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LaVar

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Posts posted by LaVar

  1. Posted · Report reply

    16 hours ago, TrueMagicFan07 said:

    B/R NBA Player Rankings: Top 15 Centers for 2019-20

      1.  Nikola Jokic

     2. Joel Embiid

     3.  Karl Anthony-Townes

     4.  Rudy Gobert

     5.  LaMarcus Aldridge

     6.  Kristaps Porzingis

     7.  Andre Drummond

     8.  Myles Turner

     9.  Nikola Vucevic

    10. Steven Adams

    11. Marc Gasol

    12.  Brook Lopez

    13.  Clint Capela

    14. Jonas Valanciunas

    15.  Deandre Ayton

    Edit:  Dwight Howard is playing pretty well with the Lakers

    THERE YOU GO!

    Link  https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2858459-br-nba-player-rankings-top-15-centers-for-2019-20#slide1

    B/R, I dont think that turner is better than Vuch.  He is a better defender but vuch has him in every other category - especially passing, rebounding, and post game.

    There is not a big gap from Vuch and Joker. Joker is no stud on defense either. Vuch is actually a better defender and rebound than Joker.

    Easy, I think vuch could be higher on that list. Particularly, if Joker is number 1.

  5. Posted · Report reply

     

    Game 47: Raptors:

    Pure Magic (Pros): Fultz played ok. He had 4 ast with no turnovers. He also had a few nice drives to the basket. He does a great job in traffic.  He was also one of the few plus players. With the injuries that happen, Fultz may have a minute increase and the offense may run through him. This could be great for the future on Fultz and the team, if management make the decision. The magic need him to be special. There are only 3 scorers  on the team now and without fultz the magic could lose the next 10 games. That sounds like a lose season. 

    Disenchantment (Cons): Though, they looked better, he did not hit his long ranged shots. Other than one last sec heave, he also missed his mid range shots too.  Additionally, Fultz is still stuck on 25mins a game. He did not seem to go down hill or push the tempo as much this game. I think he could have been more aggressive.  

  8. Posted · Report reply

    3 minutes ago, fan for too long 2 said:

    Dj is on the decline. And mostly been a backup his whole career. So what does that tell you. He should be used only for an instant offense spurt in times of desperation. He can’t finish at the rim at all anymore and refuses to pass to JI. Unfortunately with MCW out he is all we have. But is there? 

    I say give the back pt guard spot to Wes. He can handle the ball and can defend, let him get in a rythym this year and see if he is anything. 

    DJ maybe our best shooter. I think the issue with DJ and fultz is who has the ball. Fultz needs the ball and DJ needs to space the court. We just need to stop taking the ball out of Fultz hand. 

    • Upvote 1

  9. Posted · Report reply

    53 minutes ago, Magicpassion said:

    I agree with Lavar on Mo, while stats may say one thing the eye test seems to say another. I will put my trust in the development plan, but to be frank I see Bamba as a role player and if he buys into that; we’ll see. I’m hopeful! I’m curious how we are going to address our offensive situation. As it stands now without any improvements we will be lucky to get out of 2nd round. We will have to cash in some chips at some point with our overlap. Who will be the causality? AG has the most value and a marketable deescalating contract plus I think JI is best at the 4. A 2 way 3 and some 3 point shooting in 1 or 2 players would really balance us out  better. 

    This needs to be a fultz coming out party. We need to use heavy pick and roll on offense.  If we give fultz the keys to the kingdom, we have a chance. Without fultz, this will be a lost season. I think this will be the most important time of the year. It remains me of isaac's rookie year. him and ross gotting hurt. We never recovered at that time. Without 30 mins of fultz, I don't see it happening. 

  11. Posted · Report reply

    3 hours ago, Just a regular Magic fan said:

    I saw 2 plays that looked legit. The block and the layup. Coach Cliff saying Bamba looked better this year than last to the press is him just saying the right things. Looking at his face during the game tells a different story (he was disgusted with a lot of things, including Bamba). As many have been saying. Bamba does have some skill, so I agree that it may be premature to give up on him. It's probably just going to take longer than many of us hoped for when we drafted him. 

    I assure you, I have been one the the most critical of Mo. I am no Mo zealot. I have been critical to the point that I was told I was drunk, bias, hyperbolic, meandering and condescending about Mo, so please know, I have no problem saying when Mo is making plays that are "Game Losing Plays".

    I was told, by a forum HIGHLY respected person, that Mo is currently a plus player, a top 10 shot blocker, and is not a reason for our short comings, regardless of how badly he has failed my personal eye test. The numbers don't lie and my thoughts were exaggerated and did not matter.  Therefore, I have taken a wait to see approach and God has immediately blessed me and this individual with an abundance of Mo. Now, those that wanted more of mo for develop and growth will get what their heart's desire. I think people need to be careful in what they hope for in life. It is bad to blindly go by stats, because there is a human element. 

    Personally, I dont currently like what I see from Mo, but I am going to try to soak in all the goodness that mo has to offer. Statically, we are told, he is not a bad player. We will now see and I AM WATCHING.  

     

    • Upvote 1

  12. Posted · Report reply

    2 hours ago, Just a regular Magic fan said:

    If Vooch is out long term, I hope WeltHam doesn't get desperate. It looks like we aren't going to be very good this year anyway, so there is no need to pour gasoline on the fire with a dumb move. I would rather see us keep our resources and lose and hold out for the right long term move. Maybe we can pick up a big on the cheap.

    In my opinion, we were trending in the right direction before the injuries. 

  13. Posted · Report reply

    10 hours ago, Fultz4thewin said:

    I can't even figure out how augustin being -27 makes sense. Bamba was only -12. Vucevic was +1. Birch was -3. 

    Bamba played okay this game. There was only 2-3 times he made a play I did not like... example, the play when they scored at end of the clock, he was the last one down the floor and touching the paint. If he would have sprinted he could have challenged the late shot. 

     

    He did okay this game. Those that want more mo bama and think he is a difference maker, we will see. Maybe he is a player that does better with out much competition. Some people don't like looking over their shoulder. Maybe this will be the fire he needs. 

    Bottomline, we will see what team looks like with out Vuch - good or bad.

  16. Posted · Report reply

    2 hours ago, Magicpassion said:

    I hope I’m wrong. I’m a diehard fan for our team since inception 89’

    I dont think any of us want him to be bad. It is just hard to watch. The pain of all those loses to get mo is hard to fathom if he is a bust. I just hate missing on talent, so I hope it works out. So when I see thing on the court, it really does trouble me. 

    I remember watching Trae young and doncic all year, before they were drafted. I just knew we would get one of them. Then we had the nerve to win the last game of the year. We were one pick away from young. Our prize after that was Mo bamba. 

    Everyday I am blessed to see doncic and young kill. It just makes me smile. 

  17. Posted · Report reply

    4 hours ago, Fultz4thewin said:

    The problem is the g-league is good for skill development. Bamba's issue isn't skill development. It's implementation. 

    Bamba goes into summer league his rookie year. Looks great. Hits threes. Blocks shots. Looks fantastic.

    Bamba goes into preseason. Looks fantastic. Hits 60% of his shots overall, 50% of his threes, super productive on offense. Blocks a ton of shots. Grabs a ton of rebounds. Looks like a great pick. 

    Plays in the regular season and isn't good. 

    Plays in the summer league again. Looks dominant. 

    Plays in preseason. Looks fantastic. Hits 60% of his shots overall, 50% of his threes. Super productive on offense. Blocks a ton of shots. Grabs a ton of rebounds. Looks ready for a breakout Season. 

    Plays in the regular season and isn't good. 

     

    If you play him in the g-league he's going to dominate. Because that's all he does against lesser competition. 

    We need him to figure out the NBA game. The only way he can do that is by playing the NBA game. 

    One thing about mo bamba and the summer league, he barley played. He got in 2-3 games (if i remember correctly) and that was it.

    We all know he can show up for 1-2 games. His issue is showing a motor over a longer period. I also want him to get real time mins, I just want him to be pulled during games, if he is killing us. If he does not know the plays in practice or the basic rotations, then do not play him until he has a minimum understanding. If he is lacking major in understanding of basic rotations and plays and just purely sucks even in practice. Then I can see him being jettisoned to the g league to figure that out.

    As of now, as much as I hate watching him, he is not impacting statically good or bad during the game - even though it looks horrific (at least to me). Therefore, the best place for him is to play is in real games, but when mo starts hurting us in wins and loses, you cant allow that to happen. The way he is playing, it is only a matter of time that it reflects bad on the team. Team first, I was always told; but until then, we will see the dear in headlights for 14mins a game... 

    I just dont want it to cause us to lose. I want us to be top 4-5 in the east.  At the same time, there needs to be a balance. Regardless if I liked it or not, we did invest a 6th pick on Mo Bamba. That was a whole season of suckage. I dont want mo or the pain of our fan sweat equity to go to waste. Those years was painful to watch. I really do want Mo to do well. I am a fan of the team. Teams die on missing on their high picks.

    We had victor, gordon, payton, mario, isaac and mo all top ten picks. We need to do better at development and being patience.  It is imperative we find the balance. 

     

  18. Posted · Report reply

    36 minutes ago, Fultz4thewin said:

    He looks terrible. 

    You can't dispute the impact though. It's measured. It's not something I'm making an opinion on. It's just literaly "when he defends a shot they're going in x% of the time" or "when he's on the court opponents score x% of the time". However terrible he looks on the court and however often he's out of position his overall impact is positive. Or at the very least it's not negative.

     

    We can argue about the efficacy of these statistics and what they actually mean. We can discuss the how responsible he is for the accumulation of these statistics or the situational causes for these measurements. 

    But there's physically not one metric available that says he's a bad or even below average defender. 

    I can't check. I am at work. I think his win share was in the negatives 

  20. Posted · Report reply

    1 hour ago, Fultz4thewin said:

    Defense is literally the only thing he's bringing. For his career he's blocking 6.9% of shots while he's on the court. He was 10th in the league last year even including guys who played 6 minutes last season. 

    He's holding opponents to 8% worse at the rim this year. That's good, not great. 

    Only 16 players in the league are contesting shots at a higher rate than he does. 

    Opponents aren't killing him on the perimeter. They're only hitting 34% of their shots outside of 16 feet which is 1% worse than usual

    We play our best defense statistically when he's on the court (though there's a lot of noise in this due to playing him against backups exclusively so I wouldn't use that to say he's our "best defender" but just that defense isn't a problem)

    So I really don't know what you're seeing here. I think there's confirmation bias involved. 

    I will watch for this good to great defense next game. I just don't see the impact as consistently as you. He  is the only rotation player that makes me cringe when playing. I watched the last game 3 times and I missed what you are talking about. I'll pay more attention. 

  21. Posted · Report reply

    5 minutes ago, ML6 said:

    Kinda. My question was more about Vooch/Bamba seeming to back up, back up, back up, and never commit to stepping up in the PnR coverage to slow down the driver.  Guards with good floaters (Trae, Luka for example) seem to just walk into the lane and get 5 feet from the front of the rim over and over again without a center realizing "I need to step up now, I can't back up anymore". 

    So my intention with that question was moreso about body positioning and committing to claiming defensive space in the lane.  But I don't know how Josh asked it or if Cliff interpreted it as a high hands question.

    I personally agree that having one's hands up or out is fundamental in defensive scenarios like that.  So if they're teaching hands down I would be similarly baffled because I don't think there's good rational for that.  I agree avoiding fouling would be the hypothetical Clifford concern, but the benefit of that doesn't seem to outweigh the higher quality of easy looks you're giving the opponent -- in my estimation at least.

    It is situational as well. Post play vs wing play. Off ball vs  on ball. Live dribble vs killed dribble. So if mo is on the ball with live dribble wing than you can dont have highs.  It is more mid hand and Hands are pumbs up and out to the SIDE to get into passing lane, but if you are off ball like mo is he needs to be high and wide. Be big in the paint. Active in and out of the lane. Hands ready for blocks. 

    It does matter the situation. Not all defense i best hands up. Mo just plays a position were it is done more than a wing vs the dribble. 

     

     

  22. Posted · Report reply

    5 minutes ago, Fultz4thewin said:

    Considering every center on the team does that I think they're probably coached not to do it. 

    I want to say our own ML6 had Robbins ask Clifford about this through the lens of pick and roll coverage the other day and Clifford said they're playing it exactly how they're supposed to play it. 

    So I think it's to avoid fouling? 

    but it is high hands. not just sticking your hand out. High hands to prevent rip through and cheap calls. 

  23. Posted · Report reply

    27 minutes ago, Magicman28 said:

    Yeah but we’re still talking about elite level talent being in the NBA and he really didn’t play a whole lot last year. Like you said, Vuch has been around a minute and just started getting it a couple years ago. Big men take a little longer too and who knows maybe that foot bothers him at times.

    good  point. I guess my issue is more that he came in as a defender. 

    When vuc had more problems on defense, he still did other things to be effective like rebound and hit shots. 

    He was never labelled a defender.

    Mo was labelled a defender coming out. 

    therefore, Mo was suppose to bring defense as a starting point and I am looking for it. I think that maybe my issue.

     

  25. Posted · Report reply

    14 hours ago, Magicman28 said:

    Simply Sprinting down a court with no game going on is a little different than processing plays, defenses, offenses, etc. 

    The eye test for me says Bamba is a highly intelligent person  (***** that guy if he calls me racist again)  and since he missed a lot of his rookie year, is still processing the game. Some times people reaction times is their strength followed by skill. I think it’s different for him. Skilled by reaction time is slower. Give him time to learn.

     Real game time with elite level opponents is different than pre season and the Columbine as well.

    Basketball IQ is different than just pure intelligence. To me he is not a dumb person. He just does not have the best basketball IQ. Just because you speak well and are good at math does not mean you are good at science. You can still have strengths and weaknesses. 

    Mo has a beautiful personality, speaks well, and carries himself great. I really do hope things turn around. I do understand reaction time as well, but it does not take much to sprint down the court. That is not reaction time, that to me is more desire and hard work. I guess it is just me. I dont really see him playing with a fire at all- even in moments when he does not have to think. Has did it one game and he played well. It was, to me, the only good game he has had this year. 

    One reason it seemed that Mo has bad reaction time is because of his defensive posture. Being out of position and game understand is another reason too, but  If you play with your hands down and not up, it slows your ability to react or get steals and blocks. You can not do that in this league. Players are too good, quick and fast. People said my thoughts were meaningless and hyperbolic, but there is a reason they say hand down man down in the league. You need to challenge shots and have active hands to stop people - especially with Mo's height and length. If he does not use his length, what good is it? To me it is an easy fix. Watch Vuch play. When he started to keeping his hands up on defense he got better.

    Sometimes, with technique, you can also improve. 

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