Around the League: 2024-25 Season

[RichCollab]

Some curious decisions by Thibs having Robinson out there so long and Towns in the bench. NY looks shook and lost. McConnell really sliced NY in the 4th.

Towns is a liability. Wolves had the same issues last season.

[Idiosyncratic]

Towns -20 holy moly...

Depth based teams eating good right now. 10-11 man playoff rotations . Series aren't over though.

[RookieStar]

As much as KAT and Brunson gives you on offense... both of them together are no match for Bridges Mitch/Hart or OGs defensive acumen.

That team has to scramble so mch for Brunson cuz thay foul merchant only has his floppong ability to rely on in tjebdefensive side

[RookieStar]

Sigh... having consistent 3pt shooters can make such a difference.

Why is the Orlando Magic juju so strong that 40% 3pt shooters lose 10% when they put on our uniform?

[pepe1991]

Towns -20 holy moly...

Depth based teams eating good right now. 10-11 man playoff rotations . Series aren't over though.

I think it sounds worst than it is. Out of that -20, 12 points turnaround happened in 1st quarter, they benched Towns and Hart, Pacers benched whole starting 5.

Knicks inability to defend Siakam killed them. Guy midway through second quarter had 21 point when rest of Pacers had 10

[basketballRob]

Sigh... having consistent 3pt shooters can make such a difference.

Why is the Orlando Magic juju so strong that 40% 3pt shooters lose 10% when they put on our uniform?

Indiana plays team ball. Paolo and Franz play iso ball every time, and they don't always pass it for the better shot.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

[Jiwol]

Sigh... having consistent 3pt shooters can make such a difference.

Why is the Orlando Magic juju so strong that 40% 3pt shooters lose 10% when they put on our uniform?

Indiana plays team ball. Paolo and Franz play iso ball every time, and they don't always pass it for the better shot.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

Better shot by who exactly?

[RookieStar]

Sigh... having consistent 3pt shooters can make such a difference.

Why is the Orlando Magic juju so strong that 40% 3pt shooters lose 10% when they put on our uniform?

Indiana plays team ball. Paolo and Franz play iso ball every time, and they don't always pass it for the better shot.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

Team ball... iso ball... pickup ball... whatever ball. Doesnt matter when the person recieving the pass doesnt make their 3s.

Paolo/Franz passes it to a wide open KCP, whatnhappen? Clank. Passes it to a wide open a WCJ... pump fake twice. Passes it to Gary Harris... holds it on.

Hali passes it to Siakam Nembhard Nesmith... morr often than not makes the 3.

[CarraT]

Funny how “positionless basketball” seems to work really well in the playoffs… when teams have two point guards on the floor — you know, guys who can actually dribble, pass, read the game, and ideally even defend a little.

What a crazy concept.

Meanwhile, we’re out here running two shooting guards, neither of whom can consistently create for others or run an offense. And then we wonder why our offense is stagnant, the ball sticks, we only play Iso-Hero Ball, and every possession feels like a struggle.

Playmaking matters. Ball-handling matters. Passing vision matters. You can’t fake offensive structure with two guys who don’t want to lead the game — you need at least one PG out there. Honestly, two is better than none.

If we’re serious about building a modern, functional team offense, this has to be the direction. Two SGs who don’t lead the game aren’t the foundation. They’re the limitation.

[zaymon]

Funny how “positionless basketball” seems to work really well in the playoffs… when teams have two point guards on the floor — you know, guys who can actually dribble, pass, read the game, and ideally even defend a little.

What a crazy concept.

Meanwhile, we’re out here running two shooting guards, neither of whom can consistently create for others or run an offense. And then we wonder why our offense is stagnant, the ball sticks, we only play Iso-Hero Ball, and every possession feels like a struggle.

Playmaking matters. Ball-handling matters. Passing vision matters. You can’t fake offensive structure with two guys who don’t want to lead the game — you need at least one PG out there. Honestly, two is better than none.

If we’re serious about building a modern, functional team offense, this has to be the direction. Two SGs who don’t lead the game aren’t the foundation. They’re the limitation.

This is one of the most important observation from the playoffs. We saw how futile our actions were/ We heard we need to move he ball, that ball shouldnt stick, that we play better when everybody touches the ball... every other game.... and we couldnt do it.
Is it becouse we didnt want to do it or we didnt have players to do it ?

[basketballRob]

Sigh... having consistent 3pt shooters can make such a difference.

Why is the Orlando Magic juju so strong that 40% 3pt shooters lose 10% when they put on our uniform?

Indiana plays team ball. Paolo and Franz play iso ball every time, and they don't always pass it for the better shot.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

Better shot by who exactly?

You still need to make the pass if someone is open in the corner. Franz and Paolo weren't good shooters either.

Sent from my SM-G781U using RealGM mobile app

[ORLMagicGirl15]

Sigh... having consistent 3pt shooters can make such a difference.

Why is the Orlando Magic juju so strong that 40% 3pt shooters lose 10% when they put on our uniform?

No point guard.

[Optimus_Steel]

Some curious decisions by Thibs having Robinson out there so long and Towns in the bench. NY looks shook and lost. McConnell really sliced NY in the 4th.

Towns is a liability. Wolves had the same issues last season.

Robinson was a big liability in offense. Think I rather have Towns out there with NY struggling to score.

[Optimus_Steel]

Do you know which team routinely beats the Pacers the last few years?

Hmmmm….O to the M

Food for thought that maybe the magic aren't that far off.

I dont think we are.

[RookieStar]

Sigh... having consistent 3pt shooters can make such a difference.

Why is the Orlando Magic juju so strong that 40% 3pt shooters lose 10% when they put on our uniform?

No point guard.

Having a PG immediately increases our guys 3pt percentage? They were already wide open when shooting 3s

[ORLMagicGirl15]

Sigh... having consistent 3pt shooters can make such a difference.

Why is the Orlando Magic juju so strong that 40% 3pt shooters lose 10% when they put on our uniform?

No point guard.

Having a PG immediately increases our guys 3pt percentage? They were already wide open when shooting 3s

It’s how and when they get the ball. We have two playmakers that take their sweet time with the ball, while Franz is a faster decision maker, Paolo takes like 20 seconds to figure out that he’s going to do, and he takes the majority of the shots. Our shooters are usually out of rhythm. Jett is probably the only one that can get his shot off with how late the ball is passed. An actually guard would be able to know when and where to give the shooter the ball, set the pace and have better time management.

Gary Harris averaged 3 shot attempts this season, KCP averaged 7 attempts, although his 3 point % went down even though his attempts were similar in Denver, but it is a quite a bit different playing with Jokic, all the other players aren’t that good but they had such low attempts. Paolo and Franz averaged 19.8 and 19.4 respectively.

[RookieStar]

No point guard.

Having a PG immediately increases our guys 3pt percentage? They were already wide open when shooting 3s

It’s how and when they get the ball. We have two playmakers that take their sweet time with the ball, while Franz is a faster decision maker, Paolo takes like 20 seconds to figure out that he’s going to do, and he takes the majority of the shots. Our shooters are usually out of rhythm. Jett is probably the only one that can get his shot off with how late the ball is passed. An actually guard would be able to know when and where to give the shooter the ball, set the pace and have better time management.

Gary Harris averaged 3 shot attempts this season, KCP averaged 7 attempts, although his 3 point % went down even though his attempts were similar in Denver, but it is a quite a bit different playing with Jokic, all the other players aren’t that good but they had such low attempts. Paolo and Franz averaged 19.8 and 19.4 respectively.

Ah right.

I just thought any decent NBA player can make 3pt shots in an empty gym. With that sense. KCP Gary WCJ etc etc that gets the ball and no one is guarding them can at least make the 3s at a decent clip. Its not like an opponent is guarding/pressuring them.

[pepe1991]

Having a PG immediately increases our guys 3pt percentage? They were already wide open when shooting 3s

It’s how and when they get the ball. We have two playmakers that take their sweet time with the ball, while Franz is a faster decision maker, Paolo takes like 20 seconds to figure out that he’s going to do, and he takes the majority of the shots. Our shooters are usually out of rhythm. Jett is probably the only one that can get his shot off with how late the ball is passed. An actually guard would be able to know when and where to give the shooter the ball, set the pace and have better time management.

Gary Harris averaged 3 shot attempts this season, KCP averaged 7 attempts, although his 3 point % went down even though his attempts were similar in Denver, but it is a quite a bit different playing with Jokic, all the other players aren’t that good but they had such low attempts. Paolo and Franz averaged 19.8 and 19.4 respectively.

Ah right.

I just thought any decent NBA player can make 3pt shots in an empty gym. With that sense. KCP Gary WCJ etc etc that gets the ball and no one is guarding them can at least make the 3s at a decent clip. Its not like an opponent is guarding/pressuring them.

Not all passes and wide open shots are the same.
Whole bunch of "wide open" 3s our shooters get are with like 1 sec left on the clock and without any offensive rhythm.

Just playing with nba data and you can find evidence of it.

Team with most shots taken within late shot clock (7-4 sec left) - Magic (14,5% of all shots taken )
Team with worst eFG% in such situations - Magic
4th most 3s taken late in clock- Magic (5,8% )
Accuracy is such situations - epic 8%. 2-24




Shots taken with less than 4 sec
2# most shots- Magic - 14,2%
Most 3s taken - Magic

They are actually great at making terrible 2FGA shots late in clock, but ofc, they shot 20% for 3 in such situations


This is hill where whole "Jumbo point guards" argument falls of cliff and dies. Offense sucks because Franz and Paolo simply do not generate good looks nor make good decisions because during "normal" part of the offense, Magic don't create anything.
You can guess who's team who created lowest amount of FGA from 15-7 sec on the clock.

During normal part of the clock, Magic shot 37% for 3 and had 51% eFG.

During very early part of the clock, Magic had 59,8% eFG on 36% for 3.

But yea... those situations simply don't happen often because every possession turns into endless iso for Banchero or Franz where they hand hot potato to KCP with 1 sec left than we all act surprise when guy bricks it, after he spent previous 15 min on the floor with 3 front court touches

That's now how fluid nba offense works, fluid offense works with everybody being involved and touching ball, and people moving without ball, including stars.

We do all the opposite. No ball movment, nobody touches ball, stars either play with ball or alienate self from possession waiting to get ball back.


Point guard, on paper, should give others ball at a right time to take right shots and lower usage rate from Paolo and Franz. In basketball less is often more.

[89Magicfan]

Yup. Get this team a legit talented PG that can shoot and this offense will soar.

[Optimus_Steel]

Turns out OKC is not unbeatable