CTMagicUK

Is he available? Plus Sexton and Russell feel kind of a wash to me.

This draft is so bad I'm actually starting to think Zach Edey has just too much production to pass on at a certain point. He's generally not the type of prospect I've been interested in at any point in the last decade but here we are.

Sure why not. He's no Trae Young/Dejounte Murray but he's still a big upgrade offensively. Defensively he kinda sucks but you can't have everything.

Yea my comment should have had the addendum "if we play like we've been playing recently" on the end of it. We've seen this team battle and win against some of the best teams in the league also. Just recent form is super disturbing. Hopefully Mose gets a reaction out of them tomorrow night.

That sucked but we win. I'm actually thankful we're getting back on the road. 8 game home stand may have lead to some complacency. Can't help but feel like we're getting swept in round 1 whatever happens.

Seen some quotes doing the rounds from a Portland blogger about how they don't want their rebuild to be like ours because we're destined to be a mediocre playoff team. Total nonsense, dont want to give it any actual eyes by finding and linking it but I'd love for us to just hang a 40 point blowout on them.

https://x.com/FawzanAmer_/status/1774457693480104066?s=20

Jeff Weltman is competing with 29 other franchises, he can't just broadcast strategy to placate antsy, "in the know" fans. You're not owed an explanation about non playing, non decision-making, personnel by any sports organization.

General, totally baseless, conjecture: The Osceola Magic had the best offense in the G league and are the number 1 seed. Dylan Murphy, the HC of the Osceola Magic, was on our staff last year. Last year the Magic had 6 guys listed as assistant coaches, this year with Nate Tibbets leaving late in preseason and Murphy going down to be the G league HC we only had 4 (according to what I could find publicly, it's highly probable some guys with slight variant job titles were assistant coaches in all but name) What if we deliberately sent Murphy to HC the G league team to get reps designing an offense etc so that we could bring him back as the Offensive coordinator this coming year? (And if this happens, it could bode well for Jett Howard given he's spent all year playing down there) Once again this is one hundred percent baseless conjecture and I drank quite a lot last night lol

For some reason I thought they were supposed to be and was very confused when none of them were reviewed.

There is nothing to take from that game except Memphis currently has about 3 real NBA players in its rotation.

I think Franz is just being guarded so differently since it's become apparent he can't throw a rock in the ocean. When you're shooting 35+% from 3, teams close out on you, they play up on you when you handle the ball instead of sagging back etc and he's terrific at attacking closeouts or a defense over extending itself in general. Lately though, since it's clear this is more than just a short term shooting slump, teams stop short of closing out to him and they sag off when he has the ball and he has to attack a more set defense. Combine that with the fact that he's still so talented and dangerous that teams still send help, clog the lane, etc. It's probably a lot to adjust to being defended one way for the first 2 and a half years of your career vs another way the last half season.

Didn't like a lot about that to be honest. The defensive effort was great but the offensive execution is lackluster as hell over and over. Paolo makes so many dumb plays to turn the ball over. He got going in the third but I really thought he was bad most of the game to be honest 7 turnovers and 5 missed 3s that were all as bad as turnovers given the context of them. It's bizarre watching someone built like him struggle with the physicality of the game. And you need a bucket end game you just throw it in to him and let him go one on one with one of the greatest perimeter defensive players of all time? No screen? No action? Just your 2nd year guy against a DPOY caliber player? Bizarre. I think I'm ready to see Goga again honestly. Wendell has been bad. Mo Wagner for everything good he does (and it's a lot on offense) just can't guard at a high enough level (it remains to be seen if Goga can really when you play one of these perimeter teams where you need to switch a lot, he probably can't but I'm open to giving him a shot) The duality of Cole Anthony on full display too. That man really called his own number against Kawhi Leonard one on one. I watched it with my own eyes. Idiocy. Also, I love Jalen Suggs, Jalen Suggs is an exceptional defensive player. I'm very much open to us trying to push just how far he can go on that end. But it was very apparent very early that Suggs just didn't have the size to guard Kawhi and yet we still let that switch happen over and over.

I'm so glad we don't have a lottery pick in this draft. Such a crapshoot, even more than usual. I can't even figure out who the top 3 should be.

A Trae/Paolo pick and roll (conventional or inverted) would be so scary for teams to guard. But yea you're right about cost (I'd like to think we have the assets to get Trae and still have enough to improve in the future) + defense (I'd hope we have enough defense to manage but that's harder to predict).

I love the idea that Trae Young is some selfish ball dominant guy (the guy with the 44% career assist%) because that's who he is and not because his best team mate in his entire career is Dejounte Murray, someone who fundamentally plays the same exact role as him (ball handling, scoring PG) but is worse at it. And yes Dejounte Murray is worse than Trae Young at being a PG on offense. This season is Murray's most efficient season by TS% in his career, comparatively Trae Young has been more efficient than this Murray season in all of his seasons but his rookie season. This season is a career high in PPG for Murray, again Trae beats that in all but his rookie season. Murray's career high in APG in a season is 9.2, again, you guessed it, Trae beats that in all but his rookie season. So Trae scores more, scores more efficiently and at the same time also sets up his teammates more frequently. And just in case you wanted to argue that Trae puts up empty stats and doesn't impact winning Trae has played more playoff games than Murray in less seasons played. He lead a team with these starters to the conference finals (and took the eventual NBA champions to six games): Trae Young/Bogdan Bogdanovic/Kevin Huerter/John Collins/Clint Capela. The only time Dejounte Murray has ever been a key player on a playoff team was when he played with Trae Young.

Not necessarily. Atlanta likely have to move on from one of Murray or Trae because it's not working with both of them together. (Id still prefer Trae honestly)

I agree with this 100%. I've been harsh as hell on Cole at times this year but that's why he deserves his flowers when he plays well. He's still a bad defensive player for the way we specifically play defense (heavy switching and a lot of single coverage with late help) but he's really improved on defense this season honestly, he makes smart rotations, he helps and recovers, he plays hard on that end. He's just not especially long or strong. But when he is hitting shots that opens up the rest of his game and he can get in the lane and play make etc he can be a real positive for us. I also agree with the problem areas of the rotation. The thing about Joe specifically though is for as generally bad as he is on defense there are times where it feels like the Jo/Mo pick and roll is the single most productive action our team runs so I'm generally thankful for Joe, a 29 year old Joe Ingles who played defense would be a dream. Wendell I'm sad about. He was comfortably a top 3 player for us last season, this season I'm not sure I'd put him in the top 5. (Part of that is the leveling up of Suggs and the return to health of JI but also Wendell has just not been as good or as aggressive). I am starting to wonder if we move Wendell in the summer and stick with Goga (or sign another C like Hartenstein or Claxton). Like I'm not necessarily saying I'd do that but I do think that's more of a possibility now than it was at the start of the season.

Complaining about Cole after that game specifically is WILD. I was more scared that anyone other than Cole was going to shoot.

He's a similar archetype but he plays defense which'll likely get him on the floor a lot sooner. Until I see Jett make an impact in an NBA game I'm not factoring him in as a reason not to draft somebody. Plus you really can't ever have enough 6'5+ guys who can pass/dribble/shoot.

To be honest at this stage of the season every game feels massive.

Yea tbf it wasn't a good game for my "the xs and os are fine" take to follow.

Just checked the other scores. Somehow we got lucky and the Cavs, Pacers and 76ers all lost.

Deserved to lose. The lack of effort on the glass was depressing. Thought Paolo was the worst player on the floor honestly. Terrible defense, terrible rebounding, terrible shot selection. Without Cole that would have been a blow out.

Jonathan Wasserman's latest mock has us getting Jakobe Walter at pick 19. That'd be a great result for us I think.