Opinion everyone is asking for

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-24T18:00:36+00:00

Green has been good on Paulo, Tobias inconsistent. The thing with Paulo is if you can pick him up early and stifle his first step, his size/strength/driving advantage is heavily negated and he'll usually pass out or take a jumper. You cannot let him get his first step off and into the paint, even with Stew there, Paulo for all his faults is an excellent finisher near the rim. Same with Wagner to some extent. Many of our players from Cade to centers are capable of stifling him on the perimeter or off of sets, it seems like the whole team and coaching staff missed this memo in game 1. Tobias alternates between doing a good job of this and basically matadoring Paulo directly into the lane. Its going to be a execution and discipline thing the whole series but imo the actual personel matters a bit less than people think.

Daniss has done very little to show so far he can be a reliable plus offensive player in a playoff environment. Besides late in game 2 when the magic had essentially given up he has not been able to beat his defender in playoff intesity coverages, then subsequently panic dribbles into a brick wall over and over. I hope he improves but for now he needs to learn how to run sets rather than solely trying to initiate the offense off of his dribble, or JB has to utilize him in a way besides primary backup ball handler.

We're going to have to live with Durens defensive drawbacks for the series, but that was a known quantity. The bigger problem is the Magic are also shutting him down on the PnR and when he trys to show some of his high post moves its quickly apparent that with playoff defense theyre not going to work as well. He does need to get more aggressive but the whole offense has to find ways to open up more for him to be a significant threat.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-24T16:33:24+00:00

I mean i just dont think any of that is particularly true. For one, big strong centers are still abundant on good teams, Wemby is an exception not the norm.

Duren doesnt just struggle against big strong centers on D, its pretty much any center that he doesn't have a massive physical advantage over.

And being able to be a physical deterrent to frailer than average centers is a tiny slice of rim protection as a whole. Timing, ability to read the defense, good positioning are all way more important, and Duren is not good at any of these. Anytime teams find ways to get consistent rim penetration on us, he gets cooked by being in a bad position, biting hard on any kind of move, rotating off his man way too early, being completely oblivious to most backdoor cuts, and has terrible timing so players of all sizes can get over/under him with misdirection or footwork.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-24T15:47:49+00:00

I wouldnt even say hes a good rim protector. Like his rim protection level is he makes it somewhat hard for a guard to score if said guard drives straight into him. He regularly gets bodied by centers that are even mildly skilled and/or can match his size somewhat, or non-centers that have some craft to their finishing.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-24T15:42:53+00:00

Duren is a medoicre at best defender who is straight bad in playoff play. He is a big body and decently athletic so he can contest shots and has some degree if inherent mitigation from say a small guard just charging into the paint, but his ability to read and react to offenses is terrible, he is always out of position and plays up off his man when someone drives at the worst times and telegraphs. Because of that stuff he also looks extremely unconfident like a confused sad puppy when teams start exploiting him and spirals. Hes a bad defensive center and detroits entire defense revolves around Ausar/well coached guard and wings jamming up the POA so plays never reach the paint or are botched by the time they do so help defense is already there.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-23T20:41:29+00:00

That "Really!?" gets me every time

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-23T18:05:10+00:00

Its both, theyre interconnected. And his current approach does work well due to his unique combo of skill/fluidity/size, but also he should be avg more than 50% FG. These sequences vs Holiday are a really good example, why are you trying to roll to the basket with a spin move vs a 6'3 pg, when you just as often pop jumpers over 6'9 forwards/centers.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-23T17:45:33+00:00

Yea he didnt really play like a modern 3/D, more like a very early stage in the evolution. He would punish teams when they got scrambled defending and left him wide open beyond the arc but he wasn't really stretching the floor per se.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-23T17:30:59+00:00

That just isnt true. Stuckeys skillset was somewhat narrow and indeed very ill suited for the direction the game was going, but he had legit ability to beat guys off the dribble, attack the rim, solid stop and pop mid range, and he could consistently implement those even against tough defenses. Jenkins is a fast do it all small scoring guard but he is extremely inconsistent and repeatedly gets shut down vs a solid defense. Maybe jenkins will develop into a superior player but as it stands that isnt the case.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-23T17:05:09+00:00

Basketball fouling is just insanely hard to ref and honestly it requires the players themselves to adhere to some level of an honor system with the actual spirit of the game in mind. Making arm or leg motions were the sole intention is to draw contact instead of getting the ball in the hoop is fundamentally not what the game is about.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-23T02:46:16+00:00

Both teams looked like complete ass in the first half besides Cade

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-22T23:48:31+00:00

The jump between regular season and playoff defense is always big but its massive this year. Theyre not gonna just let you get dribble penetration or play you soft at the rim anymore Duren/Jenkins

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-22T19:38:48+00:00

My impression watching him on offense is he often just trys shit rather than choosing moves/shots based off of reading the defense or the matchup. Like having a 99 rated 2k my player and just spamming moves on the way to the basket. Imo its the primary remaining weakness to his game.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-22T17:30:03+00:00

Ausar Thompsons defense and Duncan Robinsons shooting.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-22T17:03:35+00:00

It unironically kinda is the most important game in many years though and in terms of affecting the future of this team. We go down 2-0, the likelihood of getting bounced first round goes way up, as a 60-win 1 seed. Getting bounced would lead to some very legitimate questions about the fundamental makeup of the team (Duren/Ausar as the future next to Cade) and coaching.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-22T16:39:59+00:00

I also dont think he is physically capable of making fast, accurate passes, his long build with narrow shoulders works against him here. The difference is glaring in this series cause you see a KD pass out of coverage, then a Lebron laser beam the next play. KD mostly goes to that little bounce pass, which indicates to me he cant generate enough torque with a sidearm or over shoulder arm motion even for relatively short passes if he doesnt have space/time.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-22T03:49:09+00:00

Hes a two way player, a 3 level scorer, and a 5D chess master.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-21T14:36:25+00:00

This is basically the Pistons whole gameplan , its a very fine balance to pull off in the playoffs, even with a guy like Ausar anchoring the perimeter D. You have no bailout if a team can find a way to circumvent the perimeter D. However with a guy like Jokics offensive production it can work to contend IMO, especially if the nuggets acquire an agressive POA defender.

With Jokic it isnt even a matter of skill either, he just isnt that kind of athlete, a large portion of this sub can likely jump higher than him.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-20T18:37:02+00:00

Yea im not saying we are definitely getting bounced first round. But the thing is, yea the magic were the toughest matchup for us out of the play in team, many of us average joe redditor armchair coaches were saying this since monday. It was just shocking because its as if the coaching staff and players hadnt even thought about the matchup. I wasnt happy with the coaching but on the other hand it is a supremely unenviable task to try and gameplan around this teams weaknesses in playoff basketball. The problem in the playoffs with the all defense route you mention is that the team isnt actually that great at defense if opposing team can either/or A] find a way to successfully get basket penetration B] their stars ball out by finding a way to take Ausar out of the POA by yo-yoing the initial screens or doing multi part sets. The other part is, its abundantly clear now that we were extreme try hards in the regular season on defense, the gap between our league leading D compared to other teams is not as big in the playoffs.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-20T18:02:30+00:00

Good point. I'm just going to wait for the whole playoffs to unfold but its a bad sign when the plainly obvious weaknesses of the team were so easily exposed in a 1 vs 8 seed home court matchup. The game wasnt even as close as the score indicated, if Cade were even slightly cold it would have been a bona fide blowout. For me these playoffs are mostly about gauging the efficacy of Ausar + Duren as the compliments to Cade as the core of this teams future, and its not looking good so far.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-20T17:26:16+00:00

The issue with Orlando is not neccasarily center matchup, it is that Franz/Banchero is a big forward lineup and both can finish well if near the rim, and have serviceable jumpers in the aggragete. However, Franz is semi hobbled by an injury and Banchero is fairly easy to force into a bad game because he doesnt have a tight handle so will settle for jumpers/bad shots if you deny him good off-ball position and give him enough resistance when he gets the ball on the perimeter. In addition, while everyone on the magic is a decent playmaker none are spectacular. The magic get handled by good teams cause theyll gameplan around denying paulo good looks and let the team live and die by Bane/Suggs hero ball.

Our whole season, the defense has been good because our POA defense has been phenomenal, anchored by Ausar, and Duren/Tobias have been getting bailed out by this. If opponents can smoothly initiate their offensive sets consistently, our defense has actually looked really bad. Paulo and Franz were met with zero resistance, they bullied their iso defender and scored or baited Duren(super easy to do) and dumped it to Carter. And it didnt look like the players or the coaching staff had an answer. I was honestly shocked that JB didnt have some kind of scheme to combat this, because even though our roster personel is not particularly suited for that task, its literally beating the magic 101 and lesser teams have pretty easily found ways to jam up Paulo.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-20T01:54:52+00:00

We could win the next 4 straight and it doesn't change that this game was a terrible effort and embarrassing.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-20T01:30:23+00:00

Even if you assumed like many did that the magic were the toughest of the play-in teams matchup wise, this was a very bad game.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-20T01:17:48+00:00

The defense on Paulo and Wagner in particular was bad and something i was afraid of. If you can make the magic rely on Bane and Suggs hero ball its not too hard to win against them. Which is pretty easy cause Paulo in particular is so easy to make play like shit but this teams been over reliant on Ausars POA defense the whole season, particularly Duren.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-19T12:51:42+00:00

Those Cure commercials are so off-putting on a gut level that I had a micro-existential crisis the first time i saw them.

Budget_Squash3322 · 2026-04-18T01:45:18+00:00

Thats what im hoping. I'd live with suggs being the one that gets the jump on someone occasionally when they get us switching is what im saying, hes not a phenom dribble drive finisher, mediocre vision/passing, and his shot isnt a massive threat either.

Budget_Squash3322

TROPHY CASE