2024-2025 Regular Season Game 48: Orlando Magic (24-23) at Miami Heat (22-22) - 7:30pm

[LongHairedBob]

Paolo will be fine. Give him a few more games to get used to playing with Franz, Suggs and Goga again. There's been a lot of change, his injury was worse than Franz's according to reports. He's just overthinking right now probably due to all the changes. Game will slow down for him again soon. Win streak incoming...

[KillMonger]

Anybody that watched the game and didn’t pay attention to any stats knows that Black was his usual worthless self except for a few plays that anybody out there would come up with every once in awhile.

If Fulttz was a 4/10, Black is a 5/10. Black will get his 4th year but no team will trade for him. If the team that drafted him that is desperate for a point guard doesn’t want him why would anybody else.

Black played really well. Hit threes, 5 steals.

Black can go 10/10 from three, the team offense will continue to struggle with him playing big minutes. He doesn't space the floor or make his teammates better.

He did tonight.... Did not look like a 2nd year player tonight.... Really good performance

Sent from my [Hands] using RealGM mobile app

[pepe1991]

Ware is now betting favorite for ROY

[Skybox]

Did Goga show enough readiness to be back in the starting lineup?

That alone, imo, is a trigger that it’s time to reel off some wins

[BlueBalls]

To further illustrate how disastrous that loss was, our next 5 games:

@Portland
@Utah
@Golden State
@Sacramento
@Denver

We’re at .500 now. If we’re lucky we win 2 of those 5. Much more likely we win 1 and going 0-5 is very possible.

48 games in, will be 53 after those. We’ll be 25-28 or 26-27 when the roadie concludes.

This season has been a huge letdown.

Maybe I am being optimistic, but I think all these games are winnable.

That means nothing. Of course there is a non-zero chance they win each game. Would you like to wager on it? Over. 2 of this next 5.

[drsd]

Paolo will be fine. Give him a few more games to get used to playing with Franz, Suggs and Goga again. There's been a lot of change, his injury was worse than Franz's according to reports. He's just overthinking right now probably due to all the changes. Game will slow down for him again soon. Win streak incoming...

Long road trips are a great place to get out of a funk; no "life" distractions.

[eyriq]

We pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory, or whatever the saying is.

[eyriq]

Franz, Paolo, and KCP all had stinkers.

[eyriq]

Guarantee you this meltdown will be costly in April. I don’t want to hear excuses about guys just getting back, they fumbled this one.

I think we've gone from a probable second round loss to a probable first round lost. Home court is going to be a stretch and facing one of the top 4 seeds on the road is not going to be an easy feat.

I don't think this is a setback though, we've been ahead of schedule.

[eyriq]

ESPN BPI has us in a dead heat with Indy for the 5-6 seeds. Detroit and Miami are in a dead heat for the 7-8 seeds. 4 games separate the two groups. Our top 6 probability is a healthy 78.5%. Our second round probability is an underdog worthy 35.5%.

We are getting healthy and ramping back up. Going to be a wild finish.

[JoshuaPotter]

Not worried yet. Let the kids cook and sort it out. Winners inevitably do.

[three3d]

Stop making excuses for Paolo, this is not because of the injury or conditioning. Seriously last season was the same thing, he had issues turning the ball over, missing shots at and around the rim to much, and the inconsistent free throw shooting.

Paolo takes a lot of tuff shots and bad shots, when he makes them nobody says anything naturally. That doesn’t make it not a bad shot though. He doesn’t seem to play in an offensive flow and that’s concerning. But none of this is new, he keeps this up he will be on the Carmelo Anthony track.

[VFX]

Their is no way around it. A start would be getting finally a real PG giving him easier shots and pick n roll opportunities.

This times a million.

I watch these games where everything is dropping for Franz and Paolo as they walk into 3 point shots. Everyone cheers and says “THIS IS IT THEY FIGURED OUT THE OFFENSE”. Yeah, no ****.

You start hitting shots at an incredible rate and %, then there is no need to address anything. When the game slows down and Paolo and Franz can’t buy easy shots you have to start asking “why aren’t they running action to get better looks?”. That ultimately comes down to coaching, a point guard, and running plays.

Paolo has always had a difficult time getting efficient shots. I loathe watching specific players in this league foul hunt to get their points. Hes currently relying on refs to blow the whistle (sometimes without looking to even finish plays at the expense of defense) and trying to do too much on the court. Thats on him and Mosely to figure out if there isn’t a point guard to help.

Obviously a lot of people here watch basketball. You’d think they know what is an efficient shot or not.

[Blue_and_Whte]

We’re 2-9 without Suggs now?

[drsd]

Saying Franz is best Magic player isn't hot take

He is. He just does not have pedigree of first overall pick, isn't American and isn't glorified as best thing to arrive to draft years prior to a draft.

Franz is one of our best defenders and on offense he is at worst up to par with Banchero, often more efficient.

And-1

After the Piston's game, I got into a "fight" with my 12 yo son that F-Wagner was i) a better player than Banchero and ii) has more growth potential moving forward. Let's just say one cannot win a fight with a pre-teen. But I stand by my views.

How F-Wagner plays basketball is modern. If he develops a consistent 3-ball, F-Wagner will be a top-5 player in the NBA.

The problem is the "if" in that sentence.

I have said many times that Banchero's absolute upside is Chris Webber. As a thought experiment, F-Wagner's would be Larry Bird.
(neither will achieve such a potential)

Bird >> Webber. So, F-Wagner's potential far exceeds Banchero's.

In the end, so long as both are top-30 NBA players, the Magic will contend.

[drsd]

We 2-9 without Suggs now?

Just looked it up, the Magic is 100% in wins when Gary Harris starts. Is this anything?

[eyriq]

Stop making excuses for Paolo, this is not because of the injury or conditioning. Seriously last season was the same thing, he had issues turning the ball over, missing shots at and around the rim to much, and the inconsistent free throw shooting.

Paolo takes a lot of tuff shots and bad shots, when he makes them nobody says anything naturally. That doesn’t make it not a bad shot though. He doesn’t seem to play in an offensive flow and that’s concerning. But none of this is new, he keeps this up he will be on the Carmelo Anthony track.

Carmelo Anthony would be a good outcome. At his peak he was a top 3 player. 10 time all-star, 2 time All-NBA second team, 4 time All-NBA third team.

[Rainwater]

Yeah, these takes are just beyond ridiculous tonight.

Celtics fans are talking about firing their coach tonight lol.

Ok that takes the cake lol

[JoshuaPotter]

Their is no way around it. A start would be getting finally a real PG giving him easier shots and pick n roll opportunities.

This times a million.

I watch these games where everything is dropping for Franz and Paolo as they walk into 3 point shots. Everyone cheers and says “THIS IS IT THEY FIGURED OUT THE OFFENSE”. Yeah, no ****.

You start hitting shots at an incredible rate and %, then there is no need to address anything. When the game slows down and Paolo and Franz can’t buy easy shots you have to start asking “why aren’t they running action to get better looks?”. That ultimately comes down to coaching, a point guard, and running plays.

Paolo has always had a difficult time getting efficient shots. I loathe watching specific players in this league foul hunt to get their points. Hes currently relying on refs to blow the whistle (sometimes without looking to even finish plays at the expense of defense) and trying to do too much on the court. Thats on him and Mosely to figure out if there isn’t a point guard to help.

Obviously a lot of people here watch basketball. You’d think they know what is an efficient shot or not.

Paolo and Franz more or less have a "forgiveness card" regarding the offense I think from Mose. As they are expected to run the offense. But we know this. We have hashed this out a billion times. We even agree that we need a better PG if some of these issues are ever going to figure themselves out.

I still stand by what I said. Which is, we are very much injured and have had inconsistent offensive comrade, which makes the idea of a starting PG look like a solid Gold bar in a dump.

[Rainwater]

Saying Franz is best Magic player isn't hot take

He is. He just does not have pedigree of first overall pick, isn't American and isn't glorified as best thing to arrive to draft years prior to a draft.

Franz is one of our best defenders and on offense he is at worst up to par with Banchero, often more efficient.

Banchero had good playoff series in very favorable matchup vs Cavs after Allen got hurt. Before that, over 3 games, his TS was 52% in playoffs, going i believe around 1-12 in direct isolations vs Mobley.

BUT once Allen got hurt, after already losing Wade, Cavs had no backup PF nor C left, Mobley slided back to PF, leaving Banchero to be guarded by 6'5 Okoro, chubby Niang or fringe nba players like Thompson & Morris ( Morris is no longer in nba).

Naturally, he ended up having great series after.

I often disagreed with Knightro this year who kept repeating offense will be fine because Paolo will/is taking massive leap, on very small sample.
Even in 5 games sample, his TS% was below 54% in 4 games, but inflated due 50 points game.

Banchero's game is basically playing Randle/ Derozan type player. Baiting for fouls and taking mid range shots and being ball stopper. When they go in everything looks great, when they don't, it doesn't. He is just taller than Derozan and more skilled than Randle so some things come easier.

But imo, main problem for Magic offense is how uninvolved rest of a players are in offense. Franz & Paolo manipulate & hold ball for so much that rest of a team falls into catch & shoot category, despite fact majority of them aren't actually good at it.
according to tracking, PB & FW hold ball near 11 seconds per possession. Given average length of possession is around 14,4 sec, it means rest of a team hardly ever touches the ball, let alone has time to do anything meaningful with it.

I think Paolo is better but if Franz is better so be it. What makes these takes wild is we need both these guys to play well to go far. The constant need to pin Franz and Paolo against one another is crazy to me especially after game were neither played their best game. It’s like the Magic vision of Brown vs Tatum.