From 58:43 https://open.spotify.com/episode/20is2JcisDugLgQjO5B5LJ?si=90e59803adcc4652
Slightly edited for readability
Zach:
"
This was the team I described as: "when the line came out it was higher than I would've thought and I nodded and gave Vegas & ESPN-Bet a hat tip" cause I'm like, 'I'm glad that you believe in this team. I'm glad that you believe that this young team was a real thing.
As we always say with these young teams, that development is not always linear— like the win total don't go up in a straight line for a million different reasons, and a diagonal line with a nice slope– But I think this team is a good regular season team, we'll see what they are in the playoffs. They will never get far in the playoffs until they develop an offense that is not one of the 10 worst offenses in the NBA.
But I was very surprised to see the Orlando Magic at 47.5 wins. The same total as the Cavs, and a bunch of other high profile western conference teams. Again, the east has a bunch of wins baked into your schedule, but that's a fat total, and they won 47 last year– so you think 'oh that's where you'd set it' but sometimes with these young teams you see sort of… umm.. unexpected setbacks in their development. Like someone gets injured or someone's 3-pnt shot proves to not have been real the previous year…. contracts get into it or whatever… obviously this team added KCP who should fit this team like a glove into their starting 5.
And I love this starting 5, give me all of Jalen Suggs, KCP, Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero, Wendell Carter JR. Off the bench? You wanna talk to me about a good NBA bench? This is one of the best benches in the NBA. Cole Anthony, Jonathan Isaac, and Mo Wagner are the 3 most important bench players and you can just fiddle around with both staggering minutes and who among the guards… whether it's a veteran like Gary Harris– it's Anthony Black time– is Jett Howard alive? Whats going on?? I think this team is DEEP. The defense is completely real.
Like you look for little holes in their defense, this is the 3rd ranked defense in the NBA. And you look at– where are all the holes gonna be? Where is the evidence that this was luck? Ok-
Opponent 3pnt shooting..? No.
Shot profile allowed? No. They allow a good shot profile, nothing outrageous.
They do what they do really well, which is force turnover's and get rebounds and they foul a lot because they play ultra-physical. Everything about their defense checks out as what you would expect. Offensively they were 22nd which I believe is either their 12th or 13th consecutive year with a bottom 10 offense in the NBA. Truly a remarkable streak of incompetence offensively, but there's room for improvement across the board.
I'm a top 5% Jalen Suggs fan. I think Jalen Suggs is awesome, and I hope that shooting proves real. No one's working harder at it in the NBA. I'm not saying I'm like 'over over over'.. I'm just saying that if you told me even after the playoffs when, yeah they pushed Cleveland to 7, but nobody came out looking great in that series, especially not Franz Wagner. Banchero came out fine, but on the team level no one came out and was like, OK this is a rising juggernaut.
I think this team is going to be rock solid again next year, and if you told me Fred Katz, that when we get to the end of the year you want to lock in the top 4 eastern conference playoffs seeds as Boston, New York, Philly, Milwaukee, you wanna lock those in …OK?… lock them in and that often doesn't work out. If you told me that ORLANDO had home court in the 1st round next season over one of those teams, and over Cleveland, and over Indiana, I'd be like– 'It's not shock.. It's not a shock' "
Fred:
" They were one of my favorite teams last year and just to add to your point Zach, last year Jalen Suggs, Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero, Wendell Carter on the court together— Magic are +8.8. Now you're adding KCP to that mix where before it was Gary Harris. Now you're adding KCP who is perfect as a 3 & D guy"
Zach:
"He is purely additive."
Fred:
"One of the best players in the NBA that you can plop onto any team and he will help them on both sides of the ball without disrupting their eco-system on either side"
Zach:
"Yeah I mean if I were a western conference championship contender with the best player in the world in my team I would … like… KCP seems like a guy I want to have on my team.. seems like a perfect fit"
Fred:
"Yeah but I don't know… can you trade him for Russell Westbrook? Then you might gotta do it Zach. I will say.. I'm with you. I love watching them defend, and you talk about how there is no outliers in the numbers that says it's fluke-ish in the numbers. If Jonathan Isaac can get to a place where he can just play 20 minutes.. my personal opinion.. he might just be the best defender in the eastern conference. Maybe the best per minute defender in the league other than Wemby."
Zach:
"I think he is."
Fred:
"There are times where he'll guard bigs- he's tremendous coming over from the weakside as a shot-blocker. They'll just put him on the primary assignment on just a point guard. They'll just throw him on a point guard and they'll be like.. Jonathan Isaac you're a center but you work like a wing, so just go disrupt that point guard with your insane speed and athleticism and unbelievable, never-ending length. If they can get to a place where he can play 20 minutes, and play consistently.. which I have no idea if they can because he's been so hurt for so long.. but if he can get him to that place– that defense is better than it was last year. Not worse. Then you can get to a place where you can throw out these unbelievably long line-ups that just beat the crap out of you. They have a fantastic defensive culture."
"Mo Wagner would try to take a charge against his own mother"
Fred goes on to praise Coach Mose and getting the players to buy in and the convo continues for another couple minutes— but I don't have time to type out the rest. Fucking amazing to hear this kind of recognition from national media.
by geekeasyalex
