Lets be honest...

[Magicfan1961 0]

quote:

Originally posted by GhostAnime:

quote:

Originally posted by Magicfan1961:

quote:

Originally posted by GhostAnime:

.. Do you realize that predicting a basketball game is not the same as knowing the insides of a GM's head?

 

 

You missed my point Ghost. He knows. Maybe James whispered in his ears.

Maybe you're delusional and just want to use Barkley as a crux for everything.

 

 

Maybe, but Maybe not. Would probably be suprised soon. Then you will be owned.

[Papa Butts 0]

quote:

Would probably be suprised soon. Then you will be owned.

 

Doubt it.

[Magicfan1961 0]

quote:

Originally posted by Papa Butts:

quote:

Would probably be suprised soon. Then you will be owned.

 

Doubt it.

 

 

That is what the guys said when I posted that Nelson would get injuried again right after Alston was traded.

[GhostAnime 50]

I predicted something! I'm a psychic!

[deadman54 7]

quote:

Originally posted by MagicAtic:

win some, lose some..... Can't win them all.

 

+1

[Quick25 0]

quote:

Originally posted by Magicfan1961:

quote:

Originally posted by GhostAnime:

Well I think I'd lean with him simply talking about Jamison than saying the cavs would get him. How would he even know something like that?

 

 

Because he has a lot of insight. How did he know that the Magic would defeat the Celtics and Cavs during the playoffs?.

 

Because he had a 50% chance at being right?

[thelead 0]

quote:

Originally posted by deadman54:

quote:

Originally posted by MagicAtic:

win some, lose some..... Can't win them all.

 

+1

 

No, you normally do not lose 20pt leads to one of the worst teams in the league. This is not a "world is going to end" thread, more like a "observations from the season" thread.

 

Depending on who we play, we could make it to the finals, but we would probably be swept this time around.

 

We easily beat Atlanta

Boston is a 50-50

Cleveland, from what I have seen this year, they are stronger than us. Right now I would give them the edge.

No one else in the east could beat us in a seven game series.

 

We are not going to beat the Lakers or Denver. And if you can't win a championship, why are we so far into the luxury tax?

[Gamakis 0]

quote:

Originally posted by thelead:

1) This team just isn't built to win a championship.

 

2) We miss Hedo

 

3) Vince isn't what we thought he was (I'll get back to this later)

 

4) We're stuck with playing a stretch 4 because Rashard cannot guard most sf's in the league and is too good to be benched.

 

5) Our defense is not as good as it was last year. This is on the starting guards mostly and also due to the next issue:

 

6) We shoot bad threes. Notice I didn't write "we shoot too many threes". We just don't shoot them in rhythm. Jameer's "look down and take two steps to get behind the three when we only need two to win" three tonight is the epitome of what I'm talking about. Not only does it hurt the offense, it kills our transition D.

 

7) We are weak mentally. We have blown way too many leads this year and I agree with SVG, it shows the team's immaturity.

 

8) Age/injuries are catching up with this team (especially at the wings were athleticism is even more important) . Yes we are deep at every position, but look at the guard line-up:

 

 

Redick - 25 (the most consistent guard)

Nelson - 28 (always injured or playing through an injury)

Pietrus - 28 (still is dealing with a hand injury that he opted not to have surgery on this summer)

Barnes - 29

Carter - 33 (He is mostly done. Period. He may give us a night or two every once in a while, but I wouldn't bet on him turning "it" around. He is just old and sort of out of shape.)

Williams - 34 (Runs the offense well, but gets eaten up on D. Also runs out of gas with too many minutes.)

Johnson - 35 (Doesn't play much, but would have loved to see him D up Foye tonight.)

 

9) Lack of a player that can walk the ball up the court and hit an 18 footer without any help. When we lost Hedo, we lost that player that didn't need anyone to get the shot he wanted with confidence. Jameer needs a pick, Rashard can't dribble, Barnes just doesn't have that skill set, JJ needs a pick. We need a Joe Johnson, a Stephen Jackson, a Rudy Gay, a Paul Pierce, a Danny Granger, hell, a Caron Butler even.

 

What do we have? We have an old, broken down Vince Carter with no confidence. Now, we all know he is taking horrible shots, but guess what, he always has. He just used to have confidence in those shots. He used to confidently take 28 foot buzzer beaters and make them. He used to be able to dribble up from the top of the key without a pick, give a small crossover and make an 18 footer which then made the defense respect the range and give him more room to drive.

 

Make no mistake about it, if Vince was playing up to last years level, we would be able to coast against the Washingtons of the league and win. We would be at 38 to 40 wins by now.

 

10) With all that said about Vince, it's unfair to pin all of our struggles on him. Vince has missed games, and guess what? We had many lackadaisical efforts that include losing to Denver by 18 and to OKC by 28. Look at our league ranking for these stats:

 

FT% - 30th

Off Reb - 27th

Ast - 26th

Stls - 22nd

 

Basically we don't make the easy points (thats mostly on Dwight). We don't go for many offensive rebounds (which would be okay if we were a good shooting team, which we are not. We are average at 15th in the league in FG%). We're 5th worst in assist (which means we take alot of bad shots that are not in rhythm). I am not a huge fan of the steals number, because you don't want the guys to gamble for steals and giving up easy baskets, but 22nd is not even average. It shows that, for the most part, we are not playing aggressively enough on D. Just for a reference, Boston ranks 3rd in steals. We give guys way to much space on jumpers, but cannot play them tight cause we're too slow.

 

So for those that like cliff notes:

1) Jameer's and JWill's D is awful (compare that to last years Rafer/Johnson rotation)

2) Bass or any other traditional 4 can't play here because Rashard can no longer defend the 3

3) Vince has been horrible on offense (mostly due to age and confidense). His D has been average (compare that to Lee's D last year)

 

We may be able to turn this around, but I doubt it. We need a true bona fide scorer. Unfortunately, I wouldn't hold my breath for one before the trade deadline. We may do something minor, but there is almost no way we are getting a scorer that can play D during the season. That just doesn't happen very often.

 

I don't think I have ever regretted a purchase more than my Vince Carter jersey.....

 

 

 

Pardon for the late reply....but this was an excellent analysis. I don't see why some people got all wound up about it. Does anyone really see it otherwise in actual games (not on paper)?

Especially our PG defense is atrocious. We should be giving more minutes to AJ. Defensively Jameer and J. Will are EVERYONE's biatch!! Randy Foye's for example for last night..

[TreyTime 3]

quote:

Originally posted by Quick25:

quote:

Originally posted by Magicfan1961:

quote:

Originally posted by GhostAnime:

Well I think I'd lean with him simply talking about Jamison than saying the cavs would get him. How would he even know something like that?

 

 

Because he has a lot of insight. How did he know that the Magic would defeat the Celtics and Cavs during the playoffs?.

 

Because he had a 50% chance at being right?

 

Basically he was just picking the winner of the Orlando/Boston series. Everyone who knows basketball knew Cleveland had no chance against Boston or Orlando.

[EnFuego 1]

The OP does a good job to stay with season long observations, I think for it to come the night of our loss to Washington is what colors it as a panic thread.

 

I do find it more than a little ironic that so many posters seem to be extremely slow to accept that the team is playing better, chastising anyone that claims the team is back on track after several wins, but will jump on one loss to cry a river.

[Captain Hindsight 50]

quote:

Originally posted by Mr. DaTsuN:

quote:

Originally posted by thelead:

1) This team just isn't built to win a championship.

 

2) We miss Hedo

 

3) Vince isn't what we thought he was (I'll get back to this later)

 

4) We're stuck with playing a stretch 4 because Rashard cannot guard most sf's in the league and is too good to be benched.

 

5) Our defense is not as good as it was last year. This is on the starting guards mostly and also due to the next issue:

 

6) We shoot bad threes. Notice I didn't write "we shoot too many threes". We just don't shoot them in rhythm. Jameer's "look down and take two steps to get behind the three when we only need two to win" three tonight is the epitome of what I'm talking about. Not only does it hurt the offense, it kills our transition D.

 

7) We are weak mentally. We have blown way too many leads this year and I agree with SVG, it shows the team's immaturity.

 

8) Age/injuries are catching up with this team (especially at the wings were athleticism is even more important) . Yes we are deep at every position, but look at the guard line-up:

 

 

Redick - 25 (the most consistent guard)

Nelson - 28 (always injured or playing through an injury)

Pietrus - 28 (still is dealing with a hand injury that he opted not to have surgery on this summer)

Barnes - 29

Carter - 33 (He is mostly done. Period. He may give us a night or two every once in a while, but I wouldn't bet on him turning "it" around. He is just old and sort of out of shape.)

Williams - 34 (Runs the offense well, but gets eaten up on D. Also runs out of gas with too many minutes.)

Johnson - 35 (Doesn't play much, but would have loved to see him D up Foye tonight.)

 

9) Lack of a player that can walk the ball up the court and hit an 18 footer without any help. When we lost Hedo, we lost that player that didn't need anyone to get the shot he wanted with confidence. Jameer needs a pick, Rashard can't dribble, Barnes just doesn't have that skill set, JJ needs a pick. We need a Joe Johnson, a Stephen Jackson, a Rudy Gay, a Paul Pierce, a Danny Granger, hell, a Caron Butler even.

 

What do we have? We have an old, broken down Vince Carter with no confidence. Now, we all know he is taking horrible shots, but guess what, he always has. He just used to have confidence in those shots. He used to confidently take 28 foot buzzer beaters and make them. He used to be able to dribble up from the top of the key without a pick, give a small crossover and make an 18 footer which then made the defense respect the range and give him more room to drive.

 

Make no mistake about it, if Vince was playing up to last years level, we would be able to coast against the Washingtons of the league and win. We would be at 38 to 40 wins by now.

 

10) With all that said about Vince, it's unfair to pin all of our struggles on him. Vince has missed games, and guess what? We had many lackadaisical efforts that include losing to Denver by 18 and to OKC by 28. Look at our league ranking for these stats:

 

FT% - 30th

Off Reb - 27th

Ast - 26th

Stls - 22nd

 

Basically we don't make the easy points (thats mostly on Dwight). We don't go for many offensive rebounds (which would be okay if we were a good shooting team, which we are not. We are average at 15th in the league in FG%). We're 5th worst in assist (which means we take alot of bad shots that are not in rhythm). I am not a huge fan of the steals number, because you don't want the guys to gamble for steals and giving up easy baskets, but 22nd is not even average. It shows that, for the most part, we are not playing aggressively enough on D. Just for a reference, Boston ranks 3rd in steals. We give guys way to much space on jumpers, but cannot play them tight cause we're too slow.

 

So for those that like cliff notes:

1) Jameer's and JWill's D is awful (compare that to last years Rafer/Johnson rotation)

2) Bass or any other traditional 4 can't play here because Rashard can no longer defend the 3

3) Vince has been horrible on offense (mostly due to age and confidense). His D has been average (compare that to Lee's D last year)

 

We may be able to turn this around, but I doubt it. We need a true bona fide scorer. Unfortunately, I wouldn't hold my breath for one before the trade deadline. We may do something minor, but there is almost no way we are getting a scorer that can play D during the season. That just doesn't happen very often.

 

I don't think I have ever regretted a purchase more than my Vince Carter jersey.....

 

lets be honest you're an idiot...

 

actually, it sounds like you're the idiot. there's a lot of merit and validity to the op's analysis.

[gporter 5]

I don't regret purchasing my VC jersey. He's saving the Ah Maaa Zing!!! for the playoffs.