On the Magic Pelinka front, they've continually stressed it's a 2 summer plan so we should at least give them that before evaluating it. Everyone knew this season was a wash. The reason we don't have a good team is because they only signed guys they could get on 1 year contracts to have cap space for next summer. You may not agree with it, but that's what it is. The point wasn't to win a lot of games but rather buy time until next season. We can fault them on some deals. But with Russell, he wouldn't be the same player in LA. His last 2 years were not very good, and even this year he has the keys to the offense, can shoot over 7 threes a game, and is still averaging just 20 ppg on meh efficiency. With LeBron on the team, NO chance that happens. But in a weaker east on a team developing young guys, he has the freedom to play the way he wants. The other questionable deal is the Zubac one, and for that it may have been the result of some internal issues within the team as well. Don't punish them for the offseason signings, as I doubt most of these dudes will be around next season anyways.
high win # might not have been a true goal but playoffs were certainly part of that plan, these vet signings were part of that goal, maginka just overthinking things, trying to be different and it clearly didn't work. I mean if you plan on signing a 2nd max, looking like s*** with James on the team isn't a good look to FA's
The main goal was to get guys on 1 year deals and hopefully allow the young guys to showcase their development alongside LeBron. Everything else afterwards was just a bonus. You can argue about the signings a lot, but in the end there aren't much better people who would've signed for a 1 year contract. Maybe a few, but it's irrelevant since we can lock up better players for longer deals this summer.
I don't think missing the playoffs was a goal explicitly, but the primary goal was to have cap space to sign a max FA this summer, and that was a higher priority than a deep playoff run this season. I don't think they viewed this season as anything more than a waiting period, as we can't start contending until we have at least 2 max FAs.
it's one thing to say it was the plan. clearly, it was. it's another to say it was a good plan. tick tock.
I know this was posted already, but I feel like it needs to be posted again, because people defending this stuff clearly aren’t seeing the larger issues. Hell, I didn’t see the issues with it at the time either, I thought Magic was a smart basketball mind, but he’s clearly stuck in the 80’s.
"Oh we got shooting..." We're 6th in the league in FG% Before the trades for shooting we were 33.5% from 3. Meanwhile teams leading in the standings like Toronto were 34.5% and the Bucks were 35.5%. Holy s***...we way behind that standard. "You're not going to out-Golden State Golden State..." 2014/15: Dubs 1st in fg%/3fg% 15/16: 1st again in both 16/17: 1st/3rd 17/18: 1st again in both 18/19: so far this season, 1st in both Only team to beat them (and it took 7 games) were the Cavs who were 10th in fg% and 8th in 3fg%. Cavs didn't have success with them outshooting the dubs. It was star power matching up against theirs that finally did them in: Curry/Klay/Dray vs Bron/Ky/Love (although the Ky/Love injuries hurt the Cavs in the 1st go around) When KD hopped on board, it hasn't been close. Houston came close last year forcing a game 7, but that team was 15th in fg% and 14th in 3fg%. So no..you don't beat them by outscoring them. It's proven. "Commit to the defensive end..." No s***! We were top 10 in defensive rating when Bron went down vs the dubs on Christmas...good for 4th place. Since then we're 20th in defensive rating. How the f*** did anything Magic said in that cLip wrong? Like I'm concerned for y'all...did Magic hurt you in any way? Did he keep that magic juice from a loved one of yours suffering from a retroviral disease? Injuries mixed in with a limited offensive playbook and inconsistent defense has done us in. We're injured and we got a guy being paid roughly 5m barely getting any run. Let him play, cause our defense already bad without him on the court. He's a known deterrent...let him loose. What you gotta lose other than more games to tanking teams? #StayBawln
Oh lord, I haven’t seen you with your Laker goggles on this tight in a long time. Maybe since Kobe vs Shaq.
At least they Laker goggles...I don't know what the f*** y'all have on. Dispute anything Magic said in that cLip with credible data/observations. Otherwise... #BawlGogglesBeFogginUrShitUp
I think you're reading too much into it. Magic has a point. LeBron plus shooters won't win us a ring. At best we'll be a worse version of Cleveland. We need to involve other playmakers, get LeBron off ball into the pinch post/high post, and then allow him to go to work. This will extend his career and our contention window. This is not what we have executed this season, but we also lack the talent to effectively do so. Like I said, this season was more about the cap space for the summer, rather than making the WCF.
I don't think the goal posts ever moved. It was pretty clear from the summer. If that weren't the case, we would've signed better players to longer term deals. If you want to dispute the idea of banking everything on signing a max FA in the summer, that's fair. But don't criticize the roster construction when it was done with the goal of creating cap space in mind over *winning now*.
Prove anything Magic said with something besides biased stats otherwise get outta here with that nonsense. Going around calling people crybabies and dense and stuff, you’re better than that. Not outshooting the Warriors doesn’t mean putting together a team with almost zero shooting, when most of the league can shoot in their sleep, that’s ridiculous. Also, before LeBron went down we had played one of the easiest schedules in the NBA and we were still like 2 games out of 8th having blown some pretty must win gimmes. “4th in the West” doesn’t mean a whole lot when like 4 games separated the 2nd and 9th spots. This roster wass poorly constructed and they made it slightly worse with trades, other than LeBron it’s a terrible season for the FO and I don’t see how that can be argued any other way. But sure, I guess if they luck into a 2nd star or don’t have to trade the entire team away and can get AD this summer they have delivered on what they said, but those are big ifs.
This seaon was about making the playoffs AND having cap space for next seaon. LeBron didn’t miss 40 games, he missed 18, and we lost games when he was healthy AND when he was out we had no business losing, so if we don’t make the playoffs even with that this season is a colossal failure. The plan was to get some of these kids and this team some playoff experience to look attractive to free agents and to build to a title. How can we expect our young players to be ready to compete for a title if they don’t get 1 second of playoff experience under their belts before we try and make a run? Almost no team wins year one, it always takes at least one year of taking your playoff lumps before you can win, and if we don’t do that this season it’s a wasted year of LeBron and a failure. Poor roster construction and terrible coaching has been the mark of this year, nobody is going to convince me otherwise with any biased stats or excuse filled arguments when I have watched almost every game with my own eyes.
Weez, I should be better...gtfoh...how bout y'all be better. Criticizing Bron for not looking in the mirror while y'all doing whatever it is you're doing #hypocrasy It's been 1 complete year with Rob/Magic...y'all crying over what has happened in 1 complete year. Year 1 of Bron ain't even done yet and now it's fire the guys trying to dig ourselves out from the last lames that put us in this mess. What were we winning before? Jack s***! When you bring in a guy like Bron you in win mode. We movin in on both star trades and stars soaking up that max slot. What the f*** the other FO do? Legacy deal for Kob...giving his weathered body a 7sol dope instead of something familiar. Let Pau walk for nothing. Let's tank for picks but have Kob take up almost 40% of our cap...we were in purgatory with no f***ing way out...and this year is that bad for y'all?!? Really? We replaced Kob with MozDeng. That's bawlworthy! What y'all doing is clown a** s*** (Darrell probably). But do you...its cartoony a** s*** like them two rats that's infiltrated this place. Y'all bawln got me loln. #StayBawln
Whoa whoa whoa. Guys have been critical of the front office from minute one of this forum. The previous regime definitely didn’t get a pass.
That said, I also don’t think Magic’s plan can be fully judged until after this offseason. I still think we get another major piece this summer one way or another. But come on. Let’s not act like this season hasn’t been frustrating. I don’t see how anyone can not be upset after dropping needed games to the Hawks, Grizz, and Pelicans.
The arrogant and condescending defense of the front office is at a whole new low. The whole shtick of talking down to people is worse for this board than the team’s performance. Learn how to make a strong point without spinning speculation as fact and then insulting anyone who questions it.
