2019-2020 Official Regular Season Thread

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,031]

7 minutes ago, CTMagicUK said:

I have a lot of emotions about the whole thing too.

Some Magic fans (not really on here thankfully) have flipped from "we're babying our young guys this is a joke WeltHam are too cautious" to "wtf why were we even playing him in these seeding games" and that is enraging me. 

If you take a step back from the crushing sadness of this young potential star having his career, at best, put on hold. The reality of the situation is now Weltman and Hammond have got a lot to deal with now. Do you extend Isaac? For how much? And how do you build going forward? He's going to miss at least next season, it's difficult to know how he'll play on his return. Do you continue to build for the future around the idea that he'll be a DPOY calibre guy who plays 70 games? Even if we wanted to trade AG can we do it now? Does this effect how you feel about keeping Fournier? 

I have been hugely against tanking. We tanked for a long time and ended up with very little. But part of me (and it's still only a small part of me at the moment) thinks: trade Vuc, Fournier, Gordon, Ross for picks and expiring vets, take next year as a free hit where Fultz just takes a bunch of shots and see what happens. If we lose a lot and get a high lottery pick we get Cade Cunningham or another one of the top guys in 2021 which is a hyped up draft class. If we somehow swim and Fultz is a star, great. 

I don't think we'll do that. And I don't know I actually want us to. But before this it wasn't even a thought in my mind. 

 

My initial feelings are similar. Play the long game, sign Isaac to a young-Steph-Curry contract and hope it ends up being a bargain.

I've always been blah about this current squad, and Isaac and Fultz (to a lower extent) were the only things I was excited about. With Bamba being a longshot for success, even if he already has a pretty decent 3pt shot and size.

With that said, I think WeltHam will not tank at all. They'll try to make some shrewd trades

[CTMagicUK 1,476]

13 minutes ago, Mauro Pedrosa said:

My initial feelings are similar. Play the long game, sign Isaac to a young-Steph-Curry contract and hope it ends up being a bargain.

I've always been blah about this current squad, and Isaac and Fultz (to a lower extent) were the only things I was excited about. With Bamba being a longshot for success, even if he already has a pretty decent 3pt shot and size.

With that said, I think WeltHam will not tank at all. They'll try to make some shrewd trades

I agree. I don't think tanking is really in their nature. Plus with the lower draft odds now it's less enticing and it has to be considered that making the playoffs makes money and with Covid affecting everyone's finances, making the playoffs in the next couple of years might be important financially for the franchise. 

I've never been as low on this core as most people but it's going to be really interesting to see what Weltman and Hammond do now. I don't think standing pat for 1 or 2 years and hoping Isaac comes back better than ever is a sound strategy. The one guy I can't see us trading at least for the next year is Vuc. He's more valuable to us than he is on the open market. If we lose him we get considerably worse but he doesn't necessarily make another team considerably better. 

I agree with you on the Isaac contract and that was my thought too. Like a 4 year 64 mil deal or something in that realm. That's an underpay for a healthy Isaac and an overpay for a guy with 2 serious knee injuries. But if in year 2 of that deal he plays 70 games and looks as good as he ever has it'll be a bargain.

[All Eyes On Me 1,196]

The ankle his rookie year was scary enough, now add in a long term knee injury and I’m terrified he’s gonna fall in to another Orlando Magic “what should have been” story... ugh... I’m pretty sure re-signing him is something you have to do, but assuming he’s missing the entirety of next season, how much do you commit money and years wise to a kid who’s played about 150 games in 4 seasons in the league?

[crisby pancakes 126]

Damn, turned the game off early in the third as it was 1am and went to sleep, wake up to this. Absolutely gutted for the kid . . . .

[hootie249 293]

   Was watching the game had to turn it off right after the injury. First off big shout to the Magic, who played fantastic!

Guy's i'm devastated by the injury but please do not get angry he was playing. It was a non contact injury, same knee.  Pretty obvious it was a partial tear initially, whatever the case best thing for this young man is surgery. Better now then next year. 

    Let's all say a prayer for him and cheer our team. 

[Luke_FfS 247]

2 hours ago, Mauro Pedrosa said:

With that said, I think WeltHam will not tank at all. They'll try to make some shrewd trades

Or take a little more time to evaluate....

Don't really know what to say about Isaac. It's easy to say he should have not played, like a lot of people was begging the team to let him return a few days ago. What has happened has happened, there's no coming back.

[Soul Bro 1,419]

I don’t see WeltHam tanking but I do see them being shrewd. Between the Fultz trade and Okeke pick, they’re obviously playing the long game while also trying to create a competitive culture. The Isaac injury is so hard because he was/is my favorite player. 

[PennyForever 0]

Setting aside the hugely disappointing injury, how would a ref call that a travel?  That kind of hop step is standard in the NBA. At speed or even slowed down it looked fine, so I'm curious what I'm missing. 

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29586366/magic-forward-jonathan-isaac-torn-acl-left-knee

He's basically doing the same as this (a guy demonstrating the Derrick Rose hop step):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eWtplFaKGs .  Wondering what stood out to the ref that made him blow the whistle. 

 

 

Edited August 3, 2020 by PennyForever
Adding clarifying info about travels

[JJZFL 618]

Neither knee injury was a result of contact.    His physique may just not be suited to NBA basketball.  Those concerns were expressed when he was drafted, again when he injured his ankle, seemed to fade after a healthy second season, but at this point you really have to wonder.  

[The Buccaneer 74]

We may just have to ride out AG until the last year of his Contrqct to see what JI has left in the tank. Who knows? Maybe AG and Chuma have terrific chemistry and you want to bring JI on as a super 6. 

[TheNameIsOrlando 310]

Somehow I feel like this means we keep Vuch around a little longer than we would had if Isaac remained healthy.

I just want the keys turned over to the young guys!  

[BBROSS 20]

3 hours ago, TheNameIsOrlando said:

Somehow I feel like this means we keep Vuch around a little longer than we would had if Isaac remained healthy.

I just want the keys turned over to the young guys!  

We dont have much in the way of young  guys either to be honest.