JJZFL

It depends a little on what you mean by player development. If we continue to see sloppiness on defense, even if it looks like some of the individual players are improving, to me that's a problem. I think defense depends less on talent than offense. No doubt we have young and athletic players. Defense has a lot to do with attitude, intensity, and being in the right place at the right time. To me a lot of that is a reflection on the coaching. I certainly don't mind if we lose a lot of games next year, but we shouldn't be getting blown out repeatedly in the first half. We need to make the other teams earn every point. As long as I see that kind of defense from our guys, I'll be satisfied no matter what the record.

I agree. There were so many variables that it is hard to judge Jacque Vaughn on this season. I would have liked to see us make less mistakes on defense where the other team got easy lay-ups as the season progressed, but as you said we did keep changing personnel. I think the personnel will be a lot more stable next season. Most of our players will have had at least one year in the NBA. I don't expect us to compete for a significant playoff spot next year but I do expect our defense to be better, with significantly fewer mistakes. I think it's possible JV may be judged somewhat on next season, not just 2014-2015. If there continue to be many defensive mistakes leading to easy points for other teams, and if teams continue to regularly score 60+ against us during 1st halves, I believe questions will come up.

I agree with everything in your post. I guess the question I have is whether coaching had anything to do with the team not all being, as you say, "on one page" on defense. I also wonder if our young players (certainly including Harkless) were adequately developed from a defense standpoint during the season.

I agree with some of what you're saying. Nick did do a very good job of rebounding. And Harris played with energy at times. However, we gave up over 101 points per game. No one can seriously argue that our defense was good. Especially not our interior defense, which was awful. I can't find stats for points in the paint, but it sure seemed like we gave up a bunch. We were badly out of position many times, allowing easy lay-ups. And most worrisome, it seemed like our defense got worse as the season went on, even after baby came back.

My favorite moment of this past season was when the buzzer rang at the end of the 4th quarter of the final game. Nothing to celebrate when we're this bad. I hope our young guys are developing. I thought that our defense honestly got worse as the season went along, though, and that worries me. That's not the kind of development I'm looking for.

We already had Nick and Harris on the floor a lot this season. I may have missed something, but I didn't see a lot of "crazy energy" on defense. And I did see an awful lot of second chance points given up. Let's say for arguments sake that we might get a bit better with a line-up like that, though, and win maybe 30 games. How does that help us develop?

I'm not too interested in the playoffs with the Magic out. Actually, I think the most interesting thing by far isn't the basketball, rather it's what Dwight will do if the Lakers get booted early (sure looks like that will happen). Will he leave the Lakers? Will be fun to watch.....

Intersting. I did not know that.

Dear god THANK YOUR FOR THIS QUOTE!! This is my whole point with Trey Burke. "Oh we need a PG might as well draft Mr. Average" . Ugh, no thanks. We have more needs than just a PG on this team so draft best player available because anything but a SF helps us. I agree. Take the best player and let the chips fall where they may. I think that even the current personnel should have been able to play better interior defense than they managed last season. A lot of times they were simply beaten on backdoor or other plays where they were out of position. Other times, it seemed like we lacked effort (especially going after long defensive rebounds). Not sure how much a change in personnel will help with those kinds of problems. Our team is certainly young and athletic enough so that they should be able to play energetic defense.

I agree with much of what you said. I would mention, though, that it usually takes a couple of years to get aPG ready to play in the NBA. I agree our interior defense was very poor, laughable at times. However we have quite a few young athletic guys on the team currently. I don't know why our defense was so bad. It may be the coaching as much, or more, than the players. If thats the problem, getting another athletic young guy who can play great defense may not help that much.

They aren't directly comparable since they don't play the same position. However, I disagree anyway. Watch Jameer bring the ball up the court to start the half-court offense. He never makes the first pass until the shot clock has run down to at least 14 seconds. Often he waits longer than that. And on defense he's always been a liability. He's loyal to the Magic organization, a good outside shooter, and a great guy for the community, but overall we badly need a new PG.

I'm not sure I agree with that. The Lakers, Spurs, Celtics and others usually field good teams. And while some of the other teams now doing well did do poorly for awhile, there are plenty of teams who hit bottom and stay there a long time. Hennigan is a very young GM. I hope he makes the right decisions but every fan for every team hopes that their GM makes the right decisions. And our coaching staff is also unproven. I just think the risks being taken here are underestimated. There is an assumption that in 2-3 years we will be an up and coming playoff team. I sure hope so, but I think the odds are against it.

There seems to be an assumption in some of the posts that you can tank for a couple of years, get some good young prospects, and then quickly become a playoff contender again. I'm not so sure it's so easy to turn it off and on. I'm looking at some other teams that are terrible this year....Cleveland, Washington, Charlotte, for example. They've all been very bad for at least the past 3 years, and don't show any real signs of turning things around. I think there is a real risk here. Losing often begets more losing. Players and coaches develop an unhealthy mindset. And it can result in a downwards spiral that can take a very long time to clear up. I hope that doesn't happen here, but we need to at least acknowledge the risk.

Anyone think Magic will compete for a playoff spot next season?

Agreed. The jury is still out on what happens here. There is no guarantee that you rebound over the next few years to become a good team....

Another blowout. Do we think the team is getting better and that the young players are developing, at least? Hard to really be certain when you keep getting beaten so badly. I wonder why Nicholson isn't used more. Magic could sure use some offense....

Do we think the coaching is doing a good job of developing the young players? Just giving them lots of minutes is not the same as developing them. Developing great offensive moves and shooting can take time. But defense has a lot to do with effort. I don't see the consistent effort on defense that I think the team should have. To me that raises questions about the coaching.