Goal this year

[Soul Bro 1,419]

Develop, develop and develop the young guns

[Knappy1 16]

Since the Magic wont contend - route against Houston and hope the Dwightmare continues - some nagging , recurring Dwight injuries would be good, some in Fighting between Dwight and Harden, McHale taking Dwight out late to protect against turnovers and poor free throw shooting! just drama and chaos and mediocrity for Dwight and Houston - nothing against Houston - just hate the whiner.

 

Would love to see many teams hack Howard late and he shoot free throws under 40 percent - would just love to see Dwight hate on Houston and have it come back to him

 

I'll watch the Magic games - I agree would be nice to get a good draft pick, but I will route for them to win and not be upset if they lose - I like oladipo, harkless, Harris, vucevic as some players to build with - I'm real curious how Harkless will develop and oladipo as they are incredible athletes. So many people see a big future for Harris - I hope they are right - harkless and oladipo look most interesting to me and vucevic might be good - team should be better than last year, but stii young so we could be in the bottom 5 or 8

[jmmagicfan 299]

I want to see Oladipo play a lot of point, and Harkless play a lot of SG, even if they go back to their original positions in 1 or 2 years.

 

Playing SG made Paul George a better SF

 

I like this, but lets go even farther:

 

PG - Oladipo/Nelson/Price(?)/Moore

SG - Harkliss/Oladipo/Afflalo/Moore/Lamb

SF - Harris/Harkless/Afflalo

PF - Nicholson/Harris/Davis/Osby

C - Vucevic/O'Quinn/Maxiell

 

Ideally I would like to see the minutes split so that they look about like this:

 

Vucevic - 28-32 minutes

Oladipo, Harkless, Harris - 26-30 minutes @ (majority of the minutes at 1/2/3)

Nelson, Afflalo - 20-24 minutes @

Nicholson, O'Quinn - 16-20 minutes @

Davis, Maxiel, Osby, Moore, Lamb, Price(?) - 6-10 minutes @

 

Obviously you aren't going to play 14 guys every night, since you can only have 12 or 13 active for any given game; but with Davis and Afflalo coming back from injuries, Nelson usually missing 8-10 games a year, and other guys getting banged up here or there I think it is doable. Also, this is a beginning of the season guide - as guys get better with defensive rotations, work harder in practice, et cetera, their minutes may increase - thereby decreasing the minutes of the guys who aren't getting their rotations, or aren't working as hard.

[barnettej 263]

Goal this year? hmmmmm....

 

Find an identity and improve on it. Start molding the team to what we are going to go in with, night in and night out. Take this time to master the execution of plays and not worry about "having to make that shot". With a little luck, hopefully that will put us into a more desirable position to add a final piece or two for a more serious run.

[Catman 380]

Goal this year? hmmmmm....

 

Find an identity and improve on it. Start molding the team to what we are going to go in with, night in and night out. Take this time to master the execution of plays and not worry about "having to make that shot". With a little luck, hopefully that will put us into a more desirable position to add a final piece or two for a more serious run.

 

 

Develop youth. Get 2 top 20 picks (fingers crossed).

 

Enjoy the quick - "hey lets go to a game and booze the whole time" stubhub tix, because those days should be over after this season.

[Mike1989 68]

Goal this year? hmmmmm....

 

Find an identity and improve on it. Start molding the team to what we are going to go in with, night in and night out. Take this time to master the execution of plays and not worry about "having to make that shot". With a little luck, hopefully that will put us into a more desirable position to add a final piece or two for a more serious run.

 

Agreed. This season should be about developing our young core of Oladipo, Harkless, Harris, Nicholson, O'Quinn, Vuc etc. Hopefully they will get the majority of the minutes and we'll start to see them develop into players this team can build around. And like you say, if they show enough potential to be a very good team with more experience and depth, then that should help Henny recruit free agents in 2014 if he desires to add them alongside our 2014 draft picks and existing team.

[JJZFL 618]

Develop youth. Get 2 top 20 picks (fingers crossed).

 

Enjoy the quick - "hey lets go to a game and booze the whole time" stubhub tix, because those days should be over after this season.

 

I hope you're right but I don't think it's so easy to bounce back after being terrible for two seasons in a row. Time will tell.

[Murphy13 185]

I don't think Milwaukee is going to be terrible, in 40+ years in the league they have had a sub .400 record only 7 times (3 times in last 17 years), they enjoy being in the playoff mix-aside from a two year slump in the mid 2000's. Not saying they will make the playoffs, but I don't think they will be bottom dwellers either. They have depth at Center and in the backcourt, they really are just a couple pieces away from being a decent team.

 

Sacramento is a sleeper team, they are in the same boat as the Magic: they are probably one of the 5-6 worst teams in the league but have enough talent to surprise and end up in the 8-10 range. Maybe I'm just an optimist, but I don't like our chances of being a bottom 4-ish team. If our players-namely Harris and Harkless-have the potential that we believe they do then by all accounts we should see a decent improvement upon last year. Oladipo is a net positive as well. If our goal is to develop talent then I think we will be on the outside looking in when it comes to the top prospects in this draft.

 

Also IMHO, to get the highest picks possible we should probably have traded Afflalo and even Davis (injury note) already. As the season progresses only contenders would be looking to buy vets like them (no top 20 picks there)and bad teams wouldn't be giving up their picks anyway. That makes me wonder if Hennigan is less interested in the tank and going more for the up-and-coming team thing where the team surprises and then he flips the vets and/or young talent for all star talent...not focusing on the top picks but having a decent lotto pick going into next year and making the primary impact through acquisition. It's a possibility that could become more likely if we are somehow exceeding lowly expectations come Christmastime.

[Tom Ford 9]

So after being gone for awhile I decided to check back in just in time for Media Day!!

 

Once I got caught up on this page there are a few things I noticed: Why do some people think Marcus Smart screwed us..? What he did was a mature thing if you think about it. He said I am not the player I want to be and have room for improvement, why not stay in school get better every week and play a lot of minutes.

 

Once that happens we could have a chance at taking him in the lottery and he hopefully will become a better player after a whole year working on his game instead of playing 10-15 minutes in the 4th Quarter of an NBA game.

 

Second thing that I find odd is that people want us to compete for a 7th-8th seed in the playoffs.. for what to be swept in the 1st round? Why not see what we have in terms of players ability and work rate rather than taking on BAD contracts or make useless trades. We all saw how that went the last couple of years.

 

Lets have a young athletic fast paced team that works hard and plays for each other and not themselves. In the end it will be more rewarding and will be more enjoyable for us "The Fans" than a team that just runs pick and rolls for 2 out of the 5 players on the court.

 

GO Magic

[Ibn Battuta 127]

So after being gone for awhile I decided to check back in just in time for Media Day!!

 

Once I got caught up on this page there are a few things I noticed: Why do some people think Marcus Smart screwed us..? What he did was a mature thing if you think about it. He said I am not the player I want to be and have room for improvement, why not stay in school get better every week and play a lot of minutes.

 

Once that happens we could have a chance at taking him in the lottery and he hopefully will become a better player after a whole year working on his game instead of playing 10-15 minutes in the 4th Quarter of an NBA game.

 

Second thing that I find odd is that people want us to compete for a 7th-8th seed in the playoffs.. for what to be swept in the 1st round? Why not see what we have in terms of players ability and work rate rather than taking on BAD contracts or make useless trades. We all saw how that went the last couple of years.

 

Lets have a young athletic fast paced team that works hard and plays for each other and not themselves. In the end it will be more rewarding and will be more enjoyable for us "The Fans" than a team that just runs pick and rolls for 2 out of the 5 players on the court.

 

GO Magic

 

the goal this season should be improvement. A playoff spot is out of the question; no amount of black magic could make that happen with this roster. But I want to see improvement from Harris, Harkless, Vuc, and Nicholson. I'm looking forward to watching those things that you mentioned, but it's all for naught if there is no improvement in team play and personnel skill. So let's hope for the best.

 

Also, this could be the end of Nelson in a magic uniform. He is the only holdover left from that era.

[Mike1989 68]

the goal this season should be improvement. A playoff spot is out of the question; no amount of black magic could make that happen with this roster. But I want to see improvement from Harris, Harkless, Vuc, and Nicholson. I'm looking forward to watching those things that you mentioned, but it's all for naught if there is no improvement in team play and personnel skill. So let's hope for the best.

 

Also, this could be the end of Nelson in a magic uniform. He is the only holdover left from that era.

 

I do agree that a play off spot is unlikely, but it isn't out of question because the 7th and 8th seeds in the east are going to be fiercely contested. This season there are a number of teams struggling to separate themselves in the East. I'd say that the only certs for the play offs are the Heat, Pacers, Bulls, Nets, and Knicks. Outside of those five teams we could all argue a case for the following teams: Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Toronto and Washington. I don't think you will find many arguing a case for Charlotte, Philadelphia and us, but both ourselves and the Bobcats have talent and certain experienced players that could help this team be more competitive than they are currently expected to be.

 

As it stands we've got a decent amount of young talent in Harris, Harkless, Nicholson, Oladipo, O'Quinn and Vuc. If these young players can take a big step forwards and become better and more competitive players at both ends of the court, and in turn, the veteran players like Afflalo, Davis and Nelson come in and perform to a decent level, then that could help this team win enough games to land an unlikely 8th seed. Remember that the Bucks got into the play offs last season with a 38-44 receord, and the Celtics only went 41-40. With as many teams as there are in the East right now struggling to separate themselves from one another, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that there could be an upset.

 

That being said, I don't think a play off berth is realistic at all. I personally think we will be in the 25 to 30 win range this season. So the aim is to improve the young players and hope they can take a big step forwards and become more competitive at both ends of the court. I am certainly excited at the prospect of seeing how the likes of Vuc, Harris, Harkless and Oladipo mould into the starting unit and improve; and perhaps even throwing Nicholson in there at PF if Harkless drops to SG and Harris to SF.

 

As for Nelson, I think the team will keep him around. As it stands Oladipo is probably not ready to play and start the entire season at PG. Oladipo needs to improve his ball handling, his passing, and basically his all round game if he is to become this team's PG of the future. So Nelson still has a pivotal role to play this season, and if Olaidpo does end up taking the starting PG position, then keeping Nelson around as a veteran off the bench and presence in the locker room would be very beneficial for this young team. For me, I think they will keep Nelson around for at least one more season if not more. I hope he retires here. But I guess he might pursue one last lucrative deal if he gets the opportunity to, or Henny might be tempted to trade him for draft picks or young players.

[deadman54 7]

i think we should just forget about draft picks for now it's still at least 82 games away and in this league injuries will factor in somewhere.

 

what we need to do is look to use this current roster to establish a base foundation with our vets leading the way and letting our young talent get used to the league and having KPI achievements through out the year.

If we are going to be a mid table side then i can live with that. All the talk of tanking to me pointless as we only have to look at this years draft we had the worst record and did not get the number 1 pick , we have to remember that we still have a 75% chance of not getting it. So finishing as high as possible to me is a better option as we can not only get ourselves back but also make a play in the free agency where players have been in league and we can then shop for what we need to make us better. we could be the next Houston and attract that player rather than OKC who built with picks and then lost a key player due to cap space. Then if we need to we can just look to the trade deadline in Feb.