2023-2024 General Game Thread

[JJZFL 620]

8 hours ago, fan for too long 2 said:

Harris is a bad version of t Ross. One good game every two weeks ain’t cutting it. Cole is exactly who he has always been. Talented but a very low ball iq, plays hero ball, and feel for the game is just bad. Surprising since his dad was a very smart player. 

In fairness to Harris, he only took 3 shots last night and made 2 of them, and they were both 3 point shots.  It goes back to a number of posts I made during the game. We are not moving the ball sufficiently.  Why is arguably our best 3 point shooter, who is starting, only getting 3 shots the whole game (he played over 30 minutes)??  Do we not have any schemes designed to get him some shots?

Way too many Iso's and overdribbling.  It's kind of the same story over and over again, at least against teams that can play defense.

[JJZFL 620]

5 hours ago, CTMagicUK said:

Paolo Banchero frustrates the ***** out of me. Defense fluctuates from ok to just outright terrible and he gives up so many offensive rebounds by ball watching. Then his offense is hindered by his incessant need to catch and survey every single time he touches the ball. Whenever he's quick and decisive he makes stuff happen and yet it's consistently catch, hold, dribble dribble dribble. In this game I watched him take a pull up jumper over Fred Vanvleet. A 5'11 man. Versus a 6'10 one. And he took a pull up jumper. It's just baffling. And also, please, can he stop the "aaayyy" whenever he drives the lane. It is so *****ing annoying hearing that scream and knowing he's going to be jogging back on defense looking at the refs while his teammates play defense. And honestly I think he plays incredibly selfish basketball in spurts. Even when he's assisting it sometimes feels very deliberately like he's trying to get an assist versus always making the best basketball read.

Wendell I'm so baffled by, he's been so bad this season. Couldn't make an impact as the only "big" on the floor. Barely even challenges shots at the rim. His teammates no longer seem to trust him to score offensively because nobody ever passes to him in the post even with deep position (which is not necessarily just a him issue). He doesn't really give you spacing because teams still give that jumper up to him every time. 

Has this team just decided we're not bringing Goga back? Because how does he not warrant any minutes with Wendell doing nothing and Mo Wagner playing consistently trash defense (but still giving considerably more energy and threat on offense than Wendell gave us) 

Cole did nothing. 

Markelle I find it hard to accurately judge his impact, he was good in a vacuum and he kind of has this way about him where he makes the fact that the defender sags off him into an advantage by being halfway to the rim before he sees a body. But I still think that hurts his teammates spacing as much as it doesn't necessarily hurt him as a driver. Defense and effort was good out of him though as usual. 

I am still actually very scared that this front office will run this exact team back (sans Chuma for a rookie or something). 

 

24 minutes ago, Soul Bro said:

Agree about Paulo. If he’s going to lead this team, he still needs to grow as a two-way player, ball mover, and in shot selection.

Agree with both of you, and would have given +1's but it won't let me for some reason (I haven't used any recently so it must be a glitch).  I would add my above points about Harris  to CT's post, I think it all fits together.

[CTMagicUK 1,488]

With the offense I'm hoping, and it's hope it's not any kind of informed opinion, that as we keep a core group together and defensive principles become less drilled in and more second nature that we'll start to develop a more complex offensive game plan. 

Right now it kind of feels like Mosely knows he can only give this team so much information for them to take on and so focuses on defensive stuff because that's our biggest strength so he tries to keep the offense simple. Once the defense is consistent, which it's getting closer to but the effort can come and go,  maybe we'll start to expand our offense into more complex principles and actions. 

Again this is blind hope rather than anything else. I think Paolo is supremely talented but his life would be so much easier if he got some designed actions to just get him wide open for 4 points a game. 

[zollman 45]

My blind hope is that these Charlotte and Houston games are strategic tanking to stay around 4th seed ideally(5th or 6th worst case) to absolutely avoid Philly or Miami in the first round.

[Phil4Real 46]

The feeling I got from yesterday's game is one of concern. Houston beat us in energy. Many live ball turnovers, which gave them easy transitions and a tendency to impose the pace of the game.
When the defense got a little tidier in the second half, our offense wasn't there. The second unit was again better than the starters in this regard. We didn't have Franz, but I too don't quite understand Mosley's minutes distribution to replace him.

Now have an early mini-playoff series against the Bucks and a rough game against the Sixers and it's been already several games where the intensity hasn't been what it needs to be for a game of this magnitude. If Franz is ok, he should be back today, same for JI, I agree that we are not in a position to save anyone for later. Giannis is probably gonna be out for both games.
It's been a hell of a season, it would be a shame to drop to play-in at the last second.

 

[All Eyes On Me 1,213]

54 minutes ago, zollman said:

My blind hope is that these Charlotte and Houston games are strategic tanking to stay around 4th seed ideally(5th or 6th worst case) to absolutely avoid Philly or Miami in the first round.

That’s a big stretch to me. Tanking when you haven’t clinched a non play-in spot would be wild. 

[All Eyes On Me 1,213]

Paolo has had a pretty bad run the past few weeks, and I think I forget all the time that he’s 21 years old at the end of his 2nd year in the league. He’s being asked to do and take on so much of our offense just due to lack of offensive talent and he needs help.
 

Last night he played I think pretty similarly to how he did the 8 games Franz missed earlier in the season where he had to do everything because nobody else could. Difference is that when Franz was out earlier, we were missing like our entire rotation, last night it was just Franz and Paolo didn’t have to force the way he did. Also, if we keep up the ramming our head down and hoping for foul calls we’re gonna be out quick.

[All Eyes On Me 1,213]

If we win tonight and Miami loses we clinch the Southeast Division, which is huge for tiebreaker implications with the standings as close as they are. Division champ is the first tiebreaker. If Cleveland and Miami both lose tonight, not likely with Cleveland hosting Memphis-but if, then we clinch a top 6 seed.

[Jay Magic 1,250]

 

[MagicMan1979 106]

2 hours ago, All Eyes On Me said:

Paolo has had a pretty bad run the past few weeks, and I think I forget all the time that he’s 21 years old at the end of his 2nd year in the league. He’s being asked to do and take on so much of our offense just due to lack of offensive talent and he needs help.
 

Last night he played I think pretty similarly to how he did the 8 games Franz missed earlier in the season where he had to do everything because nobody else could. Difference is that when Franz was out earlier, we were missing like our entire rotation, last night it was just Franz and Paolo didn’t have to force the way he did. Also, if we keep up the ramming our head down and hoping for foul calls we’re gonna be out quick.

Thank you for having a realistic take.  Too many people complaining about our 21 year old All Star for my taste.  He’s being asked to do way too much in my opinion.  We are seeing we need a lead guard for sure the last few games.  Even when everyone is healthy our offense is just bad.  If Franz can’t shoot anymore that furthers the point of needing a star in backcourt.  

[CTMagicUK 1,488]

11 minutes ago, MagicMan1979 said:

Thank you for having a realistic take.  Too many people complaining about our 21 year old All Star for my taste.  He’s being asked to do way too much in my opinion.  We are seeing we need a lead guard for sure the last few games.  Even when everyone is healthy our offense is just bad.  If Franz can’t shoot anymore that furthers the point of needing a star in backcourt.  

If you're an All Star you should be held to All Star standards whatever age you are. 

[harryfromphilly 75]

28 minutes ago, Jay Magic said:

 

Frustrating for sure about Markelle    but if you  want a laugh look at memphis injury list