Around the NBA 13

[fatlever]

kessler out for season. damn. utah might be half as cursed as us.
bottom 5 finish now guaranteed. lauri 95% getting moved at deadline.

[fatlever]

shoulder surgery btw
nurk gonna get all the minutes he wants. good for nurk.

[Braggins]

Maybe this will lead to an opportunity to trade for Markkanen.

[fatlever]

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good for our mystery pick

at some point they need to break up the franz/paolo pairing and get a point guard

[Braggins]

I still feel like Orlando is too talented and have been too good recently to not figure it out, but I didn't see these struggles coming at all so who knows. Franz and Paolo are playing poorly and Bane has just been straight up bad.

[fatlever]

They are too good defensively and there's too many teams in the East that aren't trying to win. Even if they're offense stays in the bottom 10 they'll still be a top 10 team in the east. If the Pacers in Celtics decide to do a one-season tank then there's no way the magic aren't getting in the top eight.

Cavs
Knicks
Bucks
Sixers

Pistons
Bulls
Heat
Magic

Hawks
Raptors

Celtics???
Pacers???

Hornets

Wizards
Nets

We need the Hawks and Raptors to play at 35-40 pace. We need Chicago to keep doing what they're doing. And we need Celtics and Pacers to try to remain competitive.

Even with all that it will probably take an injury to a core player on the magic to drop them out of the playoffs.

I don't really see Memphis or Phoenix turning things around enough to make the playoffs. Maybe Phoenix can do it if Mark Williams can keep playing at this level and stay healthy. The West is just so damn deep.

Right now most likely scenario is that pick ends up being in the 15 to 18 range.

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[Chapelchilla]

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good for our mystery pick

at some point they need to break up the franz/paolo pairing and get a point guard

They take sexton/Miles and 4 firsts for Paolo?

[amcoolio]

I'd trade LaMelo pretty easily for either Franz or Banchero, but I doubt the Magic would come anywhere close unless we add 3-4 first round picks

[JustBuzzin]

I would trade both LaMelo and Miller for Banchero.

[wilson115]

Guys literally bouncing off him

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[yosemiteben]

NOP won on the road against DAL on the second night of a B2B, maybe saving Willie Green his job.

[Liver_Pooty]

Guys literally bouncing off him

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Holland is looking pretty solid for them as well.

[fatlever]

NOP won on the road against DAL on the second night of a B2B, maybe saving Willie Green his job.

2-0 without zion?

[yosemiteben]

Nurk also had 17 boards in that game. Must've been a lot of missed shots or nobody else tried to board, those are some gaudy rebounding numbers.

[Liver_Pooty]

I’m not trading Lamelo for ****. Miles can go.

[amcoolio]

Detroit vs Charlotte is an interesting case study. Both were garbage for years, Detroit was actually in worse shape than Charlotte. The difference turned out to be Cade started giving a ****, LaMelo did not. And here we are, Detroit 6-2, Charlotte on the path to 21-61 like usual.

Look I love LaMelo and want him to succeed but when is this going to matter to him

[JustBuzzin]

Detroit vs Charlotte is an interesting case study. Both were garbage for years, Detroit was actually in worse shape than Charlotte. The difference turned out to be Cade started giving a ****, LaMelo did not. And here we are, Detroit 6-2, Charlotte on the path to 21-61 like usual.

Look I love LaMelo and want him to succeed but when is this going to matter to him

I agree.

Every season it's the same excuse for LaMelo. How much longer do we have to wait to start winning games?

[Walt Cronkite]

Some of you guys give up so fast. The most optimistic of us saw the team as a play-in contender, which is still totally within the realm of possibility. Brandon Miller may be back in action in a couple of weeks or it could go the Tre Mann route, we'll just have to wait and see. LaMelo had minor surgeries on his nagging joint issues in the off-season and he/the team are being conservative in an effort to maximize his availability long term. Maybe he's damaged goods, it's too early to say. There are 74 games left, if you've already decided the franchise is the same as it ever was, maybe they're too incompetent to justify your fandom. The FO has been pretty transparent from the beginning that they're going to slowly build the team "the right way", so the impatience is really perplexing to me.

[yosemiteben]

Detroit vs Charlotte is an interesting case study. Both were garbage for years, Detroit was actually in worse shape than Charlotte. The difference turned out to be Cade started giving a ****, LaMelo did not. And here we are, Detroit 6-2, Charlotte on the path to 21-61 like usual.

Look I love LaMelo and want him to succeed but when is this going to matter to him

His only issue this season has been health. We are a massively better team when he's on the floor, +13.5 points per 100 possessions.

[Diop]

Guys literally bouncing off him

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Probably because I wrote him off as another Drummond like flawed centre. Good for him.