I got a little depressed watching Thunder vs. 76ers

[Bensational]

I'd see Exum as a backup SG/PG for the short term, possibly becoming a starting SG in the future. But he'd be an investment for the future the same as Mario is currently.

But I don't think that's the kinda move we'd want to make this season since we seem to be wanting experience over youth.

Yeah and he would definitely get some minutes at SG. An extra guard on our team wouldn't hurt. However I agree I think if we do a trade this season it will be for a more experienced player.

Is he really an upgrade over Meeks/Wilcox though?

Right now he's an upgrade over Meeks only because Meeks is injured. But for this season he likely isn't an upgrade over either. That's why I said he'd be an investment, and someone who you would hope could become more than just an upgrade over them in a couple of seasons, but hopefully a starting quality or possibly even all star caliber player.

[BadMofoPimp]

I think I am still a little depressed over losing Harkless for nothing.

Last night he started and went 10-15 from the field 8rbds 2asts and no turnovers.

[basketballRob]

It is kinda crazy how many guys we've let walk or trade for expirings/2nds that went on to become decent role players on playoff teams

Tobias Harris
Maurice Harkless
Josh mcroberts
Channing Frye
Etwaun Moore
Andrew Nicholson

I guess that's the nature of the NBA, you have to avoid overpaying marginal talent. role players look better on good teams as well. Guess I'm being a little salty because most of our assets have been gathered through the lotto/trades. Hennigan hasn't really been able to pull a rabbit out of a hat like some other teams have

Yeah, but those guys have all become supporting cast to legit stars. We're still in search of our legit star, and some of those guys were just in the way of that.

We're in a weird state of limbo right now, waiting for one of Gordon/Payton/Hezonja (unlikely)/Fournier/Ibaka to step up as a legit franchise talent, or even a 2nd tier level talent like Butler. If one of those guys don't, then we need to hope that going forwards Hennigan is able to pull rabbits out of hats with later picks. It'd be nice to be the team landing a Kawhi/Giannis/Green/Gobert/Hood/Booker/Turner/etc kind of player from a mid-late 1st rounder.

I'm definitely bummed we couldn't have found a way to keep Nicholson around, though.

Dedmon would've been nice to have still as that third center or if their was a trade.

[IGotDaMagicInMe]

Rambling post incoming:

Philly doesn't deserve any praise. They haven't done anything that we havent done. They just have a younger roster now so that they can delude themselves with "potential" just like we were doing when we had a younger team. Until their team wins games they have nothing to be jealous of. Truth is that tanking doesn't work unless you get a superstar, and there isnt even guaranteed to be a superstar every draft or even every other draft. Usually it's a guy that gets taken first overall. and with the lottery no matter how bad you are you cant guarantee that pick. so you have to be a bad team, hope you're in a draft that even has a superstar, hope you win the lottery, hope you know which guy the superstar is, AND THEN at that point hope he doesn't gwt inured or self destruct, hope you actually are able to build a tram around him unlike some teams such as the pelicans have been unable to do. Also you have to hope that meanwhile all this tanking hasn't built a toxic losing culture and it everything goes right. . .you still might not win a title and have your superstar bolt to the warriors or the heat. Maybe it's time people stop mocking "treadmill" teams, at least they can put an entertaining team on the court, not to mention considering all the variables are they any less likely to win a title than the majority of teams that attempt to tank? Maybe the route is to build a winning team and just trade for tons Of picks and hope you get lucky

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[RickB-Orlando]

Are we sure that we'd really rather be in Philly or OKC's position? I understand people being disappointed about the Magic because of last night, but both Philly and OKC have issues as well.

Philly has had one of the worst four-year stretches that I can ever remember in NBA history, and basically what they have to show for it are 5 guys who play 2 positions, some rotations players, and some D-Leaguers. Obviously some of their guys have a lot of potential, but none of them have yet proven anything. Embiid, Simmons, and Saric could turn out to be superstars, or they could just be mediocre players. We simply don't have any idea yet what they will become, but it's gotta be at least a little troubling that Okafor, Noel, Simmons, and Embiid have all had injury issues. Unless Philly turns into a perennial contender in the future with the pieces they've assembled, was being the embarrassment of the league really worth it? Time will tell, but I'm not convinced at all that I'd rather be in Philly's position going forward than Orlando's.

As for the Thunder, I'm also not convinced that they're in a much better position. Sure, Westbrook is a superstar but there are plenty of superstars in this league who play on mediocre teams (Cousins, Davis, Harden, George, etc.). Besides Westbrook, though, is the rest of the roster really that impressive? The OP writes that we know what Oladipo can do, but we also know what he can't do, and his stat line last night shouldn't look too unfamiliar to Magic fans: 4-16 overall, 0-5 from three, 1 assist versus 3 turnovers. Obviously I don't think Oladipo will always be that bad, but if he's supposed to be the Robin to Westbrook's Batman, then I think the Thunder are in trouble, at least if they think they are a contending team, or even a team that will compete for home court in the WC playoffs. Aside from those two, the Thunder basically have a bunch of guys who are one-way players. Guys like Ilyasova and Kanter are decent or good offensive players, but are liabilities on defense, while guys like Adams and Roberson and solid defensively but don't contribute much with their offense. Finally, in their starting lineup, their best shooter from deep (using last year's stats) is Oladipo. In my opinion, if your starting lineup is one in which VO is your best shooter, you're probably in trouble, but we'll see what the Thunder do.

Again, I understand being disappointed about what the Magic displayed last night, but I still don't think we're in an awful position, and I'm certainly not convinced that we as Magic fans would be much more optimistic if we were fans of either Philly or OKC.

doesn't matter if they have 5 guys, but they have two possible superstars in Embiid and Simmons. THats the difference. The others can be considered collateral. Its not like they won't get any value out of the two. They still have potential superstars on their team.

Well, yeah, but if the balls had bounced differently some of those players would be on the Magic.1 Pick away from Porzingas, 1 Pick away from Embiid (who is still quite unproven). The only draft where we had good position (2013) the draft was very weak - and we still managed to get the (arguably) best player.

Nobody, and I mean nobody, was advocating tanking last year - plus Simmons is a "potential superstar" who has done nothing but get injured so far. Sure, I think he'll have a fine career, but how about we not anoint the Sixers as the second coming until they actually *do* something?

[XtremeDunkz]

The Ibaka trade literally made no sense to me. Neither did the Harris trade.

You guys traded away Harris, Oladipo, and the 11th pick in the draft for 3 vets who will help you stay mediocre for a couple years and won't be here to help when you are hopefully going to be good. That screams of a GM trying to prolong his job a couple years

[Statlanta]

The Ibaka trade literally made no sense to me. Neither did the Harris trade.

You guys traded away Harris, Oladipo, and the 11th pick in the draft for 3 vets who will help you stay mediocre for a couple years and won't be here to help when you are hopefully going to be good. That screams of a GM trying to prolong his job a couple years

It's still early only 3 games into the season.
The goal of the owner was to contend for the playoffs this year if you switch Biyombo, Ibaka, Green who are just as if not more proven for those guys I don't see us any closer to where we are now. Those guys are future potential parts not guaranteed things we need now.

[thelead]

The Ibaka trade literally made no sense to me. Neither did the Harris trade.

You guys traded away Harris, Oladipo, and the 11th pick in the draft for 3 vets who will help you stay mediocre for a couple years and won't be here to help when you are hopefully going to be good. That screams of a GM trying to prolong his job a couple years

It appears to be a directive from management... I'm surprised Colangelo hasn't done the same with your team yet.

[PennytoShaq]

I'd be open to a waiver on Exum. Why not Exum for Hezonja straight up? You could even toss in CJ Watson or DJ Augustin (after December 15) to help shore up the Jazz PG depth.

Hmm..that is interesting. I'd keep Augustine here. I like what he can do on offense.

I still like Mario. The reason is because he can really go off in the right offense. I'm really starting to think our offense will be tweaked to be more of a spread now that we see how much more effective it is.

To have Mario catching and shooting in rhythm is really what we need to see.

Exum is intriguing but we need shooting. Mario can become an elite shooter still. I truly believe our offense is to blame for some of this.

Running 2 bigs and shrinking up the court only works when you have wings who create off the dribble like John Wall, Lilliard..those types of player.

When you have guys like Evan and Mario it really helps to play a more jump shooting style. For example, imagine if we had those guys coming off the bench back in the Dwight/SVG days. Hell, just imagine them in SVG's offense now in DET.

I really like Vogel, but Martins firing SVG to me is still by far worse than any move Rob has ever made. SVG could have turned this rebuild around a lot faster. But Alex Martins is a clown and drove him off. If people want to be mad, they should be mad about that. Stan rebuilt Miami and loves it here. He would not have minded some losing seasons. It really sucks that he's gone.

[NBAchamps2017]

Exum - serviceable
Saric - serviceable starter
Harris - solid starter
Harkless - serviceable
Oladipo - solid starter
Nicholson - streaky
Oquinn - serviceable
Sabonis - serviceable starter
Dedmon - serviceable
Fry - serviceable
Jennings - serviceable