I Don't Understand the Fascination with 2013

[KingRobb02]

If we are going to make a run at anyone, it has to be this summer. Why do people think we will be flush with cash in the summer of 2013? Using this as a guide. Any attempt to have money next summer relies on us going into next season with only Duhon as a PG and only Big Baby and Dwight up front. If Dwight signs an extension kiss, any money goodbye. If we try to fill holes this summer, they will have to be one year deals, but what kind of player is going for that? All the good players think they deserve to be signed long-term. And you can't use this previous offseason as a guide because free agency and training camp opened at practically the same time. Guys were desperate. How do we get rid of Richardson and Turkoglu? No one with that many expiring contracts is giving them up to take on our dead weight.

Basically, the options are to 1) get rid of everyone we can this summer and be horrible because of it which will lead Dwight to leave and no free agent to want to come in his place 2) try desperately to trade Turkoglu/Richardson on draft night (which will be hard unless we get a GM pronto), hope Jameer opts out, let Ryan walk, and land someone this summer.

Am I missing something?

[MoMM]

Better FA class, some D12 friends (Monta, Josh...). What player deserves a MAX contract this summer? KG? Duncan? Nash? Just Deron.

Nelson and JJ wouldnt be under contract in 2013.

Yes, we can trade Jrich for an expiring (Darko) or a late 1st, so we can clear some cap here.

We can waive Hedo and Duhon, because they are partial guaranteed (6M and 1.5M).

BTW, use the link below, its better.
http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages ... /magic.jsp

[DJRajX]

Better FA class, some D12 friends (Monta, Josh...). What player deserves a MAX contract this summer? KG? Duncan? Nash? Just Deron.

Nelson and JJ wouldnt be under contract in 2013.

Yes, we can trade Jrich for an expiring (Darko) or a late 1st, so we can clear some cap here.

We can waive Hedo and Duhon, because they are partial guaranteed (6M and 1.5M).

BTW, use the link below, its better.
http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages ... /magic.jsp

+1

[KingRobb02]

Better FA class, some D12 friends (Monta, Josh...). What player deserves a MAX contract this summer? KG? Duncan? Nash? Just Deron.

Nelson and JJ wouldnt be under contract in 2013.

Yes, we can trade Jrich for an expiring (Darko) or a late 1st, so we can clear some cap here.

We can waive Hedo and Duhon, because they are partial guaranteed (6M and 1.5M).

BTW, use the link below, its better.
http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages ... /magic.jsp

1. We don't have to hand out a MAX deal this summer
2. There is no way Minnesota even answers the phone if we try to pass off Richardson's contract. If they want an SG they will draft one (again) or just sign Jamal Crawford/Jason Terry for cheaper while still having Darko to flip at the deadline.
3. If Nelson opts out this summer, we don't have a PG outside of Duhon. Nelson is looking for a long term deal, not for a way to help us land Monta.
4. I'm not sure Dwight can be convinced to stay quiet all year if we have a gutted team because we are trying to save cap space. We will basically be wasting another year of his prime and starting slow with anew coach (and no Dwight extension) will only lead to "Coach Killer" and "Magic Made a Mistake" articles. Basically the only way to avoid that is to sign a coach who everyone agrees is better than Stan. Basically only Phil Jackson can not be second guessed here.

[MoMM]

Twolves fans would accept this deal for Jrich, i already asked them some days ago.

Yes, if Nelson wants to leave, so be it, we draft a PG or sign a guy like Flynn to a one year deal. Would we be better with Nelson? Yes, but at least wouldnt kill our chances at 2013 and we could even get a better draft pick with no starter PG.

If D12 wants to leave in 2013, ok... no problem, we will have a lot of cap space to sign another players, and btw, i dont think he would leave if we say to him we will net Monta + Josh, for example.

As for the rest... whats you idea? Keep the same team? The same team that D12 wanted to leave? The same team that wouldnt win 2nd round in the playoffs?

What player do you think that would sign with us this summer and make us run for a championship? Except KG or Nash, that are very unlikely and are old, i dont see anyone good.

[p0peye]

Unless we get Deron, this FA pool will not bring us back to contender status. We'll just end up from spending bunch of money on old role players on long term deals (Nash, Ray Allen) to having no cap room in foreseeable future, thus Dwight will leave.

We'll have to either bring Dwight on board to lure other players here next season, or trade him now.

Btw, trading JRich to Minny for Darko might be easier next year at the deadline or in the offseason, for he will have only 2 years left on his contract.

[KingRobb02]

Twolves fans would accept this deal for Jrich, i already asked them some days ago.

Yes, if Nelson wants to leave, so be it, we draft a PG or sign a guy like Flynn to a one year deal. Would we be better with Nelson? Yes, but at least wouldnt kill our chances at 2013 and we could even get a better draft pick with no starter PG.

If D12 wants to leave in 2013, ok... no problem, we will have a lot of cap space to sign another players, and btw, i dont think he would leave if we say to him we will net Monta + Josh, for example.

As for the rest... whats you idea? Keep the same team? The same team that D12 wanted to leave? The same team that wouldnt win 2nd round in the playoffs?

What player do you think that would sign with us this summer and make us run for a championship? Except KG or Nash, that are very unlikely and are old, i dont see anyone good.

1. Fans don't sign checks or make decisions, and most of them are undereducated on the situation. If you asked this board in March, we would have gladly traded for Stephen Jackson who is averaging 5-2-2 in 20 minutes per game and only 1.3-.3-2.5 in the second round.

2. We aren't drafting anyone who will be able to replace Nelson's productivity immediately. I doubt we can get an average NBA starter to sign for one year. Even if we do trick Johnny Flynn (who will be overseas in a few years) we will be pulling our hair because he really is not good at all.

3. Saying we can use the cap space on one of the other free agents sounds a lot like the Nets plan in 2010. They ended up spending their cap room on Travis Outlaw and Jordan Farmar. There ar eno guarantees when it comes to these things.

4. There is no way Josh Smith says to Dwight "I know you said you hated it there, but if I have the chance to play on a 30-win team, I have to take it." It's much more likely that Dwight would be calling Josh asking where they will play together in 2013 rather than trying to sell Josh on Orlando.

5. The best plan would be to ditch the 2013 pipe dream, get Dwight to sign an extension, bring back Anderson, make a hard push to clear enough room for Deron or Eric Gordon or anyone who can convince Dwight we are going in the right direction so he will play hard again. Then acknowledge that we will not win a championship in a summer or two. It will take a real plan. Not just saying that we might be able to get a solid guy in 2013 so everyone (Dwight, fans, etc.) stick around.

[eyriq]

You do have a point.

Lets say that Dwight extends his current contract. He is eligible for a 15% signing bonus, or ~$12.381M, should he do so, added to the cap burden, as well as 7.5% raises based on his first years salary under the extension. This is a total of ~$94.922M/4yrs, or ~$23.730M/yr.

So, with no Ryan, no Nelson, and no Redick in '13 we are at $55.702M

Cut Hedo and Duhon and we are at $47.702M

If we trade Davis and JRich this offseason for expirings we are at $35.098M in '13

Add in 9 cap charges @$500K a pop and we are at $39.598M

Which leaves us $20.401M under a $60M cap, with only Dwight, QRich and Harper under contract.

Say we keep Anderson for $9M/yr and keep our picks for another 5 players at lets say $5M/yr, and add in 3 cap charges for $1.5M we are at $49.539M with $10.460 to spend, which once spent we could then use our exceptions to fill out the rest of the roster.

Dwight|Anderson|$10M/yr|MLE|rookie or Bi-annual

Plus a bench of rookies or veteran salaries

Edit: I think the lynch pin to a quick rebuild is trading Hedo for an expiring, if that happens than '13 becomes very potent.

[MoMM]

1. Well, fans dont make checks, but at least they know more about their team than you. Darko is useless to them and wants to go overseas, BTW.

2. Flynn already averaged 13/4.5 in his 1st season in the NBA. He needs another chance and i think he would want to sign a one year deal to try to revive his career before going to Europe. What PG, in his condition, wouldnt want to pair with D12?

3. We need to take some shots, if they dont sign, we start a rebuild mode. We dont need to offer big checks for Travis or Farmer's type of players, we can stay put and wait one more year developing our rookies, for example.

4. Of course that we would have to sell this to Josh and D12, something like "Josh wants to play with you here, would you stay in Orlando if we bring him?"

5. How would we make D12 sign a extension with our current team? We have an old, overpaid and declining roster. Ryan Anderson will demand a lot of money, he doesnt deserve it. Make a push for Deron or Eric? Deron doesnt want to play here, we were never an option for him. As for Eric, do you really wants to spend a lot of money in an injury-phrone guy again? Assumes he gets injured again, we would be locked with him for 5 years and D12 would leave. Great idea! Didnt you learn anything from Grant Hill past situation?

[KingRobb02]

1. Well, fans dont make checks, but at least they know more about their team than you. Darko is useless to them and wants to go overseas, BTW.

2. Flynn already averaged 13/4.5 in his 1st season in the NBA. He needs another chance and i think he would want to sign a one year deal to try to revive his career before going to Europe. What PG, in his condition, wouldnt want to pair with D12?

3. We need to take some shots, if they dont sign, we start a rebuild mode. We dont need to offer big checks for Travis or Farmer's type of players, we can stay put and wait one more year developing our rookies, for example.

4. Of course that we would have to sell this to Josh and D12, something like "Josh wants to play with you here, would you stay in Orlando if we bring him?"

5. How would we make D12 sign a extension with our current team? We have an old, overpaid and declining roster. Ryan Anderson will demand a lot of money, he doesnt deserve it. Make a push for Deron or Eric? Deron doesnt want to play here, we were never an option for him. As for Eric, do you really wants to spend a lot of money in an injury-phrone guy again? Assumes he gets injured again, we would be locked with him for 5 years and D12 would leave. Great idea! Didnt you learn anything from Grant Hill past situation?

1. Glad you can take time to insult me just because I said the Wolves would rather have an expiring contract than our trash.
2. Flynn has been on 3 teams in 3 years and has fluctuated between below average and awful. Signing him to replace Jameer, even for one year, would not be smart. If he is smart, his agent is finding him a long-term gig overseas.
3. I don't think we can sell Dwight on any free agency scheme involving his friends. Dwight talks to Josh Smith a lot more than our front office ever will. Any time someone would say "we're thinking Josh..." Dwight would already have talked to Josh about it. In that scenario, the only people without all the information are the guys writing the checks.
4. You convince Dwight to sign by reminding him that his bad back will never be 100% again but we are willing to guarantee you $100 million over the next 5 years. not saying it will work, but that IS the best case scenario. Not this roll the dice and hope that no one we want gets traded. I mean, if the Lakers pull off a Pau for Josh Smith trade, Smith is not going to be a free agent next summer. There is just too much uncertainty in the 2013 plan.
5. To the best of my knowledge D-Will has never publicly released any destination list. He was quiet all year and everyone assumed he was Dallas-bound. All I know is that he probably won't want to re-sign with the Nets and go through another bad season. I don't like Gordon either, but what if I had said OJ Mayo and DJ Augustin for a combined 14 million next year? I just think we should be adding/replacing parts this summer rather than stripping.

[dsg2021]

If we are going to make a run at anyone, it has to be this summer. Why do people think we will be flush with cash in the summer of 2013? Using this as a guide. Any attempt to have money next summer relies on us going into next season with only Duhon as a PG and only Big Baby and Dwight up front. If Dwight signs an extension kiss, any money goodbye. If we try to fill holes this summer, they will have to be one year deals, but what kind of player is going for that? All the good players think they deserve to be signed long-term. And you can't use this previous offseason as a guide because free agency and training camp opened at practically the same time. Guys were desperate. How do we get rid of Richardson and Turkoglu? No one with that many expiring contracts is giving them up to take on our dead weight.

Basically, the options are to 1) get rid of everyone we can this summer and be horrible because of it which will lead Dwight to leave and no free agent to want to come in his place 2) try desperately to trade Turkoglu/Richardson on draft night (which will be hard unless we get a GM pronto), hope Jameer opts out, let Ryan walk, and land someone this summer.

Am I missing something?

This summer we have nothing but the MLE and cutting space against Turk, JRich and Duhon is stupid instead of letting them expire and keeping better players now, or having even more space. Deron ain't coming, and Nash is the only FA left who's worth our full MLE or any minor space we can get.


You're options are wrong. If Jameer opts in, then he's a 1 year expiring, but also set to have bird rights in Orlando since the 2013 FA's aren't really PG's like Paul, Nash, Deron. You can say Jameer opted out all you want, but Jameer hasn't made the decision yet. More on this later.

The only player this team has to start gutting now this summer, is probably Ryan, its possible to get him on a 1 year expiring deal like Jameer, but not as likely. This is you're granted point, but it's not the cap killer like you suggest. More on this later. The only other sacrifices are more in asset-holding than anything else, we'd have to use 1 year deals only with MLE, exceptions, and also not look at taking Fran over unless we're confident in his contract-to-performance value and his tradeability (Minny with a Rubio reunion? Magic get future 1st down the line in 2014?). The only other significant 2013 cap hits would be Turkoglu at 6mil and then Duhon/J Rich at around 1.5 and 1.9mil~ and Davis at 6.4mil or 1.6-2mil-ish range.

When we're cutting all that space from Turk, J Rich, Duhon's deals in the 2013 summer (not including any trades at all), we've saved up around 11-12mil in cap space (like 15-16mil if Davis is cut also but he's all time high on performance and trade value at the moment) that we can't get for this summer right now (unless you want to cut the likes of Jameer, JJ, Ryan, Liggins, etc......). That space now is enough to not only give us space, but if we back loaded a contract to Jameer or Ryan, we would still retain them on the 2013 books while still gaining cap space. (Now if we retained Jameer, Ryan, AND Fran, even with backloaded deals we'd probably not be reserving enough cap space at that point. It has to be one, maybe maybe two of those three retained). So, again, you're looking at the same roster, with 1 year deals added and only one or two of Jameer, Ryan, Fran subtracted. If you're one of the rookie proponents, this means, we're still going to be a great team because Harper, Clark will step up, or Ish will at PG. (I would rather resign Jameer cheap on a backloaded deal if he doesnt opt into his 1 yr deal over Fran, and probably Ryan too. Ryan's clearly the keeper with Dwight but maybe the new coach can get BBD/Harper/Clark working better alongside Dwight. This also opens up the spot for Josh Smith.) This version would be the same roster, minus Ryan, added 1 year deals. Not exactly the roster you thought'd it be in the original post.

As for 2013 cap space, the FA class is so loaded. My dream scenario is getting Chris Paul and James Harden but settling for either one. We have space for two 13mil-ish contracts also, so after the pipe dream is over (unless we do a frontloaded, max type offer sheet at Harden with the before proposition to OKC to trade picks/player for Harden's offer sheet unmatched), we can still go for a very loaded team anyways with more realistic targets at Monta Ellis and Andre Iguodala, or Josh Smith, or the couple other RFA young stars.
The cap space hits are reduced via no trades occuring at all like this: 1.5mil hit for Duhon waived, 6mil hit for Turk waived, BBD and J Rich range from 12.6mil hit to 3-3.7mil hit because of Stretch/Cut provision being applicable to them. Dwight and Jameer or Ryan is going to be like a 27mil hit. Total is 35-42mil hit in 2013 with a cap level around 58 leaving around 22-14mil cap space (please realize Im not being detailed here and you should pull up mine or a couple other threads from the CBA talks ending when we already projected it with cap holds and more accurate info).

At that point, you go away from worst case scenario (unable to make any trades at all and making 14-22mil 2013 cap space anyways) and work at trying to realistically come up with one-three plausible trades to lower cap space hits in 2013. Restructuring Q Rich's contract since he is on a 2013 PO could save up to 1mil-ish maybe also, or something at least. Then you try to package the #19 pick and 1-2 prospects like Clark, Liggins with Turk (who represents the only real 2013 cap hit at 6mil) for anything that expires in 2013, even if its a bigger cap hit during the season.

(Off the wall example: Show CHA you can save them 6mil THIS next season by taking on Maggette and Diops' contracts, while ALSO GIVING them a #19 pick in a loaded draft and offering 1-2 prospects like Clark, Liggins (maybe any player that gets the deal done). The only take-away for CHA: While Turk is also an "expiring" deal, in reality, the CHA books will have to pay him 6mil of his 12mil 2013 year as part of Turk's minimum guaranteed portion of his final year, unguaranteed year. This makes the 14-22mil cap space projection now 20-28mil 2013 cap space). *I made this deal as lopsided as I could for CHA to display realism. Taking on Diop and Maggette is more money now than paying Turk, even tho both expire in 2013, and the pick plus player(s) is a king's ransom imo. But the general idea is there, maybe now without the pick included can the deal still be made.) (CHA has insane cap space for 2013 so 6mil from Turk is not only not that bad, but probably essential to minimally maintaining a noncommittal-type cap floor that is required and larger than the old CBA's cap floor, meanwhile Turk would fill Maggette's ball handling spots as a better system passer for the younger prospects to gain experience with than the drive-to-the-bucket and high usage Maggette. For us, Maggette should bring us more driving and FT's while Diop should be a solid backup C/big for Dwight. Thus we maintain playoff competitiveness at the same time.)

Finally, the big men situation is the only other significant cap hit besides Turk. Mainly if we kept Ryan AND Jameer, or any two of the Ryan, Jameer, Fran FA's this summer. We'd have to find a way to trade one before the midseason deadline, but those three (or if we trade Glen's deal) all represent good performing players, ergo requiring less imagination to see a deal.

While it would be nice to trade J Rich off for a good pick or cheaper prospect, in reality he (and even Glen, Fran*) could be Stretched/Cut from the new CBA provisions, and their cap hits would only be in the range of 1.4-1.9mil cap hit each (depending on my lost details), and thus, it's not a big deal move as many think. The only big deal moves to watch out for is: how much 2013 space we lost this summer (if any, at all), and if Turk can be traded. So, as you can see, there is much less gutting than anyone thinks (unless you really are trying to gut for summer right now with no viable FA's realistically available..). And the possibilities of such an upgraded 2013 roster stand out so clear. (This is where Walsh did a similar process in NY and I'm hoping he comes to ORL to help us in this strategy and onwards).

[MoMM]

1. Glad you can take time to insult me just because I said the Wolves would rather have an expiring contract than our trash.
2. Flynn has been on 3 teams in 3 years and has fluctuated between below average and awful. Signing him to replace Jameer, even for one year, would not be smart. If he is smart, his agent is finding him a long-term gig overseas.
3. I don't think we can sell Dwight on any free agency scheme involving his friends. Dwight talks to Josh Smith a lot more than our front office ever will. Any time someone would say "we're thinking Josh..." Dwight would already have talked to Josh about it. In that scenario, the only people without all the information are the guys writing the checks.
4. You convince Dwight to sign by reminding him that his bad back will never be 100% again but we are willing to guarantee you $100 million over the next 5 years. not saying it will work, but that IS the best case scenario. Not this roll the dice and hope that no one we want gets traded. I mean, if the Lakers pull off a Pau for Josh Smith trade, Smith is not going to be a free agent next summer. There is just too much uncertainty in the 2013 plan.
5. To the best of my knowledge D-Will has never publicly released any destination list. He was quiet all year and everyone assumed he was Dallas-bound. All I know is that he probably won't want to re-sign with the Nets and go through another bad season. I don't like Gordon either, but what if I had said OJ Mayo and DJ Augustin for a combined 14 million next year? I just think we should be adding/replacing parts this summer rather than stripping.

1. I didnt insult you, saying that their fans know more about their teams than you isnt an insult, IMO. Its the same that say you know more about Magic than them, its obvious.

2. He doesnt need to hurry to sign an overseas gig, it will be always available. Remember that Flynn is 23 and was a 6h pick in 2009.

3. And if D12 tries to bring Josh? Maybe he never tried because Josh wasnt a FA and we didnt had any cap space to spend on him. Now its the 1st time Josh will choose where to play.

4. He could get traded to Lakers, but he will be a FA anyway. D12 didnt want to sign a extension with them, for example. Who could say Josh wants? D12 will get a MAX contract anywhere, everyone would take a shot on him, even with back issues. He is not an Eric Gordon type of player, he is the best center in the game and Top5 player in the league.

5. Deron said a few times he would love to play in Dallas. As for signing both OJ and DJ, like someone said before, we would have only 10M to spend if we sign Ryan, but well, lets say we can sign both, because maybe they dont even want to sign with us, its a shot, like my option for 2013.

Career stats:
OJ: 15/3/3 (24 years old, undersized SG)
DJ: 11/4.5 (24 years old)

Would they make us a contender? I dont think so. Nelson is a better player than DJ, IMO, and OJ could be compared to JJ or Jrich. Not a game changer.

[Bensational]

You do have a point.

Lets say that Dwight extends his current contract. He is eligible for a 15% signing bonus, or ~$12.381M, should he do so, added to the cap burden, as well as 7.5% raises based on his first years salary under the extension. This is a total of ~$94.922M/4yrs, or ~$23.730M/yr.

So, with no Ryan, no Nelson, and no Redick in '13 we are at $55.702M

Cut Hedo and Duhon and we are at $47.702M

If we trade Davis and JRich this offseason for expirings we are at $35.098M in '13

Add in 9 cap charges @$500K a pop and we are at $39.598M

Which leaves us $20.401M under a $60M cap, with only Dwight, QRich and Harper under contract.

Say we keep Anderson for $9M/yr and keep our picks for another 5 players at lets say $5M/yr, and add in 3 cap charges for $1.5M we are at $49.539M with $10.460 to spend, which once spent we could then use our exceptions to fill out the rest of the roster.

Dwight|Anderson|$10M/yr|MLE|rookie or Bi-annual

Plus a bench of rookies or veteran salaries

Edit: I think the lynch pin to a quick rebuild is trading Hedo for an expiring, if that happens than '13 becomes very potent.

i think there are 2 keys to salvaging next season whilst still remaining flexible for cap space. finding a taker for Hedo is one of those. what are some options on that front? packaging him with BBD/Ryan/JJ for a big expiring are probably the most likely. Something along the lines of BBD + Hedo for Brand/Lewis.

the other option is making a trade for one of those '13 FAs now. we add one of them, then we get the jump start on acquisition, and bird rights. these packages will cost us more, but could save us time finding expirings. this means we get value out of guys like BBD rather than a straight salary dump. BBD + JJ + Fran/'12 pick? for Smith/Monta. if it's possible.

[KingRobb02]

1. Glad you can take time to insult me just because I said the Wolves would rather have an expiring contract than our trash.
2. Flynn has been on 3 teams in 3 years and has fluctuated between below average and awful. Signing him to replace Jameer, even for one year, would not be smart. If he is smart, his agent is finding him a long-term gig overseas.
3. I don't think we can sell Dwight on any free agency scheme involving his friends. Dwight talks to Josh Smith a lot more than our front office ever will. Any time someone would say "we're thinking Josh..." Dwight would already have talked to Josh about it. In that scenario, the only people without all the information are the guys writing the checks.
4. You convince Dwight to sign by reminding him that his bad back will never be 100% again but we are willing to guarantee you $100 million over the next 5 years. not saying it will work, but that IS the best case scenario. Not this roll the dice and hope that no one we want gets traded. I mean, if the Lakers pull off a Pau for Josh Smith trade, Smith is not going to be a free agent next summer. There is just too much uncertainty in the 2013 plan.
5. To the best of my knowledge D-Will has never publicly released any destination list. He was quiet all year and everyone assumed he was Dallas-bound. All I know is that he probably won't want to re-sign with the Nets and go through another bad season. I don't like Gordon either, but what if I had said OJ Mayo and DJ Augustin for a combined 14 million next year? I just think we should be adding/replacing parts this summer rather than stripping.

1. I didnt insult you, saying that their fans know more about their teams than you isnt an insult, IMO. Its the same that say you know more about Magic than them, its obvious.

2. He doesnt need to hurry to sign an overseas gig, it will be always available. Remember that Flynn is 23 and was a 6h pick in 2009.

3. And if D12 tries to bring Josh? Maybe he never tried because Josh wasnt a FA and we didnt had any cap space to spend on him. Now its the 1st time Josh will choose where to play.

4. He could get traded to Lakers, but he will be a FA anyway. D12 didnt want to sign a extension with them, for example. Who could say Josh wants? D12 will get a MAX contract anywhere, everyone would take a shot on him, even with back issues. He is not an Eric Gordon type of player, he is the best center in the game and Top5 player in the league.

5. Deron said a few times he would love to play in Dallas. As for signing both OJ and DJ, like someone said before, we would have only 10M to spend if we sign Ryan, but well, lets say we can sign both, because maybe they dont even want to sign with us, its a shot, like my option for 2013.

Career stats:
OJ: 15/3/3 (24 years old, undersized SG)
DJ: 11/4.5 (24 years old)

Would they make us a contender? I dont think so. Nelson is a better player than DJ, IMO, and OJ could be compared to JJ or Jrich. Not a game changer.

Not to spend too much time on it, but I've found that most fans on RealGM are focused only on their own team. If you only watch your own team and read boxscores, it's hard to have an honest opinion of what you have. Like I know real, live, adult, Sixers fans who swear they would give away Iggy right now so they can give the team to Evan Turner. That just isn't smart.

The Jonny Flynn was a top 6 pick logic is what led the Rockets to keep him over Jeremy Lynn. Not saying that has anything to do with Flynn's abilities, but I think we need to suck it up as a draft mistake. The Lakers thought the same thing about Adam Morrison a few years ago. Some guys are just built for college.

When I said Josh wouldn't be a free agent if he went to the Lakers, I was referring to the Lakers tendency to overpay to keep their key contributors. We would be grossly overpaying if we tried to pry him away.

Before you dismiss the OJ/DJ thing, think about how much better our season looks if we have an AVERAGE backup PG. Someone who can keep opposing defenses honest, not have 24-second violations, and actually get the ball across mid-court when he is being pressured.

I'm not saying 2013 isn't loaded, but then again, this summer was supposed to be loaded when everyone thought Chris Paul, Dwight, and Deron would all be on the market as recently as December. Things change, and if the Magic spend all year clearing room and losing Dwight, I will be pissed. If Dwight walks and we somehow get Josh+Harden+Monta, we still aren't contenders.

[KingRobb02]

You do have a point.

Lets say that Dwight extends his current contract. He is eligible for a 15% signing bonus, or ~$12.381M, should he do so, added to the cap burden, as well as 7.5% raises based on his first years salary under the extension. This is a total of ~$94.922M/4yrs, or ~$23.730M/yr.

So, with no Ryan, no Nelson, and no Redick in '13 we are at $55.702M

Cut Hedo and Duhon and we are at $47.702M

If we trade Davis and JRich this offseason for expirings we are at $35.098M in '13

Add in 9 cap charges @$500K a pop and we are at $39.598M

Which leaves us $20.401M under a $60M cap, with only Dwight, QRich and Harper under contract.

Say we keep Anderson for $9M/yr and keep our picks for another 5 players at lets say $5M/yr, and add in 3 cap charges for $1.5M we are at $49.539M with $10.460 to spend, which once spent we could then use our exceptions to fill out the rest of the roster.

Dwight|Anderson|$10M/yr|MLE|rookie or Bi-annual

Plus a bench of rookies or veteran salaries

Edit: I think the lynch pin to a quick rebuild is trading Hedo for an expiring, if that happens than '13 becomes very potent.

i think there are 2 keys to salvaging next season whilst still remaining flexible for cap space. finding a taker for Hedo is one of those. what are some options on that front? packaging him with BBD/Ryan/JJ for a big expiring are probably the most likely. Something along the lines of BBD + Hedo for Brand/Lewis.

the other option is making a trade for one of those '13 FAs now. we add one of them, then we get the jump start on acquisition, and bird rights. these packages will cost us more, but could save us time finding expirings. this means we get value out of guys like BBD rather than a straight salary dump. BBD + JJ + Fran/'12 pick? for Smith/Monta. if it's possible.

Now we're talking. I went into these playoffs with one dream in mind. I hoped Ryan showed the world enough to open up his sign and trade possibilities so we could package him with someone like Turk/Richardson and bring back a slightly overpaid all-star like Rudy Gay or Iggy. Thanks for screwing that up Ryan.