BS: Magic may not be able to afford keeping Hedo and Gortat

[Curtis Lemansky]

After Lee's emergence,I think Orlando will seriously entertaining trading Pietrus away for cap space.Battie & AJ and even Redick can be traded as well.

Pietrus will make 5,3 mil next year
Battie will make 6,3 mil next year
AJ will make 2,1 mil next year
Redick will make 2,8 mil next year

This is 16,5 mil committed on 4 bench players(assuming Lee stays as starter over Pietrus ) IMO all of these players are expandable.With Alston and Jameer,AJ is not needed and a minimim salary 3rd pg will be the insurance in case of minor injuries to Nelson and Alston.Pietrus is too injury prone and his price tag is very hefty for a bench player.Ditto for Battie.Redick has a reasonable price tag but IMO that 2,8 mil can be much well spent in free agency for a better player. If Orlando can get rid of Battie + AJ + one of the Pietrus/JJ ,then team will have enough cap space to resign Hedo(around 4 year 32 mil) and Gortat(around 2 year around 4-5 mil) plus still have some cap space to get some cheap bench players(players like Brandon Bass;James Singleton,Quinton Ross,Powe,CJ Watson,Steve Novak,Marquis Daniels) and some good veterans(Mcdyess,Joe Smith,).



BTW Harpring is not a free agent.

[Jiwol]

BTW Harpring is not a free agent.

He wrote about Harpering, not Harpring.

As for the matter of discussion - Battie, Pietrus and AJ need to go, simple as that. They are earning too much. 13,7 million is a fifth of the salary. For 2nd/3rd string PG, swingman and big man that's too much and something needs to be done. If we could ship them out, re-sign Hedo and Gortat and fill the roster with minimum sallary vets, we'd still be good team, if not better.

[gofret]

BTW Harpring is not a free agent.

He wrote about Harpering, not Harpring.

As for the matter of discussion - Battie, Pietrus and AJ need to go, simple as that. They are earning too much. 13,7 million is a fifth of the salary. For 2nd/3rd string PG, swingman and big man that's too much and something needs to be done. If we could ship them out, re-sign Hedo and Gortat and fill the roster with minimum sallary vets, we'd still be good team, if not better.

totally agree..

[Versubio]

BTW Harpring is not a free agent.

He wrote about Harpering, not Harpring.

As for the matter of discussion - Battie, Pietrus and AJ need to go, simple as that. They are earning too much. 13,7 million is a fifth of the salary. For 2nd/3rd string PG, swingman and big man that's too much and something needs to be done. If we could ship them out, re-sign Hedo and Gortat and fill the roster with minimum sallary vets, we'd still be good team, if not better.

I absolutely agree.

[Just Plain Mark]

I agree with what seems to be the general consesus regarding Battie, AJ and Pietrus. Fortunately, with the exception of Peitrus, the Magic have tradeable assets that can both contribute and have attractive contract situations. It'll be interesting to see how many teams will want to improve their position for the '10 FA bonanza; I think that will dictate the Magic's trade options.

I hope that the Magic use the draft to pick up some cheap talent and provide some diversity to the bench (a slashing SF, a more active PF, etc).

[cmor42180]

everyone is so quick to move battie, yes gortat is young talent with loads of potential but we lack true bigs, battie expires and if we keep him happy we can try to keep him around after this year at the vet min, he still produces when needed

AJ/Lue can go, remember we still have wilks for the 3rd spot if we want, rafer/jameer will be a killer combo for us

otis can be as creative as he wants, but there is no way he keeps both players and we stay under the cap, gortat will get paid this year, talented bigs are hard to come by nowadays

if hedo wants the 5/50 or close to it, i say we work a sign and trade with someone... cough, bosh, cough... but we have set it up that hedo isnt as needed as he once was, dont get me wrong i want him here and he is still good, but he is 30, plays inconsistently, and really isnt worth breaking the bank on him when he have so many other players locked in, gortat on the other hand is worth it, he is young with a great upside and somewhat unknown around the league so he will be more affordable than hedo.

im just preparing myself for hedo to be gone, im hoping if he does go its for a sign and trade for bosh, we can throw in redick and some picks to make it more appealing and then bosh re-signs with a winner (us) and we dominate! lol

but if hedo is gone and we resign gortat we can look at this as our starting lineup
dwight
gortat
shard
lee
jameer
that lineup isnt that bad if lee keeps it up and can fill in for hedo we are all set

[CourtsideTV]

everyone is so quick to move battie, yes gortat is young talent with loads of potential but we lack true bigs, battie expires and if we keep him happy we can try to keep him around after this year at the vet min, he still produces when needed

AJ/Lue can go, remember we still have wilks for the 3rd spot if we want, rafer/jameer will be a killer combo for us

otis can be as creative as he wants, but there is no way he keeps both players and we stay under the cap, gortat will get paid this year, talented bigs are hard to come by nowadays

if hedo wants the 5/50 or close to it, i say we work a sign and trade with someone... cough, bosh, cough... but we have set it up that hedo isnt as needed as he once was, dont get me wrong i want him here and he is still good, but he is 30, plays inconsistently, and really isnt worth breaking the bank on him when he have so many other players locked in, gortat on the other hand is worth it, he is young with a great upside and somewhat unknown around the league so he will be more affordable than hedo.

im just preparing myself for hedo to be gone, im hoping if he does go its for a sign and trade for bosh, we can throw in redick and some picks to make it more appealing and then bosh re-signs with a winner (us) and we dominate! lol

but if hedo is gone and we resign gortat we can look at this as our starting lineup
dwight
gortat
shard
lee
jameer
that lineup isnt that bad if lee keeps it up and can fill in for hedo we are all set

gortat is not a starter..battie will start

[Curtis Lemansky]

Who is Harpering?

[Rick Rolled]

Who is Harpering?

I searched forever for a picture of Ron Harper holding up his five championship rings with a smug look on his face, to absolutely no avail......

[Howard Mass]

We all knew about this.

I'll try to write up something to explain this more in depth.

[magicfan4life05]

Turk signed a six-year deal for $39 million with Orlando in 2004. His camp believes he is worth what Golden State paid small forward Corey Maggette (five years, $50 million). Not surprisingly, there are indications that the Magic and Turk are far apart if that's his sticker price.

"The ball is in his court," Smith said. "We'd like to have Turk here."

NOOOOOOO


This doesn't sound good.

I think Pietrus will be the insurance plan for Hedo in case he leaves.

[magicfan217]

Would Rasheed Wallace not be a PERFECT fit for this team??


I say we let Hedo go and bring wallace in. I know this may not be a popular move on this board but Sheed would be the perfect option that Im sure would come within our price range..

Nelson
Lee
Lewis
Wallace
Howard

Damn.

[Howard Mass]

I think Wallace would be a wonderful fit.

He'd bring this team more toughness and could light more of a fire under Dwight Howard.

[eyriq]

Pietrus is more in that defensive glue guy mold that championship teams usually have, a la Posey. I don't think giving up on such a young talent is wise at this point. Plus it's not like he is an expiring contract, so how likely is a trade then? Not likely.

As for the rest, we could certainly trade Rafer and Battie and get guys to fill their roles at a much cheaper cost. Backup pg's and pf's don't make 5+ mil a year, lol. However I'm not sure how trading a contract = less contracts; don't you usually have to receive an = amount of contracts in return? If a team is under the cap enough to eat some contract, why are they trading for expirings anyway?

Back to MP, someone said he would be overpaid as a bench guy, but if you consider that he's likely to be our 6th man that is not a bad price at all.

What I'd like to see is this team get younger and cheaper though not necessarily worse through trading our old expiring contracts like Rafer, Johnson, and Battie. That is quite a bit of change there and some good value to boot, so going younger and resigning Hedo and Gortat could be done. Hedo is to me the much greater priority though, as has been pointed out in another thread he is our closest thing to a "closer" that we have.

[mhectorgato]

After Lee's emergence,I think Orlando will seriously entertaining trading Pietrus away for cap space.Battie & AJ and even Redick can be traded as well.

Pietrus will make 5,3 mil next year
Battie will make 6,3 mil next year
AJ will make 2,1 mil next year
Redick will make 2,8 mil next year

This is 16,5 mil committed on 4 bench players(assuming Lee stays as starter over Pietrus ) IMO all of these players are expandable.With Alston and Jameer,AJ is not needed and a minimim salary 3rd pg will be the insurance in case of minor injuries to Nelson and Alston.Pietrus is too injury prone and his price tag is very hefty for a bench player.Ditto for Battie.Redick has a reasonable price tag but IMO that 2,8 mil can be much well spent in free agency for a better player. If Orlando can get rid of Battie + AJ + one of the Pietrus/JJ ,then team will have enough cap space to resign Hedo(around 4 year 32 mil) and Gortat(around 2 year around 4-5 mil) plus still have some cap space to get some cheap bench players(players like Brandon Bass;James Singleton,Quinton Ross,Powe,CJ Watson,Steve Novak,Marquis Daniels) and some good veterans(Mcdyess,Joe Smith,).

BTW Harpring is not a free agent.

I've seen this several times in this thread -the only way we can "dump" their salaries is to find a team who is under the cap and will absorb those contracts.

Otherwise we have to abid by the CBA's within 125% rule regarding salaries matching.

So it's unlikely we could just dump them.

The best candidate for dumping are JJ or AJ.

The best candidate a trade Battie, as he's a 6.2 m expiring contract, who still can give minutes at the backup.

[Magicfan94]

I think the feeling at Two Magic Place has been Hedo is likely going to be gone unless something falls on their lap. We're not the only team trying to avoid the Luxury Tax, most teams are severely in the red this year.

[x-]

Orlando could afford to lose Battie, AJ/(Alston) & Redick.
The problem is you need solid guys in return who can step up if someone gets injured. Orlando's 8 men roation would be still the same (Howard, Lewis, Turkoglu, Lee, Nelson, Pietrus, Gortat, Alston/AJ).

AJ really steped his game up over the last two months or so. So losing Alston wouldn't hurt all that much since he would play limited minutes behind Nelson and won't be nearly as effective as a backup as he is as a starter. If Nelson gets injured again however, Alston could fill in nicely ... while AJ ... well everybody saw what happend when AJ started.

Redick won't get much time in the playoffs anyway, so I don't think he would be a big loss. Orlando could possibly trade him for a future first rounder. Also Jeremy Richardson is a nice prospect who could fill in JJ role nicely if he continues to work on his game.

Battie is still a valuable Big Men (with an expiring contract), so I could see some teams go after him (e.g. Denver, New Orleans, Dallas, Atlanta, Heat, Charlotte) and Orlando might be able to get some nice pieces in return.

Otis Smith has a lot of decisions to make this summer, we'll see how it all will work out

[Shishnizzle]

I actually agree with several positions in this thread. I don't see Hedo not being here under certain circumstances as a bad thing. I would still like him to be here but I don't think its a must. I als have no problem with the idea of shedding salary to keep him. I totally agree with N4u' point on Gortat. He is young and has a lot of upside.

As far as shedding salary, we still have to find a trading partner that can take on salary without us taking any back. That could be difficult.

Also I think it would be a very bad move to move Alston. We have a very good shot at a Chip with him and a healthy Meer.

Which brings me to my final point. Otis needs to make moves that make sense. If he hurts our chances at competing for a Championship just to avoid the luxury. When we have a new arena opening. It would be a very bad signal to Dwight Howard and future free agents and the FANS that Orlando is a place where you can't compete for a title. So in my opinion, if they can't find the right moves. I don't see why they can't go into the luxury for ONE season. The next season salary will come off the books and we won't have to go into the luxury.

I have doubted Otis in the past and he made it work so I'm not to worried bout it.

[LBPTarHeel27]

Says we could trade any of Rafer, Tony , AJ to cut salary.
could we trade AJ, Battie, rights to Fran to a team in need of exp. for a 2009 2nd rd pick?

Resign Hedo and Gortat, maybe keep Lue cheap(Vet min), sign McDyess(vet min.) Warrick and Harpering


Nelson/Alston/Lue
Lee/Pietrus/JJ
Turk/Harpering/2nd rd pick
Lewis/McDyess/Warrick
Dwight/Gortat/Foyle


don't go crazy on me for this not a realgm salary wiz.

146 views on this thread some else comment on this quoted lineup

It is unrealistic.

If we keep Hedo & Gortat, it will be a GREAT offseason and quite impressive.

There is no chance of us doing that AND signing McD AND signing Warrick AND re-signing Lue AND getting a draft pick.

[NEM]

why do we have 2 threads for basically the same thing?

anyways, otis will figure it out AFTER this season