2023-2024 General Game Thread

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

People are going to scoff at this, because we've been a bad shooting team forever, but I think our shooting is being affected by bad shooting luck. 

Franz Wagner shot 36% last season, he's at 31% this year (and that's rising over the last few, he was in the 20s at one point)

Gary Harris shot 43% last year, he's at 33% this year. 

Cole Anthony shot 36% last year, he's at 32% this year. 

I did the math and if all 3 of those guys had shot the 3 at the same rate as last season (actually think I used 40% from Gary not even 43%) we'd have shot 37% from 3 this season as a team. Which would put us like 14th or 15th in the NBA. 

Now, you can debate whether you'd call this bad shooting luck, regression back to the mean (I.e. were Franz, Cole and Gary ever that good shooters as last year's numbers suggest?), or somewhere in between. But that is pretty interesting. 

Now Gary, I don't know if he'll play much more this season or be here after the deadline or what. But if (and that's a big if) we get some improved shooting from Franz and Cole post All Star Break for example to push their figures back up to where they were last season, that could actually be huge. 

[orlandoholic 134]

1 hour ago, CTMagicUK said:

I believe the call was a foul on Cole. 2 FTs and then a Flagrant technical foul on WCJ for a hit in the face after the whistle. 2 FTs and the ball. Seemed harsh to me because Wendell didn't deliberately do anything after the whistle it was all happening at the same time. 

Well we needed a coaches challenge then.. Cole didn’t even foul on that play.. 
In todays world i agree that they call a flagrant foul. But 4 FT is wild

[orlandoholic 134]

https://x.com/dahnert/status/1752458995141398578?s=46

 

Crazy non call. SGA grabbed Ant on a dunk attempt in a crucial time.. Not only didn’t they call a foul. The two minute report called this marginal, which makes it even more ridiculous. 

The NBA needs to address this. Officiating is getting worse by the day. Fans and players are picking up on this. 
 

And we are way to nice. We’ve been getting bullied by most refs all season. We can’t touch the opponents while we have to play through contact. It’s not even funny. 

We need to start addressing this, exposing this in the media and don’t care if we get a fine. The Franchise should get together with players and coaches and allow them to say certain things they can agree on and then the franchise takes the fine

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

1 hour ago, orlandoholic said:

Well we needed a coaches challenge then.. Cole didn’t even foul on that play.. 
In todays world i agree that they call a flagrant foul. But 4 FT is wild

That's kind of a waste of a challenge. The refs had literally already reviewed the play for the WCJ one, seems unlikely they were going to change their minds on the Cole foul, if they were I'm sure they could have done so on the initial review and just decided that the WCJ one was what they whistled a foul for. Plus you want to use a challenge when you get a tangible benefit from winning it. They were still getting at minimum 2 FTs and the ball. The Magic's broadcast discussed this recently were coaches challenged plays against the Magic and the Magic still retained possession and scored anyway.

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

1 hour ago, orlandoholic said:

https://x.com/dahnert/status/1752458995141398578?s=46

 

Crazy non call. SGA grabbed Ant on a dunk attempt in a crucial time.. Not only didn’t they call a foul. The two minute report called this marginal, which makes it even more ridiculous. 

The NBA needs to address this. Officiating is getting worse by the day. Fans and players are picking up on this. 
 

And we are way to nice. We’ve been getting bullied by most refs all season. We can’t touch the opponents while we have to play through contact. It’s not even funny. 

We need to start addressing this, exposing this in the media and don’t care if we get a fine. The Franchise should get together with players and coaches and allow them to say certain things they can agree on and then the franchise takes the fine

I agree reffing is horrible around the league. The willingness of sports to stand hand in hand with sports betting has affected the integrity of basically all sports if you ask me.

You can literally just Google Tim Donaghy for explicit evidence that NBA refs (or at least a subsection of them) are crooked.

 

[orlandoholic 134]

38 minutes ago, CTMagicUK said:

I agree reffing is horrible around the league. The willingness of sports to stand hand in hand with sports betting has affected the integrity of basically all sports if you ask me.

You can literally just Google Tim Donaghy for explicit evidence that NBA refs (or at least a subsection of them) are crooked.

 

exactly. Agreed!! 
 

Sports betting is a major issue in about every sport though.. Soccer has some legendary betting issues in europe! 

Most sport are affected.. But this is something different imo. This is star protection at the maximum. This is the league creating narratives, story lines to push markets imo. 

It’s an agenda. It can be corrected if the noise gets too much (see Trae Young, Harden foul baiting times) 

Problem is, this is beyond clever foul baiting. I mean, you not allowed to touch any of Doncic, Embiid, SGA and many more. The same rules don’t apply to them. They can also push off on offense. Random NBA players gets called an offensive foul. Sabonis is allowed to move on screens like crazy, random NBA player gets called for an offensive foul. 

I don’t think this is a sports betting issue

[ball junkie 277]

Looking forward to tonight’s game …first look at Wemby …Spurs can beat us if we aren’t focused …they aren’t the worst team in the league having won 10 games …I’m sure the media will focus on the Paolo Wemby first matchup but I’m actually hoping JI starts and guards him …Wemby is putting up numbers …don’t know if any of you saw his recent matchup with Chet but it got pretty physical and intense …looking at the box looks like Wemby got the better of him 

[JJZFL 619]

56 minutes ago, ball junkie said:

Looking forward to tonight’s game …first look at Wemby …Spurs can beat us if we aren’t focused …they aren’t the worst team in the league having won 10 games …I’m sure the media will focus on the Paolo Wemby first matchup but I’m actually hoping JI starts and guards him …Wemby is putting up numbers …don’t know if any of you saw his recent matchup with Chet but it got pretty physical and intense …looking at the box looks like Wemby got the better of him 

Only Gary Harris out (Jett and other Harris assigned to G league) per today’s injury report.  Magic favored by 4.5 currently.

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

43 minutes ago, JJZFL said:

Only Gary Harris out (Jett and other Harris assigned to G league) per today’s injury report.  Magic favored by 4.5 currently.

I never bet on Magic games but I'd take the Magic -4.5 if I did.

Really don't think the Spurs have enough offense to trouble our defense.

Then again we have played down to competition a little this season and made tough games out of bad opponents.

[JJZFL 619]

3 hours ago, CTMagicUK said:

I never bet on Magic games but I'd take the Magic -4.5 if I did.

Really don't think the Spurs have enough offense to trouble our defense.

Then again we have played down to competition a little this season and made tough games out of bad opponents.

Well put.  I guess we’ll put Isaac on Wemby to hopefully slow him down.  Looking forward to a good Magic game and not a lot of nailbiting at the end :)

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

30 minutes ago, JJZFL said:

Well put.  I guess we’ll put Isaac on Wemby to hopefully slow him down.  Looking forward to a good Magic game and not a lot of nailbiting at the end :)

WCJ might work on Wemby too to be fair. He's not as long but he's thick, mobile and strong. 

[orlandoholic 134]

3 hours ago, CTMagicUK said:

WCJ might work on Wemby too to be fair. He's not as long but he's thick, mobile and strong. 

Wemby also hasn’t seen anything like Isaac and Suggs gonna be working his passing lanes. 
I expect a rough night for him. But he’s also gonna be a handful too. 
I can see a career high in blocks for Wembanyama today. We usually work the paint a lot. Amd we are prone to mistakes or boneheaded drives too.