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Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/26/2022 in all areas

  1. 4 points
    Fabulous. Let’s throw away another season and screw up the young player development some more for a 15% chance of landing the first pick. Tanking really is like an addiction. Edit: Sorry. 14% chance. Bonus: Demoralize further your fan base which had gotten a little excited about who we just drafted.
  2. 2 points
    Alright in the past couple of days I've watched (or re-watched) 3 full Duke games. The Gonzaga game. The game @FSU and the UNC final four game. I think the defensive concerns around Paolo are definitely warranted. In fact I think I have concerns about everything he does without the ball in his hands. Defensively it just feels like he sleep walks through possessions. In the 3 games I saw missed rotations, missed assignments, lackadaisical close outs, ball watching instead of boxing out (Leaky Black had like 4 OREBs in the final 4 game because Paolo was ball watching). The thing is i've also seen him switch on to guards and keep them in front, make great contests at the rim, use his quick hands to strip the ball down low and make good rotations on help defense. He can do it and he's got all the tools to do it. He's not Vuc where he just lacks the physical tools to have an impact I think he can at least get to the point where he doesn't hurt you on defense. I hope the culture that Mosely has started to instill here of hustling and working hard and making winning plays can rub off on him a little on that end. On offense he's not super active without the ball, he's not running hard to fill the lanes in transition, he's not cutting hard off ball or rolling hard after setting a screen. Im not super concerned about that though to be honest, he's had the ball in his hands his whole life he probably hasn't ever had to consider playing off ball and I think he'll learn quickly that he can score a lot of easy points by moving off ball on this team playing with some of our guys who are really great passers (Fultz, Suggs, Franz, WCJ). The handle is good but it's not elite. For a 6'10 PF its definitely well above average but I wouldn't trust him to consistently handle the ball full court against pressure. He picked the ball up early and had the ball stripped on a dribble move a couple of times. He's definitely going to need to play with a real PG at least at first. All that said the good stuff is incredibly special. I buy the jumper massively, he makes 20 footers off the dribble (and not 1 dribble but like a string of dribble moves) so I really don't worry about him becoming a good 3 point shooter as he develops. The passing is special, lobs, drop offs, kick outs, hit a heads in transition, extra passes. He scored 21 points in a half against Gonzaga and looked genuinely un-guardable (but then he didn't score in the second half...). He's so difficult to stop getting to the rim when he finds a driving lane. As a transition ball handler he's terrific with his combination of physical attributes + handle+ passing. I'm super excited to see him play in the NBA.
  3. 1 point
    “Banchero's on-court production and scoring have carried him to a virtual tie with Holmgren in the model's projections, despite him going No. 3 in Jonathan Givony's latest mock draft. Among our top 100, he ranks: • No. 1 by the NCAA production-based model • No. 1 by the model from AAU stats • No. 3 in points produced, a measure of offensive contributions created by Dean Oliver Banchero's strong performances at events such as the Nike EYBL (AAU) in 2019 (he averaged 22 points on 51.5% shooting along with 2.5 blocks per game) and the NCAA tournament, during which he averaged 18.8 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists while shooting 53% from 3 amid Duke's Final Four run, have been impressive and consistent enough that the model views him as the best prospect in the draft before the expert ranking is factored in.” This is predraft content but I don’t believe it was posted here. In addition to what was shared above, the stats show that Paulo is 51% likely to become an all-star (tied with Chet). https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/34122501/2022-nba-draft-projections-best-prospects-most-overrated-most-underrated
  4. 1 point
    there was significant suspicion amongst rival executives that Holmgren’s camp preferred he land in Oklahoma City and not Orlando. While rumors had been flying around the league for a couple weeks about what was going on, most of them unfounded and overly speculative, as I understand things, at least one concrete maneuver was taken to steer Holmgren away from the Magic: according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, Holmgren bailed early on the last day of his Orlando visit, conducting a brief on-court shooting workout that he cut short. While I don’t know whether that impacted anything with the Magic’s decision at No. 1, objectively, it’s very hard to use a high-stakes draft pick on a player that doesn’t truly want to be part of your team. https://www.si.com/.amp/nba/2022/06/24/nba-draft-paolo-banchero-chet-holmgren-jabari-smith-final-thoughts So I posted a few days ago about the booing going on with Chet at the Magic draft party …looks like the feeling was mutual …and patting myself on the back I’ve been saying this about Chet and his disinterest in the Magic …way back 100 pages or so ago …as soon as I saw that TMZ video to me it was clear …and I said so .
  5. 1 point
    I’ve been revisiting Suggs’ rookie season, and honestly if he cleans up the handles some and shoots more efficiently (which I think could be a direct result of improved handles, and that both are likely,) he’s a potential star. He’s super fast, super competitive defensively, makes incredible passes, and just generally works hard. He’s never gonna be an amazing iso scoring guard (probably,) but a better jumper would almost immediately make him a real force. I think he could take a nice step next year.
  6. 1 point
  7. 1 point
  8. 1 point
    Great analysis !!! Hard to believe that OKC and Houston FO's didn't want Jabari....it was appeared happened. We'll hear a bit more about this drama that the King of Drama / Jeff Weltman orchestrated in the 2022 draft.
  9. 0 points
    Thank you for that last sentence. I, like so many of us, were duped by the media and even the Magic, that Smith was the best fit for the Magic (best three point shooter (which we sorely need) and best defensive player) so Banchero came as a surprise. As Bilas said draft night there were 3 #1 picks. So we got one of them and a very good one. We are now a better team after Thursday night. How good we will be is up to Moseley and our management development team. In fact we are a team with one of the best rosters (potentially) in the NBA. A team with 2 #1 picks, 1 #5 pick, 2 #6 picks, 1 #7pick and 1 #8 pick. Add Okeke and Anthony along with RJ and we have a very good roster of 10 young players. (not even counting Ross who could be really good with the rest of these guys around him--glad he was not traded). Chemistry and development/improvement will have to now be the primary focus. And we have two first round picks next year. But this front office always leaves us head scratching. We did get a great pick but did not, for all our posturing, turn that into anything but a great pick. Trading that second round pick for one "6", yes "six" years later (plus cash--hope it was a boatload) for a pick that has to be in the top 5 to match what we had, and I do not cuss much, is a "WTF". Laker front office probably was saying "Hey, watch what we do to the Magic?" and did it!!! Not sure if Weltman's infection disease of "youngitis" requires treatment at this point. Perhaps the good point is that if we kept pick 35 we would all be debating "what were you thinking taking that guy at pick "35" so we were spared. Even yesterday and today as other teams are signing players to two way contracts and summer league rosters we are twiddling our thumbs. (i.e. a poor man's Jabari Smith Jr was Dom Barlow (who we worked out I think), a SF was signed by the Spurs). Too young?????? Bad scouting?? Other teams are aggressive and manage to do these things. Not us???? Having said all that we have a good roster despite not being aggressive (do not bring up the Chicago trade because that fell in our lap not anything we inititated) this is not just nit picking. On draft night announcers praised the Warriors on how they draft and manage their roster. Other teams entered into their dialogue at other times but not us.. We never do. And what are we going to do with our FA money (only one of five teams that have money to spend and we have the most--+ $27,000,000). Will we do anything? Even if we do not want to get a player then taking on bad contracts can net a team more assets (Memphis and New Orleans pre-draft rade last year.). I would guess we do nothing which is what is so frustrating to me. I just do not see this FO as being elite.
  10. -1 points
    I was at the draft party in fact on the Twitter feed where it shows the magic reaction to the pick me and my two friends are in the bottom left hand corner. I wanted chet or jabari, but Paulo is not a lost draft pick like a Darko Milicic. Paolo could end up being like emeka okafor pretty good first three years, solid player for about 7 role player for the next 5. That's not a bad career and that's not a bad pic in the end, It just might end up being overshadowed.
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