2024-2025 Regular Season Game 5: Orlando Magic (3-1) at Chicago Bulls (2-2) - 8pm ET

[RookieStar]

Hope it's just sick .... And not just an "undisclosed injury"

If he is injured, i dont think we even let him play at all. The dude still playing but i think he has the flu/covid/whatever that makes you lose energy with your body.

Both me and my wife have some nasty post covid issues with energy, playing him is simply dumb. Especially in this fashion. Let him take few games off and he should be fine

Last week i too had some colds. It made me so weak wherein i had even nore trouble going up the stairs

[VFX]

This game is kinda the perfect example of the FO not addressing issues and doubling down on “shooting” by signing KCP and not getting a real point guard.

The entire second half everyone is just standing around watching Paolo ready to catch the ball. Yeah, that’s stupid and predictable offense. Mosely didn’t tell them to adjust after 10 minutes of not scoring in this offense?

They shouldn’t have signed him. He doesn’t have Jokic passing him the ball from the post. If he isn’t hitting shots he’s worthless, basically rich man’s Thybulle. They shouldn’t have 100% gotten a point guard until AB is ready. Insanity to sign this guy with Gary Harris on the roster doing just about as much.

[SOUL]

Read on Twitter

[VFX]

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Rich coming from a guy that barely plays basketball.

[RookieStar]

Read on Twitter

I kinda get that kind if "tiredness". My physiotherapist when i do rehab told me the kind of virus that makes patients really weak and tired. Like you just wanna curl up in bed.

[MasterGMer]

This game is kinda the perfect example of the FO not addressing issues and doubling down on “shooting” by signing KCP and not getting a real point guard.

The entire second half everyone is just standing around watching Paolo ready to catch the ball. Yeah, that’s stupid and predictable offense. Mosely didn’t tell them to adjust after 10 minutes of not scoring in this offense?

They shouldn’t have signed him. He doesn’t have Jokic passing him the ball from the post. If he isn’t hitting shots he’s worthless, basically rich man’s Thybulle. They shouldn’t have 100% gotten a point guard until AB is ready. Insanity to sign this guy with Gary Harris on the roster doing just about as much.

I agree with you. KCP's 3s were not falling this season. But have you seen his defensive advanced stats? It is one of the best in the league and so is Suggs. Yes, KCP's signing mostly had to do with his shooting. Yes, it is not translating so far

Even with the drought in the 4th Q, our defense was for real. But on offense, our guys weren't serious and focused enough. They played like a pickup game in the YMCA

Of course, we will be better

[eyriq]

The offense ran through Paolo and Suggs and they both had below average nights, especially Suggs.

The bench, except for JI, was really bad offensively.

Giddey owned us, he'd get my vest vote.

[eyriq]

One thing that is concerning is that we really only have 4 capable high usage players on this roster: Paolo, Franz, Suggs, and Cole. McClung might have this skillset at the NBA level as well? Not sure.

But if Cole is losing his spot, we become extremely thin on the "go get a bucket" front. With Franz hobbled we are seeing that first hand.

We almost won even with our offense sh*ting the bed though.

[VFX]

This game is kinda the perfect example of the FO not addressing issues and doubling down on “shooting” by signing KCP and not getting a real point guard.

The entire second half everyone is just standing around watching Paolo ready to catch the ball. Yeah, that’s stupid and predictable offense. Mosely didn’t tell them to adjust after 10 minutes of not scoring in this offense?

They shouldn’t have signed him. He doesn’t have Jokic passing him the ball from the post. If he isn’t hitting shots he’s worthless, basically rich man’s Thybulle. They shouldn’t have 100% gotten a point guard until AB is ready. Insanity to sign this guy with Gary Harris on the roster doing just about as much.

I agree with you. KCP's 3s were not falling this season. But have you seen his defensive advanced stats? It is one of the best in the league and so is Suggs. Yes, KCP's signing mostly had to do with his shooting. Yes, it is not translating so far

Even with the drought in the 4th Q, our defense was for real. But on offense, our guys weren't serious and focused enough. They played like a pickup game in the YMCA

Of course, we will be better

IF he isn’t hitting shots he’s worthless. He’s 4/24 now in 5 games. Orlando already had Anthony Black and re signed Gary Harris… his defense isn’t THAT much better to forgo scoring.

They paid him to hit shots even though the problem was NEVER about shooting as expressed the entire offseason.

Tonight’s second half of basketball was exactly a rewind to last seasons offense. The issue is ball movement and creating opportunities for Paolo to get to the rim. Franz was out, but even then the roster lacks a guy to “run” things so it doesn’t revert to chucking and standing around. KCP can’t even put the ball on the floor.

So what are people going to tell me? Suggs needs to hit 6-8 threes a game for the offense to make sense? lol. No. The FO was clueless and thought zero ball handlers made sense because they are infatuated with point forwards pretending to reinvent the wheel.

[JF5]

Read on Twitter

Rich coming from a guy that barely plays basketball.

Well I mean the first 10-15 games of the regular season is essentially about getting into game shape.

This isnt shocking. Especially now with only 4 preseason games with guys barely playing in those it makes sense.

[Knightro]

He finished the game with a time out in his pocket and had the last possession. Inexcusable but you seem to always excuse him.. it blows my mind.

Just to be clear, the Magic did not finish the game with a timeout.

They did choose to hold their timeout so they could advance the ball to halfcourt on the actual final possession in case they missed on that possession. Which is exactly what happened.

You keep the timeout in your pocket because there's 19 seconds left and you're not intentionally going to run the clock down to 0 and take one shot.

If you miss, then you can still foul and get another chance.

Unfortunately, because Paolo gave up the ball too quickly and Suggs panicked, the play broke down and ended up running way more time off the clock than they wanted it to.

The plan was certainly not to have that possession end with 0.1 seconds left.

[Knightro]

IF he isn’t hitting shots he’s worthless. He’s 4/24 now in 5 games. Orlando already had Anthony Black and re signed Gary Harris… his defense isn’t THAT much better to forgo scoring.

They paid him to hit shots even though the problem was NEVER about shooting as expressed the entire offseason.

Tonight’s second half of basketball was exactly a rewind to last seasons offense. The issue is ball movement and creating opportunities for Paolo to get to the rim. Franz was out, but even then the roster lacks a guy to “run” things so it doesn’t revert to chucking and standing around. KCP can’t even put the ball on the floor.

So what are people going to tell me? Suggs needs to hit 6-8 threes a game for the offense to make sense? lol. No. The FO was clueless and thought zero ball handlers made sense because they are infatuated with point forwards pretending to reinvent the wheel.

I'll ask you the same thing I've asked you before.

Who would you have signed instead of KCP?

Chris Paul? Tyus Jones? Russell Westbrook?

Ball handlers available on the free agency front were extremely limited. And they had to spend the money this summer or they'd have lost it on Franz and Suggs' extensions.

And if the answer is "oh well they should have made a trade" would you be happy right now if they gave up Anthony Black and two firsts to get Dejounte Murray because that's the equivalent of what New Orleans gave up to get him.

[DiplomaticMagic]

Absolutely atrocious loss.

This was a must win game, with the next 4 games on the road against top tier teams. And to blow this in this fashion is inexcusable.

KCP needs to play better, Im really worried about him. And our bench needs some work.

I dont know why we were hoisting 3s when Bulls interior defense is freaking Vucecic.

AB made some big defensive plays, but offensively he looked timid like he did last year. Was weird to see.

Its too early to call anything on Jett Howard but he doesn't look like a NBA player yet. I still like him playing over Cole though.

[penny_nz]

Man just watched this game, what a poor loss and just awful 2nd half. 1st half I was ready to praise the offensive development of Suggs and the team in general, then everyone just seemed to look for their shot and jack up some BS

[Bensational]

Celtics taking 57 3PAs tonight. Tatum taking 18 alone. They lost by 3 to the Pacers.

[Bensational]

Coach needs to draw up a 3pt volleyball tip/spike for the future, in case we ever find ourselves down 3 with 0.1 on the clock. Some kind of run and jump from behind the 3pt line, meeting the inbounds pass at midrange and tipping/deflecting it to the rim from there.

[pepe1991]

Just few thoughts:
- first half was fun, but no team has worst response to first half than Bulls, 5 games in, they are yet to have half time lead in any
- playing Franz who can hardly stay on floor for more than 10 min is pointless and hurts his recovery
- second half of Pacers game ( who kind a were too tired to beat us in 4th, due OT game in back to backs ) and especially this second half paints perfect picture of Magic current biggest problem, playmaking and having somebody that can keep dribble alive against pressure
- i can't even be mad about 4th quarter, it was just hilarious for all the wrong reasons. Bulls were on "2-0 run" for 6 min.
- bench without Franz and Ingles, simply has nothing to offer on offense aside from sporadic Mo Wagner moments of inspiration
- i get MagicMatic point about KCP, but not fully agree on. I think portion of fans expected better player than he is, ignoring that he spent majority of memorable career with Lebron and Jokić, and for rest of his career he was okey-ish starter on very mediocre Lakers ( with and without Lebron), Wizards, Pistons teams. Optics of him being "champion" changed notion that he was also 4th to 5th offensive option of teams with 45%-ish win rate
- Black played great defense, but his offense is still mostly him being capable doing most basic stuff and playing as 3 and D guy. It's work in progress i guess.

Bulls side:
- Giddey, Lonzo and Smith improve that team a lot. I never thought they will suck, assuming they will be healthy. They still probably need to pick direction and find star under age of 28 or go through rebuild.
- i have no clue why Terry plays over Duatre
- Vuc is off to a 20-11-3 season, perfect trade asset


anyway i really can't be mad about this loss, no matter how ugly it looked. 4th quarter epic offensive meltdown was something that you see once in a lifetime. Two teams shooting at one point what, 0-28 from the floor
Bulls couldn't even inbound a damn ball with 2 timeouts
Magic wasted 19 sec to get some brick with 0,1 to play

Just your Tragic Bronson 4th quarter nba game of a year

[GelbeWand09]

This game is kinda the perfect example of the FO not addressing issues and doubling down on “shooting” by signing KCP and not getting a real point guard.

The entire second half everyone is just standing around watching Paolo ready to catch the ball. Yeah, that’s stupid and predictable offense. Mosely didn’t tell them to adjust after 10 minutes of not scoring in this offense?

They shouldn’t have signed him. He doesn’t have Jokic passing him the ball from the post. If he isn’t hitting shots he’s worthless, basically rich man’s Thybulle. They shouldn’t have 100% gotten a point guard until AB is ready. Insanity to sign this guy with Gary Harris on the roster doing just about as much.

I agree with you. KCP's 3s were not falling this season. But have you seen his defensive advanced stats? It is one of the best in the league and so is Suggs. Yes, KCP's signing mostly had to do with his shooting. Yes, it is not translating so far

Even with the drought in the 4th Q, our defense was for real. But on offense, our guys weren't serious and focused enough. They played like a pickup game in the YMCA

Of course, we will be better

The problem is when you have as a example a 95% defense and you add another expensive defensive player to go up to 97% (which isn't the case so far because we didn't really addressed our few defensive weaknesses but instead signed another PoA defender) you won't improve by much.
At the same time you got a 20% offense and all you do is praying for internal growth. Adding a real starting PG (not even a star) the offense probably goes up to 40-50%. You can guess which addition has the bigger impact on winning. It's just dumb trying to improve & invest big money into something you are already elite at and ignoring your biggest weaknesses.

[pepe1991]

if you look at wide open shots from 3, you will figure that vast majority of Magic players still get "can't shoot" treatment from defense.
Even Suggs had 30 out of 40 shots with hardly any coverage (open or wide open).

Isaac is probably best example of player who , on paper shoots well, but never gets any attention. Teams just gamble on his 3s.

GelbeWand09 summed well, adding great defender doesn't make great defense all time great because percentage of possible improvement is marginal, on other hand addition of good offensive player would "stack" better because offensive side is simply poor.

Right now Magic have 4 players with near identical skill set: KCP, Black, Suggs, Gary Harris.
And all of them have same weaknesses.

[Husky1]

WCJ got owned by Vooch. He limits our ceiling as team so much. Staggering extension they gave him! He’s a backup PF at best. Don’t get me started on Gary Harris!!!!