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Bauncey Chillups

2019 NBA Draft Thread

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34 minutes ago, TheNameIsOrlando said:

You think the organization leaked this? Interesting. Based on their moves or lack there of sometimes I feel like they could care less and feel like they know what they're doing. 

If they or we don't care what fans think why would they leak this if the majority of media has applauded this move?

Maybe I haven't paid enough attention but I haven't seen all that much negativity about this pick from either side.  

Denton is the organization and weltman gave an interview and mentioned it too. 

This forum is informed. General Twitter discussions are not and Josh Robbins was mobbed by negativity from casual fans because we didn't draft a guy with a G next to his name. 

But you can't worry about the casual fan. Weltman and Hammond stick to their philosophy and it's really a good thing that we've set our compass in one direction and sail directly toward it with confidence. That's why it's odd they've spent a bit of time justifying it. 

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3 hours ago, TheNameIsOrlando said:

Because we have 4 other years with the Magic where he has been a consitent positive or at least trending in that direction and we believed he was worth what he was being paid. Now he has one year that is less than stellar and everyone freaks out. He had a bad year. Lets see what he does this year unless a viable trade comes along. I'm not opposed to trading him just not for garbage for the sake of getting rid of him. 

It’s also a bad look to the young guys if we dump a committed player after one down season.

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1 hour ago, Originalticketholder said:

I like this pick and the more highlights I see and comments from sportwriters, broadcasters and rival teams that I read I like it even more.  Yeah we will have to wait but with modern medicine in dealing with the injury, I cannot wait for his return.  So much to like about his attitude, skill set and overall maturity and I see where some saw him as a lottery pick, as high as 9.  Now it looks like Weltham had to act or he would have been gone.  Welcome to the Magic, Chuma Okeke, glad to have you.

We're building a team full of smart long players who are versatile on defense and can pass, dribble, and shoot. 

When picking in the first round or at least the top 20 picks you should focus on getting a guy with upside. 

Okeke is an excellent on ball defender who is disruptive in passing lanes and gets a lot of steals. He's versatile on defense and long. He's a smart player that can pass, dribble, and shoot. 

He's got good upside. 

He's exactly what you want to end up with outside of the top few picks

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3 hours ago, ?4thewin said:

The organization. 

Who cares what fans think?

This organization could care less about what any of us think. Their choices have been unpopular but most of them (aside from Grant) appears to have paid off thus far. I was not a fan of Iwundu, but became sold on him. 

The Okeke pick came out of nowhere but appears to be consistent with a pedigree that the new management likes. Two way players are hard to find, and this dude has all the proper characteristics that would translate to a successful NBA career. 

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9 hours ago, ?4thewin said:

No he wouldn't. He is what he is regardless of starting status. 

He's not preventing us from doing anything. If we wanted to dump him there will be a ton of opportunities over the next two weeks. 

It's not a fournier issue it's a league issue and a roster construction issue.

He's currently our best clutch initiator. (Not a good thing)

There's not a huge market of those guys available. 

The guys that are available are either great (Jimmy Butler) and not likely to come here or similarly flawed as Fournier (bogdanovic) and not worth overpaying because it's better to be stuck with fournier in the short term than be stuck with a marginally better player for the long term and kill your ability to land a great player later. 

If we had a time machine and could jump into the future to know if Fultz is good we could dump Fournier for a lesser skilled but better fit player today and not have any issue. 

 

But until our uncertain situation becomes certain we can't afford to lose him

Of course hes preventing us from doing something. He has a $17 million contract that we cant offload because he talent doesnt match his contract. His contract is an albatross that nobody will take on, his talent isnt good enough for the spot he holds in the starting lineup, and because of his contract, our hands are tied salary wise from bringing in improvements.

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The issue with Fournier is his player option leaves $17 million on the books as Mosgov and Augustine are rolling off... following (potentially) Vuc and Ross rolling off.  I'm expecting our cap situation to be as good as it is going to get in 2020.  Fournier not being traded clouds that a bit... but the best option may be to hold him till the deadline, hope he rebuilds value and then shop him.

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6 hours ago, Franchise408 said:

Of course hes preventing us from doing something. He has a $17 million contract that we cant offload because he talent doesnt match his contract. His contract is an albatross that nobody will take on, his talent isnt good enough for the spot he holds in the starting lineup, and because of his contract, our hands are tied salary wise from bringing in improvements.

We can offload that contract whenever we want. There are several bad teams with significant cap space waiting to charge a team to take on that money. 

We could trade a lotto protected pick with Fournier for JR Smith this very second without any hesitation. 

We're not stuck with him at all. He's just not bad enough to unload for no reason. 

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7 hours ago, Catalina Maria said:

This organization could care less about what any of us think.

Then why have they used 4 different avenues to tell us how many other teams were going to draft Okeke?

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I like Okeke. I always did. I remembe seeing him play againts my Gators and destroying them, not physically, but mentally. He is definetely a high IQ guy. I wanted him here. In fact, when I saw him playing in the post-season, I was sure he was going to be a top 10 and out of our range. Then the injury. I felt bad for the kid. I though he was going to still be picked but not sure where. I knew  that Just like Jontay Porter that ACL injury was going to get him out of the first round. I was, and still am, not sure how he is going to come back from this injury. Jontay slipped out of the draft from his top 20 ranked  position before the year  and I though Okeke was going to be an early 2nd rounder for sure. 

I was bothered by the fact that my 2 favorite players outside the top 5 selected were still available. I was very high on Little and liked Clarke game a lot. I wanted Little. I mean, he is ready and although he was inconsistent this year, you can see he has potential to be an elite player. That was my take. 

Now, a healthy Okeke is above Clarke. So I am ok with that selection.  I expect for Okeke to combe back 100%. We just need to be patient. 

The only thing that still bothering me after a couple of days since our selection is LITTLE. I am wondering why he slipped so much. t. You have to ask, Why To many organization passed on him?.  They know something that we dont and I have to trust their judgement.  I was not very high on NAW or any of the other SG's in this draft. I liked them but knew they were just going to be rotational players at best.  We went with best player available. A guy that can help and contribute at a faster rate( even with his injury) than any of this other projects. 

So after a few days of thinking and analyzing this. I will give The Magic a B+ for their selection. Very happy and looking forward to  free agency. 

Okeke, Welcome home. 

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18 minutes ago, ?4thewin said:

Then why have they used 4 different avenues to tell us how many other teams were going to draft Okeke?

Yeah. This is a business. You have to market this business. A way to do that is to keep people excited about it. The Organization do care about their fans. The season ticket holders and regular committed fans. No so much for the casual fan that dont follow the Magic as much as we do. 

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How much is Okeke wingspan? Does he apply the Weltman rule? :P

Seriously, if they considered that he was the best option available, I'm not worried at all for the fact that he's another forward. I agree that we need guards, and that the league is leaning toward them, but we can find them with other routes, you don't have to draft one only for the sake of.

As for the forward, the league is also trending to a game where traditional centers are less and less playable. Unfortunately, Clifford don't seem the kind of coach that like to experiment with that, but if we lose Vuc, I would not be worried at all to go with:

Birch-Bamba

Gordon-Isaac-Iwundu-Okeke (when healthy)

Using some lineups where the forward has playing time as nominal center, like.. a combination of Gordon-Okeke-Isaac, could play at 3-4-5 and be a switching nightmare for everyone. (that's clearly thinking long term, with JI adding weight, Okeke being back 100%, etc.)

There's not too much forwards IMO, in a scenario like that one, we could even use one more. And in the future, trade and cap space are option to improve the guards departement, that will become a priority, obviously.

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43 minutes ago, magicdoc1 said:

Yeah. This is a business. You have to market this business. A way to do that is to keep people excited about it. The Organization do care about their fans. The season ticket holders and regular committed fans. No so much for the casual fan that dont follow the Magic as much as we do. 

Precisely, it's kind of funny because it's like damage control when the fanbase isnt keen enough to know there's no damage and Okeke actually has healing properties 

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