AB the PG development thread

[eyriq]

Read on Twitter

?t=prhuR38BmK5ccsJUhVO9DQ&s=19

Lots of fans post stuff like this fan did.

Who are even these people???

Inspired thought leaders. Or just random members of the Magic Twitter community.

That said, AB's strong training camp has turned heads about his playmaking upside. It's about time.

[JBSouthpaw]

Who are the best PGs under the age of 25 right now??
AE & Maxey, then Ball?
Good PGs are becoming rare.

[JoshuaPotter]

I have not been a fan of the AB treatment. I have been vocal about it. I still do not see the objective reasoning to deep benching your 6th pick. Yet here we are.

Black doing well in pre-season is a fools gold moment for us hopefuls. I only got to watch highlights but it lined up with what a saw in summer league over a year ago. Except now, he has a legitimate stand in the corner and shoot 3-point shot.

The question becomes again, how does Mose balance all of this talent?

[RookieStar]

Lots of fans post stuff like this fan did.

Who are even these people???

Inspired thought leaders. Or just random members of the Magic Twitter community.

That said, AB's strong training camp has turned heads about his playmaking upside. It's about time.

Soooooooooo... in other words, rando guys like you me and rest of this board? Lol

[Message Boar]

I wasn't posting because i was away from home, but I watched the last preseason game on my phone, and I was massively positively surprised by how AB was handling and passing in that game. It was very encouraging to see. Hopefully he's ready for the improved role in year 2.

[Bergmaniac]

So this thread will be pretty much made out twitter stickers where eyriq finds irrelevant fan posts from people with 200 followers, or wannabe podcasters that collect 400 views per youtube video but support his agenda with over a top takes in hope to create some conversation and bring their accounts to relevancy?

I am all for it if this means we don't see this stuff in the rest of the threads on this board because I am already tired of it and the season hasn't even started yet.

[eyriq]

So this thread will be pretty much made out twitter stickers where eyriq finds irrelevant fan posts from people with 200 followers, or wannabe podcasters that collect 400 views per youtube video but support his agenda with over a top takes in hope to create some conversation and bring their accounts to relevancy?


Nothing says no bias, objectivity and good perception of a league than twitter handle with this description:
Franz Wagner enthusiast
Jonathan Isaac stan
Jett Howard fan
Markelle Fultz enjoyer


I can start twitter handle and claim that Jabari Parker will be better than Durant, and probably find 300 fools to agree with me. That doesn't mean anything said is true. It just means that we live in world full of morons and people who can be manipulated into narrative that fits you.
Just last year, here, but especially on reddit plenty of fans believed Markelle Fultz will be all star.... Fast forward 365 days later and guy... is sitting home without career.

Leave Magic Twitter alone, you bully!

Fine, I'll keep it data driven from here on out, but I do enjoy the trend in positive AB sentiment and think it is a nice sign that the Fultz battle scars are healing.

[JoshuaPotter]

So this thread will be pretty much made out twitter stickers where eyriq finds irrelevant fan posts from people with 200 followers, or wannabe podcasters that collect 400 views per youtube video but support his agenda with over a top takes in hope to create some conversation and bring their accounts to relevancy?


Nothing says no bias, objectivity and good perception of a league than twitter handle with this description:
Franz Wagner enthusiast
Jonathan Isaac stan
Jett Howard fan
Markelle Fultz enjoyer


I can start twitter handle and claim that Jabari Parker will be better than Durant, and probably find 300 fools to agree with me. That doesn't mean anything said is true. It just means that we live in world full of morons and people who can be manipulated into narrative that fits you.
Just last year, here, but especially on reddit plenty of fans believed Markelle Fultz will be all star.... Fast forward 365 days later and guy... is sitting home without career.

Leave Magic Twitter alone, you bully!

Fine, I'll keep it data driven from here on out, but I do enjoy the trend in positive AB sentiment and think it is a nice sign that the Fultz battle scars are healing.

Well always be known as "I told you so" homers no matter how he pans out.

That being said, there is way too much bias already in the thread when the reality is, it was just 1 pre-season game, and what we saw in summer league last year.

Our summer league was a shame no thanks to the cancelled game. It will bluntly be a "we shall see what we shall see" come game 1.

My guess, and I put the blame on Mose is Harris + Cole are the first 2 off the bench. Then we see AB into an Ingles type role and see how he does.

[eyriq]

Well always be known as "I told you so" homers no matter how he pans out.

That being said, there is way too much bias already in the thread when the reality is, it was just 1 pre-season game, and what we saw in summer league last year.

Our summer league was a shame no thanks to the cancelled game. It will bluntly be a "we shall see what we shall see" come game 1.

My guess, and I put the blame on Mose is Harris + Cole are the first 2 off the bench. Then we see AB into an Ingles type role and see how he does.

We definitely deserve victory laps already. Why? Because posters failed to recognize, and actively denounced, his ABILITY to run an offense. The bar is so low because of their terrible takes. A few preseason games and training camp comments are all that's required to prove them wrong, which just further highlights how stupid the analysis of ABs game has been all this time.

[JoshuaPotter]

Well always be known as "I told you so" homers no matter how he pans out.

That being said, there is way too much bias already in the thread when the reality is, it was just 1 pre-season game, and what we saw in summer league last year.

Our summer league was a shame no thanks to the cancelled game. It will bluntly be a "we shall see what we shall see" come game 1.

My guess, and I put the blame on Mose is Harris + Cole are the first 2 off the bench. Then we see AB into an Ingles type role and see how he does.

We definitely deserve victory laps already. Why? Because posters failed to recognize, and actively denounced, his ABILITY to run an offense. The bar is so low because of their terrible takes. A few preseason games and training camp comments are all that's required to prove them wrong, which just further highlights how stupid the analysis of ABs game has been all this time.

Oh the double down and triple downs and crow I am watching people eat as they try to pull the whole "we knew it the whole time, it was Eyriq and Potters of the world blowing his skillset out of proportion."

You would have thought we drafted Reece Gaines or Jeryl Sasser 2.0 from half of these comments prior to Friday night.

[Bergmaniac]

Well always be known as "I told you so" homers no matter how he pans out.

That being said, there is way too much bias already in the thread when the reality is, it was just 1 pre-season game, and what we saw in summer league last year.

Our summer league was a shame no thanks to the cancelled game. It will bluntly be a "we shall see what we shall see" come game 1.

My guess, and I put the blame on Mose is Harris + Cole are the first 2 off the bench. Then we see AB into an Ingles type role and see how he does.

We definitely deserve victory laps already. Why? Because posters failed to recognize, and actively denounced, his ABILITY to run an offense. The bar is so low because of their terrible takes. A few preseason games and training camp comments are all that's required to prove them wrong, which just further highlights how stupid the analysis of ABs game has been all this time.

You got to be trolling at this point.

[eyriq]

Well always be known as "I told you so" homers no matter how he pans out.

That being said, there is way too much bias already in the thread when the reality is, it was just 1 pre-season game, and what we saw in summer league last year.

Our summer league was a shame no thanks to the cancelled game. It will bluntly be a "we shall see what we shall see" come game 1.

My guess, and I put the blame on Mose is Harris + Cole are the first 2 off the bench. Then we see AB into an Ingles type role and see how he does.

We definitely deserve victory laps already. Why? Because posters failed to recognize, and actively denounced, his ABILITY to run an offense. The bar is so low because of their terrible takes. A few preseason games and training camp comments are all that's required to prove them wrong, which just further highlights how stupid the analysis of ABs game has been all this time.

You got to be trolling at this point.

I don't recall your posts about AB, but if you think/thought he isn't a playmaker or a point guard I apologize for calling that view stupid.

[Bergmaniac]

What is stupid is taking a victory luck after a few preseason games and some generic praise from teammtes and coaches. I am happy that AB looked good in preseason and showed more traditionally playmaking skills and plays, but at the end of the day it's just preseason. Being able to do this in games that matter is a different kettle of fish altogether.

And nobody needs to apologise for saying that AB didn't play as a playmaker/PG/whatever you want to call it last season because this is a fact. Mosley clearly didn't trust him with this role. He barely ran any plays on offense.

[eyriq]

What is stupid is taking a victory luck after a few preseason games and some generic praise from teammtes and coaches. I am happy that AB looked good in preseason and showed more traditionally playmaking skills and plays, but at the end of the day it's just preseason. Being able to do this in games that matter is a different kettle of fish altogether.

And nobody needs to apologise for saying that AB didn't play as a playmaker/PG/whatever you want to call it last season because this is a fact. Mosley clearly didn't trust him with this role. He barely ran any plays on offense.

The debate was never about him playing in a playmaker role last season. Moving the goal posts to avoid accountability is lame and does the discussion no good.

The discussion was always about whether or not we drafted our point guard of the future.

Is he a point guard or a wing?
Can he run an offense?
Is he a playmaker?
Are we developing him to be a point guard or a wing?

In the preseason we've seen him touted as a point guard, run the offense, and make plays. That's all the evidence we need for these basic questions.

He's a point guard.
We are developing him to be a point guard.
He is a playmaker.
He can run an offense.

Now it's about how well he can do these things IMO.

[eyriq]

I should also point out that this preseason and training camp is all the evidence we need because we really didn't need it in the first place. He was a point guard in college, scouted as a point guard, and drafted by a team that needed a point guard. It was obvious from the get go but we hated on him because... Mosley limited his role on offense? It was always a lame argument.

[Knightro]

If there was ever a thread that I didn't need to post in

[Skybox]

If there was ever a thread that I didn't need to post in

Well, if anybody read the OP - it might have some more objective value beyond the usual back and forth (now found in every thread).

[jonbob17]

If Black can turn into something close to Lonzo Ball without the headaches or injuries...look out. Could you imagine this lineup in a couple years if everything breaks right?

Black
Suggs
Wagner
Paolo
JI

There's a lot of IF's in this lineup...but immense upside...

[JoshuaPotter]

If Black can turn into something close to Lonzo Ball without the headaches or injuries...look out. Could you imagine this lineup in a couple years if everything breaks right?

Black
Suggs
Wagner
Paolo
JI

There's a lot of IF's in this lineup...but immense upside...

On paper JI is the nice to have.

Black panning out. Jett becoming a contributor. TDS remaining a contributor. WCJ + Mo + Goga is an interesting skelaton crew. Not sure if championship level, but the next phase of the build I think is to figure out how we can become more top heavy as most championships teams are.

[Bensational]

Watch on YouTube

If we want to break down his game we should probably be using footage. Here's a description of his 8 assists from the Philly game.

1 (0:03)- gets downhill into the paint, draws 3 defenders, kicks out to open Jett (Harris switching corners baseline helped keep the baseline defender stuck)
2 (0:23) - Philly running zone, Isaac sets screen for AB, he gets the on-ball defender on his back and draws the other perimeter defender which frees up Jett for an open 3.
3 (0:37) - AB gets a deflection which becomes a turnover and transition. Harris runs a nice drag screen to free up Jett and AB hits him quickly.
4 (0:51) - Harris comes off a floppy, gives it straight back to AB. AB drives into the lane, causes defense to crash where he kicks to the open Isaac in the corner.
5 (1:02) - Transition, AB aggressive and goes straight into the lane. Has no shot, but finds Isaac diving the lane behind him for a nice slam.
6 (1:14) - Setting up offense, he sees defense sleeping on Cole, kicks it ahead for a quick 3 attempt early in the clock.
7 (1:44) - TDS sets a screen for AB who beats the switch, draws the big and then finds Goga with a wraparound pass.
8 (1:55) - Goga sets a flat screen for AB up top, Cole makes the skip pass to AB, Goga rolls into an open lane and Black hits him.


Overall, he's showing a nice variety of ways he can work with an offense. What's interesting is 3 of those assists came quite early in the clock, pushing ahead for quick looks from 3 (2 to Jett and 1 to Cole). I think that says something about how we'll look to break out of some of our slow stagnant half court offense this season - trust our shooters with early looks and know we've got the defense to get it back if it's a miss.

He showed some real gravity with his drives in those plays, too, always forcing the defense to collapse, and now he's showing he can slow and keep his own pace in those situations, and take the time to read the defense and make the right pass.

He showed some really great stuff in that Philly preseason game, even if it's only preseason.