Magic Offseason Preview for RealGM

[MagicMadness]

Just finished reading it and it's a good wrap up of the season and hits on the key points for the future.

Wholeheartedly agree with your point on "talent collection phase." The Magic need to approach this off-season like a ground up rebuild. Forget about fit for the draft and simply draft the best player or one most likely to become a superstar. I also agree that while Elfrid Payton had some good stats to end the season, it rarely materializes into winning. I'm leaning toward moving on from Payton as the starting point guard of the team. At the same time, I'm not sure/convinced De'Aaron Fox or Dennis Smith Jr. would be the answers. Almost assuredly, each would be a step backward given rookie point guards have a steep learning curve. I don't believe the franchise is interested in taking a few steps back to get better long term, but we'll see. Most importantly will be finding a leader to make these tough decisions.

Uh... looking at the sweater vest tally, seems it materialises into winning more than any other player on the team

I hope our new GM takes the sweater vest tally into consideration when making player personnel decisions.

This was one of Hennigan's downfalls

[pepe1991]

You don't understand my point. He was playing like a SF but they rolled him out at the 4 since they ran a 3 guard lineup. I just said this. Tons of college teams deploy the 3 guard style lineup, including opponents of Duke. All you have to do is watch the games to see what I am saying.

All i'm saying is that every year you have guys that actually play PF at college and end up being drafted as future SFs just to figure out that they don't have size for PF and speed and skills for SF. Winslow being best example. Dude was 6'5 PF at college level.

Yes, Winslow played the exact same way the Tatum does. It is what Duke does. They play a SF at the 4 many times. I do think that Tatum has the speed and skillset to play the SF position based on what I saw from him. Much more impressive prospect to me compared to Winslow.

We will know what his speed measures out at soon at the combine. The same situation applies really to Jackson and Isaac. They also played the 4 position a lot in college. I think workouts and the combine are extremely important for figuring out what these guys can be in terms of athleticism.

That's why i said that most of wing prospects are overhyped . Remember 2011 and Derrick Williams hype train?

"Williams is considered the safer pick. The uber-efficient scorer has great size and strength for either forward position and a game that will translate seamlessly to the NBA. Unlike Irving, Williams played two months with a broken finger on his shooting hand and still shot an unreal 59.5% from the field, 56.8% from behind the arc and 74.6% from the stripe. Players who can play through injuries are valuable, but players who can perform through injuries are something else entirely. "

That's actually text fro nba draft.net.

Wesley Johnson is another example of college PF ,overhyped before draft . Jeff Green, Barnes, Tobias Harris... you name it .

[PennytoShaq]

All i'm saying is that every year you have guys that actually play PF at college and end up being drafted as future SFs just to figure out that they don't have size for PF and speed and skills for SF. Winslow being best example. Dude was 6'5 PF at college level.

Yes, Winslow played the exact same way the Tatum does. It is what Duke does. They play a SF at the 4 many times. I do think that Tatum has the speed and skillset to play the SF position based on what I saw from him. Much more impressive prospect to me compared to Winslow.

We will know what his speed measures out at soon at the combine. The same situation applies really to Jackson and Isaac. They also played the 4 position a lot in college. I think workouts and the combine are extremely important for figuring out what these guys can be in terms of athleticism.

That's why i said that most of wing prospects are overhyped . Remember 2011 and Derrick Williams hype train?

"Williams is considered the safer pick. The uber-efficient scorer has great size and strength for either forward position and a game that will translate seamlessly to the NBA. Unlike Irving, Williams played two months with a broken finger on his shooting hand and still shot an unreal 59.5% from the field, 56.8% from behind the arc and 74.6% from the stripe. Players who can play through injuries are valuable, but players who can perform through injuries are something else entirely. "

That's actually text fro nba draft.net.

Wesley Johnson is another example of college PF ,overhyped before draft . Jeff Green, Barnes, Tobias Harris... you name it .

Yes, but you have to watch these guys. Tatum plays like a true NBA SF. Williams was a tweener. Tatum only would play PF in a small lineup and only because he has a great 6'11 reach that would allow him to defend stretch 4's.

Isaac is more of a tweener, but if he is drafted by a team who will play him at SF like young Rashard Lewis, he could be incredible.

Jackson is a question mark only because of his shooting. If had to pick a bust, it would be him just because of that plus his character concerns. His insane ceiling plus his displayed ability to take over games on both ends makes him incredibly intriguing.

[drsd]

I hope our new GM takes the sweater vest tally into consideration when making player personnel decisions.

Payton was most frequently Orlando's best player wins. The problem was that he was often not Orlando's best player and that coupled to a lot of losses. Payton must be more consistent in good stat lines if Orlando moves upward with him leading the team.

[Nightman]

Hang on...

Hasn't our major problem this entire rebuild been ignorance of fit?

I couldn't disagree with the plan more regarding "just take BPA and ignore fit".

That's how you assemble a team full of decent prospects that can't shoot, or maybe can't defend.

I think we need to start focusing on what exactly we want this team to look like, who we need to fill those spots, and prioritize structure, continuity, and growth over just drafting who is presumed to be BPA.

We've tried that method now for 5 years, and we are worse than ever.

I would say a larger overall problem is that we've never had a player to build around.

Fit should definitely be considered, particularly if none of the prospects stand out to us, but if there's a star available I think we should take him regardless of position. IMO our entire current roster is expendable.