Official Speculation Thread (Pt.LII "Lottery/Draft" Edition)

[OrlandO]

Guess he adopted the Magic after losing the Sonics a while ago?

[arsenal6106]

Guess he adopted the Magic after losing the Sonics a while ago?

I was thinking the same thing, but then I remembered that his old sig. had a long list of Orlando sports teams that he supported.

I'm kind of sad, b/c he was solid poster for us.

[Def Swami]

Guess he adopted the Magic after losing the Sonics a while ago?

I was thinking the same thing, but then I remembered that his old sig. had a long list of Orlando sports teams that he supported.

I'm kind of sad, b/c he was solid poster for us.

More like he was a big Sonics/Magic fan in the 90's. Really liked the Payton/Kemp teams as much as he liked the Penny/Shaq teams.

[MagicTownBaller]

I was pretty disappointed to hear this too. He has his reasons. I bet he still lurks around too lol.

Yeah, I was really upset about it when he told me as well. As VGOSWAMI said, he has his reasons though. There was a reason why I took his job doing the stats for the Spec thread lol.

I'm honestly surprised it took people here this long to find out though.

EDIT: I'm going to post the updated stats a little later.

[Carlos Arroyo]

If you leave a team in a rebuild TO ME you are not a real fan.
i dont wanna hear all this stuff about idk if i could support a franchise that blah blah blah
MAN UP SUPPORT YOUR TEAM and dont be a bitch
I am Done
Fan Since August 3rd 2000

[arsenal6106]

I was pretty disappointed to hear this too. He has his reasons. I bet he still lurks around too lol.

Yeah, I was really upset about it when he told me as well. As VGOSWAMI said, he has his reasons though. There was a reason why I took his job doing the stats for the Spec thread lol.

I'm honestly surprised it took people here this long to find out though.

EDIT: I'm going to post the updated stats a little later.

As your business partner, it would've been nice if you had given me a heads up on the DJ situation.

Welp, it looks like we are fully responsible for the Spec. Thread. I think we've been doing a pretty good job on keeping this thread going.

Take your time on the stats. As usual, no rush.

[Tayswagzzz]

Doesn't it feel nice to finally have the upper hand in trades? I swear every GM had blackmail on Otis and could just bully him around. It's strange to think though, if we hadn't traded Gortat in that God awful trade and held him a bit longer, we'd probably have CP3 playing with Dwight right now, and between JJ and Anderson's development the years after, we'd probably have a championship now. But yeah that was the biggest fail trade in the world giving up Gortat..I'll never forget that, and that's how I'll always remember Otis. In no way am I bitter, things are looking amazing here in Orlando. I love the new FO, and all the young talent. I am just saying, a likely scenario if we held onto Gortat for CP3 we could still have Dwight, a championship, and I think Dwight wouldn't have turned into the drama/diva queen he is now. Whatever though, just something I was thinking about.

[OrlandO]

With the dwightmare continuing in LA, Bynum not playing at all for the sixers, and the returns we got in all the trades this season, Henny should be one of the runner-ups for GM of the year.

[Viper1500]

Well we know Hennigan knows how to pull a trade off without listening to ESPN. I'm interested to see how he performs in free agency when the time comes.

[OrlandO]

Just realized we play again tomorrow... nice, no need to wait a couple days to see more.

[silent1900]

With the dwightmare continuing in LA, Bynum not playing at all for the sixers, and the returns we got in all the trades this season, Henny should be one of the runner-ups for GM of the year.

No.

Stop being homers. While he is far from the incompetence of Weisbrod and Otis, Hennigan is not the second coming (at least not yet). He hasn't 'gotten the upper hand' in these deals...he has sent out players that other teams valued very highly...D12, Ryno, JJ, etc...and gotten back some assets in return, the value of which have yet to be determined in most cases. No GM in the league would have had those assets to work with and drawn a blank.

On the flip side, he has overpaid Jameer...brought in Afflalo who is still owed like $23mil and whose name was not ringing out loudly from other teams at the deadline...and gotten pushed around a bit on the salary and draft pick parts of those trades.

I'm pulling for him to bring us a title and make me eat my words, but as of right now I just haven't seen anything exceptional out of the guy.

[NickAnderson]

With the dwightmare continuing in LA, Bynum not playing at all for the sixers, and the returns we got in all the trades this season, Henny should be one of the runner-ups for GM of the year.

No.

Stop being homers. While he is far from the incompetence of Weisbrod and Otis, Hennigan is not the second coming (at least not yet). He hasn't 'gotten the upper hand' in these deals...he has sent out players that other teams valued very highly...D12, Ryno, JJ, etc...and gotten back some assets in return, the value of which have yet to be determined in most cases. No GM in the league would have had those assets to work with and drawn a blank.

On the flip side, he has overpaid Jameer...brought in Afflalo who is still owed like $23mil and whose name was not ringing out loudly from other teams at the deadline...and gotten pushed around a bit on the salary and draft pick parts of those trades.

I'm pulling for him to bring us a title and make me eat my words, but as of right now I just haven't seen anything exceptional out of the guy.

Just stop.

[InFlames]

With the dwightmare continuing in LA, Bynum not playing at all for the sixers, and the returns we got in all the trades this season, Henny should be one of the runner-ups for GM of the year.

No.

Stop being homers. While he is far from the incompetence of Weisbrod and Otis, Hennigan is not the second coming (at least not yet). He hasn't 'gotten the upper hand' in these deals...he has sent out players that other teams valued very highly...D12, Ryno, JJ, etc...and gotten back some assets in return, the value of which have yet to be determined in most cases. No GM in the league would have had those assets to work with and drawn a blank.

On the flip side, he has overpaid Jameer...brought in Afflalo who is still owed like $23mil and whose name was not ringing out loudly from other teams at the deadline...and gotten pushed around a bit on the salary and draft pick parts of those trades.

I'm pulling for him to bring us a title and make me eat my words, but as of right now I just haven't seen anything exceptional out of the guy.

Jameer was overpayed yes, but his contract will have absolutely no negative effect on the cap situation since we won't even be signing anyone to anything of substance for at least another season or two. Rob obviously knew this when he gave Meer that contract. Afflalo is on a good contract, not sure how you could even say this is a negative. He couldn't get better draft picks in the Dwight deal because he had no leverage at all - Dwight completely handcuffed him.

Now let's take a look at some of the good things he has done.

He constructed a complicated deal which ended up trading Dwight for Vucevic creating that massive tpe. He traded McBob to essentially extend an expiring tpe. He made two good draft picks in Nicholson and KOQ. He struck gold with Vucevic who many thought was just a throw in in the Dwight trade, the reason he called Philly in the first place was because he wanted Harkless. He also seems to have found yet another good young player in Harris with massive potential.

He has almost completely de-Otised this team in the span of a season, and is also the youngest gm in the league at 30. That wouldn't happen unless there was something special about him.

None of this impresses you?

[dsg2021]

Post of season above.

[G-Heel]

No matter how you look at it, they ain't gonna give executive of the year consideration to the 2nd worst team in the league, especially when we didn't lose anyone to free agency. I think Hennigan is doing a fine job but some of you are seriously overrating him.

I don't think the Dwight trade is all that great, but I guess that's the best he could possibly get. Jameer signing is bad, I don't care if we're not doing anything with the cap, it should've been for 2 years. JJ trade looks good and I supported it since the beginning, but most likely Tobias will turn into a good role player -- you guys are seriously loving him too much.

[Skin]

To continue on what InFlames said in regards to Meer's contract. It was a genius move. I said this when we first gave him that contract... but.. On the outside it looks like he's overpaid. But the last year is unguaranteed, so just forget about that season. What that does is essentially make his contract next year an expiring contract. The fact that it is as high as it is, makes him MORE attractive to teams that are looking to clear cap space. If he was on a $2M a year deal, then the return is small because the cap savings to another team would be small. But since it's $8.6M, some team will get a whopping cap savings by trading for him. The reward we can expect back in return will be much better. Genius.

Hennigan played this perfectly. Nobody was going after Meer in the offseason... we all remember that. That's why his contract was such an initial shocker. Teams weren't going after Meer because his value as a player was very low. Hennigan saw that, but saw an opportunity to bring back Meer for some sense of stability to carry over in the post-Dwight era. Knowing full well that Meer's value as a player was so low, Hennigan INCREASED Meer's value by giving him this bloated contract. Now, Hennigan can get a nice return for Meer not because of the player that he is... but because of the contract that he has. Pure Genius.

[InFlames]

To continue on what InFlames said in regards to Meer's contract. It was a genius move. I said this when we first gave him that contract... but.. On the outside it looks like he's overpaid. But the last year is unguaranteed, so just forget about that season. What that does is essentially make his contract next year an expiring contract. The fact that it is as high as it is, makes him MORE attractive to teams that are looking to clear cap space. If he was on a $2M a year deal, then the return is small because the cap savings to another team would be small. But since it's $8.6M, some team will get a whopping cap savings by trading for him. The reward we can expect back in return will be much better. Genius.

Hennigan played this perfectly. Nobody was going after Meer in the offseason... we all remember that. That's why his contract was such an initial shocker. Teams weren't going after Meer because his value as a player was very low. Hennigan saw that, but saw an opportunity to bring back Meer for some sense of stability to carry over in the post-Dwight era. Knowing full well that Meer's value as a player was so low, Hennigan INCREASED Meer's value by giving him this bloated contract. Now, Hennigan can get a nice return for Meer not because of the player that he is... but because of the contract that he has. Pure Genius.

Wow, I can't believe I didn't know that Meer's 3rd year wasn't guaranteed. Not bad at all.

[OrlandO]

With the dwightmare continuing in LA, Bynum not playing at all for the sixers, and the returns we got in all the trades this season, Henny should be one of the runner-ups for GM of the year.

No.

Stop being homers. While he is far from the incompetence of Weisbrod and Otis, Hennigan is not the second coming (at least not yet). He hasn't 'gotten the upper hand' in these deals...he has sent out players that other teams valued very highly...D12, Ryno, JJ, etc...and gotten back some assets in return, the value of which have yet to be determined in most cases. No GM in the league would have had those assets to work with and drawn a blank.

On the flip side, he has overpaid Jameer...brought in Afflalo who is still owed like $23mil and whose name was not ringing out loudly from other teams at the deadline...and gotten pushed around a bit on the salary and draft pick parts of those trades.

I'm pulling for him to bring us a title and make me eat my words, but as of right now I just haven't seen anything exceptional out of the guy.

Well, you can sit and wait for it all to completely play out before you give him credit. I said one of the runner-ups for GM of the year, not GM of the decade or even to win it this season. I already like what I see and think he did incredibly well with the hand he was dealt.

Dwight limited our options and decreased his value with all his shenanigans, so we were getting pennies on the dollar. Hennigan turned that into youth with potential, flexibility and assets. Vucevic? He's not Dwight, but Henny managed to replace him with a top 5 rebounder in his first year as a starter at 22yrs old. This guy was virtually an unknown before the trade. Nobody even mentioned him after the trade went down, as if he was just a filler. Harkless continues to show he wasn't just a throw in either. Do you not like Nicholson? I see a lot of duds picked after him. O'Quinn's not bad for a late 2nd rounder either. Harris for an expiring Redick who will likely leave the Bucks this summer seems like a good transaction as well. I think Henny has already proven he has an eye for talent where it's not obvious yet. By draft picks, I'm guessing you mean picks that would likely land mid to late first round? Most of these guys we acquired this season are mid first rounders... in a way, we did get picks... only we don't have to wait for them.

Why are you so hung up on Afflalo and Nelson. Afflalo's contract is very reasonable and he's easily tradable if he's not in Hennigan's long-term plans. Nelson's deal is short and the final year isn't guaranteed. So what if he's making $8 mil? He'll be gone when it matters.

And you realize the dwight trade could have easily gone terribly wrong in multiple ways, right? We could be sitting here with Bynum or Royce White or a player who would keep us in the middle of the pack... Instead, Hennigan set us up with a fantastic shot at returning to contention sooner rather than much, much later. Along with our current prospects and assets, we're going to get two high picks over the next two drafts and we'll have money to spend in free agency immediately after that. Meanwhile, our trade partners, who had contending aspiration before the season, are going no where. We all know LA is struggling even with the almighty Dwight and Bynum is sidelined, but we also have to remember Hennigan shipped JRich out... look at him now, out for 9 months with injury and officially untradable considering his injury, age and how awful he was playing.

Finally, after being criticized by analysts and GMs at the beginning of the season, there are now reports that many GMs are impressed with what Hennigan has accomplished over these past 6 or 7 months. That was a quick turnaround.

[silent1900]

I'm not saying the guy is terrible, i'm just saying so far he is just 'a guy'. He is competent, but not special.

He didn't turn water into wine. He had plenty of assets to deal, and in each case he got exactly what a dozen other GMs would have gotten at best. Dwight Howard was a likely Hall of Famer in his prime...do you think there was any chance we walked away from that without a few good assets in return?

But not once have I said 'Wow...I can't believe he talked them into THAT'. And a couple of times, i've thought 'He needed to negotiate a little harder there'.

[Skin]

I'm not saying the guy is terrible, i'm just saying so far he is just 'a guy'. He is competent, but not special.

He didn't turn water into wine. He had plenty of assets to deal, and in each case he got exactly what a dozen other GMs would have gotten at best. Dwight Howard was a likely Hall of Famer in his prime...do you think there was any chance we walked away from that without a few good assets in return?

But not once have I said 'Wow...I can't believe he talked them into THAT'. And a couple of times, i've thought 'He needed to negotiate a little harder there'.

Completely laughable.

Everyone mocked the Magic for their return on Dwight. The experts praised LA for getting Dwight, praised Philly for getting Bynum and praised Denver for getting Iggy. When it came to the Magic, they were a laughing stock and Henny took it to the chin. He did something more bold and daring than anyone could've imagined... and he orchestrated the whole thing to specifically target Vuc, Harkless, AA, picks AND dump bad contracts to boot. He faced major criticism at the time, but today he's looking like the champ! When everyone thought we should've taken PJ3, he took Andrew Nicholson. When people thought we should've kept Anderson, he traded him for peanuts. When people thought we should've kept JJ (and they were MANY), he traded him at top value.

Is everything fixed? Have we arrived? Of course not! Too early to crown him for anything yet. But to say he's done what any other dozen or so GMs would've done is just absurd. I hope nobody thinks that he has no vision and makes decisions on the direction of the wind. The opposite is clearly in motion... a methodical, systematic approach, trusting in the vision and a clear direction towards real sustainability.