2024-2025 Regular Season Game 1: Orlando Magic (0-0) at Miami Heat (0-0) - 7:30pm

[RichCollab]

Hey! Led team in assists, he is now Cole Nash

As much as I hate on him, he did make some good reads and passes. I just don’t trust him.

I will take any game where Cole has 6 assists and less than 2 TOs.

[eyriq]

I'm shocked Cole had 6 assists. I had to double check. I must zone out when he has the ball.

[thelead]

I'm shocked Cole had 6 assists. I had to double check. I must zone out when he has the ball.

This is not shade being thrown at him but helps when the team actually shoots the 3-ball well:

https://www.nba.com/stats/events?CFID=&CFPARAMS=&ContextMeasure=AST&EndPeriod=0&EndRange=28800&GameID=0022400065&PlayerID=1630175&RangeType=0&Season=2024-25&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&StartPeriod=0&StartRange=0&TeamID=1610612753&flag=1&sct=plot&section=game

[Residual-Heat]

I cant remember who replied to me last time I was talking about how Mose uses WCJ. It was one of the mods IIRC and i was replying to the post when my power went out. The reason I mentioned it at the time was because i felt WCJ didnt get enough opportunity vs Mobley. I get WCJ isnt some star scorer, and Mobley is a good defender, but WCJ can bully him and players his size. At one point in the play off series, WCJ took Mobley from the 3pt line all the way to the basket with ease. We needed all the offense we can get in the play offs and I felt like letting WCJ go at Mobley was a decent option to atleast try. Instead WCJ was mostly a spot up shooter.

Again last night I was hoping we'd go to WCJ to bully Jovic, but that really only happened on one play IIRC. Again WCJ bullied his way from the 3pt line got to the basket for an and-1. Obviously our guys went beast mode in the second half and it all doesnt matter in the end, but man I keep wanting to see Mose use all 280 lbs of WCJ and it rarely happens. Maybe im wrong to think that, but does anyone else feel the same way about this? I like Mosley a lot BTW, so im not trashing him. He is a solid coach and I think he's improving every year.

Again, I dont think its a big issue at all. Just want to know if its a weapon we could use more often. Offense was solid last night. Ball was moving, players were moving. Shots were falling. I hope they continue to play this way, and I expect the offense to be much better than it was last season.

[SOUL]

I cant remember who replied to me last time I was talking about how Mose uses WCJ. It was one of the mods IIRC and i was replying to the post when my power went out. The reason I mentioned it at the time was because i felt WCJ didnt get enough opportunity vs Mobley. I get WCJ isnt some star scorer, and Mobley is a good defender, but WCJ can bully him and players his size. At one point in the play off series, WCJ took Mobley from the 3pt line all the way to the basket with ease. We needed all the offense we can get in the play offs and I felt like letting WCJ go at Mobley was a decent option to atleast try. Instead WCJ was mostly a spot up shooter.

Again last night I was hoping we'd go to WCJ to bully Jovic, but that really only happened on one play IIRC. Again WCJ bullied his way from the 3pt line got to the basket for an and-1. Obviously our guys went beast mode in the second half and it all doesnt matter in the end, but man I keep wanting to see Mose use all 280 lbs of WCJ and it rarely happens. Maybe im wrong to think that, but does anyone else feel the same way about this? I like Mosley a lot BTW, so im not trashing him. He is a solid coach and I think he's improving every year.

Again, I dont think its a big issue at all. Just want to know if its a weapon we could use more often. Offense was solid last night. Ball was moving, players were moving. Shots were falling. I hope they continue to play this way, and I expect the offense to be much better than it was last season.

Was probably me, I just don't think WCJ is that dynamic of a guy when defenses are set, especially against someone like Mobley. His athleticism isn't good enough and he's not quick enough to exploit that regularly. You see the issue when he tries to go back up after a rebound or even fumbling the ball a bit on open dunks.

In movement though? Absolutely. Can exploit some mismatches, I just don't see what you see in him as an offensive option, and I'm someone higher on WCJ than a lot here. I think he was used pretty great tonight as far as not settling too much on the perimeter and being active on rebounds and defense especially.

[jezzerinho]

He was fine and did his job. Let’s chill.

He had a lot of weird effort errors and questionable decision making per usual. But yeah, he looked better than a lot of games last season.

Couldn't be more chill. If we want to be a much better team, marginally upgrading our cheap, ascending center is a bad way to try to achieve it. That's my point.

The gap is not narrowing between 3x AS and 5x all defense Bam and Wendell Carter Jr. There is no gap. They aren’t on the same planet.

Miami just has no bigs whatsoever other than him and Jovic. Love was out and Ware played garbage time.

Carter just needs to be serviceable defensively next to Paolo, while grabbing rebounds. He did a good job in this game comparatively.

Yeah, I don't massively feel the need to argue with you on this. So I won't. On to the next game.

[Residual-Heat]

I cant remember who replied to me last time I was talking about how Mose uses WCJ. It was one of the mods IIRC and i was replying to the post when my power went out. The reason I mentioned it at the time was because i felt WCJ didnt get enough opportunity vs Mobley. I get WCJ isnt some star scorer, and Mobley is a good defender, but WCJ can bully him and players his size. At one point in the play off series, WCJ took Mobley from the 3pt line all the way to the basket with ease. We needed all the offense we can get in the play offs and I felt like letting WCJ go at Mobley was a decent option to atleast try. Instead WCJ was mostly a spot up shooter.

Again last night I was hoping we'd go to WCJ to bully Jovic, but that really only happened on one play IIRC. Again WCJ bullied his way from the 3pt line got to the basket for an and-1. Obviously our guys went beast mode in the second half and it all doesnt matter in the end, but man I keep wanting to see Mose use all 280 lbs of WCJ and it rarely happens. Maybe im wrong to think that, but does anyone else feel the same way about this? I like Mosley a lot BTW, so im not trashing him. He is a solid coach and I think he's improving every year.

Again, I dont think its a big issue at all. Just want to know if its a weapon we could use more often. Offense was solid last night. Ball was moving, players were moving. Shots were falling. I hope they continue to play this way, and I expect the offense to be much better than it was last season.

Was probably me, I just don't think WCJ is that dynamic of a guy when defenses are set, especially against someone like Mobley. His athleticism isn't good enough and he's not quick enough to exploit that regularly. You see the issue when he tries to go back up after a rebound or even fumbling the ball a bit on open dunks.

In movement though? Absolutely. Can exploit some mismatches, I just don't see what you see in him as an offensive option, and I'm someone higher on WCJ than a lot here. I think he was used pretty great tonight as far as not settling too much on the perimeter and being active on rebounds and defense especially.

Maybe you're right, but he's like 60 lbs heavier. The one time I saw WCJ go at Mobley it was like pushing a child out of the way. Maybe it would've been a horrible strategy, but IMO it was worth a try given our offensive struggles in that series. I would like to see more of it in the regular season this year to have a better idea of whether it can become a weapon for us. I think last night vs Jovic wouldve been a good game to try it out.

[SOUL]

Maybe you're right, but he's like 60 lbs heavier. The one time I saw WCJ go at Mobley it was like pushing a child out of the way. Maybe it would've been a horrible strategy, but IMO it was worth a try given our offensive struggles in that series. I would like to see more of it in the regular season this year to have a better idea of whether it can become a weapon for us. I think last night vs Jovic wouldve been a good game to try it out.

Probably some good chances to try it out over the regular season. Saw some interesting wrinkles in the offense with him passing out of the mid-post area to Paolo. But yeah, I'm definitely more interested and excited in Paolo learning how to bully and put his head down more so than WCJ that we saw, but I do think he is capable of it more often than we see it, just not really as a reliable thing.

I feel like he has the weight/strength to do it, like he'll get the separation, and then his coordination and overall athleticism let him down a bit and defenders recover. Maybe it's the hand injury still but he goes between having soft hands to being Biyombo-like sometimes.

[JoshuaPotter]

I'm shocked Cole had 6 assists. I had to double check. I must zone out when he has the ball.

Cole bricked a lot of shots, but I think his hustle and effort was unquestioned. Which is something I am hoping allows him to get through these slumps and settle into a legit NBA bench role and hopefully 6th man.

If not, AB is on the rise. Which could also stand to help Cole.

For example, Harris shot great, and he has shown he can do similar before. I think "reduced role" will give us net positive from him. Where KCP missed some shots but look at Butlers stat line....he did great.

[Optimus_Steel]

Takes me back to the year we had the season opener with Biyombo and Ibaka, we played Miami at home and I was in attendance. Miami absolutely took us to the woodshed in the 2nd half and instantly I knew it was going to be a longggggg year....this season opener was a complete 180 from that.

[drsd]

I'm shocked Cole had 6 assists. I had to double check. I must zone out when he has the ball.

Cole .... his hustle and effort was unquestioned. .

All the "PGs" were team focused. This committee approach to using Suggs, Black, and Anthony led to 14 assists between them.

I would say overall I was more impressed by Black's 6 rebounds to have him "ranked" over Anthony in this game.

But stats don't lie, and these three also only had 3 TOs for an outstanding assist/TO line of 4.667.

[drsd]

The Magic is currently 12th in the league in three ball percentage at 36.7% If the team can maintain that stat line on say 35 attempts a night (last years median average), this team is going to win a LOT of games!

[pepe1991]

Takes me back to the year we had the season opener with Biyombo and Ibaka, we played Miami at home and I was in attendance. Miami absolutely took us to the woodshed in the 2nd half and instantly I knew it was going to be a longggggg year....this season opener was a complete 180 from that.

After that, this is 3rd season opening win vs Heat in a row. 2018 and 2020 were other two.

[basketballRob]

TBF thpugh, Cole played great D yet somehow those he guarded still managed tonscore with their off-balanced shots

He's like a fly on defense. I saw Robinson shoot right in his face like he wasn't there.

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