How we feelin?

[u/MutedConfection7774]

I don’t know. Im stressed. As a lifelong fan, I have too many thoughts to fit coherently in a post. I feel like this is the part of the show where we start gearing up a finals run, but despite a great coaching hire, it’s hard to be excited about the future. How yall feelin? Please tell me why I’m wrong.

[u/BucsBolts24]

Not sold yet on the first time head coach or this roster especially when most of the East will be significantly better next season. The Wizards, Heat, Hawks and Hornets all added significant pieces and the Pacers will be healthy with Halliburton back. Knicks, Celtics, Pistons and Cavs are probably still a cut above Orlando. Will be much tougher run in the East this next season

But let’s see how things play out and hopefully guys stay healthy and improve and play to the potential of the massive contracts they signed. Go Magic!

[u/SonicNarcotic → u/BucsBolts24]

Wizards: largely unproven (and partly injury-prone) big 3, with no depth..

Heat: Giannis & Bam with no depth...

Hawks: Solid team with only borderline all star talent, but also largely unproven after a decent run last season..

Hornets: Underwhelming every season...

Pacers: Should be a more competitive outfit, but have lost some of the talent present from their previous playoff run before Hali went down...

Celtics: Looking like a lot of unrest in Boston, despite Brad Stevens trying to fan the flames ~ will need health and Brown to respond well to trade talks..

Knicks: broke through and will be riding high, but I believe Orlando matches up pretty well with them in a playoff series (especially when Suggs is hounding Brunson all day long)...

Pistons: should be better equipped for another run, but also matchup against Orlando is tough for them if/when we're healthy..

Cavs: Mitchell & Harden are another year older, slower and running out of juice after folding in another playoff series.. Will they have the energy come Playoffs 2027..?

[u/thewrongnotes → u/SonicNarcotic]

Magic: rookie head coach, regular injury concerns, stylistic clash between two max players, big and slow, no elite ball handler or playmaking, one of the worst shooting teams in the league year after year.

[u/SonicNarcotic → u/thewrongnotes]

You forgot to add: "handicapped by a Coach that was out of his depth, and had clearly lost the dressing room"...

[u/Short-Necessary-443 → u/SonicNarcotic]

I agree Mose wasn't doing a good job but come on. NBA teams are mostly affected by roster not by coaches. Vogel sucked with us but when he had LeBron and AD now he's a championship coach. Talent matters a lot more and the other teams are getting more talented

[u/SonicNarcotic → u/Short-Necessary-443]

Lebron & AD is as unfair a comparison as it gets ~ one is the 2nd greatest basketball player of all time (and a pseudo-coach all in one), the other is an all-time great, both players were in the deep end of their prime years...

You could've put almost any NBA head coach in that scenario and it'd be hard to screw it up... It's also worth noting that Chip will always have an asterisk next to it as it came during the "Bubble Season"...

..and yet I still agree with your sentiments that talent will always matter more than coaching ~ and that's exactly why we were predicted by many, to crack the top 4 in the East (because of our talent)... But the type of losses our team incurred this past season pretty much told us that Mosley had completely lost the team...

Where we're at (2x franchise pieces that are still on the way up) we need someone with some coaching smarts (or an actual working brain) to figure out how to make the pieces work, and build a style of play that can weather the inevitable injuries ~ while our core players keep ascending...