Official Speculation Thread (Pt. XLV "Re-Building" Edition)

[mattyBoi]

I'll never warm up to this trade because it accomplished very little outside of ending the Dwight Howard saga.

Exhibit A -
We added additional salary rather than clearing cap space. Afflalo (4/$31M) and Harrington (3/$14M) replace JRich (3/$18.6M) and Doo-hon (2/$4.75M). Net gain of ~$22M, which $19.5M ($11.5M in '14/'15; $8M in '15/'16) is split between the final two years.

Exhibit B -
The three first round draft picks are designed to land outside of the lottery, which makes it tougher to draft a star ala the OKC model. The GSW second rounder isn't as attractive as it once was; that Warriors team has vastly improved.

Exhibit C -
The young talent leaves a lot to be desired. Vucevic & Harkless look like intriguing prospects, and of course adding Eyenga sure doesn't hurt. But Harkless is the wild card here; if he becomes a star this trade will look much, much better. However, if his ceiling maxes at Trevor Ariza as projected, what makes him much different than, say, Terrance Jones?

At the end of the day it's your prerogative if you choose to justify the move. I definitely won't; not because we traded Howard, but because we accomplished nothing short of igniting the match and waiting for the bomb to detonate in our faces.

Riddle me this: If we let Howard walk and remained status quo, what would our cap situation look like in 2013/2014?

Around $36M with 8 players under contract.

Now after this trade? Try ~$44M with 10 players; 11 and $46M if Eyenga's TO is picked up.

Essentially we ridded ourselves of $7.7M (JRich/Doo-hon) next season and inherited $14.75M (Afflalo/Harrington/Harkless/Vucevic) with potential for almost $17M (Eyenga).

But wait, that $17.8M TPE has to account for something, right? Well, yeah, but we could have dumped Howard to Houston for picks only and received an even bigger TPE. Hell, that might've been a better trade anyway, seeing how the Toronto and Dallas picks are arguably more attractive pieces than what we received.

So, if the purpose of this trade was to salary dump, Hennigan failed. If the purpose was to acquire a plethora of valuable draft picks, Hennigan failed once more. If the purpose was to acquire a prospect like Harkless, why not just trade up for him on draft night when he slipped out of the lottery or simply draft T-Jones? Again, Hennigan failed.

Now, if none of the objectives were met with this trade, what exactly was the purpose? Appeasing Howard?

This is why Orlando is the laughing stock of the league. The net value of this trade is in the negative.

Thank you. Someone gets it.

[cb1115]

Glad to see that pretty much everyone is still here. Doesn't look like we lost anyone to the Lakers board.

[rcklsscognition]

Hoping the 2k13 staff throws us a bone and gives Afflalo a abnormally high speed and dunk rating.

[PeePee la Fritz]

I need to rebuy an xbox and 2k13 just to play franchise mode with this new stripped down franchise team. And as backed in a corner financially and as stuck as Orlando was with no assets, and a team that couldnt compete I am excited that it was blown up, and will be looking forward to the rebuild

[Carlos Arroyo]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1eOsIaISxA[/youtube]

[NickAnderson]

All that D12 hate is far gone irrationality. It's ok to boo the man for leaving, but some are taking this way too personally. Again, can't really blame the man for wanting out.

Then leave in free agency and don't act like a H O E and say you love ORL. He deserves all the black lash .

[Logicjbr]

I'm thrilled to watch Vucevic. I think he's gonna surprise a lot of people. According to Philly fans, he's long, coordinated, athletic, high IQ, and a very good PASSER. Mid-range game is nyce too. He jut has to get tougher. I see him being our starting C from day 1.

From what you said there minus athletic sounds lije he could be a version of vlade divac which i would gladky take..

His ceiling is Pau Gasol imo. He needs to work on his toughness and defensive tenacity. I think there may be a real debate between Vucevic and O'Quinn as starting centers.

That's a pretty good ceiling....

[rcklsscognition]

I need to rebuy an xbox and 2k13 just to play franchise mode with this new stripped down franchise team. And as backed in a corner financially and as stuck as Orlando was with no assets, and a team that couldnt compete I am excited that it was blown up, and will be looking forward to the rebuild

Honestly, I'm not trying to push an opinion with my results, but I had the hardest time rebuilding after these trades. I simmed 5 years and we were 9th in the east in year 1 post trade, then we fell to worse in the league, then 2nd worse, then were mediocre in the playoffs even with Bynum and J. Smith for th next two years. Ish Smith and Ayon ended up being the studs. Ish finished season five in the high 80s overall.

[Big A All Day]

lol delusion has set in. Anyways, thinking about it I would say the Magic have one more chance at building a team and having a superstar before they are either disbanded, kicked out of town, contracted, or all of the above.

I agree... Brand new shiny arena, with arron afalo as our #1 option.... seriously, if anyone said that 2 years ago they wouldve been laughed right off this forum but now everybody is just ok with tanking and hoping we can have 3 - 4 good yrs in the draft and rebuild? and lol @ dumping salary. We didnt even get that accomplished with this trade. Should've just kept Dwight, Benched his ass for the year, Made him look like the bad guy and then cut Dudu and Turk next year, we'd have close to the same cap space.

It's horrible to think how bad we got taken on that Turk/Gortat trade. All those guys are the same guys that we're sitting here trying to rid ourselfs of. Otis F'd us big time with that trade and Whether Henny is going to magically turn us into OKC or not doesnt really matter... This trade is still trash

[rcklsscognition]

This will all be healed with the #1 pick next season. I for one am pissed to hear about us "competing" and "playing hard". Don't sell me that BS, just keep your mouths shut and tank. If anyone asks a question, say you're developing the young players. I don't want any competing at all, that ruins this whole plan for me.

[Ahmadab]

GENERAL BOARD IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BAD

[NickAnderson]

This will all be healed with the #1 pick next season. I for one am pissed to hear about us "competing" and "playing hard". Don't sell me that BS, just keep your mouths shut and tank. If anyone asks a question, say you're developing the young players. I don't want any competing at all, that ruins this whole plan for me.

Agreed.

[cb1115]

GENERAL BOARD IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BAD

Yeah....don't go over there for a while.

[Idunkonyou2]

I'll never warm up to this trade because it accomplished very little outside of ending the Dwight Howard saga.

Exhibit A -
We added additional salary rather than clearing cap space. Afflalo (4/$31M) and Harrington (3/$14M) replace JRich (3/$18.6M) and Doo-hon (2/$4.75M). Net gain of ~$22M, which $19.5M ($11.5M in '14/'15; $8M in '15/'16) is split between the final two years.

Exhibit B -
The three first round draft picks are designed to land outside of the lottery, which makes it tougher to draft a star ala the OKC model. The GSW second rounder isn't as attractive as it once was; that Warriors team has vastly improved.

Exhibit C -
The young talent leaves a lot to be desired. Vucevic & Harkless look like intriguing prospects, and of course adding Eyenga sure doesn't hurt. But Harkless is the wild card here; if he becomes a star this trade will look much, much better. However, if his ceiling maxes at Trevor Ariza as projected, what makes him much different than, say, Terrance Jones?

At the end of the day it's your prerogative if you choose to justify the move. I definitely won't; not because we traded Howard, but because we accomplished nothing short of igniting the match and waiting for the bomb to detonate in our faces.

Riddle me this: If we let Howard walk and remained status quo, what would our cap situation look like in 2013/2014?

Around $36M with 8 players under contract.

Now after this trade? Try ~$44M with 10 players; 11 and $46M if Eyenga's TO is picked up.

Essentially we ridded ourselves of $7.7M (JRich/Doo-hon) next season and inherited $14.75M (Afflalo/Harrington/Harkless/Vucevic) with potential for almost $17M (Eyenga).

But wait, that $17.8M TPE has to account for something, right? Well, yeah, but we could have dumped Howard to Houston for picks only and received an even bigger TPE. Hell, that might've been a better trade anyway, seeing how the Toronto and Dallas picks are arguably more attractive pieces than what we received.

So, if the purpose of this trade was to salary dump, Hennigan failed. If the purpose was to acquire a plethora of valuable draft picks, Hennigan failed once more. If the purpose was to acquire a prospect like Harkless, why not just trade up for him on draft night when he slipped out of the lottery or simply draft T-Jones? Again, Hennigan failed.

Now, if none of the objectives were met with this trade, what exactly was the purpose? Appeasing Howard?

This is why Orlando is the laughing stock of the league. The net value of this trade is in the negative.

+1000000000

The trade was a fail all the way around for the Magic. When you have 4 teams dealing, 3 allstars moving and the team dealing the best player in the trade gets none of them or guaranteed lottery picks, it is a fail from top to bottom. Lets not forget where Howard ended up either. The hated Lakers.

Any one defending this trade are either in denial about the situation or just became Magic/NBA fans a few days ago and have no earthly idea what is going on.

[fendilim]

While I understand everyone's frustration, how can some not understand that we are not LA, NY, Boston etc, we need to build thru the draft and that meant we needed yesterday's trade. Remember how we got that Dwight dude? Yeah, that has to happen again.

The more I think of this, The more I believe free agency os the way to o actually. When you draft a player, they could come here half heartedly because they have no oter choice. But for free agents, its because tey want to. And with the way Shaq and Dwight left, it seems like we cant keep players we draft as cornerstones.

With Tmac as the cornerstone, he didnt want out because ofthe market, etc, its because of the way things were ran during that time. A

[magicman123]

whats done is done, people need to realize WE DID NOT WANT THOSE 3 ALL STARS, so stop saying we couldnt get one of them

[bigmoe1952]

Some of you guys who are still putting your faith in Hennigan are in for a rude awakening. He IS NOT the "boy wonder" some of you, and some in the media, seem to think he is. And I will pull my hair out the next time I read or hear someone say,"I feel sorry for Henny." "He was put in a bad situation."

It's not like someone went to Oklahoma and kidnapped Hennigan and forced him to come to Orlando and deal with this situation with Howard! He applied for the job, well aware of what the situation was, and convinced the Magic organization that he was the best man for the job. I do not pity a man who aggressively pursues a job that advances his career. He choose to take on this challenge. It is true he didn't create the situation but he sure as hell wanted to be here to help solve it.

And I think his performance so far has not impressed me. The Nelson deal and the Howard trade were just plain B-A-D! Some of you are trying to put lipstick on it and dress it up but they both are still oinkers. Now I know the deal is done and nothing can be done about it. But it is worth considering, and keeping in mind, that the Magic may have hired the wrong man as GM. He waited to long to do this trade and I don't care what anyone says, even without taking any of our bad contrcts, the Houston deal was better. It is immaterial at this point but I beliewve that is a fact. And as a fan it pisses me off because it could have sped up our rebuild.

And being critical of the team does not make you a "fair weather fan." I grew up in Indiana and became a Cub fan.I moved my family to Florida in 1978 due to a health concern of our young son. I am not as fanatical about them as I used to be but I still root for them. But I have been loyal. And I have been a loyal fan of the Magic ever since they were awarded a franchise. I cheered the day they got the franchise. But looking at your team with a critical eye when warranted is NOT heresy!

I will always be a Magic fan. But when I think they have made a mistake, or I am not happy with the product they are putting on the floor, I think it is perfectly fine to voice that and not spend any money to attend games or buy merchandise until the problem is rectified.

[westillhaveJJ]

How did our new guys look in Summer League?


Oh and one of the things I will have a problem with is Steve Nash is one of my favorite players and I want him to get a ring. I also enjoy watching Kobe and don't hate him like a lot of non Laker fans do.
The Heat are still my least favorite teams so hopefully the winner of LA and OKC in the Western Conference finals wins the NBA finals.

[kasedafk_1]

Why did we hand his spoiled ass to the lakers! I wanted afflalo in pinstripes but not as the center piece for a Dwight trade SMH.

[thelead]

I will always be a Magic fan. But when I think they have made a mistake, or I am not happy with the product they are putting on the floor, I think it is perfectly fine to voice that and not spend any money to attend games or buy merchandise until the problem is rectified.

I am already over, just because there is nothing I can do about it but that quote somes it up for me.