This might be premature....

[TheGodfather 0]

...but tonight got me excited about the future. I am breaking down the line up(or potential line up) for next year. I have thrown in possible FA pick ups for next year. Some may happen, some may not. I just really enjoy dreaming of the possibilities for this team. We are young and promising. I think that this team can go deep with the addition of some key veterans. I appreciate feedback. If you disagree with anything, please explain. Dont just say, "this wont happen".

 

LINE UP WITH POSSIBLE FAs.

 

PG: Billups/Nelson-Arroyo traded or released. At times we can pair the two in the backcourt for a change of pace. Nelson is a scorer. Putting them at the 1-2 spots for a time will wreak havoc on defenses. I hope we keep Diener for our 3rd PG and a change of pace.

 

SG: Hill/Redick/Dooling- I hope Hill stays another year. I know his contract is up after the year. There is a part of me that hopes he signs a 2 year contract for around the same price as Stevenson signed with Washington. He owes us that much. And I believe Hill has a sense of fair play. He has taken $90m from us and has given very little in return. This alone will pay back the Magic organization and the fans for the loss potential of having Hill and McGrady teamed up....oh what could have been. Redick has shown he belongs(in my opinion). We have a lot of talent ahead of him but that will change next year. He will work his way up and we will clear the way for him. He may be another year away from being a full time starter, but next year he will see significant playing time.

 

SF: Ariza/Turk/(possibly R. Lewis- Part of me wants us to sign Lewis, the other part of me wants to give Ariza tons of minutes to inject energy into this team. I see this guy as the next T. Prince. He is a HUGE part of the Magic's long term plans. Turk flurishes off the bench. He can be an instant canidate for 6th man of the year. The guy can flat out play but is inconsistant at times. Lewis can make the Magic contenders from day one. A front court of Howard, Milicic and Lewis is a formidable one. If we do make this signing, we have to still find minutes for Ariza. No question.

 

PF: Milicic/Battie- Im crossing my fingers we retain Milicic. The paradox of this conclusion is that I feel this way because Milicic hasnt dominated like the Magic hoped. This means more than likely we can retain him without offering him a MAX contract. If we sign him to, lets say, a four year deal, and he comes into his own next year, Otis will be in line for Exec of the year. Milicic has the tools, we just have to develop them. Battie is a great veteran to have and does the dirty work. And he loves it. Will be a solid back up and our second unit is starting to look like a starting lineup for a couple teams.

 

C: Howard/Who Cares- Does it really matter who the back up is? Howard has improved greatly from year to year. As a rookie he got his rebounds and scored mostly on putbacks and dunks. Last year we saw a couple low post moves. This year he developed a solid hook shot and some fancy footwork. Only dreams will tell what will be next year. Howard is the league leader in TOs. No doubt something that will be rectified next year. He is still young. At this point, he should be a junior in college. We got Shaq after 3 years at LSU. Remember Shaq as a rookie? Remember how his body filled out after a couple of years? This kid will get bigger, stronger and add a lot more low post moves to go with his repetoir. I get giddy just thinking about his possibilty. I only pray he sees his future in Orlando.

 

That is my assesment of the Magic next year. I would love to hear everyone's feedback. I know its early and we still have the playoffs to think about before all this goes down. By no means am I getting ahead of myself. I truly do care about the rest of the year. This kind of analysis is just something I really enjoy doing. So please, no responses like, "why dont we worry about the playoffs first". I know. This is just a thread to get everyone excited about the future. And to let everyone know, the skies are bright ahead of us.

 

I am under no false assumptions that we will go all the way to the finals this year. All I hope for is some good playoff experience for our young team. That will go along way to help our team to our 2008 Finals apperance

 

TheGodfather

[TheGodfather 0]

...but tonight got me excited about the future. I am breaking down the line up(or potential line up) for next year. I have thrown in possible FA pick ups for next year. Some may happen, some may not. I just really enjoy dreaming of the possibilities for this team. We are young and promising. I think that this team can go deep with the addition of some key veterans. I appreciate feedback. If you disagree with anything, please explain. Dont just say, "this wont happen".

 

LINE UP WITH POSSIBLE FAs.

 

PG: Billups/Nelson-Arroyo traded or released. At times we can pair the two in the backcourt for a change of pace. Nelson is a scorer. Putting them at the 1-2 spots for a time will wreak havoc on defenses. I hope we keep Diener for our 3rd PG and a change of pace.

 

SG: Hill/Redick/Dooling- I hope Hill stays another year. I know his contract is up after the year. There is a part of me that hopes he signs a 2 year contract for around the same price as Stevenson signed with Washington. He owes us that much. And I believe Hill has a sense of fair play. He has taken $90m from us and has given very little in return. This alone will pay back the Magic organization and the fans for the loss potential of having Hill and McGrady teamed up....oh what could have been. Redick has shown he belongs(in my opinion). We have a lot of talent ahead of him but that will change next year. He will work his way up and we will clear the way for him. He may be another year away from being a full time starter, but next year he will see significant playing time.

 

SF: Ariza/Turk/(possibly R. Lewis- Part of me wants us to sign Lewis, the other part of me wants to give Ariza tons of minutes to inject energy into this team. I see this guy as the next T. Prince. He is a HUGE part of the Magic's long term plans. Turk flurishes off the bench. He can be an instant canidate for 6th man of the year. The guy can flat out play but is inconsistant at times. Lewis can make the Magic contenders from day one. A front court of Howard, Milicic and Lewis is a formidable one. If we do make this signing, we have to still find minutes for Ariza. No question.

 

PF: Milicic/Battie- Im crossing my fingers we retain Milicic. The paradox of this conclusion is that I feel this way because Milicic hasnt dominated like the Magic hoped. This means more than likely we can retain him without offering him a MAX contract. If we sign him to, lets say, a four year deal, and he comes into his own next year, Otis will be in line for Exec of the year. Milicic has the tools, we just have to develop them. Battie is a great veteran to have and does the dirty work. And he loves it. Will be a solid back up and our second unit is starting to look like a starting lineup for a couple teams.

 

C: Howard/Who Cares- Does it really matter who the back up is? Howard has improved greatly from year to year. As a rookie he got his rebounds and scored mostly on putbacks and dunks. Last year we saw a couple low post moves. This year he developed a solid hook shot and some fancy footwork. Only dreams will tell what will be next year. Howard is the league leader in TOs. No doubt something that will be rectified next year. He is still young. At this point, he should be a junior in college. We got Shaq after 3 years at LSU. Remember Shaq as a rookie? Remember how his body filled out after a couple of years? This kid will get bigger, stronger and add a lot more low post moves to go with his repetoir. I get giddy just thinking about his possibilty. I only pray he sees his future in Orlando.

 

That is my assesment of the Magic next year. I would love to hear everyone's feedback. I know its early and we still have the playoffs to think about before all this goes down. By no means am I getting ahead of myself. I truly do care about the rest of the year. This kind of analysis is just something I really enjoy doing. So please, no responses like, "why dont we worry about the playoffs first". I know. This is just a thread to get everyone excited about the future. And to let everyone know, the skies are bright ahead of us.

 

I am under no false assumptions that we will go all the way to the finals this year. All I hope for is some good playoff experience for our young team. That will go along way to help our team to our 2008 Finals apperance

 

TheGodfather

[FENDI 4]

Lewis and Billups??? Impossibel

[CRAZY SERB 0]

quote:

Originally posted by TheGodfather:

If you disagree with anything, please explain. Dont just say, "this wont happen".

 

as fendi already said, this can't work sallery wise. i think we'll have to trade carlos and/or turk and hope that dooling opt out his contract to get even one of them and resign darko.

about grant hill, i'd love see him for an other year or two in orlando but he's not a starter anymore. he's to injury prone to stay healthy for a whole season and lineup changes won't help us at all. he'd be a great backup

diener will be gone after this season but how about jj playing some mins as a PG? he could improve his PG skills in the offseason and become a second version of kerr. jameer would be the 6th man backing both guard positions up.

billups would be great, we'd become a contender immediately. but there would still be a hole at the 2. can we get a solid 2 in the draft, we still have 3 2nd rounders. i'd love to get herrmann as a 3 and move ariza to the 2 but i doubt charlotte would let him go.

[~O~ 565]

Darko and other Magic players were pissed with someone last night. This game was over and the Magic continued to leave the opposition 200 miles behind in Miami.

[TheGodfather 0]

Maybe I should have stated this more clearly. I never said we would have BOTH Billups and Lewis. I said they are FA possibilites. I was analyzing each position based on if we obtained that particular FA. But I know better than to hope for both of them.

 

It was one or the other. Again, I should have stated that more clearly.

 

TheGodfather

[davcivic 11]

At this point we would benefit far more from having a Billups that could make everyone else better than having a Lewis who is good, but in my opinion, will not contribute much more than his points and rebounds to the team.

 

Move Nelson or Carlos, whichever gets you a better trade. Keep the other as a backup. Bring Billups and let him run the team.

 

Second scenario is to try and bring a real SG to the team, another Star if you will.

[Emory889 353]

Billups would put us over the top immediately but...it will take a miracle of epic proportions to make it happen. Rashard, Vince, or Gerald Wallace are the more likely options.

[ibonedteribell 0]

quote:

Originally posted by emory889:

Billups would put us over the top immediately but...it will take a miracle of epic proportions to make it happen. Rashard, Vince, or Gerald Wallace are the more likely options.

I really think its ot real to expect championship run with just Billups, if it doesn't happen at (34 yrs)? of age the chances he can continue to perform at 35 are much less.Without a consitent SG and PF we are not going not make it all the way. I really feel Reddick will only progress to a good back up role or specialist in the 3 pt range and many here are putting too much hope on him. Bring a true shooter in and work with your present PG's and see what happens next year.

[Emory889 353]

I should have specified that I think Billups would make us a contender but not necessarily make us champions. An allstar callibre point guard combined with a more mature lineup could make some serious noise in the East. Billups turns 31 in September.

[The Dude Abides 0]

As long as we are making premature speculations - I was looking at our second round picks earlier - (again WAAAYYY premature) but they have us listed as maybe getting Carl Landry 6-9 PF from Purdue with the 39th pick that we get from the kings. Dominic James 5-11 PG from Marquette (like we need another undersized PG, even if this guy can jump out of the arena and is faster than a speeding bullet, i dont like it, lets use our guy we already got from marqutte rotting on the bench) and possibly pickin up Daryl Starberries kid from Maryland a 6-5 SG with the 64th pick we get from cleveland.

 

I know, I know -who knows how everthing will stack up and play out - Its way premature - I was just looking at some of the talent projected to be laying around and that is if we dont trade up or bundle some player and rights to get us that first rounder.

[30Assists 342]

I'd say the aim of our draft should be an athletic, defensive-minded SG or SF. Maybe a PF to fill in for Battie leaving or retiring a few years down the line.

 

Or just kidnap Teyshawn Prince, brainwash him, rename him, and introduce him as a new player. You think the NBA would buy it?