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

[Darth Magic]

Was really hoping some of these guys bitching about the trade would have migrated to another team/board. The Lakers maybe, but that's wishful thinking i guess. I still don't know why they mad? It's basically Dwight, JRich, Duhon, Clarke for Bynum, Eyenga, McRoberts, and a future first. The Same freaking deal that has been rumored for months. We didn't want Bynum so we shipped him to another team. We got cap space, better more tradeable peices, draft picks and young pieces on rookie deals. Whats the problem? Both Afflalo and Harrington are easily trade able pieces on reasonable contracts. Just calm down and think it through.

[MagicFan101]

And I think his performance so far has not impressed me.

You don't sound very sure of your own feelings here...

I was VERY upset with the initial rumors that claimed Pau Gasol and his contract were on the way to Orlando. I am quite happy that didn't happen. Aaron Aflalo is a nice all around player. He is not a star and I doubt he ever will be, but he is a glue guy any team would want to have. Neither his offense nor his defense are all-star caliber but both are well above average. Most of the scrubs we picked up are on team options for next season (not this coming season, the following) and we rid ourselves of JRich and Duhon. If Houston had been willing to take back Richardson, I would have been very upset that we had passed on that deal. But we can't lose Howard and continue to drown in debt for 2-3 more years. Hennigan is obviously planning on building through the draft for the next two seasons and then hitting free agency very hard. This trade was simply the bulldozer stage of a bigger plan. Hennigan will be judged after the summer of 2014.

[Ballah]

The only part of the trade were i feel we got really screwed and could have done better is the Iggy deal. I'm fairly certain someone could have done better than affalo and harrington for Iggy.

[arsenal6106]

I'm warming up Part 46. Time to get over this sad and depressing thread.

[PeePee la Fritz]

stevekylerNBA: RT @stevie_truth17: hopefully Orlando drafts a good center..LA will need one in 6-8 yrs lol <- Now that's just wrong... funny, but wrong.
2 hours ago
reply | follow stevekylerNBA

him!

[Deezy]

This trade put us in a worse cap situation, not better. How do people still not understand that concept?

[Def Swami]

I don't think Afflalo is part of the long term plan. I think he's an asset who we hope will stat pad and build up his trade value. Hopefully we can land better draft picks with him in the short term, or good role players in the long term.

[Idunkonyou2]

stevekylerNBA: RT @stevie_truth17: hopefully Orlando drafts a good center..LA will need one in 6-8 yrs lol <- Now that's just wrong... funny, but wrong.
2 hours ago
reply | follow stevekylerNBA

him!

What would be ironic or just pure justice if Howard's back never fully heals or he bolts LA for Dallas. It has already been said he will still explore his options in the offseason.

[Idunkonyou2]

This trade put us in a worse cap situation, not better. How do people still not understand that concept?

They're in denial.

Also the people still upset over the trade are the true Magic fans IMO. The people rolling their eyes as if this is no big deal are the ones who need to get the f**k off the board.

[OrlChamps2030]

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.

Imo this can't be stressed enough.. You got D-Will in BK, Melo in Manhattan, Kobe + Paul + Griffin + Nash in LA, Rose in Chi-town, Dirk in Dallas. Hell even Boston is considered a major market.

Sure not having a ring yet may have played a minimal role but I think Dwight wants to expand his brand in a major market more than anything.

The Magic are going to have to draft a young core who wants to be together.

[Deezy]

This trade put us in a worse cap situation, not better. How do people still not understand that concept?

They're in denial.

Also the people still upset over the trade are the true Magic fans IMO. The people rolling their eyes as if this is no big deal are the ones who need to get the f**k off the board.

Yeah, I don't see how any Magic fan can be happy about the trade.

Accepting is one thing that we'll all have to do eventually; condoning it is a whole different story.

[TDJacksonville]

This trade put us in a worse cap situation, not better. How do people still not understand that concept?

They're in denial.

Also the people still upset over the trade are the true Magic fans IMO. The people rolling their eyes as if this is no big deal are the ones who need to get the f**k off the board.

im a true magic fan but im not that upset cuz Getting this crap starts the rebuild earlier which was going to need to happen anyways cuz of the lack of quality players on this team. sure we didnt get the best talent in the trade but atleast we got something for him while starting our Rebuild this year instead of delaying it till next year. if all eligable players come out we will likely find our Replacement for Dwight next year like Steven Adams from Pittsburgh(raw but is a legit 7 footer with good Build). imagine a team that has 2 Good centers in a few years along with a Guy like Wiggins in 2014.

[arsenal6106]

Part 46 going live in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6...

[arsenal6106]

Mods, you can lock this one up.

[Magic#1]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1eOsIaISxA[/youtube]

Those are actually ideal weaknesses to have. Strength and shooting are two of the easiest things to improve on. If he's willing to work hard, he'll get better. He'll definitely have his struggles next year, but give him a full year with offseason workouts and he could already be a solid starting three for us next year. I'm actually excited to have a player who can't shoot. No more hanging out on the 3-point line. We'll actually have players who move around. Unfortunately, this is a new concept.

[MagicFan101]

This trade put us in a worse cap situation, not better. How do people still not understand that concept?

You're talking about the cap space which is a raw stat. There is no "concept" to understand.

As I said before, this is stage one of a bigger plan. I fully expect Harrington to be traded at the deadline if not sooner. If that happens and Orlando drops players on team options next season while letting Hedo walk for his $6M guaranteed, then Orlando is looking at just $43M on the books next year. For 2014 we would only have Glen Davis and Aaron Aflalo locked in. How is that worse than where we were?

I repeat... this trade was just the bulldozer step in a bigger plan. We can't judge Hennigan on this until we see what gets built on top of it.

[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.

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.

Imo this can't be stressed enough.. You got D-Will in BK, Melo in Manhattan, Kobe + Paul + Griffin + Nash in LA, Rose in Chi-town, Dirk in Dallas. Hell even Boston is considered a major market.

Sure not having a ring yet may have played a minimal role but I think Dwight wants to expand his brand in a major market more than anything.

The Magic are going to have to draft a young core who wants to be together.

But in LA and BRK he was still going to compete for championships. In both situations, he knew that during the prime of his career he would compete with D-Will or Kobe, and once Kobe left he could "trust" Laker management to build around him. Same with Dallas. I think Dwight wanted some trust out of management to maximize his potential to win a championship, and there's no question that Mark Cuban would have provided that.

Personally, I still think he would have stayed had we had a decent front office and a good team on the floor. We were only contenders for 1.5 of the years out of 8 he was here. So no doubt the management was a big problem.

And I can understand the anger against big market teams, but I have no problem with superstar players wanting to be there. It's the nature of the business and you can't hate the player. Hate the game. It was something that was supposed to be resolved in the last CBA but was neglected as a compromise over the distribution of money.

Small market teams will always be at a disadvantage, but that's not to say that they can't compete. The managements have to build their teams in a different fashion than the big market teams. We can't rely on being able to draw big free agents. But when we do draft superstar players, we do have to find a way to put them in winning situations. OKC and San Antonio are the model and I'm glad we're going that route. That's what it takes to be successful as a small market team.

[AussieMagicFan]

This trade put us in a worse cap situation, not better. How do people still not understand that concept?

You're talking about the cap space which is a raw stat. There is no "concept" to understand.

As I said before, this is stage one of a bigger plan. I fully expect Harrington to be traded at the deadline if not sooner. If that happens and Orlando drops players on team options next season while letting Hedo walk for his $6M guaranteed, then Orlando is looking at just $43M on the books next year. For 2014 we would only have Glen Davis and Aaron Aflalo locked in. How is that worse than where we were?

I repeat... this trade was just the bulldozer step in a bigger plan. We can't judge Hennigan on this until we see what gets built on top of it.

Thank you so much. Faith in people restored.

[Deezy]

This trade put us in a worse cap situation, not better. How do people still not understand that concept?

You're talking about the cap space which is a raw stat. There is no "concept" to understand.

As I said before, this is stage one of a bigger plan. I fully expect Harrington to be traded at the deadline if not sooner. If that happens and Orlando drops players on team options next season while letting Hedo walk for his $6M guaranteed, then Orlando is looking at just $43M on the books next year. For 2014 we would only have Glen Davis and Aaron Aflalo locked in. How is that worse than where we were?

I repeat... this trade was just the bulldozer step in a bigger plan. We can't judge Hennigan on this until we see what gets built on top of this.

Wrong on all accounts.

Cap space is a figure which fits into a direction; concept is a plan that visualizes salaries to determine the way ahead.

For 2014 you're missing Nelson and Harrington. Prior to the trade we would've had Nelson, BBD and JRich ($22M at most assuming Nelson is making $8M+) on the books. Now we'll have Nelson, Afflalo, BBD and Harrington ($27M). So, by making this trade, we've added long term salary.

Try again.

EDIT: Harrington is not being dealt for an expiring. His contract is more toxic than Hedo's due to the progressive cap hits.

[MagicFan101]

Wrong on all accounts.

Cap space is a figure which fits into a direction; concept is a plan that visualizes salaries to determine the way ahead.

For 2014 you're missing Nelson and Harrington. Prior to the trade we would've had Nelson, BBD and JRich ($22M at most assuming Nelson is making $8M+) on the books. Now we'll have Nelson, Afflalo, BBD and Harrington ($27M). So, by making this trade, we've added long term salary.

Try again.

EDIT: Harrington is not being dealt for an expiring. His contract is more toxic than Hedo's due to the progressive cap hits.

Miss again. In basic physics we teach kids the difference between scalars and vectors. Cap space is a similar mystery. The available cap space is a scalar value while its use has a particular direction it could lead us and therefore can be associated with a vector quantity. Unless you are capable of predicting the future, we can't yet evaluate the direction with this flexibility will take us. So we have no choice but to talk simply of the raw amount.

Nelson's third year is not fully guaranteed and all reports I have read to this point claim that Hennigan has little interest in keeping Harrington. I have more faith in Henny's judgement on the likelihood that Al can be traded than a random, angry internet poster. There was no option available that would have left Orlando in a good spot. You sound like a pretty intelligent person. Just take a few deep breaths, count to ten and re-evaluate the situation based on other options that were available to us.