The Ghost
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Posts posted by The Ghost
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Big Baby simply doesn't know his own limitations. He thinks he has the stroke of Kobe with the Athleticism of Jordan, it's extremely frustrating. Too much time around KG I think.
Poor shooting night from JJ but he's controlled anything decent we've done offensively tonight, so you can't complain too much.
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Thank you Marc! I was sitting here thinking the same thing before I read your post. Last season I honestly did not see or understand why some of the posters wanted Stan to play Ish. (It's not that I wanted Duhon as the backup either) In my opinion, there is/was no difference between the two. It's just like Marc stated. All I remember seeing was this little guy running fast and most of the time when he tried to attack the basket, it was not with positive results.
Ish would do a lot of dribbling from side to side (away from the basket near the 3 pt. line) looking for someone to pass the ball to. And just like Duhon, he would dribble the clock down.
To be honest, I was hoping that Ish would be cut before the season started. I was so-o-o disappointed when I read that the Magic re-signed him.
:sadcrab:
I appear to be unintentionally lumping myself in the Ish Smith fan club, but honestly I don't really rate him. He is an extremely one dimensional player and it is questionnable whether he is really good enough for the NBA.
My seemingly pro Ish sentiments are based on the utter despair that I felt watching Duhon every game last year.
Both aren't/weren't good enough, we badly need Jameer back.
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And all Ish can do is take the ball up the court, just faster.
At least Duhon could hit an open shot.
From what i've seen Ish has barely had an open shot, other than what he has had to create for himself (something Duhon couldn't do).
Ish is a very average player but at least he has some transition skills (well he did last season anyway). Duhon was so untrustworthy as a point guard, that he literally did nothing more than (try to) carry the ball up court, and shoot the occasional wide open three. Two of JJ, Jameer or Turk had to be on the court the same time as him otherwise we had zero creativity.
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He hasn't regressed, he has always sucked. This is why quite a few of us were sick of hearing about Stan not playing him. He can't run an offense, he just runs around real fast and looks like he is doing a lot.
I don't think anybody really believed Ish was a great player, but he at least offered more than Duhon (whose only role was the carry the ball up the court - although he struggled with that at times).
Maybe is it the system or added responsibility, but he has just been a turnover machine so far this year.
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It looks as if we have gone from one duhon quality player on the team to about 7.
Looks like Ish has regressed to fill the Duhon role. He has been terrible.
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My main concern with this style of offence is that younger/inexperienced players just get completely lost. Also it appears to give Big Baby a licence to do whatever he wants. Which is obviously dangerous.
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it's weird isn't it? it's like a whole different team we're seeing now.....maybe what we're seeing now was the real team all along and we were just playing with house money those first two.....First time i've ever seen 0 effort in consecutive games....i thought we were suppose to "play hard" i don't see any effort at all man this just sucks
Edit: wait a minute did i just hear that right? 3 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and it's the FIRST TIME WE'RE GOING TO THE FREE THROW LINE?
A very mediocre effort all around, but to me it just looks like we've run out of ideas. Based on tonight, it seems like any team with a semblance of defensive organisation will be able to completely shut down our offence.
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As exciting as some our play has been in the first few games, our offence looks utterly clueless right now.
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I'd never really thought about it fully before, but the bit about the other players in the league being liked purely on the fact that they just act like themselves, is so true.
Dwight has tried so unashamedly to craft a polished image for himself, that it's impossible to have any respect for him.
For example, I seriously dislike Kobe and KG, probably my two least favourite NBA personalities. But even in their most arrogant/b*stardly moments, they don't make me cringe like Dwight does when he is bafooning around looking for attention.
It's easy to trash Howard now he has left, but that article sums up how i've felt about the guy for some time now. Obviously he was our superstar so I didn't hate him, but I always smelt a a lot BS in the way he presented himself.
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Great read, thanks for sharing that, but Dwight isn't one of ours any more, so I'm moving this to the "Around the NBA" section.
Apologies, that dawned on me right after posting it.
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I hate to open up old wounds, but I found this to be extremely righteous and to the point:
That is all. GO MAGIC!
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My only prediction for the game is this: Baby will ABUSE Boozer.
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Sure, we're not the most talented or experienced team in the NBA. We have a bunch of young, unproven players who are hungry and eager to leave their mark. I have a feeling this team will win several games from simply out-working, out-hustling, & grinding down our opponents.
Can't get our hopes up too high, but what an amazing start to this season.....couldn't have scripted it any better. 80 games to go, let the grind begin!!
I think away games may be our undoing (in terms of reaching the playoffs).
As long as JJ and/or Jameer don't suffer long bouts of injury then I think we'll be competitve til the end.
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Building through the draft doesn't guarantee shiieeet.....literally a lottery sometimes you get lucky sometimes you don't......how many high draft picks have the Bobcats had over the years that didn't amount to shiiieet......plus i think this years draft class isn't really that strong and honestly i don't think we're tanking this season simply because it's the same year Dwight left i don't think the Magic want to risk losing fans this season so it may be possible that they'll try to win as much as possible this season and try to make the playoffs to hook the fans.....THEN the next season we try to tank for Wiggins but for me personally i hate losing man.....tanking sucks for me....Big Time
^This^
The problem I have with the no.1 draft pick is that we become one of THOSE franchises again that caters itself to and builds around an individual player (a la Dwight). This may be important from a commercial standpoint, but as a fan i'd rather be watching team excellence (like now) than a superstar putting up 40 every night and controlling everything on and off the court.
I'd prefer it if we fight hard every night, help our current crop of rookies flourish and just let the situation evolve naturally.
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This is beautiful :)
You can tell there is a massive team ethic. It'll be interesting to see how we cope with adversity when it eventually arrives.
I can't get over how awful Denver have been.
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Good start! With that said, Denver look terrible. Aren't they supposed to be good?
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I am PUMPED. No more of that 'Into Dwight in the post....freethrow' for 48 minutes.
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I was thinking about this earlier and I'd love to have a lot of excitement for this year but I've found myself tampered over the last few days.
I hate that we have Aaron Afflalo tied up. Dude's an average player who isn't a guy you build around and now takes minutes away from a guy we've seen develop into a late-game stud in JJ Redick. Someone who has been truly loyal to this organization and fanbase and been someone to constantly rally around the last couple years when Jameer was struggling or Dwight complaining. JJ has always been solid. I'm bummed that we're replacing this guy with a dude who doesn't make us a great team, nor does he have the potential to ever be anything truly special.
We still have Hedo on the team who honestly ruins games for me. I can't stand his game. It's absolutely horrid, he plays with no effort, and he constantly has me wanting to smash my TV. Knowing he's going to get another 30 minutes per this year while taking minutes away from guys like DeQuan Jones and Moe Harkless really kills a lot of my excitement.
Out of our 5 starters, we have no one who can dunk. We have no truly great prospects that will have explosive games (and this coming from someone who thinks Harkless will be an all-star in due time) this year.
I love Vaughn's offense and Jameer in crunch time is still one of my favorite players to watch but unless we really surprise people and win 35-45 games this year, we're going to be terrible to watch.
Don't know why I'm in such a negative mood today but that Dwight trade just sucks. Probably in wake of the Harden thing knowing the Thunder still get a dynamite 6th man and a JR Smith type rookie. Not that I would've wanted that trade for us but it's just frustrating that if this year goes sour, it won't even be one where we'll have players providing us constant excitement.
Now if the deadline comes and AA is traded and Hedo is deactivated Lamar Odom style, things will change but our starting line-up has 2 guys over 30 (one of which taking time away from our 19 year old top pick), a 27 year old with no ties to the fanbase except Gator fans saw him abused by Corey Brewer twice, and Glen and Vucevic who I'm both happy with.
Hopefully I'm wrong. Hopefully Jameer starts the year redhot, hopefully Nik has a great double-double year, hopefully Harkless and Jones push Turk out. But I'm not expecting it $$$$.
I'm the opposite. So many experts, critics, fans are putting us down and saying we'll finish with the worst record in the NBA, but this hasn't dampened my enthusiasm.
Why? Because I absolutely hated the way we have been the last couple of seasons.
Everything about the team revolved around Dwight, and quite frankly it was suffocating and terrible to watch. We made too many trades based around supplementing/assisting Dwight's game, and because we had the most athletic big man in the league, we completely sacraficed the athleticism of the rest of the roster. Our playbook became incredibly one dimensional and if we weren't hitting threes then we were effectively beaten. I didn't feel overly proud to have a winning record or a dominant big man, because 90% of the time we had zero style. Any opposition team who put on their thinking hats could make us look completely stupid.
Although we will probably be a losing team, at least we are now just that - A TEAM. No big shots around to handcuff our potential. We now have some athleticism and variety across the roster, and with the future cap space/options, things can only improve.
Turk is infuriating, but his lazy/garbage plays will be highlighted this year. Last season there were so many areas of our roster that basically weren't good enough, but because we kept squeezing out the wins, it just papered over the cracks. The best thing about our situation is that we don't have any big commitments, so if a player wants to stick around for the forseeable future, they'll have to earn it. Too many players last year were getting a free ride and living off Dwight's dominance, and it just made us complacent.
I know a ball hasn't been touched yet, but I miss nothing about the last few seasons. No our situation isn't ideal, but in my eyes it is infinately better than the end of the Dwight era.
Rant over.
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Now Whether people want to win more than that is a different question in it's own right....me personally i don't care how many games we win just as long as we're not out there TRYING to lose....i like watching magic basketball i wouldn't be able to put myself through watching a whole season of dudes just mailing it in just to get a top pick....
Amen. I don't think there is a lot to be gained from tanking a whole season and hoping we get a high pick, it'll just set us even further back in my opinion. We're better off slowly building from where we are now, even if it means a mediocre season.
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First post! Greetings all.
Orlando is the only place i've been to in the U.S (I'm from the U.k) but the main reason I am a Magic fan, is Penny. He was the reason I became a fan at least. Didn't really start following the team properly until a couple of years ago. By this I mean I actually started watching a lot of games (which is quite tough since we are 5 hours ahead of EST). Some of those west coast games have made for interesting mornings at work.
Would you welcome Dwight Howard back?
in Orlando Magic Forum
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I think the operating word is "predictable".
We were becoming extremely predictable. As the disparity in the consecutive Atlanta playoff series showed, a lot of teams began figuring us out and shutting us down.
The entire franchise's dependence on Dwight was often our undoing. Given his limitations (free throws, average post play), we relied on him way too much, but we kept going to him anyway because he was our superstar.
LeBron James he is not, I think our future looks brighter for having moved on.