Fultz4thewin

The problem is a fournier-Vucevic pick and roll is the most efficient thing we do. So when we say "give the ball to fultz" it's pushing a less effective strategy. We're operating on the presumption that fultz will fix a lot of that with more reps and more defined responsibility (and he's already pretty close to eclipsing Fournier so it's not like the drop off would be huge). Plus he'd make fournier more effective by opening up more catch and shoot opportunities. So we have to hope fultz starts taking that role from fournier with improvement vs having Clifford just give it to him. Because that won't happen as long as these numbers stay the same.

I am being objective

We're a couple weeks of sustained improved fultz play from closing that gap though.

Our attendance numbers are better than Memphis both home and road. Our TV numbers are better than Memphis. In the national discourse going on lately a magic player is constantly being included in discussions whether that's Gordon's dunk contest, Gordon trade discussions, a discussion about Gordon's ceiling and whether he can reach it in Orlando or if we're to blame for that, discussions about how much we like fultz and whether or not that's a mistake at this point to be married to him, or fournier being discussed as a potential prize in this free agency class and what we plan to do with him. We're definitely more relevant than Memphis.

What does any of that have to do with relevance?

I don't know if that's the right way to measure relevance. Like Toronto is significantly better than Philly but Philly is definitely more relevant to basketball discussion because there's not really much to talk about with Toronto. They just keep chugging along.

I'm not sure Memphis is more relevant than we are.

No. I mean I got it. Nobody is mad about someone getting cheated out of a thing that doesn't really matter and this is going to bring more attention to his effort than it probably would have otherwise. It just sucks that someone put in a lot of effort into something and then had that accomplishment taken away from them by a cheat. When I was 7 or 8 years old I was playing in a youth basketball game. We scored to go up 1 with something like 2.7 seconds left. The parent of an opponent was reffing the game and he had them change the time remaining to 15 seconds. We ended up losing. It still bothers me. I wouldn't remember the game if we won. We all have these lessons in our lives where you can put in effort and do the right thing and be a good person and be good at something and have nepotism or corruption or favoritism take priority over you. It just sucks that had to enter a dunk contest. So I'm not mad about Aaron not getting formal recognition as a dunk contest champion. I'm mad for Aaron that he was cheated out of something that he put a lot of effort into.

Aaron cared

We're 2 games behind Brooklyn and play them 3 more times. The result of those games will ostensibly be the deciding factor of what seed we get

It'd be cool if we just destroy them in a couple weeks

There's not really a way for us to play the heat in the playoffs

Ja Morant said he wouldn't even participate in it after Aaron got screwed

I can't believe Gordon got robbed again because Wade cheated.

We're 8-7 when Gordon gets more than 15 shots and 16-14 when he gets more than 12. This isn't a really good way to measure that though. Anecdotally his shot selection seems to improve as his level of responsibility in the offense increases.

Clark kind of depends on decisions at other spots

I'd be shocked if we didn't bring back MCW. He fits what we're building too much and has been outproducing his role. Everyone else I don't have a good read on right now

The problem with Gordon analysis is that every data point in the past is him in a limited role fighting for shots in a slow paced conservative execution based offense with a bunch of players than don't put pressure on the defense because they can't attack the paint. The premise for Gordon optimism is that a change in team makeup will unlock another step forward in his development given what we see when we put him in those types of lineups and really flashy dominant games from time to time. I don't think Gordon is ever going to be a star. But his reasonable peak is someone worth keeping, especially if we're talking about a return of someone not all that special like Oubre. It'd be different if we were talking about Bridges or a guy with a higher ceiling.

There's totally a way we keep both. All that would need to happen is for Gordon to maintain the level of play from February for the rest of the season and into the playoffs. That's 19.6 ppg, 8 rebounds and 5 assists on 45/41/71 shooting. Unlikely, but that's the way. Gordon and Isaac are good together when both guys are shooting league average from 3. It doesn't work if Gordon is shooting 27% and Isaac is at 33%. Considering fultz is the objectively better bet for stardom and we can't yet reasonably project fultz to be an above average shooter this team will never work with multiple poor shooters on the floor at the same time. The bet with Gordon last summer was his 37% shooting the last half of the season into the playoffs was who he was going to be going forward. For him to stay he needs to convince us that his poor shooting from the first half of this year was due to injury and he's really a better shooter than that

Based on what I expect is going on, a normal athlete in normal circumstances should probably be able to return in 3-4 weeks. I don't know if that means he'll be in "NBA" shape. I don't know if we'll be overly cautious and hold him out. You'd think they'd want him back testing it in limited capacity. I wouldn't expect him to be a full participant this season but you could basically give him Clark's minutes for the last 15 games and hold him out of back to backs

Jesus man hope you're ok

He'll be good enough to stick. He's got a well rounded skill set and a high IQ. He'll at least be Mike Scott

17 of our next 20 games are against similarly talented teams to us or worse. Benchmark for success is 12-8 or better. That leaves us with 36 wins with 7 games remaining, 5 of which are against playoff teams.