Official Speculation Thread (Pt. XLV "Re-Building" Edition)

[Magic#1]

Taking a second from my vacation to say I absolutely love this trade. Henny did a wonderful job. This team can compete even after gaining a lot of draft picks while putting us in a better salary cap spot. Plus, we're not done dealing. No Duhon or J-Rich opens things up. Harkless can be the next Paul George. As the team roster stands, Harrington and Hedo are ideal off the bench. Vucevic is a legit center with huge potential. Afflalo is a legitimate starter and is motivated to succeed. Bravo, Henny.

This is better than what Houston could've given us. Told you all Dwight would get dealt while I was in Greece. Also, don't burn your #12 jerseys. Idiotic idea. Let it go. Basketball karma carries a long way. Hopefully we bring back Ish. Can't wait to gobble up cheap/free Magic tickets this season. Going to be a fun team to watch.

You realize the picks are protected though right?

Has the protection been announced? I'm assuming it's lotto protected the first year and then the protection gets lower and lower until eventually unprotected. Who knows how these teams will be in these upcoming years? Maybe we end up with a lottery pick. Either way we will have multiple picks in multiple drafts and that gives a lot of flexibility on potential trading up, etc.

lol delusion has set in. Anyways, thinking about it I would say the Magic have one more chance at building a team and having a superstar before they are either disbanded, kicked out of town, contracted, or all of the above.

I'd say that would have more to do with the fans and their level of support.

Magic aren't going anywhere, we just built a new state of the art arena.

Yes, it is. And they're really bad. The Philly pick is lotto protected in '15 and '16, top 11 in '17 and top 8 in '18. If we don't get the pick by then, it goes to second rounders. Yup. That's right.
Denver's pick is a 2nd rounder from GS in 2013 and then we get the worst out of the NYK's and Denver's first rounder in 14. The Nuggets are still up and coming and NY should still be a playoff team. They're not going to give up on this core that soon.
LA's second rounder is protected from 31-40 and if it's in that range, we just lose it. So, in other words, if LA somehow sucks in two years and even if they're second rounder is in the top 10, we don't get it. With LA's first rounder--after they give one to Phoenix--is top five protected in 2017 and becomes second rounders after 2017.
So, it is unlikely at best that we got any lottery picks out of this trade.

[Force9024]

I'm thrilled to watch Vucevic. I think he's gonna surprise a lot of people. According to Philly fans, he's long, coordinated, athletic, high IQ, and a very good PASSER. Mid-range game is nyce too. He jut has to get tougher. I see him being our starting C from day 1.

From what you said there minus athletic sounds lije he could be a version of vlade divac which i would gladky take..

[Def Swami]

I'm thrilled to watch Vucevic. I think he's gonna surprise a lot of people. According to Philly fans, he's long, coordinated, athletic, high IQ, and a very good PASSER. Mid-range game is nyce too. He jut has to get tougher. I see him being our starting C from day 1.

From what you said there minus athletic sounds lije he could be a version of vlade divac which i would gladky take..

His ceiling is Pau Gasol imo. He needs to work on his toughness and defensive tenacity. I think there may be a real debate between Vucevic and O'Quinn as starting centers.

[Def Swami]

Quentin Richardson... I continue to be told Q-Rich is available in trade. Do not be surprised to see him moved for a backup guard. There was talk at Orlando Summer League of a Q-Rich for Daniel Gibson deal... Not sure that is still there, but it was talked about at length. Not sure the Cavs need him after doing the deal with CJ Miles.

via Kyler

[sportsrock37]

You know what tells you how bad this deal was? Think about it, at first we essentially traded:

Dwight/Duhon/Clark for Bynum/Mcroberts/Eyenga/Future 1st

We got screwed in this trade already, but it was expected and something we had to deal with. We then sat there and tried to find someone who would take Bynum and I guess Philly was the best option:

Bynum/Richardson for Iguodala/Harkless/Vucevic/Future 1st

Okay now the trade is starting to get progressively worse. The Lakers would've never, ever made this trade. But we're not done. We don't want Iguodala, so we need to find a another team:

Iguodala for Afflalo/Harrington/Future 1st

LOL this is where it gets really bad. This is the best you could do for Iguodala? Are you **** kidding me? The Sixers would've laughed in their face if Denver offered that.

So we not only turned Dwight into garbage, we also turned Bynum and Iguodala into garbage. We progressively diminished the assets we could have had and took a joke of a return.

Affalo/Harrington/Harkless/Vucevic/Mcroberts/Eyenga/3 protected future picks

Wouldn't have been good enough to get Bynum from the Lakers, wouldn't have been good enough to even get Iguodala from the Sixers by himself!!! That deal is **** putrid, just look at it. If anything we could've held on to Bynum or Iggy ourselves and tried to maximize a return, you by at least getting an unprotected pick from someone. You know maybe a future prospect for Iggy? Not **** Affalo and Harrington and a garbage pick, you've got to be **** kidding me. An unprotected pick by itself would've been better than what we got from Denver and this is **** Iguodala we are talking about.

I have no doubt in my mind we got bent over in this deal and rival GMs are straight up laughing at us.

And all this is without going into the fact that we didn't clear contracts, we didn't get young future talent, and we didn't even get decent draft picks! Those are the three f'ing things Rob said he was going for and he got none!

Now we are hinging on trading Affalo and Harrington at some point to diminish the returns even more lol i'm sorry I'll stop now.

Why are you still here? We understand how terrible the trade is on a talent perspective. The more you repeat how terrible this trade is won't make this trade not happen.

And just on the record, I think the Lakers/Sixers would at least consider those trades.

More so the Sixers, Iggy's got a terrible contract and they've been trying to trade him for awhile. That would also improve their defense with Afflalo(and their 3 pt shooting which is terrible) plus Harrington would be a good scoring 6th man off the bench to replace Lou Williams as the scoring punch and a future 1st. I don't think the Bynum trade is that bad either if they weren't the Lakers. 2 good young promising players, a SF that would be a great complement to Kobe and a future 1st for an immature guy in the last year of his contract with injury concerns who is starting to get frustrated by the lack of touches he receives. They are the Lakers though and they don't do any trade that doesn't rape the other team, so they wouldn't do it, but I would think a lot of other GM's in that situation would at least consider that.

[Viper1500]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgGhvEA3_3M[/youtube]

Supa Star

[ChildishGambino]

I just can't understand how anyone can get too angry....especially when we don't know what the deal was for sure....just because some reporter says some deal was on the table doesn't mean it actually was when it came down to the final hour.....Especially when Dwight handcuffed our options when he said he'll only resign in Brooklyn and to go even further to say that he won't resign with any team until he becomes a free agent....With those things in mind can you really be mad at Henny for not taking a "too good to be true cause it not" deal? Do you really think Henny is out to destroy our Franchise? it's just really funny to me to see people be angry about this when they have absolutely NO IDEA FOR SURE what the other deals were with any kind of certainty......

At this point i'm just waiting on the last few "I can't believe how bad the trade was" guys to stop yapping and move on with the rest of us no offense cause at this point honestly it's a little annoying but on the other hand there is a lot to be emotional about....

[Driguez]

While I understand everyone's frustration, how can some not understand that we are not LA, NY, Boston etc, we need to build thru the draft and that meant we needed yesterday's trade. Remember how we got that Dwight dude? Yeah, that has to happen again.

[gp123]

Well its nice to see we're going for intelligence and work ethic. Would be nice to get a touch of athleticism in the mix.

Harrington should be out the door for another prospect, and its probably worth shopping JJ unless he's willing to extend now... but I don't see him wanting to stick around for the rebuild during whats left of his prime

[Def Swami]

What are the chances that Nicholson doesn't even get playing time? Imagine if the Magic keep BBD, McRoberts, and Harrington to begin the season. We won't be getting much of Nicholson.

[Deezy]

I'll never warm up to this trade because it accomplished very little outside of ending the Dwight Howard saga.

Exhibit A -
We added additional salary rather than clearing cap space. Afflalo (4/$31M) and Harrington (3/$14M) replace JRich (3/$18.6M) and Doo-hon (2/$4.75M). Net gain of ~$22M, which $19.5M ($11.5M in '14/'15; $8M in '15/'16) is split between the final two years.

Exhibit B -
The three first round draft picks are designed to land outside of the lottery, which makes it tougher to draft a star ala the OKC model. The GSW second rounder isn't as attractive as it once was; that Warriors team has vastly improved.

Exhibit C -
The young talent leaves a lot to be desired. Vucevic & Harkless look like intriguing prospects, and of course adding Eyenga sure doesn't hurt. But Harkless is the wild card here; if he becomes a star this trade will look much, much better. However, if his ceiling maxes at Trevor Ariza as projected, what makes him much different than, say, Terrance Jones?

At the end of the day it's your prerogative if you choose to justify the move. I definitely won't; not because we traded Howard, but because we accomplished nothing short of igniting the match and waiting for the bomb to detonate in our faces.

Riddle me this: If we let Howard walk and remained status quo, what would our cap situation look like in 2013/2014?

Around $36M with 8 players under contract.

Now after this trade? Try ~$44M with 10 players; 11 and $46M if Eyenga's TO is picked up.

Essentially we ridded ourselves of $7.7M (JRich/Doo-hon) next season and inherited $14.75M (Afflalo/Harrington/Harkless/Vucevic) with potential for almost $17M (Eyenga).

But wait, that $17.8M TPE has to account for something, right? Well, yeah, but we could have dumped Howard to Houston for picks only and received an even bigger TPE. Hell, that might've been a better trade anyway, seeing how the Toronto and Dallas picks are arguably more attractive pieces than what we received.

So, if the purpose of this trade was to salary dump, Hennigan failed. If the purpose was to acquire a plethora of valuable draft picks, Hennigan failed once more. If the purpose was to acquire a prospect like Harkless, why not just trade up for him on draft night when he slipped out of the lottery or simply draft T-Jones? Again, Hennigan failed.

Now, if none of the objectives were met with this trade, what exactly was the purpose? Appeasing Howard?

This is why Orlando is the laughing stock of the league. The net value of this trade is in the negative.

[magicman123]

What are the chances that Nicholson doesn't even get playing time? Imagine if the Magic keep BBD, McRoberts, and Harrington to begin the season. We won't be getting much of Nicholson.

Mcroberts has no future here, Harrington im worried about just because of his contract, so he will play

[Noonskadoodle]

That's a lot of Dwight gear up in flames...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-KQAG1oqEM&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/youtube]

[Viper1500]

Good post, have to agree on all points.

[ChildishGambino]

Don't know if it was posted yet but it's an Afflalo interview about trade
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-OGZx3ve_o[/youtube]

[Noonskadoodle]

Another one bites the dust.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx7z_DeEsjo&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/youtube]

[AussieMagicFan]

Don't know if it was posted yet but it's an Afflalo interview about trade
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-OGZx3ve_o[/youtube]

Really love this guy. Think he will be a fan favourite. You can see the appeal in obtaining him.

[Def Swami]

All that D12 hate is far gone irrationality. It's ok to boo the man for leaving, but some are taking this way too personally. Again, can't really blame the man for wanting out.

[LetItRain]

im just happy hes not going to brooklyn. screw that team

[Nolimit1211]

All that D12 hate is far gone irrationality. It's ok to boo the man for leaving, but some are taking this way too personally. Again, can't really blame the man for wanting out.

I agree somewhat but.... "I only want to play for New York City.... or Los Angeles".. gimme a break.

Otis Smiths truest words: I think he wants a bigger market. I can't do anything about that.