Official Spec Thread: I guess now's the time to blow this dumpster fire up and bask in the glow!

[pepe1991]

It's hard to digest it....but I'd rather find out we have a diamond in the rough and get a slightly worst chance at a pick that still isn't a 100% guarantee.... Than to think they are trash going into the summer and thinking we are deficient all over. Ideally... We find out we have great players but still lose by a hair. Lol

We are still trash

[drsd]

It's hard to digest it....but I'd rather find out we have a diamond in the rough and get a slightly worst chance at a pick that still isn't a 100% guarantee.... Than to think they are trash going into the summer and thinking we are deficient all over. Ideally... We find out we have great players but still lose by a hair. Lol

Exactly.

Look Magic fans, we have seen that Okeke is an NBA caliber player. We are learning what Bamba can bring when not sulking. We learned that Anthony has swagger and that Hampton is more than a bust. At worst, Orlando now knows it has a deep bench. A HIT on one of the two FRPs and a good FA signing and the Magic will be competitive again.

One can tell a scenario where the Magic has 48+ wins in the 2022/23 season.

I am glad we are seeing players develop. Even if that hurts in the quest for little white balls that fly around a hopper.


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[drsd]

We are still trash

The Thunder and the Magic have the two-worst scoring differentials in the NBA. This means these two teams couple not scoring with not playing defense. It is sad.


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[drsd]

So we pretend we have more than 1 nba level starter on playoff team?
It's Isaac and bunch of bench players on playoff teams.

Fultz, Harris and Isaac all look like solid starters on most NBA rosters. Okeke, Anthony, and Carter look like solid minutes guys on any NBA roster. Add the questions of Hampton and Bamba, with two chances at a good rookie this off-season, I am more hopeful it seems than you are.


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[JBSouthpaw]

It's hard to digest it....but I'd rather find out we have a diamond in the rough and get a slightly worst chance at a pick that still isn't a 100% guarantee.... Than to think they are trash going into the summer and thinking we are deficient all over. Ideally... We find out we have great players but still lose by a hair. Lol

Exactly.

Look Magic fans, we have seen that Okeke is an NBA caliber player. We are learning what Bamba can bring when not sulking. We learned that Anthony has swagger and that Hampton is more than a bust. At worst, Orlando now knows it has a deep bench. A HIT on one of the two FRPs and a good FA signing and the Magic will be competitive again.

One can tell a scenario where the Magic has 48+ wins in the 2022/23 season.

I am glad we are seeing players develop. Even if that hurts in the quest for little white balls that fly around a hopper.

.

AND You left out Carter, who has been a bit of a diamond in the rough for us.

[JBSouthpaw]

When this season started, I said there were 3 reasons for me to watch this year, because at best we were going to be a bad playoff team.
1. Fultz
2. Okeke
3. Cole
Through the season, I've now enjoyed watching
4. Carter
5. Bamba (I was in the write him off camp)
6. RJ

Now for next year I'm going to get the above plus:
7. JI
8. our draft pick
9. Chi draft pick

Can't wait.
And I'm all for the tank! always get the best odds possible.
But I won't complain when the young guys produce, it's something to build on.

[tiderulz]

So we pretend we have more than 1 nba level starter on playoff team?
It's Isaac and bunch of bench players on playoff teams.

Fultz, Harris and Isaac all look like solid starters on most NBA rosters. Okeke, Anthony, and Carter look like solid minutes guys on any NBA roster. Add the questions of Hampton and Bamba, with two chances at a good rookie this off-season, I am more hopeful it seems than you are.


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Harris isnt a starter, his play is why he lost the starting role in Denver. Fultz may be a starter, but he is a below average starter with his bad shooting and bad defense. Isaac has looked like a starter as a defensive role player. I do agree with you on Okeke, Anthony and Carter.

[Ducklett]

When this season started, I said there were 3 reasons for me to watch this year, because at best we were going to be a bad playoff team.
1. Fultz
2. Okeke
3. Cole
Through the season, I've now enjoyed watching
4. Carter
5. Bamba (I was in the write him off camp)
6. RJ

Now for next year I'm going to get the above plus:
7. JI
8. our draft pick
9. Chi draft pick

Can't wait.
And I'm all for the tank! always get the best odds possible.
But I won't complain when the young guys produce, it's something to build on.

You are excited to see the Bulls draft pick on the Bulls? Weird.

[BadMofoPimp]

It's hard to digest it....but I'd rather find out we have a diamond in the rough and get a slightly worst chance at a pick that still isn't a 100% guarantee.... Than to think they are trash going into the summer and thinking we are deficient all over. Ideally... We find out we have great players but still lose by a hair. Lol

Exactly.

Look Magic fans, we have seen that Okeke is an NBA caliber player. We are learning what Bamba can bring when not sulking. We learned that Anthony has swagger and that Hampton is more than a bust. At worst, Orlando now knows it has a deep bench. A HIT on one of the two FRPs and a good FA signing and the Magic will be competitive again.

One can tell a scenario where the Magic has 48+ wins in the 2022/23 season.

I am glad we are seeing players develop. Even if that hurts in the quest for little white balls that fly around a hopper.

.

AND You left out Carter, who has been a bit of a diamond in the rough for us.

To me, still don't think they will be any better than what we gave up for them. It is like swapping mediocrity for future mediocrity that is most likely not as good.

[Dub_Sax]

Instead of tanking, I'm thinking the basketball gods will reward the magic for playing hard, win or lose. So even if we end up with the 6th worst record, we will get a top 3 pick.

Me personally, tanking sux!

Sent from my SM-G955U using RealGM mobile app

[Ducklett]

Instead of tanking, I'm thinking the basketball gods will reward the magic for playing hard, win or lose. So even if we end up with the 6th worst record, we will get a top 3 pick.

Me personally, tanking sux!

Sent from my SM-G955U using RealGM mobile app

Enjoy the 8th pick bro LOL!

[basketballRob]

If the Raptors win tonight, it'll put the Bulls 1.5 games out of the 8th worst spot. The Raptors would be 2 wins up on them and I don't think the Bulls will win more than 2 games the rest of the season.

Sent from my SM-G950U using RealGM mobile app

[thelead]

Instead of tanking, I'm thinking the basketball gods will reward the magic for playing hard, win or lose. So even if we end up with the 6th worst record, we will get a top 3 pick.

Me personally, tanking sux!

Sent from my SM-G955U using RealGM mobile app

Tanking does suck… but it doesn’t change the fact that it gives you a better chance at a top pick.

[drsd]

AND You left out Carter, who has been a bit of a diamond in the rough for us.

I was not trying to leacve Carter out. It is just he would not be an obvious starter in most teams and I cannot see any miraculous step change in him, but it is at least plausible in Bamba. Carter is a really, really good back-up on an elite team. Kind of like when the Magic had Gortat behind Howard.

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[drsd]

Tanking does suck… but it doesn’t change the fact that it gives you a better chance at a top pick.

Respectfully, it actually does more to ensure a higher floor.

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[drsd]

Harris isnt a starter, his play is why he lost the starting role in Denver.

It is hard to separate his injuries and the effects they have slowing him down. If Harris is not 100% healthy next year, then yes, the Magic will move on.

Fultz may be a starter, but he is a below average starter with his bad shooting and bad defense. Isaac has looked like a starter as a defensive role player. I do agree with you on Okeke, Anthony and Carter.

Fultz needs to be a 36% three ball shooter on 4 shots a night to be an effective PG for this team on offense. All the rest of his offensive game is fine for an NBA-level stater. On defense, Orlando needs to get him to buy into the concepts of team defense. Man on man, he will always be sub standard and the Magic bigs need to be there to back up PnR and iso-drive plays. THat is outside of Fultz' skill set.


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[drsd]

To me, still don't think they will be any better than what we gave up for them. It is like swapping mediocrity for future mediocrity that is most likely not as good.

We really need to see who is drafted with the Bulls pick for some clarification. And the trade itself cannot be judged until we see Vučević's perfomance over the next 3 years AND assess the Bulls second pick to be allocated to Orlando.

If Vučević fails to generate Bulls wins, then this is a good trade simply from an asset management perspective. But if Orlando is just shifting from past-mediocrity to future-mediocrity, yes that is troubling. We just need to watch this team for four-short years to know the answer!

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[pepe1991]

So we pretend we have more than 1 nba level starter on playoff team?
It's Isaac and bunch of bench players on playoff teams.

Fultz, Harris and Isaac all look like solid starters on most NBA rosters. Okeke, Anthony, and Carter look like solid minutes guys on any NBA roster. Add the questions of Hampton and Bamba, with two chances at a good rookie this off-season, I am more hopeful it seems than you are.


..

This is far reach.
Fultz, like Elfrid Payton for example, isn't starting level of talent ( or at least not what we saw). His inability to even be 3 point treat destroys his value in modern basketball. He is either ball-pounding or doing nothing for you offense. All his value comes in transition, but that can be said for virtually any basketball player that isn't center. Most players excell in open court. All that before blowing up his knee that will probably hinder his athletical ability a bit.

Harris was removed from Denver for a reason. He hasn't been "starting level good" for years. You look at his last year's playoff run and it's not hard to figure why he was odd man out on Nuggets, despite them having almost nobody to replace him at "SG". Not only that he can't shoot with any consistantcy, he also can't stay healthy for long enough to be reliable. Also, on offense, he still is either spotting up or doing nothing for you.

Isaac is always hurt. I don't even know why i'm judging what I saw from isaac and projecting that for future, like he didn't blow up his knee. When he is healthy, he is very good for what he does. Being advanced Ibaka. But again, he is not healthy enough where it would matter all that much.

Okeke is servicable rotation SF-PF. People here really blow up what he is out of proprotion. He plays on team without any offensive talent and gets lot of shots. Sure he is "rookie". But he also happends to be almost 23 years old "rookie" , who is only rookie because 2 reasons:
a) he would have gotten undrafted if he went through one and done rout
b) he blow up his knee and missed one season already

Wendell Carter is average starter in this moment, trending toward below average one. Yet another player that has huge list of injuries attached to his health record. He is not athletic and he does not have 3 point shot and he struggles a lot when it comes to rebounding and boxing outs. Poor man Horford is probably best comp going forward.

Cole Anthony is player that will hurt you more than help you most of the nights. Miniature gunner that can't defend anybody and who views himself as something he isn't. Kobe swagger in body of Ish Smith. We already had that type of player. Brandon Jennings.

Hampton is definition of G league player in this moment. He is "guard" who can't dribble nor shoot. Betting on his development is betting that 21 years old player needs to learn basics of basketball that 12 years old are being shown in their workouts.

Bacon averaging 11 ppg on our team is best example why we should look at "achivments " of stat padding box score on team that is tied with 4th worst record with grain of salt. We play bodies, but during 48 min there are 90 shots to be taken and 40 -50 reboundst to be grabbed. Somebody will put up something. That doesn't mean you have roster full of future rotation players. Actually opposite, if you look how outclassed they look when they play Indiana, team that isn't even that good when healty, and yet they get routed in basically 28 min against crippled roster where career backup Justin Holiday looks like prime Ray Allen against them, you figure how far this is from competitive roster.

What Magic need today, is land top 3 pick and draft Suggs, Cade or Green. After that, they should figure how to compliment that player and how to add best player possible next to him. This 2020-21 tail end of a season Orlando Magic -casting , to me is casting players for other basketball leagues. Most of players who played Pistons - Orlando game will meet each other in China within next year or two.

[JBSouthpaw]

Exactly.

Look Magic fans, we have seen that Okeke is an NBA caliber player. We are learning what Bamba can bring when not sulking. We learned that Anthony has swagger and that Hampton is more than a bust. At worst, Orlando now knows it has a deep bench. A HIT on one of the two FRPs and a good FA signing and the Magic will be competitive again.

One can tell a scenario where the Magic has 48+ wins in the 2022/23 season.

I am glad we are seeing players develop. Even if that hurts in the quest for little white balls that fly around a hopper.

.

AND You left out Carter, who has been a bit of a diamond in the rough for us.

To me, still don't think they will be any better than what we gave up for them. It is like swapping mediocrity for future mediocrity that is most likely not as good.

You stay in mediocrity by not taking shots.
Look at Boston, all this talent?? they should have taken a real shot and moved some of those players. Any of these super stars that moved in the last 2 years, BOS could have offered a better package.

The FO is taking a shot, it may not work out, but it just may.
When it comes down to it, that is all I want, a FO willing to take these shots, vs. the safe way.

I know I fall on the optimistic side, but I can't fathom being so negative about a season that isn't even here yet.

best home run hitters usually are at the top of strike outs too.

[BadMofoPimp]

AND You left out Carter, who has been a bit of a diamond in the rough for us.

To me, still don't think they will be any better than what we gave up for them. It is like swapping mediocrity for future mediocrity that is most likely not as good.

You stay in mediocrity by not taking shots.
Look at Boston, all this talent?? they should have taken a real shot and moved some of those players. Any of these super stars that moved in the last 2 years, BOS could have offered a better package.

The FO is taking a shot, it may not work out, but it just may.
When it comes down to it, that is all I want, a FO willing to take these shots, vs. the safe way.

I know I fall on the optimistic side, but I can't fathom being so negative about a season that isn't even here yet.

best home run hitters usually are at the top of strike outs too.

Hopefully, one of the two 1st round picks this year ends up an All-Star talent, otherwise, Magic downgraded and will need to tank another couple years til they get lucky and magically win an all-star level talent in the draft.