Keyon Dooling not returning to Orlando (O-Sen)

[craig01]

Sure Dooling is replaceable.

No, he is not the heart and soul of the team.

But, he is better than a league minimum player, which is what he'll probably be replaced with.

The realization that the Magic are now budget conscious implies to many that they are not willing to commit to winning now. Which is exactly the opposite of what was said after the Lewis signing.

The window for winning can close very abruptly through injuries, attitudes, and/or various degrees of team chemistry.

Resigning a decent role playing reserve was not going to break the bank.

For god's sakes, they are still paying Brian Hill as much or more than Dooling got!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Raider_MXD]

Without a proper replacement at hand Dooling leaving is definitely a bad thing because he's been a key bench player last year. Taking the recent develpments, i.e. the penny pinching, into consideration it would have been wise to throw a few millions less at Lewis. Right now the depth at the PG spot is nothing but awful.

[craig01]

Without a proper replacement at hand Dooling leaving is definitely a bad thing because he's been a key bench player last year. Taking the recent develpments, i.e. the penny pinching, into consideration it would have been wise to throw a few millions less at Lewis. Right now the depth at the PG spot is nothing but awful.

Actually, the back up PG is invisible and has no name.

LOL

[Shishnizzle]

Sure Dooling is replaceable.

No, he is not the heart and soul of the team.

But, he is better than a league minimum player, which is what he'll probably be replaced with.

The realization that the Magic are now budget conscious implies to many that they are not willing to commit to winning now. Which is exactly the opposite of what was said after the Lewis signing.

The window for winning can close very abruptly through injuries, attitudes, and/or various degrees of team chemistry.

Resigning a decent role playing reserve was not going to break the bank.

For god's sakes, they are still paying Brian Hill as much or more than Dooling got!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Could not have said it better myself.

[lovehoops01]

Like I said in the Pietrus thread: the positives of having Pietrus on the team by 5+millions/year don't seem to me as nearly enough to cover the negatives of loosing Dooling and having to go after a guy like JWill who can't defend, can't stay healthy, chucks worse shots than Arroyo and has absolutely no consistency on both ends of the floor (which is what we need at the PG position, and Dooling's hustle and energy were exactly that).

I know some of Otis guys won't like to start hearing this, but if the Magic were never thinking about going into the lux tax then the front office should have never fool the fans saying that money wasn't a problem trying to build a championship team and we should have never signed Rashard to that contract. Couldn't they do the simple math and realize that they would need to spend a few millions extra to gather the remaining pieces? Do they actually think that two max contracts, Hedo+Battie+Nelson a split MLE and a few rookies was enough? Are you kidding me? What about next year? Are we gonna trade Hedo for a 6.5millions worth guy with a multi year contract this summer or at the deadline so we can keep under the tax next year? Aren't we gonna spend the MLE in the future because of that unless we let our current smaller pieces walk away for nothing so we can keep the salaries contained?

The signing season hasn't even started and I understand very well that I have a big chance of overreacting right now, but judging from what we've seen/read until now it's up to Otis to pull a big rabbit out of his hat or I'm jumping to the side of the fence where the Otis naysayers rely.

+50

If Vander Weide thinks people are just going to accept this -- especially when we know they have the room under the luxury tax -- he is wrong. You have to take advantage of all the assets you can. If they have to find a way to dump off J.J. and Bogans to make it work, they must. But if they keep both of them -- or trade one of them for some scrub -- and Dooling is gone, they have a lot of explaining to do.

It's fine for those of you who don't think this is a big deal. But guess what? I don't think signing Pietrus was a big deal.

[spinedoc]

+50

If Vander Weide thinks people are just going to accept this -- especially when we know they have the room under the luxury tax -- he is wrong. You have to take advantage of all the assets you can. If they have to find a way to dump off J.J. and Bogans to make it work, they must. But if they keep both of them -- or trade one of them for some scrub -- and Dooling is gone, they have a lot of explaining to do.

It's fine for those of you who don't think this is a big deal. But guess what? I don't think signing Pietrus was a big deal.

Don't you believe that something else is going to happen? We have four sg's on the roster. I seriously doubt that Otis is done here, and Dooling's contract amount just might interfere with that. It would be nice to bring him back, but he's hardly worth all this angst imo. Give it a little time hoops.

[Forest]

Maybe Orlando doesn't want to go into the luxury tax over a player like Keyon Dooling. 4 million dollars for a player that averages less than 20mpg on this team (with a reputation of a bad guard rotation) isn't exactly my idea of money well spent. You have to think outside of just this year. Ever thought about next offseason? Hedo's contract comes up (probably gonna look at the 10 million dollar range) and I am sure everyone is going to want us to sign another MLE player. If we didn't, people would go crazy. Next years crop for the MLE is much better anyway. Ultimately, you can't keep adding 4 million dollar contracts to this team as if it is nothing. Before you know it we will have a massive payroll. You have to draw a line on how you spend your money year to year. Take into consideration you want to make moves in the future. Keyon Dooling isn't a very sought after talent on the market right now and never has been and that should tell you something. He isn't that good. We are the only team that he managed to average 20mpg on in his entire career. Combo guards are a dime a dozen. Call up houston they'd probably give us luther head.

[lovehoops01]

I broke down the salaries previously. I was trying not to repeat it every two pages.

Based on salaries listed on HoopsHype, Magic had 10 players under contract for $58.88 milliion. That does not include Pietrus. If he got the full MLE, which I understood that he did not, the payroll would be $64.73 million. The luxury tax is $71.1 million. So if you pay Keyon a deal starting at $4 million, that would be $68.73 million. That would give them about $2.4 million to sign two minimum-wage guys and get their roster to 14, which is acceptable. Still under the luxury tax.

And they clearly don't need four shooting guards. So trade at least one of J.J. or Bogans, and you get at least $2 million more.

Just who else do you think they are going to bring in that they are going to need all that money for?

Now, Thief says signing Dooling would push them over the luxury tax so if he has different information than what I've got here, maybe that would change things. But I don't see it based on the information I have. And to me, if they don't use all the assets they have available to them and they claim to be doing all they can to win a title, the two statements are incongruous.

To the argument that they might need to save the space to re-sign Hedo next summer....None of you guys seem to think they will anyway. You want to trade him to make sure. But Bogans' contract would come off the books next summer. Add his salary to Hedo's next summer and Hedo could start at $10.9 million. Brian Cook has an option in his contract worth $3.5 million. If he opts out next summer, they could start Hedo at more than $13.5 million. And that's if salary cap and luxury tax don't go up at all.