JJZFL

It's a fair point. However, some teams seem to manage to overcome injuries. And what's really concerning to me is how our defense continued to worsen during the course of the season. I didn't see more consistent play as the season progressed at either end of the floor from any of our young guys (we can leave Harris/Lamb out, since they were with the team a relatively short time). Why do you think they improved?

Your changing every disagreement into a personal attack thread is really tiresome. But I guess you provide some comic relief for everyone. You have never heard of buying out a lease or buying out a contract, I guess.

I didn't answer your question because your question is not relevant to my original post. I doubt the lease by itself will keep them there if they're losing a fortune and they get better offers elsewhere.

Again, I didn't say players regressed individually. I said that the team as a whole regressed. Granted there were injury issues. But even with a team full of young athletic players, our defense was markedly worse as the season progressed. And our record reflected that.

You're right. It's two starters and several others who would potentially be regular subs. Still should be showing decently in summer league given the composition of the other teams. Unless people feel we need to get in some tanking practice during the summer.

Strongly disagree with this. Team needs to be showing improvement every year. There should be milestones for improvement set and hopefully reached. Otherwise you develop a culture of losing that is very hard to break. Not worth the risk. Some of the strongest Magic supporters on this board may not care if it takes 3-7 years to build the team back up to respectability. But the team will lose support from everyone else. How long will the Magic stay in Orlando with an empty arena and low TV ratings? Again, not worth the risk.

Team started off with a nearly .500 record and was very strong on defense. Granted there were injuries but from the record alone it's clear the team got worse as the season progressed.

Easier to take it seriously when several of your projected starters are playing and you're still getting beaten by journeymen from other teams. Certainly agree with the guy who said our coaching is unproven at best. Have pointed out in prior posts that team regressed during the course of last season. People have posted a variety of explanations for that but it's certainly not a ringing endorsement of the current coaching crew.

Probably the secret strategy is to also tank in the announcer department this upcoming season. Then when we get terrific draft picks in 2014 because we're so terrible this year, we can also get rid of Turner and get a real color guy. Put those two moves together and you have a strategy for real excitement!

Time will tell. I don't agree with this. In my opinion the longer a team is bad, the more likely they are to stay bad. This team showing signs of life next year would be the best thing for the franchise. Doesn't have to be a contender but needs to show it's going in the right direction.

I don't think either of the options you mention is too good for the Magic. Hopefully, we get another point guard on the roster.

Isn't Udrih still part of the team?

I think fans for many teams tend to over-rate their own players. It's natural to some extent, part of rooting for the team. Honestly I think we have a fair amount of that with the current Magic players, many of whom have shown glimmers of great potential, but who are still largely unproven at this point.

I agree with you. Some were responding to the comment about NBA being fixed like the WWE. It was not your comment.

I've seen enough basketball in 40 years or so of watching pro ball to know that there are plenty of journeymen players who never make it very far in the NBA. In my opinion, Moore is one of them. One can be in favor of replacing him with someone else without suggesting that a reasonable 12th man salary is the max salary (your words, certainly not mine).

Appreciate your reading my mind so you can express my thoughts for me. Just so it's clear, I'll restate what I wrote yet again. I think there are plenty of journeymen guards who probably have at least as much upside as Moore, and hopefully more. I don't make a living scouting basketball players so no, I can't name them. To play your game and put words in your mouth, are you saying that Moore is the very best young point guard we can find for our team at a reasonable price?

Well as third PG on a team where the first 2 PG's are over 30 and Nelson in particular has a history of injuries, you can expect him to get a fair amount of playing time as the season progresses. We need to start developing a young PG with solid potential ASAP. Moore is not that person, IMO. I hoped we would find someone else.

Actually that was exactly the assertion made in an earlier post. Scroll up a bit. It's what people were responding to.

Really good post, I didn't repost it to save space. Agree 100%. The current lottery system is actually very clear. Only the bottom teams have a chance at the best players. The playoff teams (including the big 3) have zero chance of getting the top picks. How is that rigged in favor of the big markets? What the best players may choose to do 4-5 years after they're drafted has nothing to do with the lottery.

I agree with some of this. The Magic are trying to rebuild, that's no secret. They won't be a great team this year. However, they need to show improvement as the season goes along, not get worse like last season. Fans need to see that the pieces they're putting in are developing. You can't just flip a switch and go from doormat to beast. The culture of winning needs to be cultivated. They need not have a winning record this year but they must try as hard as they can to win every game possible with the players they have. And we need to see those players getting better as the season progresses. That's why I believe you need to set goals/milestones for this upcoming season, not just for later seasons. I suggested some in my earlier post. We cannot assume that they will be awful this year and suddenly become pretty good next year. There needs to be a continuous process for getting from point A to point B.

He didn't start as twelfth, he played his way down to that position. Why don't we try to find someone who might have some upside? As you say, there are plenty of players to be had inexpensively. And he didn't only play during garbage time.

Reason is that he's terrible and we'd be better off filling out the squad with someone else....

Very sad that all anyone can come up with as goals for the upcoming season is that we'll stink badly enough to ensure a top 5 draft pick. My goals: 1) Improve defensively. 2) Have the young players show consistent improvement throughout the year. Related to both the above, we got worse last season as the season progressed. I don't want to see that pattern again this year. 3) Very few first half blow-outs. Too many games last year we got down by 25 and then everyone got all excited because we cut it to 12 or so with 5 minutes to go, before losing. Making games look respectable by scoring a lot after the game is out of reach and the other team lets up means almost nothing. 4) Related to #3, hold teams consistently under 60 in the first half (not a very high bar). 5) Maximum effort. Too much losing isn't good for the young players. They start to hang their heads whenever there is a tough stretch in a game because they get accustomed to believing they are going to lose. 6) More attention to Jacque Vaughn. In my opinion he's totally unproven at this point. I don't know if he can develop the young players properly or not. There needs to be more focus on him next season. No one should get a free pass, everyone should have milestones to meet during each season..... You guys may disagree with all of this but at least I'd rather discuss something like this rather than speculating about whether we'll be bad enough to get the 3rd or just the 4th draft pick next year.

If true that's a shame....

If we're fun to watch (in other words competitive) and showing some progress overall, I will be very satisfied. That's all I'm hoping for....