Jazzfan1971 and FloppyMoose's Offseason Preview - Magic

[jazzfan1971]

Orlando Magic

Projected Lineup
--------------------------------------

PG - Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton, Luke Ridnour
SG - Evan Fournier, Ben Gordon, Willie Green
SF - Tobias Harris, Moe Harkless, Devyn Marble
PF - Channing Frye, Aaron Gordon, Andrew Nicholson
C - Nikola Vucevic, Kyle O'Quinn, Dewayne Dedmon

Trading Block: Nobody jumps out as being on the block for Orlando. I doubt they make many more moves. But, if I had to pick someone I'd think Harkless would be the guy I'd be shopping were I Orlando. He seems to have a little too much talent to be a backup 3 and be content.

Position Battle: A lot of folks are predicting that Payton will be the starting PG by the all-star break. That would mean that Fournier gets the bump. So, I guess Oladipo/Fournier is one position battle. Or Payton/Fournier. Just depends on how you look at it. Harris and Harkless could vie for minutes. And if Aaron Gordon is worthy of that 4th pick he should give Frye a run for his money. Oh, and Ben Gordon will think he deserves 38 minutes and 42 shots regardless.

Mystery Man: Aaron Gordon. I can understand why Orlando went with Gordon at #4. They liked Payton and the combo of Gordon and Payton. I can totally see the logic. But, the dude can't shoot. He can leap with the best of them and seems pretty coordinated, but, he's got zero touch. It will be very educational to me to see if he can develop a shot or not because I have no idea if someone with zero touch can ever make that leap. Personally, I expect minutes to be hard to come by for Gordon as Haris slides over to PF when Frye needs a rest.

Floppymusings:
Frye will really help. Gordon won't. And if X/Fournier are in a position battle, my money is on X. The Magic have some nice young pieces who are going to get better this season, and the team is going to be better. But it's not going to show a lot in the win column. Not *this* year.

Jazzfanramblings:
I grew up in a trailer park. We were pretty poor in my youth. One summer my dad got a job up in Wyoming at a power plant there, and my mom and I drove out for the summer while I was out of school. To save money, my mom turned off the power to the trailer. Well, we had one of those giant chest freezers. Packed full of ice cream, tv dinners, elk, and who knows what else. If you turn off the power to one of those babies bad things happen. REALLY bad things. When we came home, the stench was unbearable. Mom opened the windows to air out the trailer and house flies from 3 counties flew in attracted to the scent of rotting flesh. I mean the window screens were practically covered in a housefly blanket.

So, what's the best way of putting that? Too smart by half? Penny wise but Pound foolish? Too smart for your own good? I hate to bash my mom, but, that was just dumb. I think the rule is that as long as you say, 'bless her/his heart' after an insult everything is ok. Boy my mom was dumb that day, bless her heart.

When Orlando drafted Gordon I was a bit stunned. Personally, (and with a ton of bias) I think the Orlando front office was too smart by half that day. Bless their hearts.

Projected record - 29/53

[bondom34]

I'm confused.

Why didn't you clean out the freezer before turning off the power?

[LloydFree]

The Magic of finished with a 23-59 record last year, and traded their best starter, for a bench piece.

Out: Aaron Afflalo and Jameer Nelson
In: Elfrid Payton, Aaron Gordon, Channing Frye and Eric Fornier.

That's more young talent, but I don't see Six (6) more wins this season, out of those additions, considering the subtractions.

[j-ragg]

The Magic of finished with a 23-59 record last year, and traded their best starter, for a bench piece.

Out: Aaron Afflalo and Jameer Nelson
In: Elfrid Payton, Aaron Gordon, Channing Frye and Eric Fornier.

That's more young talent, but I don't see Six (6) more wins this season, out of those additions, considering the subtractions.

On paper I see what you mean.

But do you think the team was put in the best position to win the most possible games? I hate using the T word but it was somewhat obvious that they wanted at least one more high lotto pick before starting to make the transition to shooting for the playoffs.

[BrewCityBBQ]

I'm confused.

Why didn't you clean out the freezer before turning off the power?

This

[j-ragg]

--------------------------------------

Good write up, I agree with most. Harkless should be the backup though, he definitely isn't too talented for it. He's shown pretty minimal improvement, but there's been flashes.

I agree with the assessment, you're not the first to disbelieve in Gordon's future at least offensively. I think they like him more for his work ethic and believe he can one day be at least competent.

But he was the youngest guy in the draft, he has plenty of time to work it out. He'll impact the game other ways.

~30 wins is what I have them pegged for.

[sonictecture]

I think we see Victor move to his more natural position of SG this season. The Magic have Ridnour as insurance in the event Payton isn't ready to start from day one.

I'm surprised at the rush to judgement regarding the drafting of Gordon. I find myself siding with those who are taking the more positive outlook at this point. When I look at that front court rotation, in particular the lack of foot speed between Vucevic and Frye, I can't help but think that Gordon will find a rotation spot sooner rather than later.

An interesting aspect for the Magic is whether young players like Harkless and Fournier who are still on their rookie deals can show themselves as rotation role players or not.

[LloydFree]

I'm confused.

Why didn't you clean out the freezer before turning off the power?

That was his point. They were trying to be smart by saving power, but were less than smart by ruining all of their food.

I can only assume that is a parable, explaining the Magic being "smart" by taking Gordon instead of Exum, because they knew they could get Payton. Which I assume means he believes was a dumb decision.

[shawn unkempt]

All that really needs to be said about the Magic offseason is that their fans are more excited about their #10 pick than their #4.

[KillMonger]

All that really needs to be said about the Magic offseason is that their fans are more excited about their #10 pick than their #4.

[j-ragg]

I'm confused.

Why didn't you clean out the freezer before turning off the power?

That was his point. They were trying to be smart by saving power, but were less than smart by ruining all of their food.

I can only assume that is a parable, explaining the Magic being "smart" by taking Gordon instead of Exum, because they knew they could get Payton. Which I assume means he believes was a dumb decision.

Exum has looked terrible so far. Why is it such a reach the we took a raw guy who is younger over Exum?

Payton looks better than both right now anyway. I get it if people think Gordon was a reach but Exum doesn't make it look like he'll make Orlando regret it anytime soon.

[sonictecture]

I'm confused.

Why didn't you clean out the freezer before turning off the power?

That was his point. They were trying to be smart by saving power, but were less than smart by ruining all of their food.

I can only assume that is a parable, explaining the Magic being "smart" by taking Gordon instead of Exum, because they knew they could get Payton. Which I assume means he believes was a dumb decision.

So I suppose that makes us realgm posters the flies on the window screens if Gordon struggles in year one?

[SOUL]

Realgm posters in general are bad at projecting rookies. Just not even worth it to talk about until the season progresses.

Anyway, people also underrated natural growth from talented young players.

Magic fans watched this team all year and saw the runs the young players went on with more opportunity. Beat a few really good teams with them in - lost a lot of close games from chucking by Jameer, Afflalo and Baby.

More workload for Oladipo, Harris and Vucevic is a positive. Elfrid, no matter what he becomes in the NBA (I think he's going to be REALLY good) already has court vision I've seen in SL that Jameer just plain couldn't do or couldn't attempt with his height.

We'll miss Afflalo when his shot was falling and he carried the offense, but again, him and Big Baby were mostly mid-range players that went through cold streaks (Afflalo did during the latter part of the season, was amazing the first half).

Young players in made the defense really good and the tempo speed up.

Veteran leadership like that doesn't equate to wins - but nor does having a bunch of young players either. I think 30-34 wins is very doable. Don't see us making playoffs though.

I'm just accounting for natural progression and a willingness to win, a sort of plan and having the players play minutes they deserve equating in more wins (again, Magic shot themselves out of like 5 or more wins alone last year, it can fall that way this year).

Young is an excuse, but I've already heard players talking about they don't want that to define them or be used as one.

[LloydFree]

I'm confused.

Why didn't you clean out the freezer before turning off the power?

That was his point. They were trying to be smart by saving power, but were less than smart by ruining all of their food.

I can only assume that is a parable, explaining the Magic being "smart" by taking Gordon instead of Exum, because they knew they could get Payton. Which I assume means he believes was a dumb decision.

Exum has looked terrible so far. Why is it such a reach the we took a raw guy who is younger over Exum?

Payton looks better than both right now anyway. I get it if people think Gordon was a reach but Exum doesn't make it look like he'll make Orlando regret it anytime soon.

Hey, you gotta ask him. He feels it was dumb. I think the move was smart in concept, especially if it was a choice between Exum or Gordon +Payton. I'd take Gordon + Payton.

[bondom34]

I'm confused.

Why didn't you clean out the freezer before turning off the power?

That was his point. They were trying to be smart by saving power, but were less than smart by ruining all of their food.

I can only assume that is a parable, explaining the Magic being "smart" by taking Gordon instead of Exum, because they knew they could get Payton. Which I assume means he believes was a dumb decision.

Ah, I get it, but in that case, that's just not smart, it's poor planning. I don't think the analogy would apply.

[giberish]

The Magic of finished with a 23-59 record last year, and traded their best starter, for a bench piece.

Out: Aaron Afflalo and Jameer Nelson
In: Elfrid Payton, Aaron Gordon, Channing Frye and Eric Fornier.

That's more young talent, but I don't see Six (6) more wins this season, out of those additions, considering the subtractions.

Frye was significantly better than Afflalo last year, and I'm not sure there's a huge difference between Nelson and Ridnour.

The main improvement would be in young players already on the team getting better. As a general rule, rookies aren't good. But if they can play rotation minutes at a non-liability level then they can improve from there.

[j-ragg]

That was his point. They were trying to be smart by saving power, but were less than smart by ruining all of their food.

I can only assume that is a parable, explaining the Magic being "smart" by taking Gordon instead of Exum, because they knew they could get Payton. Which I assume means he believes was a dumb decision.

Exum has looked terrible so far. Why is it such a reach the we took a raw guy who is younger over Exum?

Payton looks better than both right now anyway. I get it if people think Gordon was a reach but Exum doesn't make it look like he'll make Orlando regret it anytime soon.

Hey, you gotta ask him. He feels it was dumb. I think the move was smart in concept, especially if it was a choice between Exum or Gordon +Payton. I'd take Gordon + Payton.

I gotcha.

I think it was either something like Exum + Payne (?) or Gordon + Payton.

I'm happy with what we did, I wasn't huge on Payton but I liked Gordon. Who knows though, Bruno could end up being the best of the 2014 class for all we know. Season needs to hurry up.

[Ballah]

The Magic of finished with a 23-59 record last year, and traded their best starter, for a bench piece.

Out: Aaron Afflalo and Jameer Nelson
In: Elfrid Payton, Aaron Gordon, Channing Frye and Eric Fornier.

That's more young talent, but I don't see Six (6) more wins this season, out of those additions, considering the subtractions.

That would make sense if the team wasn't full of improving young players. Oladipo, Harris, Harkless are not going to be the same guys as last year. I can easily see them winning six more games.

[Skin]

Nice write! Would be interested to hear a little background behind the analysts in the OP.

[Gomagic44]

Good write up. Funny analogy, but I don't agree. Only time will tell, but as others have said, I'd take Gordon and Payton over exum and James young or whatever else we would have selected. Henny got a plan, a divine plan that us simple fans can't seem to get a hold of. He's been criticized for every decision he's made. The Dwight trade, the reddick trade, the ryno trade, Oladipo over Noel etc..yet nearly every time he's looked pretty damn smart in hindsight. I have us around 40 wins this year. We aren't trying to lose anymore, and that "effort" in subs and lineups last year cost us quiet a few games. As long as the newcomers mesh well and the other youngins continue to develop, we should have a nice year pushing for that 8 seed IMHO. But I've enjoyed your segment guys, keep it up!


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