RealGM

The time is fast approaching. What are they worth? Here is one view:

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/245269/Previewing-The-2014-Draft-Class-Extension-Market

4. Aaron Gordon – Orlando Magic: Shoehorned into the small forward position, Gordon looked like he wasn’t going to live up to his once high potential. Following the Serge Ibaka trade to Toronto, Gordon has settled back in to his natural power forward position and thriving once again. The Magic no longer are messing around with Gordon as anything but a 4 and he’s back to being a long term building block.

Extension Prediction: Four years/$100 million. Orlando doesn’t have a lot to build around. They have decent enough role players, but no stars. Gordon is the only player on the roster with the potential to reach that level. The Magic will sign him long-term, while giving themselves a little bit of wiggle room, just shy of the max, in case he doesn’t quite get there.

10. Elfrid Payton – Orlando Magic: While Payton has flashed at times, he’s still a limited player at the point guard position. He can do a lot of things well, but he’s not elite in any facet and can’t shoot. His 46% shooting this year is misleading, because he’s at just 26% from behind the arc. He even lost his job to D.J. Augustin for a stretch of this season. Payton is probably in the lower third of starting point guards at this point in his career.

Extension Prediction: No extension. The Magic can’t lock into both Gordon and Payton without seeing them play together more in lineups that make sense. Gordon has shown more and has higher potential, so he gets signed and Payton goes the RFA route.

Agree? Disagree? Agree but to less money?

Gordon yes, Payton will be part of all trade talks from this summer until he is gone.

I don't think we will be able to get anything significant for Payton, so I'd keep him as a backup in case we draft a better PG.

As for AG, 25mi/year? Come on, we can't pay this money only based on potential.

MoMM wrote:I don't think we will be able to get anything significant for Payton, so I'd keep him as a backup in case we draft a better PG.

As for AG, 25mi/year? Come on, we can't pay this money only based on potential.

You are right. Next year Gordon will be in his 4th year and it will be clear what he is. Nobody will pay non star player $25 M after 4 years based on potential. Most players by that age already are strong allstar game contenders or already proven stars.

I wouldn't extend either. I like AG and think he'll be a valuable piece moving forward. Elfrid's future is tied directly to where / who we pick in this upcoming draft.

Though not completely their own fault, neither have shown enough this season imo to warrant extensions. They'll be restricted FAs next summer so unless they're willing to take a serious discount I would hold off.

We need to extend AG this summer because he will have a career year next season once we give him a full year at that PF slot. I'd say give him the same money as Fournier and hope he signs.

Payton is not being extended. If anything he is a major trade candidate.

Everybody is talking about AG's potential and ceiling. But could I ask you this question: what specific potential does he have?

He lacks speed taking to the hoop. I see questional offensive skills out of AG.

Just my opinion.

The AG and Elf experiment will take us nowhere. I'm not extending either and would look to trade them both. Its so sad that there is no one on this roster who looks like they even have the potential to be a star

Elfrid is probably our best player. It's funny the perception of him.

Look I'm a huge fan of ag, but their is no way in he'll he should command a 4 year 100mill contract. If that's the case I would let him walk I'm sorry that is ubsurd.

MagicStarwipe wrote:Elfrid is probably our best player. It's funny the perception of him.

Even if this were true, it wouldn't mean much. He's a back up.

MagicStarwipe wrote:Elfrid is probably our best player. It's funny the perception of him.

Payton being teams best player explains being 5th worst team in the league without any injury

btw he is not teams best player. Vučević and Evan would at least be starters on some playoff teams , out of top 20 teams today, Payton would start on two, Bucks and Nuggets, both borderline playoff teams, far away from contending

Payton needs to be a scorer more. The Payton we saw is mostly a facilitator and I guess it could be part of Magic's game plan

The more Elfrid attacks the rim, the better passer he would become.

He is very passive with the ball and he's got to ATTACK and ATTACK the hoop.

We saw glimpse of that several times. For the rest of the season, if he does what he did, he would be out of the puzzle of a resembled Playoff team.

pepe1991 wrote:

MagicStarwipe wrote:Elfrid is probably our best player. It's funny the perception of him.

Payton being teams best player explains being 5th worst team in the league without any injury

btw he is not teams best player. Vučević and Evan would at least be starters on some playoff teams , out of top 20 teams today, Payton would start on two, Bucks and Nuggets, both borderline playoff teams, far away from contending

I'm so disheartened.
How can you draft in the top 5 for 3 straight years and don't have a player you can point to as a budding star? That takes a special kinda suck as a talent evaluator. So frustrating.

Darth Magic wrote:

pepe1991 wrote:

MagicStarwipe wrote:Elfrid is probably our best player. It's funny the perception of him.

Payton being teams best player explains being 5th worst team in the league without any injury

btw he is not teams best player. Vučević and Evan would at least be starters on some playoff teams , out of top 20 teams today, Payton would start on two, Bucks and Nuggets, both borderline playoff teams, far away from contending

I'm so disheartened.
How can you draft in the top 5 for 3 straight years and don't have a player you can point to as a budding star? That takes a special kinda suck as a talent evaluator. So frustrating.

2013: Historically bad draft. We had the #2 pick and arguably walked away with the 2nd best player.

2014: We had the #4 pick in a 3 player draft. The 4th best player from that class is either AG or Zach Lavine.

2015: We had the #5 pick in another perceived 3 player draft. In this case, it ended up as a 4 player draft with Porzingis. Only Myles Turner and Devin Booker look strong outside of the top 5.


Not everything is so simple as "it must be bad scouting."

Darth Magic wrote:

pepe1991 wrote:

MagicStarwipe wrote:Elfrid is probably our best player. It's funny the perception of him.

Payton being teams best player explains being 5th worst team in the league without any injury

btw he is not teams best player. Vučević and Evan would at least be starters on some playoff teams , out of top 20 teams today, Payton would start on two, Bucks and Nuggets, both borderline playoff teams, far away from contending

I'm so disheartened.
How can you draft in the top 5 for 3 straight years and don't have a player you can point to as a budding star? That takes a special kinda suck as a talent evaluator. So frustrating.

2013: Oladipo was good pick IMO
2014: reach for Gordon ( saving grace for him is that others suck , in reality he was not worth 4# pick)
2015: Hezonja between Winslow and Johnson just shows poor scouting because non of them is good.

But in 2014 they made huge mistake by trading Šarić for Payton and pick. Not only that Šarić is actually pretty damn good , they gave up pick, best thing they got in that Dwight trade. Also Payton made so little sense to pair with Oladipo. They couldn't co-exist on the floor together at all. That probably hurt development of both of them. Also, it was third pick in a row for Rob who couldn't shoot. In league where shooting is soo damn important.

pepe1991 wrote:

Darth Magic wrote:

pepe1991 wrote:
Payton being teams best player explains being 5th worst team in the league without any injury

btw he is not teams best player. Vučević and Evan would at least be starters on some playoff teams , out of top 20 teams today, Payton would start on two, Bucks and Nuggets, both borderline playoff teams, far away from contending

I'm so disheartened.
How can you draft in the top 5 for 3 straight years and don't have a player you can point to as a budding star? That takes a special kinda suck as a talent evaluator. So frustrating.

2013: Oladipo was good pick IMO
2014: reach for Gordon ( saving grace for him is that others suck , in reality he was not worth 4# pick)
2015: Hezonja between Winslow and Johnson just shows poor scouting because non of them is good.

But in 2014 they made huge mistake by trading Šarić for Payton and pick. Not only that Šarić is actually pretty damn good , they gave up pick, best thing they got in that Dwight trade. Also Payton made so little sense to pair with Oladipo. They couldn't co-exist on the floor together at all. That probably hurt development of both of them. Also, it was third pick in a row for Rob who couldn't shoot. In league where shooting is soo damn important.

2013: I literally begged for us to pick CJ McCollum. I said he'd be a stud. I don't think Dipo was a bad player, but i could tell this was a defense first guy who could never lead an offense. I agree it was a bad draft.

2014: For 2 years i said the one guy i did not want on the Magic was Aaron gordon. Since high school i said this guy is an athlete, he has the personality but he is undersized and he has no game. I HATE selecting guys that don't have a refined basketball skill. Athleticism gets you through the door but your game keeps you in the house. 3 years in and he still has no freaking game. When the Magic drafted him i almost threw up.
Later in the draft i begged for them to pick Lavine. He would have been the perfect back court compliment to Dipo. When they traded up for Payton i just couldn't believe. I knew, KNEW he couldn't play with Dipo. It was madness.

2015: Really wanted porzingis but he went before we picked. After that i just didn't care. Hezojna was probably the best pick at the spot. But he's not good. He plods and is inconsistent. Not a starter and might be good enough to be a rotation guy. Its just a disaster, especially when Winslow, Turner and Booker all look like studs.

It is extremely frustrating when you pick so high and you can't point to ONE FREAKING GUY! Not one guy that looks like he's even a starter in the league. The one guy who is a sure fire starter was traded. The more i type the more depressed i become

Darth Magic wrote:

pepe1991 wrote:

Darth Magic wrote:
I'm so disheartened.
How can you draft in the top 5 for 3 straight years and don't have a player you can point to as a budding star? That takes a special kinda suck as a talent evaluator. So frustrating.

2013: Oladipo was good pick IMO
2014: reach for Gordon ( saving grace for him is that others suck , in reality he was not worth 4# pick)
2015: Hezonja between Winslow and Johnson just shows poor scouting because non of them is good.

But in 2014 they made huge mistake by trading Šarić for Payton and pick. Not only that Šarić is actually pretty damn good , they gave up pick, best thing they got in that Dwight trade. Also Payton made so little sense to pair with Oladipo. They couldn't co-exist on the floor together at all. That probably hurt development of both of them. Also, it was third pick in a row for Rob who couldn't shoot. In league where shooting is soo damn important.

2013: I literally begged for us to pick CJ McCollum. I said he'd be a stud. I don't think Dipo was a bad player, but i could tell this was a defense first guy who could never lead an offense. I agree it was a bad draft.

2014: For 2 years i said the one guy i did not want on the Magic was Aaron gordon. Since high school i said this guy is an athlete, he has the personality but he is undersized and he has no game. I HATE selecting guys that don't have a refined basketball skill. Athleticism gets you through the door but your game keeps you in the house. 3 years in and he still has no freaking game. When the Magic drafted him i almost threw up.
Later in the draft i begged for them to pick Lavine. He would have been the perfect back court compliment to Dipo. When they traded up for Payton i just couldn't believe. I knew, KNEW he couldn't play with Dipo. It was madness.

2015: Really wanted porzingis but he went before we picked. After that i just didn't care. Hezojna was probably the best pick at the spot. But he's not good. He plods and is inconsistent. Not a starter and might be good enough to be a rotation guy. Its just a disaster, especially when Winslow, Turner and Booker all look like studs.

It is extremely frustrating when you pick so high and you can't point to ONE FREAKING GUY! Not one guy that looks like he's even a starter in the league. The one guy who is a sure fire starter was traded. The more i type the more depressed i become

I don't agree with Winslow being stud. He is Marcus Smart of 2015. Player with no offensive game whatsoever . I mean, his FG% this year is 35% . he is laughably bad player on offense.

25 mill per for AG?? Wow.. Cmon man..

Winslow is not a stud. That was funny to read. I'd rather have Mario and see what he can do now that he is getting some minutes. Winslow would be terrible on our team.

Gordon is still a guy I like a lot as a starting PF. I don't care if he becomes a star or not but his numbers get better every year and I'd like to see what he can do over an entire season as the starter. 25 mill a year is a major reach. I could see 16 or so if he continues to show he is a starter.

Think about if we can draft a scorer like Tatum and then try and make a play for a scoring PG like Bledsoe or even George Hill. I think that would get the team back on track and also space the floor a lot more so Gordon's shooting would not hurt us as much.