during Dwight's Magic prime. Some people are eternally negative.

100% and I understood that, that team was ready to compete for it all. Higher expectations invites higher criticism and not totally fine with it but I get it. When that **** kicked up in 2008 and 2009 Dwight was in his 4th and 5th year in the league. We are not even close our star is in his second year our secondary star is in his 3rd. The complete rush to push the timeline and treat the expectations as contenders when we’re obviously not there yet is I think misguided. I am not saying you be passive but this damn team is on the rise they are doing a better job so far than I thought they could. Maybe take some time to appreciate and enjoy it. Yea there are problems but I think the front office understands those issues. I have no doubt that will resolve itself. Hell Shams is just reporting we will likely be in the bidding for Klay. Rooting for sports is supposed to be fun. Enjoy the moments now. The relentless heat of expectations will come let’s not rush them here lol

[eyriq]

We are not even close our star is in his second year our secondary star is in his 3rd. The complete rush to push the timeline and treat the expectations as contenders when we’re obviously not there yet is I think misguided.

I agree with this. It's tempting to pivot and go all in on Paolo and Franz since we know we've got our core, but ultimate patience is best. Leave room for Suggs, AB, and Jett to grow and leave the offensive burden on Franz and Paolo so that they maximize their ceilings.

We are definitely positioned to upgrade roles but going all in on a "star" could be a massive mistake.

[Knightro]

We are not even close our star is in his second year our secondary star is in his 3rd. The complete rush to push the timeline and treat the expectations as contenders when we’re obviously not there yet is I think misguided.

I agree with this. It's tempting to pivot and go all in on Paolo and Franz since we know we've got our core, but ultimate patience is best. Leave room for Suggs, AB, and Jett to grow and leave the offensive burden on Franz and Paolo so that they maximize their ceilings.

We are definitely positioned to upgrade roles but going all in on a "star" could be a massive mistake.

Patience is fine, but the odds of every single young player on the roster hitting the A+ or A version of themselves developmentally is just astronomically low.

And the salary cap rules are literally designed for teams to acquire talent from the outside while their existing talent is cheap, then exceeding the salary cap to retain their own players.

[byeganyo]

We are not even close our star is in his second year our secondary star is in his 3rd. The complete rush to push the timeline and treat the expectations as contenders when we’re obviously not there yet is I think misguided.

I agree with this. It's tempting to pivot and go all in on Paolo and Franz since we know we've got our core, but ultimate patience is best. Leave room for Suggs, AB, and Jett to grow and leave the offensive burden on Franz and Paolo so that they maximize their ceilings.

We are definitely positioned to upgrade roles but going all in on a "star" could be a massive mistake.

NBA DOES NOT WORK LIKE THIS! The moment your rookies "maximize their ceiling" they maximize their salaries too and you cant get anyone.
Really, the two successful Magic rosters had young and upcoming stars and veteran that were traded/signed relatively early - Horace Grant was signed after 2 seasons of Shaq and one season of Penny, Rashard Lewis was traded to Orlando after 3 seasons of Dwight.

[eyriq]

Shaqs team was built around draft picks

[byeganyo]

Do we eliminate Bulls if Grant stays with them? I dont think so. Plus hitting №1 pick twice in a row is handy. If instead of Black we had Wemby right now we would be having a different discussion.

[Knightro]

Shaqs team was built around draft picks

Horace Grant was a major FA signing at the time.

Plus getting back-to-back No. 1 overall picks, one of whom is an MVP Hall of Famer and the other a legitimate all-star obviously changes the calculus quite a bit.

[eyriq]

Do we eliminate Bulls if Grant stays with them? I dont think so. Plus hitting №1 pick twice in a row is handy. If instead of Black we had Wemby right now we would be having a different discussion.

Shaqs team was built around draft picks

Horace Grant was a major FA signing at the time.

Plus getting back-to-back No. 1 overall picks, one of whom is an MVP Hall of Famer and the other a legitimate all-star obviously changes the calculus quite a bit.

My point there is that the team was built organically and didn't skip any steps. Probably what Weltman's strategy is attempting to do. They didn't trade draft equity for a star.

[Knightro]

Do we eliminate Bulls if Grant stays with them? I dont think so. Plus hitting №1 pick twice in a row is handy. If instead of Black we had Wemby right now we would be having a different discussion.

Shaqs team was built around draft picks

Horace Grant was a major FA signing at the time.

Plus getting back-to-back No. 1 overall picks, one of whom is an MVP Hall of Famer and the other a legitimate all-star obviously changes the calculus quite a bit.

My point there is that the team was built organically and didn't skip any steps. Probably what Weltman's strategy is attempting to do. They didn't trade draft equity for a star.

The situations are apples and oranges.

If Paolo was one of the most dominant talents in the history of the NBA and Franz was a top 20 player, we’d be having a different conversation right now about what the best course of action is moving forward.

[eyriq]

:noway:

Do we eliminate Bulls if Grant stays with them? I dont think so. Plus hitting №1 pick twice in a row is handy. If instead of Black we had Wemby right now we would be having a different discussion.

Horace Grant was a major FA signing at the time.

Plus getting back-to-back No. 1 overall picks, one of whom is an MVP Hall of Famer and the other a legitimate all-star obviously changes the calculus quite a bit.

My point there is that the team was built organically and didn't skip any steps. Probably what Weltman's strategy is attempting to do. They didn't trade draft equity for a star.

The situations are apples and oranges.

If Paolo was one of the most dominant talents in the history of the NBA and Franz was a top 20 player, we’d be having a different conversation right now about what the best course of action is moving forward.

I don't agree. I think the Penny, Shaq, Nick, and Dennis core of lotto talent is comparable to the Paolo, Franz, AB, Suggs, and Jett core of lotto talent.

We have less information about AB and Jett but it's totally reasonable to believe that Suggs is on the level of Nick and Dennis. AB and Jett need more evaluation time and opportunity.

Paolo is cruising towards superstardom and Franz is cruising towards stardom. Our version of Shaq and Penny.

I am very confident that WePark consider our core already acquired and will not be looking to add another star.

[bigdogdylan5]

We are not even close our star is in his second year our secondary star is in his 3rd. The complete rush to push the timeline and treat the expectations as contenders when we’re obviously not there yet is I think misguided.

I agree with this. It's tempting to pivot and go all in on Paolo and Franz since we know we've got our core, but ultimate patience is best. Leave room for Suggs, AB, and Jett to grow and leave the offensive burden on Franz and Paolo so that they maximize their ceilings.

We are definitely positioned to upgrade roles but going all in on a "star" could be a massive mistake.

NBA DOES NOT WORK LIKE THIS! The moment your rookies "maximize their ceiling" they maximize their salaries too and you cant get anyone.
Really, the two successful Magic rosters had young and upcoming stars and veteran that were traded/signed relatively early - Horace Grant was signed after 2 seasons of Shaq and one season of Penny, Rashard Lewis was traded to Orlando after 3 seasons of Dwight.

I think you make some excellent points but those were very strong moves that makes sense. I am all for a trade like that. However the comments after the trade deadline was a whole lot of “Why didn’t we trade a first round pick for Tyus Jones or Hield?!” Who if you really want can sign and nlt have to get an asset this summer…. Of course if Garland, Mitchell, Trae (a little skeptical here as I don’t think he can play without the ball), Lamelo or maybe a bigger fish hits the market. Then be aggressive but I am hoarding all assets for that guy not the low impact role player that may increase our win total by like 1-2 for the rest of the season. You really only have one shot to spend and get that third guy it has to be worth it.

[Knightro]

I think the Penny, Shaq, Nick, and Dennis core of lotto talent is comparable to the Paolo, Franz, AB, Suggs, and Jett core of lotto talent.

No disrespect intended, but this is an unserious take.