TreyMachine

With that being said, my overwhelming opinion is that the front office cares a lot about locker room culture and trading anyone is difficult for them to even conceive.

I'm of the slight belief we are could trade for Chris Paul before the trade deadline hits. His leadership and experience would serve as a stop gap at point guard before maybe Anthony Black full-time takes over while giving us a player that, while not as explosive as he used to be, can hit three-pointers at an above average clip and help our young guys with a veteran presence. Mark Fultz works better on Golden State because he's so good at blowing past his defender and finding the open man. With their great three-point shooters, it would be better overall for them too. we are quite literally a good starting PG away from having a scary elite starting lineup. I think when analyzing what could take us to the next level without mortgaging our future, I think it's a move for someone like Paul.

When was the last time we had an All-Star? Feels really good !!!!!

Yes - I thought you were joking. That man might get one thing right but will get another 99 wrong for clickbait. Always entertaining though!

Hahahahahahahaha - Pingalore!!!

I said this today to a friend - he's never been a coach, but I feel like JJ would be an incredible head coach in this league. Knowledge is super high, conviction is deep, and motivator/leader is very high. I would love to see him as our coach if Mose really plateaus.

Terrible possession on our end. Everyone but Paolo is basically afraid to shoot, thinking "this is Paolo time." Very frustrating.

What a BS call. it was clearly going for the ball. Also, I agree that JI needs to play. It's time. WCJ just fouled out. Season games matter.

Wemby is great, but I can confidently say he's not LeBron - and I have been a general LeBron hater for his career. The man is not only a freak athlete, but his biggest asset is that he makes every player around him better. He immediately made the worst team in the league into a fringe playoff team his rookie year. He took teams to the finals where Mo Williams was the second best player. Wemby is a great mismatch. He is Anthony Davis with some handles. He will do well in this league, and perhaps I'll eat my words one day, but I just don't see him elevating his team like LeBron ever did. He'll need a good #2 and #3 guy to make a deep playoff run.

Is it terrible, now that I expect us to be out of the lottery, that I really don't care about the NBA draft during the season? I get that it's important and you can find serviceable backups or diamonds in the rough, but it's really hard for me to get into the NBA draft knowing that we are not going to get any of the top players.

I think if Fultz can consistently drive by his man and break down the defense to either score a short two point basket or kick it to one of our shooters, I'm fine with him staying in the position. His Bball IQ is higher than any other point guard option we have out there and he makes the other guys around him better. The problem is naturally how high is our ceiling with him at PG? The only similar test case on a championship roster is probably Rajon Rondo, who had three All-Stars around him, including the #2 greatest shooter of all time in Ray Allen. I think if we can play up to our potential, we might be able to squeak into the second round. But there is going to need to be a lot of growth in the other players if Fultz is going to be our PG for the long haul.

"Because you can just teach shooting but you can't teach length, right?" - Jeff Weltman (probably)

I don't recognize a single player on their team other than JJJ. Idk if we just expected to waltz in and win this, but my goodness, our defense looks horrible on paper. About to watch the second half...

He's a 35% 3 point shooter as a rookie. He was a 5 star WR recruit in HS. Unbelievable athlete. High Motor. Only started playing basketball competitively in early high school (like Tim Duncan, whom was extremely raw at 19 at Wake Forest, my alma mater). I don't care if the shot doesn't have "normal" mechanics. That might limit his ceiling but there are a lot of guys who didn't have "normal form" and did fine (Reggie Miller, Tracey McGrady, etc.). The guy has a high floor, good character, high bball IQ, great athlete, plays hard, and he's 19. I'm not giving up on him until 3-4 years from now if he hasn't shown improvement.

Remember everyone s***ing on Jalen Suggs for being a bad 3 point shooter in his first year? If you're an athletic guard, have good mechanics, and a good work ethic, you can figure it out to become at least league average. Give AB a year or two to develop. He has all the intangibles you want in a selfless, do-everything glue guy.

There are no excuses to not win tonight.

My opinion is that every year we get excited and every year we don't do anything but sell players for 2nd round picks. But actually, taking a look at Our history at the deadline, I'm actually wrong. Under Weltman since 2017, we did dump Vuc, Gordon, and Fournier at the deadline, but we've taken swings on Bol Bol, WCJ, and Fultz (and in 2013 we traded for a young Tobias Harris). I'm truthfully not getting my hopes up but hey - Weltman is not as anti-trade as I believed him to be.

we need the Moldy Hobo to break some of this silence from the HQ.

Rozier to the Hornets for a protected 1st and Kyle Lowrey (whom is expected to be bought out). Crazy cheap for such a good scorer (albeit on an expensive contract). I'm becoming less and less confident we'll make a trade of any noteworthiness before the deadline.

Agreed with the above. If we play like this until the deadline, we're just keeping this team in tact and not trading anyone. Our solution to "how to we get better" is merely "how do we stay healthy" if we go 4-0 or something in these next 4 games.

I'm curious to know if these rotations mean we feel like we've showcased guys enough. i really can't believe this was Mose's decision to start Chuma and give him and Houstan so many meaningful minutes.

FYI, less than a year ago, it seemed like Murray and Paolo had some serious beef. I'm sure being teammates will squash it, but it is something to note and I question whether it could create locker room division if he were to come here. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10062340-dejounte-murray-opens-up-about-paolo-banchero-incident-you-crossed-the-line#:~:text=The situation appeared to begin,forward and chest-bumped him. If I recall correctly, Pop in San Antonio wanted him gone because he was too "me first" oriented. I don't know if I love the idea of making him a key player and influence in our locker room if that is the case as this team is (in my mind) for Paolo and Franz.

i do thnk we're showcasing our players. We want trade value for certain players (Okeke, WCJ, Fultz, Houstan) so we're making sure to play them more. Certain players - i'm imagining JI and Wagner - aren't touchable for different reasons (we're not trading Franz's brother and JI's on-court value is too high compared to his trade value). I think we're gearing up for a trade. That's the only reason I can understand for the weird rotations and holding out certain players. If Murray wanted to show us his value... a buzzer beater and then praising our team and caoching staff was a great way to do it.

If that's not an affirmation if that's not an affirmation of our team and someone that likes our culture, I don't know what is. I'm coming around to us trading for Murray, though it sounds like we'd be trading at least 2 1st's for him - at this point though, i'm fine with that. I also want to understand JI. Why just 10 minutes? What is his limitation? I really need to know as he's so good when he can play.

Murray i'm to believe has character issues, which the Magic have ALWAYS stayed away from. Am I crazy? Doesn't he have a ton of attitude?