2023-2024 General Game Thread

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

We were bound to lose sometime and on the second night of a back to back, home-away seemed like the likely time. The Nets are probably just a bad matchup for us. They have so much size and length to guard Paolo and Franz and shot blocking behind them. And they've got a lot of experienced low turnover players who can shoot it. 

Energy in the first quarter was beyond pathetic but probably a combination of being the less fresh team, the Nets scorching hot shooting and terrible calls. But we showed fight in the third just couldn't make it close. I thought the reffing was some BS to be honest. The "offensive foul" on Mo Wagner when Royce O'Neal ran straight into his chest was mind boggling stuff and that's one of about 5 calls I could name off the top of my head that were so bad. 

Mikael Bridges averages 4 FTs a game but apparently when he plays the Magic he turns into prime Michael Jordan and is so un-guardable we foul him on every possession. 

We've done a decent job of hiding the lack of defense of some of our bench guys but last night I thought Ingles, Mo Wagner and Cole were all pretty bad. 

I'm officially done with the "Goga over Wendell?" discussion. Didn't think he offered anything at all except being big, which actually was needed at times last night since we were getting manhandled on the boards. Maybe off the bench last night he makes an impact but in the starting lineup being asked to try and play at the level against Bridges, Dinwiddie and Thomas I thought he just couldn't hang and we were in early rotation far too quickly.

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

Also, it's a damn shame THAT Paolo dunk was wasted on this game.

[Jay Magic 1,247]

 

[orlandoholic 134]

2 hours ago, CTMagicUK said:

We were bound to lose sometime and on the second night of a back to back, home-away seemed like the likely time. The Nets are probably just a bad matchup for us. They have so much size and length to guard Paolo and Franz and shot blocking behind them. And they've got a lot of experienced low turnover players who can shoot it. 

Energy in the first quarter was beyond pathetic but probably a combination of being the less fresh team, the Nets scorching hot shooting and terrible calls. But we showed fight in the third just couldn't make it close. I thought the reffing was some BS to be honest. The "offensive foul" on Mo Wagner when Royce O'Neal ran straight into his chest was mind boggling stuff and that's one of about 5 calls I could name off the top of my head that were so bad. 

Mikael Bridges averages 4 FTs a game but apparently when he plays the Magic he turns into prime Michael Jordan and is so un-guardable we foul him on every possession. 

We've done a decent job of hiding the lack of defense of some of our bench guys but last night I thought Ingles, Mo Wagner and Cole were all pretty bad. 

I'm officially done with the "Goga over Wendell?" discussion. Didn't think he offered anything at all except being big, which actually was needed at times last night since we were getting manhandled on the boards. Maybe off the bench last night he makes an impact but in the starting lineup being asked to try and play at the level against Bridges, Dinwiddie and Thomas I thought he just couldn't hang and we were in early rotation far too quickly.

i agree with everything here.. This game was played like we did against Washington. We should have honestly lost against Washington too.. We need our players back. It’s simple.. AB has been decent. I say decent because he doesn’t offer much on offense but is defensively quite good. I never understood the Goga over Wendell hype. He had a good run, had some nice blocks. But overall he is a bad post defender and can’t keep guards in front of him. On offense he doesn’t do much besides setting screens. 
But let me finish with how proud i am of this team. This loss won’t change anything. 

I always said our success is too heavy on refs. We play the right way for sure. Especially on defense. But on nights when NBA refs do NBA ref things, than it’s difficult for us. The foul calling is so frustrating. They don’t apply basketball rules (i am a ref myself) 

They call contact and they don’t use the rule that every player has a right to be in their cylinder. Bridges and Dinwiddie would drive wrecklessly in the body of a Magic player and then get a foul call. 

What’s really questionable is when we use coaches challenge. Imo we have been really terrible in this area. Sometimes you have to challenge these refs. Also Mosley doesn’t get technical fouls. He gets bullied by refs and he takes it. Imo as a coach you have to get a tech every now and then. It psychologically makes a difference, also to refs. We take too much bs from refs. I wouldn’t have minded if Mosley got ejected after Royce O Neal bulldozed into Moe Wagner.. 

[smd_swagswag 1]

3 hours ago, CTMagicUK said:

I'm officially done with the "Goga over Wendell?" discussion.

Yeah I'm new around here but I would like to just say this is something I'd have been very pro-Carter with all along ... bit of a headscratcher it was even being discussed but whatever its no big deal, were dealing with an inury or it wouldnt be apparent..

 

Though full-disclosure--  im biased towards Wendell Carter I watched him and the Georgia Stars DOMINATE the peach jam and decimate Jayson Tatums team in the championship game, and been rooting for him ever since, that was my 2nd favorite AAU team to watch ever (only behind the De'Aaron Fox-era Houston Hoops teams)... I also think Carter is on a very cheap deal and I thought the Bulls were dumb to trade him. (and I used to be one of these guys saying "I wouldnt be surprised if Carter is better than Marvin Bagley in the NBA --- which was a VERY unpopular opinion, and so far its rang true) ..

[JJZFL 619]

Effort is really important with defense and they were clearly tired from the outset.  Wouldn’t judge anything by this game.  
 

They have plenty of time to rest up, though.  Next game not until Wednesday.  

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

3 hours ago, orlandoholic said:

i agree with everything here.. This game was played like we did against Washington. We should have honestly lost against Washington too.. We need our players back. It’s simple.. AB has been decent. I say decent because he doesn’t offer much on offense but is defensively quite good. I never understood the Goga over Wendell hype. He had a good run, had some nice blocks. But overall he is a bad post defender and can’t keep guards in front of him. On offense he doesn’t do much besides setting screens. 
But let me finish with how proud i am of this team. This loss won’t change anything. 

I always said our success is too heavy on refs. We play the right way for sure. Especially on defense. But on nights when NBA refs do NBA ref things, than it’s difficult for us. The foul calling is so frustrating. They don’t apply basketball rules (i am a ref myself) 

They call contact and they don’t use the rule that every player has a right to be in their cylinder. Bridges and Dinwiddie would drive wrecklessly in the body of a Magic player and then get a foul call. 

What’s really questionable is when we use coaches challenge. Imo we have been really terrible in this area. Sometimes you have to challenge these refs. Also Mosley doesn’t get technical fouls. He gets bullied by refs and he takes it. Imo as a coach you have to get a tech every now and then. It psychologically makes a difference, also to refs. We take too much bs from refs. I wouldn’t have minded if Mosley got ejected after Royce O Neal bulldozed into Moe Wagner.. 

He got a tech yesterday in the first quarter to be fair.

[MagicMan1979 105]

5 hours ago, CTMagicUK said:

We were bound to lose sometime and on the second night of a back to back, home-away seemed like the likely time. The Nets are probably just a bad matchup for us. They have so much size and length to guard Paolo and Franz and shot blocking behind them. And they've got a lot of experienced low turnover players who can shoot it. 

Energy in the first quarter was beyond pathetic but probably a combination of being the less fresh team, the Nets scorching hot shooting and terrible calls. But we showed fight in the third just couldn't make it close. I thought the reffing was some BS to be honest. The "offensive foul" on Mo Wagner when Royce O'Neal ran straight into his chest was mind boggling stuff and that's one of about 5 calls I could name off the top of my head that were so bad. 

Mikael Bridges averages 4 FTs a game but apparently when he plays the Magic he turns into prime Michael Jordan and is so un-guardable we foul him on every possession. 

We've done a decent job of hiding the lack of defense of some of our bench guys but last night I thought Ingles, Mo Wagner and Cole were all pretty bad. 

I'm officially done with the "Goga over Wendell?" discussion. Didn't think he offered anything at all except being big, which actually was needed at times last night since we were getting manhandled on the boards. Maybe off the bench last night he makes an impact but in the starting lineup being asked to try and play at the level against Bridges, Dinwiddie and Thomas I thought he just couldn't hang and we were in early rotation far too quickly.

I pretty much agree with everything here. Great summary as always.  We could have used at least one of Carter or Isaac last night. My question is when Carter comes back is how it changes the rotations?  I wouldn’t change Mo Wagner’s minutes off the bench. He has been such an offensive spark this year.  What does the board think the center rotation should be if all 3 are healthy?

[MagicMan1979 105]

11 hours ago, ball junkie said:

Not down about the loss cause can’t win em all …great winning streak …but what I will say is Coach Mosley deserves coach of the year recognition for having this team play at this level with AB as your starting PG …the kid tries and gives effort …but nobody on the opposing team pays any attention to him …he has no form even when he does shoot …looks like he’s throwing a shot put …he gets open periodically for back doors cause again nobody paying attention to him …you’re awesome Coach Mohsley 

Nice compliment to Mosley…I think?  You didn’t mention Black does provide good defense most nights. I am worried about Fultz not being available for so long. This the same knee he had surgery on. At least this year we didn’t fall apart without him we actually flourished.  We also got reps for our two all stars taking over in the fourth quarters with several game winners for both. I remember last year you thought Fultz was better than Franz and Paolo as our go to guy to close games .With our record without him, I don’t think that’s an issue anymore. Go Magic!

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

46 minutes ago, MagicMan1979 said:

I pretty much agree with everything here. Great summary as always.  We could have used at least one of Carter or Isaac last night. My question is when Carter comes back is how it changes the rotations?  I wouldn’t change Mo Wagner’s minutes off the bench. He has been such an offensive spark this year.  What does the board think the center rotation should be if all 3 are healthy?

I dunno how quickly WCJ will be back at the conditioning level to play full starter minutes, whether that'll be immediately or take a couple games but once he's back to 100% I'd just have him start and take up the bulk of the C minutes. 30-32 minimum. The remainder you give to Mo Wagner with the bench unit, possibly get away with a couple minutes here and there of playing WCJ and Mo together.

Goga I'd just slot back into the third string role with the caveat that I'd be much more willing to give him a chance on nights where we're getting out rebounded or against bigger, bulkier back up 5s than I ever would before the season started. So some nights he gets 20 mins when Wendell is in foul trouble or if Mo is struggling on defense and some nights he's DNP-CD. That's the life of being a 5th (6th I guess including JI) big in the NBA. 

It's a little harsh on Goga who's done an admirable job filling in for Wendell and who's had some legitimately great games in this stretch. But I think the longer this stretch has gone on the more you've seen the limitations of Goga emerge on both sides. And some of that isn't really his fault, I think the defense of the team has dropped off a lot since the Boston game and previously that swarming, limbs everywhere, intense defense from everyone else covered for Goga in certain situations, without that he's being put in situations that are difficult for someone of his mobility. 

[Luke_FfS 248]

Has been a great streak and every streak has an end. Not worried overall by losing yesterday game in a back to back, but a little slip on defensive standard was noted in previous games too, so that's the priority in those days off. Both Markelle and Wendell are better players right now of the ones that we had on the starting lineup, and even if I understand the chemestry point of view, as soon as they're ready we'll need them.

[Albert Lergier 99]

8 hours ago, CTMagicUK said:

We were bound to lose sometime and on the second night of a back to back, home-away seemed like the likely time. The Nets are probably just a bad matchup for us. They have so much size and length to guard Paolo and Franz and shot blocking behind them. And they've got a lot of experienced low turnover players who can shoot it. 

Energy in the first quarter was beyond pathetic but probably a combination of being the less fresh team, the Nets scorching hot shooting and terrible calls. But we showed fight in the third just couldn't make it close. I thought the reffing was some BS to be honest. The "offensive foul" on Mo Wagner when Royce O'Neal ran straight into his chest was mind boggling stuff and that's one of about 5 calls I could name off the top of my head that were so bad. 

Mikael Bridges averages 4 FTs a game but apparently when he plays the Magic he turns into prime Michael Jordan and is so un-guardable we foul him on every possession. 

We've done a decent job of hiding the lack of defense of some of our bench guys but last night I thought Ingles, Mo Wagner and Cole were all pretty bad. 

I'm officially done with the "Goga over Wendell?" discussion. Didn't think he offered anything at all except being big, which actually was needed at times last night since we were getting manhandled on the boards. Maybe off the bench last night he makes an impact but in the starting lineup being asked to try and play at the level against Bridges, Dinwiddie and Thomas I thought he just couldn't hang and we were in early rotation far too quickly.

If we get them in the playoffs, it is going to be a heck of a series. Hopefully we have homecourt advantage (sometimes it doesn't matter) and hopefully we figure out how to defeat them when we see them at Amway on Feb 27 and March 13.