2019 Offseason Thread

[Forumreader 10]

The new media.

[Mack1085 57]

I'm really surprised there are no stated restrictions on Fultz's play. Given how guarded and cautious Weltman and Hammond were this offseason talking about him and his progress I was expecting him to still be in a recovery phase - able to play, but probably limited minutes or something like that.They were clearly trying to protect him from the burden of expectations, but him showing up and all of the sudden being good to go felt like a bigger circus of attention than if they had teased it out a bit more over the past couple months. Can't wait to see him in preseason action and look at how the team runs with him at point.

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

15 minutes ago, Mack1085 said:

I'm really surprised there are no stated restrictions on Fultz's play. Given how guarded and cautious Weltman and Hammond were this offseason talking about him and his progress I was expecting him to still be in a recovery phase - able to play, but probably limited minutes or something like that.They were clearly trying to protect him from the burden of expectations, but him showing up and all of the sudden being good to go felt like a bigger circus of attention than if they had teased it out a bit more over the past couple months. Can't wait to see him in preseason action and look at how the team runs with him at point.

Everything was a circus with fultz and would be regardless with how we played it. Not commenting allowed us to have control over the story. 

The latest circus was by design and also controlled by the team. They invited all of the central Florida reporters to come film him shooting during an unofficial practice days before media day began (a practice that media has never been invited to before.) 

 

It's all orchestrated with specific intent. If they're at the point where they're hyping him up, the hype is intentional and we should be excited that this is where they think the narrative should be. 

[OnlyFranz 289]

28 minutes ago, ?4thewin said:

Everything was a circus with fultz and would be regardless with how we played it. Not commenting allowed us to have control over the story. 

The latest circus was by design and also controlled by the team. They invited all of the central Florida reporters to come film him shooting during an unofficial practice days before media day began (a practice that media has never been invited to before.) 

 

It's all orchestrated with specific intent. If they're at the point where they're hyping him up, the hype is intentional and we should be excited that this is where they think the narrative should be. 

Couldn’t agree more. The narrative has always been he may be ready but we aren’t rushing him by setting a date for his return. Now they have done a complete 180 and hyped him up like he was our #1 pick this last draft. I am very excited for this year and Fultz will be the key to unlocking this teams full potential. Just hope he doesn’t have a setback like you previously pointed out could happen but I like our depth regardless. 

[ML6 520]

45 minutes ago, ?4thewin said:

The latest circus was by design and also controlled by the team. They invited all of the central Florida reporters to come film him shooting during an unofficial practice days before media day began (a practice that media has never been invited to before.) 

It's all orchestrated with specific intent. If they're at the point where they're hyping him up, the hype is intentional and we should be excited that this is where they think the narrative should be. 

I've been thinking about this exact set of considerations.  I have a lot of thoughts on it.

At face value, the practice being opened to the media specifically for a Fultz hype event SHOULD mean he is fixed beyond a doubt.  Any less, given his history, would make this show of bravado by the FO extremely short-sighted.  This is further complicated by his working diagnosis -- TOS; you've correctly pointed out many times that the concern here is the return of his symptoms as he begins using his arm more regularly and gets further out (time-wise) from his rehab. 

Now I'll put on my tinfoil hat.  Seeing the way WeltHam handled Fultz from Feb until last week -- that is to say, completely removing him from the public eye and saying absolutely nothing about his status -- makes the decision to open a media session even more noteworthy.  Would they really do that if they didn't know he was fully 100% with little risk of relapsing?  If his diagnosis is indeed TOS, and we know that has a chance or relapse, how could they possibly be so confident?  It would be stupid to show off your repaired Maserati and brag to everyone about all the cross-country trips you have scheduled if you know it has a 20-30% chance of breaking down, wouldn't it?

To summarize, I guess my feeling is that I agree that we should be extremely excited because I cannot imagine that WeltHam would all of the sudden voluntarily put him out there after being so tight-lipped for 2/3 of the year unless he was fully ready.  It would just be such a huge change in philosophy.  But at the same time, I can't see how they would take such a bold step in the setting of newly rehabbed TOS -- there's still just too much of a hill to climb.  Very confusing.

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

4 minutes ago, ML6 said:

I've been thinking about this exact set of considerations.  I have a lot of thoughts on it.

At face value, the practice being opened to the media specifically for a Fultz hype event SHOULD mean he is fixed beyond a doubt.  Any less, given his history, would make this show of bravado by the FO extremely short-sighted.  This is further complicated by his working diagnosis -- TOS; you've correctly pointed out many times that the concern here is the return of his symptoms as he begins using his arm more regularly and gets further out (time-wise) from his rehab. 

Now I'll put on my tinfoil hat.  Seeing the way WeltHam handled Fultz from Feb until last week -- that is to say, completely removing him from the public eye and saying absolutely nothing about his status -- makes the decision to open a media session even more noteworthy.  Would they really do that if they didn't know he was fully 100% with little risk of relapsing?  If his diagnosis is indeed TOS, and we know that has a chance or relapse, how could they possibly be so confident?  It would be stupid to show off your repaired Maserati and brag to everyone about all the cross-country trips you have scheduled if you know it has a 20-30% chance of breaking down, wouldn't it?

To summarize, I guess my feeling is that I agree that we should be extremely excited because I cannot imagine that WeltHam would all of the sudden voluntarily put him out there after being so tight-lipped for 2/3 of the year unless he was fully ready.  It would just be such a huge change in philosophy.  But at the same time, I can't see how they would take such a bold step in the setting of newly rehabbed TOS -- there's still just too much of a hill to climb.  Very confusing.

Yeah I'm taking the perspective that both fultz and management believe (and are extremely confident) he's "cured" and ready to perform at a high level. 

That confidence is very possibly misplaced. 

So what changed isn't the facts surrounding his issue, but the perception that he's "ready". 

But with such a nebulous injury I wouldn't take it like he's a sure thing now. 

[ML6 520]

8 minutes ago, ?4thewin said:

Yeah I'm taking the perspective that both fultz and management believe (and are extremely confident) he's "cured" and ready to perform at a high level. 

That confidence is very possibly misplaced. 

So what changed isn't the facts surrounding his issue, but the perception that he's "ready". 

But with such a nebulous injury I wouldn't take it like he's a sure thing now. 

You worded it much more succinctly than I did.  I agree.  It's being presented as a sure thing but in reality it can't truly be a sure thing, making it a very risky decision in the public eye to show him off. 

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

14 minutes ago, ML6 said:

You worded it much more succinctly than I did.  I agree.  It's being presented as a sure thing but in reality it can't truly be a sure thing, making it a very risky decision in the public eye to show him off. 

It's been so difficult to manage my expectations with fultz. He was a number 1 pick for a reason. He was such a great prospect that I saw as a sure thing on the court. He was probably my favorite prospect since we started the rebuild. He fits our philosophy perfectly. The pre-draft version of him is exactly what we need to take this team from a second tier team in the east at best to a team with legitimate championship upside. 

So I'm really excited that guys are talking about his ability to get to the rim and how Clifford is commenting on his defense and decision making. Those are signs he's trending toward the player we think he can be early in the season. 

But his situation must always sit in the back of our minds. It would be devastating to see him perform like a number one pick only for him to get knocked out of the rotation for 4 months again. 

 

So I don't really know how excited we're supposed to be here. The front office gives us nothing for anything. The fact there's positivity now is something significant. But I can't help but feel like we're getting carried away as a fanbase with him. 

[Just a regular Magic fan 38]

Would it be within reason to say that at least early on we should temper our expectations that Fultz will be more of a facilitator than scorer?

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

6 minutes ago, Just a regular Magic fan said:

Would it be within reason to say that at least early on we should temper our expectations that Fultz will be more of a facilitator than scorer?

I don't really know. He's more of a scorer than a facilitator. But there's no way to know what his role is going to be until we see him play. 

 

[Mack1085 57]

1 hour ago, ?4thewin said:

So I don't really know how excited we're supposed to be here. The front office gives us nothing for anything. The fact there's positivity now is something significant. But I can't help but feel like we're getting carried away as a fanbase with him. 

And that is what's so strange to me. We're getting carried away in part because the official Orlando Magic social media accounts are hyping him like he's the #1 pick. It's one thing if it was just the writers, but the organization is pushing the narrative out there now. So they are only fueling what would have already been a lot of excitement and expectation. I hope they really are this confident...

[jmmagicfan 299]

1 hour ago, Mack1085 said:

And that is what's so strange to me. We're getting carried away in part because the official Orlando Magic social media accounts are hyping him like he's the #1 pick. It's one thing if it was just the writers, but the organization is pushing the narrative out there now. So they are only fueling what would have already been a lot of excitement and expectation. I hope they really are this confident...

The funny thing is, if he is finally healthy, it is like he's the #1 pick. Think about it this way, if he was just coming into the league out of college, he would probably still have gone top-2 or top-3. The way that the narrative is being pushed, I have to think they really are this confident that he is finally right and ready to go. I'm still cautious, but I have to say definitely more optimistic.