The Tumbleweed Hangout: Post-Dwight Era discussion

[Beast From The East 663]

I really hope you are one of the people that we lose when this team starts to suck. You literally contribute nothing.

 

Thaaanks

[Jareth Cutestory 678]

This forum needs a plague.

[Shock Phantom 263]

This forum needs a plague.

I like your sig lmao

[The Neighborhood Bully 266]

http://nba-point-for...wr_a1&eref=sihp

 

Good read on the Howard trade.

 

Given all that, one of the following almost certainly has to be true:

 

• Orlando loves Afflalo, who is about to turn 27 and has never put up a league-average Player Efficiency Rating. But he came close to that mark last season, and he’s clearly trying to find the right balance in his game between scoring, defense, passing and off-the-dribble creativity. When Afflalo finds that balance, is he going to be an All-Star? That seems unlikely, though the shooting guard crop is famously weak. At the very least, he’s a suitable replacement for J.J. Redick, who will be a free agent after next season. And Scott Perry, the Magic’s new assistant GM, is familiar with Afflalo from his days in a similar position with the Pistons, Afflalo’s first NBA team.

 

• Orlando loves Moe Harkless, the 15th pick in the June draft, and/or Nikola Vucevic, the 16th pick in 2011.

 

• Orlando at least loved the fact that Harkless, by virtue of his earlier signing date, became trade-eligible late last week. Houston’s draft picks signed later and won’t be trade-eligible for another few weeks, and the Magic may have decided it was time to cut bait with Howard and move on.

 

Absent one or more of those conditions, Houston’s would-be offer strikes me as a hair better. Ditto for any three- or four-way Brooklyn-centric deal in which the Magic would have received Brook Lopez, MarShon Brooks and picks without also taking on Kris Humphries — a deal type that may have been dead by the time Lopez signed his max contract. It was popular to mock the idea of Orlando’s taking on Lopez at $14 million or so per season, but that’s precisely what Harrington and Afflalo make combined. And this doesn’t even take into account that Bynum, still just 24, won’t make all that much more per year on his next contract. Dealing for Bynum would have brought the risk of his bolting after one season and the Magic’s being “too good” to hit high in the lottery, but it also would have brought a potential franchise centerpiece and the ability to get abjectly awful a year later if he didn’t re-sign. It wouldn’t have come with the same bounty of picks, but the picks Orlando got will all fall outside the lottery — a place in which the average return, on the high end, is a career in line with Corliss Williamson or Kelvin Cato.

[MakDaRealist 15]

Since the trade is done, what one player are you guys looking forward to seeing play. I wanna see Drew personally.

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

I can't possibly be the only one who finds Eskobar just really sad at this point, right?

 

It CAN'T just be me, right?

 

I mean, the dude just made a post patting himself on the back because I was slightly wrong on one minor point(he badgered me and ?4thewin, THEN offered a bet to me, before ignoring my response. But the badgering and the bet were separate. My mistake), and that was after I posted links to 4 separate threads of him acting like an obnoxious ******* while being wrong on every single point he tried to make. Holy hell.

[Shock Phantom 263]

Since the trade is done, what one player are you guys looking forward to seeing play. I wanna see Drew personally.

Trade players: Afflalo

 

Anyone else: Close between our two draftees

[NYCmagic 15]

Since the trade is done, what one player are you guys looking forward to seeing play. I wanna see Drew personally.

Harkless

[Jareth Cutestory 678]

I desperately want Nich and Moe to become an exciting one-two punch.

[AddiFB 429]

I have a feeling Eyenga will surprise us. He might have a little breakout season.

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

He likes to mix in common facts like height, college and years in the NBA with other nonsensical information and try to pass it off as analysis. He has to be the worst sports commentator I've ever seen on ESPN in terms of analytic ability. And that's saying a lot.

 

The saddest part is that I've read SAS's writing: when he doesn't have to talk, his analysis is actually pretty solid and insightful.

 

I know, I was as shocked as anyone.

[COLOMBIANO 118]

I desperately want Nich and Moe to become an exciting one-two punch.

 

Hopefully in season 2013-2014.

 

We need to suck bad for a year or 2