Jeff Weltman Open Mike interview

[basketballRob]

Read on Twitter

I talked about this on another thread. This was the same team that people/fans told to trade Donovan Mitchell because they said he was going to leave and go to the Knicks in back-to-back seasons and the Cavs weren't going to get any better.

Look what happened THIS season ironically in year 3 of the Mitchell era, Internal growth happened with Mobley and Garland and now theyre contenders. So putting this on here without providing that context before the Hunter trade is hilarious.

The Cavs owner has way deeper pockets than our owners do. As far as we know, Weltman could have a mandate to get under the tax threshold next year.

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[anothermagicfan]

3 best players have only played 6 games together so far this season.

Team shot 35% from 3 last season. Almost every player is at a career low this season.

Every other GM basically treated us like we're losers with no future and thus should give away the farm for nothing.

Let's see how we do with the 3 best players healthy and playing together.

[The Real Dalic]

3 best players have only played 6 games together so far this season.

Team shot 35% from 3 last season. Almost every player is at a career low this season.

Every other GM basically treated us like we're losers with no future and thus should give away the farm for nothing.

Let's see how we do with the 3 best players healthy and playing together.

Spoiler alert, 6th seed and 1st round sweep or out during the play-in games.

[basketballRob]

3 best players have only played 6 games together so far this season.

Team shot 35% from 3 last season. Almost every player is at a career low this season.

Every other GM basically treated us like we're losers with no future and thus should give away the farm for nothing.

Let's see how we do with the 3 best players healthy and playing together.

Spoiler alert, 6th seed and 1st round sweep or out during the play-in games.

Anything could happen. We could end up playing a team without key players due to injury.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM Forums mobile app

[anothermagicfan]

3 best players have only played 6 games together so far this season.

Team shot 35% from 3 last season. Almost every player is at a career low this season.

Every other GM basically treated us like we're losers with no future and thus should give away the farm for nothing.

Let's see how we do with the 3 best players healthy and playing together.

Spoiler alert, 6th seed and 1st round sweep or out during the play-in games.

Who says we even make the playins. Worst offense in the league and no temporary bandaids.

[Skybox]

Read on Twitter

I talked about this on another thread. This was the same team that people/fans told to trade Donovan Mitchell because they said he was going to leave and go to the Knicks in back-to-back seasons and the Cavs weren't going to get any better.

Look what happened THIS season ironically in year 3 of the Mitchell era, Internal growth happened with Mobley and Garland and now theyre contenders. So putting this on here without providing that context before the Hunter trade is hilarious.

Mobley and Garland were both All-Stars before this magical “internal growth”. Chemistry is easier than talent

[Skybox]

3 best players have only played 6 games together so far this season.

Team shot 35% from 3 last season. Almost every player is at a career low this season.

Every other GM basically treated us like we're losers with no future and thus should give away the farm for nothing.

Let's see how we do with the 3 best players healthy and playing together.

Spoiler alert, 6th seed and 1st round sweep or out during the play-in games.

Anything could happen. We could end up playing a team without key players due to injury.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM Forums mobile app

That’s a good plan

[cedric76]

God he’s cringe. Wish Mike asked him what he seen in Jett to reach for him at pick 11 and if he’s happy with how his pick 6 looks out there? Ask him why none of his FA signing have looked remotely passable as NBA players? Why didn’t he ask him why he hasn’t chosen to replace Mo Wagners scoring off the bench? Why hasn’t he filled our last 2 way spot yet? What has he been doing? What a dog **** interview

People have short memories, Jett was rank a top 10 prospect in the 2023 draft until he got injured.

So we drafted him exactly where he was ranked.

The June Mock draft forgot about him but he was ranked in top 10 , 3 months earlier

[fendilim]

This is just hilarious. And honestly, our shooting woes is because he didn’t really acquire any floor spacer.

Like what I said in the offseason, how is KCP and TDS enough to open the floor? KCP is a low volume 3pt shooter. He only averaged more than 2 3pointers made per game TWICE IN HIS CAREER.

Then TDS plays the same position as Paolo and Franz. How do you expect him to space the floor when Mosley can’t effectively play TDS, Paolo and Franz at the same time???


Yes, we are a bad shooting team. Honestly, he has a point, everyone is having a down year. And that’s basically bewildering tbh. But, he shouldn’t be surprised that we have not made more 3s than last year. Hahaha

If you want to make more 3s, sign a **** specialist

[Bensational]

This is just hilarious. And honestly, our shooting woes is because he didn’t really acquire any floor spacer.

Like what I said in the offseason, how is KCP and TDS enough to open the floor? KCP is a low volume 3pt shooter. He only averaged more than 2 3pointers made per game TWICE IN HIS CAREER.

Then TDS plays the same position as Paolo and Franz. How do you expect him to space the floor when Mosley can’t effectively play TDS, Paolo and Franz at the same time???


Yes, we are a bad shooting team. Honestly, he has a point, everyone is having a down year. And that’s basically bewildering tbh. But, he shouldn’t be surprised that we have not made more 3s than last year. Hahaha

If you want to make more 3s, sign a **** specialist

The team’s passing really isn’t as crisp this year. Shooters aren’t getting passes into their hands in rhythm, they often have to reach or if they have space they take time to adjust and overthink. When the 3’s are falling usually the passing is on point to. I think. **** it, I really only have guesses at this point.

[GelbeWand09]

He keeps talking about Suggs and how the team has tanked since he has been out, then he calls him the 3rd best player. If the team absolutely dies on defense without him he is more than the 3rd best player.

It doesn't die without Suggs, just like Fultz didn't save our '23 season.

Games with Suggs: drtg 106, ranked 3rd
Games without Suggs: drtg 114, ranked 14th
Last 5 games: drtg 116, ranked 17th

The trend is going the wrong way.

How has the offense improved since getting our two star scorers back?

With Suggs (no Paolo/Franz): ortg 108.9, ranked 5th last
Last 8 games (both Paolo and Franz): ortg 104.3, ranked dead last

Again, trend is going the wrong way.

Suggs impact has strong correlation to defensive improvement. Our franchise players and star scorers are yet to have that same impact on the offense.

Disclaimer: I believe the team’s performance will course correct and improve over the remainder of the season. I’m not calling for anyone’s head. This should be monitored moving forwards but also Suggs probably deserves a lot more respect than he has been given.

WTF does Fultz have to do with anything?

Suggs is super important and one of the reasons for our downfall but the Suggs hype now is super hyperbole too.
He doesnt even plays a good season. He shoots 31% from 3 and 53TS%.
Same was said about Goga til he came back and nothing changed. Suggs missed a ton of games and it never made any big difference like now.

Reality is Suggs played most of his games over our by far easiest stretch of the season were we played only losing teams & injured playoff teams.
Reality is, next to our fundamental roster construction problems is, that Paolo came back on 30+ USG and is one of the most inefficient scorers & worst defenders in the leaque since. I dont think people realise how bad Paolo is this season.
To include Franz in your theory is bogus too. He still has top 10 impact stats in the leaque after coming back despite being rusty. His still mainly very good impact is just comletely outcanceled by Paolo's negative impact.

Paolo: on/off -4.2 Franz: + 3.4
Paolo: on/off per 100: -6.5 Franz: +11.5
Paolo: onCourt per 100: -7.2 Franz: +4.3
Paolo: NetRTG: -6.1 Franz: +5.0
Paolo: BPM: 0.5 Franz: 5.4
Paolo: TS% .508 Franz: .569
Paolo: EPM: -0.3 (187th) Franz: 4.8 (7th in the leaque)

His TS% in the last 10 games is 43%. Our team features a 32% USG player over that stretch with bottom of the leaque TS% and combine that with the worst 3point shooing of this era. That we even score 92ppg over those games is already a achievement

I'm 100% sure we gonna win a lot of games again when Jalen comes back, but this will only have 20-30% to do with Jalen and much more because Paolo is hopefully much better after the Allstar Break & because our schedule is cupcake again.

[pepe1991]

I'm so damn fed up with "everybody has bad shooting year" thing.

Look at their career averages, those players never were great shooters, and relied on others to make volume of 3s for them. Guess what happends when guys who relied on others to make volume of threes- become guys who should make volume of 3s?
They get exposed.

Just look at career averages of roster:

Carter - 32% / 0,7 FGM- 2,3 FGA for 3
Isaac -32,4% / 0,8 FGM - 2,6 FGA
Black - 32%/ 0,6 FGM - 1,8 FGA
Suggs - 33% / 1,6 FGM -4,9 FGA
Cole - 34% / 1,0 FGM - 3,1 FGA
Mortiz 32,4% / 0,7 FGM - 2,2 FGA
Howard - 31,8% / 0,8 FGM -2,5 FGA


Gary Harris - 36,9% - 1,5 FGM /3,9 FGA

KCP - 36,5% / 1,7 FGA - 4,6 FGA


Red category are flat out bad shooters mostly on low volume. And Weltman has balls to say they have "down " years? They are closer to their career average than their best years. And he payed them based on their best year.

Green one, Harris, flat out doesn't play, and is on decline.

Yellow-green-ish one, KCP is only guy who fell on his a** in terms of shooting as outline of his career.

We don't have Klay, Bojan, Duncan Robinson, Herro, Grayson Allen, Towns, Prichard, guys who are career dead eye accurate, solid volume guys , who can heat up and make 5,6,7 threes in a row.
We have roster build around two mediocre to bad outside shooters made out of mostly pretty damn awful shooters.

Last year i made a comment how there is serious scenario where Magic won't be able to put 100 points on a table, but last year due energy, effort, grinding, Moe Wagner playing great off bench and lot of players overachiving ( in contract year) they didn't have that problem. But this year it's actual problem to put 100 points on a table.


This is definition of roster malpractice.

[Bensational]

It doesn't die without Suggs, just like Fultz didn't save our '23 season.

Games with Suggs: drtg 106, ranked 3rd
Games without Suggs: drtg 114, ranked 14th
Last 5 games: drtg 116, ranked 17th

The trend is going the wrong way.

How has the offense improved since getting our two star scorers back?

With Suggs (no Paolo/Franz): ortg 108.9, ranked 5th last
Last 8 games (both Paolo and Franz): ortg 104.3, ranked dead last

Again, trend is going the wrong way.

Suggs impact has strong correlation to defensive improvement. Our franchise players and star scorers are yet to have that same impact on the offense.

Disclaimer: I believe the team’s performance will course correct and improve over the remainder of the season. I’m not calling for anyone’s head. This should be monitored moving forwards but also Suggs probably deserves a lot more respect than he has been given.

WTF does Fultz have to do with anything?

Suggs is super important and one of the reasons for our downfall but the Suggs hype now is super hyperbole too.
He doesnt even plays a good season. He shoots 31% from 3 and 53TS%.
Same was said about Goga til he came back and nothing changed. Suggs missed a ton of games and it never made any big difference like now.

Reality is Suggs played most of his games over our by far easiest stretch of the season were we played only losing teams & injured playoff teams.
Reality is, next to our fundamental roster construction problems is, that Paolo came back on 30+ USG and is one of the most inefficient scorers & worst defenders in the leaque since. I dont think people realise how bad Paolo is this season.
To include Franz in your theory is bogus too. He still has top 10 impact stats in the leaque after coming back despite being rusty. His still mainly very good impact is just comletely outcanceled by Paolo's negative impact.

Paolo: on/off -4.2 Franz: + 3.4
Paolo: on/off per 100: -6.5 Franz: +11.5
Paolo: onCourt per 100: -7.2 Franz: +4.3
Paolo: NetRTG: -6.1 Franz: +5.0
Paolo: BPM: 0.5 Franz: 5.4
Paolo: TS% .508 Franz: .569
Paolo: EPM: -0.3 (187th) Franz: 4.8 (7th in the leaque)

His TS% in the last 10 games is 43%. Our team features a 32% USG player over that stretch with bottom of the leaque TS% and combine that with the worst 3point shooing of this era. That we even score 92ppg over those games is already a achievement

I'm 100% sure we gonna win a ton of games again when Jalen comes back, but this will only have 20-30% to do with Jalen and much more because Paolo is hopefully much better after the Allstar Break & because our schedule is cupcake again.

You got the wrong impression from my post, I think Franz is exceptional and he has separated himself as the best player on the team this season by a large margin. My point was more that on an offensively starved team you’d think adding back both of our best scorers would raise the ortg, but it hasn’t yet.

*edit - but I think you’ve captured why the ortg has been so poor since the return of Paolo and Franz.

I think Suggs’ impact is more about his ability to motivate the rest of the team as much as his individual defense also improves it. You’re right though, expectations are probably now being set too high for Suggs return to be the second coming so we’ll probably all be carrying pitchforks again if the struggles continue.

[Bensational]

I'm so damn fed up with "everybody has bad shooting year" thing.

Look at their career averages,

Career averages are really pointless stats. Why should a player’s rookie shooting numbers be factored into projections of his current season several seasons removed from then? There is no scouting report that would say “this dude is shooting 40% from 3 this season but don’t sweat it because as a rookie he shot 30% so he’s probably going to regress”.

Expand the brackets 2-3 seasons if you like, but trying to use the rawest years of a player in grading their current performance is just adding useless noise to the data.

[zaymon]

You got the wrong impression from my post, I think Franz is exceptional and he has separated himself as the best player on the team this season by a large margin. My point was more that on an offensively starved team you’d think adding back both of our best scorers would raise the ortg, but it hasn’t yet.

*edit - but I think you’ve captured why the ortg has been so poor since the return of Paolo and Franz.

I think Suggs’ impact is more about his ability to motivate the rest of the team as much as his individual defense also improves it. You’re right though, expectations are probably now being set too high for Suggs return to be the second coming so we’ll probably all be carrying pitchforks again if the struggles continue.

I agree. Thats what i have been saying for a while. We have bunch of anxious boys whose confidence is broken by hard nosed veterans. For some reason polite man without much cold, confident aggresion are Weltman type. They are energetic on defense becouse of the anxiousness but also very chaotic and less disciplined. When you add low skill level and chaotic energy without rhytm you get one of the worst offensive teams in the league.
We just lost our only two dogs in Suggs and Moe (Jalen is also anxiouss and Moe is not disciplined but at least they show some aggresive nature).
Goga is the only energy guy left but he is also not offensive type guy.

[pepe1991]

I'm so damn fed up with "everybody has bad shooting year" thing.

Look at their career averages,

Career averages are really pointless stats. Why should a player’s rookie shooting numbers be factored into projections of his current season several seasons removed from then? There is no scouting report that would say “this dude is shooting 40% from 3 this season but don’t sweat it because as a rookie he shot 30% so he’s probably going to regress”.

Expand the brackets 2-3 seasons if you like, but trying to use the rawest years of a player in grading their current performance is just adding useless noise to the data.

Why not exlcude best year as outline as well, if we are in business of cutting inflated or deflated numbers? That's the point of arithmetic average, to even outline result and get median.
I could use weighted average, but who uses that?

Also rookie don't shoot that much, and not all rookies are pathetic shooters.

Gary Harris for example, shot 20% for 3 as a rookie. Excluding his rookie year you go from 36,9 to 37,6%.

Carter rookie exclusion moves him from 32% to 32,5%.

Isaac without rookie year goes from 32,4% to 32,2 % ( decline)

Suggs would see 2,5% raise, Franz declie by 1%.

Rookie sesons simply don't impact data as much as you think.


It simply isn't that significant. Only 16 rookies in entire history took 400 or more threes where you can argue it makes massive impact on their percentage .

Among 5 players who took 500 threes or more:
Luka's percentage is within 2% differential
Mitchell and Edwards improved by 3%
Lillard is identical to career
Keegan Murray shot better as rookie than any other season later

[Bergmaniac]

The loss of Ingles is an underrated factor in our offensive decline from last year. He was by far the best passer on the team and the best at running a pick and roll and while he was a low volume shooter, he was great at it and force the opponent to always keep a defender on him. The team actually shot 38.2% from 3 in his minutes last season even though he mostly played with players who usually aren't good 3 point shooters. He shares the court mostly with Cole, Moe, Paolo and Isaac, all of whom shot better from 3 when playing with him. Isaac even shot 41% in these minutes, which obviously wasn't only due to Ingles, but in comparison Isaac shot only 30% from 3 when he played without Ingles and he is shooting even worse this year.

[Bensational]

Why not exlcude best year as outline as well, if we are in business of cutting inflated or deflated numbers? That's the point of arithmetic average, to even outline result and get median.
I could use weighted average, but who uses that?

You want to look for the data points that will give you the most accurate picture of that player and their current ability. Are you defending Ty Jerome like he’s shooting 43% this season, 37% for his career or 29% for his rookie season? It’s quite clearly the 43% this season which is the most relevant data.

KCP is a good example:

4 years of his rookie contract:
32%, 35%, 31%, 35%

8 years since:
38%, 35%, 39%, 41%, 39%, 42%, 41% - and 31% this year

What team is expecting him to regress to rookie contract levels after shooting 39%+ for 5 seasons straight? What relevance is how KCP was shooting 8,9,10 or 11 years ago when for the previous 5 years he has been consistently good?

There’s more value in seeing what has caused improvements/declines over time, ie KCP benefitting from the two best passing bigs in LA and Denver.

[fendilim]

This is just hilarious. And honestly, our shooting woes is because he didn’t really acquire any floor spacer.

Like what I said in the offseason, how is KCP and TDS enough to open the floor? KCP is a low volume 3pt shooter. He only averaged more than 2 3pointers made per game TWICE IN HIS CAREER.

Then TDS plays the same position as Paolo and Franz. How do you expect him to space the floor when Mosley can’t effectively play TDS, Paolo and Franz at the same time???


Yes, we are a bad shooting team. Honestly, he has a point, everyone is having a down year. And that’s basically bewildering tbh. But, he shouldn’t be surprised that we have not made more 3s than last year. Hahaha

If you want to make more 3s, sign a **** specialist

The team’s passing really isn’t as crisp this year. Shooters aren’t getting passes into their hands in rhythm, they often have to reach or if they have space they take time to adjust and overthink. When the 3’s are falling usually the passing is on point to. I think. **** it, I really only have guesses at this point.

Love it or hate it but Joe Ingles was the key last year. We replaced him with Anthony Black who can pass but can’t space the floor. Then Moe goes down, we end up with lease space because Goga ends up playing more time.

Tbh, this season is a lost season. Paolo goes down, the Franz then Suggs. Not to mention our best bench player is done for the season too. Don’t really expect much, but losing to lottery teams is humiliating.

[pepe1991]

Why not exlcude best year as outline as well, if we are in business of cutting inflated or deflated numbers? That's the point of arithmetic average, to even outline result and get median.
I could use weighted average, but who uses that?

You want to look for the data points that will give you the most accurate picture of that player and their current ability. Are you defending Ty Jerome like he’s shooting 43% this season, 37% for his career or 29% for his rookie season? It’s quite clearly the 43% this season which is the most relevant data.

KCP is a good example:

4 years of his rookie contract:
32%, 35%, 31%, 35%

8 years since:
38%, 35%, 39%, 41%, 39%, 42%, 41% - and 31% this year

What team is expecting him to regress to rookie contract levels after shooting 39%+ for 5 seasons straight? What relevance is how KCP was shooting 8,9,10 or 11 years ago when for the previous 5 years he has been consistently good?

There’s more value in seeing what has caused improvements/declines over time, ie KCP benefitting from the two best passing bigs in LA and Denver.

League average isn't aritmetic average of percentages but aritmetic average of all 3FGA/FGM
More player spends in nba, less influence one season has.

Ty Jerome took 50 threes as a rookie, 650 overall, therfore rookie year only equals 7,8% of total value.