Brighter Future: Raptors, Sixers, Bulls or Magic

[Basketball1]

The Bulls, the Raptors and Sixers have gotten older and the Magic are stuck with
Rashard Lewis terrible contract for five more years.

[SOUL]

my gosh stop with the Rashard Lewis "stuck with the contract!1" lines like that automatically makes a team suck (not to the people making good points about it, just the people that throw his name out and rank the Magic last just for that). Yes, we overpayed.... yes it could very well affect the difference between a ECF and a Finals... but its not like we overpayed someone that will be rotting on the bench (just look at the top salary #'s for the past couple of years.. a bunch of those guys are not even getting minutes. We'll still be good, but obviously unable to sign a great FA player. Hopefully Hedo can net us something or if not, at least re-sign at a reasonable price.

But yeah, in the next 1-3 years I see: Magic, Sixers, Raptors, Bulls

Anything can happen between then though, I think Rose will be a very good player but wont break out until his 2nd or 3rd year

[Malinhion]

Bright future for me is an equation that balances the best franchise piece with the most movable parts.

Now, in terms of having a franchise piece, I am very high on Rose. But he hasn't proved jack yet, will take a little while to develop, and these other three squads are built around productive franchise bigs.

Short term I think Philly is built the best to succeed. They are solid at every position. I wonder if they pay Miller when he expires (soon), but if they do I think he's a good fit for the team and he'll age well because he's a pure playmaker who doesn't do much banging. However, when I look at this team I don't see any player that will really step up and take over in the critical playoff moments. So I can't see a title coming for them, despite the fact that they are stacked with energetic two-way players and their youth will develop.

My gut reaction is to pick the Magic, because they have Dwight Howard. He's already the best center in the NBA. His durability is so astounding that I would seriously consider taking him as the #1 franchise centerpiece in the L ahead of LeBron. However, he's in a bad financial spot. The Magic have way too much money committed to the mediocre players around him, like Lewis and Nelson. Hedo will want to get paid soon. They can't do much to fill out the team with roleplayers, and they have already lost a couple guys. I thought picking up Jason Williams would have been smart, since he's an excellent post-entry passer and he's got a home in Orlando. But that doesn't help much short-term, either. The Magic seem like they may have hopped on the treadmill. It's a question of how far Dwight can take them, but their 2nd and 3rd options don't really stack up favorably against legit contenders.

The other end of that spectrum is the Bulls. Paxson is an idiot with no balls. He gets lauded as one of the game's best GMs because he constantly gets lottery picks dropped in his lap. But he never makes anything of it. The Bulls have balked for far too long. Now they're stuck with overpriced talent. Gordon will get overpaid because there is nobody else willing to give him the atrocious contract he thinks he deserves in a S&T. They have been fishing for a post scorer in the draft for two seasons, but they deliberately took two guys who are not post scorers in Noah and Thomas. Then Beasley falls in their lap and they take a less sure-thing in Rose, as a position where they've already got a glut of players. Rose is a great franchise talent (maybe, we'll see), but there aren't the right pieces around him. Nobody knows how this team will look in six months. They do have the movable pieces, but they are quickly becoming overpriced and teams won't always be willing to deal with the Bulls.

Lastly we have the Raptors. They have a solid franchise talent paired with a seeming bust in the frontcourt. The Bucks stopped making the playoffs without TJ Ford, so we'll see how the Raptors do without him. Don't forget that the Bucks had Mo Williams as a backup, not Jose Calderon, though. In the meantime, they have supplemented the frontcourt by adding JO to help on defense. They have young guys at the wings. I know Colangelo can keep adding talent.

The Raptors probably have the best GM in the group, even if he can only make an exciting offensively charged euro-filled team that loses midway through the postseason. The Sixers lucked into cap room as a result of past stupidity where they handed out massive contracts and traded for deals like Chris Webber just to buy them out. Otis Smith is an idiot, as we can see by looking at Orlando's contracts. Paxson, as I have pointed out, is incredibly lucky but will go nowhere because he has no balls.

In the long run, the Magic are the only team with a good enough player to win a title, and the Raptors are the only team with a competent GM. My diagnosis is that all four of these teams are screwed.

[theTHIEF]

contracts themselves prevent championships...you will never achieve anything in sports if you have a grossly overpaid player...it actually makes all of the other talent on the team worse...it's fact...

[cwas2882]

Rashard's contract doesn't come into play if Orlando will go into the luxury tax. If they're willing, his contract doesn't matter that much. If they refuse to go into the tax, his contract becomes an issue.