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Pretty happy with the performance tonight. This team has its warts, but they played hard and unselfish for most of the game. It's a far more fun team to watch than last season's. There's a lot more pace, more athleticism, and they're playing for each other. While shaky in the first quarter, I thought the defense started to settle in. They had trouble with Miami's pick n' roll, but hey, that's a damn tough play to defend; it's their bread and butter. The Magic have some kinks to work out on containment, but they seemed to be figuring it out as the game went on, which is good.

Some will look at Gordon's shot selection and be critical. I think there were a few that were forced, but I'm glad he's being aggressive. He drew a lot of fouls tonight (29 FTA for the team!! I hope that maintains through the season) and his aggressiveness opens up a lot of opportunities for everyone else. I hope he maintains that aggressiveness throughout the season. Despite a rather inefficient night, he still produced.

I thought Vucevic played a good game as well. He's never going to be athletic enough to contain a dribbler while also protecting the rim from a mammoth like Whiteside. But, he played his role really well. Efficient night for him as well, which was nice to see again.

Evan Fournier coming up clutch was fun. Whether folks like it or not, he's the most reliable perimeter scorer on the team. He has a few pet plays that work extremely well for him and the team executed them perfectly.

Vogel still rides his benches for waaaay too long. The starters look like they've developed a good groove. I like that he at least only went 9 deep tonight, keeping one of Fournier or Ross in the game at all times. The bench needs that spacing out there. I'm just accepting that Biyombo is going to spend 70% of the game being really bad and then 30% of the game being pretty good. As well as the fact that we're just going to treat Jonathan Isaac like a garbage man on offense all season. I'm guessing it'll take Vogel a full season to figure out how to use a stretch 5.

Overall, quality win for the Magic over a good team. It feels good to watch the team win, especially over Miami.

thelead wrote:I don’t think we’re world-beaters but the negativity here sucks.

I saw more people complaining about negativity than there were people actually being overly negative.

thelead wrote:I don’t think we’re world-beaters but the negativity here sucks.

We win our first season opener in 4 years and people are bitching and moaning. I think we looked pretty good.

OrlandO wrote:

thelead wrote:I don’t think we’re world-beaters but the negativity here sucks.

I saw more people complaining about negativity than there were people actually being overly negative.

Were you the female ref at the game? It's pretty simple to go back and see what you said is not true.

PennytoShaq wrote:

OrlandO wrote:

thelead wrote:I don’t think we’re world-beaters but the negativity here sucks.

I saw more people complaining about negativity than there were people actually being overly negative.

Were you the female ref at the game? It's pretty simple to go back and see what you said is not true.

lol says the number one complainer about other people.

BadMofoPimp wrote:

notguilty wrote:

The Real Dalic wrote:Isn't it funny that the two that get the most hate here finished it off for us. Vuc and Fournier don't suck. . . Crazy, huh?

Not crazy unless you’re a Vuc and Fornier hater! Almost gave it away but thanks to a penalty with 1 sec left on the shot clock and timely play by Fornier and Vuc we took it down! Vuc defense still improving btw!

Simmons after the game mentioned how impressed he was with Evan's defense as well.

I like the attitude that Simmons plays on D and hope that is contagious to Elf on a consistent basis

OrlandO wrote:

PennytoShaq wrote:

OrlandO wrote:I saw more people complaining about negativity than there were people actually being overly negative.

Were you the female ref at the game? It's pretty simple to go back and see what you said is not true.

lol says the number one complainer about other people.

But you just said you saw tons of people complaining, yet now you quickly ID me as #1?

Doesn't make any sense, I'd suggest getting over it and enjoying the win.

You aren't a mod, so don't tell people what they can and can not do. Just report the posts or get over it.

GameOver25 wrote:

IllMagic04 wrote:Im sorry but I wasnt impressed.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using RealGM mobile app

Why? Last year we would have folded pretty easily.

Sure but "not folding" isnt enough to impress me. Im just a big picture kind of fan I guess

Happy with the win. Definitely pretty shaky at times but there were some positives for sure. Hard to really make too many judgements either way so early on in the season though. Still, overall I have a much better feeling about this team than I did last year. I think Simmons and Issac alone will help this team win more games with them helping the bench be much better than last year.

This team just makes sense to me with Isaac and Simmons and AG out there. I hope we can do more of that.

A Fournier/Ross/Simmons/Isaac/AG lineup is super intriguing.

Ross surprised me with his play. I was really impressed, didn't think he would be the guy to start, but his defense really stuck out to me.

IllMagic04 wrote:

GameOver25 wrote:

IllMagic04 wrote:Im sorry but I wasnt impressed.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using RealGM mobile app

Why? Last year we would have folded pretty easily.

Sure but "not folding" isnt enough to impress me. Im just a big picture kind of fan I guess

It would appear that you are looking for a contender before you are impressed....while others, including myself, would just like to see some competent basketball.

PennytoShaq wrote:

OrlandO wrote:

PennytoShaq wrote:
Were you the female ref at the game? It's pretty simple to go back and see what you said is not true.

lol says the number one complainer about other people.

But you just said you saw tons of people complaining, yet now you quickly ID me as #1?

Doesn't make any sense, I'd suggest getting over it and enjoying the win.

You aren't a mod, so don't tell people what they can and can not do. Just report the posts or get over it.

Yes you are #1 at complaining about comments. If you don't agree with someone then debate them... stop whining about it. Game threads are going to be filled with hot takes. Deal with it.

OrlandO wrote:

Knightro wrote:

OrlandO wrote:Best realistic solution is to increase elf's minutes.

Going be really difficult to extend Elfrid's minutes at the pace they play when he's out there. Playing 30 minutes at breakneck tempo is difficult enough.

Last year's highest scoring offenses:
Steph Curry 34 mpg
James Harden 36 mpg
Jameer Nelson 31 mpg as a starter
Kyrie Irving 35 mpg
John Wall 36 mpg
Chris Paul 32 mpg




22 year old Elfrid 29 mpg

Two things.

1. There's a difference between being a high scoring offense and playing a fast pace. The Nets and Suns were No. 1 and No. 2 in pace last year and 28th and 22nd in offense. Conversely, the Cavs and Clippers were No. 3 and No. 4 in offense and 16th and 17th in pace.

2. The amount of minutes Payton played last year is irrelevant. The Magic played SLOW the first 50 games last year. He played 32 tonight and the pace was 105.7, that's faster than the fastest team in the league averaged last season.

It would be almost impossible to expect Payton to be able to play more than he did tonight at the tempo he was pushing without fatigue being a major factor.

Great energy.

We've all given Vogel a ton of grief - and often justifiably so - about his rotations over the last 12 months, but tonight he finally did something we've been calling for...

At no point in the basketball game tonight did the Magic play 5 reserves at the same time.

Now...

If they're gonna play with this much pace, they're gonna have to use more guys eventually, but a super encouraging sign that Vogel finally broke free of his "1st team/2nd team" mentality.

OrlandO wrote:

OrlandO wrote:

SpacelyH wrote:Magic taking the L tonight. Good luck

Posting again for good measure

Good game, y'all played well almost all throughout and we were horrible in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.

I doubt we shoot like that from 3 again but y'all finished the game out good and hit shots in the fourth quarter. Can't hate on that, Fournier was hooping.

Def Swami wrote:

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I get caught off guard every time Isaac makes plays with his reach. You don't see it coming at all then boom, kids tricky with it.

I'm really encouraged because 1) I will take any excuse to be encouraged about the Magic and 2) we won while making a lot of mistakes that we should be able to grow out of.

-- Isaac gave up several blow-bys and made some other rookie mistakes but was still a useful player.
-- We made several mistakes with the ball in transition that should become less common as our players get more experience playing at this pace.
-- We had about four minutes of deer-in-the-headlights in the fourth quarter. Hopefully we won't keep doing that.

I'd like to see them try Simmons in the backup pg role and give the extra wing minutes to Isaac.