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All Eyes On Me

2022 Off-season Thread

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12 hours ago, ball junkie said:

Will Jalen Suggs and Cole Anthony improve at the rim?

The Orlando Magic were a bad offensive team. There is no other way to say it. The team had the second-worst offensive rating in the league and they were down near the bottom of every offensive category. The Magic’s biggest challenge as they map their future is figuring out how to score.
 

Simple enough?

It does have to start with the guards with the team’s two young guards who carried a lot of the possession burden.

Cole Anthony led the team in scoring with 16.3 points per game, but he shot only 39.1-percent from the floor. Anthony was pushed into the role of the main scorer when he may not have been best suited for it.

Jalen Suggs’ offensive struggles throughout the season were really apparent. He had a rough rookie year, averaging 11.8 points per game and shot 36.1-percent from the floor and 21.4-percent from beyond the arc.

This is team is very reliant on their guards for offense.

There is a lot for both Anthony and Suggs to improve and work on this offseason. Their 3-point shooting is high on the list.

So too should their ability to finish at the rim.

Anthony shot 55.0-percent in the restricted area on 2.8 field goal attempts per game. Suggs shot 58.9-percent in the restricted area on 4.0 field goal attempts per game.

Among players with at least 2.5 field goal attempts per game within five feet, Anthony had the 11th-worst mark at 52.1-percent on 3.3 attempts per game. Suggs finished 22nd-worst at 54.7-percent on 4.5 attempts per game. Suggs had the 29th most field goal attempts within five feet among guards.

It should be noted too that R.J. Hampton’s finishing at the rim and within five feet were worse than both Cole Anthony and Jalen Suggs.

It is easy to see the Magic have a problem finishing at the rim with their guards and on their drives. And that is where a lot of the league’s success is coming these days. Guards drive the league and the ability to get to the rim and put pressure on defenses is critical to creating the space to kick out to the 3-point line.
The Magic’s guards have a long way to go to improve in these areas. But this is a spot where the Magic have to find some improvement. And it could be the key to unlocking the next phase in their development.

 

Can Wendell Carter thrive in a two-big lineup?

The other big revelation for this season for the Orlando Magic came from Wendell Carter.

Carter had a career season, averaging 15.0 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. He was even better later in the season, averaging 19.6 points and 11.6 rebounds per game after the All-Star Break.

It felt like the Magic had a solid backstop defensively and a good modern center for the team to begin building a little more consistently around. Carter feels like a building block piece.

But there was something else to the puzzle. Something that could figure to be important for this team as they rebuild. Wendell Carter played a lot of minutes alongside another center in Mo Bamba. And that backstop very realistically may not be there again next year.

There should at least be some examination of whether Carter can play full-time and alone at center without that big man backstop — even though Carter is a capable one-on-one defender for some of the best centers in the league.

According to Basketball-Reference, Carter played just 37-percent of his minutes at center. He played 1,013 of his 1,852 minutes (54.7-percent) alongside Mo Bamba. He played 66 additional minutes alongside Moe Wagner and 82 minutes with Robin Lopez.

That means Carter played 62.7-percent of his minutes alongside another center.

There are more two-big lineups going around the league. So this is not as abnormal as it might feel. There is a little bit of a shift away from small ball. And Carter’s versatility enables him to switch between the 4 and 5 pretty easily.

But it is still fairly unclear what would happen if Carter were left alone without a center.

The draft may resolve some of these problems. Chet Holmgren has gotten instant comparisons to Mo Bamba for his size, shot-blocking ability and lack of frame. There is something to saying this whole season was a dry run for seeing if a Carter-Holmgren pairing could work.
 

The other two top guys in this draft are power forwards in Jabari Smith and Paolo Banchero. But they are not like the center that was a backstop for Carter.

Carter is very good. And this whole conversation is a sign the Magic should be thinking of ways to get the most out of Carter.

https://orlandomagicdaily.com/2022/04/29/orlando-magic-season-recap-5-questions-for-the-offseason/5/

So who or what should we draft …a guard or Holmgren ?

I would take issue with the “Anthony was pushed into the role of the main scorer” comment in the above article.   He sought out that role and often didn’t get his teammates involved nearly as much as he should have.  He frequently over-dribbled before finally passing the ball when he did pass it.  Better team ball coming from the guards needs to be a priority in the future. 

Of course it’s hard to get the players to focus on teamwork when they aren’t  competitive.  In that situation, the tendency is for players to see what statistics and notoriety they can generate for themselves. 

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I just wanted to share this article, it’s a  summary on Franz Wagner and how good of a rookie season he had. It validates all the flashes we saw from him throughout the year and how he has all the tools necessary to succeed and possibly become a star in this league. We just need to develop him correctly because the sky is the limit for this young man. https://apple.news/AB04f67lHOJqFde8B-zBAhQ

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Whelp… The injury bug with our young guns continues. Can we just add players who are 1) Athletic and good-sized to be two-way players, 2) Can actually shoot, and 3) Not injury prone (or have a style/body prone to injury)? Is this asking too much?

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52 minutes ago, Soul Bro said:

Whelp… The injury bug with our young guns continues. Can we just add players who are 1) Athletic and good-sized to be two-way players, 2) Can actually shoot, and 3) Not injury prone (or have a style/body prone to injury)? Is this asking too much?

Probly

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6 hours ago, Soul Bro said:

Whelp… The injury bug with our young guns continues. Can we just add players who are 1) Athletic and good-sized to be two-way players, 2) Can actually shoot, and 3) Not injury prone (or have a style/body prone to injury)? Is this asking too much?

Told you....best hospital in Orlando.....the Orlando Magic Hospital............THIS JALEN NEWS IS SOOOOOOOOOOOO UNFORTUNATE.

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5 hours ago, All Eyes On Me said:

“So Donovan, Jeff here from Orlando. Do you like weird dragon mascots, roller coasters, sunshine, and no state income tax? Asking for a friend.”

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2 hours ago, Soul Bro said:

“So Donovan, Jeff here from Orlando. Do you like weird dragon mascots, roller coasters, sunshine, and no state income tax? Asking for a friend.”

Lol.  I’m with you

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Weltman and Hammond continue to do an excellent job. I know there was some CYA in JI’s contract, but I didn’t know it was this extreme. 
22-23 - $16 million guaranteed

23-24 $7.4 million guaranteed

24-25 unguaranteed 

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4 hours ago, All Eyes On Me said:

Weltman and Hammond continue to do an excellent job. I know there was some CYA in JI’s contract, but I didn’t know it was this extreme. 
22-23 - $16 million guaranteed

23-24 $7.4 million guaranteed

24-25 unguaranteed 

what, exactly have they done that shows excellence? Besides losing. 

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43 minutes ago, fan for too long 2 said:

what, exactly have they done that shows excellence? Besides losing. 

Off the top of my head

The Fultz trade

The Vuc trade

The Wendell extension

The Franz pick

The Chuma and Cole picks in the teens

Fixing the cap hell we were in

Putting an insurance policy and game incentives on JI’s extension

 

I mean, you can choose to be frustrated, it’s your right and it’s well deserved, but it’s hard not to be excited about the future of this team. We don’t have any debilitating contracts at the moment, I don’t remember the last time that happened.

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3 hours ago, All Eyes On Me said:

Off the top of my head

The Fultz trade

The Vuc trade

The Wendell extension

The Franz pick

The Chuma and Cole picks in the teens

Fixing the cap hell we were in

Putting an insurance policy and game incentives on JI’s extension

 

I mean, you can choose to be frustrated, it’s your right and it’s well deserved, but it’s hard not to be excited about the future of this team. We don’t have any debilitating contracts at the moment, I don’t remember the last time that happened.

I’m not excited about the future of this team yet.  I mean, yes, at some point in the future they’re likely to be better than they are now (extremely low bar), but I don’t see any signs of them becoming a serious contender for the foreseeable future.  

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