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Bauncey Chillups

2019 Offseason Thread

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12 minutes ago, Just a regular Magic fan said:

If you were going to advise Gordon, what would you have him work on to help him take the next step?

Improve his ball handling / drives to the basket

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Fultz has appeared in 33 games through the first two seasons of his career, starting 15 of them last season. Over that span, he’s averaged 7.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists on 41 percent shooting from the field in roughly 20 minutes per contest.

Again, this is an extremely small sample size. More context that should be added is where Fultz currently stands in reference to the rest of the Magic roster. Fultz is currently listed as the team’s third point guard behind DJ Augustin and Michael Carter-Williams, two players that have proven to be valuable rotation players but neither of which are players you want starting at the lead guard position for you.

The fact that the Magic didn’t draft a point guard or sign a starter in free agency suggests that the team expects Fultz to play a role at some point for the team this season. Using that context, I suppose we have to assume that the team believes Fultz will be healthy enough to play, probably sooner rather than later too.

The first step in Fultz having a successful season in 2019-20 is getting to a point in which his health is no longer a qualifier. If we ever get to a point this season where we don’t talk about Fultz’s health as a major talking point, it will be a successful season.

Through the majority of his short career in the NBA, we’ve always talked about Fultz’s health and not so much his skill-set on the floor as a professional. Fultz’s ability – or even inability- has always taken a backseat to his health. It would be huge if Fultz could change that narrative this season.

As far as on the court production, that’s where it gets difficult. However, if we exit the 2019-20 season with Fultz being an above-average starting point guard in the NBA, it would be a huge success.I think it’s only fair to assume that even with a healthy Fultz, it’s going to take some time for him to come to fruition. It’s not like he’s going to take the league by storm and play like a former No. 1 pick this season, assuming health. While that would be a great thing, it wouldn’t be fair to expect that from Fultz.

Overall, a successful season from Fultz would be defined through health, unfortunately. The first thing that Fultz needs to prove is that he can stay healthy. After that, then he needs to prove he was worthy of being a top pick. But, right now, with the way the Orlando Magic are operating, you’d have to assume we should see the best Markelle Fultz that we’ve seen thus far in his career.

https://sircharlesincharge.com/2019/09/19/orlando-magic-successful-season-markelle-fultz/

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On 9/19/2019 at 10:06 AM, Just a regular Magic fan said:

If you were going to advise Gordon, what would you have him work on to help him take the next step?

   Watch tape of Siakam? He made the leap last year i always hoped Gordon would make. Time will tell.

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42 minutes ago, hootie249 said:

   Watch tape of Siakam? He made the leap last year i always hoped Gordon would make. Time will tell.

I hate this Siakam comp. Imagine how much easier it is to make a jump with a top 3-5 player right next to you. I don't view Siakam as much better than Gordon if at all. 

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45 minutes ago, TheNameIsOrlando said:

I hate this Siakam comp. Imagine how much easier it is to make a jump with a top 3-5 player right next to you. I don't view Siakam as much better than Gordon if at all. 

I get what you're saying. Siakam definitely benefits from playing in a well defined role next to two all stars and great role players and found the 2-3 things he was good at and just did nothing but those things all year resulting in super efficiency. With Kawhi gone and surprisingly weak wing depth I don't think it's crazy to think that siakam regresses a bit and the plateauing of his improvement rate changes the narrative surrounding him. And at that point maybe Gordon has the type of season where he's viewed as objectively better. Especially considering siakam is more than a year and a half older than Gordon. 

 

However, until we see that scenario play out I don't think it's right to say Gordon is better. Siakam is significantly more efficient on offense and has similar production on fewer attempts. And his rate of improvement leaves the door open that the larger role he's sure to get this season results in him averaging something like 26ppg. 

So while I acknowledge your point that we don't really have a full grasp of what siakam is yet and he could have just been in the best situation possible for his success and thinking about facing siakam doesn't really scare me we also have to acknowledge that maybe his production is real and he's going to get much better. 

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4 hours ago, ?4thewin said:

I get what you're saying. Siakam definitely benefits from playing in a well defined role next to two all stars and great role players and found the 2-3 things he was good at and just did nothing but those things all year resulting in super efficiency. With Kawhi gone and surprisingly weak wing depth I don't think it's crazy to think that siakam regresses a bit and the plateauing of his improvement rate changes the narrative surrounding him. And at that point maybe Gordon has the type of season where he's viewed as objectively better. Especially considering siakam is more than a year and a half older than Gordon. 

 

However, until we see that scenario play out I don't think it's right to say Gordon is better. Siakam is significantly more efficient on offense and has similar production on fewer attempts. And his rate of improvement leaves the door open that the larger role he's sure to get this season results in him averaging something like 26ppg. 

So while I acknowledge your point that we don't really have a full grasp of what siakam is yet and he could have just been in the best situation possible for his success and thinking about facing siakam doesn't really scare me we also have to acknowledge that maybe his production is real and he's going to get much better. 

You're absolutely right. I projected a bit but I expect Siakam to become less efficent just because that's what tends to happen with more attempts.

I guess the larger point is just the perception. I don't doubt how good Siakam is but I also believe Gordon would of thrived on Toronto last year and Siakam would be viewed similarly to Gordon had he played for us. I think they're pretty much equal players if the playing field is leveled.

While Siakam does things Gordon doesn't the same could be said in reverse. Gordon has things he needs to work on which mainly revolve around him becoming more efficent. At the end of the day Siakam isn't significantly better than Gordon and they're impact in my opinion is similar. 

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So with still no Chuma news does this make one scenario more likely than the other or it's pretty much the same since week one of drafting him?

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6 hours ago, ?4thewin said:

 

 

I love that play. I remember watching it and thinking it's a really strong play. I think it only really works with someone that is as dangerous from deep as TRoss but also as athletic, it's the perfect play for him and I hope we continue to run it, think we can do more with Ross other than screens for 3s.

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5 minutes ago, The Boss said:

So with still no Chuma news does this make one scenario more likely than the other or it's pretty much the same since week one of drafting him?

maybe the impasse is due to him wanting to bring his family to the games on the team plane and the Magic are saying no...it's happened before

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