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It has been a lot better than last year. Last year was stressful as a fan. Between the Dwight fiasco and the team being a fringe contender, making every game important, there was much more to think about. I've enjoyed this season. Every game is a win for me. If we win, awesome. If we lose, also awesome. Rack up some more ping pong balls. I'm good with that. And I enjoy the college game, so I've been more inclined to watch more of it to see where we set our sights in the draft. And I have seen a lot of bright spots in our young players which gives me hope for our future.

However...I think next year is going to be rough. I can take a year of losing. But, I think at this time next year, I could see myself getting restless. Even now, with the trade deadline over, I just want to fast forward to the draft. It'll all payoff in the end. I think we're on the right path. If we're not in the hunt for a playoff spot after 2 years, that's when I'll start being disappointed.

I hate losing like everybody here, but overall I'm content. Most of our games have been competitive and the young guys are showing flashes of hope. I really hope Vucevic and AN work on their defense during the off-season.


We've got Harkless, AN,Quinn,Vucevic(kind of), JOnes, and Harris. One of them has to stick!

I'm with most of you. This year has been a lot more fun to watch games then last year. Last year was by far the worst year of Orlando Magic basketball for me. It was fun to watch the team win some games early in the year, but with that the young guys didn't get too much playing time(other than Vucevic obviously). While we are losing, the change in confidence of Harkless now the last 2-3 weeks has been unbelievable to see. The development and confidence level in Vucevic has been great to see as well. Watching Nicholson, O'Quinn and Moore get minutes has also been great. I'm living in Illinois now so it's been hard to watch a lot of the games on computer, but I make sure to check on my phone and the box score every game. I am definitely planning on watching tonights game to see the new guys.

The way I look at it is if 2-3 out of Harkless, Nicholson, Vucevic, Harris, O'Quinn and Lamb pan out to be NBA starter level players then we are in good shape. Vucevic is well on his way to being 1 of the players. If we are able to nail 1 of the next 2 years likely Top 5 draft picks that will be 3-4 starter quality players then you couple that with the cap space this team could be a good team in as soon as 2 years. I don't mention Moore because I don't see much improvement, but he will be a solid combo guard-Keyon Dooling off the bench type. With playing time for them to try to develop I think 3-4 of the guys I mentioned can be solid role players at worst when we are good, it's just a matter of 2 of them developing more than just role players.

This season is going about as I had expected.

The team plays hard, but how long will that last as we head into the dog days of the season?

The real pain/apathy probably will set in next year when this will still be a 20-win team.

Hope + Development >> A sinking ship

Taking this season so much better than I took last season. I'd rather see Harkless overperform with a 19/9 game rather than Dwight underperform at those same numbers any day of the week.

I was fine until JJ was traded.

I really don't know what some of you expect out of jv we have a team full of rookies, new players and a new offense. He has done pretty freaking good considering all the close games we have had all season, it's not like we are getting blown out, that's pretty awesome considering we probably have to worst roster in the nba right now. It's great to see an offense where players actually cut and move not just post up and camp at the three point line.


And lol @ svg ever coming back henny isn't stupid.

I approach this season like a graduate semester, all about positioning for the future without much fun or instant gratification. My preferred path of Bynum/Anderson/Redick in hindsight was a pretty poor choice unless Bynum all of a sudden goes balls to the wall, so with the benefit of hindsight I'm pretty happy with Hennigan's moves. I think we'll be back into the playoffs two seasons from now, and if Hennigan gets fortunate with a franchise guy we'll be contending in short order.

Loosing sucks, but I take optimist approach and like what I see in our young guys. If we luck out in the lottery, or develop our assets to get a star in a trade (I expect a lot of teams will be shedding money this offseason), we can be pretty good soon enough.

I don't mind rebuilds, kinda used to them as a part of the game.

This season sucks.

I feel for the first time in years that we have some direction. i just want to see the young kids play hard and i am hoping that somewhere in there we have a couple of stars and then some legit players in the bunch. For instance I am so anxious to see Tobias tonight. It's all good.

magicmamma wrote:I was fine until JJ was traded.

Which is the same reaction my wife and daughter had....lol

MagicHolland wrote:

Flannerz wrote:I knew this season would be tough but being in England helps as I can't go to games so I'm not really 'watching' us lose. Due to work and the time difference its difficult to watch games. I'm starting to get used to checking the result first thing in the morning and seeing that we've lost.

What I find difficult is knowing we need to lose to get better as I don't want us to lose games even though I know it helps us. Being a 'football' fan (I don't like the word soccer! ) we don't have a draft system, so if you're team is having a bad season you could get relegated to the division below. Getting my head around losing being a good thing has been difficult.

You should really consider a subscription to International League Pass. I have to avoid FB, Twitter and any basketball related websites until I have watched the games, but nothing is more annoying than finding out the results before I have seen the game..

Who are you rooting for in football?

With the time difference it's difficult to watch games as some will start at 2am for me. I'm a Tottenham fan, what about you?

I wanted to win to prove everyone wrong, and I enjoyed the early part of the season when we were right around .500.

I guess it is for the best though. We may have made it as an 8th seed if everyone was 100% healthy and it would have been a nice story, but in the end I suppose getting a #1 or 2 pick will be amazing for this teams future. And we have a frontcourt full of young talent which is nice. The backcourt is trash though.

At the beginning, I thought we can make the playoff and prove every non-magic fans wrong that we are not the worst team in NBA.

Later on, BD injured, and we have a losing steak and I start to believe the tank mode is on. AAA quite for a few games and we kept losing. I am fine with the tank mode right now. Yet I admit that the JJ trade rumor also annoyed me a bit throughout the 1st half of the season.

Happy to see the new blood playing for magic right now

Another thing that irks me about this season: with Redick and Ayon shipped for two younger players, there are now 8 Magicians whose age is at a level such that I could be their father. Boo!!!!

As Turkoglu is released, Udrih leaves in FA, and perhaps Harrington traded in the off-season, only Nelson will be left as an "older" player. Arran Afflalo, born in 1985, could very well be Orlando's second oldest player next season.





..

I was on the rebuild/playoff group. But I wasn't against any direction. I was going to enjoy this season no matter which direction we chose that didn't involve Dwight.

I'm enjoying watching the development of our young players... I love the fact that I'm actually excited for this years draft... I'm happy to finally watch some young new players that we don't know how they'll look in their prime rather than watching a JRich or VC on the decline.

It's been overall better than the past 2 seasons combined for me.

On the whole, it's been refreshing and exciting -- rebuilding through Hennigans sits well with me.

I must admit though that my enjoyment of the season took a huge hit when JJ was traded.

Flannerz wrote:

MagicHolland wrote:

Flannerz wrote:I knew this season would be tough but being in England helps as I can't go to games so I'm not really 'watching' us lose. Due to work and the time difference its difficult to watch games. I'm starting to get used to checking the result first thing in the morning and seeing that we've lost.

What I find difficult is knowing we need to lose to get better as I don't want us to lose games even though I know it helps us. Being a 'football' fan (I don't like the word soccer! ) we don't have a draft system, so if you're team is having a bad season you could get relegated to the division below. Getting my head around losing being a good thing has been difficult.

You should really consider a subscription to International League Pass. I have to avoid FB, Twitter and any basketball related websites until I have watched the games, but nothing is more annoying than finding out the results before I have seen the game..

Who are you rooting for in football?

With the time difference it's difficult to watch games as some will start at 2am for me. I'm a Tottenham fan, what about you?

That's another reason to get ILP, you can watch every game afterwards for the entire season.. Anyways, how's my boy Vertonghen doing?

People are happy to watch Vucevic, Harkless, AN, Harris... instead of Dwightmare, JRich, Duhon, Hedo, Q...

But I am not sure this optimistic trend will continue next season. At least they will be demanding more competitiveness.