Listen I understand exactly just how crazy it is to go ahead and react to the second scrimmage back after a virus stoppage but let me tell you, I am going to fully commit to this thing. All the problems we have seen the Magic have this season were multiplied and perpetuated in this first half of this scrimmage. They couldn’t shoot a jumper whatsoever, and then beyond that they had absolutely zero communication when it came to defending the rim. Everything it seemed like was working to trick the magic and free up the lane for dunks and layups. The only thing the magic really had going for them is the Lakers only wanted to try for the last 5 minutes of the game. It allowed the magic to make it seem like there was a reason for people to show up today. Honestly, I mean I understand players have to find their rhythm and that is what the scrimmages are for, but how many times do we have to go through the same dumb before we figure out that the rhythm the magic are looking for they will NEVER FIND! I mean my word we go down the same streets literally every time, somehow get the same results that lead to the same hole every game and I’ll be god darned if we aren’t strapped up, ready to just get right back to it all again very quickly. What is great too is the NBA playoffs are completely about how well you are able to adapt and how quickly, the magic shows 0 signs of being able to make any adjustments proficient to anything so at least I can get to where I can enjoy everyone else’s seasons objectively pretty quickly.

After two days of being able to watch basketball teams that are trying as hard as they can 20% of the time, or then they have out the really fresh faces. I will sit here and be completely honest. I am bursting at the seams with excitement like you would not believe, and honestly I almost feel like I can sit here and say who is going to bring home this championship. I probably won’t tell you as I am going to be hitting the lakes this weekend, but I am sure I will reveal it soon enough. 

I feel as if I have tweeted enough to leave it out of this blog but honestly it is absolutely astounding just how good of shooters every team has seemed to become. Everyone is pulling jumpers with the most astounding confidence and this is everything I had hoped for coming out of the break. Once the lights are really on I think the recipe has really been cooked up to get majorly competitive and come with a lot of different scoring options and at will. Not to say the defense isn’t going to be turned up in these upcoming games but let’s be honest, it is a lot easier to work on offense in down time than it is defense. Especially in the time of a virus. 

What is killing me at this point is the fact that I actually missed the Magic’s first game due to just not being prepared for everything going on. 2:30 is carved out today though and I couldn’t be more excited to see exactly what I may be looking to expect for my future. Although I am still very very skeptical about us getting out and playing these games as if this virus affects the scope of the league for the future in any way, nothing we do here is going to be worth it whatsoever. I am very much excited to be able to sit on my ass doing nothing of my own personally, but getting worked up at other men playing basketball. It feels so good to be back.

My bottle top is finally popping off ladies and gentleman. It is here, it is back, it is getting ready to go, and so am I. I am so excited for late July. NBA league pass has been such an incredible gift to have in this dark time, but knowing that there is going to be real live action back playing towards that same beautiful goal again I can’t hardly contain my excitement. The only drama we’ve even had since this whole thing has started is the fact that the blazers wanted to make their path to the playoffs easier this year. I have been absolutely starved for NBA action as honestly, what else do people look forward to? 

The NBA season although it’s not in its entirety, it is here to give us the blessings we ever so need. Especially with all going on in the world, it will be so incredibly nice to have some incredibly strong voices for the much needed societal changes back on a platform every night where their voice can be given another microphone to be projected to the world. This time in the world we have ahead of us may seem scary to some, it is the spark this world has deserved for so many years. We are actually seeing work towards an actual true equality that is stated in the constitution and it’s an incredibly impactful, and important time of life. 

The story of last night for the magic is one that is very simple to tell. There were a lot of guys on the magic team last night who really could barley get their shit going. TRoss came out firing and he got a couple to go, Inwundu played pretty well the offense just doesn’t find him with the guys that he gets to find himself with on the floor, but MCW all night was locked in, working hard, and absolutely killing. The man was so efficient with his shot, head was up on D with a couple of steals, but most importantly when the run for the magic needed him most, he made the plays needed to get it alive and keep the momentum going. MCW was getting his hands on the ball I’m so many different situations especially rebounding wise in the 3rd quarter and it’s just something so magical from a guard. Probably the most shocking thing last night is how easy JV was able to make it look. It’s usually the guards who give it to us all night but if I’m not mistaken that’s his second time this year just making it look too damn easy, Vucci is way too damn soft.

So obviously last night was a fantastic win for the magic, that I won’t even begin to start to twist and play with. The Rockets have been on a tear since they committed to small ball. The magic found a lot of open shots yesterday with rubs, screens, and really just generally a lot of two man action. Here is the fun part though, still being negative after a good win. Clifford is horrible, he just kept running the same rotation he came with as if it was a close game. There is 0 reason bamba doesn’t come away with 20 minutes in a blow out like that from the jump. The magic has 71 points on the board, with a plus 20 point lead. It makes absolutely 0 sense how even with 4 minutes left in the fourth the starters are still getting the burn. Clifford yet again seems like he goes through a game where not a single new though comes through his head, he simply is just living off whatever he pre determined what was going to make him most successful before the season even started, it’s quite amusing at this point honestly.

After the Sixers went ahead and embarrassed the Eastern conference yet again I started doing some thinking. I think the magic are bad simply because of where they are. The East is trash! Giannis has pretty much the same team we’ve been talking about for lebron while he was on Cleveland and after that honestly you have teams full of guys who are either all good at the same thing or just not good. Teams who struggle with floor spacing, pace, defense, and even coaching come from the east, sometimes all 4. The teams out west are scoring the ball well, making things very competitive as a league and dudes are showing up night in and night out. Anymore you don’t know what game you are getting from guys and when the bucks try to represent the east this year and we watch Giannis get schemed out of the finals, at least I can say I knew this was coming from a long time ago.

After the Sixers went ahead and embarrassed the Eastern conference yet again I started doing some thinking. I think the magic are bad simply because of where they are. The East is trash! Giannis has pretty much the same team we’ve been talking about for lebron while he was on Cleveland and after that honestly you have teams full of guys who are either all good at the same thing or just not good. Teams who struggle with floor spacing, pace, defense, and even coaching come from the east, sometimes all 4. The teams out west are scoring the ball well, making things very competitive as a league and dudes are showing up night in and night out. Anymore you don’t know what game you are getting from guys and when the bucks try to represent the east this year and we watch Giannis get schemed out of the finals, at least I can say I knew this was coming from a long time ago.

Great win from the Magic last night whatever. It is an absolute crime what is being done to the young guys that the magic have. It is such bull shit Mo Bamba is getting 7 minutes. Kelle comes away with 24?! We have some very healthy very fruitful looking young pieces and these guys are hardly getting any experience that they can take with them to the future. Inwundu got his first real look of the season honestly purely because a starter was out. This dude should already be having 15 a night under his belt no matter what. As much as the product on the floor has been a heaping pile of shit, what we are doing to ensure that what we have in the future isn’t, is also a heaping pile of shit. No thought process, we have stuck to the same plan this whole season and it’s gotten our teeth kicked in. The magic end everything on the perimeter, they give even guard in the league the chance to showcase how talented they are, and at the end of the day if a couple threes don’t fall early all life leaves the team. It’s the saddest season I’ve seen in so damn long and honestly it does nothing but kill me.

I tell ya although the song was the exact same that it has always been, it was refreshing to get a little bit of a different dance. For them to go to Aaron Gordon for the last shot absolutely shocked the hell out of me and tickled me all at the same time! Need those hands to be seeing all the opportunity possible. It just sucks we give up great games to guys who wanna shoot it primarily. Duncan was pretty active running and moving off screens but we just made it fairly easy for Olynyk to just too crazy. The push and the fire while it seems like it takes a while before it even shows up, burns out faster than a napkin on fire. I am not sure why the lack of motivation exists whether it be because they just keep getting their ass kicked of what, at this point though it’s incredibly noticeable and starting to become a huge problem. Much like how who the head coach of the team is a huge problem. Honestly all year it has been the simplest of things, whether it be taking too many threes, not having guys who can even win a quarter inside, or just lack of ability to create for ourselves and others for the most part, these things can be worked around with schemes and plans, but honestly much like I enjoy, I truly believe Clifford is here for the weather.

Honestly if I were smart. I’ve already bitched and moaned about everything 10x over in other blogs and I could easily just go copy and paste those words over to here and just get extra sleep, but people deserve better. Clifford sucks ass, it’s obvious, we aren’t developing guys that we could be taking to the future, the minutes rotations are so damn screwed at this point I think he’s truly subbing at random. We have big men who do nothing but look for the long ball, get bullied inside, and who are slow up and down the court. The one consistent thing the magic have been able to do this season is they give up big games to guards all the time. Last night no different with Gary Trent getting his nba legs under him last night. Don’t even need to talk about CJ I was tweeting about him killing the magic since about 2 in the afternoon. Honestly, at this point, getting to the finish line watching all these games almost feels impossible. Never have I seen a basketball team that just won’t adapt and or atleast try a new rotation to get out dull streaks before, but Steve Clifford I guess you can say is something special.