2024/25 NBA Regular Season Thread

[All Eyes On Me]

Ok, I’m going to try to bring in a bit of optimism on the Paolo news and I think I have an idea of when he could be back based off the schedule.

First, while I’m sure the injury is painful AF and it’s not ideal, at least it’s not worse, and at least it’s not a lower body injury. It’s also not something that should linger once he gets back, and Paolo does have a career so far where he’s been incredibly durable. I also don’t worry about a slow ramp up, this isn’t Markelle Fultz or JI or Gary or Wendell who are hurt all the time, I’m confident with Paolo’s work ethic and his youth that he’ll be back within the time frame laid out.

Looking at the schedule we have a large break between a game on December 8th, which is roughly 5 weeks out, and a game on December 19th. I imagine this is the targeted return date, about 6.5 weeks out from injury diagnosis. If this is the case, Paolo will miss 21 games. Of those 21 games, 8 of them are at home and 7 are against teams that weren’t playoff teams last year. This is a BRUTAL schedule to start the season, and would’ve been with or without Paolo. If we can go something like 9-12 in the games Paolo misses or better and be at 12-14 or so when he’s back, we’ll be ready to make a run to make up some seeding over the last 2/3 of the season. Again, not ideal, but also could have been significantly worse.

While P5 is out, I’m excited to see what Alpha Franz looks like, and I’m nervous about Jalen trying to do too much. I’d like to see JI with the starters in Paolo’s place and the bench rotation slide Moe to the 4 with Goga at the 5. Something like Suggs/KCP/Franz/JI/Dell with a bench rotation of AB/Jett-Cole/GH/Moe/Goga. We did a good job building depth and that’s still a solid rotation, especially when positive regression for the shooting comes along for pretty much everyone not named Jalen to start the year. 
 

It’ll be an interesting next month or so to see what these kids, and Coach Mose are made of. Go Magic!

[CTMagicUK]

 

3 hours ago, All Eyes On Me said:

Ok, I’m going to try to bring in a bit of optimism on the Paolo news and I think I have an idea of when he could be back based off the schedule.

First, while I’m sure the injury is painful AF and it’s not ideal, at least it’s not worse, and at least it’s not a lower body injury. It’s also not something that should linger once he gets back, and Paolo does have a career so far where he’s been incredibly durable. I also don’t worry about a slow ramp up, this isn’t Markelle Fultz or JI or Gary or Wendell who are hurt all the time, I’m confident with Paolo’s work ethic and his youth that he’ll be back within the time frame laid out.

Looking at the schedule we have a large break between a game on December 8th, which is roughly 5 weeks out, and a game on December 19th. I imagine this is the targeted return date, about 6.5 weeks out from injury diagnosis. If this is the case, Paolo will miss 21 games. Of those 21 games, 8 of them are at home and 7 are against teams that weren’t playoff teams last year. This is a BRUTAL schedule to start the season, and would’ve been with or without Paolo. If we can go something like 9-12 in the games Paolo misses or better and be at 12-14 or so when he’s back, we’ll be ready to make a run to make up some seeding over the last 2/3 of the season. Again, not ideal, but also could have been significantly worse.

While P5 is out, I’m excited to see what Alpha Franz looks like, and I’m nervous about Jalen trying to do too much. I’d like to see JI with the starters in Paolo’s place and the bench rotation slide Moe to the 4 with Goga at the 5. Something like Suggs/KCP/Franz/JI/Dell with a bench rotation of AB/Jett-Cole/GH/Moe/Goga. We did a good job building depth and that’s still a solid rotation, especially when positive regression for the shooting comes along for pretty much everyone not named Jalen to start the year. 
 

It’ll be an interesting next month or so to see what these kids, and Coach Mose are made of. Go Magic!

Good post. 

I'll personally be interested to see if it is Isaac who replaces Paolo because Mose has consistently shown he doesn't like to disturb the bench rotation.

Now maybe that doesn't apply to JI since he's often injured or resting anyway throughout the season so he's always a bonus to the bench rather than a guarantee and can simply be that for the starting unit but there might be the potential for Da Silva to see minutes as like a 10-15 minute "starter". 

A more outlandish move (and not in keeping with preserving the bench unit really just a fun thought) that I think could be fun is AB to the starters and have Franz play the 4.

[All Eyes On Me]

8 minutes ago, CTMagicUK said:

 

Good post. 

I'll personally be interested to see if it is Isaac who replaces Paolo because Mose has consistently shown he doesn't like to disturb the bench rotation.

Now maybe that doesn't apply to JI since he's often injured or resting anyway throughout the season so he's always a bonus to the bench rather than a guarantee and can simply be that for the starting unit but there might be the potential for Da Silva to see minutes as like a 10-15 minute "starter". 

A more outlandish move (and not in keeping with preserving the bench unit really just a fun thought) that I think could be fun is AB to the starters and have Franz play the 4.

Would be cool to see Da Silva get some minutes, I’d prefer that over Caleb. Good point on Mose not liking to disrupt the bench rotation unless he has to. I like the idea of AB with the starting group as long as lineups are staggered to where one or AB or Franz are on the court at all times.

I saw an interview with Paolo this morning at shoot around and maybe my previous post was too optimistic on timeline to return. Looking in to torn oblique’s more; a strain is usually a few days to a few weeks if it’s mild, but if it’s a severe strain or a bad tear it could be closer to 3-4 months. The updates all clearly say Paolo will be reevaluated in 4-6 weeks, not return in that timeline, and if that’s the case, we’re looking at a play-in spot as best case scenario… *sigh

[Soul Bro]

52 minutes ago, CTMagicUK said:

A more outlandish move (and not in keeping with preserving the bench unit really just a fun thought) that I think could be fun is AB to the starters and have Franz play the 4.

This is what I want to see

[CTMagicUK]

I wonder if we'll be willing to make a trade to upgrade the forward rotation if Paolo is going to miss quite a while. 

From a quick look I think maybe Dorian Finney-Smith could be a reasonable target. Plays 3 or the 4, solid on defense, not a super long contract and could match his salary with Cole + Caleb.

I don't know if we'd necessarily be willing to give up a first but if we could do it with like 2 or 3 seconds I think I'd make a move like this to try and sure up our playoff hopes for when Paolo gets back. We'd need to be super confident Franz and Suggs could carry this team to a playoff spot though to make a move like this.

[Jay Magic]

I'm giving TDS proper minutes now if I am coach...More J.I also.. 

Paolo out is obviously terrible for him and the team but now it's a big opportunity for guys to step up BIG TIME!

 

[Luke_FfS]

On 11/1/2024 at 4:38 PM, All Eyes On Me said:

Ok, I’m going to try to bring in a bit of optimism on the Paolo news and I think I have an idea of when he could be back based off the schedule.

First, while I’m sure the injury is painful AF and it’s not ideal, at least it’s not worse, and at least it’s not a lower body injury. It’s also not something that should linger once he gets back, and Paolo does have a career so far where he’s been incredibly durable. I also don’t worry about a slow ramp up, this isn’t Markelle Fultz or JI or Gary or Wendell who are hurt all the time, I’m confident with Paolo’s work ethic and his youth that he’ll be back within the time frame laid out.

Looking at the schedule we have a large break between a game on December 8th, which is roughly 5 weeks out, and a game on December 19th. I imagine this is the targeted return date, about 6.5 weeks out from injury diagnosis. If this is the case, Paolo will miss 21 games. Of those 21 games, 8 of them are at home and 7 are against teams that weren’t playoff teams last year. This is a BRUTAL schedule to start the season, and would’ve been with or without Paolo. If we can go something like 9-12 in the games Paolo misses or better and be at 12-14 or so when he’s back, we’ll be ready to make a run to make up some seeding over the last 2/3 of the season. Again, not ideal, but also could have been significantly worse.

While P5 is out, I’m excited to see what Alpha Franz looks like, and I’m nervous about Jalen trying to do too much. I’d like to see JI with the starters in Paolo’s place and the bench rotation slide Moe to the 4 with Goga at the 5. Something like Suggs/KCP/Franz/JI/Dell with a bench rotation of AB/Jett-Cole/GH/Moe/Goga. We did a good job building depth and that’s still a solid rotation, especially when positive regression for the shooting comes along for pretty much everyone not named Jalen to start the year. 
 

It’ll be an interesting next month or so to see what these kids, and Coach Mose are made of. Go Magic!

Thanks for that post, the mood in the forum is usually swinging a lot, too much positivesness in the offseason a lot of times, and then too much negativity when one single thing doesn't go our way during the season.

Paolo's injury is surely an unlucky break, but it's not a terrible injury like others, and not an end of season one. A lot of contenders had terrible breaks in the past, losing top players at the worst moments, that's part of the game. I don't believe we were already contenders like others did, but in the long process to be great and try to win a ring you could still learn from it and the coaching staff and all the players need to make a step up to cover the loss. That will say a lot of our core and the future of the franchise too. And we absolutely have the depth to survive in that kind of situation.

[Shine88]

https://x.com/Twxcccx_/status/1852716075089023389

Jett to Paolo:

“i deserve more time,i deserve more time …….im pissed”

[JJZFL]

Current line has us as 6.5 point underdogs against Mavericks.  Latest NBA injury report still has Wendell and Goga as questionable.  I don't expect that to change until right before the game, when we will find out if either one or both are playing.

[CTMagicUK]

5 hours ago, Shine88 said:

https://x.com/Twxcccx_/status/1852716075089023389

Jett to Paolo:

“i deserve more time,i deserve more time …….im pissed”

The fact he's on the bench sulking makes me want to trade this dude.

In like 2 more games he'll have already surpassed his minute total from last season. 

And nothing he's done makes me think "man this dude needs all the minutes". 

[JJZFL]

28 minutes ago, CTMagicUK said:

The fact he's on the bench sulking makes me want to trade this dude.

In like 2 more games he'll have already surpassed his minute total from last season. 

And nothing he's done makes me think "man this dude needs all the minutes". 

Do we know for certain that’s what they were discussing?

[CTMagicUK]

2 minutes ago, JJZFL said:

Do we know for certain that’s what they were discussing?

You're right. If that's what they're talking about then all the above stands but they could be talking about something else.