VintageGarrity

This seems fair. I'll take 40 games, but I'll say Payton thrives under Vogel and the draft thing will depend on who we get if we trade Vuc.

Dwight would be an absolute locker room cancer if this happened. It would be a colossal distraction.

Woj says we're looking at a 3-team trade with the Cavs. We would move Varejao elsewhere in a deal. https://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba-trade-deadline-buzz--clippers-move-closer-toward-channing-frye-deal-023959300.html

I'm guessing it was not a big issue and is being overstated slightly by Zach in the article as a "well maybe this factors in" tidbit. He didn't really emphasize the point and it seems like Harris got along with Vuc pretty well.

I didn't think Harvey looked good in SL. In particular, there were a couple games where he played with Hezonja that really pissed me off. It was clear he had something to prove and he was distracted by trying to put up individual numbers. At PG he looked to score and displayed zero instincts as a distributor. He dominated the ball when he was in and looked very average. Granted, putting him on the Blue team set him up to look bad. However, I like Appling better as a prospect for third string PG.

Yeah that comp flashed across my mind while posting, but I think that they're really different players mentally. Draymond is much more of an enforcer-type guy and I also think he's maybe a better passer than Aaron. I still think Aaron can become a playmaking 4 in his own way, though. He brings an athleticism that Draymond doesn't have. He's still so young too.

Aaron looked awesome in today's summer league game. Still has a long way to go, but I'm starting to think he can be a small ball 4. His handle looked very tight and his shooting stroke is smooth. Still needs to work on consistency with the shot and I don't think he's necessarily going to be a clutch player, but I think Mario and Tobias can fill that role for us. Nearly a 20-20 game, a couple of good blocks, and only 2 turnovers.

Yeah, I mean, I realize this is an appreciation thread, so I will say that I think he always plays with a lot of heart. It's just hard to hold back criticism when I think maybe grabbing a guy like Stuckey or perhaps someone a little more versatile would have been a wiser move.

Basketball stats have to be taken in context. If you are around a 38% 3-pt shooter and a big man, like Channing Frye, who we know has been disappointing for other reasons, then that's a little different to a guard who's shooting in the mid 30s and not really disrupting defenses in an unusual way. You can perhaps defend Ben Gordon on personal grounds--his motivational skills, maybe, I don't know, but I'm just trying to be real about the player he is right now. He's not shooting well enough to off-set the things he does poorly. My original post was about his general lack of contribution during basketball games, so, I'm not trying to make a statement about shooting in a vacuum. You wanted to isolate the shooting part that I brought up, and perhaps I should have been more specific, but really that's your point of focus more than mine.

You're right. It's also not that good, especially for a dude who only contributes as a shooter. Look at the guy's assist to turnover ratio. And his steal rate.

I used the present tense. He's been well below that for the last three seasons.

Super excited for the season to start. I'm taking a guarded approach to this whole "it's a new nba and everything's positionless now and you just play small ball and shoot threes because look what the warriors just did" thing, but when I see a wing player with shooting, athleticism, and competitiveness in a 6' 8" body it's hard not to be tantalized by the possibilities. I just pray they will take a measured approach bringing him along. I think they should attempt to re-sign Tobias, have him be the starter to begin the season, and then explore trades in the near future to open up a starting role for Mario sooner rather than later. Really don't want to give up Tobias for nothing, but I don't see him as a long-term player for the Magic. I strongly suspect he will be an empty numbers guy as a starter, but perhaps he can become a bench contributor to a good team down the line.

Obviously can't speak for his locker room presence, but from what I saw on the court he exhibited zero value to our team last season and was pretty much a mistake as a signing. I don't think he is a bad guy, and obviously Tobias seems to like him, but I don't think that's any reason to be charitable from a basketball perspective. He's an undersized 2 who barely comprehends how to play off the ball (he's mostly a black hole); he has an ugly, inconsistent jumper; and he's bad at defense. The thing I most appreciate is that he's gone. While on the topic of aging, small guards, I hope we can find a way to bring back nelson as a bench vet.

Screw the Lakers we should just trade for Boogie ourselves.

We really need a shooter. It makes me so sad that we won't get D'Angelo Russell. We have an elite distributor in the making with Payton and you don't hand Michelangelo a box of crayons and expect the Sistine Chapel. It's gotta be Hezonja or Porzingis. They have the best shots in our range. I really like the edge on Mario, but Kristaps can send Frye packing with the potential for a little volleyball on D. If we take another defense-first player Rob Hennigan is forgetting a cardinal rule of basketball: someone has to make the ball go inside the hoop.