South_Aussie_Magic

The glaring hole in using this as a comparative example is again lucking into Dwight Howard at No. 1. Year one we had Vuc, Harkless and Nicholson. No comparison really.

What you seem to be missing though here is that, none of those peripheral players around Dwight would have made the playoffs without him. None of the other good players around Steph Curry would have done anything if he wasn't there either. Then we also have to remember the Warriors lucked into Steph. He could have gone anywhere in that s***show of a draft. What if he went somewhere else, didn't get low-balled because of his ankles and started to work on his body -- would he have reached such dazzling heights if he were a flipping Timberwolf? Would Draymond Green have been motivated to become more than what he was projected as out of college? Would the Warriors in that alternate reality be celebrated for their front office magic? The point I'm trying to make is that without that ONE player, that Lebron, that Tim Duncan, that Kobe, that Dwight, that Steph... all of the peripheral stuff is completely unguaranteed. What if, in 2013 Rob had the foresight to pick Antetokuonmpo? What if in the subsequent years we got a number one overall. This whole situation could be a lot different. We suck, we could have a better team to support. But we STILL don't have that IT player to build around so the rest of it is kind of up in the air at the moment. With 8 games to play in the season, now is really not the time to be worrying about playing for pride when we could have a reasonable-ish shot at such a foundation piece. A game changer.

Judging by the way Phoenix got smashed by Brooklyn last night you can see them catching up to the lakers lol

I've never really read it before, no, so cheers for sharing there. It's good if you have a Durant but sucks to be us with noone lol. In all seriousness though, they should have done something with this last free agent class. Like maybe play out initial free agency at the old rules til the beginning of the regular season or something, and then jacked up all the contracts to maintain appropriate percentages or something. I don't think free agency was fair for all the players NOT getting new contracts for a while, especially Steph Curry.

Yep, the folks running the show can only play by the rules that they've been given to work with. As someone said in another thread too, with all of the CBA changes supposedly designed to keep star players in place, it's hardly going to be a situation that will likely get better. The other question from that take too is that if it works and stars DID stay put for the majority of their careers, what is the chances that teams with low level stars and or no stars end up being horrible for longer stretches of time. That would just be horrific. I think I'd rather have the left-field feeding frenzy where players move as they wish. If players can change direction freely, teams should have the freedom to change direction too. Happy, winning franchises would have continuity for a bit while the rest get to manoeuvre about til the pieces fit.

The problem being of course that teams like NYK, Minny and NO are all trying to win and could still get good odds of that high draft pick in this situation. Although, mercifully, the fans of the Knicks probably would welcome the winds of luck blowing their way for the first time in god knows how many years.

I largely agree. Obviously dumb things like the Billy King-led Nets debacle can't stop the trainwreck that Sean Marks is trying to survive right now. I don't know if they would win another game if they tried any harder. It'd probably be a better overall NBA product if the bottom five teams weren't in a race over the final month of the season or so to keep their wins to the low-20's. If the bottom 6 or 7 teams were then hovering at 30 wins, it'd probably be a better perception for fairweather fans and therefore revenue also.

Isn't this one of what DOM used to call logical fallacies?

Guys is this the moment Mario just begins his upward trajectory??

Ever since someone brought that up, I've been a little preoccupied with that thought. Why the f*** is it not a sticking point? Why can't someone tell him to do it for his own good??

Oh, I get it. I just can't imagine why anyone would take what is said on Deadspin as anything close to objective journalism. Not to say I don't sometimes agree with the viewpoints expressed. But can't take it for anything than the snark, as you said.

Isn't Deadspin, by virtue of its existence, a joke? Don't think many things are sacred on that site. Personally just think I'm glad something happened. F*** what journalists think.

Josh Robbins pointed that out too. Said there was a "weird atmosphere". Can't say I've heard that about sports before. Just wish it signaled an actual change to something!

Were these things about this Monk dude (low expectations, PG skills in question, too small etc.) not levelled at Curry when he came out? Not wanting to jinx anything in case this young fella happens to head our way, but had to ask

I find this especially true when a bunch of people have clamoured for our wing to be upgraded to "superstar Paul George" when said "superstar" still also has plenty of games where he disappears on offense and displays some poor efficiency. Having said that I really do like him.

He left them in too long before and they scored 7 straight. What a conundrum. Wish they could get it right.

What the hell is going on with all these weird minutes and FGA numbers? Why is Biz our leading scorer? I mean I'm glad Mario has 20 mins on the floor but ... what was wrong with the Utah game rotation otherwise?

I can't thank you enough, with you one of the most experienced posters on here, for basically echoing how I feel about this situation. Cheers to you.

The party line when Hennigan was brought in was sustainable ability to reconfigure and contend without getting locked into a bad roster. They spent some money but we can't say that there's no moveable parts. Another reason consistency in management should be important here is that they should know better than anyone which of the moveable parts in the roster are absolutely not working. So many franchises have had more ****ty down time than our Magic. God forbid its Orlando's turn. At least give it the opportunity to find, mold, display and build around a bona fide star before concluding that the current arrangement will never work. My trepidation with the Serge / Vic trade was massively in the "what if he goes elsewhere and becomes Dwyane Wade Part II?" Seeing as that hasn't happened I'm definitely of the mind that we have had less than zero luck lottery wise. Although I wish Rob could have scouted Giannis. But there's also probably another 13 GM's who feel the same way. Edit: I guess I'd add Gobert to that list. Weird draft. Only two solidly good players above Vic from it being unknown Euro prospects.

I'm glad I am hearing some more people of the mind to let the current group fix the roster they've put together. Our beloved franchise (and I should hope it is beloved otherwise what's the point) will look like a bunch of idiots for having a revolving door of management and coaches. People laugh at Sacramento. They don't laugh at Cousins and his talent, or Coach Joerger and whatever else they have that's good. They laugh at the idiotic turnover without leadership. Plans fail in all manner of business. Do you stick by it or throw it out the minute you don't like it?

Less than a week!

Can't remember who brought up the 16th Jan deadline to move him, but I hope these numbers and these sound bites that make it seem like he has chemistry issues with Serge are an impetus to make good on that. I'm counting down the days.

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=z4m7pl6 Am I desperate for something, anything to happen? Yes.

hoping all these comments mean that whatever deal we are doing if we do one includes evan. maybe giving up something to get something means getting rid of someone like him just this once

How is Biz looking tonight. Box score makes him look terrible