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TrueMagicFan07

Magic Vs. Raptors - Friday, April 19th at 7:00 P.M.

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6 minutes ago, MagicOne said:

One thing that I am sure we can all agree on here is that the game on Sunday is a must win for the Magic. If they go down 3 to 1 in this series then realistically is there any chance they win 3 in a row with 2 of those games in Toronto ?

If two of their starters switch to our team then we have a shot.

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2 minutes ago, All Eyes On Me said:

In the 2 games we were competitive this series, Ross is +22 and only averaged about 28 minutes a game. He needs to be out there more. He’s our x-factor. With how hard they have to close on him it makes everybody else’s life on offense easier and we desperately need that. I want to see Ross play 35-38 minutes a game for the rest of the series 

I agree. Unfortunately Cliff is gonna stick with the usual lineups. Evan is the one who ruined our chances of winning tonight clearly.

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I watched that Portland/ OKC game and wished we had a dude like Russ or Dame on our team. Lillard dropped 25 in the 3rd quarter alone. Westbrook took over in the 4th to close things out.

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5 hours ago, ?4thewin said:

It's difficult to criticize vucevic too much. He did enough. 

I agree with this. He wasn't perfect by any stretch but they were doubling him early and trying to knock the ball away from him and just generally make him uncomfortable. It worked. They played great defense and he wasn't able to get in the game. Id have to rewatch but I feel with Gasol he was hedging and recovering whereas with Ibaka they switched more. Because once Gasol went out Vuc got a few easy looks matched up with smaller guys like Lowry and Kawhi. That got him going and then he hit a couple of big 3s and made some nice passes out of the post to guys for open shots.

At the end of the day he had 22/14/6 with 3 blocks and a steal on decent %s. He'd have probably had a couple more assists on another night too. 

I think the Vuc criticism is a little unfair. The Fournier criticism on the other hand is completely fair. He really struggled to handle the ball, missed or passed up on a few of the aforementioned wide open shots and fell asleep on defense a few times. I'm not really going to blame him for getting toasted by Siakam as that was a terrible matchup well exploited but I think even Iwundu or MCW there would have been more beneficial if there was some reason coach really didn't want to play Isaac.

The only reason I can imagine for Fournier over Isaac is Isaac is a worse outside shooter and chasing the game we needed to make shots. Obviously Fournier was terrible but it was a criticism of Cliff in Charlotte that he trusted experienced guys too much over young guys so it was to be expected he'd do some of that here, especially in the playoffs.

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It was a really tough game to watch last night. Fournier just hasn't shown up at all throughout the series on either end and they have so much more depth than us. They've already out performed my expectations by winning a game but it definitely highlights the areas we severely lack in.

Feels like we're heavily dependent on Fultz being a legit starter in order to get more bench production via DJ but then we could lose Ross or overpay. We have very little cap space to sign anyone of caliber short of renouncing and gutting the team. Vooch is our best player but may command more salary than he's worth, locking us into this current team for the next 4 or so years if we re-sign him and does he hold back Bamba in doing so? Moving on from Vooch would mean a step back and likely missing out on the playoffs next year with a view to being competitive the year after that when you have Mosgov and DJ deals expiring and another year of growth for Isaac and Bamba plus maybe some improvement for AG.

I dunno, feels like this is going to be the toughest year for the FO in making the correct calls. We definitely have a good young core that will keep improving but that Fournier contract hamstrings us and Ross and Vooch are unrestricted at a time where commiting too much salary in either of them could keep us as just a 5-8 seed for a few years.

Genuinely have no idea which way they will go!

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What would a package of our pick and Fournier get us? Could we move up a few spots in the draft? Would it net us a serviceable SG on less money? Could we use him with Mozgov in a deal to free up space? Would it be crazy to just find someone to take him off us for peanuts so we have some money to do something in FA?

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6 hours ago, MagicOne said:

I apologize to anyone here who is unable to handle some constructive criticism of this Magic basketball team. I was merely trying to point out that the Magic don't have any chance of winning this series. I was doing it in a polite way with no abusive language or insults. I even went so far as to say that the future is bright in Orlando and that there is plenty to look forward to.

Anyway I think any reasonable fan would agree with my assessment that the Magic will not win this series. Not being mean or disrespectful. Just my opinion. Everyone is entitled to have one. 

No you continue with your nonsense and when the game doesn’t fit your narrative you switch over and say you predicted the magic would win the whole time. You’re a troll that has nothing better to do with your time. Most of us have been through those 6 years you mention and never once did we give up on the team like you consistently do every game. It’s fine to state your opinion but it’s not fine to keep regurgitating the same nonsense over and over. Be a real fan and stop being so negative all the time lol. 

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7 hours ago, MagicOne said:

I agree. Unfortunately Cliff is gonna stick with the usual lineups. Evan is the one who ruined our chances of winning tonight clearly.

I just watched the game and what was glaring to me was how ineffective our starters were. I am not a big fan of the pace Augustine runs the offense with and since he isn't really a good facilitator we are forced to throw it into Vooch down low or Fournier on the wing. Vooch can usually throw out of it, but when we did give it to Fournier they would double team him and usually force a turnover.  I am also confused when Augustine or Fournier would drive to the basket and try to dish to Vooch or JI instead of trying to score. Have they heard of a floater, or maybe just a pull up jump shot? Why pass on the easy shot just to make an extra pass where we usually  have the ball stripped away? Tracy McGrady was saying in the booth that in the playoffs you need to make each possession count. Instead of just taking what they give us, we try and force the pass. With the Raptors length and solid defense, usually the result goes against us. To me, that's not smart basketball. We are playing to their strengths. Of course, maybe that's all we got. Maybe we have guys who can't make an easy pull up jump shot or a floater, which is perplexing to me, but a real possibility because we rarely see it. Even with a tough loss, and a real possibility of losing the series, there are good things we can take away from being in the playoffs. It gives our guys an idea of what they need to improve on. The regular season is one thing, but the playoffs are another. Everybody is working on shooting the 3, but I would encourage our guys to work on their short range jump shots, floaters, etc. When they take away the 3, we have got to have something else in our arsenal to score points. 

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    In the first half we had some glaring defensive lapses giving up too many easy baskets and turnovers.

In the second half we played great defense but as usual a couple of our players couldn't hit a shot. It's our talent level.

It's so easy to pick on whoever is having the bad game. If we take last nights game and Evan and Green switch teams we win.

  Our players are inconsistent, it's who we are. Yeah, get Fournier off the team or have him take less shots. Who do we have behind him? 

If Ross or Isaac take more shots i bet their efficiency goes down. In my mind reigning in Fournier last  night could have been the difference, so blame Clifford for the line-up.

In general, for most games, we are stuck with him. Now what do we do moving forward?

 

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13 minutes ago, hootie249 said:

    In the first half we had some glaring defensive lapses giving up too many easy baskets and turnovers.

In the second half we played great defense but as usual a couple of our players couldn't hit a shot. It's our talent level.

It's so easy to pick on whoever is having the bad game. If we take last nights game and Evan and Green switch teams we win.

  Our players are inconsistent, it's who we are. Yeah, get Fournier off the team or have him take less shots. Who do we have behind him? 

If Ross or Isaac take more shots i bet their efficiency goes down. In my mind reigning in Fournier last  night could have been the difference, so blame Clifford for the line-up.

In general, for most games, we are stuck with him. Now what do we do moving forward?

 

I think we have seen what Fournier is going to give us. Perhaps next year, we will see another guy get more playing minutes and see how they develop. 

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11 hours ago, ?4thewin said:

It's difficult to criticize vucevic too much. He did enough. 

Vuch is our lone All-Star,  we should expect more from him than what he gave us in the first half.  If he even plays marginal we win this game.  Instead he played the worse half I've ever seen him play! How many Turnovers and bone head plays did he have?

Vuch did have a great stretch in the 3rd when he helped give the magic a brief lead but this happened with Gasol on the Bench.  If you can't take advantage of a 34 year Gasol you aren't helping the team. 

Maybe his play in the second half will give Vuch some confidence going in to game 4 but to act like he hasn't been a huge disappointment this series is laughable.

 

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