2021-2022 Regular Season Game 58: Orlando Magic (13-44) at Phoenix Suns (45-10) - 2/12/22 - 9pm ET

[SOUL]

Is anyone just waiting for Suggs to have ONE above average shooting night? dude just can't make a shot. i mean hes making elfrid payton look like curry right now. on the bright side his handle has improved some and hes attacking and creating a lot

50% is above average for a guard.. which was tonight

[pepe1991]

Shame game wasn't competitive, CP3 could have had 20+ assists game
btw whole year Payton made 2 threes. vs us he made 2

[Knightro]

Is anyone just waiting for Suggs to have ONE above average shooting night? dude just can't make a shot. i mean hes making elfrid payton look like curry right now. on the bright side his handle has improved some and hes attacking and creating a lot

Kind of weird to say this when he had one of the more efficient shooting games of his young career and an above average TS% game, right?

57.1 TS% tonight, league average is 55.9%.

[KillMonger]

Goes without saying but it's imperative that Suggs unlocks his shot this summer, doesn't need to be knockdown but if he can get to 34%-36% like R.J it would open up his game so much....he'll get there as he's a hard worker....I like cole but a game like tonight just cements for me what kind of role he should be in, at least at this point....he's a microwave, plain and simple....he's never going to be a high assist guy but i guess he can become more of a game manager type like D.J was for us(even with his stupid behind the back passes) So even though he might not have a natural talent for passing, he can still become a game manager by watching film and learning more how to play the PG position....that will come with time

Watching this game made me chuckle just realizing we have too many players that settle for jumpshots but we don't particularly have good shooters...seemed like Suggs was the only player that wanted to attack the rim....on another note, Mo bamba probably has THE WORST body language i've seen in a while man....If he's not involved in the play he's just going through the motions....getting pushed around and out of the paint by guards and he's letting it happen...should've tried to get something for him, he shouldn't be brought back....has every opportunity to really show improvement this season but it's more of the same

[fateis007]

Is anyone just waiting for Suggs to have ONE above average shooting night? dude just can't make a shot. i mean hes making elfrid payton look like curry right now. on the bright side his handle has improved some and hes attacking and creating a lot

Kind of weird to say this when he had one of the more efficient shooting games of his young career and an above average TS% game, right?

57.1 TS% tonight, league average is 55.9%.

lol are we watching the same game? all his misses were jumpshots, 17 of his 20 points, were layups/dunks/free throws. he missed all his shots besides one corner three. he had a good game, just saying overall its strange he hasn't had one good shooting night that wasn't preseason. if he can develop any form of a jump shot, he could be an allstar for sure

[drsd]

Positivity stat of the game: another decent 3-ball percentage in high volume (15-41; 36.6%).

[drsd]

When a team is giving up an eFG% of over 55%, surrendering 105 FG attempts is not a winning strategy.

The Magic i) did not play defense, ii) got out rebounded handily, iii) was mauled by TO differential - only forcing 7 (-7 in total). The Suns could have won by 50 if that would have been a goal.

[zaymon]

Suggs is looking like a point guard. I am suprised Mosley had balls to take the primary role from Anthony hands. I am not suprised he misses his shots. He is going 110% on defense and 110% on offense going to the rim.
Suggs is winning me over what a character we got.

Wagner is playing within the offense. Its tough to drive against athletic defenders like Crowder and Bridges. He needs midrange game to increase his usage without lowering his efficiency or some competent roller ( Carter is doing fine job for the most part, Bamba sucks). I think Franz will get there, he showed some touch on fade aways. He is so tall he can knock them like Durant and Gallinari. I hope our development team will guide him in right direction. I dont think Durant shots a lot of runners and there is a reason for it.

Our pick and roll defense is non existent. Bamba running in circles, not defending anyone, not knowing our schemes. I crinched when Mosley yelled "to the level" and Bamba droped. Its embarassing. Anthony is also one of the worst pick and roll defenders in the league. We should bring Hassani Gravett and some competent center with big body next year.

Bamba not even playing in garbage time like he did recently.

[Magic_Kingdom]

I'm not concerned for Franz too much.... I'm more concerned for what this means for the coaching staff moving forward once we get a few more pieces in place.

I'm torn.

One one hand... it doesn't really matter. The front office wants them to lose and they've obviously saddled Mosley with a roster that is so young and inexperienced that it's just not capable of winning a lot of games. The case could also be made that most of these guys are A. not good enough to handle more than they're being given and B. Aren't gonna be here when the team is ready to win anyway.

On the other hand... you would like to see Mosley attempt to provide *some* level of structure and more directly attempt to put guys in positions to succeed. As it stands, the only guys who appear to have a high end future for the Magic were drafted 7th, 5th and 8th overall. Inevitably the Magic are going to need to hit on some non-lotto 1sts, second rounders, undrafted free agents, cheap free agent signings, etc.

I hate to say it, but I suspect there's a very high chance that whenever the Magic's front office decides it's time for the team to attempt to start winning (and it won't be next season IMO), that Mosley will inevitably get fired and replaced with someone with more X's and O's chops.

I'm torn as well. I don't want to be a hypocrite or speak out of both sides of my mouth. We need to tank. Providing more structure and getting the guys to play to their strengths may win extra games... and then I would be complaining about that

Sacrificing coaching, structure, winning habits, and improvement to the tanking gods is why bad teams stay bad. It's like constantly buying lottery tickets without investing any of the money you have.

We should provide Suggs, Franz, WCJ, Okeke, etc. the best coaching and structure we can from the very beginning to maximize their potential. Realistically, how many more games would the team win this season if we did that? Probably not very many. We're at the bottom of the league in point differential.

I like how teams like the Heat and Raptors pick the right guys, no matter the draft position, and coach them the right way. Scottie Barnes is going to maximize his potential in Toronto. We don't know what effect chaos and NBA poverty will have on Suggs and Wagner. Like another poster said, players were laughing on the bench down 20. That's tanking.

[nicnac215]

Mo is out of the NBA. I think no NBA team wanted him at the deadline. He was pathetic last night besides a couple 3s he hit. Cole is bad on defense too, just making bad lapses all game and guarding like he is playing a bunch of high school players. There are a few plays a game Cole steps up the intensity but most possessions he has at least one small lapse in judgement. Really the moral of the story is you cannot have 2 players on the court together (Bamba/Anthony) who have this many defensive lapses against the best players in the NBA.

[Knightro]

Sacrificing coaching, structure, winning habits, and improvement to the tanking gods is why bad teams stay bad. It's like constantly buying lottery tickets without investing any of the money you have.

We should provide Suggs, Franz, WCJ, Okeke, etc. the best coaching and structure we can from the very beginning to maximize their potential. Realistically, how many more games would the team win this season if we did that? Probably not very many. We're at the bottom of the league in point differential.

I like how teams like the Heat and Raptors pick the right guys, no matter the draft position, and coach them the right way. Scottie Barnes is going to maximize his potential in Toronto. We don't know what effect chaos and NBA poverty will have on Suggs and Wagner. Like another poster said, players were laughing on the bench down 20. That's tanking.

I don't think Mosley will make it to the end of his contract, but that's less of an indictment on him and more of just the nature of tanking in general.

It's just often very difficult for the coach who is brought in to simply roll the ball out and let guys do whatever (which leads to a lot of losses) to then turn around and be the one to demand accountability and structure when it's time to win.

I don't even think Mosley is a bad coach necessarily, he's not really being asked to do much actual coaching anyway so it's impossible to tell what sort of acumen he really has.

But how can we expect a group of pretty much all young guys to take Mosley seriously 2 or 3 years from now when nothing has mattered up until that point?

[Max Power]

I’d cut Moseley some breaks here. He’s not exactly in a prime position to be at his best. A roster with some talent, but let’s me real, it’s the most unbalanced team in the NBA, outside of Bamba and Lopez who are absolute centers every guy on this squad is a position tweener. Suggs is a point being asked to play the 2. Cole is a gunner starting at the 1. Franz, Chuma, Wendell and even a guy like Isaac when he comes back could play either front court spot. This roster needs positional clarity badly and I don’t blame anything on Moseley in his first year doing the job.