CTMagicUK

Vucevic must be a certainty to play in the Rising Stars game.

Magic Johnson rants about Lakers on Twitter.

To be fair the draft could seriously change before draft day. Early drafts last year had Drummond going number 1 and Barnes in top 3.

Marcus Smart or Ben Mclemore are my guys... I think both have all-star potential in the right situations. See the draft situation thread for more discussion

I hate that trade that Cohen keeps bringing up because it totally screws Minnesota.. they'll never win anything if they trade Love for Lopez.

Hollinger's Playoff Odds now have us finishing 28-54 and gives us an 8.6% chance of winning the lottery.

We don't have the cap space for Dwight and will not pursue him in free agency according to virtually every Magic reporter I've read.

I don't think that's likely to happen. Dequan is a great guy, he's hustling and playing with confidence but let's be real here his college coach didn't think he was good enough to start (started more games this season as a pro than last in college already) and all 30 GM's didn't think he was good enough to draft at all. Right now he is useful to this team because he brings energy, confidence and drives to the rim with reckless abandon but I have to imagine (and to some extent I know) that there are prospects coming in the next two years or so who can do exactly what Jones does and more and still have higher potential than him. I'm not saying I don't want him to succeed because I do, everyone loves an underdog, but I just think our expectations that a 22 year old undrafted rookie will turn into an all-star calibre player should be tempered.

24-28 wins. I think we have it in us to double our win total with over half the season to go. This however depends heavily on whether Baby gets injured again and if we trade JJ. If one of those happens I say 19 at best... If both happen probably 15 or 16.

Jones was a senior last year where as hark was a freshman so Jones doesn't have the higher ceiling by any stretch he isn't a better defender than harkless in my opinion but what he has that Hark needs is confidence on the offensive end to drive and finish and to make cuts off the ball with purpose and intent.

A poll of NBA execs suggested that most of them didn't want the 1st overall pick because, as of yet, a clear top talent hasn't emerged. I'll take a pick in the 4-12 range over a top 3 pick at the moment. The consensus top 3 so far is Shabbazz, Nerlens and Zeller. None of these fill me with any excitement. In my opinion the only hope of the number 1 pick right now is that a team picking in the 4-12 range really loves Shabbazz or Nerlens and is willing to swap draft picks and give up an unprotected 2014 pick.

Agreed, both those teams give us hope for the future as both were mediocre/bad teams for the past few years and are on the rise now with guys like Harden and Curry playing incredibly well.

Every NBA/college coach I've ever known has spoken highly of leadership as a quality. All those great basketball minds can't be wrong.

Noah is out.. Let Vuc run wild in the paint!

A little bit of the musical greatness that my country has had over the years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDdI7GhZSQA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz_6jagv_D4 This post was also going to contain songs by The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, The Who and Led Zeppelin as well but apparently you can only post 2 vids at a time.

Magic not interested in Cousins according to Josh Robbins

That's the most enjoyment I've ever gotten out of a Magic loss... Matty ranting about Wade with sarcasm was hysterically funny. I thought Hedo had had a decent game until about the last two minutes of the 4th and OT, was responsible for 3 TO's and killed the game. I thought both JJ and Afflalo had excellent games and Vucevic was just spectacular.... I recon there are people in the 76ers front office with their heads in their hands thinking about what they could have had instead of an injured Bynum and his dumb hair (and that's before you even think about the loss of Iguodala, Harkless and draft picks). Dwayne Wade was just awful... like terrible... The media has been on him a lot saying his performances have dropped off this year and on that I agree... Wow... the box score doesn't tell that story. On that performance I don't think the Heat defend their championship... The Clippers may be their toughest opposition because they really struggle with all their vets when you move the ball around and get out and run. They don't however struggle when you run a Kevin Durant isolation over and over and let the NBA's best defender guard him... Perhaps Scott Brooks should think about that... Anyway I digress... Even without Baby I think if we have Meer we win that game. Disappointed Harkless didn't play... I feel like it might have been to spare him the blow to his confidence if Lebron ran wild on him... He's the youngest guy on the team (and second youngest in the league I think I heard during a game) so he still has a lot of maturing mentally to do... At the same time I thought he seemed a little down when the camera cut to the bench late on... He probably wanted to play against the defending champs so I'm surprised Jacque didn't even give him a few minutes. To close Violet Palmer is just a terrible referee... That so called 'foul' that AA committed on Wade's dunk attempt/basket interference was ludicrous. It didn't cost us in the end seeing as both free throws were missed but that call was downright awful.

I'm on board... I think we get at least a 2nd rounder from them with either of these trades though. I actually think Afflalo would be a nice fit for the Wolves but I'm not sure whether they'd like to take on his long deal.

Next year potentially has Andrew Harrison and Kasey Hill who I really like. Harrison in particular will probably be better than any PG in this coming draft. But there are a lot of PG's in this coming draft that are worth taking a look at.

Any deal for Cousins with the Magic would probably include Nik... So thanks but no thanks... If the price was right I'd take a flier on him just as I'd do with practically any young talented player in the NBA. The guy doesn't have a huge contract or anything, he has a team option at the end of this year which will probably give SAC another year to trade him so they probably wouldn't settle for an offer they didn't like at this point. Personally I'm still rooting for a cheap Derrick Williams trade. Despite what some people believe I honestly think a change of scenery would do him good and where better than here on a team not expected to win anything for the foreseeable future. It's not like he's a long term investment or a huge contract either so if after two years he hasn't progressed, we don't pick up his team option and move on. If nothing else the guy has the potential to give you an amazing dunk or two every now and then.

This I much prefer. Also on the Utah getting Cousins trade... It won't happen. They have Jefferson and Millsap who are both expiring but they already know that Derick Favors (and more than likely Enes Kanter) is there starter in the front court going forward. They're probably going to trade at least one of Jefferson or Millsap and try and get some help in the back court.

Great leadership can't increase the talent a team has, it can only help maximise the potential of the team.

The game has already started, I'll just put this here incase anybody has any comments or if anybody doesn't know about the game... Meer is on fire in the first quarter.

He can be injured and still be a leader.

Yea my Chrome does the same and yes I would.