Fortune Teller wrote:The entire backcourt is not good enough for the roles they are playing. The results in the first two games make that clear. Weaknesses are exposed in the playoffs, and our guard rotation is so bad we've become a national joke.
These three moves fell short of expectations and aren't working to date:
1) Bringing back Fultz. He was projected to be the starting PG despite being completely unreliable health-wise and a poor shooter. He allegedly had a great summer and everyone thought he would improve this year. Instead he took 1,000 steps back. The front office never should have re-signed him to begin with, and he certainly shouldn't have been here this year when his expiring contract could have been used in a deal with draft picks.
2) Drafting AB at #6. If your best option at #6 doesn't address any of the team's needs or weaknesses, then you should trade the pick. They drafted Black as a PG but he's barely played the position this year and inexplicably can't beat out Fultz for rotation minutes. If your #6 pick can't crack the rotation of the league's worst backcourt, then you made a mistake. Can Black improve and eventually contribute to this team? Of course, but anyone who says they're happy with Black being an "eventual contributor" is lying. More importantly, if he can't run the offense and is more of a 3-and-D guy, then why make him your pick?
3) (To a lesser extent) drafting Suggs at #5. Yes, Suggs's FG% and 3-ball improved dramatically this year, but again, he was drafted as a PG. It's revisionist history to suggest he was slotted as a 3-and-D SG coming out of the draft. It's also very possible that this year's shooting percentages were an aberration after a god-awful first 2 years in the league. In Games 1 and 2 he looked like rookie year Suggs, and he may already be regressing toward the mean. (I like Suggs a lot, but his shortcomings are part of the reason we are where we are with the guard situation).
So in summary:
1) Fultz (our second-highest paid player) shouldn't even be in the league.
2) AB can't even crack the rotation.
3) Suggs is a great role player, but we were hoping for much more than that when we drafted him #5.
Sometimes it's ok to go after guys who are pure scorers and nothing else. Donovan Mitchell gets a lot of criticism but look what he's doing to our defense-first backcourt.
Here were the main issues.
The Front Office : Retaining Fultz and not moving him 1.5-2 seasons ago. Hes now expiring for nothing if they arent dumb enough to resign him.. Second problem was never acquiring a proven vet point guard to run an offense.
Coach Mosely : Playing Fultz halfway through the season and changing the lineup 3-4x with young guys in the back court. Switching everything between Cole, Fultz, AB, Suggs, Gary, and even Houstan started 7 games this season. Ideally he should have just started Cole to start the season with AB coming off the bench and let the chips fall where they may.
I don't get the post draft talk with AB. We don't know who was on the table with the picks (never will) and point guard was obviously a need. Yeah, I wanted them to draft Cason Wallace instead, but the other picks in that range weren't ideal. The bigger injustice is drafting Jett Howard and never playing him a single minute as a lotto pick.
Jalen Suggs has been listed as a G or combo guard since highschool/college. People wanted him to come in and solve Orlando's point guard issue. Not sure thats on him as much as it is people's expectations. Are you taking Josh Primo, Davion Mitchell, or Tre Mann over Suggs? Those were your next guard options in the 2021 draft. Didnt think so...