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I made Bill Simmons' mailbag
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 3:33 am
by ORL
LOL.
Last week he ran this:
6. What if Tim Duncan had signed with Orlando in 2000 to play with Grant Hill?
And to think, it almost happened. This could have been a humongous "What if?" for three reasons:
A. If Duncan signs with Orlando, that swings the title in three seasons (2003, 2005 and 2007). We haven't had a "What if?" that definitively swung a title yet. Now we do.
B. Once Hill's body breaks down, Duncan finds himself emulating KG's career in Minnesota and squandering his prime on a series of undermanned teams. Those two would have been mirror images of each other -- Duncan wasting away in the East, Garnett wasting away in the West -- and we would have spent those years wondering who was more screwed and who was doing more with less. Bad times all around.
C. With Duncan stealing his spot in Orlando, where would T-Mac have ended up? What if he landed in San Antonio to replace Duncan? And what if they still drafted Ginobili and Parker? Could they have won a title with those three guys and Robinson in 2003? Could they have won one without a big guy? Hmmmmmm.
(Note: I would have ranked this one higher, but it's unclear if Duncan was ever THAT close to signing with Orlando, and after learning more about him these past seven years, it would have been extremely out of character for him to ditch everyone from that '99 title team and chase the money to Florida. I don't see it happening.)
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... ons/080310
I mailed him a longer e-mail than what he published, including an entire 2000 article by Povtak (for which I don't have a link, sorry), but he ended up giving me this:
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 4:01 am
by Kent
I'm glad you made sure he knew that we were going to be able to sign all three of them because I was reading his response and thinking, "Doesn't he know we could have signed all three?"
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 4:33 am
by mattyBoi
Sign all three??? i have never heard this...Some please inform me...
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 5:40 am
by NEM
oh man...t-mac and duncan??? how sweet it would have been...oh well, hedo, dwight, and lewis doesn't sound too shabby either
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 6:52 am
by fendilim
I think he forgot the fact that TMAc did say that had Duncan and Hill signed here, he would have signed for the minimum
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:44 am
by Cammo101
INCUBUS* wrote:I think he forgot the fact that TMAc did say that had Duncan and Hill signed here, he would have signed for the minimum
Ahhh, the pre-MeMac years...Memories...
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 10:07 am
by aleZ
Nice one ORL, that would've been a fantastic three-hit combo: Tmac, Hill and Duncan. But Grant would still get injured and miss a crapload of games, so those titles aren't (or weren't) a given anyway. Cuz you had to deal with Kobe & Shaq in the postseason, after all.
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:45 pm
by craig01
Well done Davor.
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:55 pm
by bucsmagicfan
You all are forgetting that McGrady is cursed, he will never get out of the first round.
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:08 pm
by craig01
bucsmagicfan wrote:You all are forgetting that McGrady is cursed, he will never get out of the first round.
Never is a long time.
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:34 pm
by AdamTheGreek
I'm pretty sure that T-MAC would've ended up in Miami while we would've ended up with only G-Hill and Duncan. I doubt T-MAC would've came with such a low price.
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 3:11 pm
by ORL
It wasn't going to be the minimum. This is a direct quote from Vander Weide from a 2000 Sentinel article:
When Duncan left town on Monday, the Magic thought they had him. They began crunching number to see if they could fit Duncan, Hill and McGrady all under the salary cap. It would have meant signing and trading Bo Outlaw and another two marginal players.
"We had a way in place to make it work," Vander Weide said.
Don't underestimate how badly T-Mac wanted to play here. His agent at the time went on record as saying something like "if it was anyone other than Orlando, T-Mac would've been in Chicago."
Remember, this was 8 years ago, the sign-and-trade wasn't the apparatus it is now.
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 6:58 pm
by mhectorgato
To think of what could have been ...
For as much grief that Gabriel got for drafting, this would have set us up for a championship run like the Spurs have had in recent years.
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 7:59 pm
by Cammo101
Except Gabriel could not get it done.
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:02 pm
by mhectorgato
Cammo101 wrote:Except Gabriel could not get it done.
Blame the Admiral.
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:14 pm
by AdamTheGreek
mhectorgato wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
Blame Duncan's wife.
Fixed
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:35 pm
by LBPTarHeel27
Does anyone else have the slight fear in the back of their mind that we are slowly becoming a cursed franchise. Hopes are constantly built up only to be knocked down?
Shaq bolts after taking us to the finals....
We think we have Duncan and he turns back on us...
Grant Hill never plays as the "good" Grant Hill...
Tracy McGrady becomes a cry baby and demands out...
Dwight...if something goes wrong....I don't know what I will do.