magicblue

DJ remains in. WHY!!!!????

All DJ, all night long. Markelle will come back with 4 mins left and us down 17

We're obviously not budging on Markelle's min restriction. That or Cliff is the worst coach ever

DJ back in for the forseeable future

Because we're the Magic

Birch promptly scores in traffic

DJ's still in the game. Why?

Great. More DJ. Keep rolling with him coach

G-League bound

Amazing play. DJ and Bamba are killing us

Because Cliff is a stubborn mule when it comes to his rotations

Better energy from Bamba. Unfortunately you just can't give him the ball inside without him turning it over

Boxing out, setting screens, using your length to your advantage, etc are all things that should be able to be addressed in practice as these are just basic duties of big men in the NBA. I’m wondering, and at this point sort of hoping, if Bamba is experiencing some residual effects from the injury he sustained last season. I know he put on some upper body strength over the summer but his lower body still remains rail thin and he gets pushed around very easily. It doesn’t help that he doesn’t seem to have any sort of edge and seems uncomfortable putting his body on an opposing player and mixing it up at all. When he gets the ball in traffic its obvious how uncomfortable he is and that is as much a mentality as it is an inability. I’ve been saying G-league for a while now. I just don’t think there’s any harm that can be done sending him down for say 8-10 games and working through some of this stuff, even if it is against inferior competition, because frankly that’s where he’s at right now. As pointed out he really only had one breakout SL game and only played in a couple if memory serves me. He needs more reps and he’s not going to get them during NBA games, at least not in the short-term

Bamba has no discernable offensive game is the issue. He has not shown the ability to establish post position or catch the ball and make a move in the post....much less score with his back to the basket. If he would actually set screens we could involve him more in the PNR game but so often he doesn't set screens and instead slips the screen which hasn't yielded him much of anything. At the moment, all he can really do is catch and shoot from three and he typically gets one or two looks per game. At this point that's honestly all he's really capable of handling. Its really up to him to improve if he wants more plays run for him unfortunately

WTH?

The injury doesn’t negate how improved he is/became since leaving Orlando

Nah, he’s considerably better and way more consistent

A Fultz/Oladipo backcourt would be absolutely unreal

Make mistakes. Do something.

Rather take my chances with Bamba than do that

Yeah, Bamba has quickly become the most disappointing player on the team by quite a wide margin. Its reached the point where him actually grabbing a rebound is almost a small miracle. Unless something changes drastically in the next 5-10 games I think we should be exploring moves to unload him for some quality wing depth. Too much of his issues are effort/motor/confidence related and recently he's brought as close to nothing to the court as a player possibly can. Birch deserves the mins that Bamba is wasting on the court.

Only this organization

Right, its not setting a screen at all. I'd like to see those 4 because I was at the game and watched it again yesterday and all he did was not set screens. He must have received credit for the intent

I think everyone in the SL gets two set plays for them and then its basically Fournier/Vuc buddy ball the rest of the way. I mean Fultz starts off the Indy game running high pick-n-roll on two out of first three sets and we scored both times. Never run it again. Same with JI in the post. Two plays. Two scores. Never run it again

He failed to set like 7 screens in a row the other night vs. Philly (slipped the screen without setting the pick) and the one time he did actually set the screen he was charged for an offensive foul. I don't know how or why this hasn't been addressed when my 7-yr old can see it.