NBA Disney Bubble Restart Scrimmage 3: Denver Nuggets v. Orlando Magic

[Bonafide89]

Lets play a game........

22.3 MPG | 4.3 PPG | 21% FG% | 16.6% 3P%

guess who this line belongs to so far?

Duhon

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[Bonafide89]

I feel like Clifford is just out on Bamba. And he might be right. He sees him every day in practice. I bet if it were up to Clifford, he would just play Birch over Bamba, but he's doing this split as a compromise to the player and front office. I thought Bamba was making some strides toward the end of the season. But, he still has a long way to go. There are some intangible things you can always do that we talked about with Ennis, Clark, and MCW tonight (Isaac always plays breakneck), and sometimes it feels like Bamba is sleepwalking. It also just might be he's not that quick or coordinated. I don't know. Either way, there's not a great way to spin where Bamba is after 2 years. Either his conditioning still isn't up to par to play more minutes, or he just isn't good enough to earn those minutes.

I wonder how much of Clifford's distaste for Bamba is residual carryover from last year when Birch was surprisingly good and Bamba was one of the worst players in the entire league?

Because this year, at least statistically speaking, Bamba has been better than Birch in quite literally every statistical category and advanced metric.

Maybe Bamba has a bad attitude that we're not aware of? Maybe he slacks off in practice and in the film room and Clifford just can't stand him for it?

Hard to say.

Now that said... both this season and last season Birch has never actually been ahead of a healthy Bamba in the backup center rotation. Mo was the backup C as a rookie up until he got hurt and has been the backup C this entire season. His role has never changed when healthy.

Its hard to know exactly how Cliff feels about Bamba. He doesn't seem to compliment him too often, and Bamba has been on this 'minutes restriction' his entire NBA career. It just seems like his conditioning has to be poor.

Tonight I thought he may be able to finish the game but he did look winded, so I am not surprised Cliff put Birch back in.

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[PrimeThyme]

Duhon

Think Duhon with a significantly larger role and an 85 million dollar contract.

[Bonafide89]

Bamba has that ‘F this role’ look and attitude right now and I don’t blame him

It doesn't help that he looks like he's in pain everytime he moves.

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[MagicStarwipe]

It's like this organisation holds regular brainstorming sessions to see what would annoy this fanbase the most... and then they choose that option.

[Bensational]

I'm going to make a guess that Cliff just doesn't have faith in Mo on a nightly basis, and these new minute restrictions are just his way of tempering his expectations for minutes in the playoffs. He's basically saying - don't expect any.

But if Mo gets minutes in a meaningful part of a game in the playoffs I think we see an entirely different player. I think he'll turn it on if he feels the spotlight is bright enough.

Not saying it's a characteristic I endorse, just my gut feeling on how he'll react.

[Bensational]

But also, I would really like to see Isaac get more minutes at the 5. I think he could easily prove to be the best C on the team if he played there.

[pepe1991]

You could put Gobert out there and he wouldn’t look much different than Mo right now. Anyone expecting Mo to be Embiid didn’t watch either in college.

I don't think anybody expected Embiid. A healthy Embiid has Hakeem like offensive talent. But I was expecting Bamba to be farther along at this point. He has some moments but there's still a lot of work to do.

He should become Gobert with a 3. His attitude doesn’t look great right now though. I always wondered when we draft someone who wasn’t okay with a limited role as a lotto pick. Bamba might be that guy.

Bamba is nothing like Gobert. Gobert is elite athlete, super agile, durable and mobile. Gobert is like taller Howard.
Bamba is like shorter Hibbert.

He wasn't athlethic nor mobile before gain, now he would probably lose to Boban Marjanovic 60 yard dash


On bright side, Isaac looks solid

[KillMonger]

But also, I would really like to see Isaac get more minutes at the 5. I think he could easily prove to be the best C on the team if he played there.

maybe offensively, for me personally i'd rather have JI where he's at now...he gets to roam, play passing lanes and switch defensively....At Center? spot minutes sure but him there full time? i don't know to me that will kinda limit his defensive versatility....he's like Giannis on the defensive end....not even Giannis plays center full time

[NotACat]

I feel like Clifford is just out on Bamba. And he might be right. He sees him every day in practice. I bet if it were up to Clifford, he would just play Birch over Bamba, but he's doing this split as a compromise to the player and front office. I thought Bamba was making some strides toward the end of the season. But, he still has a long way to go. There are some intangible things you can always do that we talked about with Ennis, Clark, and MCW tonight (Isaac always plays breakneck), and sometimes it feels like Bamba is sleepwalking. It also just might be he's not that quick or coordinated. I don't know. Either way, there's not a great way to spin where Bamba is after 2 years. Either his conditioning still isn't up to par to play more minutes (which is the crutch Clifford is rolling with), or he just isn't good enough to earn those minutes.

i'm hoping it's the former and not the latter.....you see glimpses every now and again but not consistently and then again we haven't gone all in on bamba yet. The opportunity isn't there, you can give him minutes but if he isn't involved in anything then we aren't really trying to develop him, we're just having him fill a role.

Something else that's been on my mind with Bamba is who he gets to play with. He's stuck in rotations where he knows he won't get the ball on his rolls or for alley oops - DJ Augustine and the rest of the bench mob aren't making those passes. Most of the passes to Bamba are to set up handoffs, not put him in a position to do something meaningful unless he's open for 3.

Knowing you aren't going to get the ball can create some apathy on offense which could bleed over to defense. I feel like Bamba's best games came when he was playing alongside Fultz who did a great job finding him.

Physically, I think his size is where it should be and its about conditioning now. There's some other things about defensive fundamentals, but he can still be a defensive anchor and floor spacing, rim rolling big.

[basketballRob]

I don't think anybody expected Embiid. A healthy Embiid has Hakeem like offensive talent. But I was expecting Bamba to be farther along at this point. He has some moments but there's still a lot of work to do.

He should become Gobert with a 3. His attitude doesn’t look great right now though. I always wondered when we draft someone who wasn’t okay with a limited role as a lotto pick. Bamba might be that guy.

Bamba is nothing like Gobert. Gobert is elite athlete, super agile, durable and mobile. Gobert is like taller Howard.
Bamba is like shorter Hibbert.

He wasn't athlethic nor mobile before gain, now he would probably lose to Boban Marjanovic 60 yard dash


On bright side, Isaac looks solid

Bamba is actually one of the fastest runners on the team. He just can't do long distances.

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[basketballRob]

I feel like Clifford is just out on Bamba. And he might be right. He sees him every day in practice. I bet if it were up to Clifford, he would just play Birch over Bamba, but he's doing this split as a compromise to the player and front office. I thought Bamba was making some strides toward the end of the season. But, he still has a long way to go. There are some intangible things you can always do that we talked about with Ennis, Clark, and MCW tonight (Isaac always plays breakneck), and sometimes it feels like Bamba is sleepwalking. It also just might be he's not that quick or coordinated. I don't know. Either way, there's not a great way to spin where Bamba is after 2 years. Either his conditioning still isn't up to par to play more minutes (which is the crutch Clifford is rolling with), or he just isn't good enough to earn those minutes.

i'm hoping it's the former and not the latter.....you see glimpses every now and again but not consistently and then again we haven't gone all in on bamba yet. The opportunity isn't there, you can give him minutes but if he isn't involved in anything then we aren't really trying to develop him, we're just having him fill a role.

Something else that's been on my mind with Bamba is who he gets to play with. He's stuck in rotations where he knows he won't get the ball on his rolls or for alley oops - DJ Augustine and the rest of the bench mob aren't making those passes. Most of the passes to Bamba are to set up handoffs, not put him in a position to do something meaningful unless he's open for 3.

Knowing you aren't going to get the ball can create some apathy on offense which could bleed over to defense. I feel like Bamba's best games came when he was playing alongside Fultz who did a great job finding him.

Physically, I think his size is where it should be and its about conditioning now. There's some other things about defensive fundamentals, but he can still be a defensive anchor and floor spacing, rim rolling big.

Early in the season when Bamba played with Fultz his offensive stats were great. He's a good target at the rim, he just doesn't play with anyone that can get him the ball.

He still needs to get into shape.

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[JBSouthpaw]

Minutes restriction screams lack of cardio to me.
"28 pounds of muscle" is the most laughable thing that has come out.
That chit was/is FAT.
Mo seems very smart, that doesn't mean he doesn't have a lazy streak in him.

[Knightro]

Minutes restriction screams lack of cardio to me.
"28 pounds of muscle" is the most laughable thing that has come out.
That chit was/is FAT.
Mo seems very smart, that doesn't mean he doesn't have a lazy streak in him.

I pretty much agree with all of this.

Mo clearly put on a significant amount of weight over the last four months. Weight that he’s ultimately going to need to carry to be able to have the strength to play with more force and more physically.

Unfortunately, it certainly appears Mo showed up to the bubble in extremely poor conditioning without a real understanding of how to carry his new weight.

I do think it’s a little silly for Clifford to not trust the guy, even clearly out of shape, to play *two* seven minute stretches in the same game, but apparently that’s where we are right now.

[KillMonger]

Minutes restriction screams lack of cardio to me.
"28 pounds of muscle" is the most laughable thing that has come out.
That chit was/is FAT.
Mo seems very smart, that doesn't mean he doesn't have a lazy streak in him.

I pretty much agree with all of this.

Mo clearly put on a significant amount of weight over the last four months. Weight that he’s ultimately going to need to carry to be able to have the strength to play with more force and more physically.

Unfortunately, it certainly appears Mo showed up to the bubble in extremely poor conditioning without a real understanding of how to carry his new weight.

I do think it’s a little silly for Clifford to not trust the guy, even clearly out of shape, to play *two* seven minute stretches in the same game, but apparently that’s where we are right now.

agreed....especially considering what birch is giving you? i wouldn't even call him a warm body, mudasucka is a zombie out there....at least with bamba just him being out there makes players think twice about attacking the rim.

[swarlesbarkley]

Just watched the highlights... that Fultz 3 looked really smooth. No hesitation, no hitch, held the follow-through - love it.

https://streamable.com/99y90w

[NotACat]

I wrote up some thoughts on last night in a twitter thread focusing on Evan Fournier and Mo Bamba, let me know what you all think!

Read on Twitter

?s=20

[JBSouthpaw]

Minutes restriction screams lack of cardio to me.
"28 pounds of muscle" is the most laughable thing that has come out.
That chit was/is FAT.
Mo seems very smart, that doesn't mean he doesn't have a lazy streak in him.

I pretty much agree with all of this.

Mo clearly put on a significant amount of weight over the last four months. Weight that he’s ultimately going to need to carry to be able to have the strength to play with more force and more physically.

Unfortunately, it certainly appears Mo showed up to the bubble in extremely poor conditioning without a real understanding of how to carry his new weight.

I do think it’s a little silly for Clifford to not trust the guy, even clearly out of shape, to play *two* seven minute stretches in the same game, but apparently that’s where we are right now.

I don't think it's Cliff putting the minutes restriction, I think it is the training staff.
If he fractured his foot at a lighter weight, they seemed to be worried about the added weight and how it would affect that foot.

[PrimeThyme]

Just watched the highlights... that Fultz 3 looked really smooth. No hesitation, no hitch, held the follow-through - love it.

https://streamable.com/99y90w

No hesitation is the biggest thing for me. Him actually taking the shot and not pump faking off of it in favor of a mid-range shot or a drive to the basket is the first step. It looks a lot less "push" to me in both this clip and the pregame video. Maybe it coincides with his shoulder having more time to heal and him regaining strength again. There is still a bit of a hitch to it at the top of the release, which is more noticeable in the pregame clip but it's still much improved.

Really positive sign imo.

[zaymon]

I really hope JI and MF keep it up. all this negativity and blow it up atmosphere was getting on my nerves.
Ps. People never satisfied with Evan. When he scores with great efficiency he is selfish. When he sets up his teammates like today and never gets in rhytm its even worse. He is no Paul George, but he is legit nba starting wing