Xatticus wrote:Knightro wrote:I think a lot of different things, both good and bad, can be true about Cole Anthony at the same time.
There's ALWAYS going to be a place on any team, including teams with deep playoff aspirations, for someone who can score at high volume on high efficiency, which is what Cole is doing right now. 20.8 PPG on .588 TS% is very good. The league average TS% is .548.
And Cole is absolutely the Magic's best option offensively right now *and* he's only 21 and still clearly improving. So I can't fault him for wanting the lion's share of the shots or fault Mosley for sticking with him as his No. 1 guy for the time being.
There's something exciting and fun about having a guard who can really make plays at a high level off the dribble. It's something this team hasn't consistently had out of one of its guards since... Jameer in 2009? That's modern basketball and something the Magic just haven't had in so long. I definitely get a rush when Cole's clearly on a heater and fires a stepback 3 that you just know is going in.
Where things start to get dicey is when you take a step backward and start to look at this more broadly over the long-term.
Cole's ability to be an efficient scorer does NOT mean that he is no questions asked going to be a long-term starter for this team or any other team. Let's face some realities.
-He's a one position defender (PG's only) who is not very good at defending that one position.
-He's made some improvements from year 1 to year 2, but he's still not a natural point guard.
-He's not very useful in a pure SG role either since he is far less effective and more uncomfortable off the ball.
So what is he?
For all intents and purposes he's a 6'2" on-ball player who wants to either ISO and look for his own shot or run pick and roll and look for his own shot. If he beats his man and draws help, he'll pass it, but that's clearly secondary to his own offense.
I don't want to speak for him, but based on his remarks I would imagine that Xatticus' primary concern is that the longer the Magic let Anthony have free reign of the offense, the more difficult it's going to be to wrestle it away from him when that time inevitably comes. And because of his other limitations as a defender and passer, the odds are pretty likely that the Magic are going to have to eventually place Cole into a lesser role.
It's more than that though. I just didn't think he had a very good night outside of the shooting. He was much better against Minnesota. The ball wasn't moving last night. If a QB throws for 350 yards and 3 TDs by constantly throwing into triple coverage, he didn't have a good night. I thought Cole missed a lot of obvious reads to get his own shots up and I thought a lot of those shots were very sketchy. He took a bunch of heat checks before the offense even had a chance to do anything. He had this incredible finish when he drove into two defenders and tossed up an off balance flick to evade the defender's arm. It went in. Good. It was a bone-headed shot. You can say all you want about trusting your teammates, but your play reflects what you actually believe.
Our best possession of the night was probably our first possession. Suggs ran a sloppy pick and roll with WCJ. He was about to kick it back out to WCJ who popped out to the three point line, but he saw the weakside defender rotating over and instead tossed a skip pass to Wagner. Wagner drove into the paint and kicked it back out to an open Suggs, who then immediately flicked it to Anthony whose defender was already rotating over to Suggs. That's good basketball.
Some positives... he did find WCJ in the paint in the fourth quarter when WCJ charged down low and demanded the ball after O'Neale got switched onto him. He had a nice block when Mitchell tried to Eurostep him in the paint. He has demonstrated a proclivity to give up his body in an effort to draw charges. He didn't draw a charge last night, but he did step up on the baseline to try to cut someone off. He probably should've been called for a block, but he wasn't and the shot was missed. When you are ineffectual as an on-ball defender, you have to find ways to contribute off the ball.
I understand that people get worked up about good shooting nights, but bad decision-making doesn't lead to sustainable success. Utah was a much better team than us last night. Their ball movement is terrific. They just couldn't shoot. I thought we worked hard at the defensive end all night long and I'm glad that it paid off, but as well as we played, we benefited substantially from Utah's tired legs. If Conley plays, we lose that game. If Utah didn't have a battle with Miami the night before, we probably get run right off the court. I'm not going to hypocritically praise bad basketball simply because we got the desired result. You have to hold guys accountable. I was every bit as critical of Clifford for bashing the team after a loss when I thought we played well. I want a team that plays as though they have no idea what the score is and I want Mosley to coach as though he has no idea what the outcome of the game was.
I swear some will just continue their bias no matter what, have fun with that the rest of us are going to enjoy yesterdays win
