Official Speculation Thread '20-'21 VII: Magic Expected To Retain Core

[VFX]

I still think Magic Reddit is such a bizarre place. There are actually people touting a player in Bamba's per 36 numbers, who has played less than 40 minutes the entire reason against end of the bench 3rd stringers and never more than 25 minutes in a single NBA game, as evidence that he would be putting up big numbers in an increased role.

I just think it takes a giant leap in logic to make that claim. It's not even that I think his numbers wouldn't be better than they were last year per se, it's just the idea of a per 36 based on such a small sample size being used as an indicator that he is on the brink of taking a leap or having a breakout season is just ludicrous to me.

Now could he outplay Birch in the same role?

I think the biggest question for me is could he even consistently play the same 22mpg that Birch is right now. I personally don't think he has the conditioning to && as much as I dislike Birch's skillset, It's hard to deny the effort he has been playing with and his numbers are up from last year.

I can't confidently say that Bamba is better at this stage. Though I'd still be inclined to play him and find out. I'm just pushing back on the idea that he has somehow earned more minutes with his play or that he is on the brink of a breakout.

¸
Reddit Magic page is made of bunch of delusional 13 years old kids who just try to one up each other who is bigger fan.
Yesterday there was huge debate how Gordon is better player than Isaac....

When you go to pages like that you have to be willing to understand you are reading comment of angry puberty teen that started watch nba in 2017

As far as Bamba goes, his whole career is story of 3 things:
1) potential
2) terrible conditioning
3) not so great desire to put in work

Years are passing, he is turning 23 in 3 months.

Whereas Magic boards on RealGM is mostly sour old haters trying to one up each other with most remote advanced stat for how bad each of our guys are and how every other FO is less corrrupt and clueless than ORL

Kinda.

It’s not like this forum doesn’t have years of evidence to support anything to the contrary. It would be a very different story if this board was overtly negative and we were fielding the 2007-2009 roster.

What sounds more ridiculous: Being optimistic right now given the Magic’s situation, or being skeptical and critical after this FO’s decisions?

[Skybox]

Both...I kinda prefer bouncing trade ideas or changes instead of all the “we suck and Weham’s lazy and Martins caused it because he hates winning” drop the mic stuff

[Skybox]

I still think Magic Reddit is such a bizarre place. There are actually people touting a player in Bamba's per 36 numbers, who has played less than 40 minutes the entire reason against end of the bench 3rd stringers and never more than 25 minutes in a single NBA game, as evidence that he would be putting up big numbers in an increased role.

I just think it takes a giant leap in logic to make that claim. It's not even that I think his numbers wouldn't be better than they were last year per se, it's just the idea of a per 36 based on such a small sample size being used as an indicator that he is on the brink of taking a leap or having a breakout season is just ludicrous to me.

Now could he outplay Birch in the same role?

I think the biggest question for me is could he even consistently play the same 22mpg that Birch is right now. I personally don't think he has the conditioning to && as much as I dislike Birch's skillset, It's hard to deny the effort he has been playing with and his numbers are up from last year.

I can't confidently say that Bamba is better at this stage. Though I'd still be inclined to play him and find out. I'm just pushing back on the idea that he has somehow earned more minutes with his play or that he is on the brink of a breakout.

Per 36's can look crazy on a small sample size, but if you look at Bamba's per 36 last year when he was part of the rotation the sample is big, and his per 36 is good.
Is Birch playing better that Bamba is capable? Maybe, I don't know. I do know that both Vuc and Birch have been pretty awful as rim protectors. I just basing this off the eye test, but we seem to give up layups at will, and other bigs seem to have big days against us.

The idea of Bamba as a floor spacing 5, who can play excellent defense is to too good an idea to not figure out if it is realizable. We need to find out. Birch will be a 29 year old free agent this offseason looking to get paid. It's like AG, we should absolutely let him figure out if he can be a playmaking wing this year, even if the likelihood is extremely small.

If I’m Birch, I’m outta here to a contender ASAP...he’ll never be recognized for his hard work or gain any national respect toiling here. He’s a solid 9th man, does the dirty work, etc...wouldn’t BRK love him? Landry Shamet is unnecessary there with all that firepower

[Xatticus]

no, he really isnt. not sure where this myth that Gordon is some great defender came from. he is good at time, bad many times. cant provide rim protection. he isnt a "great" defender

It's one of longest lasting Orlando myths.

He is not terrible on ball defender because he is athletic enough to recover ( but still does lot of mistakes) but as team defender, he is pretty poor one, constantly out of position and ball watching.
In general Gordon never really helped Magic defense or offense.

I have been critical of Gordon's defense in the past. He shows up in the playoffs or against certain guys, but his stats over the course of the season do not show that he is a great or even a good defender.
BUT Gordon had been playing pretty well on defense this season. We just have too many guys that can get attacked. AG is our best defender right now, and that is not good enough. Even when MCW gets back, he should really be playing minimum minutes because of how bad he is on the other end. Probably goes for Aminu, too, unless he gets back to pre-Magic levels of offense.

Yeah. He isn't a great defender. He never has been. But if you are looking for reasons as to why our defense sucks this year, he should be pretty low on the list. I don't know why his defense gets brought up so often. Our second team has always been our better defensive unit. Even Clifford's focus on defensive rebounding and transition defense can only help the numbers so much. Our starting lineup has been **** defensively for a long time and we all know why.

[VFX]

Both...I kinda prefer bouncing trade ideas or changes instead of all the “we suck and Weham’s lazy and Martins caused it because he hates winning” drop the mic stuff

Totally get it.

It would be nice to see Bamba, Okeke, and Fultz hitting that next level. It would also be good if Orlando drafted a top 5 blue chip prospect that they could build around for once. Maybe this is the year they can actually land talent worth caring about.

[D12VCMagic]

I still think Magic Reddit is such a bizarre place. There are actually people touting a player in Bamba's per 36 numbers, who has played less than 40 minutes the entire reason against end of the bench 3rd stringers and never more than 25 minutes in a single NBA game, as evidence that he would be putting up big numbers in an increased role.

I just think it takes a giant leap in logic to make that claim. It's not even that I think his numbers wouldn't be better than they were last year per se, it's just the idea of a per 36 based on such a small sample size being used as an indicator that he is on the brink of taking a leap or having a breakout season is just ludicrous to me.

Now could he outplay Birch in the same role?

I think the biggest question for me is could he even consistently play the same 22mpg that Birch is right now. I personally don't think he has the conditioning to && as much as I dislike Birch's skillset, It's hard to deny the effort he has been playing with and his numbers are up from last year.

I can't confidently say that Bamba is better at this stage. Though I'd still be inclined to play him and find out. I'm just pushing back on the idea that he has somehow earned more minutes with his play or that he is on the brink of a breakout.

The Magic subreddit can be pretty cringe at times. So many people there absolutely refuse to move anyone and just want to continue building around this core. I’ve come to avoid it these days since you get downvoted into the ground for suggesting the roster is flawed and want to move someone.

[cedric76]

I m against TANKING, i want our players to play to win but with so many injuries it s clear that we wont be able to make the playoff

Trade AG and Evan for Assets


Give minutes to Chuma and MO

[Bensational]

We’d have to find a way to rest Vuc for Cliff to even consider giving Mo minutes.

[cedric76]

We’d have to find a way to rest Vuc for Cliff to even consider giving Mo minutes.

If we move AG and Evan, I m happy for VUC to play 30 min and Mo 18

[jonbob17]

I m against TANKING, i want our players to play to win but with so many injuries it s clear that we wont be able to make the playoff

Trade AG and Evan for Assets


Give minutes to Chuma and MO

That's the thing, players and coaches don't tank. Their careers and salaries are based on their performance, and there are only so many spots in the nba for both coaches and players.

"Tanking" is just the front office making roster changes (trades) or limiting the availability of players, so the coaches can't play them. When the guys are on the court the players play and the coach coaches.

[pepe1991]

Wep, we won't win 15 games for rest of a year, fire sale is only logical direction.

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Wep, we won't win 15 games for rest of a year, fire sale is only logical direction.

Orlando Magic FO fire sale list:

[Knightro]

I really think it's going to be difficult to find a taker for Vucevic that isn't a straight up salary dump.

Not because he's a bad player, he's clearly not.

But I don't think he makes a lot of sense for a non-contender. So then you start looking at playoff teams and Vucevic makes a lot more money than most playoff teams want out of what would be their third banana. The amount of salary a team would have to send back to acquire him would probably be multiple players from their rotation, which doesn't make a lot of sense.

Plus most playoff teams, right or wrong, are perimeter based and want more of a defensive presence at center than Vooch can reasonably provide.

Outside of Vucevic, the Magic should be able to find takers for Fournier, Ross and Birch if they are so inclined.

[OrlandoNed]

Orlando Magic FO 4 year tenure:

[cedric76]

I really think it's going to be difficult to find a taker for Vucevic that isn't a straight up salary dump.

Not because he's a bad player, he's clearly not.

But I don't think he makes a lot of sense for a non-contender. So then you start looking at playoff teams and Vucevic makes a lot more money than most playoff teams want out of what would be their third banana. The amount of salary a team would have to send back to acquire him would probably be multiple players from their rotation, which doesn't make a lot of sense.

Plus most playoff teams, right or wrong, are perimeter based and want more of a defensive presence at center than Vooch can reasonably provide.

Outside of Vucevic, the Magic should be able to find takers for Fournier, Ross and Birch if they are so inclined.

I m happy to keep Vuc here, i know they don't have the same age but i think isaac is perfect compliment to Vuc

[Skybox]

I really think it's going to be difficult to find a taker for Vucevic that isn't a straight up salary dump.

Not because he's a bad player, he's clearly not.

But I don't think he makes a lot of sense for a non-contender. So then you start looking at playoff teams and Vucevic makes a lot more money than most playoff teams want out of what would be their third banana. The amount of salary a team would have to send back to acquire him would probably be multiple players from their rotation, which doesn't make a lot of sense.

Plus most playoff teams, right or wrong, are perimeter based and want more of a defensive presence at center than Vooch can reasonably provide.

Outside of Vucevic, the Magic should be able to find takers for Fournier, Ross and Birch if they are so inclined.

For those reasons...it'd be stupid to trade him unless Bamba miraculously makes him expendable. We've got some trade chips but Vuc's impact would be the toughest to replace. No reason we can't have a very high draft pick without losing our one predictable asset for a big loss.

[The Effect]

I think if AG is out for an extended period of time, the FO really needs to quit with this dilusional notion that this a playoff team and start dumping guys like Evan and ross and if possible, useless scrubs like Aminu (although hes a negative depreciating asset at this point and we would likely have to give away draft picks to unload him, so might as well let him rot away on the bench for another year)

This team is not winning anything this year with AG, and now without him (and Fultz\isaac), this is easily a bottom 5 team.

Also, if Bamba doesnt get 15-20mpg NOW, might as well trade him too because it'll be clear the coaching staff\FO would have no intention of developing him (or believe hes not worth the efford), either way, he would need to go too

[The Effect]

I m against TANKING, i want our players to play to win but with so many injuries it s clear that we wont be able to make the playoff

Trade AG and Evan for Assets


Give minutes to Chuma and MO

Im now completely off the "trade AG" wagon, i want him in a orlando jersey for the rest of his career
Also, if hes hurt and out an extended period of time, it would be hard to trade him anyways, let alone trade him for any kind of value
But either way, #KeepAG!

[basketballRob]

Bamba averaging 28.6 ppg and 16.4 rebs per 36 mpg. I know he wouldn't average that, but it's not like he hasn't capitalized on the little bit of minutes he's got.

Sent from my SM-G950U using RealGM mobile app

[JBSouthpaw]

Bamba averaging 28.6 ppg and 16.4 rebs per 36 mpg. I know he wouldn't average that, but it's not like he hasn't capitalized on the little bit of minutes he's got.

Sent from my SM-G950U using RealGM mobile app

You left out the 9 Personal Fouls he'd average..I'm sure that was just an oversite.