Optimus_Steel wrote:Since the Orlando Magic obviously won’t do it themselves in the wake of their unceremonious dumping of floppy-haired point guard Elfrid Payton at the 11th hour of the NBA Trade Deadline on Thursday, allow me the honors of apologizing to former coach Scott Skiles.
Skiles tried to tell hard-headed former GM Rob Hennigan that Payton wasn’t a starting point guard in the NBA and Hennigan, of course, disagreed. It was a predictable response from Hennigan, who ridiculously traded a first- and second-round pick to acquire Payton in the 2014 draft.
In hindsight, it’s astonishing to think Philly had the 10th pick in the 2014 draft and Orlando had the 12th pick and Hennigan felt the need to give up two draft picks for a player of Payton’s limited skill set whom he might have been able to draft anyway.
What’s even more baffling is that Skiles, who played point guard in the NBA for a decade, was essentially overruled when he told Hennigan and Magic CEO Alex Martins of his concerns about Payton and other limited players on Orlando’s roster. Skiles quit after only one season because of his frustration with Hennigan.
“Scott certainly had his concerns; I don’t think that was any secret,” Martins told me when I asked him once if he should have listened to Skiles instead of Hennigan. “He made that very well known. He and I had several conversations about things during his tenure here.”
One of those concerns was Payton, a great guy but a not-so-great point guard. Many Magic fans on social media were complaining Thursday because Orlando traded Payton to Phoenix for a bag of balls (see second-round draft pick), but essentially that’s all he was worth. There is simply not a whole lot of demand for marginal point guards who can’t shoot and can’t defend.
“What the player is worth is what the league says he’s worth,” said Jeff Weltman, the Magic’s president of basketball operations. “We don’t create the market. The league creates the market.”
Here’s all you need to know: Scott Perry, now the GM of the New York Knicks who was Hennigan’s right-hand man in Orlando, wanted nothing to do with Payton at the trade deadline. Instead the Knicks made a deal for Denver Nuggets backup point guard Emmanuel Mudiay.
Payton is just the latest example of the nightmarish Hennigan era in Orlando. He will go down as just another wasted draft pick and another awful personnel move amid Hennigan’s failed rebuild.
Like most of Hennigan’s personnel moves, the departure of Elfrid Payton was just another in a long line of bad hair days for the Orlando Magic.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orlando-magic/os-sp-elfrid-payton-trade-orlando-magic-phoenix-suns-skiles-hennigan-20180208-story.html
Bianchi bringing up again Skiles strong dislike for Payton.
think its a pretty fair conclusion that Skiles left because he didn't want to continue coaching when his input/playing experience/know for the game wasn't being valued and a 1st time GM's was.
I've never been more hated in my life than I have been the past couple of years. It's crazy.
