2025-2026 Preseason Game 1: Orlando Magic (0-0) v. Miami Heat (0-0) in Puerto Rico

[tooler]

My favorite highlight of the night was the cross-court pass off the dribble from Jase to TDS:

Read on Twitter

[Knightro]

@jezzerinho



Move homer glasses off to see clear.

Celtics won title in 2024, Celtics went to ECF in 2023 and finals in 2022. They were by best best team East got. That is true contender. Only one.
Pacers went to ECF in 2024 and in finals in 2025. But on their path toward finals in 2025 this happened:
- Round 1: vs Bucks, Lillard blows his leg
- Round 2 vs Cavs: Mobley, Mitchell and Garland get hurt
- Round 3 vs Knicks, they play Knicks instead of Celtics , very same Celtics that swept them year prior in ECF and advance
- Round 4 vs OKC, all those lucky breaks backfire in game 7


It's not "problem" that Pacers shot 39% for 3, or at some point 50% FG & 40% for 3, it's how sporadic and unsustainable that, as formula was.

But Celtics and Pacers are both gone from contending picture, and what is there left?

Knicks and Cavs are held as contenders. But based on what?

Cavs never passed second round with current set of players.
Knicks went to one CF.

Like entire East, those teams are fundamentally flawed rosters that have massive issues within their playing stlye and roster construciton, that is why they can't even get that far on East, let alone win anything.

Knicks- depentent on 6'1 Brunson to go for hero -ball sequencs for almost entire 4th quarters, Towns is too bad of a defender to be trusted.
Cavs- play two centers and two ball dominant guards. One set of overlapping skills hurts their spacing, other hurts their defense.


Rest of East is even worst in terms of pure talent & roster construction.
Why i should pretend that Pistons are "here to stay" ? When my IQ, that is over 75, tells me that they were on pace for 38 wins until they gained lost Ivey and started Beasley? But now they unfortunately for them gained Ivey back but lost Beasley?

Why i should pretend that Bucks team with G league guard lineup but, with top 3 player in Giannis is somehow good team?


Why should I pretend that 76ers best two players aren't closer to retirement than serious basketball?

Why should i pretend that Raptors are doing anything smart? Ingram, Barnes, Quickley and Barrett? Those boys will need 4 balls to share floor.

On top of that Wizards, Hornets, Nets are 3 out of 4 least talented teams in nba.

So no, i won't pretend East is good, because this is least talented East has been since 2002 and Wade/ Lebron arrival.

Even by going off Ringers's top 10 players, ones that can actually play, only 3 of best players are on East ( Giannis, Brunson & Mitchell). Even expending list of top 20, only 7 are on East. Anybody without bias and pair of healthy eyes can see that West is far superior talent vise and team quality vise. Among top 6-7 teams, like 5 of them are on West.

We can argue here can Magic take advantage of such state of East and go to finals? Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. Depending how much they can hide their problems once they face other teams in playoffs.

But at the end of a day i just won't entertain idea of team from East winning, because it ain't happening. For crying out loud, OKC last year went 29-1 vs teams from East

No one cares about this. I hope the East is the weakest it's ever been and Orlando wins it frankly.

There's no asterisks in sports as far as I'm concerned.

[T-Cat]

If Jonathan Isaac continues to play awful, will coach take away his minutes!

Jamal Cain, Jett Howard, Reece Beckman, and Jase Richardson all deserve minutes!

[fendilim]

I really like Penda. Remarkable foot speed for a guy with his bulk, and a very real disruptor on defense that is a brick wall for anyone trying to play back-to-the-basket against him. Offensively, he seems pretty smart. I really only remember one play where he made a significant mistake, where he did the spin move and exposed the ball pretty badly and got lucky to not turn it over. His other turnover was honestly a nice play that Orlando Robinson was just completely oblivious to. I don't know how he gets minutes on this team barring injuries, but he looks like a very real player.

Cain looks like a guy capable of giving minutes. Nice game from him.

Beekman was really doing it there in the 4th quarter. I have never seen him play before tonight. They talked up his defense in college. Can he aspire to be a guy like, say, Ronnie Price who stuck around the NBA with tenacious defense? I don't know, like I said, knew nothing about him before tonight, but he certainly made an impression in that 4th quarter.

Alex Morales was okay I suppose, but I wasn't necessarily impressed.

Castleton is weird. On one hand, he manages to get things done and made some good plays. On the other hand, he looks so heavy-footed and can't do anything cleanly. Ultimately I think the NBA is probably too fast and athletic for him, but maybe he can prove me wrong.

I think he plays backup minutes at PF. I don’t think Goga and Isaac will work offensively for the second lineup. Even if you put Tyus to set the table. I think Goga fits with Penda, then Isaac with Moe. They just compliment each other better this way, imo.

I think we will see combinations of Moe/Goga paired with Isaac/Penda a lot. Imo, Isaac and Penda might even work. Penda will have to play the banger tho.

[Last Guardian]

With our defense, and now having more firepower, everything is pointing to a good season. 2 seasons ago when we were healthy, we won by being a good defensive team and going on an offensive burst at some point in the game. This season I expect something similar, except offensive bursts may happen more frequently. I think we look pretty dangerous, especially with how the east looks this season. Praying that only injuries are minor ones.

[pepe1991]

@jezzerinho



Move homer glasses off to see clear.

Celtics won title in 2024, Celtics went to ECF in 2023 and finals in 2022. They were by best best team East got. That is true contender. Only one.
Pacers went to ECF in 2024 and in finals in 2025. But on their path toward finals in 2025 this happened:
- Round 1: vs Bucks, Lillard blows his leg
- Round 2 vs Cavs: Mobley, Mitchell and Garland get hurt
- Round 3 vs Knicks, they play Knicks instead of Celtics , very same Celtics that swept them year prior in ECF and advance
- Round 4 vs OKC, all those lucky breaks backfire in game 7


It's not "problem" that Pacers shot 39% for 3, or at some point 50% FG & 40% for 3, it's how sporadic and unsustainable that, as formula was.

But Celtics and Pacers are both gone from contending picture, and what is there left?

Knicks and Cavs are held as contenders. But based on what?

Cavs never passed second round with current set of players.
Knicks went to one CF.

Like entire East, those teams are fundamentally flawed rosters that have massive issues within their playing stlye and roster construciton, that is why they can't even get that far on East, let alone win anything.

Knicks- depentent on 6'1 Brunson to go for hero -ball sequencs for almost entire 4th quarters, Towns is too bad of a defender to be trusted.
Cavs- play two centers and two ball dominant guards. One set of overlapping skills hurts their spacing, other hurts their defense.


Rest of East is even worst in terms of pure talent & roster construction.
Why i should pretend that Pistons are "here to stay" ? When my IQ, that is over 75, tells me that they were on pace for 38 wins until they gained lost Ivey and started Beasley? But now they unfortunately for them gained Ivey back but lost Beasley?

Why i should pretend that Bucks team with G league guard lineup but, with top 3 player in Giannis is somehow good team?


Why should I pretend that 76ers best two players aren't closer to retirement than serious basketball?

Why should i pretend that Raptors are doing anything smart? Ingram, Barnes, Quickley and Barrett? Those boys will need 4 balls to share floor.

On top of that Wizards, Hornets, Nets are 3 out of 4 least talented teams in nba.

So no, i won't pretend East is good, because this is least talented East has been since 2002 and Wade/ Lebron arrival.

Even by going off Ringers's top 10 players, ones that can actually play, only 3 of best players are on East ( Giannis, Brunson & Mitchell). Even expending list of top 20, only 7 are on East. Anybody without bias and pair of healthy eyes can see that West is far superior talent vise and team quality vise. Among top 6-7 teams, like 5 of them are on West.

We can argue here can Magic take advantage of such state of East and go to finals? Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. Depending how much they can hide their problems once they face other teams in playoffs.

But at the end of a day i just won't entertain idea of team from East winning, because it ain't happening. For crying out loud, OKC last year went 29-1 vs teams from East

No one cares about this. I hope the East is the weakest it's ever been and Orlando wins it frankly.

There's no asterisks in sports as far as I'm concerned.

ofc you care, that's why you replayed on my posts in similar " i don't care "fashion. Twice. Despite me not replaying to first post because i felt like there is nothing to be said as you were so damn defensive for no reason. It's basketball. It's nothing serious, it's up to you do you want to go 100% homer about topic or not. I'm just being realistic. Neither of my posts were even Magic related.
Magic have some fighter's chance at making to finals, but have no chance at winning. This is me assuming Suggs can actually play more than 40 games, Isaac won't break down, Paolo and Franz will stay healthy and Franz won't continue to shoot 3s like Payton.
I don't think Magic's chance for finals is all that greater than some Hawks have.
In regular season, Celtics will probably still win lot of games as well. But i'm not talking about ability of teams to win regular season games, not even playoff games, but to win whole thing.

A title contender is a person, team, or competitor that has a realistic and good chance of winning a championship or high honor in a contest or competition, such as a sports championship or a leadership position.

East does not have that. East has team that will go to finals because it has to. Like it was case in 2025, 2023 or 2020, 2001, 2002, 2003. Or 2009 for that matter. They all always "play better than expected, fight well, try hard, look good" but never win. Because aside from Pistons title in 2004 all other nba champions have several things in common:
- top 3-5 player
- elite supporting cast
- ability to win playoff series on consistant bases
- elite record and ability to win with defense and offense
- elite offense and defense


Not a single team from current state of East actually fits bill. Knicks being closes thing to "great" team because they have Brunson who is top 10-ish player. To make things worst for East, not a single team even has that many assets to get significantly better.

We had similar discussion last year about Towns trade. Towns ins't super elite player, but on East he is one of best they have. And just like that, from 4 times all star reserve, right to being all star starter on East. That is just reality.

Devin Booker can miss allstar game on West. On east he would be one of top 3 best players. That is talent disparity among conferences.

I really don't know how any of this is debatable It's like saying Sun is hot. It is. We can get bu**hurt about it, but still is.

Are we just sleeping over fact that current champion had one of best defenses of past 30 years and that will probably be team that somebody from East has to beat ? Again, very same team that pissed over everybody from East with 29-1 record

I feel like i'm taking crazy pills. Magic will have good season, everybody is hyped about return of nba and return of Magic basketball, that's fine. But we talk about winning title here. You are not winning title by being best team on East. Ask Heat/Pacers fans.

[Knightro]

@jezzerinho



Move homer glasses off to see clear.

Celtics won title in 2024, Celtics went to ECF in 2023 and finals in 2022. They were by best best team East got. That is true contender. Only one.
Pacers went to ECF in 2024 and in finals in 2025. But on their path toward finals in 2025 this happened:
- Round 1: vs Bucks, Lillard blows his leg
- Round 2 vs Cavs: Mobley, Mitchell and Garland get hurt
- Round 3 vs Knicks, they play Knicks instead of Celtics , very same Celtics that swept them year prior in ECF and advance
- Round 4 vs OKC, all those lucky breaks backfire in game 7


It's not "problem" that Pacers shot 39% for 3, or at some point 50% FG & 40% for 3, it's how sporadic and unsustainable that, as formula was.

But Celtics and Pacers are both gone from contending picture, and what is there left?

Knicks and Cavs are held as contenders. But based on what?

Cavs never passed second round with current set of players.
Knicks went to one CF.

Like entire East, those teams are fundamentally flawed rosters that have massive issues within their playing stlye and roster construciton, that is why they can't even get that far on East, let alone win anything.

Knicks- depentent on 6'1 Brunson to go for hero -ball sequencs for almost entire 4th quarters, Towns is too bad of a defender to be trusted.
Cavs- play two centers and two ball dominant guards. One set of overlapping skills hurts their spacing, other hurts their defense.


Rest of East is even worst in terms of pure talent & roster construction.
Why i should pretend that Pistons are "here to stay" ? When my IQ, that is over 75, tells me that they were on pace for 38 wins until they gained lost Ivey and started Beasley? But now they unfortunately for them gained Ivey back but lost Beasley?

Why i should pretend that Bucks team with G league guard lineup but, with top 3 player in Giannis is somehow good team?


Why should I pretend that 76ers best two players aren't closer to retirement than serious basketball?

Why should i pretend that Raptors are doing anything smart? Ingram, Barnes, Quickley and Barrett? Those boys will need 4 balls to share floor.

On top of that Wizards, Hornets, Nets are 3 out of 4 least talented teams in nba.

So no, i won't pretend East is good, because this is least talented East has been since 2002 and Wade/ Lebron arrival.

Even by going off Ringers's top 10 players, ones that can actually play, only 3 of best players are on East ( Giannis, Brunson & Mitchell). Even expending list of top 20, only 7 are on East. Anybody without bias and pair of healthy eyes can see that West is far superior talent vise and team quality vise. Among top 6-7 teams, like 5 of them are on West.

We can argue here can Magic take advantage of such state of East and go to finals? Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. Depending how much they can hide their problems once they face other teams in playoffs.

But at the end of a day i just won't entertain idea of team from East winning, because it ain't happening. For crying out loud, OKC last year went 29-1 vs teams from East

No one cares about this. I hope the East is the weakest it's ever been and Orlando wins it frankly.

There's no asterisks in sports as far as I'm concerned.

ofc you care, that's why you replayed on my posts in similar " i don't care "fashion. Twice. Despite me not replaying to first post because i felt like there is nothing to be said as you were so damn defensive for no reason. It's basketball. It's nothing serious, it's up to you do you want to go 100% homer about topic or not. I'm just being realistic. Neither of my posts were even Magic related.
Magic have some fighter's chance at making to finals, but have no chance at winning. This is me assuming Suggs can actually play more than 40 games, Isaac won't break down, Paolo and Franz will stay healthy and Franz won't continue to shoot 3s like Payton.
I don't think Magic's chance for finals is all that greater than some Hawks have.
In regular season, Celtics will probably still win lot of games as well. But i'm not talking about ability of teams to win regular season games, not even playoff games, but to win whole thing.

A title contender is a person, team, or competitor that has a realistic and good chance of winning a championship or high honor in a contest or competition, such as a sports championship or a leadership position.

East does not have that. East has team that will go to finals because it has to. Like it was case in 2025, 2023 or 2020, 2001, 2002, 2003. Or 2009 for that matter. They all always "play better than expected, fight well, try hard, look good" but never win. Because aside from Pistons title in 2004 all other nba champions have several things in common:
- top 3-5 player
- elite supporting cast
- ability to win playoff series on consistant bases
- elite record and ability to win with defense and offense
- elite offense and defense


Not a single team from current state of East actually fits bill. Knicks being closes thing to "great" team because they have Brunson who is top 10-ish player. To make things worst for East, not a single team even has that many assets to get significantly better.

We had similar discussion last year about Towns trade. Towns ins't super elite player, but on East he is one of best they have. And just like that, from 4 times all star reserve, right to being all star starter on East. That is just reality.

Devin Booker can miss allstar game on West. On east he would be one of top 3 best players. That is talent disparity among conferences.

I really don't know how any of this is debatable It's like saying Sun is hot. It is. We can get bu**hurt about it, but still is.

Are we just sleeping over fact that current champion had one of best defenses of past 30 years and that will probably be team that somebody from East has to beat ? Again, very same team that pissed over everybody from East with 29-1 record

I feel like i'm taking crazy pills. Magic will have good season, everybody is hyped about return of nba and return of Magic basketball, that's fine. But we talk about winning title here. You are not winning title by being best team on East. Ask Heat/Pacers fans.

I hope every team in the East has a losing record except the Magic.

[eyriq]

@jezzerinho



Move homer glasses off to see clear.

Celtics won title in 2024, Celtics went to ECF in 2023 and finals in 2022. They were by best best team East got. That is true contender. Only one.
Pacers went to ECF in 2024 and in finals in 2025. But on their path toward finals in 2025 this happened:
- Round 1: vs Bucks, Lillard blows his leg
- Round 2 vs Cavs: Mobley, Mitchell and Garland get hurt
- Round 3 vs Knicks, they play Knicks instead of Celtics , very same Celtics that swept them year prior in ECF and advance
- Round 4 vs OKC, all those lucky breaks backfire in game 7


It's not "problem" that Pacers shot 39% for 3, or at some point 50% FG & 40% for 3, it's how sporadic and unsustainable that, as formula was.

But Celtics and Pacers are both gone from contending picture, and what is there left?

Knicks and Cavs are held as contenders. But based on what?

Cavs never passed second round with current set of players.
Knicks went to one CF.

Like entire East, those teams are fundamentally flawed rosters that have massive issues within their playing stlye and roster construciton, that is why they can't even get that far on East, let alone win anything.

Knicks- depentent on 6'1 Brunson to go for hero -ball sequencs for almost entire 4th quarters, Towns is too bad of a defender to be trusted.
Cavs- play two centers and two ball dominant guards. One set of overlapping skills hurts their spacing, other hurts their defense.


Rest of East is even worst in terms of pure talent & roster construction.
Why i should pretend that Pistons are "here to stay" ? When my IQ, that is over 75, tells me that they were on pace for 38 wins until they gained lost Ivey and started Beasley? But now they unfortunately for them gained Ivey back but lost Beasley?

Why i should pretend that Bucks team with G league guard lineup but, with top 3 player in Giannis is somehow good team?


Why should I pretend that 76ers best two players aren't closer to retirement than serious basketball?

Why should i pretend that Raptors are doing anything smart? Ingram, Barnes, Quickley and Barrett? Those boys will need 4 balls to share floor.

On top of that Wizards, Hornets, Nets are 3 out of 4 least talented teams in nba.

So no, i won't pretend East is good, because this is least talented East has been since 2002 and Wade/ Lebron arrival.

Even by going off Ringers's top 10 players, ones that can actually play, only 3 of best players are on East ( Giannis, Brunson & Mitchell). Even expending list of top 20, only 7 are on East. Anybody without bias and pair of healthy eyes can see that West is far superior talent vise and team quality vise. Among top 6-7 teams, like 5 of them are on West.

We can argue here can Magic take advantage of such state of East and go to finals? Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. Depending how much they can hide their problems once they face other teams in playoffs.

But at the end of a day i just won't entertain idea of team from East winning, because it ain't happening. For crying out loud, OKC last year went 29-1 vs teams from East

No one cares about this. I hope the East is the weakest it's ever been and Orlando wins it frankly.

There's no asterisks in sports as far as I'm concerned.

ofc you care, that's why you replayed on my posts in similar " i don't care "fashion. Twice. Despite me not replaying to first post because i felt like there is nothing to be said as you were so damn defensive for no reason. It's basketball. It's nothing serious, it's up to you do you want to go 100% homer about topic or not. I'm just being realistic. Neither of my posts were even Magic related.
Magic have some fighter's chance at making to finals, but have no chance at winning. This is me assuming Suggs can actually play more than 40 games, Isaac won't break down, Paolo and Franz will stay healthy and Franz won't continue to shoot 3s like Payton.
I don't think Magic's chance for finals is all that greater than some Hawks have.
In regular season, Celtics will probably still win lot of games as well. But i'm not talking about ability of teams to win regular season games, not even playoff games, but to win whole thing.

A title contender is a person, team, or competitor that has a realistic and good chance of winning a championship or high honor in a contest or competition, such as a sports championship or a leadership position.

East does not have that. East has team that will go to finals because it has to. Like it was case in 2025, 2023 or 2020, 2001, 2002, 2003. Or 2009 for that matter. They all always "play better than expected, fight well, try hard, look good" but never win. Because aside from Pistons title in 2004 all other nba champions have several things in common:
- top 3-5 player
- elite supporting cast
- ability to win playoff series on consistant bases
- elite record and ability to win with defense and offense
- elite offense and defense


Not a single team from current state of East actually fits bill. Knicks being closes thing to "great" team because they have Brunson who is top 10-ish player. To make things worst for East, not a single team even has that many assets to get significantly better.

We had similar discussion last year about Towns trade. Towns ins't super elite player, but on East he is one of best they have. And just like that, from 4 times all star reserve, right to being all star starter on East. That is just reality.

Devin Booker can miss allstar game on West. On east he would be one of top 3 best players. That is talent disparity among conferences.

I really don't know how any of this is debatable It's like saying Sun is hot. It is. We can get bu**hurt about it, but still is.

Are we just sleeping over fact that current champion had one of best defenses of past 30 years and that will probably be team that somebody from East has to beat ? Again, very same team that pissed over everybody from East with 29-1 record

I feel like i'm taking crazy pills. Magic will have good season, everybody is hyped about return of nba and return of Magic basketball, that's fine. But we talk about winning title here. You are not winning title by being best team on East. Ask Heat/Pacers fans.

Objectively the East has contenders. ESPN BPI outputs title odds from its model:

OKC 23.4%
CLE 16.6%
NY 10.3%
DEN 7.6%
HOU 7.2%
ORL 6.8%
MIN 4.1%
LAL 3.8%
LAC 3.4%
ATL 3.3%

Rest are below 3.3%

[DiplomaticMagic]

The court, the lighting, the few fans and the video quality made the game feel like nothing. Not a good experience.

[Optimus_Steel]

@jezzerinho



Move homer glasses off to see clear.

Celtics won title in 2024, Celtics went to ECF in 2023 and finals in 2022. They were by best best team East got. That is true contender. Only one.
Pacers went to ECF in 2024 and in finals in 2025. But on their path toward finals in 2025 this happened:
- Round 1: vs Bucks, Lillard blows his leg
- Round 2 vs Cavs: Mobley, Mitchell and Garland get hurt
- Round 3 vs Knicks, they play Knicks instead of Celtics , very same Celtics that swept them year prior in ECF and advance
- Round 4 vs OKC, all those lucky breaks backfire in game 7


It's not "problem" that Pacers shot 39% for 3, or at some point 50% FG & 40% for 3, it's how sporadic and unsustainable that, as formula was.

But Celtics and Pacers are both gone from contending picture, and what is there left?

Knicks and Cavs are held as contenders. But based on what?

Cavs never passed second round with current set of players.
Knicks went to one CF.

Like entire East, those teams are fundamentally flawed rosters that have massive issues within their playing stlye and roster construciton, that is why they can't even get that far on East, let alone win anything.

Knicks- depentent on 6'1 Brunson to go for hero -ball sequencs for almost entire 4th quarters, Towns is too bad of a defender to be trusted.
Cavs- play two centers and two ball dominant guards. One set of overlapping skills hurts their spacing, other hurts their defense.


Rest of East is even worst in terms of pure talent & roster construction.
Why i should pretend that Pistons are "here to stay" ? When my IQ, that is over 75, tells me that they were on pace for 38 wins until they gained lost Ivey and started Beasley? But now they unfortunately for them gained Ivey back but lost Beasley?

Why i should pretend that Bucks team with G league guard lineup but, with top 3 player in Giannis is somehow good team?


Why should I pretend that 76ers best two players aren't closer to retirement than serious basketball?

Why should i pretend that Raptors are doing anything smart? Ingram, Barnes, Quickley and Barrett? Those boys will need 4 balls to share floor.

On top of that Wizards, Hornets, Nets are 3 out of 4 least talented teams in nba.

So no, i won't pretend East is good, because this is least talented East has been since 2002 and Wade/ Lebron arrival.

Even by going off Ringers's top 10 players, ones that can actually play, only 3 of best players are on East ( Giannis, Brunson & Mitchell). Even expending list of top 20, only 7 are on East. Anybody without bias and pair of healthy eyes can see that West is far superior talent vise and team quality vise. Among top 6-7 teams, like 5 of them are on West.

We can argue here can Magic take advantage of such state of East and go to finals? Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. Depending how much they can hide their problems once they face other teams in playoffs.

But at the end of a day i just won't entertain idea of team from East winning, because it ain't happening. For crying out loud, OKC last year went 29-1 vs teams from East

No one cares about this. I hope the East is the weakest it's ever been and Orlando wins it frankly.

There's no asterisks in sports as far as I'm concerned.

ofc you care, that's why you replayed on my posts in similar " i don't care "fashion. Twice. Despite me not replaying to first post because i felt like there is nothing to be said as you were so damn defensive for no reason. It's basketball. It's nothing serious, it's up to you do you want to go 100% homer about topic or not. I'm just being realistic. Neither of my posts were even Magic related.
Magic have some fighter's chance at making to finals, but have no chance at winning. This is me assuming Suggs can actually play more than 40 games, Isaac won't break down, Paolo and Franz will stay healthy and Franz won't continue to shoot 3s like Payton.
I don't think Magic's chance for finals is all that greater than some Hawks have.
In regular season, Celtics will probably still win lot of games as well. But i'm not talking about ability of teams to win regular season games, not even playoff games, but to win whole thing.

A title contender is a person, team, or competitor that has a realistic and good chance of winning a championship or high honor in a contest or competition, such as a sports championship or a leadership position.

East does not have that. East has team that will go to finals because it has to. Like it was case in 2025, 2023 or 2020, 2001, 2002, 2003. Or 2009 for that matter. They all always "play better than expected, fight well, try hard, look good" but never win. Because aside from Pistons title in 2004 all other nba champions have several things in common:
- top 3-5 player
- elite supporting cast
- ability to win playoff series on consistant bases
- elite record and ability to win with defense and offense
- elite offense and defense


Not a single team from current state of East actually fits bill. Knicks being closes thing to "great" team because they have Brunson who is top 10-ish player. To make things worst for East, not a single team even has that many assets to get significantly better.

We had similar discussion last year about Towns trade. Towns ins't super elite player, but on East he is one of best they have. And just like that, from 4 times all star reserve, right to being all star starter on East. That is just reality.

Devin Booker can miss allstar game on West. On east he would be one of top 3 best players. That is talent disparity among conferences.

I really don't know how any of this is debatable It's like saying Sun is hot. It is. We can get bu**hurt about it, but still is.

Are we just sleeping over fact that current champion had one of best defenses of past 30 years and that will probably be team that somebody from East has to beat ? Again, very same team that pissed over everybody from East with 29-1 record

I feel like i'm taking crazy pills. Magic will have good season, everybody is hyped about return of nba and return of Magic basketball, that's fine. But we talk about winning title here. You are not winning title by being best team on East. Ask Heat/Pacers fans.

You got be in it to win it and Magic look to be in the conversation. If SGA or Williams get injured in the playoffs who says the east cant win it? You never know, give yourself a chance.

[Orlando Dawg]

They are going to have to put Jase in over Tyus
Because Franz/Paulo/Wendell are on sleeping pills.
That’s why Suggs/MoW is so important.
Someone to wake these guys up

[eyriq]

Read on Twitter

?t=YWdtEnjKNLIeTluEgOBJjQ&s=19

[ORLMagicGirl15]

@jezzerinho



Move homer glasses off to see clear.

Celtics won title in 2024, Celtics went to ECF in 2023 and finals in 2022. They were by best best team East got. That is true contender. Only one.
Pacers went to ECF in 2024 and in finals in 2025. But on their path toward finals in 2025 this happened:
- Round 1: vs Bucks, Lillard blows his leg
- Round 2 vs Cavs: Mobley, Mitchell and Garland get hurt
- Round 3 vs Knicks, they play Knicks instead of Celtics , very same Celtics that swept them year prior in ECF and advance
- Round 4 vs OKC, all those lucky breaks backfire in game 7


It's not "problem" that Pacers shot 39% for 3, or at some point 50% FG & 40% for 3, it's how sporadic and unsustainable that, as formula was.

But Celtics and Pacers are both gone from contending picture, and what is there left?

Knicks and Cavs are held as contenders. But based on what?

Cavs never passed second round with current set of players.
Knicks went to one CF.

Like entire East, those teams are fundamentally flawed rosters that have massive issues within their playing stlye and roster construciton, that is why they can't even get that far on East, let alone win anything.

Knicks- depentent on 6'1 Brunson to go for hero -ball sequencs for almost entire 4th quarters, Towns is too bad of a defender to be trusted.
Cavs- play two centers and two ball dominant guards. One set of overlapping skills hurts their spacing, other hurts their defense.


Rest of East is even worst in terms of pure talent & roster construction.
Why i should pretend that Pistons are "here to stay" ? When my IQ, that is over 75, tells me that they were on pace for 38 wins until they gained lost Ivey and started Beasley? But now they unfortunately for them gained Ivey back but lost Beasley?

Why i should pretend that Bucks team with G league guard lineup but, with top 3 player in Giannis is somehow good team?


Why should I pretend that 76ers best two players aren't closer to retirement than serious basketball?

Why should i pretend that Raptors are doing anything smart? Ingram, Barnes, Quickley and Barrett? Those boys will need 4 balls to share floor.

On top of that Wizards, Hornets, Nets are 3 out of 4 least talented teams in nba.

So no, i won't pretend East is good, because this is least talented East has been since 2002 and Wade/ Lebron arrival.

Even by going off Ringers's top 10 players, ones that can actually play, only 3 of best players are on East ( Giannis, Brunson & Mitchell). Even expending list of top 20, only 7 are on East. Anybody without bias and pair of healthy eyes can see that West is far superior talent vise and team quality vise. Among top 6-7 teams, like 5 of them are on West.

We can argue here can Magic take advantage of such state of East and go to finals? Yes. No. Maybe. I don't know. Depending how much they can hide their problems once they face other teams in playoffs.

But at the end of a day i just won't entertain idea of team from East winning, because it ain't happening. For crying out loud, OKC last year went 29-1 vs teams from East

Regardless if the East is weak, a team has to come out of it and it could be anyone. Doesn’t matter if they are considered true contenders.

[thelead]

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and this one can actually play winning ball

[basketballRob]

I think they make all rookies dance. Next, we'll see him carrying a Hello Kitty backpack.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using RealGM mobile app

[Rainwater]

This might be a special year.

[Optimus_Steel]

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This one can actually shoot.

[eyriq]

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[RookieStar]

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What are they singing?

[Orlando Dawg]

JI is uncoachable he plays in a world of his own and every shot is a prayer.

In my opinion in the 2nd half of the 2024 season he started to decline and become irrelevant.
I think in first half of 2024 he was still good.