hootie249

I think the biggest thing at the time is we desperately needed a point guard. Bamba made no sense. We still do. Hopefully one of Markelle,Cole or Suggs locks that down in the next 12 to 24 months.

Apparently it was the night of the Center/big man in the NBA last night! I am sick so i think i will watch a replay of the game today, i did not watch it last night. Everyone went cold in the second half? This is why the team still needs someone who can get to the line regularly. Mo made all those points on wide open 3's right? And then when they closed out he couldn't do anything? I'm just guessing here, but i'm glad he had a "big" night because we have 3 weeks to trade his ass. Sorry to hear about RJ, this team is cursed with knee injuries. Still right on track for the number one pick. Again, i didn't watch the game, how could Ross only get ten minutes? Did it come in the flow of the game or was it deliberate? I'm guessing the team is trying real hard to keep him healthy so he can be gone in 3 weeks. It's going to be hard though since we keep losing people. This team needs a freaking lucky charm or something.

It's interesting you bring up the bench right after the Cam Reddish debate. One of the many things holding us back all these years is probably the least talented benches in the NBA the last decade. It's easy to point to our rebuild and our failed 1st round picks, and the few free agents we have had as being complete busts. The not so clear, subtle ineptitude is not making any trades for bench players. Nor ever developing some undrafted talent. Obviously the Heat are the current kings of that but other teams bring in fresh faces while we scrape the absolute bottom of the barrel for a full decade. I think we have turned the corner but we can't stop searching for talent. If we do make a trade i hope it's as the third team and we finally start to get some of those late round end of the bench guys and develop someone! Look at all those players on the Grizzlies right now, who knew those guys? I mean yeah i did and some of you follow the NBA but most only knew JA Morant! Those guys are killing it over there, and most were nobodies two years ago!

After talking about Reddish on a previous post, i wish we took a flier on him. However, in the current timeline it can be noted that management probably does not want to commit to any real payroll decisions this next offseason. As disappointing as this sounds i would think they don't want to have to make any decisions to extend anyone this summer. I would think they want to kick the can down the road to 2023. Still, if we don't make a trade to get either a draft pick(possibly with a bad salary for one year) or a young player we don't have to extend for a couple years, i will be disappointed.

While this is probably not a real trade the part that mentions Bamba makes perfect sense. We ship out Bamba to another rebuilding team, they ship out Grant to a contending team and we get two young guys on cheap contracts(THT and possibly Nunn). It's one of the few Bleacher report trades that makes sense for where we are at.

I feel like the Magic's best chance to get a return is part of a 3 way deal. So look for that happening in the next 3 weeks. It's all on our newly resigned GM's. Before last year i would predict maybe Ross moving and them actually just letting Harris expire, and probably holding on to Bamba. Now i expect all 3 to be gone. Trust me they don't care about injuries and will field a whole team of G league players if we have too. The Magic are a lock to finish with a bottom 3 record, and they want to make deals for players, just not vets. Even if we trade for a vet that comes with a young player or draft picks expect them to sit, alot.

I'm excited Vucevic has been balling out for the Bulls. This is his best stretch by far since he left us. Really happy for him. Looking forward to watching the Bulls in the Playoffs and hearing that iconic music before the game. You go Bulls! Magic coming hard soon!

I've got to piggy back on Jay Magics post. Even though it's hard to talk about the Magic this year, we are heading in the right direction...finally. Nothing could have saved the last core we made too many mistakes, way too many. Not getting that number 3 pick in 2018 doomed us and then our slight resurgence led to mediocrity. I got excited as soon as the Vucevic trade went down and even though i knew we won that trade then, boy is it looking good now. Listen we are going to lose a ton of games this year but trust me it won't last long. I'm not worried about Suggs at all, when he is finally healthy and playing well everyone will say i never doubted him. Add that all the other young players we have including this summers draft pick. I'm telling you, a couple of players will blow up and surprise you. I'm just including everyone to shorten this post. We finally have a ton of guys with talent, now you might question how much talent but once Bamba is gone this group is way past the project players we had in the past. I'm even going to include Isaac and Fultz because i'm sure they are starters if healthy. If not, still not worried, the contracts they signed are super cheap once the cap starts rising again next season. Future is bright and we just have to deal with this season, which sucks anyway. Imagine having a contender this supremely screwed up season. Magic are going to be good again right when the league says goodbye to alot of players i'm frankly over with. Kyrie,Harden,Durant lol so sick of them all can't believe they are in the same team. Can't wait until Lebron retires, sick of hearing about the Lakers.

Yeah C'mon dude. That bench would shred other NBA benches. If Banchero hit the floor running like other recent NBA star rookies the first unit would be firmly in the middle of the pack.

Not yet. We will be. Cool site i found showing which teams own which picks. https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/draft/future_drafts/team

Too late. In reality Hunters inability to stay healthy has doomed most teams chances to trade for Reddish. Hunter was the player the Hawks wanted to be the starter. He just cannot stay on the floor. Reddish always had more potential, and he was the player they got for Doncic, along with Trea. Still the Hawks have a massive salary crunch coming. They will have to trade some players. I firmly believe Reddish could be traded but now it's more likely as a package for a star. Coming off last years playoff run they are much more likely to trade for a star now then to trade players just to save salary. TL;DR we missed the chance to trade for Cam as salary cap relief, now you have to give up real assets and most likely he would be part of a package for a star player. Edit. I thought i would expand. They don't have to trade anyone at the deadline this year. Huerter and Youngs big money start next year. They won't have to pay Hunter or Reddish until next year and even then they don't have to until the after next season, they are eligible to be extended just like Fultz and Isaac. They can still trade Bogdan and Danillo for a player like Gary Harris, purely for salary relief but that would have to happen by the trade deadline and would hurt this years team. Most likely they will try to trade one or both after the season to a team that can absorb the contract or send back players with non guaranteed contracts. Or they could package all sorts of players for another body/star and just pay a huge tax. Think Bradley Beal, or Ben Simmons. In fact if the Hawks and Sixers were in different conferences i think they would be number one on each others trade lists. Sure, both Ben and Trea need the ball in their hands but i think the Hawks would look ridiculous with Simmons running with Trea. Ahh i wish i could talk about the Magic this much but im afraid we are a year away from being that interesting. We really need that number one pick this year.

I think it is only natural to question the coaching. I mean we don't have much to talk about. However it's irrelevant. I have no idea if this guy could be a good coach. NBA coaching depends on talent. This is a tanking season, a season many smart people predicted we would be the worst team. I don't think you can start evaluating Mosley right now. I just don't think you can honestly question him with who is playing these games. Go look at that line up again. This isn't college basketball. All that said, the guy was hired to not win, this is a tanking season. You know all that **** other teams do to screw with line ups and lose down the stretch? The Magic are going to do that this year after the all star break. So who cares about the coaching right now. That said i think the guy has a chance to be a good coach, but you won't see it this year.

Yeah the blatant tanking needs to be curbed a bit, but c'mon some players always play to win and some don't. And some players like the previous former Magic player i mentioned were just never any good.

Wanna know what never changes every year? The fact that Gordon is a firmly mediocre player who is overpaid. He is a 10 million dollar player who has gotten two non rookie contracts over that amount. All because he was drafted number 4. Stat line from yesterdays Nuggets win; 25 minutes played. 5 points,2 rebounds, 1(!!!) assist, 3 steals(not bad), 1 block 2 turnovers and 4 fouls. Only shot 2 free throws, but made them both, only shot one 3 but he hit it! Ok lets get some context. Maybe he was in foul trouble so he only played 25 minutes because of that. Jeff green who is like 7 or 8 years older and a semi bust who travels from team to team and gets the minimum outdid him in every category. But he was not the forward who completely outshined Gordon yesterday. I give you the stats for Zeke Nnaji, Sophomore Nugget. In 31 minutes of play. 21 points, 8 rebounds and 2 steals with 7-13 shots made and 5 of 9 3's made! Completely outplayed Gordon. And this is the usual from all the games i saw and the many i didn't just reading stat lines. I mean he gets to play with an MVP and in my mind top 7 player in the NBA. Even with all the injuries, they win! So i check the lines or watch the game thinking, hey maybe even in this one game Gordon was the man who stepped up besides Jokic. It's never the case when i look. He is always the 3rd or 4th best player at best! It's always someone else who stepped up. Nuff said, i was a Gordon stan but his contract and status is irrelevant. If he keeps working hard on his game he might someday get a rep like crowder playing for a good team. But he isn't even Crowder and is paid too much and has been his whole career. Personal pet peeve of mine. Hey Aaron get a few more rebounds and free throws every game, your an athletic power forward. Oh wait, he is not! he is the classic tweener with almost no playmaking ability and no offensive game. When i saw him here i saw a few things. No confidence in his shot, it's really not that bad, but he has no feel for it. No explosive first step or ability to finish through contact. His body is not good enough, thick enough to lurk down below the basket and no feel for rebounds. The last one we knew the whole time but could live with if he got to the line with a quick step or hit more jumpers!

Eh, if you follow the Rockets this season they have played better lately. For whatever reason their vets have been trying lately. Wood and Gordon in particular. Maybe management told them they might be traded after the 15th.

I'm just glad that even the second they made the trade it looked like we were the smarter team for once. At the moment it turned out better then i could have ever hoped. It's one of the 3 or 4 things i'm glad Welt-ham has done.

On other forums people are talking about depth. I honestly can't see much happening until the the 15th. Yes it sucks that our top 4 point guards(!!!!) are all hurt. Don't expect anything except for 2 way players, without checking it seems all of our contracts have some form of guarantees except for Mulder and Ignas. Ignas losing his spot seems most likely. On the other hand, looking far into the season, it's hard to see another team having a worse record then us next April. I can't wait to see what Presti does to tank his own teams record come March. We will be the front runners for Banchero. Its a rough way to start the season but sometime when the year changes we should be watching Fultz,Cole,Suggs and Isaac together. We just have to wait it out.

I would love to see an NBA player get worked like that but it will never happen. The Raptors are not playing Dragic 100% so he won't get hurt. He would not play for them and they tried but he dogged it hard at the beginning of the season. He will get traded...maybe, his contract is leaning towards a buyout but Toronto obviously doesn't want to entertain that nonsense. Nothing would make me happier then a trade to the Magic which would still qualify him to be traded at the deadline(3 month rule). ***** player empowerment. Trade those guys and make them earn the money, or the right to go to a contender.

They didn't bring him back early. He tore his ACL in Janurary, it might have been a small tear , but he should have gotten surgery from the get go and never played in the bubble. That was the mistake. Everyone saw the first injury. I said it, tons of people said it, he should have had surgery. It's kind of like elbow tightness in MLB some guys try to "rest" it but 9 guys out of 10 need tommy john surgery. The first diagnosis was wrong and now everything since has been a **** show. Classic Magic. Truth is, take Shaq and Dwight out of the building and the Magic have been mismanaged for the entire existence of the franchise. And when you consider how both of our superstars left, we are two lottery balls away from being the Kings.

I hope he comes back with the biggest chip on his shoulder in the world. JI coming back to prove himself and drafting a unicorn next summer would be the quickest way back to contention for the magic.

I think this could be the starting line up in the spring.

As currently constructed, yeah he is the star. Nothing wrong with that, the kid has more alpha in him then any of the players we had the last ten years. We blew the team up last year. We had too! i challenge anyone to debate that. Go look and see how Vucevic,Gordon, and Evan are doing this year. That being said the early returns look good. All the smart people know we were going to lose a lot of game this year. And the first year of a true rebuild we need that pick! I like the draft we had, obviously everyone likes Franz and Suggs will come around. All the young players look like they have potential. None of the contracts are unmovable. Future is bright and the games are kinda fun to watch!

Yeah I'm not into the hate or cancel culture like reddit. However, why does not doing what seems best always venture into cancel culture? It's always about some mysterious conspiracy theory with contrarians like you. I don't care how you word it, i see what you are saying. It's not a conspiracy, it's life.

I'm not worried about it. In fact i think it will only help him in the future. I'm like all the other people on this thread, more worried about his handles. It's the confidence and transition that is killing him at the moment. If he was all we had then yeah it might doom him. The pressure will be off once Fultz and McW get back and hopefully Cole remains healthy. Wait until the second half of the season folks.

Eh, i'm not a Chet fan but people said the same thing about Mobley. Of course Mobley was a bit beefier then Chet, but he was still close to a 200 pound 7 footer at the beginning of USC's season. I wouldn't worry about Suggs, he is on the perfect team to work through his shooting woes. I didn't watch the game, i was working. It seems pretty simple, we shot poorly from 3 and they didn't. Someone tell me how T-Ross led the team in scoring and didn't even attempt a 3 pointer.