Emory889

If there's one thing I love its grading a basketball decision before a single game has been played. Hell, we haven't even seen what Hennigan does with the cap space he just freed up. It doesn't matter; HE GETS A C!

Good to see that Bauncey Chillips doesn't think Gordon can shoot on the RealGM forum too.

It does look like the kid can play.

I don't know how anyone looks at Gordon's athleticism and can't admit that there is the possibility of him being a star player. Maybe he never realizes it but the potential is there. The dude could have been the first overall pick in last years draft. Is it really because he's not a good shooter at this point in his career? If so, why are we ignoring the fact that Exum can't shoot a lick either?

Must post so that Junkie doesn't think he is a bust. Welcome to Orlando Aaron. I'm looking forward (see what I did there?) to watching a big man that can actually defend again.

Oh no, we lost the Pony. How will this message board and team ever survive without the Pony? Oh, that's right; no one gives a s***. I almost forgot.

I said it prior to the draft but this draft is funny. I don't think anyone would have had a problem with us selecting Gordon with the 5th pick. In fact, I'm betting most of us would have been happy with it. But we pass up a point guard that everyone thought could be the next Penny and there is a near riot on this forum. The bottom line is that we know Hennigan scouted the crap out of both Exum and Smart. After all that scouting he decided he would rather take Gordon. I think that says a lot about Gordon and Payton to be honest. The thing is I don't see how Gordon could be a bust. His absolute floor is a dominant defender with little offensive game. It wasn't that long ago that the Pistons won a championship with Ben Wallace. That is Gordon's floor. The dude can start in the NBA tomorrow because of his defense. And offense can be taught. Maybe he never becomes a good outside shooter but that doesn't mean he can't turn himself into an offensive threat. Tyson Chandler has made a career out catching passes for dunks. He was limited offensively but still found a way to become a threat on the floor. I don't think anyone can look at Gordon's athleticism and not envision him at least having that ability offensively. Now lets go out on a crazy limb and assume the 19 year old kid actually improves......

There's no way you can state any of this as a fact. None of us have any idea how good Gordon will ultimately end up being. What we do know is that he has all of the tools to be a very good defensive player in the NBA tomorrow, has world class athleticism, he's very young, and offense is typically something that time to develop. There's no way you can determine that he will only be a role player after one freaking season in college. That is ridiculous.

We have the potential to be dominant on defense. It will remain to be seen how this team does offensively. I imagine they will struggle next year....but its not about next year. We will have to see how they develop and who else is brought in. But when you can say that a young team can be dominant on defense....that's a good thing.

If the Cavs wanted Victor they should have drafted him last season when they had the chance. Suck it Cleveland. It's a new GM but I remember reading a Wojo article this year that discussed how teams just stopped talking to the Cleveland GM because he would make trade proposals that would make most message board members blush.

Wade for the Heat's first championship. You are moving the goalposts here. If a player is leading his team to a championship then he is probably in the discussion for one of the games greats. You could also make a case for Dirk since his game is almost entirely perimeter oriented.

You are all over the place. You have said on multiple occasions that the Magic need to draft a "sure thing" but you want them to take Embiid who is anything but? He's several years away from being the difference maker that is his potential and that's assuming he remains healthy. I'm actually leaning towards taking Embiid if he is there but your inconsistency on the subject is striking.

Embiid is certainly athletic enough to play the 4 assuming he has two healthy feet and a healthy back. Those are big ifs though.

Wow, that is uncanny.

I think Gibson and one of Chicago's picks for Afflalo (and perhaps a filler to make the contracts work) is a good haul for Afflalo. Most of us want to move up in the draft to take a power forward. Gibson is a stud; a guy that rebounds, defends, and has shown the ability to score on the block. And we could still bundle the Chicago pick and our 12 to move up in the draft possibly. I don't see a negative in this scenario.

Few things are more irritating than when someone expresses their opinion and then follows it up with the word sorry, as if that's somehow the end of the discussion and they feel bad about it. It's so damn condescending.

The Cavs are trying to lure Lebron back and keep Irving happy. There's no way they are entering tank mode.

I know you don't but it's a good thing that the Magic front office does. Finding young guys that can contribute on cheap contracts is essential to a successful organization. The Spurs have been doing it for over a decade now.

It's funny how he is all about Kevin Pelton's opinion until the man says something that BJ doesn't agree with.

I love that Payton is somewhere between Rajon Rondo and Ish Smith. That's helpful. He's between an allstar point guard and a point guard that is barely in the league.

Your rules for what qualifies as a superstar are completely arbitrary and they change a little bit with every post you make. Your very next post after this one you concede that a player should be in top 3 at his position to be a superstar may be a bit extreme but here you want me to pick the couple of guys off the list that might make the top 5 of all time list as if there is only room for 5 superstar point guards ever. Nevermind the fact that Chris Paul has dominated this league since the first day he stepped onto a NBA court. Nope, sorry Chris; the superstar quota for point guards is all filled up. I'm not going to waste my time and list every accomplishment of the guards that I named but I will give you the abridged version. I'm ignoring your criteria for them needing to be in the argument for top 5 all-time at their position because that is stupid. John Stockton - The only guy on my list that wasn't his teams best player. That might have something to do with the HOF PF he played next to his entire career. 10 x all-star, 11 all-nba teams, 5 X all defensive team, all-time assists and steals leader. 2 Finals appearances and multiple WCF appearances. Gary Payton - Easily the best player on his team for multiple years....probably including the time when Kemp was at his best. Only PG to ever win DPOY. 9 X all-star, 9 all-nba teams, 9 NBA all defensive first teams. Probably the best defensive PG of all-time. 3 finals appearances and 1 championship when he was ancient...again multiple WCF appearances. Jason Kidd - Best player on every team he played on until he got to Dallas, and it wasn't even close. 10 x nba all-star, 6 all-nba teams (that kind of surprised me actually), 9 all-defensive teams, ROTY. 1 NBA championship (when he was still a solid roleplayer despite being ancient), 2 finals appearances....and screw this, I'm tired of repeating myself on conference finals appearances. Chris Paul - Keeping in mind that he still has a lot of career left in him......7 x all-star, 6 all-nba teams, 6 all defensive teams. In my mind, the best point guard of the past 5 years. Steve Nash - The only player on the list who was a poor defender. I think he was the best player on the Suns although you could make an argument for Amare during a couple of the Suns glory years. 2 time MVP, 8 time all-star, 7 time all-nba, 5 time NBA assist leader, one of the few guys to ever average percentages of 50-40-90, something only 6 players have ever done and Nash did it 4 times. The next closest? Bird with 2. I know I just wasted my time. You are going to immediately discount all of this information and tell me that this is what makes them star players but not superstars. I'm telling you that you are wrong. Gary Payton was the best point guard in the league for at least 5 years. When you make 9 straight allstar games and all-nba defensive first teams, and be the first, and only, point guard to ever win DPOY then you are a superstar player. It really doesn't matter if Jordan played at the same time.

Well, you are going to the opposite extreme and under-using it. Because in almost every case, a player making it in to the HOF means that they ARE a superstar. There's very few exceptions to that. You didn't say anything about removing players from the hall but we are following your arguments to their natural conclusion. You said that you felt that with the exception of center, only the top 3 players off all time at each position could be deemed superstars. So its only logical to assume that if a player comes along that is better than Kobe Bryant, that you are going to deem Kobe no longer worthy of being a superstar. That was your argument.

I understand that a lot of guys think he is a tweener. Unless opposing teams put smaller players on him, he's probably going to spend a good part of the game playing on the perimeter. His game is perimeter oriented. I seriously doubt he will be there at 4 but either he, Wiggins or Exum will be because I don't think 3 teams are passing on Embiid.

Parker has outstanding ball handling ability and 3pt range. If he's not a wing player, I don't know who is.

Other than maybe Parker, I don't think there is a sure thing in this draft. Every player has question marks....including Randle and Smart. And we clearly have differing opinions on who would mesh well with Oladipo because I think either Wiggins or Exum has the potential to be a spectacular duo. Wiggins and Oladipo might give us the best defensive backcourt in the league. When was the last time we had two dominant perimeter defenders? Has it ever happened? That is their absolute floor.