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

[Def Swami]

Ditto, draft C Nerlens Noel and PG Ian Miller. Our future and core starting 5,

PG Ian Miller = Russell Westbrook
SG Aaron Afflalo = Raja Bell
SF Moe Harkless = Paul George
PF Andrew Nicholson = More physical version of Ryan Anderson
C Nerlens Noel = Marcus Camby

And the team should still suck enough the year after for another lottery pick.

Please point out to me where I said that would be the 2013 starting lineup. At the earliest 2014, likely 2015. You're telling me you wouldn't take that lineup in 2-3 years? By then Miller, Harkless, Nicholson and Noel would all have 2+ years in the league.

What?

I like that team. I was just saying that in 2013, after drafting Noel and Miller, we can run that lineup in 2013-2014, allow it to struggle, much like KD + Westbrook did, and acquire another lottery pick the following year. A la James Harden. So we'd still end up picking up more talent in 2014 by way of draft and it'd be a great core to build around by 2014 or 2015.

[Blue_and_Whte]

I don't like noels game that much. There's just no dimension a shot blocker......ok.
Wiggins please.

[ChildishGambino]

NBA.com Player metrics.....pretty cool huh? http://www.nba.com/draft/2012/prospects ... -harkless/

[backasswards]

2014 we selct wiggins meaning affalo will be expandable

Only if he suddenly starts eating like BBD...

nice try bud but expandable means tradeable in this context

i mean we would have talent on the wing with Harkless and wiggins.

[Def Swami]

I don't like noels game that much. There's just no dimension a shot blocker......ok.
Wiggins please.

I'm not a huge Noel fan yet either. Right now, I'm on the Shabazz bandwagon. A lot can change though throughout the college basketball season. No one knew Thomas Robinson would compete for a lottery selection before last year started. We shall see. Perhaps we should get a draft prospect watch thread going when college basketball starts. I assume a good chunk of us will be paying more attention to some of those games.

[MagicTownBaller]

NBA.com Player metrics.....pretty cool huh? http://www.nba.com/draft/2012/prospects ... -harkless/

I love that site!

[glove1989]

I don't like noels game that much. There's just no dimension a shot blocker......ok.
Wiggins please.

I'm not a huge Noel fan yet either. Right now, I'm on the Shabazz bandwagon. A lot can change though throughout the college basketball season. No one knew Thomas Robinson would compete for a lottery selection before last year started. We shall see. Perhaps we should get a draft prospect watch thread going when college basketball starts. I assume a good chunk of us will be paying more attention to some of those games.

I second the college basketball/prospect thread.

[MoMM]

I think we played around .500 ball without Dwight, in a tough ending schedule too.

More like 33%. 12 games without D12, 4 wins y 8 losses. That's a bottom 5 record. Our team this season is better than last years without D12, but the other teams also improved.

Kyle + Ayon + Vucevic > Orton
Al + Nicholson > Ryan
McRoberts + Eyenga + Harkless > Earl
Afflalo > Jrich
Ish > Duhon

[TDJacksonville]

I don't like noels game that much. There's just no dimension a shot blocker......ok.
Wiggins please.

I'm not a huge Noel fan yet either. Right now, I'm on the Shabazz bandwagon. A lot can change though throughout the college basketball season. No one knew Thomas Robinson would compete for a lottery selection before last year started. We shall see. Perhaps we should get a draft prospect watch thread going when college basketball starts. I assume a good chunk of us will be paying more attention to some of those games.

id rather have Austin than Noels but Adams will be the Best Big Choice for us.

[OrlandO]

I think we played around .500 ball without Dwight, in a tough ending schedule too.

More like 33%. 12 games without D12, 4 wins y 8 losses. That's a bottom 5 record. Our team this season is better than last years without D12, but the other teams also improved.

Kyle + Ayon + Vucevic > Orton
Al + Nicholson > Ryan
McRoberts + Eyenga + Harkless > Earl
Afflalo > Jrich
Ish > Duhon

5-12 if you count the playoffs... I'm not so sure we're better than last year (without dwight). Having a first-time inexperienced coach and half the roster having 1 year or less experience is going to give us plenty of losses. Plus, the team will likely go in with a ready to lose mentality as opposed to last year where they probably wanted to prove they could play without Dwight. I also don't expect McRoberts to play much (he may even be waived soon) and Harrington's role may be reduced as we get closer to shipping him out.

I expect to have some exciting and competitive games with our young guys, but ultimately I see them losing the close battles due to inexperience.

[BaunceyChillups]

Guys we're going to be absolutely terrible, these posts about an 8th-10th seed are a joke. We were outscored by an average of 9 points when Ryno and Dwight were on the bench last year, that's awful. Harrington and Jameer are the only guys on the team who can consistently get their own shot, maybe Nicholson as well. We'll also have maybe the worst defense in the league too.

[Optimus_Steel]

I think we played around .500 ball without Dwight, in a tough ending schedule too.

More like 33%. 12 games without D12, 4 wins y 8 losses. That's a bottom 5 record. Our team this season is better than last years without D12, but the other teams also improved.

Kyle + Ayon + Vucevic > Orton
Al + Nicholson > Ryan
McRoberts + Eyenga + Harkless > Earl
Afflalo > Jrich
Ish > Duhon

5-12 if you count the playoffs... I'm not so sure we're better than last year (without dwight). Having a first-time inexperienced coach and half the roster having 1 year or less experience is going to give us plenty of losses. Plus, the team will likely go in with a ready to lose mentality as opposed to last year where they probably wanted to prove they could play without Dwight. I also don't expect McRoberts to play much (he may even be waived soon) and Harrington's role may be reduced as we get closer to shipping him out.

Exactly. If you count the playoffs thats a winning percentage of 27% which would give us around 24 wins. Not counting the playoffs thats 27 wins. My guess is that we will end up with about 26 wins. We might have added some more talent but its inexpericed talent, plus there may be other trades to remove some veterans. I think its safe to say that the tank is getting ready to park in the Amway.

[sChOlaRlY_Magi]

Hell think about it, we gave the Pacers a pretty good battle in the playoffs last year & our team right now you could argue is better. (Minus Dwight)

Meer
Afflalo
Hedo
BBD
Vucevic

With JJ, Ish, Harkless, AL, OQuinn, & Nicholson coming off the bench

IMO is MUCH better than

Meer
JRich
Hedo
Ryno
BBD

With JJ, Duhon, Q, Earl, Orton, & Wafer coming off the bench.

Wow, I knew the starting 5 was not going to be awe inspiring sans Dwight; but that 2nd unit has the potential to be straight nasty if they gel. Even assuming Al is moved for someone else, you could still rotate Gustavo and Nicholson if needed.

It's funny because this is the kind of depth that would have been perfect with Howard in a year or two. He could've been the Man on this team and still get to the finals imo.

[MoMM]

More like 33%. 12 games without D12, 4 wins y 8 losses. That's a bottom 5 record. Our team this season is better than last years without D12, but the other teams also improved.

Kyle + Ayon + Vucevic > Orton
Al + Nicholson > Ryan
McRoberts + Eyenga + Harkless > Earl
Afflalo > Jrich
Ish > Duhon

5-12 if you count the playoffs... I'm not so sure we're better than last year (without dwight). Having a first-time inexperienced coach and half the roster having 1 year or less experience is going to give us plenty of losses. Plus, the team will likely go in with a ready to lose mentality as opposed to last year where they probably wanted to prove they could play without Dwight. I also don't expect McRoberts to play much (he may even be waived soon) and Harrington's role may be reduced as we get closer to shipping him out.

Exactly. If you count the playoffs thats a winning percentage of 27% which would give us around 24 wins. Not counting the playoffs thats 27 wins. My guess is that we will end up with about 26 wins. We might have added some more talent but its inexpericed talent, plus there may be other trades to remove some veterans. I think its safe to say that the tank is getting ready to park in the Amway.

I agree that our record will be very bad, bottom 6 at least (Suns, Hornets, Bobcats, Pistons, Raptors to name a few), but i wouldnt say we are so inexpericed. Look at the comparisons by position that i made:
Vucevic + Ayon or Orton? Current team has more experience.
Al or Ryan? Al wins too.
McBob or Earl? Current team again and Earl used to make a lot of bad choices
Guards: Afflalo+Ish or Jrich+Duhon? Last year's has more experience, but the way they have been playing i'd say it's better to have Afflalo+Ish.

As a side note, our coach last year was a Top 5 HC, so they get the nod and without D12 the other teams will have a better adjustment against us during the season. They will know since the beginning of the season how we will play, they wont have only 12 games to adjust to our style of play.

[KingRobb02]

Even if everyone agrees that the pieces are better. There has to be a factor that goes into SVG vs JV and the fact that guys were playing hard vs full on tank mode. I know Baby, Jameer, and JJ will probably play hard, but are you going to try to tell me that Hedo Turkoglu has something to play for when he knows he won't be on the team in a year?

[MagicFan41]

While I agree we aren't going to be anything special, I don't think you can simply just look at how we played sans Dwight last year. We are way deeper this year, and our ENTIRE offense was predicated upon dumping it into Dwight, running everything through Dwight. So when he went down, with little-to-no practice time available to adjust with the compressed season....we were like deer in the headlights. With an entirely new system, a training camp, a new coach, time to gel/click....I think guys like Jameer, BBD, and maybe even Turk will thrive more than they did than simply when Dwight went down. There are a lot of factors that people aren't accounting for. Gonna be interesting to watch, to say the least.

[Noonskadoodle]

Even if everyone agrees that the pieces are better. There has to be a factor that goes into SVG vs JV and the fact that guys were playing hard vs full on tank mode. I know Baby, Jameer, and JJ will probably play hard, but are you going to try to tell me that Hedo Turkoglu has something to play for when he knows he won't be on the team in a year?

He has to impress some other team then does he not?

[Nemesis21]

What?

I like that team. I was just saying that in 2013, after drafting Noel and Miller, we can run that lineup in 2013-2014, allow it to struggle, much like KD + Westbrook did, and acquire another lottery pick the following year. A la James Harden. So we'd still end up picking up more talent in 2014 by way of draft and it'd be a great core to build around by 2014 or 2015.

I get what you are saying now, my bad.

[sChOlaRlY_Magi]

Not sure if it is "too soon" to bring this up; but I would really like to see everyone's opinion on the Kobe/Shaq jr dynamic. Or the over/under on how quickly one of them will get ran out of town.

I sort of want to watch Lakers games just to see Kobe chastising Howard and how he responds. Howard will either learn to be humble real quick (which will turn him into a superstar faster imo) or this will be a clusterf#ck of epic proportions real soon!

They may win the chip this next season; but if not the next off season for the Lakers may be similar to our last one.
smh

[in-limbo]

^They used to have Phil to babysit, now thet have Mike Brown, What could be the problem? No really, I'm sure Dwight will be all grown up now.