Odin

Vuch looks way more comfortable shooting the 3 this season, which I think has really opened up the floor for everyone else. Edit: I was looking at his stats and was surprised to see that he is attempting about an extra shot per game this season compared to last, but is attempting 1 fewer 3 per game. I think that helps illustrate what we can see with our eyes, that he isn't being lazy and settling for long jumpers on offense like he has in the past. He is also shooting career highs from every distance but the mid-range 2 (10-16 feet). I don't think that his level of efficiency is likely to remain as high as it has, but I think he should continue to be more efficient than he has been in the past if he continues to play the same way.

To be fair, we've played a pretty easy schedule through this stretch.

Rebounding is a disgrace.

Lol, the Knicks don’t know what defense is.

He’s going for the record

That Isaac move.

Flagrant?

That Philly game woke up the sleeping beast that is Isaac.

Is Simmons out of his funk?

I think we should keep Iwundu in the starting line up for a little while longer. Last game was his best game of the season though- I don't think he has shown enough consistently for us to say that he should have a major role on the team going forward.

The biggest issue on the bench is that we don't really have a true shot generator, whether generating good shots for himself or teammates. The team gets too stagnant on offense when we go all bench.

Some shooting things: Gordon is currently scoring over 76% of his shots around the basket. For reference, Lebron James has only passed those percentages around the basket 4 times in his 16 year career, the first time coming when he was 28. Our team as a whole is 4th in FG% around the basket (within 3 feet). However, we are second to last in the number of attempts at the rim- which is probably part of what is deflating our efficiency numbers. On the other hand, we are 12th in the % of shots taken 3-10 feet, while being the 20th most efficient in that area, and 7th in % of shots taken 10-16 feet while being 29th most efficient from that area. We also take the 5th most long 2s (16 to the 3 pt. line) as a portion of our total shots, but we are 7th most efficient from that range. From the 3, we are average in both attempts (35% of our shots are from 3, which puts us 16th), and efficiency (34.6% as a team which puts us 19th). We are still the worst team at getting to the free throw line, even though we are 16th in free throw shooting percentage. Basically, our efficiency issues are a combination of us not generating shots in areas where we are good to average and taking too high of a percentage of our shots in areas where we are not efficient (mostly in the mid-range), while also not being able to get to the free throw line. Thankfully, our efficiency numbers have been going up.

I don't think our bench is that bad, the issue is that they don't really work as a unit right now.

So, a few things I have been thinking about: Only 2 players had bad games, Fournier and Bamba. Best game by Iwundu in his young career. If he can do that more often, he will be in the league for a while. Simmons really needed that game. Isaac was huge during that run. Ross is a boss. Vuch is legit beginning to demand serious respect. Not only offensively, but he was a big part of the reason Embiid went ice cold in the second half. Gordon just does so many nice things on the court now. How many of his passes ended with the receiving player getting fouled? Also, some legit defense. Loved that block where he just ripped the ball away from the other guy.

Nah, love Ross off the bench.

The Magic suck, didn’t you know?!? Ross is here, baby!

Ross. Duh.

Ross!

Hell yeah Isaac!

Gordon grabbing rebounds and pushing the pace really helps open things up for the team.

There were a couple spots where he should have shot- like when he got right under the basket.

Well maybe if I did more research I would have known that.

I like Simmons, but Augustin is probably more beneficial to our team. His shooting is really helpful. Edit: I just learned that D.J. Augustin's middle name doesn't even start with a J. His name is Darryl Gerard Augustin. I feel like I have been lied to.

It is only on 87 shots in his career so far, which is a decently small sample size. But it is not nothing.

Hmm. Gut reaction is that we seem to be getting the slightly worse end of that deal- which probably means that it is fair. Breaking it down, Fournier is still young, but Fultz is obviously younger with higher potential. Chandler would add extra cap space going into next year. Fournier is currently better and would be the perfect offensive player for Philly to acquire. We are probably not hurt too much by this though with how Ross has been playing. Fultz fits our timeline, and has the potential to be good even if he does not re-find his shot. He is shooting 31% so far this year from 3 (ok, he has only taken 13 and made 4 so super small sample size), but that suggests that it isn't as broken as people seem to make it out as. Also, he is already pretty good around the rim, finishing 65% within 3 feet so far in his career (both this year and last year)- that is something young guards often struggle with. (Some examples for reference: Kemba has never even passed 60%, Curry didn't until his 6th year, Oladipo didn't until last year, Iving didn't until last year, Rondo only hit that mark once, in his 4th year, CP3 didn't until his 8th year). I think I might actually be pretty excited if we swung a trade for him.