Odin

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2739837-magic-rookie-jonathan-isaac-forgot-his-jersey-in-nba-debut?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial Isaac was so nervous his first game, he forgot to put his jersey on before sitting on the bench.

I mean, it might- but they still don't own their pick this year, so it won't help them any.

Yep- there are too many variables in one game for the statistics to give a valid picture of the situation- too much noise in one sample. I think we need at least 10 games to get a better picture, the numbers will still be a little distorted due to a small sample size, but they won't be that bad.

Dipo and Harris both had good games though- Stanley Johnson with the 0-13 line- Lol.

Yep, frustrating- he had wide open dunks on basically all of his shot attempts. Needs to get those. And Gordon needs to calm down a little on offense.

Good to know. I would probably have been freaking out if I was in Hayward's position, but my feeling might be colored by the fact that the one major injury I have ever suffered was wrapped up by the emergency room and I was sent on my way with no further treatment only to have to go in for surgery two days later with all of the other doctors looking at it after the ER visit saying that my injury should have been taken care of and treated sooner.

I am kind of befuddled that they didn't just rush him to a Cleveland hospital right away and instead flew him back to Boston- especially when Cleveland, from my understanding, has some highly regarded Hospitals. I would think you would want to get it taken care of ASAP no matter the severity and wouldn't want to put it under undue stress from the additional travel and time.

Minus the gruesome injury- good start to the season with two close games that went to the wire.

Plus a good teammate and a solid vet presence who has seen it all. As my favorite player during the Dwight years, I'd love to bring him back and see him retire here.

I don't see how triple doubles show that he made players around him better, and I am a Payton believer.

I think it is fair to look at pre-season "success" with suspicion. I think it is also fair to look at improvements in play style and tactics and see potential for real success. I think Aaron Gordon will be really good this year and modest improvements from other players plus better schemes suited to our players will equal more success- but I also think a lot of the season will depend upon the adjustments Vogel makes or does not make as the season goes on. I really really hope that this is the year that everything starts to come together though.

I have to say, I am much happier with the Afflalo signing over a Jeff Green/ Ben Gordon type. One, we are paying him less, which is always a plus. But more importantly, he is the type of vet you want to have on your team, a guy that has been very professional his entire career. It also doesn't hurt that he is still probably a better player than 2016-2017 Jeff Green (though he was obviously not very good last year either), but will most likely not get much playing time as we have better players in front of him.

So how long until we are the champs?

Should improve with stronger Guard/wing defenders. Also, no Jeff Green. That is a huge improvement.

Same here- trying to tell myself to be less hyped as it will probably end in disappointment like the last few years but - AARON GORDON IS GOING TO BE AN ABSOLUTE BEAST AND ALL OF THE REST OF THE GUYS ARE GOING TO BE GOOD AND WE ARE GOING TO WIN (more) GAMES!

I'd rather he get a 2nd contract Curry type deal signed before the season starts :-).

Eh, a lot of those players will likely stay with the teams they are currently on, which can pay over the cap, leaving much fewer players on the open market. There will be at least one team out there with cap space that misses out on getting one of the stars and who will overpay for a consolidation prize. Not saying that he will get a max contract, but I don't think your reasoning is why he won't.

I know- I am just saying that the market seems to be over-valuing potential right now- for the reasons stated- which has made players like Gordon likely more expensive.

So I am not getting these max contracts to guys coming off of their rookie contracts without having shown enough- no all-nbas, no all star selections, no playoff success. (This includes our guys, potentially). They are being paid still for potential that they may never reach- getting high potential guys is always good, but it is good because they should be cheap. I mean, I do get it, teams are afraid the players will flee to a higher bidder if they don't offer the max- but is that smart in the long run? Is that how successful teams are run? I get giving a player like Anthony Davis a max contract- he had dragged New Orleans to the playoffs and been an All-Star and All-NBA player. Or Paul George who had also gotten All-star and All-NBA nods and played in the playoffs. But these players getting them now- what have they done to earn these types of contracts? Why are teams paying so much for potential that may never be filled (especially concerning is Embiid's health. I hope the guy can stay healthy as he looks like he could be a fun player to watch, but Philly will likely be stuck as a mediocre team if he can never stay healthy (I assume Simmons and Fultz will be able to drag the team into the playoffs by themselves over the next two seasons at least)) Maybe I am being an old stick in the mud, but the player should actually have accomplished something to be getting a max contract. Gordon probably should be getting around $100m (and even that seems high to me), but will probably get more because teams have collectively decided to overpay for potential.

I like that Vogel is using this time to experiment with line ups (love Gordon at the 5, I think for short periods of time he would be able to change the structure of the game). I hope Vogel pushes himself out of his comfort zone this year as the best coaches tend to be the coaches willing to experiment and create the best situation for their players.

What I don't get is the idea that playing him at SF last year hurt his progress. Sure, he didn't look as good as he had previously- he didn't make the jump that was expected with more minutes, but none of what he was doing should hurt him going forward. We saw that he was able to take over games on the occasion. We saw that he was able to handle the ball without turning it over (his turnover percentage actually went down). We saw that he was comfortable taking any defensive assignment handed to him. Yes, there are areas that did not go as well as we would have liked- his shooting wasn't there, he struggled to be a true facilitator. His rebounding went down. His blocks and Steals went down. But I think that he showed a lot of good things that he can build on beyond the "just screen, cut, and finish" type stuff that they seem to want to box him into. He is great at that stuff and we should run more of that for him, but he has some rough other skills that should be beneficial for the team if used properly.

I think the national media is sleeping on him as a major break out candidate this year- but maybe I am just being a homer.

Yeah, I'd love to participate, but I know that I won't be able to keep up this year.

Hey, I am not going to be able to participate this year, school+work is getting crazy. Can you all find someone to take over my team?

It sounds defeated- he has been here the longest, and hasn't seen any success at all. I understand it mentally, loss after loss after loss can be demotivating. But it is completely unacceptable from a player, especially one who likes to think of himself as a leader. Once you start thinking that way, it is over. And the worst part of it is that type of thought can be contagious and affect the rest of the team (this is basic behavioral management). If anything this increases my desire to see him gone. Maybe on a different team he can regain his belief- but we don't need him dragging the rest of the team down. I will wait to see if it was taken out of context, but I am not going to hold my breath.