Odin

Hahaha. Glad he owns it.

But how are you going to win if you don't keep your stars happy?

Yeah, I was thinking of going down 10 picks, but the point is still the same. Ennis isn't really any better than Payton. For the next ten picks, they would likely be at most be a slight improvement on the squad. The best might be Gary Harris, but I don't think there is much difference between him and Fournier. Gordon/LaVine dunk-offs in the middle of games would be pretty sweet though. Haha, yeah. Why can't the team always pick the sleeper that lots of teams missed? 2013- Giannis 2014- Gordon, Jokic 2015- Delon Wright? (Does this draft really have any sleepers that were really missed?) 2016- Murray 2017- Mitchell (or just stick with Isaac). BOOM. Championship. (Probably not but our management would love this team. Length everywhere).

We likely wouldn't have drafted Saric if we were going to keep the pick. And Gordon is better than Saric and has more potential than Saric, while Isaac also has potential to be much better than Saric. (They are all very different players, I know). So was it really that bad of a trade, when we needed a PG and Payton looked like he had potential? If you look at the next five picks they were: Zach LaVine TJ Warren Adreian Payne Jusuf Nurkic James Young Are any of them really moving the needle for this team much?

I guess that makes sense. Still expensive for the team though. Is Tyus any good? It looks like he grades out as adequate back up right now, and he has had three years in the league.

We don't have any real need for him.

So, just looked over ESPN's predictions of the top 100 players for this season. Fournier is at 99 and Gordon is at 41, which is giving Gordon some legit respect. I think it is probably a fair look at who will be the best players on our team. The only change that I could see is that Isaac could squeeze into the second best player spot for the Magic possibly depending upon health and how well his offensive game comes along.

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/9/6/17826516/nba-lineups-lakers-lebron We got some recognition from The Ringer as having one of five line ups that should be interesting to watch next year with our possible length everywhere line-up of Bamba, Gordon, Isaac, Iwundu, and Grant. Not sure if I really have high expectations for Iwundu, or really Grant beyond hopefully being a decent back-up, but it is nice for our team to get some recognition on how we might actually be fun and interesting to watch on defense next year.

I think you can enjoy talented college players without feeling like you have to tank for them. And we are discussing overall playing weights, not necessarily what players came into the league weighing. I am just saying that it is possible for him to continue playing at that weight and have a successful career, though I do think it is likely better for him to drop down some. He is definitely an interesting prospect though. Not a type that we have seen for a while. It will be interesting to see how he develops.

Wasn't Barkley playing close to that weight for much of his career? And Barkley was pretty darn athletic. Same with Lebron, he has since cut weight, but he was approaching 280 at one point. So it is definitely possible to have a long career while playing at a high weight, but he would need to change up his game to be less reliant on his athleticism- but he probably has to do that anyway.

I just don't see them putting in a guy from a sub- .500 team two years in a row.

Does Kemba get in again if Charlotte is struggling to get a playoff spot again?

The ringer thinks Gordon is a possible dark horse candidate to make the all-star game this upcoming season. https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/8/14/17689504/rounding-out-the-eastern-conference-all-stars

Centers usually take a while to get acclimated. ROYs are usually high usage guards or wings, usually on bad teams.

Not even in Orlando anymore and I dislike this. I always hate when sports teams do this type of stuff. The fans that come out in Mexico City likely will just be NBA fans rather than Magic fans. Run all the pre-season games you want in other countries (like soccer teams), but your home games should always be in your actual stadium filled (hopefully) with your actual fans. One interesting thing they could do, if they decided to change the schedule, would be to cut down the number of regular season games and add in a tournament in the middle with the winner for example getting better playoff seeding or better top pick odds. The finals and semi-finals could be held on neutral ground. Then you aren't stealing any regular season games and you have the argument that you are hosting the final few games on neutral ground.

So, maybe it’s because I am in Jersey and there are good pizza places pretty much everywhere, but I didn’t think Blaze was all that good. Pretty cool that they can churn out a custom pizza for you very quickly though.

Well, that is definitely an interesting way to read my post. I've never down voted you to my recollection (I prefer to put my disagreements in writing, as I think that is a more honest and productive way of interacting with people), and I would like to think that I am generally reasonable when conversing on the board, even if I vehemently disagree with the other person. If you want to keep playing the victim, be my guest- I was just trying to pass on some possible wisdom, but what would old Odin know about that. But, at the same time, don't be surprised if people react poorly when you act dismissive or downplay someone's good works.

Ehh, I have and I didn't think it was really anything to write home about.

I don't want to seem mean here, but have you ever looked at how you present yourself on the board, rather than immediately jumping to a having victim persecution complex? Have you thought of why these posts are getting down-votes or negative reactions to them? Is it just that people on the board are mean and bullies, or maybe something else? I am not necessarily saying that all of the comments responding to your posts are worth paying attention to. At the end of the day, it is your choice on what you pay attention to and what you take from everything. But maybe take a moment and try to learn from what other people may be trying to tell you. Not everyone is out to get you. Now maybe ML6 was a little overboard with his post, but people give each other crap on this board all of the time. You can either take it with a sense of humor or react negatively to it. But what was your reaction? To not only take the post personally, but to also react negatively and dismissively to what Lebron is doing, when he really seems to be trying to do something good for his community- and to do something I think most of us respect- to do something for struggling and under-served children.

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/7/31/17635276/deandre-ayton-suns-rookie-curve Man, I can't help but feel that this Tjarks article is dumb. While I agree that Ayton will need to be a good defender, the idea that he would need to accept a Capela-esque role for the betterment of the team seems a bit ridiculous, especially if you consider how dominant he was offensively in college. His TS% in college was 65%(!). Of the major players (ignoring Chandler) on the Suns, Booker has the highest TS% at 56%. Warren was at 54%, Jackson was at 48%, and Brandon Knight (who I don't think is a major piece going forward for them, but who Tjarks gives as another example of a player with a high usage rate that needs the ball in his hands) has a career TS% of 52%. The argument that these guys all have high usage rates, so Ayton should defer to them is absurd. Especially with Jackson and Knight, who are inefficient offensive players. If anything, Ayton showed in college that he should be able to handle a high offensive load while remaining efficient and the other players should defer to him. He just needs to bring it on the defensive end as well.

This is a poor argument. Praising one good act does not diminish other good acts or a lifetime of service. Raising up the good Lebron does in his communities does not decrease the positive effects and the hard work put in by teachers every day. Doing good is not a zero sum game. And do you not feel that this comment is self serving? "Look I was a teacher and teachers deserve more credit/ respect for their hard work". What if we all went around doing that for our jobs. "I am a civil engineer and civil engineer's contributions to society are often overlooked as we create safe infrastructure." "I am a martial arts instructor and martial arts instructors are not given enough credit for teaching people how to protect themselves, therefor making our streets safer." etc. (Ok, maybe a little silly, but I think the point stands. There are plenty of people who do great things for society who are not given the credit, praise, or respect that they are due. But it seems a little self-righteous and insincere when the person making the comment is a part of that group.) And that isn't to say that teachers don't deserve credit or praise. It just isn't relevant. Honestly, this might be the the most bizarre version of whataboutism I have seen. And I think bringing these things to the light is a good thing. I would call it the Carnegie effect. When Carnegie sold his steel empire, he gave away his money all over the place. This prompted other wealthy businessmen of the same time period to do the same. By promoting the good works of others, we make doing the same good works more common-place, and, in my opinion, increase the likelihood that others follow in those footsteps of doing good works.

I mean our real main problem is lack of top of the line talent. Hopefully one or more players can make the jump this year, but without some real top talent, we aren't really going anywhere.

Brandon Bass started for multiple seasons and, while not great, was an above average player. I guess it wasn't a nothing deal after all. Still not much of anything though. Basically us just maximizing minor assets, using any little thing to make minor tweaks/ moves. Probably better than either of our seconds from this last draft or Iwundu though.

Because we were a willing and able partner. Otherwise, who knows- it doesn't really matter. Other teams could have done the same thing. Again, this is a non-move that really doesn't matter team building wise. This is just teams playing with their financial situations, like when NFL teams give more guaranteed money to change their current cap structure, or when company accountants play with the books (legally, hopefully), for possible tax benefits.

Because teams are businesses and are never going to say no to basically free cash. Otherwise, it means nothing for our team structure.