Tactical Tomato

Watching Dwight's postgame interview, he is such a sore loser. I can't wait for that douche to get back to orlando, he is so full of himself. Seriously even when Lebron played against his old team the first time, he wasn't a jerk when questions were brought up about his old fans and the old team. Ping did troll him though, i liked that.

That was hardly a hard foul, a foul for sure, but not one to incite a brawl. Rondo had to step in cuz no one is afraid of Garnett anymore, all bark and little bite at this point. Did you see JJ break Pierce's ankles this game? Jammer's crossover was definitely more violent but PP just got shook up SO BAD. For your viewing pleasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyhhrB9XLV0

co-signed

I don't know if anyone posted this yet ( I DID use the search), but I saw a pretty neat little article about our SF DeQuan Jones. It's crazy how unlikely his path has brought him to the magic and it's a pretty good read. Marc Spears: Jones got workouts with the Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks. While working as a Pistons executive, Magic assistant general manager Scott Perry liked the athleticism he saw from Jones, a 6-foot-8 guard/forward. Perry soon added Jones to the Magic's summer league team, where he made a strong impression that landed him a training camp non-guaranteed invite. http://sports.yahoo....a-07361509.html

I would argue that their are only 2 personalities in the whole league who could keep Howard's ego in check. One of them is Kevin Garnett, the other is Kobe. I think it may be difficult at first to establish who number one is ( it would have to be Kobe since Dwight is probably not going to start the season), but I think Dwight will get it. I really don't see Dwight really "failing" in this scenario. I think he will find success with the Lakers even though everyone is saying otherwise. That being said, I really hope though that he never wins anything, and when he gets close to it, the Magic are there to stop him.

I am truly intrigued to see how this trade will make us any better, or put us in a somewhat better position to succeed going forward.

The current CBA did away with "Base Year Compensation", kind of. There is only one instance where "BYC" still exists and that is during a sign-and-trade where a Bird or Early Bird exception is used on a free agent with a raise over 20%. Since Lopez fits the criteria, the earliest he is eligible for trade is January 15, his outgoing salary won't be changed like it would have been in previous seasons.

They can actually be traded after 30 days once they sign. Edit: Oops Fullcourt beat me to it!

Well draft picks are able to be traded immediately as long as they havent signed a contract. Once a contract is signed, draft picks have a 30-day waiting period before they are able to be traded. The exception to that rule is in a sign-and-trade. Even though the rookie is signing a contract, he is being traded immediately and the rule is upheld on SUBSEQUENT trades. So if HOU were to sign and trade one of their rookies to us, we wouldn't be able to trade that rookie for at least 30 days.

Per Coon's site: January 15 if the player is a Larry Bird or Early Bird free agent, re-signs with his prior team, his team is over the cap, and he receives a raise greater than 20% in the first season of his contract.

its funny cuz i just moved literally a few blocks away from the new arena and EVERYONE now is a Nets fan. My older brothers are diehard knicks fan and even they know that Brook Lopez is garbage.

We would have been better off bringing Anthony Johnson back out of retirement for that...

Dwight would make more money per YEAR if he extends with us, but he will be limited to a 4 season extension maximum, including years left on his current contract. Dwight still has one season left with us so if he extends THIS season he will see an increase in contract years by 3. If Dwight allows his contract to expire and becomes a free agent, he will be eligible for contract with a similar pay scale through us, but with more years total. It seems that the only way dwight makes the same amount of money "salary wise" is if he resigns with us OR is involved in a sign and trade to another team. I'm not directing this next part towards you Voodoo, but towards the board in general. There are websites that deal with answering CBA questions that we have questions about on a daily basis. We have a thread on this board specifically to answer questions about the NBA rules and CBA stipulations. A cool website that I've used is cbafaqs.com, it has pretty much all the rules of the current CBA in question and answer format so its easier to understand. If ANYONE has questions or they just need clarification on CBA stuff just post in the proper thread and I guarantee you'll get an answer from someone. I've been lurking these boards for 4+ years trying to soak up knowledge from the basketball heads here instead of posting ludicrous trade proposals that only work on NBA Live '95. In conclusion, when proposing trades or talking about ours, or other teams salary cap hits or transactions, please do at least a minimum amount of research...please. I come across trade ideas all the time on this board where after reading them, I scratch my head and tell myself "This doesn't seem right", then after having to research it I come to see that it was just a waste of time because the idea was never a legal move to begin with. TLDR; RESEARCH all NBA transactions before posting them, espn trade machine doesn't count.

lolwut?

Definitely one of my favorite twitter accounts.

April June Fools?

Wow, Philly's defense is absolutely brilliant right now...

I truly feel that our situation is VERY different than the Knicks. Donnie Walsh had an awesome plan, don't add new contracts. They had to wait YEARS to unload all their junk so that they could get cap space for free agents. The Knicks KNEW they were going to suck for a long time but it didnt matter because they STILL SELL OUT the Garden every game. No matter how bad the Knicks get, they have an incredibly large fan base that doesnt whither. Orlando on the other hand has such a transient fan base that the product we put on the floor has to perform well enough to sell tickets. I fear that the need to sell tickets based on the salary of the product we CURRENTLY have will act as kind of a counter balance to how we deal with our roster. If we could land a guy like D Walsh that would be best case scenario, I just can't imagine how we could become contenders again within 2 seasons with the way our roster is built long-term.

Thanks Stan for making our Finals run a couple of seasons ago. I fondly remember before the season started all the trash talk I started with my friends saying, "This is the year we make the run, we got Stan, Dwight, Shard, and Meer is gonna kill it." Of course, no one believed me, they kept quoting what Shaq said about him, his nickname, and how he looks like Super Mario. I remember during the playoffs I would watch the games at home while running the Magic Game Chat with Mr Savage and being able to share all the incredible moments of that run. Stan ABSOLUTELY deserved every ounce of credit for taking us much further than we should have gone with the talent we had on the court. I remember the next season during a home game vs The Knicks my buddy and I got Club access tickets and after the game we snuck into the Canon Club where something was going on... It just so happens that Stan Van Gundy himself walked into the room where he was about to talk to a group of high school bball players from around the state who were playing the next day in an All-Star game. I fully expected Stan to be completely different from the man who was always pissed off on the sidelines, always fired up and intense. Stan was the real deal. He talked to these kids like they were grown men, completely tearing them down giving them the reality of playing in the NBA. He talked quite a bit about MATURITY and the value of an education since he knew, that the odds of any of them actually playing in the NBA, was 1 in a million. He spoke with the EXACT same intensity that he showed during the previous seasons Finals run, and he never BS'd anybody. I wish Stan nothing but continued success, he DESERVES to win BIG time. I almost want to see him just so that everyone here can realize how stupid it was to want him gone. I get that he doesn't get along with Dwight blah, blah, blah. Right now I'm just imagining Stan getting hired to coach a young, hungry team. I'm not 100 % sure where there are jobs available but I wonder if Chicago is gonna offer Tim a new contract...hmmm. Wouldn't that be scary?

Aging, declining one-dimensional players seem to be the Magic's go-to move now. Im sure if for any reason Otis is still here, Ray will get the MLE. Personally if he comes down here, he ain't coming to Orlando, he's going to Miami.

Is this real life? lol what the hell is going on in this forum?

Mike D'Antoni? Really? I understand if we can't find a better available coach right now, but to take 3 steps back for Mike *****ing D'Antoni is just reckless. I would NOT be surprised that he would be introduced as our new HC in a press conference held by our new GM Adonal Foyle... Being a Magic fan is tough, lol.

I just found this on Yahoo and decided to post this little gem cuz it made me chuckle: http://sports.yahoo....4smfhzktu68vLYF He ain't coming back.

I came across this article yesterday detailing some of the "unorthodox" methods employed by the Phoenix Suns training staff. It just SEEMS based on purely anecdotal evidence that they have the most success with keeping players on the floor, especially the old guys. http://valleyofthesu...+of+the+Suns%29 There seems to be some sort of consensus that these guys are the REAL DEAL. Why then, have there not been more stories about teams trying to emulate whats going on out there. I can definitely understand if a team cannot perfectly emulate the results but it seems that with the millions of dollars that teams spend on personnel, it would be wise to also have the best PREVENTATIVE sports medicine available, especially considering that injuries that require surgery are high costs. I do understand that there are many variables that go into why a player is injured. It also seems that the Magic have real bad luck with keeping veteran players in top form, granted, im sure there are tons of other teams that have had worse luck like the trailblazers. I guess I'm just kind of wondering out loud why other teams don't actively step-up their training staff. From what I can tell it's not like the owner of the Suns is a big spender for the team either....

Here's my take: Game of Thrones is definitely the best FANTASY show out there right now. The show has tons of action and great writing while also staying pretty loyal to the source material. here is my list ( in no particular order) of the best shows out now: Spartacus : If you really like comical amounts of blood and violence then show def fills that void. While a lot of people would write the show off because of all the nudity and gore, they are really missing out on one of the best written action shows of the year. The show definitely pulls no punches with its characters as EVERYONE is expendable and it definitely keeps you on your toes from week to week. I would also say that the finale to season 1.5 was one of the most action packed hours of TV I have ever seen. Breaking Bad: LOVE bryan cranston and how his character is becoming the monster that he has had to battle against the past few seasons. His wife should def b written out as she is easily the most annoying character in that series, it seems like her whole arc is to be the biggest barrier for progress in the family. The writing seems to fluctuate on quality between episodes but when the script calls for tension, it is felt in spades. Overall, I cannot WAIT to see what happens with the power vacuum that Walter has created and how his relationship with Jesse evolves. I never really like the character Jesse but his involvement with Gale really sold the character for me. Mad Men: Amazingly well-written show. If you dont like "wordy" dramas that require you to read between the lines on every scene, stay far away. For me the real stars of the show are Roger Sterling and Pete Campbell as, for me anyways, the represent the central theme of the show, the "Old Guard" and "progress", respectively. The Walking Dead: Good zombie show. I have a friend that worked on the production for the second season and he explained to me that the biggest reason why it wasn't as good as the first was mainly due to budgeting/marketing. It is def more dramatic than intended so that the show can hit its female demo ( Which surprisingly, is a large share of their audience). The fact that most of the season was set at a farm was largely due to budget issues and changing vision as there was a change in producers towards the end of the first season. I have heard that gong forward, the story will stick closer to the source material, pus the got the ninja chick so the show really can only get batter form here. Honorable Mention: ( I really didn't want to bore anymore people by writing more stuff , so here is just the rest of the list.) House Justified Hell on Wheels ( great show on AMC) Homeland and obviously, Game of Thrones