Official Speculation Thread (Pt. XLVIII"Preseason"Ed.)

[magicman123]

stop blaming this on the small market vs big market crap, OKC did not want to pay him more money, they could of easily kept him

do u know how much the owner was willing to spend?

close to $60mil, i applaud the thunder for trading his greedy overrated a55

[CourtsideTV]

stop blaming this on the small market vs big market crap, OKC did not want to pay him more money, they could of easily kept him

do u know how much the owner was willing to spend?

55 million.. 5 short of what harden wanted.

5 mil is a lot of $..i'm sure a lot of you wouldn't sacrifice 5 million even if it meant being on a contender. i could see him giving up maybe 1 mil. but 5 is a lot any way you look at it.

plus no state tax in Texas..

[SEBAS-07]

stop blaming this on the small market vs big market crap, OKC did not want to pay him more money, they could of easily kept him

do u know how much the owner was willing to spend?

close to $60mil, i applaud the thunder for trading his greedy overrated a55

What Harden did is not called greed, it`s called intelligence , if he signs the 5/80 million contract with the Rockets, no state income tax and the possibility of getting endorsements from Asia(Rockets connection).

He can also go ring-chasing in the latter part of his career.

[londoncollin]

What Harden did is not called greed, it`s called intelligence , if he signs the 5/80 million contract with the Rockets, no state income tax and the possibility of getting endorsements from Asia(Rockets connection).

He can also go ring-chasing in the latter part of his career.

Exactly. This contract will end right when he's in his prime. Then he'll get to decide if he wants to go to a contender, or get paid. Or maybe Houston develops into a contender and he does both.

[thelead]

This is big time spenders vs penny pinchers. Luckily we have a big time spender, unfortunately he hired an idiot to manage his money (Otis).

[magicman123]

another player that followed the money, lets see if he can follow the playoffs

[RickB-Orlando]

Is Houston a big market now? I don't get all this big market small market talk.

Dude. Personally I don't think this is a Big Market vs Small Market thing but Houston is the 4th largest city in the US. And has a huge Chinese market. Definitely big market

Fourth strictly speaking of population. Tenth in television market, which is the biggest factor in big/small market discussions.

For the record, Orlando is number nineteen in tv market size.

[RickB-Orlando]

stop blaming this on the small market vs big market crap, OKC did not want to pay him more money, they could of easily kept him

do u know how much the owner was willing to spend?

55 million.. 5 short of what harden wanted.

5 mil is a lot of $..i'm sure a lot of you wouldn't sacrifice 5 million even if it meant being on a contender. i could see him giving up maybe 1 mil. but 5 is a lot any way you look at it.

plus no state tax in Texas..

Biggest factor could have been the luxury tax under the new CBA, but that's yet to be seen. It could just as easily have been Clayton Bennett saying "Screw it, if he's not gonna be loyal for 13.5 million per year, let's go get what we can for him."

[Bensational]

stop blaming this on the small market vs big market crap, OKC did not want to pay him more money, they could of easily kept him

55 million.. 5 short of what harden wanted.

5 mil is a lot of $..i'm sure a lot of you wouldn't sacrifice 5 million even if it meant being on a contender. i could see him giving up maybe 1 mil. but 5 is a lot any way you look at it.

plus no state tax in Texas..

Biggest factor could have been the luxury tax under the new CBA, but that's yet to be seen. It could just as easily have been Clayton Bennett saying "Screw it, if he's not gonna be loyal for 13.5 million per year, let's go get what we can for him."

i think there's more to the OKC/Harden breakdown that just the money. $6M over 4 years is relatively little to an NBA franchise ($1.5M per year). they'll be bringing in cheap FA's for that much, and on a dollar for dollar level, they won't have the same impact that Harden has. however, i'm sure Presti has done the numbers and has a fair idea of the value he'll get out of Harden's role, and how much that is worth in terms of dollars. if Presti values Harden at 90% of a max deal, then what's the harm in eating that extra 10% at the expense of some more expensive role players (a couple more DeAndre Liggins and a couple less Thabo/Maynors)? and from the sounds of it, Harden's deal would have been filled with incentives that don't count towards the cap, which would have probably tipped his deal close to the MAX deal anyway.

i wouldn't be surprised if Harden wanted an increased role, and was starting to display an attitude that went against the 'culture of selflessness' (aka team mentality) that OKC are trying to cultivate.

[londoncollin]

i think there's more to the OKC/Harden breakdown that just the money. $6M over 4 years is relatively little to an NBA franchise ($1.5M per year). they'll be bringing in cheap FA's for that much, and on a dollar for dollar level, they won't have the same impact that Harden has. however, i'm sure Presti has done the numbers and has a fair idea of the value he'll get out of Harden's role, and how much that is worth in terms of dollars. if Presti values Harden at 90% of a max deal, then what's the harm in eating that extra 10% at the expense of some more expensive role players (a couple more DeAndre Liggins and a couple less Thabo/Maynors)? and from the sounds of it, Harden's deal would have been filled with incentives that don't count towards the cap, which would have probably tipped his deal close to the MAX deal anyway.

i wouldn't be surprised if Harden wanted an increased role, and was starting to display an attitude that went against the 'culture of selflessness' (aka team mentality) that OKC are trying to cultivate.

I don't know if you read Wojo's article about it, but basically after the Olympics Harden would have been happy being the Nightwing to Durant/Westbrook's Batman and Robin.

[Bensational]

i think there's more to the OKC/Harden breakdown that just the money. $6M over 4 years is relatively little to an NBA franchise ($1.5M per year). they'll be bringing in cheap FA's for that much, and on a dollar for dollar level, they won't have the same impact that Harden has. however, i'm sure Presti has done the numbers and has a fair idea of the value he'll get out of Harden's role, and how much that is worth in terms of dollars. if Presti values Harden at 90% of a max deal, then what's the harm in eating that extra 10% at the expense of some more expensive role players (a couple more DeAndre Liggins and a couple less Thabo/Maynors)? and from the sounds of it, Harden's deal would have been filled with incentives that don't count towards the cap, which would have probably tipped his deal close to the MAX deal anyway.

i wouldn't be surprised if Harden wanted an increased role, and was starting to display an attitude that went against the 'culture of selflessness' (aka team mentality) that OKC are trying to cultivate.

I don't know if you read Wojo's article about it, but basically after the Olympics Harden would have been happy being the Nightwing to Durant/Westbrook's Batman and Robin.

IMO, actions speak louder than words, and wanting a MAX deal like those guys implies he sees himself on their level - not as a sidekick, but as an equally important piece to the puzzle. the fact that neither Harden nor OKC would budge on $6M over 4 years means either Harden values himself more than the team, or OKC are doing some serious penny pinching.

coming fresh off a Finals appearance, and all the endorsements and bonuses that would have seen the team receive, i can't help but feel that OKC would have been turning enough profit to take the hit on a luxury tax penalty in for 2 years until 2015-16, when Perkins' deal comes off the books and they can find a cheaper front court option. meanwhile, all they have to do is trade Thabo/Aldrich/Maynor for some cheaper veteran options and they could easily recoup that extra $1.5M they were going to spend on Harden for that season.

[TDJacksonville]

id cut ish smith to get shelvin mack.

[blue and white]

id cut ish smith to get shelvin mack.

im actually kind of for this.....

[Bo Outlaw]

id cut ish smith to get shelvin mack.

im actually kind of for this.....

ShelvinMack is actaully good but don't cut Ish yet wait until we see what he can do

[damon3825]

Is Houston a big market now? I don't get all this big market small market talk.

houston is a huge market but thats not the point. LA would of been able to keep harden while OKC had to deal him

For those who did not know:

The (Houston) metro area's population of 5.95 million in 2010 is 6th largest among U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, according to www.census.gov, and a 26% increase since 2000.
Harris County's population is 4,092,459.

According to the 2010 census, Houston is the 4th largest city in the US based on total population.

[dsg2021]

id cut ish smith to get shelvin mack.

im actually kind of for this.....

ShelvinMack is actaully good but don't cut Ish yet wait until we see what he can do

+1

[JBSouthpaw]

so this morning driving into work, Dante was on the radio show with Mike Bianci (sp). Dante said he sees the Magic winning around 35 games, hopefully closer to 40.
You've seen other predictions of our record under 20 (see other threads, namely Hollinger)

1. Are the prognosticators THAT wrong?
2. as an employee of the Magic, is Dante (and others) setting an unfair expectation to the fan base?? (goes with the Magic saying "we aren't rebuilding")

I've felt if we win 28, that would be over achieving.

[Nyce_1]

I've always said 32-33 range. We wont be that bad as long as our vets are still here. And by watching our preseason games, and seeing how we played WITHOUT Harrington/Ish/Harkless, made me more of a believer we'd win 32-33 games; maybe more.

[Cigamodnalro]

Granted, they have one of these for every team

http://www.sportsgrid.com/nba/pretty-mu ... ndo-magic/

[RYgoBOOM]

I still don't get why people are so pro us doing 35-40 wins.......

Just makes me think of how many idiotic fans there are that extremely unaware of our current situation and what it takes to fix it.