Official Speculation Thread (Pt. XXIII: Offseason Edition)

[trebone]

I just dont understand hw in the media Otis is somehow dodging all the heat? I mean he put this monstrosity of a team together!

[T25]

Dwight drama stemmed from the leaked trade request. The grass was greener on the other side of the fence and Dwight wanted out. Three weeks before the trade deadline he rescinded his trade request. A day before the deadline he waived his ETO, an unprecedented move. He publicly apologized for the drama.

He is under contract for another year. The Magic own his Bird Rights and can offer him the most money next summer. The question is, can that advantage offset the lure of a fresh start that other teams could offer?

I understand that but what I'm saying is it sounds like their setting up Dwight to be the bad guy again. Him opting in only drawls this circus out even longer and they know it. All I'm saying is if they didn't want to go thru all this headache why not just trade him then.

[eyriq]

I posted on Wolves board if they have interest in Jrich and they actually would accept to deal Darko for him. That works for me too.
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1177251&start=360

With D12, Darko and BBD we would have our frontcourt and could SnT Ryan, besides we would have to care about Jrich's contract in 2013.

This would be a move in the right direction. I'd also try moving BBD for Jarret Jack if NOH was interested. If Nelson doesn't opt out I think he and Redick would be worth 25¢ each for a package worth $14.790 million. Considering that Iggy is owed $14.718 million and worth only 35¢ (fringe all star on a bloated contract, owed $31M/2yrs) we could push hard for this type of deal.

[MoMM]

That's true. It's a lateral move but I wouldn't mind it that much.
But I doubt Darko would accept to be back and go to the bench behind Dwight (he's not gonna play PF here :\ ).

Since when he needs to accept something? Its not like we intend to re-sign him one year later like D12's situation. If Wolves wants to send him, they can and thats it.

If he really wants to go overseas, we pay less for him and then signs Fran. Yes, i think he will come this season. Call me crazy.

[MoMM]

Nelson scored 27 points, drilled five 3-pointers and handed out five assists in Tuesday’s 105-87 Game 5 loss to Indiana Pacers. Nelson made $7.3 million this season and is scheduled to make $7.8 million next season. However, he could decide to opt out of his contract in hopes of landing a multi-year contract that will provide him with some long-term certainty. Nelson said his first option is to remain in Orlando, but only if it’s the best financial decision for the long term. ``I’d love to stay here in Orlando and I want to be in Orlando. I have to sit down with my agent and my family and decide what’s best for myself,’’ Nelson said. ``We just have to sit down and talk to the organization about what’s going on and make a decision.’’ NBA.com

Nelson said that his agent, Steve Mountain, would discuss the point guard’s future with the Magic with President of Basketball Operations/GM Otis Smith in the coming days. Nelson must make his intentions known to the team in the coming days. ``That’s not my job; that’s my agent’s job. I’ll put the pressure on him to go talk to Otis,’’ Nelson said. ``Obviously we have to have that conversation because it’s a business. This is an organization that wants me here, I love playing in Orlando and I love playing with the guys around here. This is after a loss and my head is a thousand different places, but we’ll have to make a decision. I’ll take time off, not even think about basketball a little bit and sit down with my agent and figure it out.’’ NBA.com

http://www.nba.com/magic/news/denton_nelson_050812.html

[BadMofoPimp]

That's true. It's a lateral move but I wouldn't mind it that much.
But I doubt Darko would accept to be back and go to the bench behind Dwight (he's not gonna play PF here :\ ).

Since when he needs to accept something? Its not like we intend to re-sign him one year later like D12's situation. If Wolves wants to send him, they can and thats it.

If he really wants to go overseas, we pay less for him and then signs Fran. Yes, i think he will come this season. Call me crazy.

Darko is so bad, it is hilarious that people would consider bringing him back. He is not a playoff caliber player even as a backup.

[eyriq]

That's true. It's a lateral move but I wouldn't mind it that much.
But I doubt Darko would accept to be back and go to the bench behind Dwight (he's not gonna play PF here :\ ).

Since when he needs to accept something? Its not like we intend to re-sign him one year later like D12's situation. If Wolves wants to send him, they can and thats it.

If he really wants to go overseas, we pay less for him and then signs Fran. Yes, i think he will come this season. Call me crazy.

Darko is so bad, it is hilarious that people would consider bringing him back. He is not a playoff caliber player even as a backup.

This is about cap space for '13-'14

[zuppafly]

That's true. It's a lateral move but I wouldn't mind it that much.
But I doubt Darko would accept to be back and go to the bench behind Dwight (he's not gonna play PF here :\ ).

Since when he needs to accept something? Its not like we intend to re-sign him one year later like D12's situation. If Wolves wants to send him, they can and thats it.

If he really wants to go overseas, we pay less for him and then signs Fran. Yes, i think he will come this season. Call me crazy.

I know very well the player doesn't have to accept (unless he has a specific clause for that).
The thing is that Darko would probably go on a rampage, rape all women and their children on the way to Orlando and then miss training camp... he surely wouldn't take it lightly after getting the starting spot in Minny.

[MoMM]

He isnt even playing there, their starting center is Pekovic. He only played half of the games for them.

As for not showing up for training camp, no problem, thats a really good reason to fine him and spend even less bucks or force him to buyout for cheap.

If he wants to play here, i dont mind about giving 10-15mpg to him at frontcourt, its only for one year and we should care about 2013 offseason, not next season.

[zuppafly]

He isnt even playing there, their starting center is Pekovic. He only played half of the games for them.

As for not showing up for training camp, no problem, thats a really good reason to fine him and spend even less bucks or force him to buyout for cheap.

Sounds like a plan

[dsg2021]

This is a long post but its my thinking of the whole summer both if Dwight stays long term or leaves. My gut feeling right now though is that Dwight's gone. Being in LA when he could've made game 4 prolly.. He can't handle it, whether he thinks he's a distraction or he's pissed, he doesnt want to handle it anymore. I'd put about 70/30 blame on Otis&FO then Dwight. Dwight doesn't seem to be a keep his head down, mature star and many a franchise has had to deal with this too, but Otis is the one who blew up the team in terrible trades; it's his one weakness and he does it a lot. Now, this can go back to Dwight a little here again, because we're still a 50 win team every season and we know playoff matchups change every year (Boston rebuilding, Atl in a different bracket, good matchup projections can make us gain more confidence as a team/franchise).

I think the overall thing to do here is evaluate how Otis suspiciously took on Gilbert and got nothing. Look at his trades overall too. The ultimatum is out there to Dwight already but I don't believe they'd have told Dwight it formally yet. So before we even do, our mgmt could make a top 3 wish list and not only keep Dwight in the loop on it but seek his advice. Walsh seems a good way to go, as someone who didn't want to trade a farm of assets for a failed-ish trade (Carmelo. Otis traded Gortat), and can work patiently around a FA strategy. This FA strategy is in 2013 but Dwight should take notice and the mgmt/FO should sell Dwight on it because it really is a huge game changer in the league.

Its so bad on Otis' versatility as a GM that it's going to take his step down to finally implement a FA strategy. We've also on this board made a few dead-accurate projections of potential 2013 cap space factoring in details including cap holds, ungarantueed contracts, declining cap level projections and still manage based on 2-3 REALISTIC scenarios to have around I think it was 13 - 25 mil in cap space range but this summer has to already start some minor cutbacks and some temporary non-spending which is an about face for the 5th most spending franchise in the world. These cap space projection threads popped up right after the new CBA ratification/details came through so someone can pull them up for our reference right now.

As for SVG, I would evaluate and conclude how incredibly well Dwight and SVG are together and tell Dwight SVG is here to stay. If that breaks Dwight alone, because we'd already be changing the GM and many FO roles too if needed as well as do some roster retooling, then we're moving on. Our trade should be better now because this is rent-a-Dwight for a full season. It should up the NJ offer ante, I still wouldn't take Bynum personally but it could happen, and I think a renter team with a good plan may come in to be a serious 3rd party to the La/Nj deals. (I've made my thoughts clear on this a few times, Bynum is an injury soon, and also a worse immature star than Dwight IMO, while I'd have to trust in our Magic scouts/coaches/FO to evaluate how they'd see a Looez/Brooks duo to the team. Brooks cooled down a lot, was it the injury or was he regressing to an average mean, or is he still on a learning curve at his age? And can the Magic see a successful playoff team with a non-defensive C?) It's not fair to lose a top 5 coach for an average one when our star is a foot out the door (which Im guessing is the case even with offering SVG's job to Dwight).

My main plan would be to sell Dwight on an Iggy/Monta duo in FA after just 1 more season. The contracts are lined up, this is not lip service, Dwight can't be an uninformed star. The Magic can be dramatically upgraded, and the backup plans vary from Chris Paul to Josh Smith and more, so it's a no brainer to Dwight to extend or atleast 2 year extend if possible. The plan B is Dwight's having none of it and we trade him for the best offer. I think we have the roster to be similar to Denver post-Melo (especially in an East conf.). We won't be better but we'll be drama free and probably a fun team again.

In this post-Dwight team, I'm for sure taking a draft expert GM, throwing money and freedom to plan offer at Pritchard or any other top GM with draft or overall planning acumen. A Denver/SA team has had no real superstars but you still see expert draft pickings (where SA literally targets one specific draftee) at any draft pick # make big impacts for the roster (Faried, Kawhi, etc etc) and the Magic can have many great system players and assets like this model, without needing to lose any games and still compete in the playoffs. With this in mind, I still need to eliminate veterans and injury-prones from the Dwight deal and instead add young players, B/C list All Star(s), and picks. My mind frame for guesswork on what we should do and how it would logically fit us post-Dwight is to actually consider Houston as the trade offer. We'd immediately upgrade starting PG for the future with Lowry (and I'd be working HARD to convince Jameer to be the super sub 6th Man PG on a new, long term deal. We need the insurance at PG position with two great PG's). But Lowry is a little more younger, defensive, passing oriented, and athletic which is where our new team needs to go. Houston has many assets too where the Magic would have to carefully plan/project which current Houston youngsters are the most promising and the most promising fits to a new Magic team. Finally the Magic kick start the drafting with 3 picks in that 14-19 range to move up or load up the roster with more young players. Our C position would eventually be someone new, fresh who is not injury prone or defensively inept, so while we won't have Dwight impact anymore we could potentially have defensive minded players 1-5 in our new team within 1 year (of waiving:trading vets like Duhon, Turk, J Rich). I could see a roster of;

Lowry / Nelson / Ish
C. Lee / JJ / Von
K. Martin / Liggins / Morris
Glen / Clark / Harper
Dalembert / Orton
(KMart is only non defender there. JJ and Nelson are going to make an absolutely epic off the bench duo. There's a lot of hustle guys there already but getting Glen going inside with rolls will be important for Lowry to do like Nelson did with Glen the last month or so. I'd actually keep Ryan here too, we're still very much a 3 shooter team here too despite more defenders to try and cover up Dwight's hole, and Lowry/Kmart/Nelson/Glen should keep us from standing out there at the 3 line only.)

3 picks in 14-19 range, maybe steal one-two of Hou's current prospects before they explode into great players - Montiejunas, Morris, etc.. Kmart, Turk, Duhon, Dalembert out of books after 1 more season. We're looking at some mad FA money so this GM has got to be versatile to draft smart and "wait to spend smarter"-or-"spend FA money ASAP" on the likes of Ryan, Fran, maybe one-two of 2013'ers or another target year.

[T-Cat]

That's true. It's a lateral move but I wouldn't mind it that much.
But I doubt Darko would accept to be back and go to the bench behind Dwight (he's not gonna play PF here :\ ).

Since when he needs to accept something? Its not like we intend to re-sign him one year later like D12's situation. If Wolves wants to send him, they can and thats it.

If he really wants to go overseas, we pay less for him and then signs Fran. Yes, i think he will come this season. Call me crazy.

Darko is so bad, it is hilarious that people would consider bringing him back. He is not a playoff caliber player even as a backup.

Darko just needs motivation remember he played his best ball here in Orlando , besides if it doesn't work out he will can be a FA after next yr. I came up with a trade with the T'wolves taking Hedo, Redick, rights to Fran/future pick for Darko, D Williams, and Wes Johnson. I'm sure Adelman would like to have Hedo on his roster for 2 players in Johnson/Milicic who fell out of favor in Minny.

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=7b5rzgz

C-Dwight Howard/Darko Milcic
PF-Derrick Williams/Glen Davis/Justin Harper
SF-Earl Clark/Wesley Johnson/Quentin Richardson
SG-Courtney Lee/Gilbert Arenas/DeAndre Liggins
PG-Andre Miller/Marquis Teague/Chris Duhon

[BadMofoPimp]

Darko is so bad, it is hilarious that people would consider bringing him back. He is not a playoff caliber player even as a backup.

Darko just needs motivation remember he played his best ball here in Orlando , besides if it doesn't work out he will can be a FA after next yr. I came up with a trade with the T'wolves taking Hedo, Redick, rights to Fran/future pick for Darko, D Williams, and Wes Johnson. I'm sure Adelman would like to have Hedo on his roster for 2 players in Johnson/Milicic who fell out of favor in Minny.

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=7b5rzgz

C-Dwight Howard/Darko Milcic
PF-Derrick Williams/Glen Davis/Justin Harper
SF-Earl Clark/Wesley Johnson/Quentin Richardson
SG-Courtney Lee/Gilbert Arenas/DeAndre Liggins
PG-Andre Miller/Marquis Teague/Chris Duhon

Interesting trade. On the fence on this one.

[MoMM]

Dont forget that Wesley and Williams were both a top 4 pick. I really dont think the Wolves would trade for Hedo, they wouldnt screw their cap trading for a guy like Hedo.

[magic111]

Here we goooooooooo! Are you readyyyyyy!!
Jarrod N Rudolph‏@JRudolphSports

The first of my Orlando Magic rumors is coming this afternoon; it's a goodie.

[thelead]

No to ANY deal that prevents us for going after Josh Smith or Ellis next summer (unless it's someone like DWill).

[T-Cat]

No to ANY deal that prevents us for going after Josh Smith or Ellis next summer (unless it's someone like DWill).

Dwight/Magic wanna win now! It's no sure thing Dwight wants to play with a sub par team again next just to go after JSmoove or Ellis in 2013.

[thelead]

No to ANY deal that prevents us for going after Josh Smith or Ellis next summer (unless it's someone like DWill).

Dwight/Magic wanna win now! It's no sure thing Dwight wants to play with a sub par team again next just to go after JSmoove or Ellis in 2013.

If Dwight wants to win NOW, he is going to request to be traded. If he can wait a year, he can recruit a few buddies.

[Def Swami]

Jarrod N Rudolph ‏ @JRudolphSports
The first of my Orlando Magic rumors is coming this afternoon; it's a goodie.

fml not sure I'll like this one

Slept on it and I still think the "ultimatum" approach is a bad idea by our FO. It's going to come off as bullying Dwight and it makes no sense as to why Dwight would want to submit to that.

[Def Swami]

David Baumann ‏ @DavidBaumann33
#Magic Chairman Dan DeVos said this about #Dwight : "We're not in this for the short term... We certainly want Dwight to be a part of that."

Short term----> I interpret that as next year. We won't have a competitive team next year. We'll basically be the same as this year. But in 2013 we can build something nice and we want Dwight to be part of that.