If you could undo 1 past mistake for a shot at winning the title, what would it be?

[KingRobb02]

What about failing to sign Tim Duncan? I'm too young to remember but supposedly we were really close.

Yeah, it was real close. That summer to me is the biggest what if in Magic history. If Orlando had managed to pull of Duncan, T-Mac, and Hill they would have easily had a dynasty. They also could have swapped Ben Wallace with Bo Outlaw and let's no forget they had a guy on the end of the roster by the name of Chauncey Billups.

HC - Doc Rivers
PG - Armstrong/Billups
SG - T-Mac
SF - Hill/Miller
PF - Duncan/Garrity
C - Wallace

It was about as close as Millsap this summer. We brought him to town, gave him a sales pitch. Did the Disney thing, and he wanted to stay in San Antonio with his friend David Robinson. People like to romanticize the what if, but they had just won a title. How many max guys leave their teams after a title?

[MagicHolland]

What about failing to sign Tim Duncan? I'm too young to remember but supposedly we were really close.

Yeah, it was real close. That summer to me is the biggest what if in Magic history. If Orlando had managed to pull of Duncan, T-Mac, and Hill they would have easily had a dynasty. They also could have swapped Ben Wallace with Bo Outlaw and let's no forget they had a guy on the end of the roster by the name of Chauncey Billups.

HC - Doc Rivers
PG - Armstrong/Billups
SG - T-Mac
SF - Hill/Miller
PF - Duncan/Garrity
C - Wallace

It was about as close as Millsap this summer. We brought him to town, gave him a sales pitch. Did the Disney thing, and he wanted to stay in San Antonio with his friend David Robinson. People like to romanticize the what if, but they had just won a title. How many max guys leave their teams after a title?

IIRC Duncan actually was on his way to Orlando to sign a contract until Robinson got in the way.

[JaxMagic]

What about failing to sign Tim Duncan? I'm too young to remember but supposedly we were really close.

Yeah, it was real close. That summer to me is the biggest what if in Magic history. If Orlando had managed to pull of Duncan, T-Mac, and Hill they would have easily had a dynasty. They also could have swapped Ben Wallace with Bo Outlaw and let's no forget they had a guy on the end of the roster by the name of Chauncey Billups.

HC - Doc Rivers
PG - Armstrong/Billups
SG - T-Mac
SF - Hill/Miller
PF - Duncan/Garrity
C - Wallace

It was about as close as Millsap this summer. We brought him to town, gave him a sales pitch. Did the Disney thing, and he wanted to stay in San Antonio with his friend David Robinson. People like to romanticize the what if, but they had just won a title. How many max guys leave their teams after a title?

Duncan was close to signing with the Magic. The team offered him a six-year $67.5 million deal.

“It was probably a lot closer decision than people even think or even know,” Duncan told reporters during the 2007 NBA season.

I would say Orlando was a lot closer to getting Duncan than Millsap.

[KingRobb02]

Yeah, it was real close. That summer to me is the biggest what if in Magic history. If Orlando had managed to pull of Duncan, T-Mac, and Hill they would have easily had a dynasty. They also could have swapped Ben Wallace with Bo Outlaw and let's no forget they had a guy on the end of the roster by the name of Chauncey Billups.

HC - Doc Rivers
PG - Armstrong/Billups
SG - T-Mac
SF - Hill/Miller
PF - Duncan/Garrity
C - Wallace

It was about as close as Millsap this summer. We brought him to town, gave him a sales pitch. Did the Disney thing, and he wanted to stay in San Antonio with his friend David Robinson. People like to romanticize the what if, but they had just won a title. How many max guys leave their teams after a title?

IIRC Duncan actually was on his way to Orlando to sign a contract until Robinson got in the way.

Close is Deandre to the Mavericks. What we had was a guy who was interested before his teammates had a chance to make their pitch.

[Bensational]

- not trade Strong + Phoenix 1st rounder to clear cap space (to try to sign Duncan + Hill + Tmac). That pick ended up being Amare.

Just to be clear, this move didn't allow us to sign all 3 did it? My understanding is that it allowed us to sign 2 max deals, not 3. Correct me if I'm wrong.

allowed for more than 2 max contracts, but not enough for 3. basically, those 3 at one point were talking about splitting the money evenly so they could have a big 3.

[Skin]

- not trade Strong + Phoenix 1st rounder to clear cap space (to try to sign Duncan + Hill + Tmac). That pick ended up being Amare.

Just to be clear, this move didn't allow us to sign all 3 did it? My understanding is that it allowed us to sign 2 max deals, not 3. Correct me if I'm wrong.

allowed for more than 2 max contracts, but not enough for 3. basically, those 3 at one point were talking about splitting the money evenly so they could have a big 3.

Ah. That's probably one of the reasons why TD didn't come. He could get the true max in SAN and still win.

Without the trade could we have afforded 2 max contracts?

[shadrock]

The second one was the same game but in overtime, when he got elbowed in the face by Kobe and went to the ground, when lead to an open Fisher 3.

oh yeah! found it!

Not as bad as I'd remembered. I still don't know if i'm annoyed he's got a glass jaw, or annoyed yet proud that he went to draw the offensive but it didn't work.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT2VPTSJk50[/youtube]

And no foul ofcourse :/

[Optimus_Steel]

OK on the Jameer thing keep in mind that Jameer absolutely shredded Fisher in the regular season. It was by far our biggest matchup advantage, had he been healthy. Jameer really destroyed him as Fisher could do nothing to slow him down why is why Stan was so eager to bring him back. But he was not healthy and with a bum shoulder he shouldn't have been out there.

The biggest one was the Nick free throws. I truly believe that if he makes one we win and the series goes our way. But that really destroyed our confidence and it was over right then and there. We had the better team and Shaq prob doesn't leave. Also that tip in in over time by Hakeem was the game winner, man its always offensive rebs that kill us. Just like that Fisher 3, it was a missed shot and offensive reb and the 3. I cried when Nick missed those fts, I was a kid but I knew what it could mean, you never know how many chances you get.

[Bensational]

Just to be clear, this move didn't allow us to sign all 3 did it? My understanding is that it allowed us to sign 2 max deals, not 3. Correct me if I'm wrong.

allowed for more than 2 max contracts, but not enough for 3. basically, those 3 at one point were talking about splitting the money evenly so they could have a big 3.

Ah. That's probably one of the reasons why TD didn't come. He could get the true max in SAN and still win.

Without the trade could we have afforded 2 max contracts?

nah, i'd imagine if money had been an issue then TD would have just insisted on splitting the money between himself and Hill, since Tmac was a much less known commodity.

from memory, the things that hurt us were Doc Rivers telling Duncan his GF couldn't fly on the team plane with him, and David Robinson pushing TD to come back for another title run.

i'm pretty sure we had the money for 2 max deals with or without that trade. but i got that trade wrong, actually. it was Strong + Maggette to Clippers for cap space.

it was Outlaw + future 1st to Phoenix for Beuchler and cap space, and that was the following season AFTER we'd already signed Tmac and Hill! so we had no real pressing need to move Outlaw (he was only being paid $4.5M) apart from being tight asses. had we waited just 1 more season, we'd have had Amare on our team.

[darthcheech2000]

Playing hardball with Shaq lost us a lot of championship runs.

Although, Brian Hill's history in the playoffs says if Nick would have made one of those damn FTs we would have one that series... god damnit!

People say this, but it's not like the Lakers were bad with Shaq, and they didn't really contend until after MJ retired and Phil came to town. By that time, Penny was a diminished shell of himself and we probably don't win anything anyway.

and?

Prime Shaq proved that all he needed was a sidekick to contend.

The rest should have falling into place as they often do and who knows, if Penny didn't have to carry this team in the late 90's... Thats why in my opinion not giving Shaq a blank check is the biggest mistake, in hindsight.

At least this is a mistake that we had actual control of, rather then missed FTs or layups that obviously were meant to go in but didn't.

[doct3r dr3]

My fellow #KeepHedo voter! Identify yourself so we can be BFFs!

[KingRobb02]

Playing hardball with Shaq lost us a lot of championship runs.

Although, Brian Hill's history in the playoffs says if Nick would have made one of those damn FTs we would have one that series... god damnit!

People say this, but it's not like the Lakers were bad with Shaq, and they didn't really contend until after MJ retired and Phil came to town. By that time, Penny was a diminished shell of himself and we probably don't win anything anyway.

and?

Prime Shaq proved that all he needed was a sidekick to contend.

The rest should have falling into place as they often do and who knows, if Penny didn't have to carry this team in the late 90's... Thats why in my opinion not giving Shaq a blank check is the biggest mistake, in hindsight.

At least this is a mistake that we had actual control of, rather then missed FTs or layups that obviously were meant to go in but didn't.

The point I was making is that we weren't better than the late 90's Bulls, and even with Shaq we wouldn't have been better than his late 90s Lakers that couldn't win. Our best hope would have been the lockout season because Penny wasn't really healthy at all after then.

[Bensational]

People say this, but it's not like the Lakers were bad with Shaq, and they didn't really contend until after MJ retired and Phil came to town. By that time, Penny was a diminished shell of himself and we probably don't win anything anyway.

and?

Prime Shaq proved that all he needed was a sidekick to contend.

The rest should have falling into place as they often do and who knows, if Penny didn't have to carry this team in the late 90's... Thats why in my opinion not giving Shaq a blank check is the biggest mistake, in hindsight.

At least this is a mistake that we had actual control of, rather then missed FTs or layups that obviously were meant to go in but didn't.

The point I was making is that we weren't better than the late 90's Bulls, and even with Shaq we wouldn't have been better than his late 90s Lakers that couldn't win. Our best hope would have been the lockout season because Penny wasn't really healthy at all after then.

who's to say? you're talking about a team which went to the finals in Penny's 2nd year, and conference finals the following year. give that team some more time to grow and mature and maybe we would have overcome the Bulls? Penny health may not have gone the same route if he wasn't the only one running the show, and when he was healthy he was up there with Grant Hill as the heir to the Jordan throne.

[KingRobb02]

and?

Prime Shaq proved that all he needed was a sidekick to contend.

The rest should have falling into place as they often do and who knows, if Penny didn't have to carry this team in the late 90's... Thats why in my opinion not giving Shaq a blank check is the biggest mistake, in hindsight.

At least this is a mistake that we had actual control of, rather then missed FTs or layups that obviously were meant to go in but didn't.

The point I was making is that we weren't better than the late 90's Bulls, and even with Shaq we wouldn't have been better than his late 90s Lakers that couldn't win. Our best hope would have been the lockout season because Penny wasn't really healthy at all after then.

who's to say? you're talking about a team which went to the finals in Penny's 2nd year, and conference finals the following year. give that team some more time to grow and mature and maybe we would have overcome the Bulls? Penny health may not have gone the same route if he wasn't the only one running the show, and when he was healthy he was up there with Grant Hill as the heir to the Jordan throne.

Are you saying that a guy who peaked at 21PPG and around 25USG was supposed to be the next Jordan? I loved Penny as much as anyone, but that was never going to happen. We saw peak Penny. It was that Heat series in 96-97. Even that series was very uneven for him. I just think you are misremembering how much he was asked to do. You act as if we turned him into 02-03 McGrady where he was dropping 32PPG on 32USG. I think Penny's role stayed well defined while he was here. If anything we may have held him back some. His workload is not why he broke down.