Odin

Fournier and Vuch did try to run some pick and roll- it basically was terrible every time.

Who is ready for an upset?

So, only able to follow along by box score- but DJ is lighting them up. Not bad for “not starting quality”.

I am deeply confused by your desire to see our team destroyed by Giannis. Toronto games: 1. Lose at the last second to a healthy- if still gelling- Raptors 2. Win by blowout a healthy Raptors 3. Win by 15 over a Kawhi-less Raptors 4. Lose to Raptors Philly: 1. Lose by one in a very close game- late Redick 3 pointer, then Gordon fouled and almost ties the game up. 2. Beat Philly by 5 with their shiny new toy Butler. 3. Lose by 8 to an Embiid-less 76er team. 4. Win by 21 to a Ben Simmons-less team. This shows that with Philly and Toronto, we are at least able to keep it close when we play their full team, and we have the chance for a victory. We get destroyed by Milwaukee when they have Giannis.

Or Boston

I want Philly.

Durant can be a good defender, but I don’t think he is an elite defender- he isn’t consistent enough.

By reign in, you mean guarantee 4 game sweeps to our first championship, right?

Lol, I was looking for my prediction but couldn't find it. I think I was in the high 30s. We were all feeling a little jaded from the 2018 season though, where a lot of us were predicting 40+ wins.

From what I can find, no one thought we would be around where we are.Kevin O'Conner might have been the most positive as he said we'd be fighting for a low playoff seed at best (which we are), but didn't give an exact prediction. Zach Lowe was another guy that was a little more positive, and by that I mean he said he could imagine the best version of the Magic being a 35 win team, but that he didn't see it. If we are more fair to all of these guys though, most of us were more pessimistic at the beginning of this year.

I guess in the end it doesn't matter that much, but why briscoe over grant? I am guessing injury and availability?

Do you think Jefferson could replace him if needed? I feel Birch is a lot like Dedmon- definitely an NBA player and worth some minutes- but not irreplaceable. I just haven’t seen enough of Jefferson to say I am confident in him.

Wow- if any team shouldn’t do that, it is the Kings. They might actually be on to something with their pace and most of their important guys are still pretty young.

Since we are talking about Vuch, is it just me or has been a lot more engaged on the defensive end too? I was pretty impressed watching him a few times last night- often good positioning and good energy. That might be almost as important as his hitting needed shots in the 4th.

What a comeback!

Yeah, it has been my feeling for a while that it will turn into second rounders. It is just easier to refer to it as a late 1st.

Fivethirtyeight's algorithm can't decide who it likes more between Miami and us for making the playoffs. Every game it switches its prediction. Of course there is still the non-zero chance that we both make it and Brooklyn is knocked out. I think it isn't that far off. We have 4 true playoff teams, one team on the edge, one team that always plays us tough, and two bottom feeders. The Heat play 4 true playoff teams, 2 teams on the edge (depending on how you feel about the Nets, that could be 5 payoff teams), 2 west lotto teams that aren't complete bottom feeders in the Timberwolves and the Mavericks, and the Knicks. I think it will come down to the wire and tonight's game might be the most important game of the year for us.

I also think Iwundu has been the better player this year- but would we have been able to get Fultz for Simmons + a low first if Simmons had been benched?

So, that Miami win last night was not good for us- it really was a game that they were supposed to lose. For example, fivethirtyeight gave us a 60+ percent chance of making the playoffs before last night with Miami having a below 50%. Now they are giving us both a 56% chance.

Yeah, we are not playing in a style that best suits our supposed "future". Defensively, we have mostly been fine, but I think the last game just illustrated a lot of the offensive issues that this team has. How many desperation last second shots were there? Outright bad passes directly to the opposition? Sloppy, forced play? Also, Gordon needs to pick up his offense. He is shooting below 40% for the month so far. With his skill around the basket, this percentage should frankly be unacceptable. Honestly, it is frustrating to see him again having a below average efficiency shooting season.

Football manager is the only sports game for me right now (save me).

Are we hating on Gordon now? Isaac has only been decent offensively for like a month...

Is this an Isaac game?

For Gordon, that is a total of like 45 possessions, which seems like a pretty small sample size. (The defensive numbers seem off though. No one, according to the NBA has defended more than 175 iso possessions. Yet 10 players have more than 200 offensive iso possessions, with Harden having over 1000 already.) Ross is in the 92nd percentile of pick and roll ball handlers, while seeing 3.3 per game. He is also in the 88th percentile for spot up shooting. Scary one: Vuch is in the 44th percentile for post up players, while posting up over 5 times a game. In fact, none of our players should post up as they are all terrible at it. Vuch's 44th percentile is actually the highest. Gordon: 32nd. Bamba: 14th. Isaac: 5th. Thankfully neither Isaac nor Bamba do it frequently at all. Gordon on the other hand has about 140 post ups on the year. Interesting super small sample size items: Vuch and Isaac are both in the 97th percentile for iso scoring. (neither has more than 30 possessions.)

I prefer Vuch for all of the personality related issues that have plagued Cousins his entire career.