JJZ

Well, it must be summer as the optimism level is very very high. Time will tell how realistic this might be. IMO, the biggest upgrade by far last year was the coach. Since he's not changing, it's going to be harder to have further improvement without an improved roster. So is our roster improved enough? SG is improved, although our SG's weren't that awful last year. PG is still a big question mark. From the big man perspective, despite the optimism here, there are a lot of questions. First of all, how OLD is Battie, who hasn't played in a whole year? Won't he be 33 this season? With bad knees in addition to his shoulder injury? Guys, he wasn't all that great 2 years ago when he was younger and healthier; doesn't everyone remember all the controversy about playing him over Darko? Let's not expect him to be a lock down defender, a major physical presence, or anything else of the sort. Gortat, for all the optimism, is basically a rookie in the NBA since he barely played last year. The reason he didn't play is that SVG, an obviously astute coach, didn't think he was good enough to play. And that's with the anemic front line we had last year! I'm not convinced Gortat is going to be anything more than average at best. Let's not get carried away with optimism here. Cook hit some 3's last year but otherwise didn't contribute all that much on the boards or defensively. That's kind of been the hallmark of his career so far; let's see some evidence for change before we get carried away. Just like last year, the PG and big man represent our problem areas. And if there's any falloff from either Lewis or Turk, both of whom are 30 (or will be this season), things could go downhill fast.

quote: Originally posted by love#12:Thats what i have been saying..pepole said our problem was leting darko walk..no it was tony going down that hurt us..If tony does not go down we dont have a problem at pf and things would be better i belive. GO MAGIC!!!! I can't believe what short memories people have. Battie was pretty bad last year. Don't you recall all the threads here last year begging Hill to start Darko instead of Battie? Some people felt that our PF play last year was one of the reasons we did so poorly after our fast start. Battie was at best mediocre last year, and isn't getting any better with age.

quote: Originally posted by JonBoy418:There are some good complimnetary players out there to be gotten with the MLE. Jamison will command much more than the MLE. Iggy and Josh SMith aren't going any where. Not each FA signing has to be with a star in the making. I posted in another thread: With the MLE, Carlos Delfino (don't know how big Toronto is into Delfino) and Smush Parker (very public feud with Riley makes him cheap). Next year: Jameer / Smush Delfino / Bogans / JJ Shard / Hedo Battie / Augustine / Fran (if he comes over) Howard / Foyle That's a pretty well balanced, and young squad. JonBoy418 is the only poster in this thread whose numbers with regards to the salary cap have made sense. The only area where we disagree is with the PF position above. I don't think Battie/Augustine gets us anywhere, and I think you have to forget about Fran. A PF should be our first priority at this point. Our PG position is obviously also a problem but no one is going to take Jameer off our hands now for whatever ridiculous salary he's promised for the next five years.

What is that old saying: "Absence makes the heart grow fonder", or something like that? Battie was mediocre last year, and wouldn't have been any better this year. The idea that he's some kind of "missing link" is preposterous. We were short on big men last year; whenever one of the three couldn't play, Garrity started to get big minutes. Thanks to Otis we're even shorter in that department this year. Battie wouldn't have made all that much difference. It's not like we're talking about an all-star here.

We ain't winning 50 games. The way we're playing the past month I'll be happy if we get to 41-41.

quote: Originally posted by Soul Bro:Are you kidding? After only 1/3 of the season with a new key player, a new coach, and still holding a 23-15 record, you already know Otis is wrong and that we can't compete over the next few years? Please. 23-16. 7-12 since the big start. I don't think we can compete for a championship now, with this roster, no. If you do, I respectfully disagree. Even when we were 16-4 we didn't beat the elite teams, and now we're struggling against everyone. Salary cap considerations will make it very difficult to "build for the future" and upgrade in key areas, because of the contracts we've taken on. That was my main point.

If I thought we were building towards the future, I'd be happy with where we are. But I don't see it. We have little flexibility for the future given our current set of contracts. In fact, it's going to be very difficult to avoid the luxury tax in upcoming years without DOWNGRADING our bench (yes, I said downgrading). Otis paid big money for Rashard because he felt he was the "missing piece" that would make us competitive for a championship. Otis was wrong.

quote: Originally posted by SauceMoney:Its really starting to seem like when Otis put this team together he wasnt thinking about how they would do on defense. Ok why would you trade Ariza(a defender) for Evans(a defender) and Cook(bench player). So what Ariza couldnt shoot, hes doing very good with the Lakers now. The Lakers using him the same way we shouldve used him. Just for hustling and defense. If he was starting at the 2 for us, i seriously doubt all them 2 guards that had career highs on us, wouldnt have. This organization doesnt know what the hell their doing. Especially for hiring Otis Smith in the first place. So me personally i wouldnt expect that much defense from this team ever until some changes are made soon. Over the summer this was discussed a lot. I was one of the ones concerned about our lack of defense and rebounding the way Otis was structuring the team. Others contended that Gortat was the second coming of Wilt Chamberlain, that SVG would get these guys playing defense despite their historical weakness in that area, etc. All those discussions, and there were many of em, are there to be found in this forum, if one takes the time to go back. Anyway, at this point I think the lack of defense can't be ignored (I agree with your post above). Our roster is just not balanced properly. And changes will be hard to make with some of the contracts we've signed.

quote: Originally posted by MilitaryMagic:Your standards of defense are too high for this team.......... My standards of defense are too high because I'm upset we gave up 119 in regulation? Again, I ask: Then what is an appropriate standard? Should I be ok with our defense as long as we give up less than, say, 125?? I'm sorry but I disagree with your take on this 100%. Giving up huge numbers of points and having to have everything go right offensively in order to win is why we're losing so many games. SVG doesn't like it, either. We won't go far post-season with that approach, if we even make it to the playoffs at all.

quote: Originally posted by MilitaryMagic:This was another not-so-bad loss. Playing good teams close on the road is an improvement for this team right now. We need to continue working hard and doing what we're doing. Rashard's game is opening up and we're seeing more of what he can do when he sees the ball more often. Hopefully Hedo breaks out of his slump soon! Let me get this straight. We give up 119 points in regulation and this is a "not-so-bad" loss? How many points do we need to give up in order to reach the "bad loss" level? 150??

I still think Diener is our best choice for PG.

I don't agree, Skywise316. Most of us who were concerned about the direction the team was going over the summer were concerned about our weakness in the frontcourt. I'd gladly see us pay 6-7M per year for a servicable young big man. Jameer, an undersized point guard who hasn't proven he can lead the team consistently, is a different story. Let's not forget, as Charisma has reminded us, that Darko was a valuable asset. And if he wasn't, then we shouldn't have given up a first round draft choice to get him, a choice that in that particular very deep draft would have gotten us a good player. Any way you look at it, Darko represents the Magic organization giving away value and getting nothing in return.

quote: Originally posted by StufFtheMagicDragon: quote: Originally posted by SmackDaddy:The funny thing is that it is hindsight for most of you. While for a select few, this was all predicted 5-6 months ago (before the season began). This is where I dole out a big fat helping of "I Told You so" pie. you can predict the future and therefore are an asset to this organization Oh, I don't know. Some predictions are much easier to make than others. For example, I can confidently predict that if you jump off the top of the empire state building tomorrow, you won't be posting on this board anymore after that. Easy, isn't it? The point is that the unbalanced nature of the team Otis was creating was evident to some of us over the summer, and the consequences of that followed logically. There was basically a schism on the board; one side was confident that SVG could somehow overcome the roster limitations (team defense, blah blah blah) and that players like Auggie/Gortat would replace or even be better than Darko. Those of us on the other side of that argument didn't share that view. Looks like the chickens are coming home to roost. And they may be roosting a long time, since Otis has put much of our roster in cement with expensive long-term contracts.

quote: Originally posted by DismissOtisSmith:I would be comfortable trading expiring contracts only. But something needs to happen. Think 5 roster slots next year and only the MLE, the future does not look so bright. I would also be willing to dump Jameer or Lewis if the option existed. It's nothing against the players themselves, they are just severly overpaid and limit the teams future success. The problem is the fact that since they are overpaid, they'll be almost impossible to move. I think most other teams also realize that we are overpaying, so they wouldn't rush to take on those contracts.

I wonder how long half the games will be on a station that almost no Magic fans can watch?? It still seems to me that with most of the audience shut out, a lot of money is being lost (advertising, etc). I can't see this situation dragging on for years, for example. Why would FSN even want the Magic games after this contract runs out (not that I'd be sorry to see them go, of course).