POLL: Official Marcin"Warlock/Polish Hammer" Gortat thread..

[surflawyer]

Gortat flat out BALLED last night. There is no excuse not to play him until he drops dead of exhaustion. Play him at C with Dwight at PF. Bring him off the bench at C with Battie at the PF position. I don't care!!!! I would like to know who is schooling him in the pick and roll/pop. He flat out played it well and really opened the floor to our athletes to succeed.







* he waits for the trade Howard thread. *

[happypedro12]

Yea I could only watch the first half but Gortat looked good out there. I dunno about a starter, but def. a legit 2nd unit big. I like the idea of Gortat AND battie out there at the same time, that way we could eat up the boards while Dwight was resting. I didn't think he would have a double-double but like someone said before, he is more athletic that I gave him credit for. Good to see C. Lee have another good game too.

[trebone]

warlock is great, everyone was always saying he just needed a little pt, and he is doing te exact opposite of JJ

[The Favero]

HAMMER WINS!!!

[craig01]

The "Polish Hammer" begins it's inception on realgm.

And by a landslide vote of 1-0.

[TheRevTy]

Warlock actually has a story behind it. Back when we got his rights and they were looking to bring him here for the summer league, the O-Zone message board had a Polish guy post an article that was translated using Babbelfish. It talked about how Gortat was so excited to come over, and that he couldn't wait to be a Warlock (Magic). Everytime the article referred to the Magic, it translated it Warlock.

As a side note, it also said he was training with bears, but I can't remember what it actually meant. I'll try and find a link.

Nonetheless, Warlock is a great nickname.

[MagicMadness]

What I really like about Gortat is that he didn't look like he was getting his stats by fluke chance. He really does appear to be a skilled big man, not a stiff.

He moves down the court well and is quick to guard guys who come in the paint. When watching him, you can tell that he "knows what he's doing" unlike some past 7-footers (Steven Hunter, for example).

[AdamTheGreek]

You can all thank Brendan Malone, he's basically Marcin's father here.

[huge4]

A big knock against the Magic this whole season has been our lack of bench. Well, I think we've seen a few examples this season that it should be more a knock on Van Gundy for not playing our bench, not that our bench isn't talented enough. Gortat is a stud.

I totally agree with DFlight's second unit. Gortat and Battie at the 4 & 5 compliment each other's style and dominate other 2nd units. Marcin and Dwight are too similar to play at length together.

BTW, when Marcin was on the Dante & Galante internet show, he mentioned his knicknames, bringing up both "The Warlock" and "The Polish Hammer", but Warlock was the first one he said so I'm going with...

Warlock +1

[MagicMadness]

Was he always "The Polish Hammer" though, or did the message boards give him the nickname?

I can't remember. Did the Magic players nickname him that or what? Anyone remember the story?

[DrunkOnMystery]

The origin of the name Warlock:

http://orlandomagiczone.com/eve/forums/ ... 5571035914

[Swish14]

Great game for Marcin last night. He'll definitely get more minutes when Dwight returns.

So you know what this means... Adonal Foyle's butt will be glued to the bench. Addition by subtraction!

[drsd]

7,8 only ? I could swear that at some point in Germany he was regularly fouling out in 10-15 minutes so 7,8 per 40 in the NBA isn´t too bad Seriously, i would have never thought that he could get a DD in an actual NBA game, very surprised about his development. But i´m glad for him, he was on of my favourite players back in germany, although some of it was because of unintentional comedy like jumping mascots in a dunk contest and land on his belly

@ drsd : You don´t happen to know the guy doing that insane dunk in your profile picture ? Or have a youtube link to it ? That´s just awesome !

1) I have watched quite a few games of Gortat in Cologne. Yes he was wild defensively. But in Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), it's OK for a PF to play this way. (Yes he was, and should be, a PF).

2) Abdoul Bamba: YouTube Link

This is the best cartwheel dunk I have seen from Abdoul Bamba:
Cartwheel dunk Link


Abdoul Bamba is part of Slam Nation and is an excellent entertainer (and friend of Pietrus).

[The Favero]

Was he always "The Polish Hammer" though, or did the message boards give him the nickname?

I can't remember. Did the Magic players nickname him that or what? Anyone remember the story?

I will not take credit by any means because I'm sure someone else came up with it totally independently of myself, but I started calling him "the polish hammer" on my own without reading it anywhere. As a matter of fact, I did it the same day he officially made the roster last year and then I made the following pic:

[Nemesis21]

Hell of a game by the Polish Hammer! and nice game from Spider Man aka Courtney Lee

[MagicMadness]

lol

I don't remember that pic. Awesome.

[heavyjay]

I've been very, very impressed with the Warlock the past couple of games. If you would have asked me last week, I would have been happy if Marcin simply played well enough not to lose the game for us. He has TOTALLY exceeded my expectations. 13 pts, 9 rb at HALFTIME? Those are Dwight-like numbers. As a matter of fact, I might even go so far as to say the team has played better with a healthy Gortat than with a banged-up Dwight at times this season.

If I were Otis, I'd pull a Rays-Evan Longoria type deal and lock him up cheap for the next 5 years. He's going to be that good. At this point I consider him a core player along with Jameer, Dwight & Rashard.

[Last Guardian]

I think he and Dwight will team up in the starting lineup eventually. Tough to say who would play PF though. All I know is that is a lot of size, length and athleticism. We'd kill the boards every night and easily block the most shots in the league.

Gortat just has to get some decent minutes for now, and develop the jumpshot and learn not to foul as much.

[paperboymafia]

Gortats potential is huge, and hes showing us signs of it.

Think about it, this was his second big mins game and just destroys the stat sheet...that is impressive.

Gortat+Dwight in the futur on the floor together would be scary as hell for opposing teams.

[Diehardmagicfan]

Gortat would be a huge boost for us off the bench for us just needs to get those minutes from SVG.