Game 12: New Orleans Pelicans (2-9) @ Orlando Magic (4-7) - 7:00 PM ET

[VFX]

I hope Hennigan knew what he was doing when he brought in Ibaka and Biz. There's no way he expected Ibaka, Biz, and Vuc to all play together, right? And he wouldn't just give Biz $80 mil to come off the bench either, right?

Someone please assure me that we all playin' checkers while Henny playin' chess..

If he were playing chess he would be showcasing Vuc for a mid season trade with a team in panic mode. Doesn't look to be the case.

[Jameerthefear]

Yeah we have squeezed every ounce of talent out of Vuc and Evan during there tenure here. We honestly need to hand the keys over to AG/Mario/Elf and give this team a ceiling they simply just don't have with Vuc and Evan as the main guys.

Why do people keep saying hand the keys over to Elfrid like his playing time has been limited or something? He's literally been starting since like day one.

Because he defers to like 5 players in front of him instead of having a mindset of its up to me to get it done. And he's barely had a chance to share the court with Mario and AG.

That's just the player that he is though. And he's sort of limited in how he scores anyways. It's not like he's some terribly efficient player that's being held back by less efficient players.

[Magic_Johnny12]

After reading the last few pages of this thread you would think we lost by 30 pts smfh

[locomagicfan]

Its time for:
Elfrid
Hezonja
Gordon
Ibaka
BIzmak

and enough of this other garbage!

You get your stretch-4, defensive centre, and a SG who actually passes to his bloody teammates!

[NEM]

After reading the last few pages of this thread you would think we lost by 30 pts smfh

The point of it all is that yes we won, which is great, but those wins are basically fools gold. Look at the teams we have beaten and I'm which fashion...

Philadelphia. Arguably the worst team in the league, we had to come back from 18 down in the second half to squeak out a win.

Sacramento. A team that has been through more coaches than us in the last 5 years, who is sebsuequently dealing with the trade requests of one player (gay) and their always disgruntled superstar (cousins). That one came down to the wire.

Washington. A team that is bad when at full strength, and putrid when missing its' best player. Game came down to the wire and we could have EASILY due to Morris being wide open for a potential game winner.

Oklahoma City. No complaints.

New Orleans. Missing their starting PG, SF, and PF. The game still came down to the wire.

Often times you can say "we could have easily lost" or "we could have easily won" except every game that we won, we could have easily lost. On the other hand, the games we lost, it wasn't even close most of the second half.

We could easily be 0-12 or 1-11, though the opposite cant be said.

That's what people's gripe is about. Yes they won, great, but the bad trends have not been fixed and our problems remain.

[OrlandoDream]

After reading the last few pages of this thread you would think we lost by 30 pts smfh

The point of it all is that yes we won, which is great, but those wins are basically fools gold. Look at the teams we have beaten and I'm which fashion...

Philadelphia. Arguably the worst team in the league, we had to come back from 18 down in the second half to squeak out a win.

Sacramento. A team that has been through more coaches than us in the last 5 years, who is sebsuequently dealing with the trade requests of one player (gay) and their always disgruntled superstar (cousins). That one came down to the wire.

Washington. A team that is bad when at full strength, and putrid when missing its' best player. Game came down to the wire and we could have EASILY due to Morris being wide open for a potential game winner.

Oklahoma City. No complaints.

New Orleans. Missing their starting PG, SF, and PF. The game still came down to the wire.

Often times you can say "we could have easily lost" or "we could have easily won" except every game that we won, we could have easily lost. On the other hand, the games we lost, it wasn't even close most of the second half.

We could easily be 0-12 or 1-11, though the opposite cant be said.

That's what people's gripe is about. Yes they won, great, but the bad trends have not been fixed and our problems remain.

At the end of the day, a W is a W. What worries everyone is that we are not seeing improvement at least on the offensive end. Defense is slowly but surely improving but the offense is awful. We would have to play Spurs-like defense every game to give us a chance to finish the year 0.500. It's still a long season me I know team won't be shooting like this all year, but my expectations are steadily decreasing. I just don't want us to make another panic trade. Stick with what we have and retool in offseason.

[MagicStarwipe]

Why do people keep saying hand the keys over to Elfrid like his playing time has been limited or something? He's literally been starting since like day one.

Because he defers to like 5 players in front of him instead of having a mindset of its up to me to get it done. And he's barely had a chance to share the court with Mario and AG.

That's just the player that he is though. And he's sort of limited in how he scores anyways. It's not like he's some terribly efficient player that's being held back by less efficient players.

He's being held back by playing with selfish players just looking to get their own numbers IMO.

[MagicStarwipe]

After reading the last few pages of this thread you would think we lost by 30 pts smfh

Tell that to Aaron Gordon, because he agrees with us.

[Howard Mass]

what happens if they play like that against Dallas.

Blowout. We never beat Dallas anyway lol.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

Don't miss quote me.

[PrimeThyme]

What worries me is that we have abandoned the youth movement for veterans that limit the ceiling of this team and don't make us any better. We have coaches that have been well regarded for player development and it was my hope that that would be priority number one. I'm definitely glad we have Vogel, but it's laughable that Jeff green is starting over AG right now, && that Mario can't get in the game when Jeff was going 0-8 with 2 turnovers all while playing sloppy non existent defense.

[MagicStarwipe]

What worries me is that we have abandoned the youth movement for veterans that limit the ceiling of this team and don't make us any better. We have coaches that have been well regarded for player development and it was my hope that that would be priority number one. I'm definitely glad we have Vogel, but it's laughable that Jeff green is starting over AG right now, && that Mario can't get in the game when Jeff was going 0-8 with 2 turnovers all while playing sloppy non existent defense.

Ownership. But if Hennigan really thought a team led by Fournier, Vucevic and Ibaka was going anywhere, then he is an idiot too.

[MagicStarwipe]

Because he defers to like 5 players in front of him instead of having a mindset of its up to me to get it done. And he's barely had a chance to share the court with Mario and AG.

That's just the player that he is though. And he's sort of limited in how he scores anyways. It's not like he's some terribly efficient player that's being held back by less efficient players.

He's being held back by playing with selfish players just looking to get their own numbers IMO.

And let me just clarify that it's not just him being held back by that, it's the whole team. It's negatively affecting everyone.

[OrlandoNed]

The Magic winning this game is the same as them winning the special olympics: Sure they won but they are still r@t@rd@d.

[PrimeThyme]

What worries me is that we have abandoned the youth movement for veterans that limit the ceiling of this team and don't make us any better. We have coaches that have been well regarded for player development and it was my hope that that would be priority number one. I'm definitely glad we have Vogel, but it's laughable that Jeff green is starting over AG right now, && that Mario can't get in the game when Jeff was going 0-8 with 2 turnovers all while playing sloppy non existent defense.

Ownership. But if Hennigan really thought a team led by Fournier, Vucevic and Ibaka was going anywhere, then he is an idiot too.

Thats fair. Those three have peaked as players and Serge and Vuc, maybe do to injury or age, seem to be on the decline. They will never be better than what they've already shown as players. We don't know how good AG and Mario could be yet. Especially AG, who I still think can be a star in this league. Especially on the defensive end where he is a very special talent. I still believe in Mario too. We just have to give him the minutes. We don't have anything to lose by finding out what they could be.

[rcklsscognition]

Our defense can and will get better but the offense is killing us. The percentages are brutal. I don't know how you fix that, we got major problems with talent on that end.

We really need Meeks to see if that can fix things.

[NEM]

Our defense can and will get better but the offense is killing us. The percentages are brutal. I don't know how you fix that, we got major problems with talent on that end.

We really need Meeks to see if that can fix things.

You fix it by getting players who are competent on the offensive end while making them play defense.

Also, Meeks doesn't move the needle like that. Because we have no spacing, he too will look like **** when he comes back.

[MagicStarwipe]

Is Evan Fournier ever NOT in the minus?

[JF5]

What worries me is that we have abandoned the youth movement for veterans that limit the ceiling of this team and don't make us any better. We have coaches that have been well regarded for player development and it was my hope that that would be priority number one. I'm definitely glad we have Vogel, but it's laughable that Jeff green is starting over AG right now, && that Mario can't get in the game when Jeff was going 0-8 with 2 turnovers all while playing sloppy non existent defense.

I think this is pretty malformed statement... The youth movement hasn't been killed but rather now the players that needed to make a step didn't make a step/playing out of position/just no good enough. AG was gifted the SF position as a chance to expand his game. Guys that were said to be holding him back (Oladipo, Harris) were traded in favor for him. He's just looked terrible thus far and looks very uncomfortable in this new role. Its weird that people are blaming Hennigan/Vogel for him for not seizing an opportunity that he was given. Hezonja has the same problem. He's actually regressed and looks like he shouldn't be on the court at this point. Will he be back? most likely, but at this point he should be sitting on the bench until he looks competent enough to play.

On top of that this is easily one of the least talented rosters in the NBA. If you're having a hard time getting run on this squad, that should really say something about the talent itself at this stage.

[drsd]

That game was way closer than it needed to be.

Way to many missed FTs.


..

[zuppafly]

I'll take the win, but damn it, that was hard to watch. During that first quarter I kept thinking that if we were facing a semi-competent team we'd be down by 20 easily to start the second.