Magic Acquire Brian Cook and Maurice Evans From L.A. Lakers

[Tough Break There 96]

quote:

First of all, they're dead serious about surrounding Dwight Howard with shooters. Ariza can't shoot, so he didn't really have a role on this team. Cook, on the other hand, can shoot like nobody's business -- he's a career 39.2 percent 3-point shooter. It's the only reason he's in the league, in fact.

 

Hollinger sees the light...

[Blackhennie 0]

quote:

Originally posted by SmackDaddy:

quote:

Originally posted by ball junkie:

Good post. Agree. Our defense is playing much better than i thought. I did some stat checking today and started a thread on our defense. You guys would be stunned to know our ppg defense is ranked 9th and our fg% defense is almost TOPS in the league ranking 3rd.

 

Do you know scoring is up nearly 6pts per game league wide this year?

The Magic have done well on the defensive end, but our PPG that ranks 9th in the NBA right now would have ranked us 24th in the NBA last season.

 

All I'm saying is...That just because there seems to be a wide open scoring movement in the league, doesn't mean that defense should be abondoned entirely.

 

but we have been playing good d with out ariza. we got a energy players in evans and an upgrade to pat. cook can play with a low post player like shaq or howard. he has the size to play pf unlike ariza and we lose nothing we are currently using.

 

ariza would have left at the end of the year after opting out. we need to get something for him if we were not going to use him. imo.

[Soul Bro 1,419]

quote:

Originally posted by ball junkie:

quote:

Originally posted by Soul Bro:

Good article. Sorry if it has been posted.

 

"Deal looks good for Lakers"--John Hollinger

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

 

"Orlando's trade for Brian Cook and Maurice Evans Tuesday is quite interesting, not so much for the significance of the players involved as for what it means about where the teams are headed. The trade sent the duo from L.A. to Orlando for Trevor Ariza, a high-flying wing player who is only 21 years old and has a great future as an energy guy in the Ruben Patterson mold.

From L.A.'s perspective, this deal was a no-brainer. They give up two guys who weren't playing while adding a true 3 -- a position the Lakers needed to bolster. And Ariza is another athletic young player who can become part of the nucleus headed by Farmar-Turiaf-Bynum if and when Kobe Bryant finally gets a new address. In terms of value this was a deal they couldn't pass up -- Ariza's upside is far greater than Cook's, and Evans was disposable.

 

So why'd Orlando do this? Two reasons, both of which make sense.

 

First of all, they're dead serious about surrounding Dwight Howard with shooters. Ariza can't shoot, so he didn't really have a role on this team. Cook, on the other hand, can shoot like nobody's business -- he's a career 39.2 percent 3-point shooter. It's the only reason he's in the league, in fact. And since he can also play the frontcourt, an area where the Magic find themselves a body short after losing Tony Battie for the season.

 

But a second reason may loom larger. To me, the Magic make this trade only if they legitimately think they can win the East this year. And the fact they did tells me they truly think they can win it. Not in a "Maybe if things work out and the best players on the other teams get hurt and we get real lucky in close games" kind of a way, but in a "We're the best team" kind of way. And after starting 10-2 and beating Boston, they might be right.

 

So they made the moves to get the two missing pieces they really need -- a backup who can play the 2 so they can keep Keyon Dooling out of size mismatches, and a backup power forward who can space the floor and keep defenses from collapsing on Howard -- Pat Garrity, with a 1.57 Player Efficiency Rating in 120 minutes and a half-decade long streak of single digit PERs, clearly isn't working out. I'm still not sure Cook is a Stan Van Gundy type of player because his D needs a lot of work, but for the 10-15 minutes a night Orlando needs him it may not matter.

 

Will it work? Call me back in June. It's definitely a good deal for L.A. Whether it's also good for Orlando depends, in large part, on whether they're contenders or pretenders in the East. Right now it looks like the former, which makes the swap look like a wise move."

 

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3121279&name=hollinger_john

 

 

Thanks Soul Bro, awesome post! You should have put it on the main page and started a new thread. Hollinger is a highly respected dude!!

 

Go Magic!!!

 

Do it if you want. I think Hollinger makes great points. It gets me excited to know how good we are this year.

 

Another major positive for me about this trade is hopefully we will never have to see Garrity suit up again.

[Blue Blood 0]

Obviously it's sad to see Trevor leave. I personally wanted him to stay and develop with us. But how long was it going to take for him to develop and how much time can we afford waiting for that? He's been in the league 4 years and hasn't shown noticeable improvements from season to season. Obviously something wasn't right when he barely made it into our rotation.

 

The main point trying to get sent across is that although Trevor had superb potential, he wasn't being utilized and his spot was being wasted. I didn't agree with SVG for allowing that to happen, but hey, god knows what Stan sees at practice. Essentially, Ariza's un-untilized spot was filled with two bench players to provide what we would like in this specific system.

 

In my opinion, Evans players very similar to Ariza, but he has a better offensive game (mainly his shot). Take a look at Evans' body, he looks insanely fit and he's extremely athletic. He's very quick and can jump out the building. Like Ariza, Evans likes to crash the offensive boards and is a hustle player on defense. On the offensive end, you can count more on Evans hitting an open shot. Potential and a little extra size is what Ariza has over Evans.

 

What I wish we understand is that we already have a core to build around. We don't need another all-star and we won't fail if we don't get one. I honestly hope Trevor can truely develop and reach his potential, he can easily become an all-star but only HE can, no one can do that for him. We basically have another Trevor Ariza and on top of that, we added a good shooting big man. I'm not expecting anything huge out of Cook really, but it's a plus to have him on our system. I would have preferred a skilled but selfless defensive-minded banger down low over Cook, but who knows...we might get that in Mr. Fran Vasquez next year!

[D-BoFats 5]

quote:

Originally posted by SauceMoney:

http://www.clublakers.com/forums/the-official-brian-coo...e-thread-t84368.html

 

Look Otis, Laker fans are laughing at your dumbazz. Its really embarassing as a Magic fan.

Oh No! No!!!! Somebody do something! Lakers fans laughing at him???? Kind of like how everyone laughed at him for signing Lewis?

 

Check that record for me.

 

Seriously... are you really embarassed?

[The Ghost of John Gabriel 0]

quote:

Originally posted by Tough Break There:

quote:

First of all, they're dead serious about surrounding Dwight Howard with shooters. Ariza can't shoot, so he didn't really have a role on this team. Cook, on the other hand, can shoot like nobody's business -- he's a career 39.2 percent 3-point shooter. It's the only reason he's in the league, in fact.

 

Hollinger sees the light...

 

If you want to trade Ariza fine, but that doesn't justify trading him for the black Pat Garrity.

[spenny 0]

quote:

If you want to trade Ariza fine, but that doesn't justify trading him for the black Pat Garrity.

 

Finally!! Someone seeing it my way lol

[gabo_millenium 0]

We needed this trade. Ariza is a good defender and all but he doesn't score. We needed a better bench. Our bench this year wasn't good enough. Stan had to put hedo, howard or lewis with some bench players because no one in the bench could score. Ariza was a non factor as a scoring option in the bench. Now our starters can get more rest. We need our starters to be fresh... this is a long season! Good trade otis.

[Tough Break There 96]

quote:

If you want to trade Ariza fine, but that doesn't justify trading him for the black Pat Garrity.

 

Perhaps not (I actually think Evans is a more major piece of the deal), but the concept is right on with what we're trying to do. It's hard for us to critcize the move without knowing what other offers Otis was fielding and sending out.

[SauceMoney 0]

quote:

Originally posted by D-BoFats:

quote:

Originally posted by SauceMoney:

http://www.clublakers.com/forums/the-official-brian-coo...e-thread-t84368.html

 

Look Otis, Laker fans are laughing at your dumbazz. Its really embarassing as a Magic fan.

Oh No! No!!!! Somebody do something! Lakers fans laughing at him???? Kind of like how everyone laughed at him for signing Lewis?

 

Check that record for me.

 

Seriously... are you really embarassed?

 

Ive been embarassed of this organization for years. They make alot of dumb moves sending future star players away for nothing instead of being patient with them. Now this shT

[Sinister Grin 3]

Well after this i really believe Redick, arroyo and Pat will be gone before the break. Evans will back up Bogans (like Redick was being used anyway) and the "black" Pat Garrity (chuckles) is here. Dooling i feel will take a lot more minutes from Arroyo.

 

Maybe Otis will stun us all and land Kobe and Garnett for Pat and JJ? He can use some of his famous "creative financing" on that one.

[The Ghost of John Gabriel 0]

quote:

Originally posted by Blackhennie:

quote:

Originally posted by The Ghost of John Gabriel:

Anybody who justifies, rationalizes, or supports this trades is brain dead. I guess that would make Otis, the one who executed it, a functional tard.

 

Even if you like Cook, there's absolutely no reason to trade Ariza for him. It's simply mindnumbing to watch Otis waist asset after asset. Cook is a marginal player with a 3 year deal. The kind of player teams dump, not trade for coveted young players.

 

If we were willing to trade Ariza, he could have been used to facilitate a better deal with our expiring contracts. He could have been used to retain Darko.

 

The writing is on the wall and I garauntee you right now that we allow our expiring contracts to expire right here in Orlando and completely waist this golden opportunity. It is so unbelievable that this organization could be in the hands of somebody who is so completely clueless.

 

clueless is a person that wants to trade player like arroyo, dooling, and pat that have been actually getting mins and not trading a person that has barley got in the rotation.

 

i like ariza but there are reasons to trade him:

 

1 he is not getting mins

2 he is not fitting in the system

3 he will be unrestricted at the end of the season and we need to get something in return.

4 we need bench scoring

5 we needed a bigger body player

6 ariza cant shot (though he brings other things)

7 we are winning without ariza

 

as you see. there are reason if you look.

 

I'm not oppossed to trading Ariza. I said before the season started that he would be the odd man out in the rotation and we should trade him before we run his value into the dirt and end up trading him for scrubs like Brian Cook. Otis is predictably bad or I'm clairvoyent. Take your pick.