DBAHO

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Aug 11, 2012 -> 11:57 AM) They wouldn't be anywhere close to 6th or 7th place with Dwight gone. They might have been worse than the Bobcats regardless. I was referring to if the Magic just got Bynum in a deal for Howard. To me, that'd be a 6th-7th placed team in the East with the talent he'd have around him. People are going to see how valuable Howard is now (which is ironic considering all the Rose vs. Howard MVP talk a year and a half ago) as Orlando will probably go from the 5th best defensive team in the NBA to the 5th worst team.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Aug 11, 2012 -> 11:31 AM) It's going to be A LOT longer than 2014 before they're back. They pretty much burned this team to the ground. Cap space probably won't be that useful in the next couple of years since it's going to be a tough sell to get guys to join that roster. They're going to need to pull a Thunder and hit homers on more than one lottery pick. I suppose one could argue Florida is an attractive FA destination due to the weather, but they haven't signed a real stud (don't tell me Rashard, that was all money) since Hill and McGrady and lost every star they did have. I think Orlando is still a pretty attractive place for a free agent, mainly because of Florida having no state income tax and the good weather as you've said, but obviously it's not a Big Market team. But the Magic haven't had the cap room to sign max FA players since the Rashard Lewis signing, and that just shows the ineptiude of Otis Smith as a GM, who loved forking out the MLE to the likes of Mickael Pietrus every off-season. I would rather blow it up and rebuild from the ground up than be stuck in 6th - 7th place mediocrity for the next 5 years, and Magic fans pretty much agree with this scenario. They want to do exactly what OKC and San Antonio do, build through the draft, and Orlando has been horrible at that for a long - time. The only good 1st round picks they've had in the last 10 years are Howard, Nelson and Redick.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 11, 2012 -> 11:08 AM) The Bulls are literally unable to take on salary in a trade unless the Korver trade exemption works. How much is that trade exception, about $5M I take it? Think I read somewhere, the Magic have a $17.8M trade exception to use if they wanted to now as well. Also, if the Magic waiver Hedo and Al Harrington next season, they will have $42.6M used in their salary cap (Nelson $8.6, Affalo $7.75, Davis $6.4M) with Hedo counting $6M and Harrington $3.6M. That doesn't include Redick with a $9M cap hold. http://www.orlandopinstripedpost.com/2012/...-magic-salaries

Also I think if the Bulls wanted J.J Redick, they could probably have him for a future 1st right now.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Aug 11, 2012 -> 06:23 AM) Meh, I think it's just bad pieces on the interested teams (the Nets giving away the #6 pick certainly didn't help). The Nuggets got way more for Melo in the same situation, the Hornets got more for Paul (who didn't opt-in for this year until after the trade). Hell, the Jazz got more for Williams, and they didn't trade him that much earlier. Yep think you're pretty much bang on there. I don't see much point in keeping Al Harrington around, would hope we could deal him for a future 1st someshow. Would have liked to get Kenneth Faried instead in the deal, but I'm not sure that would have worked salary cap wise. As I said before, Houston getting Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik really screwed us big time. What you have to remember as well, if Howard opted-out of his player option back in March, he walks away, and the Magic would be stuck with the likes of J-Rich and Duhon still. Would have set them back another 2-3 years. At least now, the Magic can reload for 2014.

QUOTE (bmags @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 11:39 PM) I thought they might go for getting absolutely nothing back, but nothing all on expiring contracts. I do NOT get taking that package and money back. Start from scratch with a s*** ton of money and firsts? I GET IT! This package? NO f***IN CLUE The problem is, what teams are actually out there that will offer nothing but expiring contracts (enough to balance out a trade salary cap wise) and offer at least 3-4 1st round picks, and also take back the contracts of Jason Richardson and Chris Duhon? Brooklyn isn't an option because of Brook Lopez. No way do I do that trade when he's on a 4/60 contract.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 10:52 PM) The Magic are seemingly also making it known that they didn't trust Bynum's knees. I think they've seen how untradeable Amare Stoudemire is ATM also, and don't want to be stuck in a worst case scenario with Bynum as well. Hennigan is basically just going to model exactly what Oklahoma City did when they first moved. Trade your best players for picks and cheap players e.g Ray Allen for pick #5, and rebuild and hope you end up with a stud in the draft like Kevin Durant.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Aug 10, 2012 -> 02:30 PM) I'll ask again. Why the f*** would you not just take Bynum and then hope to sign him? It isn't like Bynum would have very many other options next year. I would rather have told Dwight to f*** off, not traded him this offseason and then not agree to sign and trade him next year unless it was for a legitimately good package and see what he does. Bynum pretty much notified Orlando's brass that he wasn't going to re-sign there long - term, and that teams such as Houston or Cleveland were more realistic. So basically in July, Hennigan knocked back this trade from the Nets; Brook Lopez (4/60) Kris Humphries (1/9) MarShawn Brooks 4 unprotected 1st's FOR Howard J-Rich Chris Duhon Earl Clark From what I hear now, the Magic will be dumping Duhon and Clark's contracts on the Lakers for multiple 2nd rd picks as well. This is going to be a really long post, because I'm going to ramble for a bit, so apologies in advance. Hennigan's thought process has basically been when the new salary cap / luxury tax rules come in 2014, Orlando HAS to be in an excellent cap situation with young players on cheap contracts and multiple 1st round picks. Affalo (who I think is an excellent defensive SG BTW) is on a 5/43 deal which has got 4 more years left. Jameer Nelson is on a 3/24 deal where the 3rd season is partially guaranteed, while Big Baby Davis has about 3/20 left on his deal. So that's about $22M in 3 players and then you'll have the likes of Nicholson and Harkless on their rookie deals etc. I think Hennigan basically wants to turn this team into the 2001 Heart and Hustle team, the team Orlando had the season before they signed Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady to max free agent contracts in the next off-season. To do that, he placed a premium more on dumping long - term contracts than getting back better talent in return. I like the Affalo and Harkless additions. Affalo is certainly an upgrade on J-Rich, is he worth a $8M a season? That's debatable, but I think he's a bonafide starting 2 guard in the NBA, no question. Harkless could be the next Igoudala, he's very raw in terms of his offensive skill-set, but the Magic now have their potential starting forwards for the next 10 years, if Harkless and Nicholson can develop into good players. Vukcevic will get heavy minutes at center, simply because Davis is terrible defensively. I don't know if he's anything more than a backup center in this league though. Getting the 3 1st rounders is good, although they're all definitely lottery protected, and will probably end up being in the 20's anyways (because you would expect Denver, Los Angeles and Philly to be playoff teams for the next few seasons). Right now, it's pretty depressing to be a Magic fan. They've had argubly the 2 best centers over the past 20 years on their team, and haven't been able to build a championship winning team around either one of them. Whether or not they get another oppourtunity again, is the question. Right now, I'd want to be in TANK mode for the upcoming season, and hope we can grab Cody Zeller or Nerlens Noel with an early pick in the next draft. Unfortunately for the Magic, I think with what happened with Houston with Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin, if New York and Chicago respectively ended up matching those deals, Orlando could have gotten the Kevin Martin + 1st rounders for 2 out of Parsons, White, Lamb and the other 1st round pick whose name escapes me. In the end, with what I think Hennigan is trying to accomplish, it's a decent enough deal. Orlando certainly gets the worst talent back in terms of the deal, but again, you have to consider, if the Magic had acquired Bynum; 1 - Even if they re-sign him, is there a chance they could win a championship with him, Nelson and Davis as a core? No. 2 - If he left as a FA, what would the Magic be left with in the end for a Howard for Bynum + pieces deal?

Nice;

Love it. All the times Liriano's had our number of the years. He's actually been pretty good the last month or 2, his ERA was at 6.45 after the KC game on Jun 5 and he got it down to 4.81 before we blew that up a bit a few nights back. Getting Myers, Youkilis and Liriano for what we've given up, KW's done a damn good job on the trade front.

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_...akers-extension I'd trust SVG in a "best dressed coach" contest more than Chris Broussard though. But still, if true, it's good news for Orlando. Create a bidding war b/w LA and Houston. Whoever is willing to take on J-Rich, Duhon and Glen Davis, and give back expiring contracts and lots of 1st round picks, Howard is yours.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 15, 2012 -> 03:19 PM) Are they still going to want to pay Omer? They pretty much have to give Asik the offer sheet as it's been verbally agreed upon. Reneging on that would cause serious ramifications with agents, free agent players etc. Hoping New York match with Lin, but I doubt they will now. I tell you that Amare Stoudemire would be very happy that Felton is back with the Knicks, that's for sure.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Jul 14, 2012 -> 11:02 AM) I can't really say I'm all that familar with Gortat pre-Phoenix, but I'd be very surprised if he was as raw offensively as Asik. I can see that he was putting up a very good PER in his limited minutes. That's another issue. Barring a major injury, his minutes aren't likely to double like Gortat's did. Our two starting big men are signed for a while, and Gibson would still probably get first crack. Yeah I don't think he was certainly as raw offensively as Asik is now, but Asik is obviously a much better defensive player. The one playoff game against Philly where Dwight was suspended for too many tech's, I think that showed a lot of people what Gortat was capable of offensively when he actually got the chance to play some decent minutes. Again, I think if the Bulls are going to re-sign Asik, they'll be doing so to try and trade him down the line. The problem with that strategy, as we've seen with Orlando and Cleveland in the past 5 years, you start keeping or bringing in too many borderline assets with bad contracts, it's really going to cost you down the line, especially with the new salary cap regulations in 13-14.

I think best case scenario the Bulls are hoping Asik can develop more offensively, similiar to a career path like Marcin Gortat, who actually flourished when he became a starter (let's see how he does without Steve Nash this season though). I'm wondering if the Rockets are going to sign Asik to that offer-sheet now though, considering they're probably all in for Dwight and will have to take 2 bad contracts back as well in all likelihood to get him. As a Magic fan, I'm hoping that Asik doesn't end up in Houston.

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Jul 13, 2012 -> 09:23 AM) Except Dwight has made no indication that he's willing to sign an extension in Houston. Yes, but if he doesn't get traded to Brooklyn, going to be very hard for him to sign there unless the team he's on is willing to do a sign and trade for Brook Lopez. I think if CP3 was willing to come over, he'd stay in Houston, but that's an IF at this stage. At least Houston can take back a bad contract now also with Scola's deal not in the cap, although it would probably affect them being able to offer 2 max deals potentially.

Houston amnestied Luis Scola, which is excellent news for Orlando. They would now have the cap room to offer max deals to Howard and CP3 if they wanted to. A package of Kevin Martin, 2/3 1st rounders they just drafted, Toronto's protected 1st rounder, another lottery protected first from another team (can't remember who) and future 1st's from HOU should be good enough for both sides IMO.

Actually wondering if Portland would throw together a max deal at Brook Lopez now that they've missed out on Roy Hibbert.

Runaways by the Killers has just leaked on-line...

Welcome to Soxtalk!

If Houston offers Kevin Martin, Royce White, Jeremy Lamb, Terrence Jones, Toronto's future 1st, another 1st rounder plus the picks they acquired for Marcus Camby, I cannot see how on earth you would take Brook Lopez with a bad foot on a max contract (5/75) plus 3 late 1st rounders. Right now, they're the team who can offer Orlando the best assets. All I'm hoping for currently is that Rob Hennigan is playing New Jersey the way Masai Ujiri did with Carmelo to get NYK to offer more, which they eventually did.

QUOTE (Brian @ Jul 9, 2012 -> 07:10 AM) Poor DBAHO. Seemed like Magic fans thought they'd get a lot for Anderson. Yep we're officially in re-building mode now. That's what happens when Otis Smith puts you in cap hell I suppose. Ryan Anderson and Jeff Green are both getting 4/34 apparently, I know which one I'd certainly rather. The Hornets with Davis, Gordon and Anderson suddenly look like a potential playoff team IMO. Could be the next OKC to emerge from the doldrums potentially. Have to say I'm suprised we didn't at least get a future 1st out of this though. Ayon is cheap and will be a decent enough backup big.

Atlanta can offer Horford, Teague, 2 1st rounders for Howard now. Would prefer that over a Lopez and Brooks deal for sure.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jun 11, 2012 -> 04:57 AM) I hope you didn't leave the pub before Ireland played... Nope still here and will prob come back for France vs England in the morning.

Just watched Spain vs Italy at the Fado Irish Pub on Grand, very good result for Italy there.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 8, 2012 -> 05:45 AM) I'm not even mean enough to suggest we chip in and buy one of these for our resident magic fan. Don't forget the International Shipping also!!!