Mid-Summer Power Rankings from NBA.com

[Voodoo Man 99]

well, in orlando there's actually only the ucf knights. whom only got to the fiesta bowl recently. (congrats) the other bigger schools (fsu, uf, the u) are obviously not in orlando. so these people grew up loving these teams. so, moving here you obviously wouldn't get the draw to it. they are all very passionate fan bases and as these schools, at least since the 80's) have been somewhat relevant in the countries most popular sport or at least always in conversation they hold popularity. on the other hand the magic have hit tragedy on more than one occasion in 25 years. couple this with the fact that sometimes the individual is more polarizing than the team (mj, kobe, bron) and fans tend to grasp upon the most attractive. that's not always orlando given that many citizens originate from larger cities. this ended up being longer than I had planned but, hopefully it makes sense.

I appreciate the explanation. I had a native Floridian also tell me that professional sports is somewhat new in the state of Florida, compared to the Midwest where baseball, football, hockey, and basketball have been in existence since the leagues were formed. I guess this must be the reason that the Rays and Marlins have hapless attendance figures even when they put highly competitive teams on the field.

[ball junkie 277]

First off, thanks to the Captain again for taking the time to give his interpretation of Zach Lowe's article....I'm going to quote the Captain here:

 

Considering the youth movement and total rebuild we've undertaken, I'm cautiously optimistic about the next two seasons.

 

I take it by this you're not sure (convinced) how Henny's moves are gonna pan out ???

 

Lastly,......

 

I think Jim's question from the beginning was wondering what the Magic were doing this offseason. Specifically Frye for $8 million per, B Gordon for $4.5 million per.

 

Kevin Pelton (1:13 PM)

In that case, no. I understand broad outlines -- Frye's shooting is necessary to offset the non-shooting of the draft picks, non-guaranteed second seasons are valuable in trades -- but the specifics are still somewhat hard to understand. The Magic could have paid literally any shooting guard $4.5 million and gotten the same benefits used to explain the Gordon deal, and most of them would have been better choices.

 

WOW !....That Jim guy really asks some pointed questions !!....I think we all know Kevin Pelton is a hater so no biggie....I heard he (Jim) really asked some more pointed questions than that....I would have liked to read his response, lol.

 

Also, I wonder if the Jim guy in the Coon chat was the same person ???....Anyway, salary cap stuff for me is boring so, meh....

[Emory889 353]

First off, thanks to the Captain again for taking the time to give his interpretation of Zach Lowe's article....I'm going to quote the Captain here:

 

 

 

I take it by this you're not sure (convinced) how Henny's moves are gonna pan out ???

 

 

The rest of your post was dumb but I'll address this point. The answer is no, neither Captain, nor I, nor anyone else that is even remotely reasonable are convinced how the moves that Hennigan made this offseason are going to work out.

 

We drafted two rookies, one of which is 18 years old. It will take at least a couple of seasons to really evaluate Gordon and at least one season to evaluate Gordon. There's no way to be 100 percent positive on how a rookie is going to turn out unless you draft Tim Duncan.

 

I know exactly what we are getting from Channing Frye. That move doesn't concern me at all. I feel like I know what I'm getting from Luke Ridnour and is contract can voided after this season. I have no idea what we are going to get from Ben Gordon and his contract can be voided after this season as well. What I can say is all three of these players are considered good shooters and lack of shooting is something you were consistently bemoaning for months leading up to the draft when we thought we might draft Exum. Speaking of Exum, I haven't heard you mention his name recently. Are you back off his bandwagon for now?

 

The only sure things that I see are moves that Hennigan made before this summer. Oladipo is a sure fire good NBA player with the potential for more. Vucevic is a solid NBA center with the potential to maybe make one more slight jump before he hits his ceiling. I'm not as convinced with Tobias Harris but he's, as a worse case scenario, a guy that can come off the bench and provide scoring. And he also shed all of the horrific contracts that were on the Magic books within 2 years. Thats incredible. These moves did work.

[Captain Hi-Top 791]

Is it possible to be sure of how players will develop and grow together? Can any rebuilding team honestly say they are positive that the path they are on will definitely produce an NBA championship in "x" years? You could grab the best player on the planet and add him to two more top ten guys and STILL NOT MEET EXPECTATIONS. What I do have, at this time, is faith in what Rob is doing.

 

Does he have a history of bad moves? A history of blindly overpaying players? A history of knee-jerk reactions/moves? A history of destroying cap space? No, he has none of those things, so reacting to these off season moves as if he's Otis Smith is ridiculous.

 

Has he shown a keen eye for talent? An understanding of character? A short history of trades panning out in his favor even after they get bashed by the media initially? Yeah, you know he does. So, why should this be any different?

 

All Pelton said negatively about B. Gordon was that we overpaid. That point has already been conceded. He also points out some things I've been telling you but you refuse to acknowledge. Frye is a good fit, B. Gordon's contract is very trade/team friendly despite the amount. I've already posted ad nauseum about the B. Gordon and Frye signings, so I don't think I need to repeat myself here. Besides, I could summarize and restate my opinion at length but what's the point, you're going to ignore virtually every single thing I say and respond to one single line for your reply anyway.

 

Finally, those questions you asked weren't pointed at all, and I don't think you actually read and understood the responses you received. Both Pelton and Coon basically told you the same things we've been telling you this entire time.

[Joseph_Kuhr 61]

I appreciate the explanation. I had a native Floridian also tell me that professional sports is somewhat new in the state of Florida, compared to the Midwest where baseball, football, hockey, and basketball have been in existence since the leagues were formed. I guess this must be the reason that the Rays and Marlins have hapless attendance figures even when they put highly competitive teams on the field.

 

Yeah, youre right. then there's that. the blackhawks historically have a slightly stronger pull then the solar bears. lol obviously climate has something to do with that though.

[Voodoo Man 99]

Yeah, youre right. then there's that. the blackhawks historically have a slightly stronger pull then the solar bears. lol obviously climate has something to do with that though.

That's another weird thing here in Tampa. The Lightning outdraw the Rays. Hard to figure.

[My 6th Rebuild 6]

That's another weird thing here in Tampa. The Lightning outdraw the Rays. Hard to figure.

 

That's because Tampa is Yankee country....

 

Rays need to be moved.... to Orlando.... that would be awesome. They would probably draw more fans.

 

Anyways... this is Magic talk.... I didn't like the Aaron Gordon move either but I'm taking a wait and see approach. Same goes for Ben Gordon, Frye,and Green. Junkie, maybe you should do the same.

[Nyce_1 311]

That's another weird thing here in Tampa. The Lightning outdraw the Rays. Hard to figure.

If Rays had their stadium on the right side of the bay (Channelside), they'd EASILY outdraw the Lightning. Location, location, location.

[God Hates Otis Smith 153]

pretty mediocre off-season to say the least, spending money on guys who have no long term value to us is strange

we will still be terrible next year and instead of staying the course on the rebuild we will be picking 8th instead of top 5

[God Hates Otis Smith 153]

The official website of the NBA had the Magic ranked 24th when the season ended....After Henny's off-season moves we fell to 27th.

 

I agree that some articles have been positive....A lot of them negative too.....Zach Lowe (the writer you guys call SuoerMan) putting us in the WTF are they doing category.

 

The Magic, at some point, gotta start winning....plain and simple.

 

Speaking of winning.....

 

Everybody says we are modeling the Spurs and OKC small market ways to run our organization.....How many consecutive years did those franchises suck and end up in the lottery ???

 

Because we are staring year 3 right in the face.

terrible example, boy you are really dumb sometimes

[Catman 380]

The thing about Ben Gordon is the Magic think he can recover his old from. That's why they took the gamble. Pelton says they could have gotten anybody. Well Rob disagrees. He wanted a vet shooter who is not so old that he can't have a resurgence. If he doesn't do it, whatever.

 

If he does- you are looking at a backcourt of him and Fournier off the bench, and that could be very fun to watch. Im guessing our bench lineup is Gordon/Fournier/Gordon/Harris/Oquinn. Plenty of shooting to allow Aaron Gordon some space to develop his offensive game.

[NittanyBuc 757]

That's another weird thing here in Tampa. The Lightning outdraw the Rays. Hard to figure.

Because St. Pete isn't as close to Tampa as most think, nor is it convenient to get to from Tampa. If the Rays actually played in Tampa, they'd kill it.