Hoops Tonight - NBA Team Rankings: Why Orlando Magic & Paolo Banchero are poised for BIG leap - podcast episode cover

Hoops Tonight - NBA Team Rankings: Why Orlando Magic & Paolo Banchero are poised for BIG leap

Sep 15, 202332 min
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Episode description

Jason Timpf continues his ranking of the top 20 teams in the NBA heading into the 2023-24 season with No. 18, the Orlando Magic. After Paolo Banchero’s standout rookie season, the collection of young up-and-coming stars on the Magic are poised to take a big jump in the 2023-24 season. #volume

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Speaker 1

The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume, Havy Thursday, everybody. I hope all of you guys are having a great week so far. We are live on AMP, so if you're watching on YouTube, we're listening on the podcast feeds. Don't forget that AMP is the very first place that you guys can get these shows. Continuing our power rankings today with number eighteen the Orlando Magic. And then I have four mail bag questions for the end of the show as well. You guys are the Drill.

Follow me on Twitter at underscore json lt. Don't forget to subscribe to The Volume's YouTube channel. You can find this also on our podcast feed under Hoops Tonight. And I need mail bag questions, drop them in the YouTube comments. We'll be hitting those at the end of every show. Moving forward, all right, let's talk some basketball. So recap

of the offseason for the Orlando Magic. They lost Bull Bull signed with the Phoenix Suns, and then through the draft they added Anthony Black, a super versatile guard out of Arkansas. Not much of a score shot just four for thirteen in ISO situations last year. Not much of a jump shooter forty eight percent effective field goal percentage in catching shoots and forty one percent in effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots last year. But

he's pretty good at everything else. He's like a Swiss army knife at the guard position. He's got good frame for that position. He's about sixty six, I think, with about a six to eight six nine wingspan, so he's got really good length, which allows him to be an impact player on the defensive end of the floor in a way that a lot of guards can't, and also gives him the ability to see over the top of the defense and to make passes that a lot of

other smaller guards can struggle with. He's really really good at everything aside from creating his own shot, and I think that instantaneously makes him a really interesting player in the future in the long run. Alongside the likes of Franz Wagner and Pala Boncaro, they also drafted Jet Howard one Howard Son out of Michigan, a scoring wing. His good shooter. He converted spot up possessions at one point one to one points per possession last year, which is excellent.

Shot fifty seven percent in effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jumpers sixty percent. When he was unguarded as a shot maker, he was forty eight percent in effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots, which is amazing for a young player, forty one percent on floaters as well. He was also a seventy first percentile pick and roll play makers er a point nine to four points per possession, something I noticed on tape this morning.

Just does a really good job of using the roleman. He's methodical and patient, makes use of the roleman rolling to the basket, and because he's got a good floater and a good pull up jump shot, that makes him a dynamic score in pick and roll situations. But these are guys that are long term prospects for the Orlando Magic, right They've already got some young guys that are ready to go right now, and so they needed a veteran option to come in and provide some leadership and experience

in the locker room. So they signed Joe Inglesh's very good secondary ball handler and a very good off ball player, things that I think are gonna help the Magic a lot. He was one point one to two points per possession in two hundred and fifty eight pick and rolls last year for the Bucks. That's like ridiculously good. So he's going to run second side action really good. Just does a good job of getting downhill and patiently waiting for the defense to leave an opening and making the correct pass.

He also shot fifty seven percent in effective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots last year and sixty nine percent effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots last year on high volume on seventy attempts in just that small sample size with the Milwaukee Bucks. Now, it used to be a much better defender back in the days when he was with the Utah Jazz, but he will do his job within a defensive scheme, and they've got more athletes on the floor that can help

cover the ground. So I love him as a veteran presence in that locker room. And I thought that was a really smart pickup. So the depth chart as of right now looks like a guard. They're gonna have Markel Foltzcary Harris, Jalen Suggs, Anthony Black and Cole Anthony and at the forwards Pala Moncaro Franz Wagner, Jonathan Isaac, Joe Ingles, and Jet Howard and then at the center position Wendell

Carter Junior and Mo Wagner Goga Bitadze. I also expect to see some Palo at center this season as well as a backup center, especially when guys like Mo Wagner

are out with injury. You know, one of the big things that I noticed when I was watching the World Cup was that Palo actually seems to do pretty good banging with other centers and getting defensive rebounds, better than you would expect for a young ford And you know, I remember when I watched him at Summer League last year in person, that was one of the biggest things that stood out to me was just how damn big Pala Boncaro is And so I'd like to see him

play a little bit of backup center this year as well. Starting lineup in all likelihood, based on what we saw last year, will be Markel Foltz at the one, Gary Harris at the two, Franz Wagner at the three, Palamoncaro at the four, and Wendell Carter Junior at the five. So on offense last year, they were not good. They were twenty sixth an offensive rating. You're gonnaee a lot bad numbers here and something to keep in mind kind of to frame this all, this is what the Orlando

Magic were. I have them up at eighteen this year because I expect them to take a leap this year. You know, again, like this is this is the team that the twenty fifth best record in basketball last year, and I have them at eighteenth in my power ranking, so I'm expecting them to improve significantly. But let's take a look just to identify where their area's opportunity of

opportunity are. What they were like last year, So they were twenty sixth in offensive rebounding or excuse me, offensive rating. They did not shoot the ball very well. They were twenty fifth and threes made per game twenty fourth and three point percentage twenty second in spot up efficiency, so they didn't attack closeouts very well either. Paalo was a big part of that. He shot just twenty nine percent. He shot below thirty percent from three on four attempts

per game. And then as a team, they're not a good pull up jump shooting team. They were twenty seventh in efficiency on pull up jump shots with just a forty four percent effective field wal percentage. So obviously, when it comes to slow down half court offense. You need to be able to have guys that are capable of knocking down pull up jump shots when teams pack the paint, and then when you kick out to shooters on the weak side, they need to be able to make shots

and attack closeouts. They're not good at those particular things, and so they're obviously going to struggle in half court offense. But they also struggled with rim finishing. They were the fifth best team at getting to the rim according to Synergy, but only the twenty fifth best team and actually converting rim attempts into points. And so as it really breaks down their team that kind of like gets a lot of shots but just can't actually finish them, and so

that's going to be something as a team. As their skill development improves, as they learn to finish plays better, their offensive rating will climb. I don't expect them to jump from twenty sixth to tenth or anything this year, but I do expect them to jump into the top twenty this year. They are a very heavy pick and

roll team. They like to set up in horn sets, so when they get into the half court and then they'll usually run some sort of interchange with the ball handler coming out of the corner, and then one of the big men that they have at the elbows, usually Pallo and Wendell Carter Junior. One of them will actually set a screen and roll to the basket. They've run some Spain pick and roll out of that, with Wendell Carter Junior popping to the top of the key because

he can knock down threes. They're a heavy pick and roll team. They were tenth in pick and roll frequency last year. They ran about thirty seven pick and rolls per game, but they were just twenty third in pick and roll efficiency, all the same reasons we talked about earlier. Poor pull up shooting, poor spot up shooting, poor rim finishing. That's going to hurt you in a lot of cases in pick and roll. They also were the fourth worst team in the league at taking care of the basketball.

Lots of classic issues that you expect with young teams, and that ended up hurting them more on the defensive end of the four, which we'll talk about in a little bit. So as a younger team, as I look at that and I see, you know, is Paalo going to shoot twenty nine percent from three? For the rest of his care No, he's gonna improve as a shooter, right. Guys like Palo in front, are they gonna improve as pull up jump shooters? Absolutely? Like right now, Markel Foltz

is a complete non threat off the basketball. Is that something he's gonna improve at some point? Yeah? Probably right? Turning over the basketball, that's a classic young guy problem. These are all things that these kids should improve on

as they get older. And those are again, as we look at offensive ratings, like the difference between the best team in the league and the worst team in the league in offensive rating is like, you know, it might be a dozen points per one hundred possessions, right, sometimes even less depending on the season. And so really a little bit of improvement in each of those areas could be enough to lift them from where they are to

a significantly more potent offense. But what I'd like to do right now is I'd like to take a look at each of Orlando's three primary young ball handlers and how they're progressing so far. So obviously we look at Gary Harris as an off ball shooter at the two guard. Obviously we look at Wendell Carter Junior as kind of like a pick and pop big. Right, So the uh, the primary shot creators are going to be Markel, Foltz, Franz Wagner, and Pala Bonko. So let's look at what

they accomplished last year. Start with Franz Wagner, one of the most exciting young forwards in the league. He averaged nineteen points, four rebounds, and four assists per game last year on an extremely impressive fifty nine percent true shooting for a second year player, that's unbelievable. He got a

ton of pick and roll reps last year. He ran seven hundred and fifty eight pick and rolls, and again, like, this is why I was talking about how I expect that improvement to take place, Like, these guys are just getting tons and tons of valuable reps. Right. He averaged zero point nine to eight points per possession in those seven hundred and fifty eight pick and rolls. That's really not bad for a twenty one year old. That's above average.

That's good production for a young shot creator. Classic pick and roll play making. Franz is a little bit more methodical. He likes to pick up his dribble and take long steps into the lane using his size and take that extra step to get the defense to collapse a little bit further. Excellent passer, actually making those cross court passes,

great at getting to the rim and finishing there. He made three point three shots per game in the restricted area last year on sixty five percent, which is again, really really good for a young forward. And my guess is that when he gets into his mid twenties, he's going to be at about, you know, seventy percent in those situations and maybe even closer to four restricted area makes per game. He's got a ton of potential in

the long run, and he's already really really good. He did struggle in ISO last year zero points seventy four points per possession, one hundred and seventeen possessions. That's something you'll have to improve. It was pretty good in the post though, one point zero five points per possession on thirty eight post ups. Went back and watched most of

those this morning. Very few of them are like your traditional like Lebron James Ford post ups where he's taken a bunch of back down dribbles and manipulating the defense. Franz is just really good with deep seals and duccans and identifying when he's got a small defender on him, just getting really good deep post position and then just

catching and going up and finishing right. He's also are really good at creating a big target when defenders try to front him, so a lot of times smaller defenders will front him in the post, He'll turn and seal create a nice high target so the guy can throw the over the top pass and he can catch and easily finish at the rim. One point zero five points per possession is very good for a post player, and he does that mostly on quick core, quick catching and

finishing around the basket. I expect a big leap out of Franz Wagner this year, and that will be the biggest uptick and overall ability offensively for this Magic team in my opinion. To give you guys an idea, I expect. As a matter of fact, I think it's almost an absolute certainty that Franz Wagner is going to average twenty five and five next year. He's going to enter into

that twenty five and five club. To give you an idea, only fifteen players in the entire NBA last year averaged at least twenty points, five rebounds and five assists per game. I actually think he's gonna finish closer to twenty two to six and six. I think we're gonna get a really, really impressive season out of Franz Wagner. And he just came off of yet another really impressive performance in the

Feeble World Cup. He averaged seventeen points per game. He had twenty two against Team USA, forty points on forty one pick and rolls, ISOs and post ups, so static shot creation was good once again. I think he's poised for a huge year. Palo Mooncaro averaged twenty points, seven rebounds, and four assists in his rookie season. Fifty three percent for shooting. Obviously not good, but that's what you expect from a young player. Struggled in pick and roll in ISO,

but was amazing in post up situations. One hundred and ninety four points on one hundred and seventy two post ups including passes. That's one point one to three points per possession. Among the thirty one players in the NBA last year that ran at least one hundred and fifty post ups. Paalo finished fifth in efficiency. That's an amazing accomplishment for a young player. Starts with him just being big as all hell. He's so big that he's just a pain to deal with fighting for position on the block.

From there, he's a willing passer, has a really devastating drop step. He's not a guy that likes to take shots over the top in the post right now, like he doesn't take a lot of hook shots. His turnaround jumpers just flat out inaccurate at this point. It probably will be a lot better in the long run. But what he does is he catches and he takes aggressive steps towards the baskets, a lot of up and unders, a lot of step throughs, a lot of drop steps,

and aggressive moves towards the rim. He's also a willing passer in that situation. What he'll do in a lot of cases is he'll take a drop step towards the baseline and just throw a hard pump fake. You'll throw that hard pump fake to get the defense to kind of collapse on him, and then he'll throw an overhand, two hand skip pass to like a shooter in the slot on the opposite side or in the corner. He's a very very willing passer out of the post as well.

To give you an idea. Despite not having a reliable hook shot and despite not having an accurate turnaround jump shot, he shot fifty one percent on his own shot attempts out of the post last year. That's a huge part of how he was such a devastating post up weapon, and I think in the long run he's going to be one of the best post players in the league, especially as he starts to pall Is over the top

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football for eligibility terms and responsible gambling resources. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. Eligibility and deposit restrictions apply. Biggest thing to watch with Palo is going to be his jump shot. He was good in stan still situations. Last year. He had a fifty four percent effective field goal percentage on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots, which is solid. Obviously a great shooter. There is going to be over sixty percent, but fifty four percent is livable.

That means you can't just leave him completely wide open, right, But when you disrupt him, he's gonna miss. He was twenty eight percent affective field goal percentage on catch and shoot jump shots that were guarded, and he was under forty percent on pull up jump shots. So he needs to improve his handle and impro of his jump shot to be more successful in ice own pick and roll situations and spot up situations. And then obviously it's over top, over the top shot making in the post. But I

expect him to make those improvements. He's very, very young, he's only played one NBA season. Give him time. He's going to develop those things. He's also a candidate to jump into that twenty five and five group this year, although I think it's a lot less likely than Franz. The last guy I want to take a look at his Markel Foltz, former number one pick. He averaged fourteen points, four rebounds, and six assists last year on fifty six

percent true shooting. It's also was top twenty in the league and steals last year with one and a half per game. The most impressive part of his offensive game last year was his pull up jump shooting. He shot forty six percent in effective field goal percentage on pull up jump shots, but he didn't. He barely took any pull up threes, so he actually shot forty four percent in like legit field goal percentage on pull up jump shots. He makes almost half of his mid range jump shots.

He's got this nasty like hesitation dribble in his left hand where he just does that like hard heavy step left handed hesitation like he's gonna drive and then he'll just rise up and shoot. He actually draws a lot of fouls in that situation as well. But that deadly pull up jump shot is the genesis of most of his success as a shot creator in the NBA. Right now. Can't shoot off the catch. It's a big area of opportunity for him. He's twenty eight percent on catch and

shoot threes last year. That's not good. Zero point nine points per spot up possession. That's not good. Needs to figure that out, just because on a team that's going to have the ball in Fronza's hands and poal his hands a lot, he needs to be guarded. He needs to make himself a threat. So I'd like to see him improve in catch and shoot situations or at least attacking closeouts. We've seen guys like Dwayne Wade be really bad three point shooters, but average over a point per

possession in spot ups by attacking closeout successfully. Just in general, markl Foltz is gonna have to improve in that area. But the pull up jumper and his ability to get to the rim extremely well for guard if turned him into a reliable shot creator. One point zero two points per possession and pick and roll last year that's sixty fourth percentile. One point one to four points per possession in ISO that's eighty sixth percentile. He shot fifty five

percent from the field in isolation situations last year. He's just a big, strong athlete who's got a physical advantage over most guards. He's going to hit hard dribbles to the basket and get his shoulder into your chest and then pull back for little floaters and jump shots. Every once in a while, I'll go to that hesitation pull up jump shot that he's making at a really high rate, and then he can get to the rim and finish really well. Two point seven makes per game in the

restricted area at sixty five percent. Those are both excellent marks for a young NBA guard. And then he's also a very good passer as well. Again, the key with him. Long term is going to be whether or not he can make himself a threat off the ball to play alongside Palo in fronts. But the continuing development of those three is what makes me so excited about this team. The lineup just makes sense. You've got a stretch big and Wendell Carter. He was up over thirty six percent

from three on four attempts per game last year. You know about how a stretch big can cause problems for the defense by using the rim protector and his desire to stay at the rim against them. Right, Gary Harris is a knockdown three point shooter. And then you've got these three shot creators, and all of them are very different, right, Like Paalo's like this bully ball forward who's posting people up and punishing people at the rim. Franz is this big,

playmaking forward that's methodical in his downhill approach. And then you've got Markel Foltz, who's like kind of a classic athletic downhill guard. Right, So they're all very different. They all can attack in different ways. They have a ton of offensive versatility and in theory in the long run, not necessarily this year, but all five of those guys will be able to shoot, all five of those guys will be able to dribble and pass, and all five

of those guys will be able to defend. And that's the recipe for championship caliber roster in the long run. But let's talk about the defensive end of the four. They were eighteenth and defensive rating last year, which is very good for a young team, but they were actually thirteenth and half court defense. They were one of the better half court defenses in the league with all that length and athleticism. Right, It was the transition situations that

killed them. They gave up the fifth month most transition possessions in the league, in large part because they turned the basketball over too much. That's something that you'll see them improve with their young ball handlers getting more experience. Their half court defense was solid because they're huge and athletic. They were the fifth best team in the league at guarding the paint last year. They were a very good

rebounding team. As matter of fact, the Magic gave up the third fewest offensive rebounds in the league per one hundred possessions, and they gave up just two hundred and two putbacks, which was the fifth best mark in the league. So closing out defensive positions with defensive rebounds will help you a lot defensively. In protecting the paint will help

you a lot defensively. Their biggest downsides where they give up the fifth most made threes per game in the NBA, so they did not guard the three point line very well, too much overhelping, not good enough in rotation, and then turnovers. Anytime you turn over the basketball, you compromise your defense by giving up transition opportunities. So if they clean up transition and they guard the three point line better, I think they have the potential to crack the top ten

defensively this year. Those are all young player issues. Those are things they can fix. I think the Magic are going to finish around tenth in defensive rating this year, and I think they're going to finish close to twentieth in offense. Those improvements, going from eighteenth to tenth on defense and going from twenty sixth or twenty whatever they were on offense to twentieth in offense, I think that's

going to push them closer to five hundred. I think they're going to finish around forty one and forty one or forty and forty two or forty two and forty right around that range. And I think they're going to make the play in tournament as a nine zeed or a ten zeed, kind of similar to what OKC was last year. I kind of see this as the year before the year that they become really good, and I think they're going to be a good basketball team in

this particular season. All Right, we have we had to do this video earlier today because of a scheduling conflict. So I had our lead producer, Ryan, who's a legend in the game, I had him put together four fake mailbag questions for you guys based on current NBA storyline. So the first fake question from Ryan, Hey, Jason, do you think the load management mandate will make a difference?

So those of you guys who heard the NBA came out with some new principles for a load management basically, if I don't know them perfectly off the top of my head, but the gist of it is nationally televised games, you can't rest more than one of your stars without facing a fine, right, And what's interesting about that is like, in that particular situation, if you're gonna rest one star, you might as well rest both, right, because like you

have an infinitely smaller chance of winning the game compared to if all your stars play, And so why not buy yourself the rest if you're going to get a loss, right, And so I the question if the question is do I think load management's the new load management mandate will make a difference, I think yes and no. I think

it will help on the nationally televised games. I think if you're on the fence where you've got one guy who's a little banged up and one guy who's healthy, you'll be like, let's just play everybody, right, because we we'll try to win this game, and then the league pass game two nights later will rest both of the guys in that situation, right, Like, I do think you'll see more stars play in nationally televised games, but there will still be teams that try to circumvent that, right

because of the injury report, Like if it's not rest but it's actually like rehab, like I'm sitting a player because he's hurt. I think that will be a loophole that some teams will try to use to rest their stars. And then I do think teams will still rest a ton of their stars in non nationally televised games, So the overall problem with star participation I don't think will be altered all that much, but it will shift away

from nationally televised games to your league pass games. And that's major value because most of the league pass games are gonna be lower profile matchups, whereas the nationally televised games are gonna be you know, good teams playing good teams. So it just makes more sense to do it that way. But to be honest, like this and that all NBA mandate, right, so like we also know that you have to play at least sixty five games to make an all NBA team.

I do think that the nationally the nationally televised games rules and the sixty five games rule will help, but only a little. And the only real fix for this in the long run is urgency. You need to add urgency to the games if you I've said this before in the show, but I would shrink the season to

sixty six games. If you did that, you would guarantee there's no back to backs in the schedule, and you'd guarantee that every single week you'd have at least one stretch with two consecutive days off, which that extra day off would help the players recover. Also, you've shortened the season by twenty percent, so each game would carry twenty percent more urgency. So the improved urgency and the increased star participation would be good for the league in the

long run. In the short run, it would obviously cost them money, but in the long run, with the improved urgency and the improved star participation, I think it'd be great for the league. They'll never do it because they're obsessed with that short term money, and I think that's a mistake because I think urgency in the NBA is at an all time low even with this mid season tournament.

So I don't think these measures are going to really solve the problem unless they make a significant change shortening the season. But it doesn't seem like that's ever gonna happen, so honestly, it's kind of hopeless. Second question from Ryan, Hey, Jason, what's taking so long on the Damian Lillard trade? Shouldn't all parties involved want this to be over? My best guess is that most of this comes down to pride from the Blazer's office. I feel like they feel like

they're getting bullied into this trade. I feel like they feel like all of the public pressure is trying to tell them to take this Miami deal, which is obviously not the best deal in a vacuum. But to me, it's just it's just disrespectful to the reality of the situation. Like, yeah, you're right, ideally you'd be able to trade Dame to any location and get the absolute perfect return. But this is not James Harden, this is not Kyrie Irving. This

is not a player who has mistreated your organization. This is not a player that is trying to take advantage of you. What's happening here is Damian Lillard, for over a decade, has given everything he can to this franchise, and now finally at a new phase when the franchise is clearly rebuilding, when he's already given them more chances than they probably deserved, He's asking for an opportunity to go where he wants to go. You owe that to him,

You owe him his preferred destination. I would totally get where you're coming from if this was James Harden. Nobody, We're not going to be the next vehicle of your random trade demand to try to send you to your next super team, like, screw that. I would get that, but that's not what's going on here. What's going on here is you have a player that was incredibly loyal and devoted to this city, gave it everything he had. They're legitimately done last year, even with Damian Lillard, Jeremy Grant,

Anthony Simon's on the floor. They got their butts kicked, so like they're not, it's time to move on. Dame wants to go to Miami. Send him to Miami. You owe that to him, And Okay, are you gonna get a little bit worse return, Sure, but your future is super bright. You've got Scoot Henderson, You've got Shade and Sharp, You've got Anthony Simons. It's a great time to be

a Blazers fan. Just send him to Miami and move on that That's what I think needs to happen, and I'm hopeful that that will happen in the next couple of weeks. Third question, Hey, Jason, are you actually buying Lebron will play in the Olympics next summer. I buy that he wants to, but so much can change before then. Obviously,

like the frame of mind, completely changes you. Uh, Like this year, Lebron was dealing with a banged right, like get a foot injury, So like, what nagging injury is he gonna be dealing with at the end of next season. That could disrupt that issue, right, I think that, you know, It's like it reminds me of when Lebron said he

was gonna participate in the dunk contest. I don't doubt that he wanted to in the moment when he said that, But it's just there's a realistic you know, there's a there's a realistic side of it, which is that when we get to the point where that decision actually has to be made, it's a different frame of mind. Your

body's in a different state. Chances are I would say there's probably less than a fifty percent chance that Lebron plays, not by much, I'd say it's roughly a coin flip, but I'd give it a slightly better chance that Lebron does not play in the Olympics. He actually said something similar, not quite as dramatic, but he said something similar before the Tokyo Games about how he wanted to play and then he ended up not playing. So that goes to

show you how that frame of mind can change. I do think that any Olympic team led by Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Lebron James is winning the damn tournament. Like that's for sure happening. I've talked about it. But like if you get Anthony Davis, Lebron James, Steph and you know, throw maybe it's Kawhi, maybe it's Devin Booker, you know, maybe it's Jason Tatum, whatever it is that you put in that spot, they're winning the damn thing. That's too much on ball off ball skill, that's too much size

and athleticism, that's too much defensive versatility. They're gonna win the damn thing. But it's just a question of whether or not they can get that roster actually out there. All right, final question, Hey, Jason, this is a this classic Ryan. Isn't it incredible that the ultimate story of redemption has redeemed the real life career of Hayden Christensen. So Dave Filoni was in his bag last night with Ahsoka episode five. We got epic flashbacks to Anakin Skywalker

and his Clone Wars armor. We got to see early Clone Wars Anakin. We got to see late Clone Wars Anakin right beforeward to sixty six, we got to see young Ahsoka in two different iterations, right, Like it was just an epic Star Wars moment. I never understood the hate of Hayden Kristensen. I understand that there were some older Star Wars fans who didn't really like him in

the prequel trilogies. The prequel trilogies weren't perfect, but they were mostly good, I thought, And like, was Anakin's character a little bit annoying? Yeah, but that's what his character was. Like, you gotta remember what you were asking Hayden Christensen to do was to play an angsty teenager who didn't have control over his emotions. Like that was literally the job. And so of course that's an unlikable thing, right, Like

we all were angsty teenagers when we were younger. Right, But how many of you guys now encounter a teenager in some situation and you hear them talk and you're like, oh my gosh, you like you clearly are you don't understand how the world works, Like you need to be grounded and understand that this too shall pass, and you need to be a grown up about stuff, right, like, every grown up gets a little annoyed by juvenile behavior, so obviously you were gonna be a little annoyed that

Hayden Christensen was acting angsty and emotional and unstable as a teenager. That was his job. Actually, I thought Hayden Christensen did a really nice job playing Anakin in the prequel trilogy. But it is nice to see through Ahsoka and through the Obi Wan series to see him get, you know, kind of like a moment to shine again. Of like Ryan's referring to it as redemption here, we can call it whatever we want to call it, but I think it's cool to see Hayden Christensen get the

court of public opinion back in his favor. I also am super super excited for episode six of Ahsoka. We're going to meet Grand Admiral Thron in another galaxy. It's gonna be dope. For those of you guys who don't know already, I do a Star Wars podcast with my buddy Luke. We actually just dropped an episode breaking down and reacting to episode five of Ahsoka. You can find that wherever you get your podcast under two Sons Podcasts or on YouTube under two Sons podcast that's Two Suns podcast.

All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys supporting the show. We will be back tomorrow with number seventeen the volume

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