2018-19 Official Season Discussion Thread

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,031]

7 minutes ago, Odin said:

I don't think our bench is that bad, the issue is that they don't really work as a unit right now.

Simmons is a ball hog and Grant blows. Other than that we're fine. Ross helps a lot

[HeHateMe 697]

I think the bench is pretty bad.

Grant and Simmons are obvious issues. Simmons will undoubtedly improve somewhat but he’s still an extremely streaky player. 

I love Bamba’s future but he’s a rookie so you never know what you’re gonna get night-to-night from him. Some really good nights some awful nights. 

Ross has helped cover up a lot of the benches issues. Iwundu has improved though as a starter so it will be interesting to see if he can continue to play well with the bench when Issac moves back into the starting lineup at some point. 

I actually like some things Grant does on the court but he just doesn’t seem comfortable running an offense. Now if we had a true starting PG and moved DJ to lead the second unit i think that would fix a lot of the issues with inconsistencies the bench faces. 

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

The bench would be fine if we got each players "good game" 50% of the time. Instead we get it, on average, something like 20% of the time. Actually probably less considering we've had something like 1 good Simmons game and 0 good Martin games. 

We could deal with 33% Grant if we had 70% Simmons like last year. You only really need 2-3 good performances off your bench each night. Ross is consistent. We just can't get that extra guy. 

[Odin 137]

Some shooting things:

Gordon is currently scoring over 76% of his shots around the basket.

For reference, Lebron James has only passed those percentages around the basket 4 times in his 16 year career, the first time coming when he was 28.

Our team as a whole is 4th in FG% around the basket (within 3 feet). However, we are second to last in the number of attempts at the rim- which is probably part of what is deflating our efficiency numbers.

On the other hand, we are 12th in the % of shots taken 3-10 feet, while being the 20th most efficient in that area, and 7th in % of shots taken 10-16 feet  while being 29th most efficient from that area.

We also take the 5th most long 2s (16 to the 3 pt. line) as a portion of our total shots, but we are 7th most efficient from that range.

From the 3, we are average in both attempts (35% of our shots are from 3, which puts us 16th), and efficiency (34.6% as a team which puts us 19th).

We are still the worst team at getting to the free throw line, even though we are 16th in free throw shooting percentage.

Basically, our efficiency issues are a combination of us not generating shots in areas where we are good to average and taking too high of a percentage of our shots in areas where we are not efficient (mostly in the mid-range), while also not being able to get to the free throw line. Thankfully, our efficiency numbers have been going up.

[Odin 137]

The biggest issue on the bench is that we don't really have a true shot generator, whether generating good shots for himself or teammates. The team gets too stagnant on offense when we go all bench.

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

During this 7 game streak:

Gordon 19.8 ppg 8 rebs 4 assists 53/41/85 shooting splits

Vucevic 19 11 and 3 52/35/73

Ross 17 4 and 2 52/49/80

Fournier 16 3 and 4 44/31/75

Augustin 11 2 and 5 50/45/81

Team 110 offensive rating 105.2 defensive rating

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

During this 7 game streak:

The magic are third in 3pt percentage and fourth in 3pm

Last in made free throws per game

5th fewest turnovers

3rd most assists

[argentinaworldchampion 32]

1 hour ago, Mauro Pedrosa said:

We still have a deeply flawed team with a horrible bench and Clifford has led us to wins over the Celtics, Sixers and Spurs, while showing great ball movement. I have to tip my hat to that and I'm hopeful about what he can do with better players.

I was team tank but that ain't happening. The bottom of the East BLOWS and Caris LeVert just went down. Watching some Magic playoff basketball would be fun even if we got swept.

Agree.

clifford has done a really nice job, vuc is playing out of his mind (I would like him to at least raise his arms while contesting a shot), ross has been unbelievable, and some nice contributions by gordon, bamba and dj. 

For us to get to the playoffs we need to have a better record than wizards and heat. Those will be our real opponents for the 8th seed.

And we will need fournier, simmons and grant to be at least decent to have a shot at this. I dont know what else to expect from isaac, though (if he does play)

[argentinaworldchampion 32]

39 minutes ago, ?4thewin said:

During this 7 game streak:

The magic are third in 3pt percentage and fourth in 3pm

Last in made free throws per game

5th fewest turnovers

3rd most assists

 

Positively surprised about the TO trend. Have watched quite a few games and there have been much less no nonsense plays. 

simmons, forunier and gordon throw some errants pass from time to time, but overall we improved greatly.

[HeHateMe 697]

Clifford clearly a better coach than Vogel too. 

[Franchero MVP 391]

5 minutes ago, HeHateMe said:

Clifford clearly a better coach than Vogel too. 

Lightyears better. 

[Franchero MVP 391]

2 hours ago, Mauro Pedrosa said:

We still have a deeply flawed team with a horrible bench and Clifford has led us to wins over the Celtics, Sixers and Spurs, while showing great ball movement. I have to tip my hat to that and I'm hopeful about what he can do with better players.

I was team tank but that ain't happening. The bottom of the East BLOWS and Caris LeVert just went down. Watching some Magic playoff basketball would be fun even if we got swept.

Not to mention that guys like Gordon and Bamba would benefit greatly from playoff experience