JJZ

quote: Originally posted by mgcullen:Garrity first off the BENCH! HUH! We have no bigs. This must be doing wonders for Knappy's blood pressure.

Many Thanks, Random!!

JD, Much as I appreciate the service you're providing with the game threads, I think adding to them would be a mistake. In fact, they're probably too long now. I would try to make them more concise, if possible, to enhance readability. For example, do we need the same pictures of the starters for each game? My suggestion would be to see what could be tightened up to make the post more compact. I think if you did that more people would read it. Just my opinion, of course. And again, the overall message is I appreciate what you're doing with these posts, overall they're a huge plus, just giving you my thoughts here as you asked for.

How'd ya like Lewis' THREE rebounds in over 30 mins? If we get outrebounded every night we're going to have a hard time winning.

JD, Thanks for highlighting that stream at the very beginning of your post. That really simplifies things. I found it difficult before to sort through the different options, not being the most technically savvy guy in the world. The stream you list at the top is NBA league pass, and has shown the FSN broadcast with our usual announcers. I was able to catch part of each prior game with decent quality on the computer, using that link. As you say, no telling how long it will last. May be part of the free preview for the first week only, I'm not sure. In any event, that's not something we can control. Thanks again.

quote: Originally posted by SauceMoney:..... Just give Augustine and Gortat a chance. Alot of us are basically writing them out the plan and saying that we need a big when we have 2 bigs sitting on the bench that could produce well. No, they can't. The things that were being said about them during the summer were absurd. It makes no sense to repeat that stuff now.

quote: Originally posted by NotByChoice:Basically we are thin up front we don't have a good option to start at PF so you can't be to surprised that Garrity is getting minutes there off the bench. This, in a nutshell, summarizes our current situation perfectly. SVG is stuck with an unbalanced roster, which leaves him few good choices. He can't play Howard and Foyle 48 minutes each every night (or even any night). We're basically stuck, thanks to Otis and our summer maneuvering.

quote: Originally posted by LetsGoMagic:RC, It's hard for me to believe that nobody is more upset about it then the Magic. If they were so concerned then how come they didnt get this brighthouse/fsn thing figured out before they announced the deal in June or July? How come the magic reportedly didnt even get envolved with until the 11th hour? I understand the Magic wanting to go for the big money and going to FSN, but what I dont understand is how they left the FANs out in the cold without making sure brighthouse/fsn had a deal together This puts the blame in EXACTLY the right place; the Magic organization. They are 99% to blame for this situation. The funny thing is that it's not, despite what many have posted in this thread, good for business or the Magic organization, either. Oh, in the very short run they may get a few extra bucks. But who will want to carry their games after the current FSN contract ends, if FSN takes a financial beating? And when does a pro sports franchise ever benefit from getting into conflict with their own fans? Remember, everywhere else in the country NBA fans can watch their own team on locally without any premium. This is BAD from a business perspective for the Magic. Pissing off your customers is NEVER good business.

Defense and rebounding. They will be our problem all season. So predictable. Thanks, Otis. How many points will Detroit score tonite?

Our lack of any depth at the 4 and 5 basically forces us to play stiffs like Garrity. This was predicted during the summer. You can thank Otis for this; Stan doesn't have much choice, unless he wants to play four guards at the same time. So far, it didn't hurt us, but I suspect it will.

The only things that give me slight consolation about this situation (not too much, but a little): FSN is losing advertising revenue for every Magic game that they can't show in central florida. And they paid a lot for the rights to those games. So they are getting hit where it counts: in the wallet. Alex Martins is probably not the most popular person in the Magic organization right now. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if his job is in jeapordy if this doesn't get worked out quickly. This is clobbering the fan base, not exactly what he's supposed to be doing. The pressure is on him. Brighthouse has lost some subscribers. Probably not enough to get them to change anything, but this can't be a happy time for them either. Even losing a mere 100 subscribers because of this translates into $10,000 a month revenue loss, and they've probably lost more than 100 subscribers. Again, the wallet. So at least we Magic fans aren't the only ones getting hosed here. Scant consolation, I know, but a little better than nothing.

quote: Originally posted by Jareth Cutestory:Ok so who lives in Daytona and WILL be able to watch the game? If so, leave your name, number, and address so I can come and stare through your window if i'm not invited inside. I live in Daytona. What on earth makes you think that we're getting the game? I believe we're part of the Orlando market, as far as how Brighthouse organizes things.

Thank you, Rock and Mods.

Kudos to BJ for his insight, and to SVG for his skill in getting the most out of players, instead of retarding them as was the case last year.

quote: Originally posted by magic01:Magic probably dont care either. They did this just to save themselves some $ by not having the in house studio anymore. They might even be liking that this is happening to the fans.. thinking that the home games on fsn will get higher attendance now. I'm sure that can't be right. Per the sentinel, every other NBA team has their home games broadcast for the locals on TV that doesn't come with some kind of premium. In this case, we're talking about no TV broadcast at all. How many fans can go to the games? Do the Magic really want to lose the rest of the community? Pro sports is all about EXPANDING the fan base, not shrinking it. Plenty of revenue is made through TV deals. How much will the Magic be worth on TV in the future if there is no audience?? No, I think the Magic are sweating this right now. If the season starts and people can't get the first three games, or whatever the number is, many casual fans will not get into the habit of tuning in to games this season. Then, even if Brighthouse and FSN come to some kind of agreement, it may take quite awhile for some of the fans to come around. The Magic should never have let this happen. They should have made sure the games would be carried BEFORE they made this agreement. Again, this reflects poorly on the front office.

Everyone keeps forgetting we gave up a number one draft pick to get Darko. If we were prepared to let him walk for nothing, we should never have given up a number one pick to get him in the first place, since in effect we traded a number one draft pick for absolutely nothing. There was trade interest from other teams for Diener last year, especially after he won a game for us with clutch shooting in the fourth quarter. Instead, he walked, we got nothing. We could have traded Grant Hill last year. His expiring contract had great value. Once again, nothing. This is not how a team maximizes it's assets. Everyone's personal opinions of the above players really is irrelevant. The question is, is our front office maximizing the value of the team's assets? At least during this past year, the answer is no. Again, poor planning, but life goes on.

quote: Originally posted by Tough Break There: Diener isn't an NBA level player. Totally disagree with you there. We should have a better idea who's right after this season.

The Magic front office clearly lost assets without compensation this past summer. This reflected poor planning over the past 18 months or so, as this should never have happened. Teams that don't maximize their assets usually aren't the teams that wind up winning championships. That having been said, this was discussed to death over the summer, and I'm not sure how much advantage there is to rehashing the debate again now.

quote: Originally posted by Hutchence:.....And how sad has our "civilization" gotten that we are debating a flick of the wrist and a few clicks while sitting on our fat lazy *****? No wonder people are dying at 40. Too lazy to click a mouse? Go get some **** exercise lazy *****. Sorry, these points are not sensible, no matter how strident. When I want exercise, I exercise. Repeated extra mouse clicks when I'm trying to get through a forum as quickly as possible are just unhelpful. Actually, the more time I waste switching between forums and trying to remember where a particular discussion might be, the less I have to really exercise. If you want people to use something, the object is to make it as simple as possible. This change goes in the other direction.

quote: Originally posted by Hutchence:I seriously cannot believe that this thread has reached 5 pages and people refuse to do "2 clicks" to get more information about "their team" It's "2 clicks" over and over and over again. Make something more difficult and less people will use it. It's simple.

quote: Originally posted by Hutchence:The mods are not the only ones to disagree. This is the way it is, it isn't going to change for now, so why harp on it? WAY too much effort spent on something so unimportant. Well, while it's not life or death, it will affect our discussions here if a lot of people never see the links. Count me in the group that isn't going to bounce back and forth, so I guess I'll be reading a lot less about the Magic then I did before.

I don't have a lot of time to bounce around between forums, so I will probably just miss out on all the stuff posted in the links area (which used to be here).

quote: Originally posted by Skywise316:Wouldn't that be a better outcome than not being on Brighthouse at all? What are their advertising dollars going to look like then? Over the long run, of course you are right. But in the short term (and that could be more months), each side is digging in and trying to get the best deal they can. If that means a few months without Magic games for fans in the Orlando area, hey, maybe the Magic should have thought of that before they went this route.

quote: Originally posted by SmackDaddy: quote: Originally posted by ball junkie:Lewis, dripping with sweat, was going through his offensive move progressions

quote: Originally posted by Alska444:I think I read somewhere that all the other NBA teams are on regular cable, not extra level package. So if it's good enough for those cable companies.... Yes. Unless the Magic are more popular than every other NBA franchise, they should not be putting extra hurdles in front of their fans. And to Skywise316, it is a big deal to FSN and the Magic. Put FSN on some extra fee tier, and you get maybe 10% of the audience you would get if it's part of basic cable. It doesn't matter to you or the other fans (like me) who would pay the few dollars a month, but to FSN it's all about market share and advertising dollars. I doubt FSN would agree to an outcome where people have to pay extra to get their channel.