Dunce Cap of Defeat #3 Magic 93 Cavs 107

[Knightro]

Something scares me about paying Ross big money this summer..I know this team pretty much sinks or swims with his play, but there have been too many games this year where he looks like he genuinely doesn’t want to be out there and completely lacks effort on both ends.

Give him that big contract and I fear those nights might become more frequent.

I just think Ross is a flake in the same way that hundreds of other guys in the NBA are flakes.

If he's making shots, he's more engaged in the game. His effort defensively is better. He makes fewer mental mistakes. His overall energy level is a lot higher.

If he's not not making shots, all of those other things suffer, often times dramatically. It's not really any different from what we saw in the first half of the season with Bamba. When that guy gets some touches and makes a few shots, magically his whole attitude improves on both ends of the floor.

Luckily for the Magic, Ross has only had like 5 true stinkers all year. Unfortunately his two worst games of the season have come in the last week and both directly led to losses in what should have been winnable games which makes them especially fresh in our minds.

[PrimeThyme]

Something scares me about paying Ross big money this summer..I know this team pretty much sinks or swims with his play, but there have been too many games this year where he looks like he genuinely doesn’t want to be out there and completely lacks effort on both ends.

Give him that big contract and I fear those nights might become more frequent.

I just think Ross is a flake in the same way that hundreds of other guys in the NBA are flakes.

If he's making shots, he's more engaged in the game. His effort defensively is better. He makes fewer mental mistakes. His overall energy level is a lot higher.

If he's not not making shots, all of those other things suffer, often times dramatically. It's not really any different from what we saw in the first half of the season with Bamba. When that guy gets some touches and makes a few shots, magically his whole attitude improves on both ends of the floor.

Luckily for the Magic, Ross has only had like 5 true stinkers all year. Unfortunately his two worst games of the season have come in the last week and both directly led to losses in what should have been winnable games which makes them especially fresh in our minds.

Only 5 full game stinkers, but he has really hurt us for long stretches of games and then just turned it on in the 4th, for instance like he did at Indiana the other night. I agree with your overall point though. Id firmly draw the line around the 14 mill per year mark. Lou Williams is arguably a better player in the same role and he signed a 3/24 extension.

I would be willing to give Vuc a slight overpay, but I don't want 15+ per year tied up to Ross.

[tiderulz]

Ross was horrid. He never saw a shot he didn't like while most of his shots were off balance with hands in his face. He should have passed the ball more to guys who were open instead of forcing terribly bad shots.

If Ross went 6-12 instead of 1-12, the Magic still lose this game.

Augustin held Knight to 2 points. Briscoe allowed Clarkson to score 18.

Briscoe played pool on both ends of the court. Given his 4 points, that is a 14 point deficiency. That was the difference in the game's score line.

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i cant blame Briscoe too much, Clarkson has been scoring in bunches and on everyone.

[SOUL]

Something scares me about paying Ross big money this summer..I know this team pretty much sinks or swims with his play, but there have been too many games this year where he looks like he genuinely doesn’t want to be out there and completely lacks effort on both ends.

Give him that big contract and I fear those nights might become more frequent.

I just think Ross is a flake in the same way that hundreds of other guys in the NBA are flakes.

If he's making shots, he's more engaged in the game. His effort defensively is better. He makes fewer mental mistakes. His overall energy level is a lot higher.

If he's not not making shots, all of those other things suffer, often times dramatically. It's not really any different from what we saw in the first half of the season with Bamba. When that guy gets some touches and makes a few shots, magically his whole attitude improves on both ends of the floor.

Luckily for the Magic, Ross has only had like 5 true stinkers all year. Unfortunately his two worst games of the season have come in the last week and both directly led to losses in what should have been winnable games which makes them especially fresh in our minds.

Yeah, but it's not that complicated, he takes the highest percent of jump shots in the league. If he's off on them, our entire low scoring bench (outside of Ross) is off.

[drsd]

Gotta go with Ross. On the second of a B2B our bench is more important than ever. We just don’t have a smooth super star to get us easy buckets on tired legs in the starting 5.

Ross is supposed to be that guy for us off the bench. His inability to do it night in and night out is why he will NOT get the $20M per deal some here are assuming.

But ... Ross does bring it for us enough to earn something closer to a 4 year $45-50M deal.

If the Magic sing Ross for 4/50 and Vučević for 5/110, that's pretty much the off season.

The replacements for Martin, Grant, Birch, and Iwundu could only come from draft pick and minimum contracts. NBAdraft.net has draft slot 15 for Darius Garland, but I will tab Mr. #16 DeAndre Hunter as a better fit; and high in the 2nd, Chuma Okeke.

The roster would look a lot like:

Fultz/Augustin/Briscoe
Fournier/Ross/Min-level vet
Isaac/Frazier/Hunter
Gordon/Min-level vet/Okeke
Vučević/Bamba/Mozgov

That team wins 50 only with internal growth that none of us would project/predict.


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