Orlando sign Bass;small forward market dwindling

[Red2]

Don't look now but Orlando made nice move signing Brandon Bass. Basically Dallas stole Gortat from the Magic and Orlando came right back and is stealing Bass from Dallas. I like Bass's combination of quickness and strength. this gives orlando another guy to guard pierce ,lebron,kobe etc.I also think getting anderson from NJ as part of the carter deal was overlooked. He will help fill the void of turkulo. I gave otis smith props. when the dust clears I think the Magic are going to be back in the hunt despite losing some key players. Barring a trade, that leaves Barnes and Miles as free agent small forwards that would seem to fit our system. with the jazz potentially losing millsap they may fight harder to keep miles. Who else do they have at the small forward position? harpring is close to retiring. Phoenix may likewise want to keep barnes and our only shot at moon is a sign and trade Tony ALLEN and Scal might do it but Miami is still building a team and Moon is a nice young player. So at the end of the day Giddens or Walker might b our best options unless we want one of the graham brothers.

[avi623]

I like and don't like this acquisition for the Magic. Bass is a good player. Certainly he has been better than BBD the last few seasons. He can really score.

But I read somewhere that they want to make him a starter. That may really expose some of his weaknesses like his inability to defend larger players and propensity for fouls. Usually players like this get exposed when they move from 15-20 minutes per game to 30-35 minutes. But he is only 24, so it is probably a good risk.

[ParticleMan]

i agree with avi. a lineup of Nelson/VC/Shard/Bass/DH doesn't scare me nearly as much as last year's lineup. Hedo/Lewis at the 4 was a matchup nightmare. Now I think we have a big advantage with KG/Sheed at the 4 over Brandon Bass. Of course VC is a big improvement over Courtney Lee, but we have guys who can match up at the 2 spot with VC.

I'm not saying it was a bad acquisition, since they lost Hedo they were not going to have the same team as last year no matter what. But I think we can match up better with this team than last year's.

[Celtics_85]

I believe Miles is not a free agent, he has two years with a team option for a 3rd. I think he signed a 4 year deal last offseason with Utah.

[celticfan42487]

don't look now but Bass is a PF not a SF

Bass is like a good Leon Powe.

ORL is now going to be moved to a more traditional lineup, and personally with the matchup hell they were last year I feel more comfortable going up against them this year in a traditional lineup then last year.

One thing of note however, if Gortat is officially gone, then ORL just got a lot smaller. Gorate and Battie were on their team last year [even though Battie got sparing minutes]... looking at their roster now without Gortat I don't see a single shot blocker besides the shot blocker of the NBA right now.

Now D-12 is a defense unto himself, but it puts more pressure on him to not get into foul trouble with the new lineup. Which really helps CLE since LeBron's strategy was to play like AI and flop onto D-12. All that said... Bass to my understanding doesn't provide range and spacing, but he does provide as good of post defense as a 6'8" guy can. And Ryan Anderson provides great shooting and the same matchup problems. So with Bass we don't have a problem playing our zone defense against D-12 with great defenders against him. And with Ryan Anderson, we're back to square one with Carter as the ball handler, D-12 as the post man and Anderson, Shard, Nelson providing some of the best shooting corps in the league.

At least for a good portion of next year we'll see an ORL team that doesn't stretch our zone against a D-12 whoes had trouble producing one-on-one against our defenders.

[eloper]

Yeah...Bass is 100% not capable of guarding SFs.

I watched him all this year, and really like him as a player, but he's got holes that need covering up. He's an EXCELLENT finisher, dunks everything he can, solid moves in the post, and a decent mid range jumper that he'll knock down if left open. The Powe comparison is a pretty good one, I think Leon is a bit better rebounder and a bit better at just using his pure brute force to score, but Bass is more rounded, less mechanical, and fits into a team offense better. Defensively he's not very good, not due to lack of effort or knowing the defense, but due to his size/length issues. That said, put him next to a Dwight Howard, and those problems get covered up rather quickly.

Personally if I'm the Magic I go with Dwight/Shard/VC/Pietrus/Nelson, and have Bass as my 6th man.

[return2glory]

Bass in not a SF. He is a PF.