2024/2025 General Game Thread

[All Eyes On Me]

3 hours ago, Jay Magic said:

AB is available 

Weird we said he was available and he got a DNP. Pregame setback maybe?

[JJZFL]

We sure stunk tonight 

[MagicOne]

Man, this was painful to watch tonight. We have one decent game knocking down some 3's and suddenly think we are the Boston Celtics. Have you all ever seen so many bricks and air balls on 3-point attempts in one game? And they were wide open shots! Hopefully Paolo is returning soon. However, knowing how cautious they have been, I think it will be at least another week or so before he comes back. If that's the case, and if Jalen is out for a while this could start getting real ugly folks. Tomorrow night versus the Knicks is a probable loss. Then the next 6 games after that are going to be against playoff opponents. We could very well be staring at a 6 or 7 game losing streak here. Would be great if we could at least win a couple of these games and stay above 500 before the return of Banchero. To be honest I don't see him coming back anytime soon though. (Gonna keep taking the cautious approach, while continuing to say "help could be on the way real soon"..Dante)

[Shine88]

We need a PG. 

[MagicOne]

6 minutes ago, All Eyes On Me said:

Weird we said he was available and he got a DNP. Pregame setback maybe?

Probably being cautious as they are with most injured players.

[MagicOne]

2 minutes ago, Shine88 said:

We need a PG. 

Yes we do! Also need at least one guy who can consistently knock down some 3's. 

[CTMagicUK]

Horrendous loss.

KCP, JI, WCJ, they're the vets we've given a lot of money to, you expect them to show up when you're down your best players. Only Wendell looked remotely competent on offense and for what he gave on offense I thought he was pretty bad defensively frustratingly. Isaac and KCP gave us nothing offensively. 

Didn't think Goga was all that good either despite a respectable stat line.

Caleb Houstan is never beating the fake shooter allegations. He's confident I'll give him that, and they always look good, yet they just don't go in as often as they need to. 

Between Cole and Gary Harris we have $20m in salary to send out. Go out and spend some draft picks to bolster this squad because it's just not good enough to be a top team. 

[jmmagicfan]

Yes, we played awful last night, but before everyone gets too carried away, please imagine Boston playing without Tatum, Brown, Porzingas, and White; or the Knicks without Brunson, Towns, Bridges, and Onunoby. If that doesn’t put into perspective what this team is doing, I’m not sure what will.

[CTMagicUK]

48 minutes ago, jmmagicfan said:

Yes, we played awful last night, but before everyone gets too carried away, please imagine Boston playing without Tatum, Brown, Porzingas, and White; or the Knicks without Brunson, Towns, Bridges, and Onunoby. If that doesn’t put into perspective what this team is doing, I’m not sure what will.

I get the general thought but I'm going to push back on this a little mostly because our lack of scoring talent casts Mo Wagner as our 4th best scorer and thus allows you to include White and Anunoby above when both of those guys are tremendously more impactful on winning than Mo Wagner (not a shot at Mo I love him but we're talking scoring bench big versus versatile 2 way player)

Which to me is a solid argument that the roster isn't quite balanced correctly and making a trade to add a piece that would push Mo Wagner down the pecking order in that regard makes a lot of sense. 

[Luke_FfS]

This one was bad, but not totally unexpected, in the conditions we're, every game could easily be a L. In the same conditions, a few seasons ago or even a couple, we would already be talking about who to choose with one of the first 3 picks in the draft.

We need Paolo back asap.

[All Eyes On Me]

2 hours ago, CTMagicUK said:

I get the general thought but I'm going to push back on this a little mostly because our lack of scoring talent casts Mo Wagner as our 4th best scorer and thus allows you to include White and Anunoby above when both of those guys are tremendously more impactful on winning than Mo Wagner (not a shot at Mo I love him but we're talking scoring bench big versus versatile 2 way player)

Which to me is a solid argument that the roster isn't quite balanced correctly and making a trade to add a piece that would push Mo Wagner down the pecking order in that regard makes a lot of sense. 

Yeah, I agree. We can hide behind the injuries, and they suck and they’re playing a role in our floor, but none of the issues that are getting exposed are new issues for us. We’ve been asking for shooting and playmaking help for years and it still hasn’t happened. We have several vets that we continue to double down on that are constant disappointments. If our goal is championship, we need to build the team out better around our big 3. It’s kind of a clunky mess and it speaks volumes to me that our most impactful injury so far when it comes to our play and wins and losses has been Moe Wagner 

[MagicMan1979]

5 hours ago, jmmagicfan said:

Yes, we played awful last night, but before everyone gets too carried away, please imagine Boston playing without Tatum, Brown, Porzingas, and White; or the Knicks without Brunson, Towns, Bridges, and Onunoby. If that doesn’t put into perspective what this team is doing, I’m not sure what will.

I think this point is completely valid.  We have to be realistic Magic Fans.   We are the 80s Celtics without Bird and McHale.  The 80’s Lakers without Magic and Kareem.  The 90s Bulls without Jordan and Pippen.  Lastly for the young people The Warriors without Steph and KD.

People can push back all they want on this reality.  We have had a next man up mentality all year and deserve massive amounts of credit for the heart our guys have shown.  There does come a point when the lack of available talent is simply too much.

I would do what CT and others have wrote though.  Package a few salaries and The Denver pick for a good rotation shooter.  We need that anyway after our stars come back.