Magic @ Knicks - Thursday., February 6th at 7:30 PM

[Just a regular Magic fan 38]

5 hours ago, Mauro Pedrosa said:

I’m rooting for this team to miss the playoffs, just to see if something happens 

Me too. Maybe getting swept out of the 1st round will help Fultz, JI, and AG grow, but we are so devoid of talent otherwise that I would rather hope for a lucky ping pong ball bounce. 

[JJZFL 619]

20 minutes ago, All Eyes On Me said:

Ross has struggled mightily, but we simply have to understand he’s doing the role the coaching staff is telling him to do, and his job is significantly more difficult without DJ. He comes in with the second unit and he’s the only player the other team has to defend. 

He’s certainly the only player the other team needs to defend if we don’t pass the ball to anyone else while he’s out there.  

His way off three with about a minute left last night after Vuch had made a three to cut the lead to four really hurt us.  And that was with three other potential shooters on the floor. 

[All Eyes On Me 1,210]

4 minutes ago, JJZFL said:

He’s certainly the only player the other team needs to defend if we don’t pass the ball to anyone else while he’s out there.  

His way off three with about a minute left last night after Vuch had made a three to cut the lead to four really hurt us.  And that was with three other potential shooters on the floor. 

Not saying he’s been good, he’s been shooting awful, especially since he changed back to # 31, there’s just no creativity in Clifford’s offense and he doesn’t change his scheme, lineup or game plan based on results. It’s how we get to watch Evan Fournier eff up in crunch time literally every game. Of all the problems this team has, Clifford is one of the biggest ones, he’s a terrible in-game adjustment coach and he only wants to run the offense through Vucevic, Fournier and Ross. It seems like the only player he holds accountable for poor play is Bamba, maybe that’s because of depth at the position, but he doesn’t do it with Vooch or Birch so I have no idea.

[Just a regular Magic fan 38]

5 hours ago, All Eyes On Me said:

Not saying he’s been good, he’s been shooting awful, especially since he changed back to # 31, there’s just no creativity in Clifford’s offense and he doesn’t change his scheme, lineup or game plan based on results. It’s how we get to watch Evan Fournier eff up in crunch time literally every game. Of all the problems this team has, Clifford is one of the biggest ones, he’s a terrible in-game adjustment coach and he only wants to run the offense through Vucevic, Fournier and Ross. It seems like the only player he holds accountable for poor play is Bamba, maybe that’s because of depth at the position, but he doesn’t do it with Vooch or Birch so I have no idea.

1

I was just going to ask what the problem was, but I think you summed it up nicely. Not blaming Clifford entirely because he has to design a system around the players he has, but a lot of it starts with him and his staff. I think our guys are tuning him out because we don't play with awareness or play as a team (moving the ball, playing together) often enough. We don't really have a team. We have a group of individuals.

[All Eyes On Me 1,210]

3 minutes ago, Just a regular Magic fan said:

I was just going to ask what the problem was, but I think you summed it up nicely. Not blaming Clifford entirely because he has to design a system around the players he has, but a lot of it starts with him and his staff. I think our guys are tuning him out because we don't play with awareness or play as a team often enough. 

I think a sure fire way to get players to tune you out is to ***** about their effort after every game but not change anything in your lineup based on game results. There’s been no accountability for Vooch, Fournier, or Ross despite them all playing garbage lately and there’s been no real reward for Aaron or Mo after they have a good game here and there. I agree that Cliff can only scheme around what he has, but it took Al Jefferson physically falling apart for Clifford to finally stop scheming around him and give Kemba the go. We need to move Vooch to get Cliff out of his own way.

[ML6 520]

The blame should be on everyone right now, coaches and players alike.  There's definitely no shortage of blame to go around.  Clifford has been doing dumb things for weeks; some of it is injury-induced and some of it is just stubbornness.  Very frustrating.

[ML6 520]

3 minutes ago, All Eyes On Me said:

I think a sure fire way to get players to tune you out is to ***** about their effort after every game but not change anything in your lineup based on game results. There’s been no accountability for Vooch, Fournier, or Ross despite them all playing garbage lately and there’s been no real reward for Aaron or Mo after they have a good game here and there. I agree that Cliff can only scheme around what he has, but it took Al Jefferson physically falling apart for Clifford to finally stop scheming around him and give Kemba the go. We need to move Vooch to get Cliff out of his own way.

This is exactly right.  When Cliff preaches about accountability he means that he holds a subset of the team accountable.  The most egregious part about it is that Bamba has been in the "starting to turn the corner" phase for a little while now, and yet he receives no additional faith for it.  If anything, it seems like Clifford is getting more strict with him as his play improves, which makes absolutely no sense.  Especially when you consider that Vooch has been terrible. 

I don't get it man.

[Just a regular Magic fan 38]

12 minutes ago, ML6 said:

This is exactly right.  When Cliff preaches about accountability he means that he holds a subset of the team accountable.  The most egregious part about it is that Bamba has been in the "starting to turn the corner" phase for a little while now, and yet he receives no additional faith for it.  If anything, it seems like Clifford is getting more strict with him as his play improves, which makes absolutely no sense.  Especially when you consider that Vooch has been terrible. 

I don't get it man.

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1

I don't care if we make the playoffs or not this year, so I would give all the young guys, who have shown potential, major playing time. At this point in our season, we can see our vets (Vooch and Fournier) aren't cutting it, so let's see what the young guys have. 

[fan for too long 2 531]

1 hour ago, All Eyes On Me said:

I think a sure fire way to get players to tune you out is to ***** about their effort after every game but not change anything in your lineup based on game results. There’s been no accountability for Vooch, Fournier, or Ross despite them all playing garbage lately and there’s been no real reward for Aaron or Mo after they have a good game here and there. I agree that Cliff can only scheme around what he has, but it took Al Jefferson physically falling apart for Clifford to finally stop scheming around him and give Kemba the go. We need to move Vooch to get Cliff out of his own way.

I agree with all of this!  And the main reason I hated resigning Vooch. Our offense runs through him and you see what it gets. Clifford refuses to change his ways. Only chance we change is if Markelle has the balls and determination to take over this team and tell vooch to get the f out of the way. 

[Fultz4thewin 2,464]

34 minutes ago, fan for too long 2 said:

I agree with all of this!  And the main reason I hated resigning Vooch. Our offense runs through him and you see what it gets. Clifford refuses to change his ways. Only chance we change is if Markelle has the balls and determination to take over this team and tell vooch to get the f out of the way. 

That's the thing that changes everything

[Magicpassion 4]

3 hours ago, fan for too long 2 said:

I agree with all of this!  And the main reason I hated resigning Vooch. Our offense runs through him and you see what it gets. Clifford refuses to change his ways. Only chance we change is if Markelle has the balls and determination to take over this team and tell vooch to get the f out of the way. 

I want to be where your thinking is at, but I still think Fultz is too young and inexperienced for that kind of responsibility. Fultz definitely needs to look for his shot more often as he can sometimes be too unselfish. He seems like a great kid and I’m so happy we have him.

[TrueMagicFan07 674]

5 hours ago, Just a regular Magic fan said:

Not taking anything away from EP, but our entire effort was sloppy. It looks to me like Markelle is yielding to our vets out of respect, but IMO, he needs to take control of this team and be the man. The others, like Fournier, need to accept their role. 

Your assessment of how Markelle is yielding to our vets is how I view it also. An example was in the last few seconds of the game last night. When Vuch grabbed the rebound and handed the ball to Fultz, he should have kept the ball and sped up the court all the way to the basket, instead of handing the ball to MCW. He had 3 teammates in front of him as a shield, and could have gotten as close as he could to the basket to draw contact (a foul). Many times we have seen Fultz take it all the way from beyond mid court.