2016-2017 Season Discussion Thread

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

Frank Vogel said he'll approach tomorrow's preseason finale like the regular-season opener

 

Yup. Dress rehearsal. We can take a whole lot more from this game than any of the other preseason games

[Jay Magic 1,251]

@MagicalNBA

 

Apparently Kevin Durant disagrees with the experts who panned the Ibaka trade. No surprise. Ibaka is a better player than any 1 in that trade

[Franchero MVP 391]

@MagicalNBA

 

Apparently Kevin Durant disagrees with the experts who panned the Ibaka trade. No surprise. Ibaka is a better player than any 1 in that trade

 

Magical is blah -- but regardless, Ibaka >>> Dipo in terms of overall fit and, in my opinion, as a player. It was a great move. I just think people were surprised because we expected (and wanted) Dipo to take a huge leap this year. But looking at his last 3 years, it didn't seem like he was gonna be what we wanted him to be. He's best as a 2nd or 3rd fiddle to a true superstar.

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

Magical is blah -- but regardless, Ibaka >>> Dipo in terms of overall fit and, in my opinion, as a player. It was a great move. I just think people were surprised because we expected (and wanted) Dipo to take a huge leap this year. But looking at his last 3 years, it didn't seem like he was gonna be what we wanted him to be. He's best as a 2nd or 3rd fiddle to a true superstar.

 

I think the problem initially was the much publicized decline. Once we examined possible explanations for the decline and that he's averaging near 17 and 9 in 28 mpg in the preseason and that helps alleviate any concerns.

 

Ibaka might be an all star this year

[Catalina Maria 64]

I think the problem initially was the much publicized decline. Once we examined possible explanations for the decline and that he's averaging near 17 and 9 in 28 mpg in the preseason and that helps alleviate any concerns.

 

Ibaka might be an all star this year

 

The new nba.com site is so hard to navigate. Hard to get immediate info. Anyone know how Dipo is doing in pre-season?

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,033]

On separate Thought but still related to this season, why do we only play Cleveland three times and only one of those a home game? the other two away? I checked and for the last 5 years we've always played Cleveland 4 times? EDIT - oh i guess we only played them three times 2 years ago... that stinks for me as a season ticket holder

1 automatic loss is gone from our schedule. I ain't complaining

[TheNameIsOrlando 310]

The new nba.com site is so hard to navigate. Hard to get immediate info. Anyone know how Dipo is doing in pre-season?

 

Yea it is absolute trash!! I couldnt even fond team schedules!

[The Neighborhood Bully 266]

His take on the Magic

 

"I didn’t like the deal for Serge Ibaka. Trading [guard] Victor Oladipo [to the Thunder] for Ibaka is kind of a wash, but they also gave up the 12th pick, and they’re really only renting Ibaka. If he doesn’t have a great year, they’ll either overpay to keep him or just let him walk. . . . Some of the changes they made are a little frontcourt heavy even though they lack backcourt strength. How do you find minutes for all these guys: Ibaka, Bismack Biyombo, Aaron Gordon, Nikola Vucevic, Jeff Green? . . . Gordon will probably have to play the three because of the logjam. He’s a great athlete and he’s gonna get a lot of buckets in transition. He’s strong and has great size to guard threes. But he lacks the shooting skill to space the floor. I like him more as a four. . . . When they need offense they’ll go with Vucevic; when they need defense and rebounding they’ll go with Biyombo. They paid Biyombo a lot of money, but he really has no offense at all. He came off that great playoff series where he was getting 20 rebounds a game and playing great defense. If he can repeat that kind of performance, he’ll maybe even win the starting position. Frank Vogel is more of a defensive coach. . . . You get scoring from Vucevic, though, and I don’t know how much of that they’ll get from other positions. . . . Elfrid Payton has been a real disappointment. I don’t think he has ever really improved. He’s obviously an up-tempo, penetrating guard, but he can’t shoot at all. . . . Mario Hezonja is really limited. Certainly he can give you spot-up shooting, but he’s slow defensively."

http://www.si.com/nb...tern-conference

An NBA scouts random thoughts on the Western Conference. Good read, here are a few excerpts.

 

[/size]http://www.si.com/nb...tern-conference

[The Neighborhood Bully 266]

There is a legitimate case to be made that this team could make the playoffs; the Magic, had they been capable of holding onto leads, would have done so last season, too. (See this list of hilarious, San Diego Chargers–style blown leads last year as evidence.) The talent on this roster is undeniably better than at any other point in the Hennigan era. Orlando, at last, has asserted a strong identity. It will do one thing well: defend. This “doing one thing well” is a wild departure from the “doing zero things well” strategy employed the past few years. In the past three years, Vogel’s Indiana teams had a top-three defense twice, in 2014 and 2016, and in the team’s one down year in 2015, they ranked eighth.

 

The key to the whole defensive operation here is how the Bismack Biyombo–Serge Ibaka–Aaron Gordon frontcourt would look. Vogel has been relentlessly praising the Ibaka-Biyombo pairing for its defensive versatility. “Really, I think that’s the way that I would build a team if I was starting from scratch,” Vogel told the Magic’s website of Ibaka and Biyombo. “To have the ability to not have to change your lineup every night — if you’re playing a big team, you don’t have to take your smalls out; and if you are playing a small team, you don’t have to pull your bigs.”

 

The team now has the personnel to indulge Vogel’s fantasy of playing games in which scores resemble high-scoring college football finals, but it might not have the talent to solve Orlando’s other glaring problem. During the four-year rebuild, the team never finished above 22nd in offensive rating. Losing Oladipo — a player prone to taking over quarters, creating quick offense, and

 — and his production will not help matters. Nor would taking Vucevic, the team’s most talented offensive weapon, off the floor in favor of Biyombo. But what if the defense becomes as good as advertised? And, perhaps a bigger stretch: What if a member of Orlando’s young core makes a huge statistical leap in offensive production?

 

If a leap is coming, it probably isn’t going to be from Evan Fournier, who already enjoyed his breakout season last year. What fans ought to hope for is Mario Hezonja forcing his way onto the floor. Maybe Vogel takes him seriously about playing point guard, for instance, or Hezonja makes the most of his minutes spelling Gordon and Fournier. Of course, Hezonja has to improve his defense before any of this is remotely realistic, and Vogel saidthe Croatian has a “ways to go” on that. But his development should be a priority, even for a team looking to win now, not later: A defensively-capable Hezonja would theoretically solve a large chunk of the Magic’s problems. He can score from outside, play off the ball, and, at 6-foot-8, represents the kind of positional versatility on offense that Gordon, Ibaka, and Biyombo show on defense.

 

Or maybe Elfrid Payton, a good passer if nothing else, starts to develop enough chemistry with Gordon that they cash in on the Lob City 2.0 vibe they flashed

Gordon has shown a supernatural ability to adjust around the rim. Aaron Gordon putbacks on YouTube are the rabbit hole every Magic fan can waste a day on. (Or just watch every

)

https://theringer.co...7c71#.dhbu1gona

[Jay Magic 1,251]

any streams guys?

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

So this isn't good

[Jay Magic 1,251]

how are we looking ?? LOL