Game Thread: Orlando Magic @ Los Angeles Lakers

[fan for too long 2 531]

Payton was not the defensive player of the year in the NCAA for not being active and determined. I don't see lax defense from Payton at all. I see confusion in scheme. Looks like he is trying to funnel the player in certain directions on purpose. And then his help defensive is not where it should be.

When he does play straight up d he is very good but gets a lot if bs calls and has to back off. These calls be better when he is a vet in league.

 

On offense he does get many assists by doing his own thing because that is how he as has always played. In a motion offense (skiles) he can't just do his thing and get other people shots.

 

In the end Payton may be better with a new coach on a different team. Time will tell. I for one will be sad that skiles could not figure out how to put Payton in a winning situation and maximize his skills.

[Jay Magic 1,247]

Payton was not the defensive player of the year in the NCAA for not being active and determined. I don't see lax defense from Payton at all. I see confusion in scheme. Looks like he is trying to funnel the player in certain directions on purpose. And then his help defensive is not where it should be.

When he does play straight up d he is very good but gets a lot if bs calls and has to back off. These calls be better when he is a vet in league.

 

On offense he does get many assists by doing his own thing because that is how he as has always played. In a motion offense (skiles) he can't just do his thing and get other people shots.

 

In the end Payton may be better with a new coach on a different team. Time will tell. I for one will be sad that skiles could not figure out how to put Payton in a winning situation and maximize his skills.

 

Skiles needs to go.

[HeHateMe 697]

Payton was not the defensive player of the year in the NCAA for not being active and determined. I don't see lax defense from Payton at all. I see confusion in scheme. Looks like he is trying to funnel the player in certain directions on purpose. And then his help defensive is not where it should be.

When he does play straight up d he is very good but gets a lot if bs calls and has to back off. These calls be better when he is a vet in league.

 

On offense he does get many assists by doing his own thing because that is how he as has always played. In a motion offense (skiles) he can't just do his thing and get other people shots.

 

In the end Payton may be better with a new coach on a different team. Time will tell. I for one will be sad that skiles could not figure out how to put Payton in a winning situation and maximize his skills.

 

What a player does in college does not matter to me in the NBA. It's a completely different game. Trey Burke, Evan Turner, Jimmer, Hansbrough all won player of the year in college. Looking at the players to win the defensive player of the year award is even worse.

 

If you don't see Lax defense from Payton, than idk what you are watching. He is not 100% engaged nearly the entire game. He will go through these quick stretches where something upsets him during the game than he gets 100% engaged and plays great defense, but that is short lived. To compare, Oladipo is able to keep up his defensive intensity much longer than Payton ever does.

 

I'll agree that our offense doesn't suit his style, but he has flaws all through his game too. I'm not sure how much better Payton is with a different coach. Sure if he played in an open offense like PHX or Denver his assist numbers would go up, but that doesn't mean he's some great player that is being held back here in Orlando by Skiles.

[HeHateMe 697]

Skiles needs to go.

 

There is absolutely zero chance Skiles gets fired this off-season. No chance. We are not going to fire him after one year, nor should we. He is not the entire problem. Fire him tomorrow and bring in some other guy and were still going to suck. Our roster is flawed and filled with majorly inconsistent players that are still finding their game in the NBA and learning to play with one another.

 

We're still probably going to win close to 10 more games than last year which isn't the progress we wanted but if anything this season has helped make it clear to everyone where we need to improve. Skiles at least gets next year & Rob too.

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

There is absolutely zero chance Skiles gets fired this off-season. No chance. We are not going to fire him after one year, nor should we. He is not the entire problem. Fire him tomorrow and bring in some other guy and were still going to suck. Our roster is flawed and filled with majorly inconsistent players that are still finding their game in the NBA and learning to play with one another.

 

We're still probably going to win close to 10 more games than last year which isn't the progress we wanted but if anything this season has helped make it clear to everyone where we need to improve. Skiles at least gets next year & Rob too.

 

he'd have to lose out to get fired.

[Franchero MVP 391]

There is absolutely zero chance Skiles gets fired this off-season. No chance. We are not going to fire him after one year, nor should we. He is not the entire problem. Fire him tomorrow and bring in some other guy and were still going to suck. Our roster is flawed and filled with majorly inconsistent players that are still finding their game in the NBA and learning to play with one another.

 

We're still probably going to win close to 10 more games than last year which isn't the progress we wanted but if anything this season has helped make it clear to everyone where we need to improve. Skiles at least gets next year & Rob too.

 

You're right that we won't but I'd argue that we actually should.

 

We are at a pretty sensitive stage in our rebuild in regards to our cap space, where with the right moves we could ascend into contention and with the not-so-right moves dissolve into obscurity for the next few years.

 

Do you feel comfortable with Skiles influencing those decisions? I certainly do not.

 

He also brings a lot of baggage with him. Are strong FAs going to want to play for Skiles? Should we miss out on them because we were too cowardice to fire him?

[Franchero MVP 391]

BTW Tobias is killing it in Detroit with a much better coach and system.

 

The proof is in the pudding. Skiles has no idea how to play to the strengths of his players.

[TheNameIsOrlando 310]

BTW Tobias is killing it in Detroit with a much better coach and system.

 

The proof is in the pudding. Skiles has no idea how to play to the strengths of his players.

 

I think Tobias fits Dets roster quite a bit better. It has very little to do with Skiles in my opinion. Not to mention Tobias leaving has opened the door for AG who will be better than Tobias.

[Air Gordon 156]

I think Tobias fits Dets roster quite a bit better. It has very little to do with Skiles in my opinion. Not to mention Tobias leaving has opened the door for AG who will be better than Tobias.

I agree with most of your points here, except Stan Van Gundy is a significantly better coach than Scott Skiles. Part of Tobias' success there is definitely better coaching.

[Justin Jaudon 221]

I agree with most of your points here, except Stan Van Gundy is a significantly better coach than Scott Skiles. Part of Tobias' success there is definitely better coaching.

 

To be fair, his VORP rating, REB%, STL%, BLK%, and DBPM were all higher in Orlando this year. Now, obviously he's playing better there, but only on offense, and that's not surprising considering he has a real PG there and an all-NBA/All-Defense caliber C. Stan is a better coach, though. So, yea, we can chalk up a little of his improvement to that.

 

But we have to remember that Tobias actually fits what Stan was already doing. He didn't have to change anything to capitalize on Tobias' skillset, because Tobias was a fit. Skiles didn't have any way to make Tobias fit into this roster. You're comparing a player's fit on a roster almost completely hand-picked by the coach who is in his second year to a the same guy on a team where the coach has had virtually no input on the roster which is full of guys who don't compliment each other at all. It's maybe a little unfair.

[Air Gordon 156]

To be fair, his VORP rating, REB%, STL%, BLK%, and DBPM were all higher in Orlando this year. Now, obviously he's playing better there, but only on offense, and that's not surprising considering he has a real PG there and an all-NBA/All-Defense caliber C. Stan is a better coach, though. So, yea, we can chalk up a little of his improvement to that.

 

But we have to remember that Tobias actually fits what Stan was already doing. He didn't have to change anything to capitalize on Tobias' skillset, because Tobias was a fit. Skiles didn't have any way to make Tobias fit into this roster. You're comparing a player's fit on a roster almost completely hand-picked by the coach who is in his second year to a the same guy on a team where the coach has had virtually no input on the roster which is full of guys who don't compliment each other at all. It's maybe a little unfair.

No, I'm just saying Van Gundy is a better coach than Skiles...

[HeHateMe 697]

You're right that we won't but I'd argue that we actually should.

 

We are at a pretty sensitive stage in our rebuild in regards to our cap space, where with the right moves we could ascend into contention and with the not-so-right moves dissolve into obscurity for the next few years.

 

Do you feel comfortable with Skiles influencing those decisions? I certainly do not.

 

He also brings a lot of baggage with him. Are strong FAs going to want to play for Skiles? Should we miss out on them because we were too cowardice to fire him?

 

That's fine. You can say we should, and maybe we should fire him. It won't happen, I personally don't think it should either. There are plenty of players around the league who respect and speak highly of Skiles. I'm not saying your wrong in thinking Skiles should be fired, there's some warrant there, but IMO our issues are more deep rooted than that.

 

BTW Tobias is killing it in Detroit with a much better coach and system.

 

The proof is in the pudding. Skiles has no idea how to play to the strengths of his players.

 

Everyone on here knew Tobias would do better in Detroit. That roster fits him much better so that's no surprise. Most of the weaknesses he displayed here are better covered with the players around him in Detroit. He's still an average role player whose being paid star money that we could better spend elsewhere. So really if Harris doing better in Detroit bothers you than you should be complaining about Rob for not putting players on the team who better suit Tobias.

 

No, I'm just saying Van Gundy is a better coach than Skiles...

 

No one would argue this, but not sure what the point is? Stan is a top 5 coach, maybe top 3. Skiles isn't, but neither are 25 other coaches currently coaching in the NBA.