2024/2025 General Game Thread

[MagicOne]

One big silver lining is that the east is still up for grabs after the top 3 of the Cavs, Celtics, and Knicks. The Hawks have dropped 7 straight after being on fire. Also, better to have a losing streak in Jan and early Feb than in April. There is still time to right the ship. And a lot of it will depend on what management does in the next 5 days. You can only say "it's a make or miss league" after every loss for so long before you begin to realize that we just can't shoot the ball consistently. And we as fans can only say "we need a PG and some shooters" for so long, until we begin to get frustrated and wonder if the organization is really committed to winning basketball.

[Luke_FfS]

When you're that bad on offense, you need to be top on defense. And unfortunately we're not even that team anymore.

You know things are going terribly bad when you actually miss the Hearth and Hustle team back on december. They had no talent at all, but at least they tried.

[OnlyFranz]

1 hour ago, fan for too long 2 said:

He should get fired. Along with Mosely. This is a f ing disgrace. A competent organization fires incompetent management. 

But what happens when it’s an incompetent organization? Oh wait we’re living the nightmare smh. 

[OnlyFranz]

30 minutes ago, MagicOne said:

I think it has a lot to do with being able to vent after a loss. Or losses as is the case now. It's therapeutic in a way. It's better than throwing the remote. Lol.

Hit the nail on the head. I was envisioning punching the screen but that would have been costly so I opted to vent on here instead lol. 

[MagicOne]

I just took a look at the film, and we still missed a bunch of shots! Some guys were so wide open you could put a monster truck in between them and the nearest defender. And it was still brick city all night long and twice on Sunday.

[MagicOne]

3 minutes ago, OnlyFranz said:

Hit the nail on the head. I was envisioning punching the screen but that would have been costly so I opted to vent on here instead lol. 

Have you ever tried to punch your couch in the neck? Lol. It is safe for you and for the couch as well. Nice and soft. Just make sure there is enough cushion where you punch. I hit the top part where you rest your neck. (hence, that's why I call it the neck). Definitely safer, and cheaper, than throwing the remote or punching the screen. Lol!

[Stinger24]

1 hour ago, MagicOne said:

I just took a look at the film, and we still missed a bunch of shots! Some guys were so wide open you could put a monster truck in between them and the nearest defender. And it was still brick city all night long and twice on Sunday.

Yep and this has exposed Paulo he needs spacing to be able to score he isn’t a great shooter at this point and needs to be getting to the basket. He can’t because teams clog the paint and could care less about anyone shooting from outside. This team can’t shoot I’ve been dogged for saying for years 

[OnlyFranz]

1 hour ago, MagicOne said:

Have you ever tried to punch your couch in the neck? Lol. It is safe for you and for the couch as well. Nice and soft. Just make sure there is enough cushion where you punch. I hit the top part where you rest your neck. (hence, that's why I call it the neck). Definitely safer, and cheaper, than throwing the remote or punching the screen. Lol!

Nope it’s never occurred to me before to do that but you clearly have this down to an art form lol. 

[JJZFL]

39 minutes ago, Stinger24 said:

Yep and this has exposed Paulo he needs spacing to be able to score he isn’t a great shooter at this point and needs to be getting to the basket. He can’t because teams clog the paint and could care less about anyone shooting from outside. This team can’t shoot I’ve been dogged for saying for years 

They were double teaming him last year also but he was able to attack much more aggressively. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like seeing our guys going 1v2 and often winding up with difficult shots or turnovers, but Paulo looks totally different than he did even at the start of this year

[jmmagicfan]

35 minutes ago, JJZFL said:

They were double teaming him last year also but he was able to attack much more aggressively. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like seeing our guys going 1v2 and often winding up with difficult shots or turnovers, but Paulo looks totally different than he did even at the start of this year

As someone pointed out earlier, he missed more games than Franz, and hasn’t been himself since coming back. I think he came back too soon, partly because he saw so many others going out with injuries. I think we should pull him back, not necessarily sit him, but limit him to 20-24 minutes a game, until he gets his feet back under him. I think Franz is closer to being back to pre-injury and we need to be playing through him like we were when Paolo was out. I think we need to play Paolo more off the ball until he is truly recovered . If we make a trade for a true PG, that could help a lot; I just think having Paolo as our primary ball handler and running the offense is asking too much while he is still less than 100%.

[MagicOne]

The Knicks just got carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey on the 4th of July by our old buddy JJ and his Los Angeles Lakers. They scored 128 points tonight in the victory. What is it with all of these team regularly dropping like 125, 130, or even 140 points on a nightly basis, and yet we struggle to reach 90 on most nights? The one thing that I see is that most of these teams that are scoring in bunches have a solid point guard setting the table. Also, they have shooters knocking down 3's. This opens things up for guys who like to drive to the hoop. That is what most teams are doing. It is essentially todays NBA. And yet what have we been doing for all of these years? If a team can't shoot it makes them so much easier to defend. Now we know why Paolo is so frustrated. He can't get to the rack. Then to make matters worse, when he makes some solid passes to wide open shooters they consistently miss. And what happened to "we hang our hat on the defensive end?" That disappeared faster than a hunk of cheese out near the dumpster at Winn Dixie.

[JJZFL]

6 minutes ago, jmmagicfan said:

As someone pointed out earlier, he missed more games than Franz, and hasn’t been himself since coming back. I think he came back too soon, partly because he saw so many others going out with injuries. I think we should pull him back, not necessarily sit him, but limit him to 20-24 minutes a game, until he gets his feet back under him. I think Franz is closer to being back to pre-injury and we need to be playing through him like we were when Paolo was out. I think we need to play Paolo more off the ball until he is truly recovered . If we make a trade for a true PG, that could help a lot; I just think having Paolo as our primary ball handler and running the offense is asking too much while he is still less than 100%.

I hope you’re right but Paulo was out for quite awhile, I think about 10 weeks.  Much longer than Franz.  And when Paulo first came back, he helped us win some games.  They were having trouble keeping him at the minute restriction because he was helping our offense so much.  Obviously something has changed.  It’s hard for me to believe he’s reinjured himself and they are playing him anyway, given how incredibly conservative we are with any injuries, so I don’t have a good explanation.