TreyMachine

I can see Willie Green being a locker room presence that they need (a veteran on a rather young team), and with Moe not producing at any of the opportunities he can get, he may be worth a 2nd round pick to some team on potential alone. Additionally, I don't think Moe is coming back here next year with how this year has gone - so why not ship him out early if this is really the case? With that being said, if Vaughn is fired, we should DEFINITELY keep Willie Green on for his locker room presence. The guy is apparently a mature-mentor and is seen around the league for being a real pro and model athlete. I don't like him on the court, but with all the problems, if he really is a great locker room guy, we need him during this stretch.

I feel like this is another game we "should win," but I really haven't been able to predict anything with this team lately. Which team will show up? I don't know. If we're looking to tank and have the Lakers stay out of top 5 pick potential, isn't this a win-lose situation?

I feel as though we will be using this a good amount on game days. I'm calling 3 posts of it next game thread.

Offense has just as much to do with the system as it does with the players. It's not like we don't have anyone on our team who is able to generate offense. A coaching system can literally make or break a team (look at the Knicks trying to put in a style of offense that just isn't them).

A part of me feels that Vaughn knows how to coach and run an offense one way: the way Pop taught him to and/or the way he likes. Our team doesn't fit that mold, and right now, he cannot adapt. Can we just speed up the process of letting him go to get someone to light a fire under the team's butt at this point?

So then the Cavs had another disgruntled head-case to a first-year head coach? GREAT idea. This team has talent, but they need help on the interior. It will be a nightmare if LeBron and Kevin Love leave next year. Imagine if LeBron moves to NY because of this move! HAHA! (note: it would be a terrible PR move for him).

Knicks are shedding contracts to get players they want. I think it's a smart move by Phil Jackson, seeing how this is now a lost season for them. They'll have PLENTY of cap room with Amare, Smith, and Shumpert contracts all gone. Meanwhile, if the Thunder gets Waiters and don't have to give up Jackson, they've just made a HUGE steal.

It was called to my attention on a Zach Oliver article: has anyone notice how Moe hasn't even been on the bench the past two games? They said he was being treated for an injury in the first half of the first game, but nothing was said of the second game. Internal disciplinary issues?

I'm all for this idea.

With his history with the team, why hasn't his name been thrown out there? He's a disciplinarian, which might be exactly what this team needs. If anything, people would be excited to have him back and give him an opportunity to prove himself.

I agree with this. The entire team is backsliding. Bringing in someone else is addition by subtraction at this point.

I want to like the Magic. I've been a die-hard fan for years, but this is season of severe back-pedaling is really taking energy out of me. The last two seasons, we knew we were going to be bad. This year, we saw SO MUCH promise at the beginning. And now, it seems like the predictions of the analysts are coming true - that we'll be a basement dweller yet again. :svgsad:

An interim coach HAS TO be better than what we have going now. I'm all for keeping the team chemistry going and acknowledging in most circumstances, it is far worse to replace a coach mid-season, but at some point, we have to look and see that almost EVERY player has regressed in some way this season. We are a trainwreck - even when we do win, but never like "Wow. I was proud of that win." We haven't strung together back-to-back wins in weeks. Is there someone who could do better taking over mid-season? I do not know. What I do know is that we've gotten worse - as a team and as individuals. This cannot be acceptable.

Heart and Hustle had a leader coach named Doc Rivers. I believe that's the biggest thing we're missing between those days and now.

Two blowout losses to bad teams at home (yes - we made a comeback against the Nets, but that had little to do with JV and a lot to do with luck). JV better be on the hotseat. Our team is much more talented than this. This team used to believe in themselves, but it's clear they lack fire now. They need a leader out there to kick our a****, both on the floor and on the sideline. We have neither. Get George Karl on the phone and pay him what he wants. This team has plenty of talent. I believe these players have quit on their coach.

There have been plenty of games where this kind of foul is called - for better or worse. We should have lost the game in the end (I don't want us believing it's acceptable to be down 25 b/c we can come back), but that no call was crud from whichever perspective you see it.

No one has talked about this (and neither did the commentators) but did anyone notice that HUGE push-off that Jarret Jack had on Ben Gordon to get the ball and let the clock run out? While Gordon might have sold it a little bit, I'm honestly surprised that it wasn't an offensive foul. Overall: Payton > The rest of this team

My fault. Meant O'Quinn rather than Harkless.

Frye has indeed become expendable for us. However, our problem is not how expendable he is, but now HOW TRADABLE he is. With his contract, there is NO ONE who would take him outside of for the sake of budgetary reasons to make a trade work, at least that's the feeling I get from around the league when people were shocked that we had signed him for $8 mil a year for 4 years - a contract he has not lived up to in the least.

I think you must have misread that I wrote Harkless, as his name isn't in there. As far as I'm concerned, Harkless will find another team, but I don't know if he'll ever live up to his potential unless he can get confident to take the ball himself and make shots - which he won't find opportunity for in a Magic uniform at this point. I admit that after looking at his numbers I was a little reactionary and short-sighted. What I DO still believe is that he doesn't look as explosive on offense (though his decision making has been better), which then makes his defense not as stingy. I got crossed over I don't know how many times by Jameer last night, and in previous nights, he hasn't been able to keep his man in front of him well. His offensive numbers are better than I expected though. I can totally admit that I was being reactionary. We do have to make a decision though, because it's become more and more apparent that O'Quinn is going to get paid, meaning we can really only choose 4 (maybe 5) of Vuc-O'Quinn-Oladipo-Harris-Gordon-Payton to keep long-term. I personally would rather invest in Vuc-O'Quinn, as talented & smart big-men are hard to come by in this league, followed by Payton (who makes the players around him better and inevitably will get a jumpshot), and Oladipo/Harris are tied as the 4th-tier. Scoring SG/SFs are easier to find in this league over good big-men or Pass-first PGs. Gordon I do not have enough on to evaluate as of yet.

It's odd, but as I see it right now, unless something improves in him, it's almost like Oladipo is the odd man out in this group of players I want. Now of course we all know something is off about his game, as his explosiveness on offense and defense is currently lacking. Nonetheless, if he remains the same, I wold rather have Payton, Harris, Vuc, Gordon, and O'Quinn as our core over Vic. I think he gets back to last year's form - as we finally decide to make him a slashing SG - this all changes. My fear, as mentioned before, is that O'Quinn will be offered a good contract that we might not be able to match long-term. Hope we resign both Harris and Harkless though.

Oladipo just played poorly in general tonight with 2-15 from the field and too many TO's. I don't know what's wrong with Oladipo, but he needs to get it fixed. It's not just his PG play, it's his EVERYTHING play. Anyone else notice in the final 10 minutes it was his ankles that kept getting broken by Jameer? A GUY WHO IS A DEFENSIVE STOPPER COULDN'T GUARD KEEP 5'10" 34-YEAR-OLD JAMEER FROM GETTING INTO THE LANE. Seriously, watching his defense made me think something is wrong. He's just so.... slow....

2 straight bad plays by Oladipo at PG!! UGHHHH Annnddd Payton is back in as I write this. GOOD. JV realizes what he is doing.

I'm not so sure. Boston is playing with fire and the Magic look like they're thinking of what they're doing after the game tonight. I'm actually really worried. We're not fighting anymore. Hopefully JV gets on their butts to go for the jugular and close this one out.