Luke_FfS

Also, it's not like other GM's are completely stupid... they already know that we're a terrible 3p shooting team, and I don't really believe that a post-season interview could change the price we've to pay in a trade... ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I'm not sure if this post belong there on in the playoff section, but whatever... even if I've wrote that I'm really happy for what our players have done, and that we surely exceeded expectations (and I stand by that), I'm still deceived by both FO and coach. Last offseason, CTMagic rightly corrected me saying that Ingles was only a PF at this point of his career, too slow to play SG/SF. Too bad our guard rotation has been so terrible that we were really playing almost all his minutes at SF, with Moe+Wendell/Isaac, in a lineup we shouldn't even consider. Then some time at SG too, and in a certain point of game 6 (if I remember correctly) a lineup of Ingles-Franz-Paolo-Wendell-Isaac. The other hot point in the playoffs, as I wrote multiple times, was to shorten the rotations. 14 of the 16 teams involved in playoffs were already playing a 8 man rotation by game 2, even the ones that were easily controlling the series. A 9 man rotation with heavy minutes to the starters (around 40) was the exception, while there were also 7 man rotation at the end of some matchups. In a league where guards and 3 point shooting are more important every year, we constantly choose size and length. Our big lineup would have been great in the 90's maybe, not anymore. When other teams make a trade at the deadline, we stay put, even if we've glaring problems that were even more exposed against CLE. When coaches start to implement a shortened playoff rotation, we maintain the regular season one (10 players and full bench lineup even in game 7). When everyone ZIP, we ZAP. Did we really believe we're that smart? Are we? Did we know better than other FO and coaches? When I see those in-game decisions, when I read those Weltham and Parker declarations, I'm not so optimistic about the future as we should be with such a young group (not clearly a contender still, but we could have easily won that first round series).

OKC is actually younger than us. Hard to swallow because we could have won this series, but I'm proud of all of our guys anyway, they've exceeded expectations for sure. Lesson learned in this series will help them in the future, being up 18 in game 7 and lose it's a hard lesson for sure, but that's what happen when you lose the right focus and cohesion. Now it's time for FO to make the right moves, without further indecisions.

We absolutely could do it!

Yeah, I'm delighted too, and even more cause we stopped DM big night, but even if I'm as happy as possible as a Magic fan in the recent past, let's not hide the fact that we won DESPITE some terribile coach choices (kudos to all the guys for the way they're facing the playoff athmosphere) and a little injury luck (Allen with problems, Mitchell with problems even in a big night, LeVert playing only 7 minutes) With Allen already out, for them it was a big asking, their rotation was terrible and it showed big time with only the two guards being able to provide points. Let's go up a notch and steal a game away.

For Harris? This is really getting out of control... I've probably never seen such a weak backcourt rotation in a playoff team, but going that route is not the solution IMO. And coach isn't exactly helping the confidence of the other guards out there. No trust at all to Fultz, and indirectly to AB and Houstan?

Will be another learning experience, whatever happens. I'm also not confident cause Mitchell has the experience and a lot of great playoff games in his CV, until now we had him under control more or less (more in O-Town), but I always fear he gets hot. We had Harris on him initially, made a good work, and then Suggs probably even better. Keep it up.

Two more things I forgot in my last post. Even if Isaac is able to stay with Mitchell/Garland, one of his strenghts is interior def, covering all the weakness of his teammates and moving when is needed the most. If he has to stay outside the arc, that ability is lost. And when we had the super-high lineup at the start of the 4th quarter (with no starters and then with only 1, Suggs), Cleveland had both Mitchell and Garland in, as it was a key moment of the series. NY last night has played all the starters almost 45 minutes... I don't pretend the same and I know Thibs tend to wear out his players, but we're so young, game 5 was possibly the most important one... IMO, we should have played all the guys that were working, and bench every rotation one that was not helping at all. 6+ minutes without either Banchero/Wagner was madness for me, in every game of the series, but especially in that one.

Look at what a simple playmaker, with no lenght or phisicality, could do only being smart... McConnell from the bench I'm talking about. We don't even have a real PG in the starting lineup. And PG is no Paul George! :P Again, I love him, yesterday I've only shared my positional doubts, but he would also request max money, it's not in line with the age of our group, his injury track is not that good... I mean, I wouldn't be unhappy if somehow we convince him to sign with us, but I'm not sure it's what we really need.

I love PG. but we desperately need guards, possibly a playmaker. With Franz at 3 and Paolo at 4, PG would create a logjam we don't really need.

I'm not sure on Allen (losing a key rotation player it's not usually a good news), but you could have a point. During regular season they were hot when missing some players too. As us, they're also badly constructed, and the Allen-Mobley pairing it's hard to manage in today NBA. Both teams could have been great a couple decade ago though... Not only at the end of the game, but at the start of the 4th too, when we had that monster lineup on the court. If it was a couple of possession thing, no problem, but actually happened in multiple possessions.

Still angry about that loss. We had a great lucky break in the right moment with the absence of Allen and didn't take advantage of it (could have attacked more the paint a lot of times, especially considering our outside shooting) When a game is that close, every little detail counts. A lot of forum members already indicated FT and TO's. Let me insist on rotations... we played again 6/7 minutes without any starter. And then some crazy ones where the PG was actually a SG (Suggs), the SG was a SF (Franz), the SF was a PF (Ingles) and the PF was a C (Isaac). With Isaac guarding a lot of times Garland or Mitchell in those situations. I love him and he's a wonderful defender, but that's asking too much, and also a big risk to have another injury while chasing those fast guards. Without those weird choices, we could have won that one away, Also, coach should make choices considering who's performing in that game and who's not. (I'm looking at you, Cole)

The silence before the storm

There're always players that are going to surprise/outperform. Character is important too, there're great players that tend to hide on the greater stage, and rotation players that became unplayable. Moe would be annoying as hell to play against if he wasn't in our team, those players you tend to hate. But it's with us and has been a great value for money. His weakness in defense is still glaring, but hey, I would pay to see every single player we have going out, night after night, with such s driving attitude and self-belief.

I'm with CT here, they're not going to blow it up (unless another crazy player request happen), they have to try it at least another season after the all-in moves they made. Don't forget that their season has been injury plagued as hell - not enough time to make it work in playoffs. Even if they had that time and played enough together, a legit question is if they were able to contend. The Beal-Booker pairing has been questionable at least since the trade was made.

A third quarter to remember. If game 3 was needed to show we belong there, game 4 was a confirmation we can play for something bigger. Especially after another shaky start (controlling TO is priority one right now) When we play at home we've a different approach (and faces). Great to see literally everyone stepping up (key moments from Fultz and JI when we were down and suffering big time) when Paolo is having a really average game. Keep another big one for the away game, cause we still need to win one in Cleveland to take it home. Will be really difficult, but we're in the right mindset now.

Are you sure? https://investor.hasbro.com/system/files-encrypted/nasdaq_kms/inline-images/MTG Players1.jpg :P

Also the wider rotation in this case plays at out favor, and our best players possibly played a little less minutes. Very good win last night, it was necessary to show we belong in the playoffs and we're alive in the matchup. I hope all the players are well aware that winning by 30+ doesn't mean we're suddenly great. I've finally seen the right faces and the outworking, outrebounding the opponent we missed in the first two games, and we can't afford to lose that attitude. We lost those against a Cleveland team that is not exactly great, or hot. I actually believe almost every team out there in the East could win a series against those Cavs, that until now have played two quite good games, and an awful one.

Also having a great coaching staff. And a management that constantly make moves to try to improve instead of evaluating-sleeping.

Still evaluating. Not a lot to say that is different from game 1, except that this time Harris had a very good game (liking him a lot on def too) but we wasted it with a lot of bad performance from other players. Mosley still too slow adapting and reacting. Slow starts have been a problem in regular season too, but now I couldn't accept lack of motivation from such a young group. Didn't liked some of the faces I've seen. We're predictable and slow as hell. In half court offense and on fastbreak too.

Actually I've no problem with Isaac starting if he feels good enough, except the fact that this lineup has no experience playing together. But it's an option, giving Wendell inconstency. My main issue is how we manage rotations later. The same Isaac, or probably Franz, should go out early to be back with the second unit (playing Cole more with starters to avoid his hero ball?). No lineup should be made by reserves only, and I believe even better if at least two starters are always in. Having depth is good on regular season, but in playoffs you don't play 10/11 guys. Also, Moe and Ingles together are a big big defensive hole, so if the choice is play both, please stagger their minutes.

Even if I loved having Isaac available for extended minutes, our starting lineup only played 44 minutes together all season. Our best three players had absolutely ZERO playoff experience, and even if the Cavs isn't a top level experienced team, they had a lot more than us. There was a few good lessons our young players can learn from yesterday. Everyone that was hoping for us suddenly becoming a good offensive team was honestly dreaming - regular season issues always gets magnified coming playoffs. We will not become good in a couple days, but there're surely things we can do better, and not only on offense. Even if for some stretches our def was great, we also conceded too much dunks and easy ones on the paint. We are a great def rebounding team, and we let too much offensive ones too. Suggs just need to take a deep breath sometimes. Harris was unfortunately terrible on offense, but made his work on def (even if I would like Suggs to take Mitchell sometimes too, and being focused on what he does best, defense) Rotations: talked about it all season, now that we're in playoffs we MUST play ZERO minutes without any of our top two players in the lineup, not to mention all three. Fultz-Cole-Ingles-Moe-Wendell is a terrible choice (two bad defensive players + one bad offensive one) amplified by the fact that Isaac was starting and not there helping the second unit. Little details we could and should improve. Cleveland will react too. Hope we can stay closer.

Not an offensive expanded role by design, but following the flow of the game. A lot of times paint was clogged with no space for Paolo and Franz. In playoffs will be even more, so we'll need the low volume guys to hit their shots. If Harris is able to shot at high %, like he has done last season and this one before the injury, he'll help our stars have more space. But we have to find him in the right spots first.

Probably a long time since we had so many mentions in Lowe selections. Suggs receiving the most. https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/39944541/zach-lowe-final-selections-nba-mvp-roy-other-awards https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/39970480/lowe-naming-2023-24-all-nba-all-defense-all-rookie-teams

Harris is not making anything exceptional, but it's solid and in our situation, is a good fit for what we have. There could also be an argument that we're not maximizing him, with our lack of ball movement and spacing. When he's hot from 3's he could make the difference, potentially an X-factor for our series.

My big-NO to Trae was basically related to chemestry problems and fit in our team (even before his return to action), but you added the financial part that is always important. Please stay away.