CTMagicUK

It takes 3 fouls in 80 seconds from Gordon to bring Harkless in.

Yea I know, that trade was a no brainer for me. Curry/Love pick and roll/pop would have been the most unstoppable play in basketball.

70 million dollars for Klay Thompson... This new CBA has sure given GM's confidence to spend at will. A few months ago I would have laughed at that contract.

For me it's not about minutes, I feel like everyone besides Moe and Drew has gotten a decent amount of burn so far. I think the downgrade of the vets is more to do with role and mindset. By trading the top scorer and letting the starting PG walk you challenge and empower the guys currently in the locker room to step up and be bigger parts of the offense. On top of that the mindset of Jameer, having played here his whole career, and Luke Ridnour just arriving are very different. Jameer probably felt like he should still be starting, I don't think Ridnour was under any allusion that he'd be the long term option at PG (he might get a few starts this season certainly when Payton has really poor stretches or is injured but still...). Same is true for Afflalo, the guy wanted to be, and was, the number 1 option, as much as Ben Gordon likes to shoot I can imagine he's perfectly aware that his role is a shooter/offensive spark off the bench. And just as a comment to the overall negativity in this thread towards the team and/or JV: personally I think it's too early to judge this team considering we have 7 new players, 2 of whom are rookies and 1 of whom has been injured all preseason AND we're missing our most dynamic player.

Haven't watched the game (yet) but I'm glad to see Vuc played well again.

Seriously, I wonder if Moe has just been coasting through practice and we're trying to shake some life Into him by basically sitting him until he puts In the work... that's as close to a rational reason as I can think of. Makes no sense.

It's a long season, Payton will get his minutes. Just because he's not starting doesn't mean he's going to sit on the bench all game.

I'm hyped!

Haven't checked what my auto draft looked like... I'm dreading it.

The problem I'm having with Tobias is he's yet to play in more than 61 games in a season. That really doesn't make me feel great about giving him a huge deal.

...Bill Laimbeer averaged 17 and 12 on a championship winning team...

Big news!!! Really hoping Vuc keeps improving and makes this contract look a steal as the salary cap shoots up in the coming years.

Sent a PM

Let me know if you can't get anybody to take over the last one. I'll have to auto draft but I'll be active the rest of the time.* EDIT: *with the potential exception of university exam periods.

Yea, the problem is I'd probably be more hassle with scheduling, I'm 5 hours ahead of you (assuming Eastern time) which means a week day night would be pretty difficult and I'm unavailable all next weekend which is the only weekend before the season starts.

I'd love to, I actually came into this thread earlier to say I'd sign up but I can't make the draft date.

I'd maybe take the Pelicans as the 8th seed in the west over the Grizz just because Anthony Davis may reach the point where he just wills his team to a playoff spot. Think I'd take the Wizards over the Raptors too. There are so many guys I can think of who have a shot at MIP but my prediction is Andre Drummond. For 6th man of the year I'll go with whichever of the 4 bigmen that Chicago has that plays the most minutes without starting (so yea probably Gibson but could also by Mirotic or Gasol; don't know how they've been lining up in preseason). My all rookie team would look like this: Payton, Wiggins, Parker, Mirotic, Noel Besides that I'm with your predictions, even if an 8th seed for us is a little optimistic. EDIT: Also my DPOTY would be Noah, maybe Chandler if Dallas makes a top 4 seed since he's the only guy in that starting lineup who plays a lick of defense.

I'm really pulling for Vaughn to prove Bill and Jalen wrong. He's shown some glimpses of being a good coach between the tanking strategies.

Willie Green sighting!

Little underwhelmed by Fournier in this last game. He didn't really do anything, kept getting stuffed at the rim and struggled to find open looks. I actually thought Ben Gordon out played him in this game. Really impressed by Aaron, he played very good defense and had a few highlight real plays.

Not sure where you got the "lack of pick and roll" part from, the Magic ran a lot of high pick and roll. I think Harkless showed some really good flashes of how he's learning to control his game last night. In the first quarter he made a nice drive to the hoop that would most likely have been knocked out of his hands for a turnover last year and in the 2nd half he hit Dedmon (i think) with a bounce pass after attacking a closeout. He seems to have improved his understanding and feel for the game and I still think he can be a starting SF in this league. I also don't really see much wrong with what Ben Gordon did. He wasn't good by any stretch, in fact I noticed he would pick the ball up far too early and stop the offense when running pick and roll, probably because his entire life he's been just jacking shots from there but on another night the defense sag off and he drills a 3 so who knows. I can't imagine we'll have him run much pick and roll anyway, we didn't (as far as I remember) run any off the ball action for him which is more his game. Payton is good.

Faried just got $12 mil a year... Right now I'd be very happy if we signed Vuc and Tobias to $20 mil combined.

Is that 3 knee injuries to 3 different players in camp already? That's weird.

In his media day and/or training camp (i forget which) interviews Channing Frye talked a bit about the possibility of him playing the 5 and Drew playing the 4 (when Vuc is out of the game), allowing Drew to get back down on the block where he's clearly a very talented player, what's more he brought this up out of the blue and not in direct response to a question about Nicholson. I actually think it's possible that Drew bounces back from his sophomore slump and establishes a role on this team.

I like them..