seay

in memphis, darko has done well despite facing a lot of adversity: a team playing no defense except for him; injuries, especially to his left thumb and then his foot; a coach who ran no plays for him. a couple of things that have been overlooked - darko played great defense vs tim duncan and yao; even with injuries, he had some outstanding games - vs lakers - 20pts, 4 blocks, and 10+ rebounds (this was as his thumb began to heal). as a darko fan I would love to see him come back to the magic and, at last, play for a good coach and with dwight. Part of the problems are his responsibility, but like dave sime, who insisted on sprinting with a torn hamstring, he as great talent combined with bad luck.

I have followed darko closely since he signed with Memphis. His play has had sharp upward slants and then occasionally a really bad game. Since Pau left, he has played quite well with the exception of the Philadelphia game. Not sufficiently noted, though, are his flashes of brilliance, e.g. vs duncan, then yao, then duncan again. He may still turn out to be a great player, at least very good. His true position, as many of us have noted, is pf not c. He needs to lose about 10 or 15 lbs and regain that speed and agility. He would have been a great complement to Dwight. I think it is water under the bridge now because of the ham-handed way Otis let him go.

the magic will be better, you are right ...svg alone vs brian hill guarantees that. but adonal foyle?! I have watched him for years on the warriors...relatively good defense, no offense, a good guy. but selecting him would be worthy of otis....a downgrade with no real place in an up tempo offense. otis has probably ruined the magic's longer term future even though wins and losses will improve next year.

the national media may not have considered the likely improvement of dwight, nor the development of trevor - another real talent. but this is a little beside the point of the general critique....yes, the magic will be better if only for svg alone. but the critique and even derision is about the squandering of resources unnecessarily and mortgaging the future. here, in my opinion, they are right with responsibility squarely with otis. paying too much for rashard and letting darko go will hamstring the magic for years

I was and am a life-long 49er fan. Bill Walsh provided many lessons to gm's in whatever sport. One that he offered to a hi-tech gathering in the silicon valley has stuck with me and it applies to the Magic. This was his concept of a "base camp strategy". In his view you did not build in increments to simply "get into the playoffs" which for him was missing the point. Rather you build a "base camp" from which you actually can make the summit i.e. an nfl or nba championship. with this in mind, he actually lost games he might have won because "he wanted to give the young joe montana, and others, experience in a 4th qtr drive. he traded away players, in their prime, who were good enough to get you to the playoffs but not all the way. He found a core of "nuggets" who belonged in the base camp ...and then he made the ascent, eschewing earlier "won-lost" records, or brief runs in the playoffs. Otis, to say the obvious, is not a base camp strategist. We will get into the playoffs and if that is what you want fine. I feel he has mortgaged the future to such an extent we will be perennial also-rans perhaps, but no championship.

I was and am a life-long 49er fan. Bill Walsh provided many lessons to gm's in whatever sport. One that he offered to a hi-tech gathering in the silicon valley has stuck with me and it applies to the Magic. This was his concept of a "base camp strategy". In his view you did not build in increments to simply "get into the playoffs" which for him was missing the point. Rather you build a "base camp" from which you actually can make the summit i.e. an nfl or nba championship. with this in mind, he actually lost games he might have won because "he wanted to give the young joe montana, and others, experience in a 4th qtr drive. he traded away players, in their prime, who were good enough to get you to the playoffs but not all the way. He found a core of "nuggets" who belonged in the base camp ...and then he made the ascent, eschewing earlier "won-lost" records, or brief runs in the playoffs. Otis, to say the obvious, is not a base camp strategist. We will get into the playoffs and if that is what you want fine. I feel he has mortgaged the future to such an extent we will be perennial also-rans perhaps, but no championship.

Webber, if acquired, will be sure to disappoint. I watched him for years when he played for the Kings. Great but eroding skills and more than a knack for disappearing when you need him most. on reflection, though, he could be a good back up and spot player....just don't count on substantial minutes, big contribution when it really matters, and, of course, at this stage he is no starter. Why do you think Detroit let him go?

I hope gortat does very well. first rate high jumpers, btw, have by far the highest verticals in sports - exceeding olympic level volleyball players and nba players. the vertical is both god-given and developed .... I don't know enough about gortat's athleticism to comment vis a vis darko. however, darko's athleticism should not be discounted ...we didn't see it that much last year. I think it was partly due to the weight gain. darko's vertical is good (about 32.5) but not outstanding by nba standards. His exceptional athleticism, though, shows in speed, agility, and quickness....exceptional by nba standards and highly unusual for a big man. scientific training, something the magic did not give him, would have enhanced the vertical. what interest me more , though, are the subtle athletic skills of touch, balance, rhythm,sight,timing, depth perception etc. Ted Williams, by wwII navy fighter-pilot testing broke all records in these areas. who in the nba or on the magic comes to mind in this latter regard? finally, we just don't know about darko...what bothers most of us though is that he might be great and it appears that at last he is well situated. we should find out in the next year or two.

good, provocative post smack ....a couple of things svg is not only a lot better than bhill he is also superior to saunders....who is "just good enough to get you beat" in the playoffs with that said, unless detroit really shows its age (an this can happen suddenly), I think the magic would lose...probably a sweep. svg though will have someone else playing point...no one would be stupid enough to play jameer again vs detroit. as for darko, he was the answer and it showed. I think the chances of his becoming an elite player have greatly increased.

this thread continues prominently because it rings true. It was the deal Otis made, not a lewis vs milicic issue that dismays most of us. but, with that said, if anyone lost darko it was Otis ...he was duplicitous, showed a lack of common respect, and gratuitously misled darko and his agent. But the kicker, making it impossible to retain darko, was the atrocious contract he came up with. the magic are cap-shackled now for years. this has been well documented by other boarders more persuasively and with more detail than the chad ford article. the ford article served to aggregate the arguments and give a framework for discussion. the most effective details, though, are found right here on this board by magic fans. an nba maxim holds that a free agent contract is a good one if it could be spun on a dime and sold to another team (this assumes other teams holding cap space). does anyone seriously think any other team in theleague would buy this contract even if they did have the cap space? the question answers itself. we are stuck with a really lousy gm.

if it looked really bad and smelled worse, no I wouldn't taste it. it is possible to make reasonable projections about what is likely

was it Lincoln who said "there's a special place in hell for a man who remains neutral in a moral crisis"? "moral" crisis, no...but a mismanagement crisis has been visited on the Magic. I think it is more useful to look at reality and take a stand. Only an agitated fan base creates the pressure needed to obtain competent managment. an nba maxim holds that a contract to a free agent can effectively be judged if that contract could be spun on a dime and sold to one or more competitors. (this conjecture assumes hypothetical cap space for other teams ) does anyone seriously think any other team in the nba, even with sufficient cap space, would buy the Rashard contract? the question answers itself. It is not only a bad contract, but a shackle for future years. (see numerous, well documented support of this by other boarders here...not just the chad ford article.) time to face reality? I think so because it is a useful start.

"overspent"?! interesting euphemism for a 6-year financial strait jacket. an nba maxim holds that the accurate measure of a free agent signing is whether the contracting team could immediately turn around and sell the contract. This conjecture assumes hypothetical cap space. given the cap space, would any other team in the nba purchase the Rashard contract from the Magic? The question answers itself. But, if you can come up with any please post. otherwise, come back to earth. incompetence and I, personally, would add duplicity has us in a very constricted financial place. We may luck out with draft choices.

any serious criticism of what chad ford wrote should be based on its content, not who he is as such or even his history. The question is: do his arguments square with known facts and do they hold under scrutiny. His critique was nothing new to this Board. Magic boarders have made all the same points, and, in some cases, even more persuasively. His contribution stings but rings true to a lot of us. check these boards. the special value of his piece was the organized framework he used to make the case against the otis moves.

smack - it looks like he is up to nothing. A more addle brained decision that ties up cap space for 6 years is hard to imagine. The Rashard partisans, conceivably, are right...he may be willing to defend the pick and roll (he didn't for the sonics), and drive as well as shoot, happens but seldom. And, in general, carry a big time scorer's load with a multi-faceted game. I don't think he will. Though we needed a perimeter scorer, I believe a very good, ball-distributing pg was a higher priority. So, from my perspective, the strategy was miscast. But this is arguable. What is not arguable is his process...overpaying, no cap room, and no Darko (through as much as anything disrespect). Where's the patience? Why couldn't we have waited a year, gotten a good pg, and really developed Dwight and Darko? on another note, a friend of mine says Otis never planned to keep Darko because of financial reasons having to do with the DeVos pursestrings. Anyone know about this?