CTMagicUK

You know from all season I'm right there with you on McNeely. Was very surprised the league thought so low of him. The draft talk around him was so dumb, being compared to other white shooter types and then discussed as an inefficient shooter. When a) he has so much more to his game than like a Corey Kispert and b) he'd been a good shooter his entire life but had like a 20 game slump on a bad ankle. His pre-draft honestly reminded me of Tyrese Maxeys where the one inefficient college season as a shooter seemed to hold more weight to the league for some reason even though everything else (including previous jump shooting track record) suggested a much higher calibre player.

Magic over/under win total is 51.5. That's a tough one, optimism says take the over but only 4 teams won over 51 games last season.

Also I wasn't impressed with Kylor Kelley or Wendell Moore Jr and those guys would have been my first two guesses for 2 way guys. Similarly Nate Santos, who we gave an Ex10 to and will be with us in preseason, also didn't look much. Summer League is crazy every year I see the roster and am like "oh these dudes are the ones to look out for" and then every year those dudes rack up DNP-CDs or play 10 mins while we watch some randoms suck it up. It feels like there's some very specific way that this team approaches Summer League (because the summer league squad generally has the same vibes and make up every year) and yet I can't for the life of me figure out what it is or what it intends to accomplish. Maybe deliberately sitting guys in games to see how they cope and root for their teammates because they're going to be on the bench a lot if they make the NBA? Maybe just know that the guaranteed contract guys are only going to play a couple games so they split out minutes to get a longer look at more players? I don't know.

Quite surprised at some of the guys who didn't see the floor. I always forget how diabolical SL basketball actually is until I watch some.

"Lure", we already replaced him lol.

In 27/28, once JDub is maxed they'll be paying 4 players (SGA, JDub, Chet and Caruso) basically 100% of the cap.

Also the Magic do have the best mascot in sports yes.

I'm weirdly excited about summer league even though I place very little stock in summer league as a barometer for success. (This is your annual reminder that Franz Wagner looked horrible in summer league) And I'm not entirely sure Summer League is the ideal setting for either of our rookies to truly showcase themselves. I guess because we have the two way spots open and with only 14 rostered guys it's possible some of these guys playing in SL will actually be with the main roster and get some burn this season if there are injuries etc.

114 starts in 3 seasons averaging 16 and 8 and Thunder fans are **** talking the Paolo max lol (I like Chet and he's awesome defensively but this is a lot).

I don't believe this is true. Suggs has got the easiest contract of all 4 top paid guys to navigate around because it declines in value. In 28/29 Suggs makes 13.6% of the projected cap. That's the equivalent of someone making about $21m this coming season. There are currently about 90 guys in the league who make $21m or more this coming season. Obviously a lot depends on his health and dependability but in a world where the Magic are contending and Suggs is healthy and impactful I can't imagine why we'd need to trade him. We may at some point want to trade him for something else I suppose. I think if you're looking at contracts that are looking less likely to be played out with the Magic we should be looking at Isaac and Wendell first and foremost, after that maybe you get to Suggs but I imagine a lot depends on the next year or maybe two before you make a decision on it.

Paolo Banchero year 3: 55% TS whilst leading a team to the playoffs despite being the worst shooting team in the league. Cade Cunningham year 3: 55% TS whilst leading a team to 14 wins. Did anyone cry this much about a Cade max? I don't remember it if they did.

They just need something to talk about in July. Paolo was a second year All Star, would have been two time All Star if not for injuries, when do those guys ever not get the rookie max?

I'm irrationally optimistic about Noah Penda. Summer league interviews everyone is talking about how hard he plays on the court and how much competitiveness he brings. Jase specifically mentioned he can guard 4 positions which is presumably something he's seen in practice. And all the answers he gives are super grounded and intentional. He mentioned he was looking forward to seeing how the NBA game is officiated differently in Summer League which is a very detail orientated thing to say when most guys say things like they want to "showcase their abilities" etc.

If Franz gets to 35% from 3 it's literally over for the league.

Kind of smart from Paolo to align his timeline with Franz and Jalen. The player option is always going to be scary to Magic fans but we have this core for 5 years. If we haven't won by then Paolo would likely be requesting a trade either way player option or not. And if we do win at least one everything that happens after that is secondary to the fact that we won a championship finally.