RealGM

I remember well that day. Last day of the 17-18 season with a chance to get the 4th worst record in the league. Not sure why we decided to come out and play for a W. Freaking Rodney Purvis and Afflalo on the last game of his NBA career got us there. I was so upset we won that game. That win coupled with a Mavericks L to Phoenix gave them the edge on the lottery. Dallas ended up with the 5th pick (Orl 6th), but it was low enough to offer it to Atl so they could draft their target in Trae. The rest of the story goes:

with the 3rd pick in the 2018 NBA draft, the Dallas Mavericks select LUKA DONCIC, from Slovenia.

and...

with the 6th pick in the 2018 NBA draft, the Orlando Magic select Mo Bamba, from the University of Texas.

I swear, tell me how crazy I am for saying this, but if I hired a FO and said to them personally, "If you guys had a realistic chance at, and then missed out on, a generational talent, you're fired."

I know it probably shoots ORL in the foot, and keeps FO hires away, but I honestly think I do it in some crazy dream world.
(Worst case) I don't care if I have to eventually trust a no-experience 32 year old scout to the position, and reset picks owed every 7 years.

(I'm almost out of salt) lol

I was at that game and felt like the only fan in the stadium that understood they needed to lose that damned game

It would be so great if every reference to this topic stayed here instead of bleeding into every discussion re: the Magic's woes. I'd feel a whole lot worse if I'd chosen Bagley or traded a 6' sniper for Luka than I do about our subs winning a game and THEN getting some lotto luck.

mrtcsm wrote:I remember well that day. Last day of the 17-18 season with a chance to get the 4th worst record in the league. Not sure why we decided to come out and play for a W. Freaking Rodney Purvis and Afflalo on the last game of his NBA career got us there. I was so upset we won that game. That win coupled with a Mavericks L to Phoenix gave them the edge on the lottery. Dallas ended up with the 5th pick (Orl 6th), but it was low enough to offer it to Atl so they could draft their target in Trae. The rest of the story goes:

with the 3rd pick in the 2018 NBA draft, the Dallas Mavericks select LUKA DONCIC, from Slovenia.

and...

with the 6th pick in the 2018 NBA draft, the Orlando Magic select Mo Bamba, from the University of Texas.

Does no one really know the answer to this??

I rarely have any inside information but on this one I do. Vogel found out before the game he was getting fired and he was pissed. Whether it was fair or not, he felt it was super unfair and decided to play to win. It was actually some stupidity by ownership/management that allowed him to find out about it.

I got the information from someone connected with the organization that i have known for a long, long time but I'm kinda surprised this has not seeped out over time. Anyway, there you go fwiw.

I'm pro-tank but I don't think WeHam would've drafted Luka even if they had the chance. They have yet to draft a guy who was ready to play day 1 and prefer the uber athletic guys who need years to develop. We would've taken JJJ if we had the ATL spot.

NBlue wrote:

mrtcsm wrote:I remember well that day. Last day of the 17-18 season with a chance to get the 4th worst record in the league. Not sure why we decided to come out and play for a W. Freaking Rodney Purvis and Afflalo on the last game of his NBA career got us there. I was so upset we won that game. That win coupled with a Mavericks L to Phoenix gave them the edge on the lottery. Dallas ended up with the 5th pick (Orl 6th), but it was low enough to offer it to Atl so they could draft their target in Trae. The rest of the story goes:

with the 3rd pick in the 2018 NBA draft, the Dallas Mavericks select LUKA DONCIC, from Slovenia.

and...

with the 6th pick in the 2018 NBA draft, the Orlando Magic select Mo Bamba, from the University of Texas.

Does no one really know the answer to this??

I rarely have any inside information but on this one I do. Vogel found out before the game he was getting fired and he was pissed. Whether it was fair or not, he felt it was super unfair and decided to play to win. It was actually some stupidity by ownership/management that allowed him to find out about it.

I got the information from someone connected with the organization that i have known for a long, long time but I'm kinda surprised this has not seeped out over time. Anyway, there you go fwiw.

If that's actually what happened (not questioning you, just saying)....

Fire everyone are that point

NBlue wrote:

mrtcsm wrote:I remember well that day. Last day of the 17-18 season with a chance to get the 4th worst record in the league. Not sure why we decided to come out and play for a W. Freaking Rodney Purvis and Afflalo on the last game of his NBA career got us there. I was so upset we won that game. That win coupled with a Mavericks L to Phoenix gave them the edge on the lottery. Dallas ended up with the 5th pick (Orl 6th), but it was low enough to offer it to Atl so they could draft their target in Trae. The rest of the story goes:

with the 3rd pick in the 2018 NBA draft, the Dallas Mavericks select LUKA DONCIC, from Slovenia.

and...

with the 6th pick in the 2018 NBA draft, the Orlando Magic select Mo Bamba, from the University of Texas.

Does no one really know the answer to this??

I rarely have any inside information but on this one I do. Vogel found out before the game he was getting fired and he was pissed. Whether it was fair or not, he felt it was super unfair and decided to play to win. It was actually some stupidity by ownership/management that allowed him to find out about it.

I got the information from someone connected with the organization that i have known for a long, long time but I'm kinda surprised this has not seeped out over time. Anyway, there you go fwiw.

Really?!?!?!

That is definitely wrong by Vogel, but management dropped the ball there too. I remember seeing Cuban's face as they loss their game and how happy he was. I felt rage towards our FO and coaching staff not even knowing this part.

Someone please link that game thread. I'm pretty certain it was one of the great tankers vs anti-tankers battles. Many of us knew the significance of securing a top 5 pick in that draft, and not having the chance at a player like Doncic is something that can set your franchise back for years. && that's exactly what it did.

The gap between a player like Doncic and a player like Bamba is monumental.

EDIT:

I forgot how epic that thread was. Kind of depressing at the same time tho considering how things have turned out.

So we are assuming that Bamba can't reach Doncic level anymore?

NBlue wrote:

mrtcsm wrote:I remember well that day. Last day of the 17-18 season with a chance to get the 4th worst record in the league. Not sure why we decided to come out and play for a W. Freaking Rodney Purvis and Afflalo on the last game of his NBA career got us there. I was so upset we won that game. That win coupled with a Mavericks L to Phoenix gave them the edge on the lottery. Dallas ended up with the 5th pick (Orl 6th), but it was low enough to offer it to Atl so they could draft their target in Trae. The rest of the story goes:

with the 3rd pick in the 2018 NBA draft, the Dallas Mavericks select LUKA DONCIC, from Slovenia.

and...

with the 6th pick in the 2018 NBA draft, the Orlando Magic select Mo Bamba, from the University of Texas.

Does no one really know the answer to this??

I rarely have any inside information but on this one I do. Vogel found out before the game he was getting fired and he was pissed. Whether it was fair or not, he felt it was super unfair and decided to play to win. It was actually some stupidity by ownership/management that allowed him to find out about it.

I got the information from someone connected with the organization that i have known for a long, long time but I'm kinda surprised this has not seeped out over time. Anyway, there you go fwiw.

If true, this is just another complete fail by ownership/organization.

We wouldn't have drafted Luka.

Can't believe so many people slept on this guy but he was painted as unathletic and a poor defender...so no way out front office drafts him

It's upsetting, but who knows how the whole timeline shakes out if we'd won that game? Maybe Thanos got the infinity glove in that one so we all died anyway? The Kings got #2 and passed on Luka and won more games than us. So, it's still a lottery after all.

The word after the draft is that we tried but failed to trade up and get Luka.

We failed because we should never have been in that draft slot in the first place

You definitely need luck but you also need evaluators to nail the draft. We don't have either unfortunately.