Justin Jaudon

McBuckets killin' us

We need more defense

empty chatroom... so sad

Great to see Dipo hit an early 3

Sorry about the wall of text, meant to break it up. We can disagree on why Dipo is not getting calls. I do think refs have a harder time calling fouls when small guys drive into heavy traffic (harder to see than, say, a 6-9 forward doing the same thing), but if you disagree, that's okay. My comments on Vuc and Harris are more about creating shots from the perimeter on drives, so obviously I should have explained that. Rushed post.

I see a lot of harshness on here for a guy who just had a triple double and what should have been a game winning shot. Right now Oladipo is struggling with his long range shot, but that will get better, even if he’s never going to be consistently a great shooter. His woes driving actually have a little to do with everything people here are saying. He doesn’t draw fouls well, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t getting fouled. And his % on drives will go up as he and the rest of the team start hitting some outside shots and keeping people from crowding the lane. It’s amazing that people complain both that he takes too many 3’s and that he struggles on drives. He takes the 3’s because they’re open. They’re open because teams know this is a bad outside shooting team and they cluster inside. He misses on a lot of drives because so many of them are into traffic. The refs don’t call the fouls because they see a guy trying to cut into that traffic and figure he deserves whatever contact he gets down there. People say he should give it up more to Vuc and Harris, which is fine in theory, but in the end someone has to be willing to take open shots and drive the lane, or the cluster in the paint will just get worse. Always passing inside to two guys who are not good at making their own shot is not going to consistently get points, because it’s too easy to stop when there’s no threat of drives or outside shots. Dipo basically does all the stuff no one else on this team is capable of or willing to do, because he’s the only guy who can do all of that stuff at least a little. Now, if Payton’s shot continues to fall, and Fournier starts hitting more of his 3’s (the latter at least we all know will happen), and Dipo is still taking too many 3’s, then by all means bring out the pitchforks. But until then, I think we should probably appreciate that Dipo is willing to suffer through tough statistical games to keep the offense from stagnating into 48 minutes of passing around the perimeter or tossing it in to Vuc.

These have been two brutal losses, but I’m still optimistic about the season. It’s frustrating that after playing two really good teams at home and basically losing both games on last second shots, five of the next six games are on the road; but that’s life in the NBA, and I think Orlando has a pretty solid shot to pull to .500 by the time they get to play L.A. at home. The next five games after that are absolutely winnable. If they go 4-1 over that stretch, that puts them at 8-5. Then another reasonable expectation to go 4-1 over the next five, but even a 3-2 stretch puts them at 11-7 as some tough road games come up. The point is that if this team continues to play tough, they have a chance to be right at .500 through 20 games, which would be huge for their confidence. The main thing is not to get down in this tough opening stretch. There are winnable games, including Chicago and Philadelphia and even Toronto at home (put Gordon on DeRozan and deny him the ball as much as possible). Win those three and only one of New Orleans, Houston, and Indiana have to fall on their court for this team to be in tremendous shape coming out of a really brutal opening stretch. I think .500 after 8 games is totally doable, and I think this team would benefit greatly from the confidence that would bring, to get out of that death trap alive.

It is official, I will be moving to central Florida in the next few months. Next step, season tickets...

Shabazz was great in college, but he didn't seem to have the same hunger last year for the Heat.

I think I'm the first person on here who compared Dipo to Manu Ginobili (at least I'm the first person I remember posting it), but for the record I lean away from him being a 6th man. I love his potential if he can improve his 3's (he genuinely could be a top 10 guy in the league if he gets above 35%), and I think Harris is more of a 6th man type anyway. I can see it happening, but he seems too good an all-around player for that. Solid defender at his worst (needs to learn to play without a rim defender a little better, i.e. back off a bit, but his effort and talent-level are great), good offensive player who can create off the dribble. Usually 6th men are guys like Jamal Crawford who excel at one end of the floor (also like Harris). Manu is literally the only guy I can think of being that good on both ends of the floor and spending his prime years as a 6th man. There certainly are more, but they aren't coming to mind right now.

Aside from saying Oladipo doesn't need to improve his 3-point shooting, that's a very good article for those who haven't really been paying attention to this team to understand what they've been doing since D12.

I always liked Christon

That man sees daylight he fires

Future

Gordon put the lock down on McGary there

Shoot that rock Harvey

That was nice from Elf

Actually, I didn't realize they'd signed Bismack Beyombo. They gonna win the 'ship!

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I think Toronto could fall apart next year. I think Carroll was a good pick-up for them, but losing Lou Williams will hurt, and I've always thought that team was solidly built on shifting sand. They could also be really good this year, but everyone on that team is an enigma in one way or another. Kyle Lowry has always seemed like he's one bad shooting slump or sprained ankle away from being a real problem. And that's their All-Star. Just a weird team.

Unless of course shot goes in, then = shot attempt

This guy?

On that, we certainly agree. I'm hopeful there. He's still a hard worker, he got better last year. He had some stretches where he was pretty darn good from downtown, he just couldn't maintain it, and he'd slip into some pretty epic slumps. I'd bet on him getting more consistent, even if he'll never be Ray Allen or even Michael Finley. 35% plus with less highs and lows should make people stay on him a bit more out there; and I think that's fairly realistic.

I agree on Hezonja. He's the guy I wanted all along, and I'm very excited about his game. I'd take him over either of those players, and the more I researched them over the summer the more I loved both Johnson and Turner (they just never caught up with Mario on my board at 5). I'm just saying I hate that we couldn't find a way to get Turner as well. Hezonja and Johnson would probably have been redundant, but Hezonja and Turner could have been a haul for the ages. Turner already looks stronger than he did in college. His stroke was gorgeous yesterday. A guy who can give you elite rim protection and consistent outside shooting to the three-point-line is beyond rare, it's almost unheard of. And that's Turner's ceiling. If he puts it together he's gonna be very valuable very soon. Still, Mario's my guy. His defense on the ball looked great yesterday, even if he seemed to lose focus off the ball occasionally. And he didn't look like he will have as much trouble getting to the line as I thought he might. I really think that issue was purely scheme-based from FC Barcelona. He seems perfectly comfortable driving to the basket; and a guy with that length and athleticism and first step is always going to find contact at a decent rate in the NBA. And dude has that thing, man, that isolated look in his eye at all times like he's just dialed in.

I understand where you're coming from. Vic does remind me a lot at times of a young (and more inconsistent from range) Manu, in his energy and versatility and leadership skills for a second unit. I think the difference is just that I probably value Victor's ability to create off the dribble a little more than you (not that you've discounted it at all, in fact you just mentioned it specifically). I love Elf, but his bad outside shot still scares me in terms of him being the only guy in the starting lineup who can consistently penetrate. At this point the defense doesn't really need to guard him outside of maybe fifteen feet, so they can sag off of him even as a ball-handler. That's not to say Elf is not very good. The fact that he penetrates when the defense knows he can't shoot is amazing, he's got good touch around the basket when he does get inside, and he's about as natural a floor leader at 20 as I've seen in a long time. I guess I just love the idea of Elf and Dipo both being able to create offense on the floor together, which can unbalance defenses if there are other shooters on the floor. So if Harris is at 4 (and still hitting 3's) and Hezonja at 3, Elf and Dipo could have a decent amount of space to wreak havoc driving and using Vuc as a pick man and whatever else. And that ability coming from two players on the floor makes it really hard to hide poor perimeter defenders, especially if they are guards. Imagine Jameer or Tony Parker trying to keep up with Dipo or Elf driving and creating. That's havoc. It would be hard to switch a 3 onto Vic because most teams don't have a wing quick enough to contain Elf or Dipo and another wing big enough not to get abused by Harris. And Gordon looks like his 3-point shot is coming along as well. I see Harris as the better option for a 6th man type if Gordon develops well enough. Harris is more of a ball-stopper, instant offense guy than Dipo, which is better for playing against opposing second units. The good thing is that all of these guys are so versatile that they can all see significant minutes together no matter who starts. I really love what Hennigan has done so far.

Oh, I think they'll compete for the 7-8 seed.