Franchise408

I disagree with this take. You don't just draft someone because they are there and you want them. If they are a player that is going to go undrafted, you maximize your assets by trading back, getting additional assets, and then getting that player at a lower cost. Just drafting them just because they are there is overpaying for your product.

Whoa, I'm late to the party, but you do know that size isnt dependent upon your NBA status, right? The statements about Okeke's size are facts. He is of similar size to Draymond and Thompson. Nothing is being said to compare his playing ability to theirs, but size isnt dependent upon playing ability and accomplishments.

Nah, at least that has an unpredictability aspect to it

Why? Because it is fleeting. The only reason we "dont know who will win" is because half of Golden State's roster is injured. All the big time free agents concentrated in a couple markets. They are the same markets players have been wanting to go for the last decade or so. New York, LA, SF, Miami, and Boston are about the only markets that have a shot, and the list that I quoted and responded to shows that franchises are completely incapable of keeping their talent, because the talent wants out of their drafted markets ASAP to go play in these more appealing markets. This year will he an outlier.

I hate what this league has become

Honestly, I think this is the reasoning behind getting Vuc back. While I love the idea of having tons of cap space for a big free agent, who is that FA that would actually come to Orlando? Historically, the Magic havent been a huge FA destination. We've mostly gotten big names well past their prime who are in the twilight of their career looking to retire, ala Ewing and Wilkins. We have had a couple exceptions where we have gotten the big FA's, with the T-Mac and Grant Hill combo, and Rashard Lewis, being the notable exceptions. Outside of that, we usually dont get those guys. Now you factor in the current state of the league, with players nearly exclusively wanting big markets, and Orlando is basically out of the running of ever being that destination. I'm not saying Orlando will never sign a big name free agent ever again, but we will never land a Kevin Durant / LeBron James / Kahwi Leonard equivalent. So understanding that reality, the FO has to utilize the resources we have. A franchise like ours is gonna have to build via draft and trades. We have to find alternative means to FA to team building. And in the case of Vuc, hes the closest option we have to a star. Take the star we know we can get, rather than waiting for the star we likely won't get, keep a playoff squad in tact, and hope for further development from BIG, and hope that Fultz pans out and can be a game changer. It's a gamble, but those sorts of things can combine together to turn us into a dangerous team, especially in a weakened east. Of course these things have equal likeliness of blowing up, and Fultz is a "bust" (using that term loosely as he was a very low risk get for us... even if he never played again he didnt cost us anything) and BIG just kinda stagnate. I'm not saying I like the path we chose... but I get it. I understand it. And in a lot of ways I feel it was the right thing to do.

Oh, I know it. I live in the Bay Area, so I get all Warriors all the time lol. But they are a place where people want to come play now. Kevin Durant is obviously the big one. Cousins last year. Plus the Bay Area is a huuuuuge market. There's a lot of reason for players to wanna come here now. And even tho they drafted Curry, Klay, and Draymond, they have been able to keep them. Something we havent been able to do at any point. Something Cleveland couldn't do with LeBron, twice. Or OKC with Durant. Toronto with Leonard. Or countless other markets losing their stars. I'm sure Milwaukee will be next. Golden State has become desirable. The stars drafted want to stay and other stars want to come.

I agree with this. This current climate of stars colluding together to form their own teams in a select few franchises is bad for the league at large outside of fans of the Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, Celtics, Heat, and Nets.

Yea, and at Bamba's stage of development, he's probably NOT gonna be the main option off the bench for 82 games. But theres no need to trade him. Development comes in more forms than just playtime. When Bamba earns his minutes, he can start taking them from Birch. But at this moment, he's a negative when hes on the court. Birch is not.

Not weird. Bamba isn't ready for a huge role yet. Birch and Bamba will have to split the bench minutes

On the PG, it probably is just standing pat more than it is some sort of faith in Fultz, but tbh that's what it should be. We traded for Fultz to bet on him being the guy. We are not then going to go out and trade big assets or sign big dollar for a starting PG because then we have said PG and Fultz jamming up our rotation, wasting our resources on a position we already have addressed. So anyone we do bring in is just gonna be more of a depth piece for the meantime til he is good to go, and we already have that in Augustin and Carter-Williams. Fact is, we need to wait it out and see what transpires with Fultz. Is he gonna be any sort of significant piece for us, is he even gonna play again, or anywhere in between? We lacked front court depth, particularly at the 4 behind Gordon. We no longer do. We have our rotation at 2 with Fournier and Ross. Bamba and Birch can split time at the 5. If Fultz is healthy, we have a pretty decent PG rotation. If he's not, we ride with Augustin til we make a move at the deadline or offseason. But going big on a PG right now is a mistake. We have to find out what Fultz is first.

This doesnt really make sense, why wouldn't players want to play for a team that will give them pay increases and job security? IE loyalty

Too bad now hes changing his #

First off, I definitely don't want to move Gordon in any trades. He's part of our young and developing core and he's not worth giving up for 1 or 2 years at best of 2nd round exit potential. But definitely not moving Fultz along with him for Westbrook. Fultz is our x-factor. If he's healthy and develops, he can be our star. And again, not willing to give up a potential star of the future for 2 years max of 2nd round being our ceiling. Westbrook is a pipe dream. It's not happening, and while it would be exciting, I'm not sure that it should happen.

I'm hoping this was your typical sarcasm, because business accomplishments aside, he specifically mentioned sports ownership, in which they havent been the worst, but certainly far from the best

My point is the fact that he has never won, so you can't exactly say that he would automatically make us a contender. Again, he had more help in OKC with PG than he would have here, but you're expecting him to do more here with less support? Russ might make us a higher seed, due to the East being weak, but we don't become an "instant contender" because of him. But I suspect you knew that, and are just deflecting and shifting the argument.

Russ and KD went to the Finals and got demolished by LeBron's Heat. He didn't get the job done.

I agree with this, but you are dealing with an audience on this forum that thinks tanking for picks is the only way to build a contender, despite the fact that it has been proven wrong time and time again.

I understand your point and don't disagree but idk that Westbrook does that for us. He couldn't get it done with Durant and Harden, and got even less done with Paul George, but somehow he's supposed to come here and do more with less? I like Westbrook. If at any point in his career - even now - he came to the Magic I would be excited. But when you take the emotion out of it and try to look logically, idk that he is a better option than our slow build methodology.

I do like Russ, but idk that he would be a good fit here. But the idea being passed around that he is not an upgrade for us is absolutely asinine. Russ is an instant and significant upgrade for us, but idk that it is the right fit for us. I also dont know how I feel about stretching Mozgov. I feel like that is just extending our cap burden and holding us back for longer. I dont *hate* the move to bring back Vuc, I've come around to it, but recent moves of bringing back Vuc and now stretching Mozgov are basically killing any hopes of us having big cap space to make a move at any point down the line. We went from heading into an amazing cap situation to wasting it all on Vuc and Mozgov.

I think this is a year for both Isaac and Gordon. In the case of Gordon tho, he really started to shine in the playoffs and I would love to see that growth continue. If he can build off of his post season, I think we really got something on our hands with Gordon. Bamba and Fultz are x-factors. Even assume that Fultz comes back 100% healthy from day 1, he's still been out for a full year. He's gonna need time to get back into the full swing of things. And Bamba is still raw. I think they can both be a catalyst that propels our team to another level, but even best case scenario is unlikely to be this year. If we want solid improvement this year, it will come from Gordon and Isaac, my money is on Gordon taking the biggest jump. For the future beyond this year, it will come from Fultz and Bamba. If those latter 2 pan out the way we think they can, our money in Vuc won't matter because we will have our guys.

I just think its funny that nobody here thinks Vuc or Fournier are pieces to a winning, contending team, but those same people seem to think they are pieces we can flip to easily acquire those said pieces, in deals that are entirely friendly and beneficial to our team. We have a "treadmill" team, but apparently are just sitting on all of these amazing deals that are just gonna instantly turn us into a contender.

So first we talk about trading Fournier and Mozgov for Wiggins. Now we've moved on to trading Vuc for D'Angelo Russell. For a group of fans that hates these players on our roster, y'all sure are over estimating their trade value. lol @ Vuc for D'Lo

Why would I know specifically? I'm not an NBA GM. But when I am and have Intel on specific packages, I'll let you know. But until then, I can guarantee you we aren't getting him. Even tho I'd be all in on it if we did. I think you vastly overestimate how much a package of Fournier and Mozgov can get us.

Better than Fournier's $17 million with a player option, and Mozgov. Our package doesn't relieve them. It gives them another bad contract with Fournier.