OnlyFranz

I’m not saying we ask him to play Ross’s role off the bench. I agree we don’t need him shooting every shot playing with the 2nd unit but we do need someone who is capable of creating their own shot when our starters take a breather whether it’s shooting or driving to the basket which Cole is very good at doing. He is also a willing passer most of the time, plays with a lot of effort, and try’s to find the open man. We need to get rid of Ross as he clearly isn’t part of our future and let Cole have more room to work handling the ball and creating for himself and others with that 2nd unit. Part of the problem with our current bench is that nobody can make shots consistently except for Ross and he’s off more times than not. I’d experiment with Cole coming off the bench and providing that spark before I’d ever consider trading him especially when we don’t even have a healthy team. He’s flashed enough scoring potential to warrant him in that role ala Manu Ginobili or Jamal Crawford.

Once Fultz comes back we can slide Anthony to the 2nd unit/6th man role and let him run the show when the starters come out. He will provide that offensive spark while the starters rest. Our 2nd unit has been pretty terrible and this would fix a lot of our problems with that squad. If Cole embraces this role I can envision a world where we keep all 3 of Fultz, Suggs, and Anthony. Of course this all hinges on if Fultz is the same player pre injury. I guess we will find out soon enough.

Yes I understand you can’t get past the fact we have a horrible record but you’re still failing to realize why we have said record. You also just focus on all the negative things instead of finding any positives in a lost season. What’s the point of being a fan if you’re just going to be negative all the time? Again we’ve been without our leading scorer Cole Anthony for a good amount of games, without arguably one of our best on ball defenders in Suggs, and without 2 of our starters in Fultz and JI. Those guys come back and our bench becomes a lot better because we usually start to lose the lead once our starters sit out and the current bench guys come in. Not to mention we are a very young team with players still trying to figure out their respective games and a new coach/system. Add in the recent games players have missed due to Covid and what were you expecting? I would say the few positives would be Gary Harris finally finding his game, Cole Anthony being a legitimate scorer, and more importantly Franz Wagner showing us how versatile he is and how good he will become in the future. I would love to win more games but that’s kind of impossible to do with the way this season has gone. Also Wagner can’t force guys to make shots when he passes it to them which is why he had such a low number of assists and the turnovers were a result of him being the only guy capable of creating his own shot. He was also getting fouled when he drove to the basket against one of the better defensive teams in the league and not getting any calls which is why he had 3 turnovers. If we are healthy next year we won’t have the worst record in the NBA simple as that.

Yup you’re delusional and a terrible evaluator of basketball talent. We’ve been missing key starters all year. Cole Anthony has missed a bunch of games, Jalen Suggs has been out for a couple of weeks now, and add in Fultz/JI what more can you expect from this team? Franz also makes the right play 9 times out of 10 can’t blame him if his teammates can’t finish when he passes it to them. He’s also being tasked with being the primary ball handler and create his own shot. I get you’re frustrated with the direction of this team in the past but we are honestly on a better path now than we ever were after the Howard fiasco. Can’t expect a bunch of guys 23 and under to come out and beat most of these teams that’s just unrealistic.

I guess you’re just delusional then. We literally have more than half our roster missing between injuries and Covid for most of this year yet you want us to compete with teams who are completely healthy. Franz is the best rookie out of this class and you fail to recognize how well he’s been playing. Nobody is saying we are playing great but we are playing as good as we can with the personnel we have available. Add in the fact we are a super young team and what do you expect when we are playing against experienced teams who have vets and usually an Allstar or two on the roster?

The fact he doesn’t think Franz Wagner is doing anything significant is also laughable. The man is legit playing lights out and he attributes it to being on a bad team and also not making his teammates any better lol.

You’re the most anti Magic fan I’ve ever seen. You don’t get tired of always being so negative about the team?

Agreed with the effort tonight these guys are giving. I hate how the refs don’t call the same calls on both sides of the floor. The Bucks constantly foul our guys on drives but we aren’t getting any calls. Only reason the Bucks are still in the game because of the free throw disparity.

Gravett deserves one of our 2 way contracts. I wouldn’t mind waiving Mulder to make room for him.

I’d argue that a couple of them are worthy of an NBA roster spot talent wise and the fact they are hungry shows with how they play the game the right way. Give me Gravett as our backup pg until all these injured players come back and I would take a flyer on Gillespie as well.

Even though he was in foul trouble the fact he plays team basketball, isn’t one dimensional on the offensive end, and actually hustles the whole time he’s on the floor it really affects the game in a positive way.

I agree WCJ has developed his passing out of the post and makes the right play more times than not. If we weren’t looking to develop our young guys I would most certainly give Rolo all of Bamba’s minutes.

Rolo is leaps and bounds better at the center position than Bamba is. He is a factor on both ends of the floor and I love his court vision. Bamba can learn a lot from watching this guy play.

That was a great read, thanks for sharing!

Yikes Suggs out indefinitely with a fractured right thumb. We just can’t catch a break with these injuries. Only silver lining is we get to see Wagner run more point forward.

Great minds haha

More like the human match smh

Ross is playing horrible and yet coach keeps him in and is allowing him to take these erratic shots. He single handedly killed our momentum and lost our lead. The worst part is he can’t even be traded because he’s playing like trash.

Or he’s just blowing smokescreens like he’s been know to do in the past because we both know he doesn’t give updates with any substance it’s always just fluff. But you’re free to believe what you want just like I am.

I’d take Weltmans update with a grain of salt. He doesn’t ever reveal anything substantial when it comes to updates with injuries or roster moves. Obviously MCW isn’t a doctor but he sees and talks to JI a lot more than Weltman does and I’m sure he has some insider info about what’s going on. I wouldn’t be surprised in the least bit if we see JI start practicing and taking contact come January.

Bad take on Suggs especially considering we haven’t even played 1/3 of the schedule yet. He’s definitely not a PG but that isn’t a bad thing considering we have Cole and hopefully Markelle coming back soon. He needs to play off ball more where he can attack the defense by driving to the basket and hitting spot up jumpers. Suggs problem right now is when he needs to create for himself or others his handle just isn’t there. He is still one of our best on ball defenders especially in the pick and roll and he will only get better on that side of the ball as the season progresses. Are we all disappointed his offense isn’t as NBA ready as we all thought it would be from day 1 sure but that doesn’t mean we bombed on the pick or our FO is bad. Let the kid get a full season under his belt before you make any assumptions about his career and even then it would be too early since he’s only 20 years old and this is the first year he solely focuses on basketball.

I posted the link on the previous page but yeah MCW posted on Twitter saying he expects him back sometime in January.

I don’t agree with you here. We still have matchup problems on the defensive end which JI and Fultz if healthy would fix immediately. If we can get more stops and run in transition that will lead to easier buckets on the offensive end which means putting more points on the board. We already know Fultz can get into the paint and is a pretty strong finisher around the basket something we are severely lacking at the moment. JI was becoming more confident and assertive on the offensive end before the injury occurred. Obviously everything hinges on them maintaining their explosiveness and actually staying healthy but you can’t just count them out and say they wouldn’t be a tremendous upgrade to this roster once they are back.

I can see him coming back with something to prove that’s for sure. If his knee holds up along with the rest of his body I can see him in contention for DPOY because he’s that disruptive when he’s on the floor. We need him and Fultz back in the worst way possible so our second unit can actually be playable when the starters need some rest.