South_Aussie_Magic

Meanwhile if the Sixers gave Hinkie through the end of next year without pushing **** through like adding Colangelo the perception there would be different. Honestly, what has Colangelo done? Exhumed the grave of Elton Brand and made the most obvious number one pick since Anthony Davis?

The question of whose impatience has grown so quickly is something we can all guess but noone outside of ownership and management presumably will never know. I agree, but that whole Skiles year was just a god damned waste. It's a season we'll never get back. It's really possible that coming from nurturing environments like San Antonio and OKC, Hennigan likes the longer and more considered view and still took the Magic job as a foot in the door, despite knowing what lay ahead of him expectation wise. Are we doomed to failure like the Hornets fans under George Shinn?

Well the team still isn't locked down by salary that noone would want, and we have been witness to a boat load of guys who have underperformed to expectations. That's on them too.

Be honest here, who is this magical visionary?

I could be wrong here but a lot of opinions on this subject seem to be weighted to the expectations of the quick hire and fire attitude of the generation, and/or the perceived (probably real) expectations of an owner who gets talked about like he's had one foot in the grave for a decade. Something doesn't work for five minutes, get rid of it wholesale. I could have my rose-coloured glasses on, but how does one expect to get better at their job if they don't have a chance in a situation to see if it's not so much their idea that's haywire but the circumstances and (very, very obviously) the will and intent of the commodities being traded in - i.e. real life frickin' people. Do we seriously forget how long Golden State were terribly bad for, LA, the brief window 10 years ago that the Kings looked awesome, the decade plus futility of the Celtics before 2008? I could go on and on. Everyone knows that history extends beyond our patience. I still feel that it is obvious that Hennigan was tied to that Skiles hire and did some things to placate him. As much as the bull**** Skiles pulled in his tenure should be stamped out by a GM, maybe his lack of longevity and comparative standing in the eyes of the organisation forced him to capitulate more than he would like. If Stan Van Gundy was able to stick around while Rob Hennigan was hired and we didn't have to just hire a placeholder (I mean, they were giving a young guy a shot, it's not like it doesn't happen elsewhere), do you not think we'd be singing a slightly different tune. Yes, it's been four seasons, maybe going on 5 without a playoff appearance. But at least a year of that was tearing down the old to begin to build the new. In the process of building the new you can scream til you're black and blue in the face that there were better options but lottery luck is really too fickle to hang your hat on and stating that we could swing deals and pick up free agents is futile unless you're the one trying to do them. Hennigan has made some good deals, shed all of the drek our beloved team had hanging off of it, and generally has had next to f-all to work with. We can't trade for gold with a pile of faeces. ULTIMATELY, I can't say Hennigan has made a move so far that screams that the Magic have been terribly ripped off and this is year one with a new coaching group, assistants and all. Would it not be prudent, instead of constantly throwing out parts at management and coaching level, to continue to build something. You guys want them to attract free agents but if guys are constantly fired and shipped out from top to bottom no-one is going to want to come near that mess. See: Sacramento, Sterling-era LAC, post-Jordan Chicago. I know the name of the game today is dealing with EVERYONE'S impatience but the perception of stability and competence has probably never been more important to very empowered individuals that happen to be basketball free agents.

Does Denton's tweet about Fournier recently being under the weather and having niggling pain constitute a reasonable excuse for why he's sucked while other things have improved (i.e. defence) or do you think it was an innocuous tweet about him feeling better that really has little impact?

Just having a little What If? moment... Back on draft night, what if Larry Sanders had been pitching his comeback to a bunch of teams during the playoffs, and his agent had let it be known that he was heading to the Magic. Had the Magic been both allowed to do that and also been suitably impressed by the idea... and never traded Vic for Serge. Then after the moratorium signed both Sanders and Biyombo. All other moves exactly the same. Except Rudez, this is my fantasy and I can't stand the guy. How do you think the Magic would have fared thus far? I've always loved Sanders, I know he can't do the shooting from deep like Serge, but we could trial Sabonis like the Thunder have and I guess I just feel the team would still have more of that youthful enthusiasm even if I did believe Ibaka's reported age. Or on the other hand would the two big men duplicate talent too much? At the end of the day I would still want to swap out Vuc for a wing or Vuc and Payton for an upgrade at the 1...

Every time he brings a bit of energy it's infectious. I think we've all been waiting for a guy like that for a long time.

Love all of those little edits Mauro lol... tell us how you really feel.

If only this guy were Danny Ainge...

Is it just me or is every damn team in the league flush with big dudes who can at least do more than half of what he does do well? I haven't found a roster that looks like it could use him. That's depressing.

If it doesn't move the needle for him, what the hell would?

I bet Mario is just feeling crushed right now... I mean he's not that much smaller than Rudez and that's a good thing right now.

Don't know if it's related but swapping out Ibaka for Rudez would help?

Alright... now can you please play Mario, Frank?

Vuc and Green presumably know what the connotations are about their being the only two starters to sit in the first quarter... right?

But this isn't the real Bucks right... why on earth is Novak starting?

lol and look what they're getting

I'm only looking at box scores and play by plays and it seems fairly simple to see where Biz is impacting. Watching a play by play feed and things start happening when they put him in. It's probably stupid that I'm drawing conclusions from it but when I've done that, he comes in, creates a couple of extra possessions or saves some... and then boom guys like Payton, Nik etc are rebounding a bit better too. As P4TW said further down, noone was calling out the energy, effort and impact of Ben Wallace. Prime Ben Wallace would probably have made a killing this summer.

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=gnq3b39 anyone?

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. A year on the Spurs bench is worth ten in Philly

LOL - that's exactly what I came here to laugh about!

Austin Croshere?

holy s***! Has he even had something this important to play for before? I didn't think at this point a chance at a title would have driven him this much either

Actually, judging by some of the trades and contract numbers that get made etc. he'd probably be around middle of the pack lol