Official Speculation Thread ‘17-18’: XVIII: The Long Wait Continues

[rcklsscognition]

Oh Big Baby Davis signed for by rivaly team.
On his first landing in Zadar, local fans made a fireworks party and took him straight to - McDonalds

Can't wait to see him live

Here's a video from the McDonalds. This story is pretty funny.

https://streamable.com/jjyht

[drsd]

Clearly we need:

Evan / Gordon / Isaac / Bamba / Vuc

For spot minutes, it is an interesting five to see on the court. I guess Gordon is the ball handler to free up Fournier to spot up.

Offensively the main concern would be that this five would be highly TO prone.


..

[drsd]

I laughed out loud at this lol

That line up is absurdly bad offensively.

You might be correct, but my fear for Augustin/Gordon/Isaac/Bamba/Vučević would be how horrible they might be on defense.



..

[fendilim]

my gawd.

[MagicFan101]

Clearly we need:

Evan / Gordon / Isaac / Bamba / Vuc

For spot minutes, it is an interesting five to see on the court. I guess Gordon is the ball handler to free up Fournier to spot up.

Offensively the main concern would be that this five would be highly TO prone.


..

We’re all just kidding right now ...

[VFX]

What 4 in the East do you think Bamba can't guard?
I think he could guard AG decently, and he's about as athletic as 4s get.
He's long enough to play off anyone and recover out to the 3 point line.
Plus, He can shoot over anyone who has to guard him.

It's not a question of Bamba being able to guard 4s when we have 2 natural 4's, Gordon and Isaac, to defend against 4s. There is no point in wasting his minutes where he is not needed. Bamba's minutes need to be at center because that is where he will be playing full time when Vucevic is gone. Bamba's minutes need to be 100% committed to anchoring the paint for our defense. Why bother keeping him defending on the perimeter at the same time we have a human turnstile lumbering around in the paint?

Playing vuc and bamba together is simply development for bamba to get used to perimeter defense. It not our long term plan and we simply have to accept that vuc is here and will be used until the magic can move him in a trade.

Hopefully. On the other hand, is it not a concern to developing AG and Isaac by playing them next to Bamba at center? Y’know, making sure the investments of picks can pay off in the long run.

Some might see this as an opportunity for Bamba to “guard the perimeter” and others might see this as a coach trying to find ways of leaving Vuc on the floor for the sake of limited offensive options.if anything, this says to me that he doesn’t trust AG and Isaac to generate offense by playing the prospect lineup.

All of this is delaying the inevitable that the younger guys will have to figure out how to create offense. God forbid they resign Vuc even if it’s a friendly contract.

[Knightro]

Read on Twitter

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[Def Swami]

Bamba doesn't have to play the 4 next to Vucevic in order to get experience defending on the perimeter. There are plenty of opportunities to switch on the perimeter at the 5, especially with Gordon and Isaac.

This Bamba/Vucevic lineup seems less of a development tactic and more of a way to just keep Vucevic on the floor.

I'm fine with experimenting. It's just not the first one that I would have conducted with this roster.

[nymets1]

Isaac should not be playing or practicing if he's hurt or injured. He needs to get back to 100%.

[Xatticus]

I was gonna say that Vuc seemed to get distracted from the box-out because he turned to protect the rim. It was a bad play, but I don’t think his effort was at fault here. (I also don’t think it was THAT bad a play.)

Unfortunately... that's Vucevic.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2768585-a-gentlemans-guide-to-the-nba-when-nba-players-agree-to-take-plays-off

As someone that wastes far too much of his time watching this team play after the season is lost and the game threads have shrunk down to a few pages, I can tell you that Vuc doesn't go. He takes the path of least resistance as often as he can. That's something that you can probably abide if you are winning games, but it is intolerable when you are entrenched at the bottom of the standings.

We could say that about every single player on this team multiple times every single game.

You really can't, but even if you could... that isn't actually a defense. You can't defend the indefensible.

People are trying to throw around blame for what was really an egregious error by Vucevic. I'm 5'8" and I could've grabbed that rebound by putting my ass on Embiid. Vucevic glanced back and saw Embiid stationary and assumed he wasn't going. He didn't box out and a defensive stop turned into two points for Philadelphia. That's a really big deal. Games are won and lost on plays like that. Fortunately for us, Clifford is renowned for correcting those mistakes.

I haven't been one of the more vocal critics of Vucevic because I factor in the size of a contract to my expectations. Nevertheless, these little effort plays have always bothered me. I thought his effort level looked pretty good in our first preseason game though. He was running the floor well in transition and that led to some FGAs near the rim. He also looked engaged in man-to-man defense against Embiid, even though he got abused.

[basketballRob]

Lets be real, Vuc not playing in the NBA next year is a possibility.

[pepe1991]

Lets be real, Vuc not playing in the NBA next year is a possibility.

[basketballRob]

Lets be real, Vuc not playing in the NBA next year is a possibility.

Orlando won't be signing him for any amount of money. So that's one team, you could name 15 more that definitely won't sign him. I think he'll get more playing in Europe than he'll get in the NBA.

[pepe1991]

Lets be real, Vuc not playing in the NBA next year is a possibility.

Orlando won't be signing him for any amount of money. So that's one team, you could name 15 more that definitely won't sign him. I think he'll get more playing in Europe than he'll get in the NBA.

lol. Just... lol.

Hawks-- no starting level C
Celtics.- clear need for backup/starter C
Nets- no starting level C
Cavs- pretty horrific C position
Clippers -terrible C rotation
Dallas - no C at all
Lakers- McGee and that's it ( who can't play over 18 mpg due hard asthma condition, signed on 1 year deal anyway)
Wolves openly shopping Dieng as only center they have
Pelicans - Jah Okafor
Spurs - Vuc clear upgrade over declining Gasol and Poelti
Kings- Vuc better than any C they have
Raptors- probably better than any C they have


That's 12 teams where he will be at worst rotation player, probable starter in most of them.

[VFX]

Orlando won't be signing him for any amount of money. So that's one team, you could name 15 more that definitely won't sign him. I think he'll get more playing in Europe than he'll get in the NBA.

lol. Just... lol.

Hawks-- no starting level C
Celtics.- clear need for backup/starter C
Nets- no starting level C
Cavs- pretty horrific C position
Clippers -terrible C rotation
Dallas - no C at all
Lakers- McGee and that's it ( who can't play over 18 mpg due hard asthma condition, signed on 1 year deal anyway)
Wolves openly shopping Dieng as only center they have
Pelicans - Jah Okafor
Spurs - Vuc clear upgrade over declining Gasol and Poelti
Kings- Vuc better than any C they have
Raptors- probably better than any C they have


That's 12 teams where he will be at worst rotation player, probable starter in most of them.

Vuc is a starting caliber center. Just not someone you want to run offense through in 2018.

[pepe1991]

Orlando won't be signing him for any amount of money. So that's one team, you could name 15 more that definitely won't sign him. I think he'll get more playing in Europe than he'll get in the NBA.

lol. Just... lol.

Hawks-- no starting level C
Celtics.- clear need for backup/starter C
Nets- no starting level C
Cavs- pretty horrific C position
Clippers -terrible C rotation
Dallas - no C at all
Lakers- McGee and that's it ( who can't play over 18 mpg due hard asthma condition, signed on 1 year deal anyway)
Wolves openly shopping Dieng as only center they have
Pelicans - Jah Okafor
Spurs - Vuc clear upgrade over declining Gasol and Poelti
Kings- Vuc better than any C they have
Raptors- probably better than any C they have


That's 12 teams where he will be at worst rotation player, probable starter in most of them.

Vuc is a starting caliber center. Just not someone you want to run offense through in 2018.

Indeed.

[KillMonger]

i missed it but any updates on JI? day to day? can he go friday?

[thelead]

Oladipo killing it... I hate this franchise so much.

[thelead]

Read on Twitter

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So... it's so minor that he could have continued playing if it was a regular season game but so problematic that he's going to miss a game 4 days later?

[PennytoShaq]

It's not a question of Bamba being able to guard 4s when we have 2 natural 4's, Gordon and Isaac, to defend against 4s. There is no point in wasting his minutes where he is not needed. Bamba's minutes need to be at center because that is where he will be playing full time when Vucevic is gone. Bamba's minutes need to be 100% committed to anchoring the paint for our defense. Why bother keeping him defending on the perimeter at the same time we have a human turnstile lumbering around in the paint?

Playing vuc and bamba together is simply development for bamba to get used to perimeter defense. It not our long term plan and we simply have to accept that vuc is here and will be used until the magic can move him in a trade.

Hopefully. On the other hand, is it not a concern to developing AG and Isaac by playing them next to Bamba at center? Y’know, making sure the investments of picks can pay off in the long run.

Some might see this as an opportunity for Bamba to “guard the perimeter” and others might see this as a coach trying to find ways of leaving Vuc on the floor for the sake of limited offensive options.if anything, this says to me that he doesn’t trust AG and Isaac to generate offense by playing the prospect lineup.

All of this is delaying the inevitable that the younger guys will have to figure out how to create offense. God forbid they resign Vuc even if it’s a friendly contract.

I think everything you are saying here is incorrect and will be proven so over the course of the season.

This is a lineup that will probably play 5 mins a game. Most likely when isaac and ag are resting.