TreyMachine

I'm on this train. A 2018 first of some variety I would be fine with. Thibs turns any team in 3-4 years into a playoff team in the East, where 1st's are not nearly as important. This year however: hell no. This is a delicate dance. Does NO or ORL give up a 1st? Do both? Is the person who gets the rights 1st the one who will sign him? Or does he have an order? Can that preference be known? If ORL gives a 1st but he wants NO, what happens? Lots of scenarios and I have no idea what the protocol is for these things.

I'm not sure why you're high on Monty. Did he do an adequate job with NOLA? Sure. He got them to the #8 seed. But he by no means got the most of our his stars. He had Jrue Holiday and Tyrek Evans who are both very athletic scorers, as is Eric Gordon. Ryan Anderson is the perfect compliment to Anthony Davis. Omer Asik is quite a good big man as well. If you get the most out of those pieces (as good as many of their "potential" has been listed) you're very competitive in the West. From all I kept hearing all year, Monty just wasn't the guy and not many people had confidence in him inside or outside of the organization. I don't think we miss out on Scott Brooks or Thibs. I think it's an either or, unless we think someone is better than Brooks. Either way, I have confidence.

Still. You can work with AD. He's a top 5 player in the league currently. You can't teach talent. We have a good team that fits better with Thibs's system, but we don't have that catalyst to build a team around. In the end, deconstructing their roster will take 2-3 years for Thibs to be able to really work off pieces... though many of them have potential and Thibs tends to get the most out of his players... Scott Brooks isn't a bad consolation prize either way. Hoping for the best!

Not opposed to this. Unless we fall in love with a guy in that 4-7 range, I don't see us reaching for a guy if we like someone more at the 10-13 range (Like us wanting Payton at #4 but attempting to reach him at #12). Henny will get the maximum value out of the draft pick.

It's unfortunate, because I do think we're the #3 job out there behind OKC and potentially Chicago. There are also murmurs about the Pelicans being the mix for a new head coach, which would make us the #4 job w/ Anthony Davis. And then you have potential rumblings of Flip Saunders going back to a pure front office job and getting a qualified coach to take over the Wiggins/Towns train, which would put us potentially at the #5 job out there. So, as much as we want Thibs, Brooks, or Messina (or hell, even Billy Donovan), we might be competing with some other very attractive coaching positions this summer for candidates.

Kyrie is only 22 - the same age as Dipo and Tobias? Holly ***.

I would be really interested to know what Gordon and Payton thought of Donovan. I still don't know if he's the coach for us, but I would like to know as a point of reference when truly considering him.

Hindsight is 20-20, but Jared Sullinger just had 21 points and 11 boards on 9-17 shooting against Cleveland. While I haven't watched any of his other games this year (I see his stats normally aren't this good), he definitely looked like a better pick than Andrew Nicholson.

Completely agree with this. Skiles - he works guys hard, but in the end, he clashes with players and most are left with a bitter taste in their mouth. On the other hand, Brooks' players loved him (granted - winning helps all relationships). Additionally, I have to believe his choice of offense had something to do with giving his two best guys freedom to work. Go ahead and look at Houston and you'll see multiple ISO's and Pick & Rolls with James Harden running the helm. It doesn't make you a bad coach if your play-calling plays to your team's strengths. Thibs & Skiles drive their players into the ground. It works with hungry kids (our players), but might in the end push some away. Thibs > Brooks > Skiles in my mind. In the end: In Henny We Trust.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12741477/oklahoma-city-thunder-fire-head-coach-scott-brooks I'm just saying: they fired someone who CARED about his players well, and whom every player fought for each and every night, even if he wasn't a perfect X's & O's guy. We all know Westbrook irks Durant, and with his coach gone, where could he land... ? What this feels like: when we hired Doc Rivers to try and get Tim Duncan from the Spurs. While that ultimately failed (but imagine if it would have worked and Hill would have stayed healthy???), I don't see why Kevin Durant wouldn't legitimately consider the Orlando Magic with its young core and Brooks at the helm if he's starting to feel dissatisfied with OKC. Additionally, while I clearly DO want an X's/O's guy, I would much rather than a coach players love to play for and respect the hell out of (Brooks) over a guy whom everyone hates and tunes out by the end of his coaching tenure (Thibs).

No way Tobias stays with us to be a bench player. If we pay him the $$, he'll be starting and would probably be rather upset coming off the bench unless he was seen as a scoring punch and finisher like Manu Ginobli. Does anyone know how close Tobias is to the other places on the team? I feel that somehow a close bond to teammates would play a role in his staying or leaving to some degree.

Most of these are completely speculative. Writers make up things with unsubstaniated rumors all the time. That being said, I would love to have Fournier back another year, and T12 if he comes at the right price (which he may not).

I'm in the same boat. Gordon is more naturally a 3, and I think that the team will generally treat him as such. The resigning of Tobias Harris I'm concerned about, but I'm also not overly worried because I think Gordon more naturally plays the 3 and signing a bigger 4 might be a better way to go. I'm excited to see where we land in the draft lottery so we can just start talking specifics. No doubt though, none of us will see or be able to call Henny's move, as none of us did last year.

I think it's unanimous that everyone would choose Vuc. Now, if it were Vuc at 24 or Howard at 26/27 (3-4 years ago) - that would be more of an interesting discussion, of which I imagine would be in Howard's favor. He changed the game defensively like few ever do each generation. However, now at 30, his best days are far behind him and Vuc has at least another 8 years of quality play ahead of him. Easy pick.

Is there an offseason coaching topic somewhere? I feel like this can be moved there, but do not want to start one if there is already a designated place for this discussion. I believe the quality of coaching candidates is much smaller than we think.

I of course do not see this happening, but really - what is the liklihood that someone like Karl-Anthony Towns or others come back in an attempt to win back a title, or that Okafor or Winslow stay to repeat? For me, I think Karl-Anthony is more likely to stay than Okafor or Winslow. However, going to Kentucky - it's somewhat understood that you are expected to leave after one season. And coming back for another season doesn't guarantee anything - just as the Harrison brothers.

Oh - I totally agree. Rob will do his homework and due diligence in finding a replacement. Unfortunately, even if we DO win out, the last four games will be against the Raptors, Knicks, Heat, and Nets. We'll have won 7 in a row... but against what competition? Would that be enough to sway management? Can he do anything? I don't know what we'll do, but in the end, it's fun to play with scenarios. I trust Henny's judgement.

Tonight he played like he did at the beginning of the season. It's kind of like the "what could have been" if injuries and Vaughn's coaching not gotten in the way.

Maybe I'm just that impressed with Borrego and what he's doing because Vaughn was SO BAD. I also think about how the games I have watched, the Magic have been competitive, though I must admit that I didn't watch games like the Spurs, the Pistons, the Hawks, the Mavericks... so I'm somewhat seeing all of this through rosey lenses. In the end, can we all just agree that Henny will do what he thinks is best for this team? All I'm saying is that I'm impressed with the growth this team has shown in the past 3 games and I'm even more impressed that Borrego seems to have great rotations, smart play calling, and gets more out of these players than anyone else has this season.

Guys... if Orlando wins against Toronto (do they have any reason to try and beat us?), is everyone more open to Borrego being our head coach? After watching how much has this team grown, how awesome the rotations have been, and how hard they're playing as a unit... I'm really starting to consider it if there is no "home run" out there... these guys seem to really like playing for Borrego. From what I read, that seems to be the difference between Vaughn and Borrego for a lot of these guys. I'm excited for our future.

They're taking away our buzz.... just let the game end already....

OFF GASOL! MAGIC SHALL WIN!!! WOOOOO!!!

I'M SORRY I DOUBTED YOU VICTOR

Glad to see everyone else showed up for this ending. The fact that we're tied and have the ball for the last shot against Chicago is impressive. Who do we think takes it? I'm going Victor. Don't know if he'll make it, but confident it's him.

Aaron Gordon will be All Defense 1st Team within the next 5 years. Anyone whom is put on him is SHUT DOWN.