The Official 2015-2016 Regular Season Thread

[Jay Magic 1,251]

bang on cue. Take it as you wish...

 

@MagicalNBA When the Magic fire Skiles this summer @OrlandoMagicCEO needs to stay out of the hiring process. He is killing this team. Let Rob do his job

[KRISH10 103]

I think the problem with Skiles defensive scheme is that he tells the whole team to play team defense and to help one another defensively like every player in the league is MJ or something. We have guys leaving Lebron open to double team Shumpert lol.

[Magicman28 295]

bang on cue. Take it as you wish...

 

@MagicalNBA When the Magic fire Skiles this summer @OrlandoMagicCEO needs to stay out of the hiring process. He is killing this team. Let Rob do his job

 

 

Did we get Chris Paul yet?

 

 

Seriously though, I pray for this. Let Rob duuuuuu it!

[Franchero MVP 391]

bang on cue. Take it as you wish...

 

@MagicalNBA When the Magic fire Skiles this summer @OrlandoMagicCEO needs to stay out of the hiring process. He is killing this team. Let Rob do his job

 

Listen it was a good thought at the beginning. After struggling for 3 years, bring in a guy who can likely help our team right away without a learning curve and can also likely help us make the playoffs in his second year as his track record shows.

 

But his track record also shows he wears out his welcome after a while and his winning percentage demonstrates he's mediocre at best. He's not a guy to build with.

[Franchero MVP 391]

I think the problem with Skiles defensive scheme is that he tells the whole team to play team defense and to help one another defensively like every player in the league is MJ or something. We have guys leaving Lebron open to double team Shumpert lol.

 

And that's the problem. We try so hard not to let anyone, including scrubs, score that it ironically backfires because we're double teaming needlessly and teams that pass well end up finding a wide open guy who shouldn't be wide open.

 

He needs to use analytics and learn to give up shots that have a lower percentage of going in. We need to lay off players that don't score well. Don't give up open 3s but if they settle for long 2s that's fine -- that's the worst shot in basketball. If he makes it, so be it.

 

Also (I don't know if this happens really) but don't double team shumpert and leave LBJ wide open and expect guys to make it there in time -- it's not practical.

[Jay Magic 1,251]

Listen it was a good thought at the beginning. After struggling for 3 years, bring in a guy who can likely help our team right away without a learning curve and can also likely help us make the playoffs in his second year as his track record shows.

 

But his track record also shows he wears out his welcome after a while and his winning percentage demonstrates he's mediocre at best. He's not a guy to build with.

 

Absolutely hoping he is gone this summer. We all know he is not Robs hire. Martins needs the sack also

[JJZFL 623]

As long as we're talking about who to get rid of, let me put in my vote for Jeff Turner. He's terrible.

[Justin Jaudon 221]

I keep forgetting how much people love to hate coaches. I keep hearing this babble about Skiles' defensive scheme being outdated, but nowhere do I see even an understanding of what his scheme is. Now we are complaining that we don't leave scrubs open enough? Tell that to Kris Humphries. Everyone loves SVG's d, but that scheme is designed to do exactly what we are now complaining Skiles' does too much of, which is double team off of stunts and PNR's (Skiles' scheme really doesn't do that enough, probably, but let's not let actually watching the games and understanding our real weaknesses get in the way of our scapegoating).

 

I think anyone who's actually watched the games this season has seen certain players that have a tendency to over-rotate and get out of position (Payton, Gordon, Napier, Dedmon, Mario, to some extent Watson); other players don't rotate aggressively enough (Vuc, Nicholson, Harris when he was here, Frye when he was here); others are pretty solid by now, but struggled early (Dipo, Evan), and others have been pretty solid on rotations all year, but are just not great athletes (Jason, Ersan now that he's here).

 

Now, when multiple players have problems with team defense, one might expect it's the coach's scheme, except that the problems are spread out into different areas. Some of our guys struggle to close out on threes, but Dipo and to some extent Evan are really good at that. Some of our guys struggle to defend the ball-handler on PNR, but Dipo is great at that, and Jennings is average. Some of our bigs struggle to cover the PNR, but Dedmon is good, and Jason is not bad.

 

Blaming Skiles' defensive scheme for this teams' defensive troubles is like blaming Skiles' offensive scheme for Payton's poor mid-range shooting. On the whole, this team is full of players who are either always going to be bad defenders, or are too raw to yet be good ones. Skiles wasn't going to come in and make Fournier an all-defensive candidate. He wasn't going to come in and turn Vuc into Marc Gasol, or Nicholson into Taj Gibson. He has helped some of our guys (including Vuc and Fournier) get better, but their limitations will always hinder them. Others, like Payton, Gordon, and Dedmon, he's had to break down, because they have bad habits (Gordon and Dedmon are responding fairly well, while Payton is responding like a 5-year-old who doesn't understand why he can't spell "love" as "luv"). Oladipo has responded extremely well to Skiles' defensive coaching, and is legitimately very good after being actually below average last year.

 

The problem is that some people here seem to think that Skiles was inheriting this great team, full of untapped potential on defense (why, I have no idea, since at most 4 guys on the team could even be considered potentially good defensive players, and three of those guys were so raw they may has well have been wearing diapers on the floor). Basically, Skiles had one guy coming into this season who was ready to step up and be a very good defender: Dipo. And lo and behold, he has stepped up and become a very good defender. I think people were confused about Elf, because they saw the physical talents and assumed Skiles would magically be able to implant the knowledge of how to play the most difficult defensive position in basketball into his head via Johnny Mnemonic/Matrix style digital upload (Elf-"I know defense", with all the enthusiasm, of... well, Keanu Reaves). Gordon has responded well, and is now a pretty decent defender most of the time, but anyone who thought a 20-year-old kid was going to suddenly be Dennis Rodman because he got a defensive-minded, disciplinarian coach was remarkably naive.

 

I'm not saying Skiles is the second coming of Rick Carlisle. I'm saying we have no idea what he is yet, because IT"S HIS FIRST YEAR, and he took over a 25-WIN-TEAM. If you guys want to become the NBA version of the Raiders, fine. But I'd rather be maybe a bit more patient than bringing out the pitchforks on the coach before his first season is up, when the team has in fact improved.

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

I keep forgetting how much people love to hate coaches. I keep hearing this babble about Skiles' defensive scheme being outdated, but nowhere do I see even an understanding of what his scheme is. Now we are complaining that we don't leave scrubs open enough? Tell that to Kris Humphries. Everyone loves SVG's d, but that scheme is designed to do exactly what we are now complaining Skiles' does too much of, which is double team off of stunts and PNR's (Skiles' scheme really doesn't do that enough, probably, but let's not let actually watching the games and understanding our real weaknesses get in the way of our scapegoating).

 

I think anyone who's actually watched the games this season has seen certain players that have a tendency to over-rotate and get out of position (Payton, Gordon, Napier, Dedmon, Mario, to some extent Watson); other players don't rotate aggressively enough (Vuc, Nicholson, Harris when he was here, Frye when he was here); others are pretty solid by now, but struggled early (Dipo, Evan), and others have been pretty solid on rotations all year, but are just not great athletes (Jason, Ersan now that he's here).

 

Now, when multiple players have problems with team defense, one might expect it's the coach's scheme, except that the problems are spread out into different areas. Some of our guys struggle to close out on threes, but Dipo and to some extent Evan are really good at that. Some of our guys struggle to defend the ball-handler on PNR, but Dipo is great at that, and Jennings is average. Some of our bigs struggle to cover the PNR, but Dedmon is good, and Jason is not bad.

 

Blaming Skiles' defensive scheme for this teams' defensive troubles is like blaming Skiles' offensive scheme for Payton's poor mid-range shooting. On the whole, this team is full of players who are either always going to be bad defenders, or are too raw to yet be good ones. Skiles wasn't going to come in and make Fournier an all-defensive candidate. He wasn't going to come in and turn Vuc into Marc Gasol, or Nicholson into Taj Gibson. He has helped some of our guys (including Vuc and Fournier) get better, but their limitations will always hinder them. Others, like Payton, Gordon, and Dedmon, he's had to break down, because they have bad habits (Gordon and Dedmon are responding fairly well, while Payton is responding like a 5-year-old who doesn't understand why he can't spell "love" as "luv"). Oladipo has responded extremely well to Skiles' defensive coaching, and is legitimately very good after being actually below average last year.

 

The problem is that some people here seem to think that Skiles was inheriting this great team, full of untapped potential on defense (why, I have no idea, since at most 4 guys on the team could even be considered potentially good defensive players, and three of those guys were so raw they may has well have been wearing diapers on the floor). Basically, Skiles had one guy coming into this season who was ready to step up and be a very good defender: Dipo. And lo and behold, he has stepped up and become a very good defender. I think people were confused about Elf, because they saw the physical talents and assumed Skiles would magically be able to implant the knowledge of how to play the most difficult defensive position in basketball into his head via Johnny Mnemonic/Matrix style digital upload (Elf-"I know defense", with all the enthusiasm, of... well, Keanu Reaves). Gordon has responded well, and is now a pretty decent defender most of the time, but anyone who thought a 20-year-old kid was going to suddenly be Dennis Rodman because he got a defensive-minded, disciplinarian coach was remarkably naive.

 

I'm not saying Skiles is the second coming of Rick Carlisle. I'm saying we have no idea what he is yet, because IT"S HIS FIRST YEAR, and he took over a 25-WIN-TEAM. If you guys want to become the NBA version of the Raiders, fine. But I'd rather be maybe a bit more patient than bringing out the pitchforks on the coach before his first season is up, when the team has in fact improved.

 

skiles is a average at best coach who is good at motivating and turning a team around.

 

The players are unmotivated and we're getting worse.

 

This is his 14th season. ask Milwaukee fans what their complaints were and you'll find they're identical to things we're saying today.

 

Your impassioned argument of "Don't fire Skiles because not enough time has passed to fire him yet" is pretty funny though.

[KRISH10 103]

1458847341[/url]' post='1032800']

I keep forgetting how much people love to hate coaches. I keep hearing this babble about Skiles' defensive scheme being outdated, but nowhere do I see even an understanding of what his scheme is. Now we are complaining that we don't leave scrubs open enough? Tell that to Kris Humphries. Everyone loves SVG's d, but that scheme is designed to do exactly what we are now complaining Skiles' does too much of, which is double team off of stunts and PNR's (Skiles' scheme really doesn't do that enough, probably, but let's not let actually watching the games and understanding our real weaknesses get in the way of our scapegoating).

 

I think anyone who's actually watched the games this season has seen certain players that have a tendency to over-rotate and get out of position (Payton, Gordon, Napier, Dedmon, Mario, to some extent Watson); other players don't rotate aggressively enough (Vuc, Nicholson, Harris when he was here, Frye when he was here); others are pretty solid by now, but struggled early (Dipo, Evan), and others have been pretty solid on rotations all year, but are just not great athletes (Jason, Ersan now that he's here).

 

Now, when multiple players have problems with team defense, one might expect it's the coach's scheme, except that the problems are spread out into different areas. Some of our guys struggle to close out on threes, but Dipo and to some extent Evan are really good at that. Some of our guys struggle to defend the ball-handler on PNR, but Dipo is great at that, and Jennings is average. Some of our bigs struggle to cover the PNR, but Dedmon is good, and Jason is not bad.

 

Blaming Skiles' defensive scheme for this teams' defensive troubles is like blaming Skiles' offensive scheme for Payton's poor mid-range shooting. On the whole, this team is full of players who are either always going to be bad defenders, or are too raw to yet be good ones. Skiles wasn't going to come in and make Fournier an all-defensive candidate. He wasn't going to come in and turn Vuc into Marc Gasol, or Nicholson into Taj Gibson. He has helped some of our guys (including Vuc and Fournier) get better, but their limitations will always hinder them. Others, like Payton, Gordon, and Dedmon, he's had to break down, because they have bad habits (Gordon and Dedmon are responding fairly well, while Payton is responding like a 5-year-old who doesn't understand why he can't spell "love" as "luv"). Oladipo has responded extremely well to Skiles' defensive coaching, and is legitimately very good after being actually below average last year.

 

The problem is that some people here seem to think that Skiles was inheriting this great team, full of untapped potential on defense (why, I have no idea, since at most 4 guys on the team could even be considered potentially good defensive players, and three of those guys were so raw they may has well have been wearing diapers on the floor). Basically, Skiles had one guy coming into this season who was ready to step up and be a very good defender: Dipo. And lo and behold, he has stepped up and become a very good defender. I think people were confused about Elf, because they saw the physical talents and assumed Skiles would magically be able to implant the knowledge of how to play the most difficult defensive position in basketball into his head via Johnny Mnemonic/Matrix style digital upload (Elf-"I know defense", with all the enthusiasm, of... well, Keanu Reaves). Gordon has responded well, and is now a pretty decent defender most of the time, but anyone who thought a 20-year-old kid was going to suddenly be Dennis Rodman because he got a defensive-minded, disciplinarian coach was remarkably naive.

 

I'm not saying Skiles is the second coming of Rick Carlisle. I'm saying we have no idea what he is yet, because IT"S HIS FIRST YEAR, and he took over a 25-WIN-TEAM. If you guys want to become the NBA version of the Raiders, fine. But I'd rather be maybe a bit more patient than bringing out the pitchforks on the coach before his first season is up, when the team has in fact improved.

 

Sorry man I disagree with almost everything you wrote in your novel. I don't care what scheme Skiles wants to run but I do care about having a coach who can make adjustments to cover different players weaknesses. We are getting destroyed from the 3 ball all year long and Skiles still has guys sagging off from the wide open shooters to stick an arm in to disrupt a player that might try to score while his Defender is still there. A good coach would mix it up a bit and stop bailing out some of these scrubs that penetrate on us and then kick to the open man. Btw SVG used to to do the same thing and it drove me crazy then too.

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

For comparison's sake, how first round rookies play under skiles:

 

Hezonja, 5.6 ppg 16.5 mpg

Harris, 5 ppg, 11.4 mpg

Larry Sanders, 4.3 ppg, 14.5 mpg

Jennings, 14.5 ppg, 32.6 mpg

Joe Alexander sucked but 4.7 ppg, 11 mpg

Thabo Sefolosha, 3.6 ppg, 12 mpg

Tyrus Thomas, 5.2 ppg, 13 mpg

ben Gordon- 15 ppg 24 mpg

luol deng- 11.7 ppg 27 mpg

kirk heinrich 12ppg 36 mpg

[random 19]

skiles is a average at best coach who is good at motivating and turning a team around.

 

The players are unmotivated and we're getting worse.

 

This is his 14th season. ask Milwaukee fans what their complaints were and you'll find they're identical to things we're saying today.

 

Your impassioned argument of "Don't fire Skiles because not enough time has passed to fire him yet" is pretty funny though.

 

 

Could say the same about the players, this is their 2nd coach, and they are still unmotivated. 3rd coach wont suddenly turn them into something else. It's players not the coach. And this summer moves will be pretty telling if our management believes that too or not. I wouldnt be surprised if half our team is gone next year.