2024-2025 NBA Playoffs Round 1, Game 3: (2) Boston Celtics at (7) Orlando Magic - 7pm ET

[eyriq]

Man maybe pepe does have something against Paolo lol..... "Dribbling aimlessly".... "Paolo failing to post up Pritchard" a bit gratuitous isn't it? You don't have to say it that way yet went out of your way to do so.....









just breaking your balls.... A little

Ya think? LOL

The anti-Paolo cliq are shifty but obvious

[KillMonger]

Man maybe pepe does have something against Paolo lol..... "Dribbling aimlessly".... "Paolo failing to post up Pritchard" a bit gratuitous isn't it? You don't have to say it that way yet went out of your way to do so.....









just breaking your balls.... A little

Ya think? LOL

The anti-Paolo cliq are shifty but obvious

I have a good idea who they are but I always thought pepe as neutral almost sterile even........

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[basketballRob]

Read on Twitter

?t=1E6-PVJDDr8k_xGdHmkodw&s=19

Black isn't on the injury report.

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[SOUL]

That's a disingenuous screenshot lol. Derrick White has a foot in the paint when he gets the ball and the pass is slightly high but mostly in a natural shooting pocket. Most good shooters can make that. Then there's like 5 other plays where he is wide open with nobody near him, getting the ball cleanly, and it's a brick.

At some point you just have to make shots. Sure, we can involve him earlier so that he can maybe get going earlier, but I'm sorry, especially with our personnel currently, gotta just hit shots even if it's not a perfect pass right in motion.

[eyriq]

We've been up at half-time in both road games and outright won in game 3. The Celtics bleed.

[KillMonger]

We've been up at half-time in both road games and outright won in game 3. The Celtics bleed.

It's the second halves we need to figure out

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[eyriq]

We've been up at half-time in both road games and outright won in game 3. The Celtics bleed.

It's the second halves we need to figure out

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Who ya got on Sunday?

[Driguez]

Love to see Paolo playing at a different level, he's hitting 47.1% 3PT in the PO. Impressive.

[KillMonger]

We've been up at half-time in both road games and outright won in game 3. The Celtics bleed.

It's the second halves we need to figure out

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Who ya got on Sunday?

The Homer in me? Us for sure but using my brain? I just don't trust our shooting and I don't trust that the refs won't fall for Boston players whining to the media about fouls.....however what I would love? If Sunday is one of those games where we hit everything..... I remember in the regular season every now and then we would actually look like a team that could shoot the ball and those games were glorious

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[VFX]

Spoiler:

I mean, let's be real and honest for a second.
Do we EVER make any plays for him?

No.

In 3 games combined, do you know how many shots he got in first quarters to get going?

Game 1 - 1 FGA
Game 2 - 0 FGA
Game 3 - 1 FGA

So he had two shots in first quarters of 3 games.


This is how life looked for him on championship team in 2023 (First quarters)

Game 1 vs Lakers- 4 shots ( one short mid range, 1 three, two layups)
Game 2 vs Lakers - 0 shots
Game 3 vs Lakers 2 shots
Game 4 vs Lakers - 6 shots ( 5 threes, 1 layup )

12 shots in 4 games.

You can't expect from him to make shots if there is nobody to set him up early nor we ever look to get him going. Once he finally gets shot, it's deep in second quarter, with already heavy legs, with pre game shootaround being hour ago. Good luck finding rhythm.

On top of that even passes he get are often late in shot clock, as direct result of failed original play and result of bail out desparation passing.


Like, literally, this is one of his shots he took last night



Guy is yet to even GET A PASS with 1,3 sec on the clock because he was handed hot potato after:
- Banchero aimlessly dribbled ball for 8 sec
- passed to contested KCP who gave up ball to wide open Franz, who passed on shot, gave it to covered Joseph, who dribbled ball inside and gave this crap to KCP


Look, i'm not KCP "defender" , but KCP is in TERRIBLE situation when it comes to shooting with this team. Nobody is looking to find him, nobody passed goot looks to him, nobody can hits him on time with passing. He is fall guy to take some of hardest shots possible.

And if you think my upper picture is exception, here's same crap from game 2. Banchero failing to post up Prichard leads to bailout pass to KCP in corner for desparation shot with White in his face



You could replace him with prime Klay or Ray Ray and results would still be similar. Shooters need quality looks and good rhythm. We give them neither, but write on forums how they "forget how to shoot". No, they don't. They simply aren't involved in offense.

Agree with every word of this post.

Until the personnel and the system itself is changed nothing will change how Orlando is running things on offense. That has to do with the FO and Mosely’s competence.

People arguing to exchange out various spot up shooters via trade simply just don’t understand this still.

It goes beyond “guys aren’t hitting shots”. Like yeah, that’s the casual random guy in a bar analysis that watches less than 10 games a year.

Why is ALL of the shot production dropping compared to other offenses? It’s explainable if you just watch how the offense is run and take your bias out of the equation. It isn’t as mystifying as Jeff Weltman would lead you to believe in the Bianchi puff piece.

[KillMonger]

Love to see Paolo playing at a different level, he's hitting 47.1% 3PT in the PO. Impressive.

He's a playoff riser, seems to play better when the games matter most

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[SOUL]

Why is ALL of the shot production dropping compared to other offenses? It’s explainable if you just watch how the offense is run and take your bias out of the equation. It isn’t as mystifying as Jeff Weltman would lead you to believe in the Bianchi puff piece.

It's variability. Especially if you're comparing it to last year with the same coach and mostly the same players. Let me look at a random player... is there a reason Caris LeVert shot 32% from three on a year ('23-'24) the Cavs had a better record/more spacing than the year before ('22-23) when he shot 39% from three?

Sometimes guys just miss shots they should be hitting.

We had Isaac, Wendell, Suggs, Black, Gary, Ingles, Isaac all shooting over 37% from three last year despite still not having a pure PG or real volume shooters.

Now, if you're arguing that to stop having such crazy variability, you need a guard with gravity that can get people shots in motion and shoot more comfortably, I can agree with that notion. But this whole like "these guys are in this impossible situation because of scheme/coach/100 other excuses" when most of these guys shot better with the same scheme and coach the previous season just shows these guys are streaky and sometimes the onus is simply on making shots they should be making.

But taking a screenshot where KCP was actually open and got the ball in a decent enough spot and then snapping it when White is running out to contest isn't the best example of a bad attempt for KCP.

[eyriq]

It's the second halves we need to figure out

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Who ya got on Sunday?

The Homer in me? Us for sure but using my brain? I just don't trust our shooting and I don't trust that the refs won't fall for Boston players whining to the media about fouls.....however what I would love? If Sunday is one of those games where we hit everything..... I remember in the regular season every now and then we would actually look like a team that could shoot the ball and those games were glorious

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The spread is 6.5 and the probability is 35.9%. Decent chances. No Jrue and some increased belief on our end? I like our chances.

[Bensational]

I think it’s hard to deny that Paolo and Franz are both pretty weak at spotting and hitting an open shooter in a timely fashion. It’s not a damning critique of them, just something they have to work on (along with bringing in a PG to mitigate a lot of it). The whole team needs to get better at working to create looks for our few shooters though. I keep pointing to Houstan as someone who is being criminally under-utilised if he’s in a rhythm and hitting at 40%+.

KCP though… that guy has had way too many wide open complete sitters which he has just flubbed away. It’s inexcusable at this point. But at least his Defense has still been pretty elite and putting clamps on most of the guys he’s defending.

[RookieStar]

Love to see Paolo playing at a different level, he's hitting 47.1% 3PT in the PO. Impressive.

He's a playoff riser, seems to play better when the games matter most

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Agree. He is the REAL " Playoff P"

Its like with Kobe before, all game he probably goes 3-24 in FG% but for a game winning shot you just know he wants the ball and can make it.

Paolo in the POs is the same. He will elevate his game when it matters

[VFX]

Why is ALL of the shot production dropping compared to other offenses? It’s explainable if you just watch how the offense is run and take your bias out of the equation. It isn’t as mystifying as Jeff Weltman would lead you to believe in the Bianchi puff piece.

Now, if you're arguing that to stop having such crazy variability, you need a guard with gravity that can get people shots in motion and shoot more comfortably, I can agree with that notion. But this whole like "these guys are in this impossible situation because of scheme/coach/100 other excuses" when most of these guys shot better with the same scheme and coach the previous season just shows these guys are streaky and sometimes the onus is simply on making shots they should be making.

The offense isn’t complex. It’s entirely reliant on two total guys making individual reads to the basket. We know this from injuries this year and how poor the offense still was last year with Suggs improving in outside shooting.

It’s not “100 other excuses” it’s 2.

Orlando doesn’t have a lead initiating guard to offset defenses on the perimeter. Nearly every team has this player, even on the bench. That’s a Weltman problem from making zero moves for 4 seasons. Without acquiring one, Paolo and Franz must be significantly better from outside to offset that.

The other grey area is Mosely. We have no idea currently if the offense looks like **** due to personnel or X’s and O’s. Chicken or the egg circular argument. The offense has never looked good with him as the head coach. Chalk that up to assistants, players, etc. whatever you want. There is no “really good season of offense” under him to compare against.

Now, have I seen Paolo run actions outside of finding a mismatch and shooting non contact fadeaway jumpers? Not often. Do I believe Mosely is some savant drawing up plays on the sidelines to get better shots? Not in the slightest.

You might argue this away as simply “guys aren’t hitting shots” instead of asking why they aren’t. WHY is KCP’s production the worst since his rookie year in a this particular system? Variability matters based on who is next to the player, who is coaching the team, and what options they have. Thats it.

It’s like you’re watching this stagnant offense with guys standing around watching TWO players eat up 90% usage and saying “yeah the other guys aren’t hitting shots though”. Yeah, those guys are afterthoughts in the system of iso exchangeable basketball played at the slowest pace possible in a half court offense. That’s the point.

Like you said, a dynamic guard to draw defenses will help. That is actually a huge change to the system if Mosely allows it. Trading for Simons and having him stand in the corner while he watches Paolo back down 6’4 point guards in the paint to shoot a slick fadeaway jumper is what worries me when you are talking about how things are run here. Hopefully that’s not the case considering what we’ve seen.

Edit: for the record. I thought KCP was a bad signing regardless. He’s a system player being introduced to a team with little to no system in place. Yeah, he’s “just missing shots” but 90% of the rest of the roster isn’t contributing really either offensively. The third leading scorer in this playoff game was Wendell Carter with 10 points in 32 minutes.

[Rainwater]

rather him than KCP....i have more faith that franz would hit one by mistake than KCP actually hitting one purposely

He can shoot long twos just fine... but the 3s man... it's insane

I believe he'll get his shot back but he needs to just work on that in the summer.

I mean, let's be real and honest for a second.
Do we EVER make any plays for him?

No.

In 3 games combined, do you know how many shots he got in first quarters to get going?

Game 1 - 1 FGA
Game 2 - 0 FGA
Game 3 - 1 FGA

So he had two shots in first quarters of 3 games.


This is how life looked for him on championship team in 2023 (First quarters)

Game 1 vs Lakers- 4 shots ( one short mid range, 1 three, two layups)
Game 2 vs Lakers - 0 shots
Game 3 vs Lakers 2 shots
Game 4 vs Lakers - 6 shots ( 5 threes, 1 layup )

12 shots in 4 games.

You can't expect from him to make shots if there is nobody to set him up early nor we ever look to get him going. Once he finally gets shot, it's deep in second quarter, with already heavy legs, with pre game shootaround being hour ago. Good luck finding rhythm.

On top of that even passes he get are often late in shot clock, as direct result of failed original play and result of bail out desparation passing.


Like, literally, this is one of his shots he took last night



Guy is yet to even GET A PASS with 1,3 sec on the clock because he was handed hot potato after:
- Banchero aimlessly dribbled ball for 8 sec
- passed to contested KCP who gave up ball to wide open Franz, who passed on shot, gave it to covered Joseph, who dribbled ball inside and gave this crap to KCP


Look, i'm not KCP "defender" , but KCP is in TERRIBLE situation when it comes to shooting with this team. Nobody is looking to find him, nobody passed goot looks to him, nobody can hits him on time with passing. He is fall guy to take some of hardest shots possible.

And if you think my upper picture is exception, here's same crap from game 2. Banchero failing to post up Prichard leads to bailout pass to KCP in corner for desparation shot with White in his face



You could replace him with prime Klay or Ray Ray and results would still be similar. Shooters need quality looks and good rhythm. We give them neither, but write on forums how they "forget how to shoot". No, they don't. They simply aren't involved in offense.


And nba. com tracks shot clock and "wide open" shots, but nothing covers quality of those passes. Jokić and Lebron set up shooters in perfect way, passing ball right at their chest. If player gets "wide open" shot but has to test his 35 inch vertical just to catch a ball, or has to squat just to pick up ball aimed at his feet, he might be "wide open" but still isn't in perfect shooting motion. Little things matter. There is somebody on youtube who made breakdown of how important it is to pre-set shooter for shot, like , if guy is lefty, you probably shouldn't pass ball on his right because it will offset his body and he will need time to adjust.

I love you Pepe but this post upset me greatly. Highly recommend people go watch the shots being missed by KCP on NBA.com and instead of looking at these still pictures. All 17 shots taken were great shots. Even the shots taken at the end of shot clock or even in the picture were great shoots. In the picture, yes KCP had 1.5 second to take the shot but it wasn't rushed it was more than enough time with his quick release. He caught it in rhythm, wide open, and missed.

KCP is just plain missing and watching the clips he has nobody but himself to blame. KCP has never been a volume. He only averages 8.2 shots in the playoff for his career and averages just under 6 shots in this series. He has always been a catch and shoot player. He is not being used any differently than any of his prior teams. To blame the coaching staff, Paolo, or Franz for the shoots being taken and is now being missed is just wrong.

I too wish for better diversity on offense but KCP's job is to be a 3 and D player and he is failing on the offensive end.

[SOUL]

It just feels like a blame goalpost being moved though in terms of a player perhaps just having simply an off-year.

Yes, they are working under the umbrella of not much space or guard play. We all know this. But I feel like those excuses mostly only apply to Paolo and Franz who see SO much coverage out there. These are professionals, who in practice, drill with perfect pocket passes AND also "off target" passes/being contested with those big ass pads to simulate heavily contested shots/being under duress.

If you can't make that, well, okay. But then if that turns into "well, the pass was slightly off", then that turns into "well, I only got 2 shots in the first quarter", and then morphs into, "well, everything was fine I guess but Paolo isn't Jokic" and it's just like lol. What happened to just simply hitting shots that most teams would expect from a shooter?

It's why he can shoot 40% for a few months during the end of the year but be bad the other months. It's why Caleb can be 28% for two months and then 50% a month or two later. Every pass wasn't suddenly perfect. The scheme wasn't that different.

As as far as play-calls, NBA players work with assistant coaches in terms of getting the sort of shot packages they are comfortable with or used to. Their role may be bigger or smaller, but the shots they get aren't alien to them. I guarantee you that unless it's a coach with a tried and true method of an offensive "just trust me bro" system that will enable anybody to be amazing, that most other teams just employ what worked for them most of their career.

It's why you saw a ton of off-ball movement stuff for T. Ross when he was here with Mose because he played in motion a lot. He hit a lot of contested shots off screens because he had crazy lift on his shot. That backdoor cut play with Franz was a staple with him too.

Defenses are really smart now. In game 2, Detroit took the Knicks completely out of their offense and they had Brunson + 4 spacers out there with a lethal offense and they could barely get any clean shots off. And Detroit is a good defense, not an elite one.

But yeah, first and foremost we need that guard to probe and collapse defenses for easier shots in the half-court. It's why you saw higher percentages last year - even "mediocre" options like Suggs, Fultz, Ingles opened up a lot for our guys.

[Knightro]

Man maybe pepe does have something against Paolo lol..... "Dribbling aimlessly".... "Paolo failing to post up Pritchard" a bit gratuitous isn't it? You don't have to say it that way yet went out of your way to do so.....









just breaking your balls.... A little

Ya think? LOL

The anti-Paolo cliq are shifty but obvious

There’s no anti-Paolo kliq.

He’s considered by some/most to be the best player on the team, he has an insane usage rate, and he’s about to sign a designed player maximum contract extension.

He's justifiably held, along with Franz, to a higher standard than everyone else on the roster.

[VFX]

And for what it’s worth (maybe not a lot for most here) I don’t place any of the blame really on the players here.

They ARE young. What do they really know? Paolo has already been vocal about not being the guy to “run things” on offense whether people want to make something of that or not.

Even KCP hasn’t really changed who he is as a player here. Why not sign some ridiculous undeserved contract that Weltman wants to offer him. Plenty of players sign huge deals here only to pre-retire. He was never set up to be changing anything offensively here.