Wilbur

Am I to understand it doesn't always suck to be an FSU fan?

Henny is getting assets to attrack free agents in years to come. I wonder what he plans to do with the camels?

3 thoughts in reading the last 10 pages... 1. When evaluating what Houston and Cleveland have to offer, I think we need to keep in mind that we aren't looking for the future face of the franchise. We are looking for good role players. When Cleveland talks about having more picks, getting Parsons who can play defense on most SF and distribute the ball is, in my mind, better than getting a mid 20s first round pick which could end up being a bust. Without question Henny wants picks (for future moves), but good role players are more valuable at this point as far as I'm concerned. Let the role players play for a year or two. Get some good first round picks and then start using cap space to bring in a new face of the franchise or two and have them surrounded by talented role players. 2. RDV needs to get on the telephone to the people at Addidas and tell them that Amway wants to start selling Addidas products (no idea if they already do - if so, use the existing relationship for the following). While on the phone, tell the addidias people that if Dwight ends up in Houston with Lin, the entire China market will be clamaring for their shoes. Then sit back and see hoe long it takes for HWNSNBU to start droping hints about Dwight liking Houston. 3. The last thing this team needs is a high paid PF in return for Dwight. Especially one on a long term deal. We have BBD already. WHile I love his professional demeanor, he has a long contract and we have a 1st round pick that we need to force feed minutes at PF if we are going to tank this year. BBD can play center so that isn't a huge problem, but add another high price long term PF and we have a problem.

Looks to me like Charlotte, Houston and Cleveland are the only teams out there with future picks due them and salary cap space. Of the three, Houston seems to have the most assets by far.

That is one big a$$ dog.

I love watching Henny work. Rockets figure they will either end up with Dwight or Bynum so they don't need to improve their offer and may even be trying to squeeze us a bit given Lambs performance. Henny floats the idea of getting Cleveland involved and leaving Houston out. Cleveland has $17 million in expiring contracts and another $17 million in cap space. They have Waiters and Zeller from this years draft (it appears both have signed so if they are part of the deal we may have to wait until August 8). They have all of their own picks and they have 2013 picks from Miami, LA and Sacremento (Top 13 protected) along with a 2015 from Miami. So if your Houston you have to decide if you risk being forced to go with Lin, Marin, Lamb, Parsons, Jones and be exactly where you have been, or you improve your offer. Every move they have made thus far has been aimed at either moving up or moving down. Staying where they are does not appear to be an option.

But that's the beauty... I completely agree with Acres... but we wouldn't have over 1200 pages to read if everyone else agreed. Sit back and watch the insanity.

Logical thought has no place in this discussion. I listened to Brousard tell me on the radio this morning how the Nets was still possible. How exactly does that work? We rejected the pieces they offerred. They paid them a bunch of moeny... so now we should want them? Logic is out the window in these discussions.

Yep. JJ could be our 2nd best scoring option. I guess 'Meer is up there as well. Guaranteed top 5 here we come.

They can keep Lamb. Send me Martin, Parsons, Jones, Motiejunas (I know he can't be traded now, but make the trade staright up for Duhon), Tor#1, Dal #1 and take Dwight, Baby and Duhon. Flip Martin now for assets. Hope JRich reestablishes some value as the #1 scoring option on this team and then try to ditch him at the deadline. Let Hedo play out the year and then offer him a very lucrative front office gig if he retires. If he balks, simply buy him out.

I'm just wondering... did HWNSNBU skip the day they tought law at Yale Law School? There is obviously a contest between agent and client to see which one can leak the most information to make the other one look like idiotic. Other agents must be looking at this and laughing.

I'd rather keep a bad contract. Redick could be one of the main offensive options on this team next year. Add to it that he is expiring and you could potentially be fielding very nice offer for both he and KMart at the trade deadline. Besides, if we give up that contract, don't we have to sign someone to get to the minimum?

Appreciate the breakdown. I'd heard Jones was a tweener and assumed that meant he was too slow to play 3 and not big enough for 4. I'm a Gator and I once heard Coach Schyatt (Billy's Top Assistant now at Wymonig) talk about tempering kids expectations. It was right after Calathes headed to Greece. Larry was talking about how kids get built up by their high school coaches and their AAU coaches. "Everyone tells them they are sure fire NBA. When they get here and the don't get the minutes they want, or don't get the freedom they want, it irks them because they have this perception of their game that doesn't match the reality. For instance, during this time of year, we meet with each player individually and talk about the season that just ended, what we see for them next season and what we really need them to work on. So I'm sitting in Billy's office with Chandler Parsons. You've never met a greater kid, but Chandler at times does this thing where he tries to mask some of his self doubt by being overly confident. Anyway we talk about the season that just ended and ask him what he sees for himself next year. He says that he thinks he can be a top 20 pick at the end of his Junior year. I'm starting to smile, but Coach Donnovan just continues to look at him. Chandler says well so and so just went in the top 20 and I've got a similar game. Billy nods his head and says 'Yeah. I can see that. Except that guy has a little better developed shot... he rebounds which you don't do... when he plays defense he doesn't have burn marks all over his jersey like you and when he handles the ball he doesn't turn it over half the time. Other than that he is just like you." Schyatt said that Donnovan got up and walked out of the office shaking his head (I imagine he was thinking I thought I got away from this prima dona crap when I left Orlando at the alter). Schyatt said "I looked at Chandler and just started laughing." If you look at Chandler's numbers between his sophmore and junior season you will see that he apparently took that as a challenge and imporved both his 3 pt accuracy, his rebounding and his ballhandling. By the end of his senior season he was one of the better defenders on the team. I believe Kobe even commented on his defense last year. Billy has had more talented players come through the system, but I think Chandler Parsons may be the poster child for how Billy can get a player ready for the NBA over a full 4 years in his system. Wonder where Nicky would be now if he hadn't bolted for Greece.

Would you rather have Dwight or Griffin as your running mate? If CP3 wants a ring he needs to leave Clipper land.

Yeah. I thought I saw ANderson ended with 9 assists. Guess Stats aren't everything.

This deal makes too much sense for both sides. The Rockets can basically take our starting 2-5 from last year, add a few pieces of their own off the bench and will likely be a top 4 seed in the west next year. The trick is convincing Dwight that adding one more piece a year from now (CP3) will allow him to go toe to toe with Durrant & Co.

Apparently Rene spends WAY too much time on the internet. Other than that, not much... unless you got a PM, in which case, your reaction to reading the news will probably be mild interest with a touch of disappointment.

So at the end of my first day I'm already in an elite group of five. Excellent.

Yeah. I really believe that Dwight told HOU with BN out of the picture he would be open to remaining in HOU. Thus, the deal gets better and HOU needs more cap space. If this goes down, Henny will be my favorite Magician of all time. How can you not like a guy that responds to a question about a trade with "Dinner is imminent." That is just a fraction better than O'Quinn's "Do you know... I don't care."

Had he already signed the extension?

I resisted the urge to join for over two weeks, but can't hold out anymore. The above is to me the brilliance of Henny. Dwight ruined his trade value by saying he would be a rental to anyone but BN. The packages from Houston and LA are based on Dwight as a rental. Henny waits it out. I'd imagine the conversation with Dwight was basically something along the lines of "The BN trade made absolutely no sense for the organization and wasn't close to what the Magic need to keep fans from burining down the arena. So, what do you want to do? There are a few offers out there for you as a rental, but frankly they aren't all that great either. If you'd be open to staying long term with a few teams we might be able to get something done. Otherwise, we are inclined to just keep you and try to win this year. Maybe you'll change your mind and stay long term, maybe you will pout and never suit up for us again. Bottom line is if we don't get you traded and you play out your contract, we won't be doing a sign and trade because we want max cap space in the summer of 2013 if you aren't going to be around. So if we don't trade you, there won't be a 5th year on your new contract." No idea what that would do to Dwight's camp. I don't see rational/logical thought as their fortay. Assume for the moment that passing up the commission on an additional $20 million actually gets Fagan's attention and Dwight will state that he intends to comit long term to HOU or LA, I'd guess the return to us gets significantly better. But here is the funny thing... even if it doesn't get better, I still think Henny pulls the trigger before camp. I've read the debate on here about keeping Dwight and just letting him walk. DOB can tell me if my math is way off, but it looks to me like if Houston will take JRich, our cap fleximibility is the same if we do a rental with Houston as it would be if we just let Dwight walk. The difference is if we do the trade we would have Parsons (Patterson makes no sense given that we have Baby and Andrew at the 4), Lamb/White and Tor's #1 instead of JRich. On the otherhand, if we do an LA rental we simply trade Dwight for Bynum and McRoberts and get the same cap space we had if Dwight simply walked... but have no future assets unless we want Bynum long term (then we would have a leg up because we could offer the 5th year). My mental image of this production is everyone is running around trying to figure out their next move and Henny is just sitting back and waiting for it to all play out because whenever Dwight gets moved, Henny is going to end up with enough cap space for two max (or at least close to max) contracts next summer and possibly additional pieces/picks to help this franchise in the future. Isn't it nice to think we might have the smartest guy in the room on our side for a change?