2023-2024 General Game Thread

[All Eyes On Me 1,210]

Great win because it was a game that every version of the Magic for the past decade would’ve lost. The Jazz were automatic from deep all game.

Paolo and Franz need to clean up turnovers, a lot of cough ups where we just made too many passes.

One of the best Markelle games of the season. He’s always so fun to watch play when he’s right.

Knicks lose, Heat lose, let’s keep climbing!

[All Eyes On Me 1,210]

2 minutes ago, All Eyes On Me said:

Great win because it was a game that every version of the Magic for the past decade would’ve lost. The Jazz were automatic from deep all game.

Paolo and Franz need to clean up turnovers, a lot of cough ups where we just made too many passes.

One of the best Markelle games of the season. He’s always so fun to watch play when he’s right.

Knicks lose, Heat lose, let’s keep climbing!

Also, shoutout to Jalen Suggs. What an incredible improvement from deep. He won us that game late. 3 3s in a row!

[Jamesdin 39]

39 minutes ago, All Eyes On Me said:

Great win because it was a game that every version of the Magic for the past decade would’ve lost. The Jazz were automatic from deep all game.

Paolo and Franz need to clean up turnovers, a lot of cough ups where we just made too many passes.

One of the best Markelle games of the season. He’s always so fun to watch play when he’s right.

Knicks lose, Heat lose, let’s keep climbing!

i'm glad denver kept their poise. keep climbing magic, 4th and 5th seed is really doable.

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

That was a weird game. For large stretches I thought we played terribly. I don't think anybody was especially great for the full game but for stretches a lot of guys showed up and that was enough. Jalen's defense all game and shot making at the end probably the highlight but Markelle, Cole, Gary Harris, Mo and WCJ all had good periods of play and made positive impacts and obviously Paolo was cooking Taylor Hendricks down the stretch. 

Rough Franz game, when the shot deserts him it makes it so much harder on his driving. And Paolo's passing was awful. But who cares, we win. And not only do we win but the Knicks and the Heat both lose. Good night for us. 

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

You know I dunno why I thought this was a rough Franz game really when I'm thinking back over it. Sure there were turnovers and missed 3s but he was great defensively and still relatively efficient. 

Think I'm getting spoiled by all the winning. 

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,032]

One thing that was understated before the deadline is that if Suggs can develop his PG play we might not need anyone else.

We’ve seen teams win the chip with faux PGs and two tall ball handlers like the Bucks with Jrue, Middleton and Giannis.

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

1 hour ago, Mauro Pedrosa said:

One thing that was understated before the deadline is that if Suggs can develop his PG play we might not need anyone else.

We’ve seen teams win the chip with faux PGs and two tall ball handlers like the Bucks with Jrue, Middleton and Giannis.

It's a good point. And I've got an essay saved in my notes I almost posted here (it was getting stupid long lol) about how I think Suggs at PG is a viable option the Magic could take long term.

Then I just tried to write a TLDR of the essay and it still somehow devolved into an essay. But the TLDR of the TLDR is that the most desirable roleplayers are high feel guys with positive positional size who can pass/dribble/shoot (the reason they're desirable is because that sounds close to a description of a star but I'm not saying they can pass like Magic, dribble like Kyrie and shoot like Steph, just that they can do enough of each for their position/role). And a 6'6 guy like that is probably just as valuable to the starting 5 if not more than a "true PG" given Paolo and Franz will have a lot of the ball anyway. 

There is a caveat however that this team is really devoid of pull-up 3 point shooting which could be an issue which (subconsciously) I think is why a lot of Magic fans pine after the ball handling, 30 pick and rolls a game scoring guard because they see the pull-up shot making and how unstoppable that can be which is something this team hasn't had in any real way since like Jameer Nelson.

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,032]

3 hours ago, CTMagicUK said:

It's a good point. And I've got an essay saved in my notes I almost posted here (it was getting stupid long lol) about how I think Suggs at PG is a viable option the Magic could take long term. 

Then I just tried to write a TLDR of the essay and it still somehow devolved into an essay. But the TLDR of the TLDR is that the most desirable roleplayers are high feel guys with positive positional size who can pass/dribble/shoot (the reason they're desirable is because that sounds close to a description of a star but I'm not saying they can pass like Magic, dribble like Kyrie and shoot like Steph, just that they can do enough of each for their position/role). And a 6'6 guy like that is probably just as valuable to the starting 5 if not more than a "true PG" given Paolo and Franz will have a lot of the ball anyway.  

There is a caveat however that this team is really devoid of pull-up 3 point shooting which could be an issue which (subconsciously) I think is why a lot of Magic fans pine after the ball handling, 30 pick and rolls a game scoring guard because they see the pull-up shot making and how unstoppable that can be which is something this team hasn't had in any real way since like Jameer Nelson.

You should start a website with your NBA and College BBall takes. Shoot me a message if you need help

And I browse other team forums a lot. The Pistons fans are really happy that Killian Hayes is gone. Cade's numbers with Ivey are far better than they were with Killian.

The Nets are also complaining about playing Ben Simmons with another non-shooter. You can get away with 1, but having multiple non-shooters at a time is a recipe for disaster.

[CTMagicUK 1,482]

27 minutes ago, Mauro Pedrosa said:

You should start a website with your NBA and College BBall takes. Shoot me a message if you need help

And I browse other team forums a lot. The Pistons fans are really happy that Killian Hayes is gone. Cade's numbers with Ivey are far better than they were with Killian.

The Nets are also complaining about playing Ben Simmons with another non-shooter. You can get away with 1, but having multiple non-shooters at a time is a recipe for disaster.

I've thought about just throwing stuff on Substack, I don't expect anyone to read really just somewhere to actually catalogue more long form thoughts rather than spamming the forum with them and stopping actual conversations with a wall of text. 

Yea that's it. You can get away with 1 non shooter I think but in a perfect world you'd have 0 non shooters. Look at Denver. Aaron Gordon is their worst shooter in the starting/closing lineup but he's not a non shooter he's just a not good shooter (an important distinction). And he makes it work still because he does EVERYTHING else at a high level for an off ball wing/PF (defense, ball handling, passing, finishing). 

[Jay Magic 1,245]

Fully fit team tomorrow J.I available 

[orlandoholic 134]

https://x.com/the_magician321/status/1764042687856992543?s=46

 

 

Paolo needs to implement some of these celebrations to his game.. haha

[harryfromphilly 75]

Just realized, if we end up winning, and Philly And indy lose (they are both underdogs),

we end the day tied for 4th.

I know thats a lot of "if's"   but very exciting none the less