2019 Preseason Thread

[TheNameIsOrlando 310]

16 minutes ago, 3rd Quarter Collapse said:

I mean, the athleticism and explosiveness arguments are correct— he’s demonstrated that consistently. He’s an athletic, explosive point guard who’s inefficient and commits turnovers; both parts are true, and both parts shouldn’t be dismissed. 

 

My opinion is that people who thought Fultz was going to produce some dramatic improvement by himself were being unrealistic. As of right now, he’s an improvement to our PG depth and has been integral to the offensive success of our bench unit. He’s still a rookie, so the inefficiency and turnover issues are somewhat expected for a young PG: 

De’Aaron Fox shot 41.2% from the court and committed 2.4 turnovers a game his rookie year. 

Oladipo shot 41.9% from the court and committed 3.2 turnovers a game. (I know Oladipo’s a combo guard, but he plays in a similar fashion to Fultz and was listed as a PG for his rookie year by Pro Basketball Reference, too.)

Over his 33 game sample in the regular season, Fultz shot 41.4% from the court and committed 1.3 turnovers a game.

 

Both Fox and Oladipo have improved upon these areas and turned into good players— turnovers and efficiency is typically a weakness for rookie players, which Fultz essentially is. We can expect Fultz to improve in those two areas, as players tend to do as they adapt to the NBA. I’m much more concerned about his health and his shot never improving than his inefficiency and turnovers.

 

Basically, we should treat Fultz as a rookie this year. He’ll be an improvement to the 2nd unit, and as he finds out how to finish around the rim and becomes less turnover prone, we’ll get a better feel for who Fultz is.

 

(Philly gave up on Fultz mainly for cap reasons, so that argument really doesn’t hold up with me personally.)

It's so weird how fans operate. Fultz has literally played in 33 games. 33 whole games! Nothing he has done thus far means much at all and yet here we are discussing how great or terrible he is or will be. Do you know how terrible I am in the first months of a new job no matter how much experience I have? If I were to be graded after the first few months by most of my employers they would be like what in the hell did we just do?!?! As fans we are so impatient and quick to make rash judgments. Let's get into the season and see how this begins to shake out before we make these grand hills to die on. I don't get it. 

[Just a regular Magic fan 38]

5 hours ago, TrueMagicFan07 said:

My issue is with calling MCW a bad player. I don't look at stats. What I do know is what I see happening in a game. I have not seen enough of Fultz and what he brings to the table, but what I like about MCW is what he brought to the team last season after being traded to the Magic.

For me, he brought added energy to the team. When the Magic went on that run later in the season, I found myself enjoying watching him pushing the ball, his excellent defense and driving the paint for layups which was something I had not seen for a while from other members of the team who settled for long jumpers and 3 pt. attempts.

It wasn't just MCW's energy, he was a decent scorer in his role.

Yes, MCW received a lot of "wows" from me last season. And most of all, I enjoyed watching the games again, not just because of MCW but for the way the team played as a whole.

Edit:  All I know about Fultz are the video clips that were posted by members of the board and from watching him play in preseason. So there has not been much (eye test) for me to make judgement.

I feel the same way. MCW's playing style may be a  little unorthodox, but he is laying it on the line every play. That kind of energy is contagious, so maybe it will rub off on some other guys like Bamba (who I hope can turn it up a notch or two this year). 

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

7 hours ago, TRoss43 said:

It's a rare occurrence when a team drafts a guy as high as Philly drafted Fultz, then let him go for nothing and then that guy becomes a gamechanger for another team. My early commentary on Fultz(that everyone disagreed with) was that he did not look like a guy who was going to dramatically move the needle for the Magic. All the glowing comments on here about how athletic and explosive Fultz was after a couple games was just downright silly. People refused to believe that we had another PG that can't shoot and turns the ball over too much. He looks like a guy who had his original team punt on instead of continuing a seemingly fruitless process of rehabilitation. We all want him to be an integral part of the Magic's future. We need him to be. It's not unfair to say that he has shown very little so far to make anyone he will be. This is the NBA. Gotta bring more than athleticism and an occasional turnaround jumper from 12 ft. Maybe in time....

Oh no the guy who thinks we should start Bamba at the 4 and bring Gordon off the bench thinks fultz is bad. What a terrible sign for his future. 

 

I can name quite a few players who were drafted high, let go by their team, then go on to have high level success elsewhere. 

[hootie249 293]

     Fultz is going to play like a rookie, no way around it. Like others have said  the best case scenario is he stays healthy so we can actually see what he can do.

All my posts at this time last year were about trading for a second or third year guard. I didn't think we could wait for a rookie to develop. Luckily DJ had a career year. 

     We need someone who can get to the rim and draw fouls, simple as that. I pray Fultz turns into that guy because i doubt he has a reliable jump shot right now.

Still think we need an alpha scorer, i kinda wish we had taken a chance on Lavine. Gordon as a pure scorer is good maybe 1 in every 5 games. He honestly does better when he is getting  his points in transition or off the dribble. Whenever he takes too many jumpers he gets cold. 

     I still think the key to starting off hot is Fournier. If he starts hitting the 3 like he did 3 years ago, we can score more off cuts and screens. That's how the Magic's offense has to survive. Defensive transition baskets and JI and Gordon cutting to the basket when teams guard our 3 point shooters. 

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

1 minute ago, hootie249 said:

     Fultz is going to play like a rookie, no way around it. Like others have said  the best case scenario is he stays healthy so we can actually see what he can do.

All my posts at this time last year were about trading for a second or third year guard. I didn't think we could wait for a rookie to develop. Luckily DJ had a career year. 

     We need someone who can get to the rim and draw fouls, simple as that. I pray Fultz turns into that guy because i doubt he has a reliable jump shot right now.

Still think we need an alpha scorer, i kinda wish we had taken a chance on Lavine. Gordon as a pure scorer is good maybe 1 in every 5 games. He honestly does better when he is getting  his points in transition or off the dribble. Whenever he takes too many jumpers he gets cold. 

     I still think the key to starting off hot is Fournier. If he starts hitting the 3 like he did 3 years ago, we can score more off cuts and screens. That's how the Magic's offense has to survive. Defensive transition baskets and JI and Gordon cutting to the basket when teams guard our 3 point shooters. 

I'm still not convinced Lavine is any good. Up until the Otto Porter trade Chicago was better when he was on the bench because he's a low IQ player who is among the worst defensive guys in the league. 

 

I complain about Vucevic a lot but I'd much rather have him as the offensive focal point than Lavine. 

[ML6 520]

KOC has Indy/BKN/Miami as Eastern Conference playoff locks, and the article header says these are teams "one big trade or lucky break away from being serious Finals contenders".  I mean, do those teams make the playoffs?  Probably.  But locks?  I'm not so sold that anything in the East is a lock from 3-10. 

[ML6 520]

Lowe is the only mainstream person I've seen who shares my skepticism over Indy.

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

20 minutes ago, ML6 said:

Lowe is the only mainstream person I've seen who shares my skepticism over Indy.

Indy is tough because they changed so much and we have no idea when oladipo is coming back and how good he'll be. I think I saw recent projections that he might be back soon. So who knows. 

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

Lowe has Gordon as an all star this year in his yearly predictions thing. 

[TheNameIsOrlando 310]

24 minutes ago, ?4thewin said:

Lowe has Gordon as an all star this year in his yearly predictions thing. 

That'd be great. I've been waiting years to tell two of my Gordon hating friends I told you so! 

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

Pretty much what I think Jaylen Brown will eventually get. 

[TRoss43 26]

7 hours ago, ?4thewin said:

Oh no the guy who thinks we should start Bamba at the 4 and bring Gordon off the bench thinks fultz is bad. What a terrible sign for his future. 

 

I can name quite a few players who were drafted high, let go by their team, then go on to have high level success elsewhere. 

Lol...but you reminded me about Aminu and I changed it! You dismiss Bamba in the starting lineup like its something that has been done to death. It hasn't so your "empirical" evidence is very thin. Here's my thought process...Vuc/Bamba can play hi-low interchangeably on offense with Bamba being the rim protector we so desperately need on defense. The thought is that Vuc would get torched by a good PF. How bout Vuc gets torched by good 5's too so that really is a push imo. Here's where our starting lineup is-DJ-good offensive PG and a below avg. defensive PG. Fournier-Far too inconsistent on offense. He's a spot and shoot guy trying to play a slasher. Below avg. D. JI-4th option on offense so will never be a big scorer on the floor with the rest of these "volume shooters" we have. Above avg.to elite D. Gordon-schizophrenic offensive player who is going to press far too much this year to show he is our "superstar" player. D is above avg to elite. Vuc is Vuc. Offensive sparkplug that is lazy defensively. This lineup has been done to death and its not growing. Last year our 2nd group with Ross shooting out of his mind was the best part of team for several stretches. This current starting lineup will likely be worse statistically than they were last year. I just don't like the chemistry of this 1st group. It's just my opinion, which you obviously don't share. See you at the 8th seed!