2024-2025 Regular Season Game 59: Washington Wizards (9-46) at Orlando Magic (28-30) - 6pm

[drsd]

It will never not be crazy to me how good “bad” NBA players still are.

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[Skybox]

It will never not be crazy to me how good “bad” NBA players still are.

Watch on YouTube

I was totally thinking of this too...gotta love Scal and the reality check

[Husky1]

KCP, WCJ, Isaac, Harris, Houston, Cole all need to go this summer.

Sadly majority of these guys get rotation minutes or starting.... Weltman put himself in a position by kicking the can down the road year after year now he really only has this off-season to reshape the team... After that you have Franz and Jalen deals kicking in with paolos on the way.... Things are going to get quite a bit more expensive after this off-season

Sent from my [Sidekick 5G] using RealGM mobile app

Weltman has completely botched it. From busts in draft, terrible free agent signing and over paying/extending injury prone players who look completely washed. Actually makes me sick the job he has done

[Blue_and_Whte]

I forgot there was a game last night and found the recap. Whoops. Buddy ball beat the tanking team. Hooray!

Oh God, here we go with the buddy ball bull again.

[BadMofoPimp]

KCP, WCJ, Isaac, Harris, Houston, Cole all need to go this summer.

Sadly majority of these guys get rotation minutes or starting.... Weltman put himself in a position by kicking the can down the road year after year now he really only has this off-season to reshape the team... After that you have Franz and Jalen deals kicking in with paolos on the way.... Things are going to get quite a bit more expensive after this off-season

Sent from my [Sidekick 5G] using RealGM mobile app

Weltman has completely botched it. From busts in draft, terrible free agent signing and over paying/extending injury prone players who look completely washed. Actually makes me sick the job he has done

Suggs, Franz, TDS and Paolo are Busts?

[drsd]

Boxscore thoughts:
Orlando won the FG% battle and won the game.

My favorite stat: 34.4%. Orlando was Mendoza from three!!!!!
That said, remove Black's 4-5, and the rest of the team was 7-27= 26%

Another bang-head stat: Harris has now scored zero points in 7 of his last 9 games.

Back to positivities.
Strong FT% led to a nice 19 made FTs.
The Magic dominated FGAs by dominating both rebounding differential (+11) AND TO differential (. Man will coach love that!

[JoshuaPotter]

I forgot there was a game last night and found the recap. Whoops. Buddy ball beat the tanking team. Hooray!

Oh God, here we go with the buddy ball bull again.

Then "the power of friendship and internal development"

[yoyojw17]

Sadly majority of these guys get rotation minutes or starting.... Weltman put himself in a position by kicking the can down the road year after year now he really only has this off-season to reshape the team... After that you have Franz and Jalen deals kicking in with paolos on the way.... Things are going to get quite a bit more expensive after this off-season

Sent from my [Sidekick 5G] using RealGM mobile app

Weltman has completely botched it. From busts in draft, terrible free agent signing and over paying/extending injury prone players who look completely washed. Actually makes me sick the job he has done

Suggs, Franz, TDS and Paolo are Busts?

I think AB and Jett will add their names to that list in the future too. Not gonna walk away from those 2 21 year olds!

people act as though everything is linear. If KCP was shooting and playing at the same level as Denver..... we would have no issues. and literally it's just the shooting. No need to get rid of him unless you believe that this is just the new him. I would say regressing back to the mean is more than likely once we have gotten things back on track. His stats aren't that great now... but the duo of KCP and Suggs was part of our success till now.

IF Suggs, Paolo, and Franz have only played 96 minutes together... i'm sure the combination of KCP, Suggs, Paolo, and Franz has even less play time... and add WCJ/GOGA.... even less. Speaking of goga.... they kicked the tire on a throw away of another team.... and he played his way into a second contract and they retained that individual for the long term.

SANS Paolo, Franz, Suggs injuries that have devastated our season.... these conversation would probably not even exist. There has been no consistency.... lineups, roles, etc. but here we are still one game away from .500. annnnnnd still being the crappiest shooting team in the league... hahah... nearly in NBA History. So.... if they feel that these players will still see better days.... why trade currently low value for something else that you hope fits as well and can also fail? Wait for the value to return if you think it exists and then keep on going or trade at a higher value as well.

[JoshuaPotter]

Boxscore thoughts:
Orlando won the FG% battle and won the game.

My favorite stat: 34.4%. Orlando was Mendoza from three!!!!!
That said, remove Black's 4-5, and the rest of the team was 7-27= 26%

Another bang-head stat: Harris has now scored zero points in 7 of his last 9 games.

Back to positivities.
Strong FT% led to a nice 19 made FTs.
The Magic dominated FGAs by dominating both rebounding differential (+11) AND TO differential (. Man will coach love that!

The guy who isn't known for 3-ball quietly averaging 37% on the last 19 games. I'm not calling him a volume 3-ball shooter, but you can't deny that he DOES shoot it.

[eyriq]

I think AB and Jett will add their names to that list in the future too. Not gonna walk away from those 2 21 year olds!

people act as though everything is linear. If KCP was shooting and playing at the same level as Denver..... we would have no issues. and literally it's just the shooting. No need to get rid of him unless you believe that this is just the new him. I would say regressing back to the mean is more than likely once we have gotten things back on track. His stats aren't that great now... but the duo of KCP and Suggs was part of our success till now.

IF Suggs, Paolo, and Franz have only played 96 minutes together... i'm sure the combination of KCP, Suggs, Paolo, and Franz has even less play time... and add WCJ/GOGA.... even less. Speaking of goga.... they kicked the tire on a throw away of another team.... and he played his way into a second contract and they retained that individual for the long term.

SANS Paolo, Franz, Suggs injuries that have devastated our season.... these conversation would probably not even exist. There has been no consistency.... lineups, roles, etc. but here we are still one game away from .500. annnnnnd still being the crappiest shooting team in the league... hahah... nearly in NBA History. So.... if they feel that these players will still see better days.... why trade currently low value for something else that you hope fits as well and can also fail? Wait for the value to return if you think it exists and then keep on going or trade at a higher value as well.

I can somewhat rock with this. I think the "organic" plan, based on the cap sheet, has the following targets:

1. Jett replaces Cole as our 4th guard in two seasons
2. AB replaces KCP as our 2nd guard in three seasons
3. Goga replaces Moritz as our 2nd big next season
4. TDS replaces Harris as our 4th forward next season
5. JI scales up as our 3rd forward next season
6. We acquire a 3rd guard in three seasons
7. WCJ stays as the 1st big

Do I think they will execute this flawlessly and that this is the right plan? Doubtful. WCJ, JI, and Suggs are injury prone, Jett sucks, KCP is disappointing, and we are terribly bad on offense.

[yoyojw17]

Boxscore thoughts:
Orlando won the FG% battle and won the game.

My favorite stat: 34.4%. Orlando was Mendoza from three!!!!!
That said, remove Black's 4-5, and the rest of the team was 7-27= 26%

Another bang-head stat: Harris has now scored zero points in 7 of his last 9 games.

Back to positivities.
Strong FT% led to a nice 19 made FTs.
The Magic dominated FGAs by dominating both rebounding differential (+11) AND TO differential (. Man will coach love that!

The guy who isn't known for 3-ball quietly averaging 37% on the last 19 games. I'm not calling him a volume 3-ball shooter, but you can't deny that he DOES shoot it.

and 44% from 3 in the month of February. Looking better and better as his confidence grows. Can't wait to get suggs back. The combination of Suggs, Black, and KCP is probably a nightmare for backcourts in the future. IF.... Black continues to drive, develop his 3, and make the right reads at his offensive level.... his contract will take over KCP as it ends.

[JoshuaPotter]

Boxscore thoughts:
Orlando won the FG% battle and won the game.

My favorite stat: 34.4%. Orlando was Mendoza from three!!!!!
That said, remove Black's 4-5, and the rest of the team was 7-27= 26%

Another bang-head stat: Harris has now scored zero points in 7 of his last 9 games.

Back to positivities.
Strong FT% led to a nice 19 made FTs.
The Magic dominated FGAs by dominating both rebounding differential (+11) AND TO differential (. Man will coach love that!

The guy who isn't known for 3-ball quietly averaging 37% on the last 19 games. I'm not calling him a volume 3-ball shooter, but you can't deny that he DOES shoot it.

and 44% from 3 in the month of February. Looking better and better as his confidence grows. Can't wait to get suggs back. The combination of Suggs, Black, and KCP is probably a nightmare for backcourts in the future. IF.... Black continues to drive, develop his 3, and make the right reads at his offensive level.... his contract will take over KCP as it ends.

It is kinda clear that is the vision. Problem is the offensive playmaking of both Franz and Paolo didn't maintain an upward trend. Call any reason you want, one of Black, Suggs, Franz, Paolo has to become a better offensive coordinator or we need to seek it elsewhere.

[yoyojw17]

The guy who isn't known for 3-ball quietly averaging 37% on the last 19 games. I'm not calling him a volume 3-ball shooter, but you can't deny that he DOES shoot it.

and 44% from 3 in the month of February. Looking better and better as his confidence grows. Can't wait to get suggs back. The combination of Suggs, Black, and KCP is probably a nightmare for backcourts in the future. IF.... Black continues to drive, develop his 3, and make the right reads at his offensive level.... his contract will take over KCP as it ends.

It is kinda clear that is the vision. Problem is the offensive playmaking of both Franz and Paolo didn't maintain an upward trend. Call any reason you want, one of Black, Suggs, Franz, Paolo has to become a better offensive coordinator or we need to seek it elsewhere.

I personally think all four of them will become better over time. And that all kinds of experience.... Especially when you realize that once you start passing the ball more, it makes your looks that much easier. Even though you probably can take the shot doesn't mean you have to take the shot and if a higher quality shot is available.... Make that extra pass. We still have not seen that higher level of ball and player movement. As long as we're able to get the players to buy into a high IQ ball movement environment.... The sky is the limit for the team.

[JoshuaPotter]

and 44% from 3 in the month of February. Looking better and better as his confidence grows. Can't wait to get suggs back. The combination of Suggs, Black, and KCP is probably a nightmare for backcourts in the future. IF.... Black continues to drive, develop his 3, and make the right reads at his offensive level.... his contract will take over KCP as it ends.

It is kinda clear that is the vision. Problem is the offensive playmaking of both Franz and Paolo didn't maintain an upward trend. Call any reason you want, one of Black, Suggs, Franz, Paolo has to become a better offensive coordinator or we need to seek it elsewhere.

I personally think all four of them will become better over time. And that all kinds of experience.... Especially when you realize that once you start passing the ball more, it makes your looks that much easier. Even though you probably can take the shot doesn't mean you have to take the shot and if a higher quality shot is available.... Make that extra pass. We still have not seen that higher level of ball and player movement. As long as we're able to get the players to buy into a high IQ ball movement environment.... The sky is the limit for the team.

It's not a "throw the baby out with the bathwater" moment from me yet by far. It's a "well we have had several setbacks" then the question becomes, based on player assessment of the players above so far graded.

Paolo - B on improvement
Franz - A+ : you can't argue this
Black B- : I was high on him earlier on the year when we were healthy but he has missed too many opportunities to show a leap. If we were all healthy I think he gets an A.
Suggs B- : Too injured for it to be higher, to unavailable for it to be lower or higher.

Basically slight improvement, not passing C- grades, but enough to say "maybe there is something here". Franz had the biggest leap. It wasn't close. A Prime Paolo + Franz might average 25+ PPG each on good efficiency and that is scary.