CTMagicUK

Exactly.

Gotta love the idea that drafting a worse player who'll stay around for his career is better than drafting a better player who you can get 9 years out of (rookie contract and then max in RFA assuming he's worth it). If you could redo the 2004 draft, knowing what you know now, would you still draft Howard at #1?

Is this "bold predictions" or "dream scenario"?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/magic/2014/04/15/development-league-erie-bayhawks-orlando-new-york-knicks/7741977/ Not necesarily draft news but I think it has an affect on drafting players now and in the future. Basically the Magic are entering into a single affiliation agreement with a D league team (at least according to USA Today).

I get that nobody really cares about games anymore but I feel this play deserves some props:

Most I give Moore is 2 years 3 million, 2nd year team option. Honestly though with the look of our roster he's probably one of the odd men out once our new rookies come in.

I have high hopes for our offense under Jacque once we have some more dynamic players to focus it around. I've seen little flashes of clever offense every now and again this year and I'm hoping the only reason we don't see much creative play calling is because we're tanking. I was just looking over some vids of the Spurs offense and this one caught my eye because of the triple screen that the Spurs run for Parker which is virtually identical to the play we run for Afflalo. The problem being Afflalo isn't as great at attacking or as good a passer (and we don't have the spacing of the Spurs either) so we're more limited in the result of the screen and it usually ends up in a jump shot. And I remember we ran a variation of this play a few weeks back where Afflalo suddenly set a screen for Vuc on his way across the lane and sprung him wide open from about 5 feet. (First time I'd ever noticed that play, maybe not first time we ran it) Stuff like that makes me hope that when we add more pieces this offense could be really good. Just something I noticed anyway, maybe I'm just clutching for something to give me hope...

My predictions so far (subject to change with draft order): 1.Dante Exum will go top 3. 2. Magic WON'T trade Aaron Afflalo at the draft. 3. Noah Vonleh will be the 1st PF drafted 4. Julius Randle will be the only Kentucky player drafted in the lottery (EDIT: Since WCS is returning to school this prediction isn't so bold :/)

Working him out with guys is lose-lose for a guy who's a near guaranteed top 5 pick. If they dominate then people say "ok well now we know he's worth the top 5 selection" (meaning his stock effectively stays the same) but if he looks garbage he'll fall. I highly doubt anybody in the top 5 works out against anybody.

This isn't a bold statement this is pretty much a certainty. If I was his agent I'd do it too.

This is entirely plausible from a probabilistic perspective although I sense you're coming from a more conspiracy theory angle which I disagree with. I think Gordon will gain some hype from the combine but I don't think this will happen and if it does I think this will be a move that an entire fan base remembers for a long time (in a "oh man I can't believe we did that" kind of way). This will only happen in one of two scenarios: 1. Denver's pick and New York's pick is top 3 meaning we get the worst of those (either 2 or 3) and then our own which could be anywhere from 2 to 6. I can't be bothered to do the math but this is extraordinarily unlikely, if it happens though I will be extremely happy your prediction came true. 2. New Orleans catches catch New York in the standings (requiring them to go 2-0 and the Knicks to go 0-2 over the last two games) and the Knicks win the coin flip giving them the better pick (pick 10) and then Denver gets a top 3 pick (currently 2.5% chance of happening) allowing us to take our own pick (1-6) and the Knicks pick 10. TL;DR this is extremely unlikely. This could very well happen.

Best justification of a typo in the history of the internet.

This should not be a flagrant in my opinion.

Hawks and Celtics both win. Big night for the tank. We're back in 3rd (glad nobody panicked) and it's looking extremely likely that we'll be getting a 2nd lottery pick.

Does Aaron make one of those herky-jerky, dribble pull-ups for 3 every night or is it just me?

I wish Harkless was more confident in his ability to shoot FT's. Sometimes I feel like he shies away from contact because he doesn't want to go to the line.

The Magic are playing some really entertaining basketball. That Dedmon dunk from Afflalo, the Harkless dunk in transition, Harris behind the back to Dipo and then the reverse layup. It's so hard to not enjoy it even though I know it's meaningless and ultimately detrimental to us. Us and the Wizards are really tied into the same fate here. We both want Washington to win and Charlotte to lose tonight.

I agree. I think we could have easily wound up with the 7th or 8th worst record this year if it wasn't for lots of "injuries" to Vuc and Tobias and experimenting with Dipo at the point. The tank has been strong with Jacque up to this point. Winning certainly is pointless but I think it was more just dumb luck and the fact that the Nets were awful that caused us to win that game. Hopefully we don't win anymore games this year.

Really?! Are you actually serious?! What motivation does Jameer have to miss those FT's? The Magic might cut him this off season for all he knows so why is it in his best interest to help the Magic draft a better player. And even if they don't cut him why would Jameer help the franchise potentially draft his replacement in the league?! Players don't tank. They just don't. If a franchise out there is telling their players to lose I feel sorry for the players and I feel sorry for the franchise because they'll have an uphill battle EVER trying to be good with that mentality. Coaches tank and GM's tank but players don't. Last night we tried to lose. With about 6 or 7 minutes to go in the 4th quarter we didn't have a single starter in the game and we were still absolutely killing it. So Jacque made the ultimate tank move and took the extremely hot second unit out (all 5 of them) and put back in the not so hot starters.Andrew Nicholson played 25 minutes last night some of them matched up at center with Mason Plumlee (tank move) and he was +7. Doron Lamb played 12 minutes, didn't score a point and was still +12 on the game. We left Teletovic wide open from 3 multiple times and he only made 5-12 (I'd say at least 8 or 9 of those were open looks). Hell, Etwuan Moore made 5-5 from 3. If he doesn't do that we don't win and he'll probably do that twice a season. And let's not forget we've been resting Vuc with a phantom injury for the past few games. You have to understand that guys like Moore, Dedmon, Lamb and even O Quinn maybe, they're playing for 30 teams right now. They're playing for a chance to keep their jobs next year or to get a new job if the Magic cut them. They have no incentive at all to lose. We literally were lucky to win/unlucky to not lose last night. If Dedmon bricks that long 2, Moore misses a 3 or 2 and Deron Williams actually shows up we'd have lost that game.

That's what I think/hope will happen. Boston have 1 win coming their way anyway in the ultimate tank show down versus the 76ers. Unfortunately for the Celtics they have slightly fewer d league players than Philly.

So we have the same record as Boston but somehow that means they got top 3 pick and we get pick 6? Also Boston have the easier schedule to close out the season. They play both the Cavs (who as of tonight have nothing to play for) and the 76ers. But no. There's no over reaction here.

Gotta love the over reaction.

Iso Joe to the rescue?

I can't believe the Nets pay Deron Williams the max to average 14 and 6.

Jacque bringing the 5 starters back for the tank.