MagicFan101 wrote:Knightro wrote:MagicFan101 wrote:I slotted him at SF. You have him at Stretch-4.
Maybe we are both wrong?
Maybe it doesn’t matter what role Chuma or Isaac play as both are fairly versatile and that is the key. These are position-less forwards who can switch up their defensive duties on a nightly basis as the situation demands.
Play them together with Fultz running the show and leave the story there. Do we really need to get fixated on position labels?
I'm not hung up on what position they play at all. As you said, it's "positionless" basketball. But you know who are two forwards who can switch up defensive duties on a nightly basis as the situation demands? Jonathan Isaac and Aaron Gordon.
For me, it more comes down to offensive skill sets and how those skill sets complement each other. The Magic's offense is already pretty poor with Gordon and Isaac as the starting frontcourt.
Replacing Gordon with Okeke could/should be equal or perhaps even better defensively than Gordon/Isaac is, which is great. But Chuma certainly appears to be an inferior ball handler and generally a more passive offensive player than Gordon is.
Okeke *should* be a better shooter than Gordon, but is he just going to plant in the corner on every possession?
I just think offensively Okeke and Isaac are pretty similar. They both appear most comfortable as low usage guys who are willing to blend in and defer to the more aggressive offensive players on the court. I don't think either guy has the ball handling ability to become a significantly higher usage player. Simply put, they're both role players offensively. 4th or 5th option types.
You can have one passive, mostly non-factor offensive player in your lineup if they're awesome at other things, which Isaac already is defensively, but I don't think you can have two and succeed at a high level without a mega star to overcompensate.
With all due respect ...
Chuma, Gordon and Isaac are at very different places in their careers.
Compare the college shooting numbers of the three players (AG free throws! ouch!) and it is hard to maintain the argument that Chuma is redundant offensively.
Isaac, sadly, has not improved much statistically from college to today on his 3-pt shooting. In volume and percentage Chuma was a far superior shooter in college than both. Will that translate to the NBA? If so, he adds something uniquely different from the other two.
We would all prefer someone who could put the ball on the floor and create for himself over a 3&D spot up shooter but that is what you settle for when you don't have a high lottery pick.
Regardless, we have Cliff as our coach and Chuma is coming off a serious injury. Chuma will be a member of the 2nd unit to start his career so this is not really an argument worth having any time soon. Redundancies will clear themselves out in time.
Okeke is going to be a project at the offensive end. His only real plus is that the ball doesn't stick in his hands. He had fairly high 3-point attempt rates, but he wasn't really a high-volume 3-point shooter because he just didn't shoot all that much. He wasn't a better shooter than Isaac was in college. He was actually rather miserable from midrange in both seasons and his free throw percentages were middling, so it's very possible that his 3-point percentages aren't going to translate at the next level. His finishing at the rim was solid, but he is an undersized big. You can be an interior presence in college at 6'6", but that just doesn't work in the NBA. I like his decision-making, but he is very limited overall. He's mostly just a pick-and-pop guy with the ability to attack a closeout. He is also less than a year younger than Isaac, so his rookie season will correspond to this season for Isaac with regards to age.
If he is to have legitimate value, it is going to come at the defensive end. He is a solid team defender and he has quick and active hands. If he has the footwork to defend in space, he could be a nice versatile defender. He has a big frame, but he plays like a wing. Can he defend NBA wings at the point of attack?
