CTMagicUK

Interesting group.

What I don't understand is people are hating on us for giving green a 1 year deal in a kind of "use it or lose it" cap situation but I'd rather be doing that then be Portland paying Evan Turner and Moe Harkless huge money. Or New Orleans paying Solomon Hill big money. Or New York paying Noah huge money. Or Lakers paying Mozgov huge money. All over multiple years. It's really not that bad a deal, we add a guy who has contributed to playoff teams for a lot of his career to a team trying to make the playoffs for the first time in a while without hindering our future flexibility in any way.

In terms of best prospect possible for us its probably Markelle Fultz but unless we miss the playoffs and get serious lottery luck he's a pipe dream.

A guy I think has the potential to slip into our 12-16 range is Josh Jackson. He's old for a freshman and has the reputation of being an emotional guy on the court which might put a couple of teams off. Also he's going to Kansas where Self has been a little reluctant to hand the keys to a freshman the last couple of years. Ivan Rabb as well, most people have him mocked higher than the 12-16 range but if he doesn't show the improvement people expect he might slide a few spots. A guy I think could end up going top 10 but hope will be in our range is Lauri Markannen. Guy lit up the FIBA u 20s for Finland this summer and finished with the 3rd highest PER ever registered at the tournament (behind Tony Parker and Nikola Mirotic). He might have a huge year at Arizona and push himself into the top 10 or top 5 but if he's on the board when we pick I'd be over the moon.

Good thing RPM is a terrible stat.

Oh Yea you're right my bad for some reason I thought you said starting lineup not rotation. To be honest I don't rate Westbrook as a defensive player either he gambles on basically everything and crashes the offensive glass constantly.

3 if you start Roberson at the SF. But that lineup has no shooting.

Nba is sleeping on us a little this year I think. We're a better team than the 4 national tv games were getting. I'm pretty certain we'll be more fun to watch than the Nets.

I think they're pretty cool.

Vuc has been working on his 3 point shooting apparently. And Vogel has already said he'd like to try him shooting them. If Vuc could occasionally step out and hit 36+% on 3's that would be huge. It takes some pressure off of AG to be a threat from the outside consistently and could also allow him to see some time on the court playing with Biyombo.

The Magic players voted EP as their teammate of the year.

I like the Rudez signing. He can shoot and he can pass. That's worthy of being an end of the bench guy as far as I'm concerned. He might get hot every once in a while and give us 10-15 points off the bench. And he's worked with Vogel before which is useful.

That article is the worst. Teams above us who I believe we have a better bench than: Twolves, Pelicans, Wizards, 76ers, Rockets and Knicks. Knicks at number 9 is laughable. If we had that exact same bench it'd be bottom 3. Augustin > Jennings Hezonja > Justin Holiday Jeff Green > Lance Thomas Biyombo or Vuc >>>> Kyle O Quinn The only intriguing guy they have is Hernangomez who's a rookie.

Yea I don't think it would have hindered us this summer unless we really wanted Jeff Green. Next summer it would have though definitely.

Not really to prove a point, to save his own job. In my tin foil hat scenario it's kind of a Skiles goes or Rob goes scenario.

My tinfoil hat theory is that Rob thought Skiles was trying to get personnel power by going over his head and complaining to Martins about lack of vets being the reason we weren't winning so Rob made the trade not really because it was what Skiles wanted but to sort of throw him under the bus by demonstrating that, even with vets he knew very well, Skiles couldn't win.

If we're giving Ibaka that money I seriously hope he brings it this year. Like 18/9/2.5 with all nba defense on 50/36/80 shooting.

And this draft looks stacked... wish we could have robbed some team out of a bunch of lottery picks.

Also by the time Otis was made GM we already had Dwight and Jameer, two key pieces in the finals team.

What's crazy is of those guys Jackson, Green, Mickey and Young all have fully guaranteed money this year (from what I could find). Then Bentil is guaranteed 250k too.

*crosses fingers for RJ Hunter*... although that would mean he probably couldn't beat out guys without guaranteed contracts... but still...

Garino signed with the Spurs. Thought we'd get him.

Off topic but I'm bored and it's my annual 'no Magic basketball so let's go look at draft prospects for hours' phase: I wish we could both make the playoffs and draft Markelle Fultz. Dude looks legit. Like a more bouncy Exum with a flashier handle.

Every year there's at least a couple of teams who are much better/worse than the national media think. People thought the Bucks would be good last year. Nobody thought the Rockets would only be the 8th seed last year. Etc etc.

... Pretty much every teams entire offensive strategy is get a wide open dunk. If teams want to leave Biyombo open when he's within a few feet of the rim that's on them but it doesn't sound like a bad thing to me.