GAMETHREAD: ORL @ NYK

[Years of Tragic and Magic 13]

Don't put too much stock into this line up, I think Skiles will want a almost complete overhaul in the off season!!!

 

Can't say that I blame him!!!!

 

 

I'm not sure Skiles has proven enough to have that kind of control. I think Skiles has more question marks than the roster.

[Magicman28 295]

Ha!! No 110+ for you!!! Moral Victory!!!

[HeHateMe 697]

Ha!! No 110+ for you!!! Moral Victory!!!

 

ehhhh idk about this one haha

 

Edit: Who am i kidding, I'll take that moral victory. LOL

[Franchero MVP 391]

I hate this team

[HeHateMe 697]

I hate this team

 

Don't worry, it will be much different next year with the free agents were bringing in. I hope. But more than likely it won't be.

[Franchero MVP 391]

Don't worry, it will be much different next year with the free agents were bringing in. I hope. But more than likely it won't be.

 

The roster needs a major shake up, I'm down for getting rid of players -- and that list includes Payton and Dipo

[jec 427]

Ha!! No 110+ for you!!! Moral Victory!!!

Nobody is calling this a moral victory. Nice try.

[jec 427]

The roster needs a major shake up, I'm down for getting rid of players -- and that list includes Payton and Dipo

The only players I consider untouchable unless we get some amazing super star level returns are Aaron Gordon and Mario "has ammonia".

[magicjed23 12]

Honestly dude, it's gonna take a whole hell of a lot more than that for us to be a major threat.

 

I didn't say we'd be a major threat. I said HE would be a major threat.

 

We need some player upgrades, and our current players to become consistent and play to their potential (or at least take big steps in that direction.)

 

We also need help with the mental aspect, and our coach may have the right ideas, but he needs to do better at getting players to execute them all the time. Problem is that Skiles is not great at teaching it seems. He is too hard headed and still needs to adjust to a different league than the one he played in. It's not easy when a coach expects you to do things he never could. He got 30 assists when everyone could shoot and actually made their open shots, but never did much else well.

 

I believe our coach is holding us back more than helping because he can't make a decision about his rotations. Either run with veteran role players who will get us nowhere of significance or develop, focus on, and play our young guys. Playoffs are more important for Skiles' and Rob's jobs, but are not more important to building our team than developing our guys. Getting impatient and sacrificing our youth just to get an 8th seed is probably more harmful than good. I don't think we should put all our faith in Skiles. We can't be sure he was responsible for our start. He seems to be trying to change players instead of adapting his systems to fit us, until we find the players that fit his style. Really, Skiles shouldn't be safe either because we haven't improved any more than we normally would improve by simply being one year older or one year more experienced.

 

We started well last year and lost a bunch of close games. But, when Borrego took over and post All-Star weekend, we looked better and Dipo and Payton improved. Guess what two players had to entirely revamp their game to play for Skiles? Also look how those 2 and Harris regressed when Skiles took charge. Only Fournier has benefited from Skiles.

 

Vaughn was not the right coach, but it doesn't look like Skiles is either. But, it seems like we are going to be stuck with him, so I hope that it's growing pains and I am wrong about him.

[Franchero MVP 391]

I didn't say we'd be a major threat. I said HE would be a major threat.

 

We need some player upgrades, and our current players to become consistent and play to their potential (or at least take big steps in that direction.)

 

We also need help with the mental aspect, and our coach may have the right ideas, but he needs to do better at getting players to execute them all the time. Problem is that Skiles is not great at teaching it seems. He is too hard headed and still needs to adjust to a different league than the one he played in. It's not easy when a coach expects you to do things he never could. He got 30 assists when everyone could shoot and actually made their open shots, but never did much else well.

 

I believe our coach is holding us back more than helping because he can't make a decision about his rotations. Either run with veteran role players who will get us nowhere of significance or develop, focus on, and play our young guys. Playoffs are more important for Skiles' and Rob's jobs, but are not more important to building our team than developing our guys. Getting impatient and sacrificing our youth just to get an 8th seed is probably more harmful than good. I don't think we should put all our faith in Skiles. We can't be sure he was responsible for our start. He seems to be trying to change players instead of adapting his systems to fit us, until we find the players that fit his style. Really, Skiles shouldn't be safe either because we haven't improved any more than we normally would improve by simply being one year older or one year more experienced.

 

We started well last year and lost a bunch of close games. But, when Borrego took over and post All-Star weekend, we looked better and Dipo and Payton improved. Guess what two players had to entirely revamp their game to play for Skiles? Also look how those 2 and Harris regressed when Skiles took charge. Only Fournier has benefited from Skiles.

 

Vaughn was not the right coach, but it doesn't look like Skiles is either. But, it seems like we are going to be stuck with him, so I hope that it's growing pains and I am wrong about him.

 

I disagree that getting the 8th seed would be harmful. I think having some playoff experience could do wonders for these kids. Will make them hungrier next season.

[HeHateMe 697]

Nobody is calling this a moral victory. Nice try.

 

It's sarcasm. It makes losing more fun if you make up a fake reason to call the game a "moral victory", and with this team, we need anything fun we can get.

 

The only players I consider untouchable unless we get some amazing super star level returns are Aaron Gordon and Mario "has ammonia".

 

I would only say AG (unless a big time offer)

 

I didn't say we'd be a major threat. I said HE would be a major threat.

 

We need some player upgrades, and our current players to become consistent and play to their potential (or at least take big steps in that direction.)

 

We also need help with the mental aspect, and our coach may have the right ideas, but he needs to do better at getting players to execute them all the time. Problem is that Skiles is not great at teaching it seems. He is too hard headed and still needs to adjust to a different league than the one he played in. It's not easy when a coach expects you to do things he never could. He got 30 assists when everyone could shoot and actually made their open shots, but never did much else well.

 

I believe our coach is holding us back more than helping because he can't make a decision about his rotations. Either run with veteran role players who will get us nowhere of significance or develop, focus on, and play our young guys. Playoffs are more important for Skiles' and Rob's jobs, but are not more important to building our team than developing our guys. Getting impatient and sacrificing our youth just to get an 8th seed is probably more harmful than good. I don't think we should put all our faith in Skiles. We can't be sure he was responsible for our start. He seems to be trying to change players instead of adapting his systems to fit us, until we find the players that fit his style. Really, Skiles shouldn't be safe either because we haven't improved any more than we normally would improve by simply being one year older or one year more experienced.

 

We started well last year and lost a bunch of close games. But, when Borrego took over and post All-Star weekend, we looked better and Dipo and Payton improved. Guess what two players had to entirely revamp their game to play for Skiles? Also look how those 2 and Harris regressed when Skiles took charge. Only Fournier has benefited from Skiles.

 

Vaughn was not the right coach, but it doesn't look like Skiles is either. But, it seems like we are going to be stuck with him, so I hope that it's growing pains and I am wrong about him.

 

 

 

Skiles can't make a decision on the rotations because he has a roster filled with incredibly inconsistent players. I don't envy the choices he has to make. What rotations would you have? The makeup of our roster makes it hard to have clear cut rotational players. If I asked everyone on here to name the starting 5 and the first 3 players off the bench they would use, you would get a different answer from everyone. A lot of people want to blame Skiles rotations, like there is some obvious perfect lineup he's missing. He's tried a ton of different combinations. Nothing works for long because our players don't play consistent enough for long periods to bring any kind of sustainable success.

 

We did not get impatient. What move did we do that showed impatience? Winning matters. It does. Point blank. We have these young guys who have been around a losing culture for 3 years now, and that takes a toll on their mentalities. You might think it doesn't, but it does. Why do you think we are leading the league in losses by 3 points or less? Why do you think we blow big leads all the time? Why do you think we can't close our games late in the fourth? There are more than one answer to that obviously, but the biggest thing is these guys don't know how to win. They've done nothing but lose since they got in the NBA and they have zero confidence in themselves to finish games.

 

You can't change a losing mentality over night. We already matched our win total from last year and should finish with around 10 more wins this year than last, that's progress. I made a thread earlier in the year with predictions for the season, and I didn't have us making the playoffs. The East is better this year, and were essentially the exact same team. You can't get it all fixed in one year. You win 35 games this year, than 45 next year, and than hopefully after than you can be a contender.

 

Also, I don't know how we've sacraficed our youth this year? Because Mario isn't playing 40 minutes a night? AG, Dipo, Payton, Fournier are all getting tons of minutes. Mario isn't ready yet. He's not. And that's completely fine. His time will come.

 

I just think Blaming Skiles when we have a flawed and young roster is really premature. I don't agree with everything he does, I don't agree with everything any coach does. That's sports.

 

The playoffs would have been great, but we aren't a playoff team.

[jec 427]

I disagree that getting the 8th seed would be harmful. I think having some playoff experience could do wonders for these kids. Will make them hungrier next season.

 

Seriously. They're not robots. Continuously missing the playoffs will eventual wear on them. And its not exactly helping with our fanbase either.