2024 NBA Playoffs Round 1 Game 2: (5) Orlando Magic at (4) Cleveland Cavaliers - Cavs up 1-0

[Knightro]

Weltman quite literally went on record just 6 days ago saying he was comfortable running it back next season.

"We’re gonna slow simmer it and continue to invest in the players we have on our roster. Grow and develop them. We’ll always be opportunistic and seeking out the next ways to improve the team and if we can take a leap, we will. But I have no problem in doubling down on these guys right now. It’s kind of like what we committed to early on."

Was his exact quote.

Who was that GM of ours who did exactly the opposite of what he says on the media?

Like he said something like our guys gonna grow and win together and next day 2 guys are emptying their locker room.

I wouldn’t read too much into what they tell the media.

Who is under contract next year?

Most of the roster.

The only free agents are Fultz, Harris, Okeke and Bitadze.

[MasterGMer]

What is frustrating to me is that the issues we are having could have been addressed MULTIPLE TIMES! We have the assets to do it! We didn't even need to make major changes. There were players we could have gotten to improve our guard play and shooting THIS YEAR and we did nothing!

Maybe Magic is waiting on something...

[The-Stallion70]

What is frustrating to me is that the issues we are having could have been addressed MULTIPLE TIMES! We have the assets to do it! We didn't even need to make major changes. There were players we could have gotten to improve our guard play and shooting THIS YEAR and we did nothing!

Yep, still couldn't believe we stood pat at the deadline.

[JF5]

Back in 1997, The Magic had a bad first two games in Miami.

Then, Darrell Armstrong was put n and Penny Hardaway just took over.

Things looked bleak then down 2-0 and The Magic almost won that series.

The bad offensive starts are hurting this team but the offensive setup is pretty dreadful and this team misses what Markelle Fultz previously brought to them. Unfortunately, some injuries and his shot has regressed badly to the point that TOS he has might be back even worse than it was.

They need someone who can run the offense and not constantly have the forwards bringing up the ball.

I would really like to see Anthony Black get a shot here to help with this and some other players to give this team a spark.

It doesn't look good but it's far from over.

I want to believe... but that Magic team had a vets and veteran star player in Penny with multiple playoff runs in his back pocket.

It's going to be tough to rely on young guys to do something similar in their first playoff run.

[SOUL]

Thats just outright ridiculous. You're simultaneously overestimating the impact of coaches and underestimating players impact on outcomes of games.

Bingo. Coaching isn't unimportant, especially in the playoffs where smaller moves can pay big dividends, winning the minutiae, but we've rarely seen coaches in this league have sustained success with limited talent. In the grand scheme of things, playing Fultz 5 minutes for a -4 or whatever is a bad move but there are about 50 things you can point to this game where if it's cleaned up, we have a better chance to win.

There is also an entire team of assistants, ones who are responsible for our offense, trainers, shooters, the players themselves that discuss where they feel most comfortable on the court.

It's almost as if people think whenever a team struggles, any team mind you, fans think the coaches put every player in the worst spots available, never practiced anything, go against the players strengths of where they feel most comfortable, made them miss FTs, rebounds, are responsible for watching the iPads for challenges, don't look at data or advanced stats, etc.

I mean, maybe I should also take these things into account - coaches are quite literally designed to be scapegoats and it's part of the job description.

Was Monty Williams as good as his Phoenix teams or as bad as his Detroit team?

[The-Stallion70]

This Cleveland team is honestly just better than us, the problem doesn't seem that complex or interesting. They won 48 games this year while missing a combined 84 games from Mitchell, Mobley and Garland.

Now that they are fully healthy they are probably the second best team in the East.

The Magic's problems are not that hard to figure out the difficult part is finding good fits around Paolo.

[drsd]

Statistically this game was an improvement. Yes the Magic was again outscored in each of the first 3 quarters. But the final result was one-point better defense and three points better offense.

Baby steps???

[fateis007]

Yea, Paolo struggled, everyone is struggling. But this has been total hot garbage, and not just anyone's, but Coach Mosleys.

The criticism is palatable when it's spread around evenly. I don't even like Fultz or WCJ as players compared to other guys and yet they are clearly not the SINGULAR reason we lose games. There is a lot babying of our core players when it comes to taking ownership of responsibility. Some people don't talk about the front office at all and go straight to coaching. If you've done that, I've missed it.

Hell, even I know our offense is **** and so when the playoffs crank up the defensive pressure and try to exploit a team full of bad shooters, zero volume shooters, and no real point guards, my question is what sort of magic (no pun intended) can coaches conjure to fix that issue?

If I see way better coaches than Mose struggle with bad offenses, then I will rightfully criticize him when I feel like we have good offensive pieces. Just like I didn't criticize young players/rookies sucking until we had actual expectations or I saw them be consistent enough to have expectations.

Fair enough, I would say I am not putting the blame tho entirely on Coach Mosley, but I DO see him as part of the problem. I think we have more talent then some people give us credit for. (which would be a team that can compete with a non top 4 seed playoff team and not be entirely dominated).

I can def see everyone's take tho, from management, to players not executing and coaching. So we can all just agree to disagree on the level of impact a coach has on a teams offensive struggles, and how much weight they have.

But at the end of the day, Cleveland has the best player in this series, and their second option might be better also.

[T-Cat]

Could we have Mosley step in a front office position so we can get Redick

[3ddman23]

This Cleveland team is honestly just better than us, the problem doesn't seem that complex or interesting. They won 48 games this year while missing a combined 84 games from Mitchell, Mobley and Garland.

Now that they are fully healthy they are probably the second best team in the East.

The Magic's problems are not that hard to figure out the difficult part is finding good fits around Paolo.

Nah Philly, miami (healthy) and knicks woukd wash them. He'll I think even Milwaukee ( healthy) and even Indiana woukd handle them pretty easily. They aren't good, we just suck that much offensively.

If they played any other eastern conference team in the playoffs, playing this way, they would have lost both of these games.

[Def Swami]

If I were Mosely, I’d start Goga next game, and move Isaac back to the bench. Lean on Mo Wagner off the bench and use Carter Jr in spot minutes. Just need the size against Allen/Mobley. I think Isaac on the bench unit would give that unit a lift defensively. It just craters every time.

[thelead]

Could we have Mosley step in a front office position so we can get Redick

I'd rather have JJ step into a FO role tbh.

[SOUL]

I can def see everyone's take tho, from management, to players not executing and coaching. So we can all just agree to disagree on the level of impact a coach has on a teams offensive struggles, and how much weight they have.

Fair - agree to disagree on some smaller points. But I am not absolving Mose (and the rest of the coaching staff) as being above any issues when we lose - because if you win by committee, you lose by committee. There are several things that I would do as a coach way differently in terms of lineups and rotations in the playoffs. I just don't like when people solely blame him but put nothing on players/FO.

I'm just not sure it would affect the bottom line, winning, any more than what he's doing, it would just assuage some of the fanbase's ire and criticism.

This is going to be a huge offseason for us to address some more offensive options.

[OrlChamps2030]

To take a step back.. if we're one or two scorers/shooters from being favorites over a strong Cavs team (who dealt with injuries).. I also don't think we're as far away as people are acting with these losses.

We're essentially in the pre-Shard Magic era when Dwight was in the playoffs in his third year.

That lineup was:

Hill
Turk
Dwight
Battie
Nelson

With a crap bench. Things will change, we'll get better

I'm sure Hawks fans were sure they were going to take another step forward after the ECF and Kings fans probably thought they'd improve over last year as well

The FO actually has to make moves to improve. This may not be a 47 win team if the only improvement going into next year is from internal improvement. I want to believe. But this is also the same FO who rolled into the season with Fultz as a starting PG and doubled down again, while in the playoff race, with Fultz as their starting PG on a playoff team

You never know if this team is going to be fighting for the #2 seed in the last few weeks of the season again next year.

[ibraheim718]

Who was that GM of ours who did exactly the opposite of what he says on the media?

Like he said something like our guys gonna grow and win together and next day 2 guys are emptying their locker room.

I wouldn’t read too much into what they tell the media.

Who is under contract next year?

Most of the roster.

The only free agents are Fultz, Harris, Okeke and Bitadze.

Running it back could mean not bringing any of them back which would appease the fan base.

[MasterGMer]

Back in 1997, The Magic had a bad first two games in Miami.

Then, Darrell Armstrong was put n and Penny Hardaway just took over.

Things looked bleak then down 2-0 and The Magic almost won that series.

The bad offensive starts are hurting this team but the offensive setup is pretty dreadful and this team misses what Markelle Fultz previously brought to them. Unfortunately, some injuries and his shot has regressed badly to the point that TOS he has might be back even worse than it was.

They need someone who can run the offense and not constantly have the forwards bringing up the ball.

I would really like to see Anthony Black get a shot here to help with this and some other players to give this team a spark.

It doesn't look good but it's far from over.

We still have a shot at this. But we need to change on something.

There are good takaways from this game: Suggs play well and Harris is shooting 3s well. Moe played tough and he is the bright spot of our team.

But Franz and Paolo have to do a better job offensively carrying this team. Cole can not go scoreless also.

It is a team effort to win. It is going to be tough. But at least, we have a shot. See you Thursday

[SOUL]

I'm sure Hawks fans were sure they were going to take another step forward after the ECF and Kings fans probably thought they'd improve over last year as well

The FO actually has to make moves to improve. This may not be a 47 win team if the only improvement going into next year is from internal improvement. I want to believe. But this is also the same FO who rolled into the season with Fultz as a starting PG and doubled down again, while in the playoff race, with Fultz as their starting PG on a playoff team

You never know if this team is going to be fighting for the #2 seed in the last few weeks of the season again next year.

That's true, you can't bank on every year getting better and better, but it is a bit of a different situation. Hawks had success in the playoffs, ECF is a DEEP run, so they were probably lax on making bigger moves and thought they would improve.

My thing is that our young guys HAVE to continue to improve for us to be thought about as contenders.

Big difference in getting exposed offensively and thinking we don't have to make moves versus, for instance, us somehow making the ECF this year thinking naturally our offensive problems just magically disappeared.

[IllMagic04]

Here’s the thing nobody thinks Black and Goga are the secret weapon to win the series. What we are saying is why not give it a try? Midway 3rd quarter we all know the game is over. The goal should be to search for something positive to take to game 3. Maybe both give you nothing but what there to lose to try. Fultz and Ingles certainly aren’t the answer. I’m still a huge fan of Mose. Just disagree with the approach


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[The-Stallion70]

This Cleveland team is honestly just better than us, the problem doesn't seem that complex or interesting. They won 48 games this year while missing a combined 84 games from Mitchell, Mobley and Garland.

Now that they are fully healthy they are probably the second best team in the East.

The Magic's problems are not that hard to figure out the difficult part is finding good fits around Paolo.

Nah Philly, miami (healthy) and knicks woukd wash them. He'll I think even Milwaukee ( healthy) and even Indiana woukd handle them pretty easily. They aren't good, we just suck that much offensively.

If they played any other eastern conference team in the playoffs, playing this way, they would have lost both of these games.

Milwaukee was healthy all year and won the same number of games as CLE. They definitely arent beating This Cleveland team if Giannis isnt 100%, Knicks are without Randle now for the postseason and Indy lost Mathurin.

Cleveland is fully Healthy.

[MagicStarwipe]

Could we have Mosley step in a front office position so we can get Redick

'
No, let someone else make the mistake of hiring him