Odin

The Magic are the most confusing and frustrating team in the league. I love it. I could watch that 4th quarter again and again. If we make the playoffs, I think we are going to surprise a lot of people.

So I am of two minds here: 1. We very much deserved to lose this game based upon that fourth quarter. Way too much rushing, forced shots, shoddy decision making. 2. There seemed to be some bad calls by the refs there- especially when Isaac was absolutely clobbered after he grabbed the offensive rebound. Maybe I am a bit homerish- but shouldn't that type of play be a flagrant foul?

What a travesty

To be fair, Siakam is pretty legit and Wiggins can score in bunches, but can also go very cold.

That is probably fair. I'd like to see some on-off stats for him defensively too- I think that usually helps paint the picture of how much a player improves a defense. But 82games, which I usually used in the past, has not updated for 2019.

These are all hallmarks of a Clifford team right? Don't allow turn overs, don't allow offensive boards, don't foul. Also, I was just looking at the stats for Iwundu. Of players who have defended at least 100 shots, he has the second best defensive field goal allowed percentage. Are we underestimating how good he has been on defense so far this year?

They were letting both teams play very physical. It was a fun game to watch, and I was glad to see Boston lose.

This is all just the odds breakdown from fivethirtyeight which factors in the chance to win every game in the future based on their formula (Carmelo ratings). If you change to their pure elo forcast, they actually improve our odds to finishing 40-42 and grabbing the 6th seed with that at a 73% chance to make the playoffs (yeah, they don't think the bottom of the east is going to look pretty). We have a soft schedule to finish out the year, and I think the crap teams are really going to start fielding even weaker lineups to get better draft odds. I think we can finish up there as well, but it is more likely that we finish around 40-41 wins and the 7th-8th seed.

Definitely, though if we can go on a run that gets us 6th, that would be best. I am really not that scared of Boston or Philly. (They should beat us in the end, but we have played both teams tight with us beating Boston twice so far with one more to go and Philly once with two more to go. We have a puncher's chance against both). It is amazing how quickly fortunes change though, as just 2 weeks ago they had us at 33 wins and only a 19% chance of making the playoffs. And that was with them factoring in our soft schedule to close out the season.

Fivethirtyeight.com has updated our probability of making the playoffs to 60%. They project that we finish with a record of 38-44. This is a 6 win increase from the beginning of the year, where they projected 32 wins and only a 19% chance of making the playoffs.

This is fun.

Kanter is an absolutely terrible defensive player. Kanter is a good rebounder and is effective around the basket, but is a total minus on the defensive end. Vuch is at least ok at defense usually.

I think Toronto should see if they can get Davis. They would still have a strong and decently deep team. Siakam, VanVleet, Valanciunas plus two picks works. It is better (in my opinion) than Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram, Ivica Zubac, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and two first-round picks. Who says no?

Wes is going to have a good career. Don’t know if he will ever be more than a bench guy, (probably is not) but he has shown he can hang.

What’s the story with Bamba?

So, super small sample size, but the BIG line up has been pretty terrible when they have played together. But 23 minutes with a bunch of young guys isn't really what I would call a good sample size.

Tony Allen with worse offense.

Also, worst time to be picking NY or Chicago. It is freezing up here.

Become homeless. Keep your job. Use all of your money to buy lotto tickets. If you are lucky, you will win enough to be able to not work anymore.

Become a professional ball player for a year, make it into the biggest league of that sport for that year, earn a minimum contract, and you could be set if you are smart with your money.

I don't think you are ever going to see Bamba with a body like Embiid, if that is what you are looking for. But there is really no reason for him not to add some more muscle. I think KG is an example of a body type that you can expect.

Jrue seems like a pretty class act too.

No, was more of a "what would his numbers look like if he wasn't playing next to Barrett who shoots half again as many shots as he does, yet only averaged 2 more points a game"? Perhaps I should have gone with that.

I mean sure. I was thinking more on the same level of competition though. That's like saying "I wonder what types of numbers Curry would put up on a less stacked team", and someone responding "Yeah, he would destroy the G-League/Euroleague".

Ha. Fine. Be that way.