Board 8 > NBA Stats and Discussion - Where Tanking Happens

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/AntDavis23/status/979082794499387392
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Granted it's beneficial for us to lose but our starting line-up tonight is so sad

Nikola Vucevic
D.J. Augustin
Mario Hezonja
Aaron Gordon
Rodney Purvis

Bench: Jamel Artis, Shelvin Mack, Arron Afflalo, Khem Birch, Bismarck Biyombo, Wes Iwundu, Mareese Speights

Players we have out injured: Jonathon Simmons, Terrence Ross, Evan Fournier, Jonathan Isaac

what exactly is going on with Isaac? he's a real process kind of guy. we're all infatuated with Fultz but uhh Isaac
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He sprained his ankle early on in the season. Then aggravated it on return. Then did the same thing like a week later so the team shut him down 'indefinitely' to fully recover. He missed like 41 games, briefly came back recently and now is out with a foot strain injury for the last 3 games

He did at least bulk up when out, he put on like 10-15lbs of muscle.

It's a shame because when he has played he has looked really, really good defensively. From the bits I've seen of him he definitely has all star defensive potential. Not sure how he will develop offensively though

putting on a bunch of muscle can't make it easier on his feet
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the 2017 draft seems pretty legit - like no mistakes. everyone seems to have found a decent player in the lottery at least. Isaac might be the exception but it's hard to say right now.

Mitchell is obviously a steal and would probably go #1 on a redraft right now but it's not like Tatum, Fox, Ball, Markkanen etc were bad players to grab.
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Sucks that we missed on Mitchell, I bitched so hard about getting Luke Kennard but in a vacuum he's been a solid pro. But damn, if we had drafted Mitchell where we'd be. Although we shouldn't get too far ahead of ourselves on him. He's an undersized SG who scores at a slightly below average efficiency and doesn't do anything else well. I wouldn't want a guy who's shooting slightly below 34% from three while taking 7 of them a game.
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I haven't seen a lot of Mitchell (the Celtics are playing the Jazz right now, though) but I have to wonder where the growth will be in his game going forward. He obviously is a dynamic scorer, and he seems like he's not bad defensively, but he's a pretty standard SG. He's probably not gonna get too many more APG or RPG than he has this year.
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yeah, he's 22. he could just keep getting a little better at everything, like dame lillard.
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the motherfucking boston CELTICS
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If anyone wins Coach of the Year but Brad, after the Celtics go 4-0 on a West Coast trip with no Kyrie/Smart/Theis (all 4 games) no Morris (2 games), and no Brown (1 game), I'll be stunned.

Last possession against the Jazz, who are deadlocked in a playoff race, and he has two rookies, a second year guy, a guy who was out of the league last year, and Terry Rozier, and they get it done.
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no horford tonight either.
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yeah, i forgot that one

hard to keep track there's so many
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https://twitter.com/B1ackSchefter/status/979161775387168768

Jesus Christ, did he really say that?
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Has there been an NBA player this century more genuinely unlikeable than KD? Good Lord.
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SeabassDebeste posted...

putting on a bunch of muscle can't make it easier on his feet

Probably not. Apparently he was 6ft 10 and 210lbs when he went out injured and now he's 6ft 11 and 222lbs.

So now he's up to Aaron Gordon's weight whilst being 2 inches taller. He definitely looked like he needed to put some weight on him though. He just looked super gangly and I would seriously question if he was even 210lbs.

transcience posted...

the 2017 draft seems pretty legit - like no mistakes. everyone seems to have found a decent player in the lottery at least. Isaac might be the exception but it's hard to say right now.

Mitchell is obviously a steal and would probably go #1 on a redraft right now but it's not like Tatum, Fox, Ball, Markkanen etc were bad players to grab.

As long as the injuries aren't a continuing issue then I'm 99% confident Isaac will be a great player. Maybe it's just because I'm used to such awful defense by Magic but he just looks extraordinary at times.

The Magics defensive rating for the season is 108.4 (I.e awful). When Isaac plays that rating drops to 101.4. With Isaac on the court that rating is 90.2.

Isaac is one of the reason I'm optimistic about next season. A lot of the lotto picks this year look pretty good so I think a core of Gordon + Isaac + lotto pick (especially if it's Doncic or Ayton) will be pretty solid. I'm not sold on Trae Young but I could see us taking him and I guess that would see us line-up something like Young - Fournier - Isaac - Gordon - Vucevic with Simmons as 6th man. That being said, I think Vucevic and Fournier are likely #1 and #2 on our trade list (Fournier 17m a year will be a hard move though)

celtics' 5 game winning streak includes:

OKC (6-0 streak entering the contest)
@portland (15-2 run entering the contest)
@utah (23-4 run entering the contest)

every single one of those decided in the last minute of the game.
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lmao westbrook
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well this has been pretty much the worst thunder game of the year
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fantastic
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That airballed 3 was karma of the universe for that disgraceful foul call a few seconds before.
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ya go my Spurs

suddenly we're 4th in the West
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Durant just got ejected lol
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i honestly think he just didn't want to deal with giannis
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Brooklyn pick getting worse and worse every day. Wonder if they will end up with the 8th or 9th pick. NY closing fast. Gotta love tanking vs a team that is just bad and has nothing to tank for.
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transcience posted...

the 2017 draft seems pretty legit - like no mistakes. everyone seems to have found a decent player in the lottery at least. Isaac might be the exception but it's hard to say right now.

Mitchell is obviously a steal and would probably go #1 on a redraft right now but it's not like Tatum, Fox, Ball, Markkanen etc were bad players to grab.

What do we think about Jackson? Feels like Phoenix is relying on him for tanking purposes, which feels like a troublesome approach.
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Monk was a great pick.
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Jackson has been improving lately and has been starting to get more comfortable offensively, itll be interesting to see if him and Booker can help the team learn to win

If they win the Ayton lottery they could be scary a couple years from now
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I wonder if the Magic could put together some sort of package to grab another lotto pick this year. I don't think we have enough high assets to get up that high though.

Right now this is our future draft picks.

2018
Magic 1st (4th lotto odds)
Magic 2nd (34)
Hornets 2nd (41)

2019
Magic 1st
Magic or Knicks 2nd (Most favorable)
Portland 2nd
Nets 2nd

*Owe Pistons the worst 2nd we own

2020
Magic 1st
OKC 1st (Top 20 Protected for 2020-2022 - otherwise becomes 2x seconds)
Magic 2nd
Knicks or Nets 2nd (Least favorable)

Like at some point you have to start moving some of those picks for something right? If we're really going to trade Vucevic can we package him with some picks to get a lotto pick?

So Pistons win again, which is their 6th in seven games and they improve to 24-15 with Reggie Jackson in the lineup.

So basically Reggie's injury tanked our entire season and we could have been fighting for a three seed if he stayed healthy.

Fucking... super.
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Yeah. It is pretty infuriating. Pistons get tons of disrespect from the national media, and no one mentions the Reggie difference. It's incredible tbh. Despite our awful cap situation and no pick, it's easy to be excited about next year.
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I really don't care about getting respect from the national media. I remember them going overboard initially with the Blake Griffin trade and insisting they were gonna finish top 5 in the East.
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Icehawk posted...

Yeah. It is pretty infuriating. Pistons get tons of disrespect from the national media, and no one mentions the Reggie difference. It's incredible tbh. Despite our awful cap situation and no pick, it's easy to be excited about next year.

what qyalifies as cause for excitement - 6 seed and r1 exit? legit curious
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SeabassDebeste posted...

Icehawk posted...

Yeah. It is pretty infuriating. Pistons get tons of disrespect from the national media, and no one mentions the Reggie difference. It's incredible tbh. Despite our awful cap situation and no pick, it's easy to be excited about next year.

what qyalifies as cause for excitement - 6 seed and r1 exit? legit curious

and stealing a game from the Cavs on the way out
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SeabassDebeste posted...

Icehawk posted...

Yeah. It is pretty infuriating. Pistons get tons of disrespect from the national media, and no one mentions the Reggie difference. It's incredible tbh. Despite our awful cap situation and no pick, it's easy to be excited about next year.

what qyalifies as cause for excitement - 6 seed and r1 exit? legit curious

After the last decade, 6 seed would be pretty exciting. I do think the potential to be a 4 or 5 seed is there though.
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Can't speak for Icehawk, but the Pistons win-rate with Reggie Jackson would have them tied with Cleveland for the 3rd seed so I don't think their ceiling is 6th seed losing 4-1.

Doesn't mean they'll actually reach that ceiling but I figure, when healthy, they're a top 4 team in the East depending on what happens with LeBron.
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fair enough. i just don't know that national media would give you credit even in such a case. atlanta was a second round exit for half a decade and never got cred for it.
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a playoff game win would honestly be pretty nice rn (since we clearly aren't tanking)
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Brooklyn continuing to screw the Cavs. (And the heat)
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https://twitter.com/ByTimReynolds/status/980287522109624320?s=19

Whiteside shows his TOXICSIDE.

Sorry, I had to.
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TheRock1525 posted...

Can't speak for Icehawk, but the Pistons win-rate with Reggie Jackson would have them tied with Cleveland for the 3rd seed so I don't think their ceiling is 6th seed losing 4-1.

Doesn't mean they'll actually reach that ceiling but I figure, when healthy, they're a top 4 team in the East depending on what happens with LeBron.

When Terrence Ross and Jonathan Isaac play together we are 0.667. When Isaac and Fournier play together we are 0.588. It's 0.563 when Gordon and Isaac play.

Basically when Isaac plays and we weren't in tank mode, we were way better than you'd expect of a 22 win team.

I really feel for Vogel if he gets fired this off-season (that's what rumors here say) as he was shafted by injuries.

ShatteredElysium posted...

I really feel for Vogel if he gets fired this off-season (that's what rumors here say) as he was shafted by injuries.

Yeah, don't re-enter the coaching carousel.
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injuries are part of the game sadly. one of the reasons lebron is so good is that he's always available in the playoffs. but pretty much every team in the league is dealing with a bunch. i can only think of like a handful of eastern teams that haven't dealt with long stretches without starters injured - toronto, philly (?), milwaukee (?) ... possibly atlanta.

how many games did isaac play?
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Ross - 22 games played (53 games missed)
Isaac - 26 games played (49 games missed)
Gordon - 52 games played (23 games missed)
Vucevic - 52 games played (23 games missed)
Fournier - 57 games played (18 games missed)
Simmons - 69 games played (6 games missed)

So our best 6 players have missed a combined 172 games and that total will be at least 186 before season end. That also doesn't include games with limited minutes due to the injuries/recoveries.

In 2016/2017 our best 6 players missed a combined 41 games
In 2015/2016 our best 6 players missed a combined 51 games
In 2014/2015 our best 6 players missed a combined 73 games

I mean yeah I get that injuries are part of the game but our best players have missed ridiculous amounts of time this season.

the mccaw fall last night

oof
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Big tankathon streak coming up for the Magic!

Today - @ Hawks (21-55)
Tuesday - @ Knicks (27-50)
Wednesday - Mavericks (23-53)

Gotta lose all 3 of those which would put us a minimum of joint 3rd in lotto odds. If we win 1-3 of those games we'll be somewhere between 5th and 8th

After that there's a decent chance of us losing out the season (Hornets, @ Raptors, @ Bucks, Wizards)

The Rockets threw this one, didn't they?
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Make it 25-15 with Reggie healthy and him dropping 29 today after Andre Drummond got tossed.
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Blackscar posted...

The Rockets threw this one, didn't they?

and we appreciate it
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