CTMagicUK

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.

We've discussed this before iirc but personally I think the xs and os are fine and it's just the lack of offensive talent involved in the actions that makes them easier to guard than they otherwise would be.

If you haven't watched the first 2 Mind the Game podcasts you owe it to yourself as a basketball fan. Magic fans specifically should watch the section at the end of episode 2 about inverted pick and roll because we're going to watch (and have already been watching) Paolo run it for the next decade. And it highlights just how lethal having a great movement shooter would be for our offense as a 2 man game with Paolo.

We could really use this win tonight because I have very little hope that our peers drop games.

2-9 is insane doomer stuff. We're a better team than Memphis, Portland, Charlotte and Chicago. If we take care of business that should be 4 wins minimum. Then I'd fancy us to pick up at least a couple more wins from the rest. 6-5 is a reasonable prediction and still feels like it might be selling this team short. Side note: I'm rooting for Milwaukee. If they've got the 2 seed sewn up that last week we might be playing bench lineups in those 2 games. They're kind of blowing it right now though...

Besides the obvious top guys who are all kind of up at the top specifically because teams believe they have the highest ceilings I'll say Ulrich Chomche. I don't know much about him to be honest but he's young, athletic, super long played off the radar in Africa so possible scope for growth with better coaching, flashed some skills beyond just being a rim protecting big. But that's kind of a "mystery box" pick because I've never actually seen him play meaningful minutes in a basketball game.

They'll probably turn around and demolish us on Friday too.

Man Yves Missi went missing in the loss to Clemson. Heard some rumbles he's dealing with and playing through a back injury but back injuries for bigs also doesn't fill me with a great deal of confidence..

I guess the silver lining is he makes the money of a bench big and we might want to play JI at the 5 in closing lineups but his inconsistency this season has been disappointing after last year where he was the clear 3rd best player on the team.

Yea Igodahro is clearly a good basketball player but he's an undersized, non shooting big. Think he's the kind of guy who needs a specific fit. Not sure if Kam Jones will stay for his senior year but he's definitely draftable this year the way he shoots the ball.

Colorado/Marquette should be a good game today from a scouting perspective. Tristan Da Silva Cody Williams KJ Simpson Tyler Kolek Oso Ighodaro Kam Jones All on show. Also Clemson/Baylor has PJ Hall, Yves Missi and Jakobe Walter.

Sabonis is honestly the worst All Star in basketball. Anyone can get open and get their teammates open when they can set 2 moving screens every possession without reproach. Exhilarating game of basketball. Thought Paolo sucked it up and our lack of any kind of set to get a decent look at the end was terrible. We should have won that one for JI man he was awesome. Underrated thing about Markelle Fultz that no one really ever talks about is he's great at guarding shooters. Thought he was good on defense here. Pretty good Cole game. Wendell had a rough game. Guarding Sabonis and all that physicality is tough but the lack of offense, the missed FTs etc just not enough. Kings made 5 more 3s, 5 more FTs and won by 2. On balance it was 2 pretty equal teams and a game decided by a coin flip. I'm not too mad, on to the next one.

See the problem with this argument is that I do actually want that from my roleplayers. Are you telling me you'd rather have Markelle Fultz and his 49%TS taking up possessions instead of Paolo and Franz?

Daron Holmes with 23 points 11 rebounds 3 assists, 3 steals and a block on 8/17 shooting and 2/4 from 3 against Arizona today. Big game for him. Had him first round for a while anyway but this might help win some other people over.

Anyone we draft will be competing for minutes or going to the G league in year 1 unless they're way ahead of where they're drafted. Missi I imagine would be the Goga role + going to the G league when WCJ + Mo are healthy.