Commodore K'nection

D-Wade tries to get vengeance after being posterized by Taj Gibson in Game 1. D-Wade about to throw down like he did on Anderson Varejao http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSA_Di2vliU But future Orlando Magic Center Omer Asik lays the hammer down on D-Wade instead.

Still think my trade offers for D-12 are unreasonable? for

Future Orlando Magic PF Taj Gibson doin' work on Dwyane Wade. If you watch closely, D-Wade's reaction to getting a face-full of Taj's ball sack: " Don't Taj Me Bro!" 'Rotation piece' Taj Gibson cleanin up the offensive glass

Pretty sure you guys are tired of my Trade Dwight threads. So I'll take a break on that. I've been reading about how the Magic will have a difficult time making moves this off-season because of salary cap restrictions and lack of trade assets. Besides Dwight, the only guys who could be dangled as trade bait are Jameer, JJ Redick, Brandon Bass and Ryan Anderson. Any combination of those four, plus draft picks, doesn't seem to be enough to land another star player alongside Dwight. The irony is, the Magic had the probably the best non-starting trade chip in the league in backup center Marcin Gortat. If I recall, when Gortat was a RFA, Houston and Dallas went after this guy hard. Several teams in the league lack a true center, much less one with the athleticism and upside of the Polish Hammer. Gortat was packaged to land the bad contract of Hedo, a rental on J-Rich and Earl Clark. In hindsight, had Orlando held onto Gortat until this off-season, he could have head-lined a package that brought back second "star" such as Deron Williams or Chris Paul. A package of Jameer Nelson, JJ Redick and Marcin Gortat plus draft picks to New Orleans for Chris Paul would have set up Orlando for years to come. Instead the Magic got back, basically, the long-term contract of Hedo and a 1st round exit. The Bulls have been bombarded with trade offers for our backup center Omer Asik, who is fast developing into the new Gortat. However, we refused to trade Omer for a shooting guard the likes of OJ Mayo or Courtney Lee, because even though he's not starting he is too valuable an asset. With Noah entrenched at C, we will save Omer for a rainy day to package in a trade for a big fish player (Dwight Howard maybe?). Bottom line, the Magic are hand-cuffed with no flexibility to improve the roster due to the bone-headed decisions of their GM. Gortat is on pace to be an All-Star center in the West next season and a 16 pt 12 rb player in Phoenix. You don't trade potential All-Star centers to get bad contracts and rental players in return. If the Magic are unable to land Chris Paul or another All-Star leaving Dwight Howard to ask out, the trade of Marcin Gortat will be a major reason why.

The Iron Sik is a good player, but Dwight Howard is a special one. D-12 can do the things Omer can do but better. And Howard--like the Bulls--are ready to win now. Asik is like Gortat, he needs more seasoning in the NBA (this is his rookie year). Of course no one player can replace everything Dwight brings to Orlando. But my point is if you have to lose Dwight, getting a piece back like The Iron Sik plus Joakim or Boozer and several picks AND we take back bad contracts is not a bad return for Howard.

The Istanbull does everything in this one. Fights for the rebound, then goes up strong and posterizes two would-be shot blockers. Magic fans go nuts when D-12 does this, got to give credit where credit is due.

Omer Asik highlights Are you sure you don't want this guy? Letting Marcin Gortat go was a huge mistake. $6 M a year for a young, true Center with upside was a steal. The Turkish Hammer might have even more upside than Gortat. Give this guy starting minutes, he'll get you 12 pts, 12-14 rebounds, 3 blocks a game and All-NBA caliber-defense. If you're gonna lose Dwight Howard, getting Asik to replace him is one of the better fall-back plans.

After what about this trade offer. We are going to take on BOTH of your bad contracts for Dwight Howard: Bulls trade: Joakim Noah - 5 years $60 M contract kicks in next season Carlos Boozer - 4 years $60 M remaining after this season Omer Asik - Known as the Turkish Hammer, basically a clone of Marcin Gortat the "Polish Hammer" Luol Deng - 3 years $40 M remaining after this season 4 1st round draft picks Magic trades: Dwight Howard Gilbert Arenas - 3 years $60 M remaining after this season Hedo Turkoglu - 3 years $34 M remaining after this season Trade Exception to make up difference in salaries With this trade, Orlando can completely rebuild on the fly with three veterans (Noah, Boozer and Deng) worthy of their contracts, plus a high-upside true Center to replace the center that you lost (Gortat). New Magic Lineup: C - Joakim Noah Omer Asik PF - Carlos Boozer Brandon Bass SF - Luol Deng SG - JJ Redick PG - Jameer Nelson With 3 Duke players in the middle of your line-up, maybe you can entice Coach K to come to Orlando? Bulls take on two bloated-contract, under-performing players in Hedo and Arenas, but get the best Big Man / Little Man combo in Howard and Rose. New Bulls lineup: C - Dwight Howard PF - Taj Gibson SF - Hedo Turkoglu SG - Gilbert Arenas PG - Derrick Rose Deal?

That's why I made my proposal in the other thread where I suggested Otis Smith call up Miami for LeBron James. The ONLY way Orlando gets a singular elite talent for Dwight is if the team trading for him has already has surplus of elite talent (Wade, Bosh, James). Thus they might make the trade of one elite player for another for the sake of getting a better fit. But any team with only 1 elite talent would want to hang onto their player to gain a second elite talent. Remember, if Dwight wants out Orlando does not have the kind of leverage to ask for a Blake Griffin. Either they get young talent and expiring contracts, a la the Nuggets, or Dwight walks in FA. No team is going to give up their star player with that kind of leverage.

I'm almost certain the Clippers will not trade Blake Griffin under any circumstances (be it for LeBron, Dwight, or Derrick Rose). Same with the Washington Wizards, they will not deal John Wall under any circumstances. These teams drafted these players to rally their fan base around them, the same way Orlando fans rallied around Dwight as a homegrown player. The best Magic fans can hope for is a plethora of young talent (instead of one singular rising star) and picks, plus shedding the bloated contracts of Arenas or Turk. If a trade with the Clippers were to happen, it would be to pair Dwight up WITH Blake, not to trade Blake FOR Dwight. The Clippers would probably offer you guys something like Eric Gordon, DeAndre Jordan, Al-Farouq Aminu, Chris Kaman plus draft picks for Dwight. Griffin would be untouchable. That's what Magic fans don't seem to understand. If Dwight gets traded, you are not getting a Kevin Durant, or Derrick Rose or Deron Williams. The teams trading for Dwight want to pair him up with THEIR best player a la the Miami Heat, not wind up with Dwight and a bunch of spare parts like Orlando.

Redick, you are the most reasonable person I've met on these boards. Thank you for giving an unbiased opinion. As for the MVP vote, even though D-Rose won it by a landslide, I'll agree Dwight Howard should have gotten more votes. Had D-12 won the damn thing, I would even be ok D-Rose came in second. Dwight had a monster year this year, shot a ridiculous percentage on offense, played even more ridiculous defense, and was the only reason why your team went as far as it did. The dude bulked up even more this year, it'll be scary to see what he looks like next season. I was pretty bummed when you guys matched JJ Redick last off-season. Since VC and now J-Rich are off the books, looks like it was a good move and JJ will take over that starting SG slot. Woulda been interesting to see what another shooter in addition to Korver could do along side D-Rose. We had to settle for Bogans instead. As for the Heat, don't worry man, the Bulls will take down Two and a Half men on behalf all NBA fans everywhere. We are not going to let the 3 MyEgos touch that Larry O'Brien trophy. LeBron may have made it past an old, aging Boston defense without Thibodeau. But we are the new Boston Celtics defense re-incarnated now, with a younger and more athletic front-line.

Bismack Mutombo, are u insane? Rose is not clutch? So I guess we won 62 games this year by blowing everyone out. Every time we are down in the 4th quarter, we give the ball to Rose and tell him to go to work. Dude takes it to the hole, splits or blows by the defense to lay it in and bail us out. Trust me, Derrick Rose is no LeChoke James.

I wanted to reply to this because you made a very though-out, well-written post and seem to know your Bulls history well. You're probably right about the Nuggets not being able to get over the hump as currently constructed. They will compete and make the playoffs, but need another piece to knock off the elite teams. I guess you probably would have wanted the Nuggets to blow everything up, start from ground zero and suffer through several cellar-dwellar seasons in hopes of landing a John Wall or Blake Griffin. That's easy to say if you're not a season-ticket holder, but if you pay money to go to the games, I'm sure those fans would rather see a mid-level playoff team than, say, the 2010-2011 Cavaliers out there stinkin up the joint. As for Kobe, I'll be very honest. I was against trading for Kobe because he's a scumbag. But I did want us to trade Luol for Pau Gasol because we needed low post scoring more than we needed a wing player (Ben Gordon was pretty good). Bottom line, I actually think if we could get Ricky Rubio, and send him you're way, how could you say no if Dwight wanted out? PG and C are the hardest positions to fill. I'm talking about true Centers, not Al Horford or Al Jefferson masquerading as one. Noah is a top 5 center in the East and he's still young. A young PG like Rubio plus a hard-working, athletic PF like Taj Gibson is a good foundation. A lot of teams would love to have their lottery pick turn into a Joakim Noah one day. The alternative is having your pick turn into an Epke Udoh or Yi JianLian.

I don't sense sincerity in your trade acceptance. But I will leave anyways because I have a game to catch. But I may be back sometime in the future to discuss some Dwight Howard's options further.

I don't know who this Jarreth fellow is. Just a Bulls fan having some convo with some Magic fans, that is all.