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TrueMagicFan07

Magic Vs. Suns - Wednesday, Dec. 4th at 7:00 P.M.

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I suppose we should expect this from such a night-and-day team, but the night-and-day feeling of the fans here is fun to watch. Not five days ago AG was terrible, "what's wrong with AG?" was everywhere; not ten games ago Fournier was horrible, he needed to go, he was holding back the whole team; Ross was a trainwreck, we shouldn't have re-signed him; beginning of the season, Vuc was soft, shouldn't have re-signed him. I get it. I really do. But some of us need to recognize that a slump is sometimes just that. AG started in a slump (the whole team did), then started playing better and everyone laid off of him for a while. Then he got hurt, wasn't great on offense when he came back, and people were asking, "what's wrong with him?" I don't know; maybe he was coming off of an injury. Fournier was dominant in FIBA, so everyone was curious to see if he'd come out with that kind of confidence this year. He came out in a slump like everyone else (though, actually, he was our best player the first few games), so he was hated (he's kinda always hated here, but I think that might be partly that some of us hold it against him the team choosing him over Oladipo). The guy has been damn good more often than not this season, and we should recognize that. The only guys we all consistently get behind are Fultz and Isaac.

 

We are an inconsistent offensive team. We have a ton of inconsistent offensive players. But I think we have a shot to make some noise this year so long as we don't play Toronto in the playoffs again (assuming we get there), and the whole team doesn't go cold at the same time again.

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Is Oladipo kinda overated? I mean hes only averaged over 20 ppg once in his career. He was named an allstar last year but i mean his numbers wernt that amazing 18 ppg on 42% fg.

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3 hours ago, BBROSS said:

Is Oladipo kinda overated? I mean hes only averaged over 20 ppg once in his career. He was named an allstar last year but i mean his numbers wernt that amazing 18 ppg on 42% fg.

This came out of nowhere..

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29 minutes ago, magicdoc1 said:

This came out of nowhere..

 

I should've quoted the previous post that said Fourniers hated on beacuse he was kept over oladipo.

5 hours ago, Justin Jaudon said:

(he's kinda always hated here, but I think that might be partly that some of us hold it against him the team choosing him over Oladipo).

 

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10 hours ago, Jay Magic said:

Mo is a really nice kid. That's for sure. Really happy for him, long may it continue

Agree. I am really pulling for him. It was nice to see him have an impact, so that he continues to gain confidence. Not trying to nitpick, but this is the type of game he should have considering the competition and his size. As with Vooch, he struggles against the bigger, stronger guys so when he has those matchups he may struggle until his lower body gets stronger. However, the lesson to be learned here -and one that Fultz4thewin keeps telling me (us) - is to be patient. The NBA is a big boy league, and for centers, it takes a while longer for them to develop and come around. He is working hard, and I am glad that we are starting to see some improvement. It gives me some hope that we will be able to keep him and not be forced to shuffle the roster so-to-speak. 

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9 minutes ago, Just a regular Magic fan said:

Agree. I am really pulling for him. It was nice to see him have an impact, so that he continues to gain confidence. Not trying to nitpick, but this is the type of game he should have considering the competition and his size. As with Vooch, he struggles against the bigger, stronger guys so when he has those matchups he may struggle until his lower body gets stronger. However, the lesson to be learned here -and one that Fultz4thewin keeps telling me (us) - is to be patient. The NBA is a big boy league, and for centers, it takes a while longer for them to develop and come around. He is working hard, and I am glad that we are starting to see some improvement. It gives me some hope that we will be able to keep him and not be forced to shuffle the roster so-to-speak. 

We need to be patient with everyone. Gordon sucks for a few games and now two games later he plays so well that his shooting numbers are back up almost to where they should be. Bamba is starting to look fine. Ross is pulling out of his slump. Our offense has been league average over the past 15 games though that might be a little inflated by the last few games just like our overall numbers are still hampered by the first 5 games. 

Klay Thompson started last year in a shooting slump prompting a ton of "what's wrong with Klay" stories. By the end of the season he was back up part 40% on threes. 

Works the other way too. Fournier isn't going to keep shooting 45% from three. He might have an outlier level great season but there's only so much improvement a 27 year old is going to make that sustainable.

Many posters on here lost their minds when Kendrick Nunn started the season averaging 22 over the first 5 games. Since that great start he's averaged 13 ppg on 41/31/60 shooting over the last 16 games. And it keeps trending further negative. 

This time last year Josh Richardson was the next superstar guard averaging almost 21ppg on 41% three point shooting. The rest of the season he averaged 15 on 33% three point shooting. This year he's averaging 16 on 38% three point shooting. 

 

I always say on here (so much that it's probably a cliche) that we can't be myopic. We can't base our opinions on what just happened. We can't "trade Bamba now before people figure out he's bad" we need a large sample to figure out what is real long term. 

People make snap decisions and build narratives way too fast. Kendrick Nunn is still "the favorite for rookie of the year" and it's going to take a long time to change the narrative. 

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5 hours ago, BBROSS said:

Is Oladipo kinda overated? I mean hes only averaged over 20 ppg once in his career. He was named an allstar last year but i mean his numbers wernt that amazing 18 ppg on 42% fg.

It depends. 

You have to throw out last year entirely. He was playing through injuries day one. And when he comes back you'll probably have to throw out this season too. 

People judge oladipo based on his 17-18 season as if that's who he is. As if the benchmark for his play when healthy is an efficient 23ppg with good to great defense with an impact that leads his team to 48 wins. 

That could be who he is. We don't have any evidence to say that's not who he is. 

It might be an outlier level season where he was just feeling good and everything clicked the right way longer than it has in the past. 

So we have no idea. 

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I was trying to watch Bamba on defense this game and, even taking away his blocks, he seemed to be moving well, putting himself in the right positions to take up space and almost always be between the ball and the basket. He seemed aware and active.

On the offensive end, it looks like he still needs to work on his screening, but he at least makes some contact most of the time. His three point shot also looks pretty legit- it looks smooth and he looks confident shooting it.

The biggest thing for him to improve right now, in my opinion, is his ability to keep the ball and not turn it over. He turned over the ball 3 times, and there were a few more times where he almost lost the ball. A lot of this comes from him grabbing an offensive rebound, or getting the ball in the paint, and bringing the ball down low. If he kept the ball high, he wouldn't have these issues as much.

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I look at the entire body of work. If at 27 Fournier just now gets it, it won’t be long until he loses it. I believe Fultz, like some of us said, puts him in his fitting role. Takes the ball out of his hands to create and instead lets a better fitting player create for him.

Same with AG. My thing with AG though is, over the entire body of his work, with us having a limited amount of ways to improve mind you, it’s now is he worth keeping or better utilized as an trade piece? 

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22 minutes ago, Odin said:

I was trying to watch Bamba on defense this game and, even taking away his blocks, he seemed to be moving well, putting himself in the right positions to take up space and almost always be between the ball and the basket. He seemed aware and active.

On the offensive end, it looks like he still needs to work on his screening, but he at least makes some contact most of the time. His three point shot also looks pretty legit- it looks smooth and he looks confident shooting it.

The biggest thing for him to improve right now, in my opinion, is his ability to keep the ball and not turn it over. He turned over the ball 3 times, and there were a few more times where he almost lost the ball. A lot of this comes from him grabbing an offensive rebound, or getting the ball in the paint, and bringing the ball down low. If he kept the ball high, he wouldn't have these issues as much.

Good observation... I hope he focuses on playing within his game which imo is protecting rim and spotting at the 3 pt line. Keep it simple for now as he literally has no post game and the longer he holds the ball the more likely he turns it over; just move the ball for now and work on post in summer. 

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45 minutes ago, Odin said:

I was trying to watch Bamba on defense this game and, even taking away his blocks, he seemed to be moving well, putting himself in the right positions to take up space and almost always be between the ball and the basket. He seemed aware and active.

On the offensive end, it looks like he still needs to work on his screening, but he at least makes some contact most of the time. His three point shot also looks pretty legit- it looks smooth and he looks confident shooting it.

The biggest thing for him to improve right now, in my opinion, is his ability to keep the ball and not turn it over. He turned over the ball 3 times, and there were a few more times where he almost lost the ball. A lot of this comes from him grabbing an offensive rebound, or getting the ball in the paint, and bringing the ball down low. If he kept the ball high, he wouldn't have these issues as much.

This is going to sound really dumb but the thing I noticed most was some point in the second half he got a rebound and whoever the point guard was was getting pressed and he just casually in one motion went to the second option (which was Gordon) as an outlet. 

It sounds like a completely unremarkable exchange but Bamba of two weeks ago stops, analyses the defense, judges whether or not he can pass the ball to the point guard because that's where it's supposed to go, panics a little searching for help because he's unsure if the pass to Gordon is dangerous because it's cross court. And it causes gordon to have to come back to the ball. And this whole thing wastes 4 or 5 seconds. 

Not this time though. Bamba gets the ball, DJ covered, quick decision to get the ball out there to Gordon. Little things like that are important. 

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