Kekgeek grades G37 vs Magic

[kekgeek]

Donte: B-
Ant: B+
Jaden: B+
Randle: A-
Rudy:A-
Naz: A-
Naw: C-
Conley: B
Minott: C

[60WinTim]

Yeah, that was a really good win. Orlando, despite their injuries, plays very hard. That same lineup just beat the Knicks at MSG and had 2 days off.

That's 3-0 after moving DDV to the starting lineup. Maybe that loss at Detroit was a blessing in disguise. Not only did it help our odds of getting their draft pick next year, but it forced Finchie's hand in making the starting lineup adjustment.

Up next, Memphis. Let's go!

[Q-is-here]

Yeah, that was a really good win. Orlando, despite their injuries, plays very hard. That same lineup just beat the Knicks at MSG and had 2 days off.

That's 3-0 after moving DDV to the starting lineup. Maybe that loss at Detroit was a blessing in disguise. Not only did it help our odds of getting their draft pick next year, but it forced Finchie's hand in making the starting lineup adjustment.

Up next, Memphis. Let's go!

I believe after our Memphis game, that will be 19 out of 20 games against teams with .500 or better records. I'm may be fudging a bit with Detroit since I'm not sure they were .500 when we played them, but they were certainly playing good enough at the time!

Now not all those teams were/are at full strength, but that is just nuts to me how few sub-.500 teams we've played since the end of November. Those Portland back-to-back losses early in the season sting even more now.

[Q-is-here]

Not that Minott should have a high bar to clear for a decent grade, but I thought he was pretty bad out there. His defensive issues are starting to show up more. Had 3 fouls in just 8 minutes.

[60WinTim]

Not that Minott should have a high bar to clear for a decent grade, but I thought he was pretty bad out there. His defensive issues are starting to show up more. Had 3 fouls in just 8 minutes.

Yeah, he is not contributing to winning basketball. But I am glad Finch is choosing to let one of the young guys get meaningful minutes so they can start developing for the future. Once Dillingham is back, I wonder if both of them, or just one, will get those "development" minutes?

Finch commented in his presser than he likes bring Conley off the bench because rather than fitting his minutes into a 48-minute window, it is a 36-minute window. So, he can pick and choose more where to fit him in, kind of a "break glass in case of emergency". I gotta chuckle out of that comment. Where would we be without Daddy?!?

But I completely agree. Mike is in the twilight of his career, no longer playing starter minutes. I thought bringing him off the bench to start the season would have been smart. But, at least we finally go there.

[Lipoli390]

Not that Minott should have a high bar to clear for a decent grade, but I thought he was pretty bad out there. His defensive issues are starting to show up more. Had 3 fouls in just 8 minutes.

I don’t think 8 minutes provides a meaningful basis for evaluating a player. We’ve all seen even great players play poorly for far more than 8 minutes in a game. Jaden has had many games with a foul rate as high or higher as Minott’s was today, but Jaden is an elite defender. I’m not totally sold on Minott or any of our young talent but the good we’ve seen from Minott so far this season far outweighs the bad. You can never know what you have in a player until he gets significant minutes on a consistent basis every game. So much of basketball is about getting a rhythm. It’s hard enough to compete against the best players in the world without the uncertainty and challenge every day of not knowing whether, when or how much you’ll play.

[Lipoli390]

Jaden didn’t shoot much or well tonight, but I thought Jaden’s defense was absolutely outstanding. And I love that he had 8 boards.

[FNG]

Not that Minott should have a high bar to clear for a decent grade, but I thought he was pretty bad out there. His defensive issues are starting to show up more. Had 3 fouls in just 8 minutes.

Yeah, he is not contributing to winning basketball. But I am glad Finch is choosing to let one of the young guys get meaningful minutes so they can start developing for the future. Once Dillingham is back, I wonder if both of them, or just one, will get those "development" minutes?

Finch commented in his presser than he likes bring Conley off the bench because rather than fitting his minutes into a 48-minute window, it is a 36-minute window. So, he can pick and choose more where to fit him in, kind of a "break glass in case of emergency". I gotta chuckle out of that comment. Where would we be without Daddy?!?

But I completely agree. Mike is in the twilight of his career, no longer playing starter minutes. I thought bringing him off the bench to start the season would have been smart. But, at least we finally go there.

Where would we be without Daddy, you ask? 0 and 4, baby, 0 and 4! Love how he has gracefully moved into a reserve role...+23 in his 23 minutes last night. I still don't know that DiVo is the answer as our starting PG...it seems to be working so far, but I think it has a lot more to do with Ant's absurdly great shooting early in games. I'm still clinging to the pipe dream that a healed Rob can become our starting PG in the final quarter of the season, moving DiVo and Conley to a very productive unit off the bench. But anyway, nice win against an injured but still hard-working Magic team.

[Q-is-here]

Not that Minott should have a high bar to clear for a decent grade, but I thought he was pretty bad out there. His defensive issues are starting to show up more. Had 3 fouls in just 8 minutes.

Yeah, he is not contributing to winning basketball. But I am glad Finch is choosing to let one of the young guys get meaningful minutes so they can start developing for the future. Once Dillingham is back, I wonder if both of them, or just one, will get those "development" minutes?

Finch commented in his presser than he likes bring Conley off the bench because rather than fitting his minutes into a 48-minute window, it is a 36-minute window. So, he can pick and choose more where to fit him in, kind of a "break glass in case of emergency". I gotta chuckle out of that comment. Where would we be without Daddy?!?

But I completely agree. Mike is in the twilight of his career, no longer playing starter minutes. I thought bringing him off the bench to start the season would have been smart. But, at least we finally go there.

Where would we be without Daddy, you ask? 0 and 4, baby, 0 and 4! Love how he has gracefully moved into a reserve role...+23 in his 23 minutes last night. I still don't know that DiVo is the answer as our starting PG...it seems to be working so far, but I think it has a lot more to do with Ant's absurdly great shooting early in games. I'm still clinging to the pipe dream that a healed Rob can become our starting PG in the final quarter of the season, moving DiVo and Conley to a very productive unit off the bench. But anyway, nice win against an injured but still hard-working Magic team.

We have a surplus of SG/SFs on this roster and a shortage of true PGs. It's an interesting dilemma after Finch "flooded the system" with PGs in the back half of last season with Conley, McLaughlin, and Morris in the rotation. It should be no surprise that those guys had some of the best net ratings on the team.

I think that's the #1 to-do in terms of pure positional needs this offseason for Connelly (unless he can fix it by the trade deadline).

I get that Dillingham might be the future, but he needs to become a capable backup PG before he can become a starter. We need someone that can start for us next season at PG. And it isn't Conley, Dillingham, or DDV.

[FNG]

Yeah, he is not contributing to winning basketball. But I am glad Finch is choosing to let one of the young guys get meaningful minutes so they can start developing for the future. Once Dillingham is back, I wonder if both of them, or just one, will get those "development" minutes?

Finch commented in his presser than he likes bring Conley off the bench because rather than fitting his minutes into a 48-minute window, it is a 36-minute window. So, he can pick and choose more where to fit him in, kind of a "break glass in case of emergency". I gotta chuckle out of that comment. Where would we be without Daddy?!?

But I completely agree. Mike is in the twilight of his career, no longer playing starter minutes. I thought bringing him off the bench to start the season would have been smart. But, at least we finally go there.

Where would we be without Daddy, you ask? 0 and 4, baby, 0 and 4! Love how he has gracefully moved into a reserve role...+23 in his 23 minutes last night. I still don't know that DiVo is the answer as our starting PG...it seems to be working so far, but I think it has a lot more to do with Ant's absurdly great shooting early in games. I'm still clinging to the pipe dream that a healed Rob can become our starting PG in the final quarter of the season, moving DiVo and Conley to a very productive unit off the bench. But anyway, nice win against an injured but still hard-working Magic team.

We have a surplus of SG/SFs on this roster and a shortage of true PGs. It's an interesting dilemma after Finch "flooded the system" with PGs in the back half of last season with Conley, McLaughlin, and Morris in the rotation. It should be no surprise that those guys had some of the best net ratings on the team.

I think that's the #1 to-do in terms of pure positional needs this offseason for Connelly (unless he can fix it by the trade deadline).

I get that Dillingham might be the future, but he needs to become a capable backup PG before he can become a starter. We need someone that can start for us next season at PG. And it isn't Conley, Dillingham, or DDV.

I agree that the jury is way out on Rob, but I can't conclude yet that he won't be a capable starting PG next year. I really value Tom Crean's opinion, and he has been very vocal in a positive way about Rob. I've posted his thoughts here before, but his opinion has been that Rob needed to watch some NBA basketball, but that he had star potential and would be contributing the second half of the season. I get that his injury has slowed his progress, but while I thought of him mostly as a scorer when we drafted him, I saw some excellent playmaking potential earlier this year. I'm going to continue to hope he gets healthy and can fill an obvious huge need for this team late in the season...and into the playoffs. I may have to take off my rose-colored glasses though .