Leaderboard

Love how you stuck that Golden State win on that list. Seems legit, lets go MAGIC!

So, breaking this thing down, 23 games left (10 home 13 road), 3 back to backs, and 11 games vs teams either in the playoffs or fighting for a spot. February 22 -- vs Chicago (W) February 24 -- @ Toronto (L) February 26 -- @ New York (W) February 28 -- vs Golden State (W) March 2 -- @ Indiana (W) March 3 -- @ Cleveland (W) March 5 -- @ Philadelphia (L) March 8 -- vs Dallas (W) March 10 -- @ Memphis (W) March 13 -- @ Washington (L) March 14 -- vs Cleveland (W) March 17 -- vs Atlanta (W) March 20 -- vs New Orleans (L) March 22 -- vs Memphis (W) March 25 -- vs Philadelphia (L) March 26 -- @ Miami (L) March 28 -- @ Detroit (W) March 30 -- @ Indiana (L) April 1 -- @ Toronto (L) April 3 -- vs New York (W) April 5 -- vs Atlanta (W) April 7 -- @ Boston (L) April 10 -- @ Charlotte (W) I think we go 14-9, with the most important stretch of games from March 26-30. @ Miami, @ Detroit, and @ Indiana. I think we lose 2 but I'd love it if we could win 2 or all 3. The Heat have a tough stretch of games in the second half, Hornets have a tough 2nd half. I think Detroit and Orlando will make the playoffs either as a 7 or 8. Brooklyn holds on to the 6 spot.

I am kind of assuming that we are looking for a PG or a Wing in this draft. So for this draft there are three real possibilities of where we end up drafting in the first round, and one quite unlikely possibility: 1) We make the playoffs - this means that if we have the worst record among playoff teams, we would pick 15th. Odds are good even if we make it as the 6th seed, we would still have a worse record than the Western Conference #8 seed, so in the "make the playoffs" scenario we end up picking between 15th - 17th. Options there may include Nickeil Alexander-Walker, KZ Okpala, Kevin Porter, Coby White, Tre Jones, Ayo Dosunmu. 2) We just miss the playoffs - this means if we don't get lucky in the lottery, we end up picking in the 10th-14th range. Options there may include De'Andre Hunter, Keldon Johnson, and maybe Darius Garland or Jarrett Culver. Also, any of the players listed above as non-lottery. 3) We miss the playoffs, get lucky in the lottery and end up picking in the 2nd-4th range. Our options then will include at least one of RJ Barrett, Ja Morant, Cameron Reddish, and should also include Romeo Langford, Nassir Little, and any players I mentioned above. 4) Unlikely possibility - we miss the playoffs, win the lottery and end up picking Zion Williamson #1. Now, my picks for each scenario depend on some other assumptions, and things we might see. Assumption #1 - we manage to re-sign TRoss to a new contract, and Assumption #2 - we see signs of Fultz becoming 70% or more of what people thought coming out of college. My second pick in each scenario is a Fultz recovery of less than 70%. My third is a Fultz bust (I don't think it likely, but prepare for anything) or BPA. The higher I am picking, the more likely I am to pick BPA regardless of need. 1) Nickeil Alexander-White, Coby White, Tre Jones 2) Jarrett Culver, Darius Garland, Keldon Johnson (if Culver/Garland both gone BPA) 3) Ja Morant, RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish (BPA) 4) Zion Williamson (might trade for assets + top 4 pick this year)

Basketball reference has us at 38.5 wins, the 7 seed, and a 57.5% chance to make the playoffs. Think we need to really shoot for that 7 seed. There's not a series that we have a good chance to win but I think Milwaukee is the worst matchup for us. We handle Toronto really well because we're built to handle siakam, it doesn't really bother us to have Kawhi take Gordon out of the game, and I'm not as worried about Augustin and fournier defending Lowry and Green. Philly or Boston are definitely winnable. Philly with Simmons is easier to defend and they don't have the depth to kill us. Boston should just out talent us but we won the season series against them so maybe there's just something there. Milwaukee is the only series that I think is a definite 4 or 5 game series. The rest I think we can push to 6 or 7 if we play our best and maybe if the other team looks ahead we can steal one.

I've been saying for a while that Markelle Fultz was the ideal PG of the future for us (if healthy) that we should attempt to trade for. The fact that we got him for next to nothing is absolutely incredible. Outside of SG, we have ever "position of the future" set in my mind and now just need time to allow guys to grow and gel. We had Oladipo and Harris on the same team in their young 20's and now both are in talks of being max guys. Let's not blow this thing up and trust the process. Fultz (healthy) / x / Gordon / Isaac / Bamba is a scary good future if they pan out to just 70% of the players they all can be.

Anyone else see this video interview of Fultz just posted on the magic fb. I’m slightly worried 2m40 into the video he looks like he’s doing that twitching. Hopefully I’m wrong I’m a huge fan of Fultz, I can’t wait to see him play for Orlando.