Murphy13

allan houston. i know he is a free agent so it probably isnt likely. but i wonder if he would come to the sunshine state for the vet minimum...that would be a monster pickup as he fits a need and is also a veteran presence. veteren depth is always a plus.

shaky, if you cant compare a pg and a c, then why did you bring up this fragmented post in the first place? who would you rather have on your team? where is the debate?

i agree chosen, it would be great if dwight could shoot 7/7 from the field and still have 20 points. thats the epitomy of efficiency.

tough break and chosen, you are taking the only aspect of the game that dwight is actually better statistically than curry(defense) at (in '06) and diregarding the rest of the player. read my whole post and not just snippets to get the full picture. first of all, i said if he wanted to he could be as good(but hes too lazy imo). secondly, curry is a go to man. he averaged 20 ppg last year. i dont even know if dwight will average 20 this year...i trully hope so though. on another note...if you say that al jefferson isnt a stud then you dont watch basketball. he and dwight are very similar-both out of high school and drafted same year. although dwight started better as a rook, jefferson has actually made larger strides the past 14 months than dwight. he also is way more consistent on offense. someone said dwight can average 29p 16r and 3blocks per game sometime in the future. thats cool, i believe him...but al jefferson will probably average 25p 15r and 2 blocks per game in '07 on the timberwolves. he is going to be a perenial allstar just like dwight. i never said either of those guys will be better than dwight, i said they both have the chance to be as good. and they do, especially jefferson. curry is a butterball. go magic!

as much as i love dwight, he has a long ways to go. he didnt make the rpg progress last year that i expected him to make. and, his ppg are modest at best. its a good thing that al jefferson moved out west because he is a stud and will be around for a long time. assuming eddy curry wants to(he too lazy imo), he could be as good as howard as well. thats who shaq thinks will replace him as the best center in the league. also, its pointless to be the best center in one conference without checking out the competition in the other. its about being the best, not the second best. out west yao outplays howard. oden could be trouble as well, although lets see how he plays against top talent. duncan isnt technically a center, but he may as well be. so throw him in. hell, amare is pretty darn good too. going back east...it seems big z always outplays howard when they play eachother. i know he isnt better than howard, but zydrunas is a magic killer, and howard cant stop him if hes on. if only howard could hit his free throws...consistently....

we have talked about this trade several times in the past couple months...it would be great if philly would go for it, but they wont. they could get so much better in return from other teams. i wouldnt be suprised seeing andre miller end up in a lakers uni if they can keep kobe.

what do you think about trying to pickup stoudamire from the grizz? solid vet with a good salary. definately fits a need. worst case scenario is that hes a good backup. apparently he wants out of memphis and wants to come to a winner. takers?

because hes cheap and better than what we have...but i agree that at this point we need a top notch point.

what do you think about trying to pickup stoudamire from the grizz? solid vet with a good salary. definately fits a need. worst case scenario is that hes a good backup. apparently he wants out of memphis and wants to come to a winner. takers?

quote: Originally posted by TrueMagicFan07:I have a burning question to ask. Since the Magic has a new coach, and a "new look" roster with much needed scoring help. How do you think that other NBA players around the league will match up against us this coming season as opposed to last season (specifically "centers"), umm--let's say Chris Bosh, Amare S., Tim Duncan, ZaZa Patula, Dirk (pf), Rasheed Wallace (pf) and others. I remember the Magic getting torched by Chris Bosh last season, and to me, he always seemed to be playing in slow motion. Basically, I'm asking if you think we will get torched again by specific players from other teams. I'm asking for your opinion, because some of you have a better knowledge of who has been doing what around the league than I do. unfortunately, all those centers you listed(with the exception of amare) are actually pf's. thats why we have had problems with them. but then again almost every team has trouble with those listed players. in my opinion...tor and chi will give us the most problems, in the east atleast.

who cares where the truth works at? and what does this have to do with basketball? please let this thread die. basketball people...basketball!

although i agree that the key is for him to get all star numbers, i cant see him making the allstar team by a long shot. he isnt that good(compared to the other talent). maybe if he learns to defend his man or pull down some rebounds he would have a chance. but even if he did both of those there are people with better numbers than him that wont get in. besides, he doesnt have the name recognition. lack of the former is apparent everytime some of the posters on this board start talking about him like he is a killer on offense. anyone that has watched him play more that just a couple games against their home team would know that hes an opportunistic scorer. he doesnt create his own shots. not to mention he only went to the line about 3 times a game last season. he will have to attack the basket alot more to get to the lofty goal of 25 ppg like many people are predicting. this isnt supposed to be a bashing of lewis though. i am just mad because this was supposed to be a spectacular offseason and we arent any better on paper sofar, and the offseason is almost over. i am afraid that otis screwed us and is hoping that the elevated salary to lewis will avert the fans attention away from the fact that otis is blowing it this summer. peoples expectations are real high of lewis because of the contract he signed(rightfully so), but how many people in the league improved that much their 10th year in the league? even the kids straight out of high school havent improved after 10 years...kg didnt...kobe could, but its kobe, and thats no guarntee either. one last negative thing is that this was a contract year for lewis. the list is endlessly long of players who play well in a contract year and dont get anywhere near those numbers again. i just dont have much confidence in expecting a player that wasnt even the focus of the other teams defense on his previous team to break out after 10 years in the league just because we have dwight howard. alright, pessimism over. the key isnt rashard, its jj and ariza.

of course jameer is going to have more assists...he played many more minutes. many more than he deserved to play...and vice versa for jj. even though they are on different scales, they both have approximately the same 2:1 ratio as far as assists to turn overs. personally, i think jj has the better assets to become an nba point than jameer(jameer is more like a two guard), but you cant count out jameer's heart. i really hope that he puts on a show this year and all doubters to rest.

http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-...607216960.xml&coll=1 what are they smoking up there in nj? and where can i get some???

http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-...607216960.xml&coll=1 what are they smoking up there in nj? and where can i get some???

i think its time to let the thread go people...

the phrase mediocrity was around long before bianchi started bringing his second handed sources out to the public... i enjoyed the sarcasm though!

since we are mentioning denver i thought that i would bring up something i mentioned on another thread...i dont think kmart is worth the risk, but what about nene? he would bolster our front line greatly, and he has a much better contract than kmart. i dont think i have ever seen dwight play the 4. except on nbalive 04, his rookie year. even then i always moved him to center.

i would say a western team would probably have a good big that we could exchange turk for. hell, if we throw in arroyo, we could land a big piece to add to our team...10mil in salary isnt too shabby. what about nene from denver?

not too bad of a schedule if you ask me...even the longest roadtrip at the end of november isnt too shabby. it will be easier to analyze later when we know just how good all the eastern teams are going to be this year. the schedule looks good though.

i would have to agree with si's assessment. i believe we are on the outside looking in at the beginning of the season. alot of teams improved way more than us and we were only an 8 seed last year. i think that eiter atl or cha will suprise next year, maybe not playoffs, but 9 seed. the lebrons are the eastern conf champs. they are supposed to start at the top...that way the media can start critisizing lebron when they begin to suck. as i think about it. the wizards are the least likely to make the playoffs out of the top eight listed.

dwight is a center. there is no way around that.

i say no. although i like kmart as a player, he has been injured literally as much as grant hill over his career. you cant count on him to produce all season and in the playoffs. for a back up, sure but thats a lot of money for a backup. jr is a headcase with talent according to the teams that hes played for in the past.

since we are all about picking up overpaid players, how about this trade with memphis: out: keyon, arroyo, and battie(future first) in: pau gasol it works in trade checker. we would definately be contenders then. if that happened, who would care about our 2 guard issues? ecf in the crosshairs...

maybe that hypno-beam is available on the black market, anyone have ties the blackmarket? maybe china makes a knock-off version thats cheaper and will just stun memphis enough to pull the deal off...