OnlyFranz

Sure but we also have the locker room to handle that. The kid has the talent he just needs the structure and support around him to help him succeed. We should have definitely taken a flier on him considering our situation but we have a FO who is content with this team which is absolutely absurd. This would have been a low risk high reward type of move. Kinda like the Fultz deal that just fell into our lap.

We really missed out on Kevin Porter Jr. another potential stud just needing the right opportunity and some playing time. Would much rather have him playing for us right now than Randle, Bacon, and Clark.

This guy gets it! Cheers to this post. The FO are the ones responsible in putting a cohesive team together. They haven’t shown they are capable of coming even close to that and instead rely on excuses/situations to dictate their decision making. Someone is always injured and we always need to wait another year to evaluate what we have. Well how long do we need to sit and wait to evaluate a team that looks the same every night? Like you stated if Vuc is our guy what is management waiting for? We don’t make moves with the hope we grow internally yet don’t play any of our rookies to see if they will actually develop. We have it all backwards and it is starting to seem like a lot more people are finally feeling the same way.

Cliff gonna be Cliff. Guy just needs to go in the worst way possible, he just doesn’t get it.

This X 1,000!!! The team is not going to develop and get better if we continue to run those lineups. No reason Bamba should not be seeing at least 20-25 minutes a game consistently from here on out, along with Chuma. I don’t care who it is you will never get better without getting live action reps and being able to get that valuable PT. We need to stop playing Clark, Bacon, and Birch and start playing our rooks more as this is a lost season anyways.

We can only hope that’s what management plans on doing because I can’t take another 3-4 years of Fournier and I was a big supporter of his when we first got him. I agree with that and then the fact he’s now resting 2 games in a row makes it pretty likely he gets moved which I wouldn’t be the happiest about honestly. I still think AG on the right team would be deadly but unfortunately it looks like it won’t be with us. Part of our problem is the fact we have a defensive minded coach who has no clue how to run an offense. His rotations are highly suspect and he doesn’t put his players in the best positions to succeed. We need to bring in a coach who isn’t scared of player development and making in game adjustments to rotations when teams are simply outplaying us. If you hold all 15 guys accountable no matter who it is you won’t get mediocre play every night out.

Ross is questionable as well for whatever it’s worth. I have a feeling all 3 are getting traded which is why they are sitting out to avoid further injury before we make the trades happen. Just hope the return will be worth it.

On a side note, anyone else watching this Lakeland G league finals game? Mane looking great on D and so does McCall.

He looks a lot bigger too! Can’t wait for a healthy roster next season.

Agreed! Thankfully we are forced to get rid of them or we end up losing them for nothing. Would love to see what a team full of competent players and Vuc leading them would look like. I have been a critic of his at times but he’s really shown out this year on both ends of the floor and he deserves more than what we have been putting around him all these years. Wish we could trade Cliff for Lloyd Pierce while we are at it and get some actual player development for the young guys and decent rotations. Tired of the long leash he gives to certain players and not holding them accountable.

If we unload both that would be a huge step in the right direction. Means we are committed to developing Bamba and moving on from the failed buddy ball experiment. So even if that’s all we do I would be ecstatic.

Makes no sense. We aren’t developing our 6th round pick when we are full of injuries. Why Khem Birch is playing over him is questionable but Gary Clark and that’s inexcusable. Give me Lloyd Pierce to coach this team, I’m over Cliffords head scratching rotations.

What happened to Bamba getting more minutes? So far Cliff has played him sparingly after publicly stating that which is odd to me.

Nope we should all be doing that hoping it really comes true. Tired of watching his low bball IQ every night. And to think I actually have a jersey of his. Disgusting lol

Or another old school mod Davciv or the mighty Marc Acres and echo4papa. I’ve been here for a while as well lurking in the shadows over the years haha.

I agree with this as well. The season should be chalked up as a lost one already with these devastating injuries. The only thing to look forward to is the continued development of our rookies. Although the way they’ve used Bamba up to this point tells me both the coach and management are still clueless which is a shame. No where in the NBA would you ever see Gary freaking Clark play heavy minutes in a rotation over a number 6 pick, in a year where there are injuries up and down the roster, and yet we still don’t develop the one guy who could really use the playing time and could potentially help us win some games if it finally clicks for him. Hoping to see more Bamba moving forward but that may only happen if we have 6 players available for a game forcing Coach to play the man.

Agreed! Clifford needs to go for even thinking this way and Weltham needs to go for even allowing this to happen with the current state this team is in. In no world should your draft pick only get garbage time minutes when we are getting blown out and losing games anyways. This goes back to the incompetence/lack of a winning culture of this whole organization.

Unfortunately I was there in person to watch this. Can’t really fault us for losing because of Injuries but at the same time why are Ross and Fournier committing low IQ turnovers at crucial moments of the game? These are our vets making things impossible for us, not even the G league players that we have in the rotation right now. We shoot ourselves in the foot far too often and pair that with our incompetent bench and you have a recipe for disaster every night. Since that 09 team we haven’t been the same and it’s getting old fast.

Hats off to our guys though for fighting back from that huge deficit all game long. I was just able to rewatch the 4th quarter (that’s when I turned it off) and I admire the heart/hustle every player showed out there. Cole Anthony hitting his first game winner looked natural too and the first of many for him in a Magic uniform. Hopefully this game lights a fire under our guys and we come out strong tonight.

They have no strategy outside of drafting long wingspan guys who have some sort of previous serious injury, can’t shoot, but have tons of “potential.” Basically like throwing a wet paper towel against the wall and hoping something sticks lol. All their moves have been predictable and mediocre at best up to this point. The team clearly lacks a shooter/go to scorer and we repeatedly draft/sign guys that don’t address that glaring need for us.

Love how management finds non shooters to construct a basketball team. This is atrocious to watch. We always find the worst role players to put around our best players and then we wonder why nobody ever wants to stay.

That’s what happens when you have years of mediocrity and are tired of the same regurgitated nonsense. It’s still early in the season and yes injuries have screwed this team over this year but it’s the same old song/dance and we are fed up with it.

I’ve known it’s Alex Martins fault because the Devos family gave him free reign to make basketball related decisions he had no business making. I even brought that up and got told by other posters I was wrong it was the GM’s fault. If we look through the history of the Magic and our ultimate shortcomings there are 2 contestant factors. Alex Martin’s and the Devos family. We’ve changed multiple coaches/players and yet we still come up with the same results over and over again. Once both of those are gone we will be a competent franchise. Until then be happy with resigning Vuc/Fournier type players and trading away the meaningful assets. I’m still a die hard Magic fan but definitely not a believer in this Regime.

Your boy Buddy Hield wouldn’t be a bad option either. Not sure what his contract looks like though.

It’s going to be interesting what kind of lineup we roll with and what the rotations will be with all these injuries. I imagine Clark slide to start at the 4 tonight with Birch playing some backup PF possibly.