Trading Ibaka - Could be Hennigan's last move.

[MagicFan4Lyfe]

I did as well. But it's not the GM's fault that both Vogel and the players have sucked. We all imagined a top 10 defense back in the summer, with EP, AG, Ibaka, Biz and Vogel. The players and coaching are responsible for being at 20 wins currently.

A lot of the blame lies with the GM and management for the poor roster construction. I've been giving Vogel a pass because there is not a single coach out there that can win with this team. Does anyone think Pop or Kerr would have a better record with this team? You need talent plus good coaching to win and right now we don't have much talent to win.
Yes the onus is on the coach and players but Hennigan really missed out big time on a lot of his recent deals.

Big time? Not so sure. I think I'd rather be really bad and have a shot at drafting a stud right now instead of chasing an 8th seed. At least the Magic recognize they need to tank this year and are doing so.

For me, it is fine to be really bad and get a stud to build around. Do that over and over until you get your team assembled.

Harris, Oladipo were not the answers. Harris is already a 6th man (what he should have been here) and Oladipo looks like a career 16-17 ppg guy. We would have probably won 35-38 games with them this season and missed out on getting a top draft pick.

We need to draft a guy who can give us 24ppg or more after a few years in the league.

I actually agree with you 100% here. But I still would have liked to have gotten something better for Dipo and Harris. Once we do get that star, we still need to surround him with talent. My fear with getting that star is not having enough talent and then they bounce. Its what happened to us with T-mac, D12. Look at the Pelicans and Kings and the fear those franchises have that potentially their star player could leave.

[Mc-o]

I don't see Evan as a chucker at all. Last season he was 7th in the team in usage percentage (behind Payton, Jennings, Jason Smith and Andrew Nicholson and obviously Vucevic and Dipo). The year before that he was sixth. This season he's second, but still behind Vucevic, and and despite his recent struggles his TS% is one of the highest on the team.

Though he has shot poorly since coming back from injury, I don't see him has a chucker either. Not at all. I think he is a good shooter and should be used in that role more. Issue is he is a player that has been ball dominant. That doesn't necessarily mean he is chucking up bad shots. But the ball does tend to get stuck with him a lot and he needs to work on his turnovers. I'd much rather see him more off the ball and coming off screens to knock down 3s. I think using him as a ball dominant player takes away from the thing he should be doing most -- shooting off the catch.

This. Anytime the ball stops, the defense recovers and you have to start everything over. He has also been preferential in his distribution (he looks certain guys off). He should be a catch and shoot player, but he prefers to play the catch and survey.

I agree , he has always been a spot up shooter , or comes off screens , so his mentality is of a shooter ! This playmaker is something he isn't natural at and it's obvious . The biggest issue i see this year , outside of ibaka , Vogel has asked players to do things they don't normally do , which is fine if ur focused on development , but the team has been trying to win not develop ! Like easy example is that Vogel makes Fournier playmaker when he has elf , in turn forcing ep to try to be a spot up shooter , which he sucks at but Fournier is good at , while also having Fournier try to be playmaker which he isn't good at but ep is great at !

[PennytoShaq]

A lot of the blame lies with the GM and management for the poor roster construction. I've been giving Vogel a pass because there is not a single coach out there that can win with this team. Does anyone think Pop or Kerr would have a better record with this team? You need talent plus good coaching to win and right now we don't have much talent to win.
Yes the onus is on the coach and players but Hennigan really missed out big time on a lot of his recent deals.

Big time? Not so sure. I think I'd rather be really bad and have a shot at drafting a stud right now instead of chasing an 8th seed. At least the Magic recognize they need to tank this year and are doing so.

For me, it is fine to be really bad and get a stud to build around. Do that over and over until you get your team assembled.

Harris, Oladipo were not the answers. Harris is already a 6th man (what he should have been here) and Oladipo looks like a career 16-17 ppg guy. We would have probably won 35-38 games with them this season and missed out on getting a top draft pick.

We need to draft a guy who can give us 24ppg or more after a few years in the league.

I actually agree with you 100% here. But I still would have liked to have gotten something better for Dipo and Harris. Once we do get that star, we still need to surround him with talent. My fear with getting that star is not having enough talent and then they bounce. Its what happened to us with T-mac, D12. Look at the Pelicans and Kings and the fear those franchises have that potentially their star player could leave.

I like our supporting cast and think we can add to it in free agency. If we keep Vuc and Evan, get a guy like Powell or Brown in a Ibaka trade, offer the max to Jrue Holiday and have Elf back him up, I think we will be a lot better than people think. A nice offseason to me that could actually happen would give us this roster :

Holiday/Elf
Evan/Powell (He'd be starting probably after 3 months if he develops more)
Josh Jackson/Mario
AG/Free agent PF (or draft pick)
Vuc/Biz/Zimmerman

If Jackson develops into that alpha go to guy he is projected to be, we would have a much better team.Just having a guy like that would change the team and make our existing guys be able to play roles that fit them better.

[MagicFan4Lyfe]

Big time? Not so sure. I think I'd rather be really bad and have a shot at drafting a stud right now instead of chasing an 8th seed. At least the Magic recognize they need to tank this year and are doing so.

For me, it is fine to be really bad and get a stud to build around. Do that over and over until you get your team assembled.

Harris, Oladipo were not the answers. Harris is already a 6th man (what he should have been here) and Oladipo looks like a career 16-17 ppg guy. We would have probably won 35-38 games with them this season and missed out on getting a top draft pick.

We need to draft a guy who can give us 24ppg or more after a few years in the league.

I actually agree with you 100% here. But I still would have liked to have gotten something better for Dipo and Harris. Once we do get that star, we still need to surround him with talent. My fear with getting that star is not having enough talent and then they bounce. Its what happened to us with T-mac, D12. Look at the Pelicans and Kings and the fear those franchises have that potentially their star player could leave.

I like our supporting cast and think we can add to it in free agency. If we keep Vuc and Evan, get a guy like Powell or Brown in a Ibaka trade, offer the max to Jrue Holiday and have Elf back him up, I think we will be a lot better than people think. A nice offseason to me that could actually happen would give us this roster :

Holiday/Elf
Evan/Powell (He'd be starting probably after 3 months if he develops more)
Josh Jackson/Mario
AG/Free agent PF (or draft pick)
Vuc/Biz/Zimmerman

If Jackson develops into that alpha go to guy he is projected to be, we would have a much better team.Just having a guy like that would change the team and make our existing guys be able to play roles that fit them better.

I like this idea except I don't know if Holiday is a max player. I would much rather roll with Elf, trade Vuc and put the money into a more defensive oriented center and a new SG. Biz and Fournier can be the first guys off the bench. Josh Jackson/AG would be phenomenal.

[drsd]

The Magic was never keeping Oladipo. The silver lining in Ibaka is that we know now Gordon is not a SF.

Was just reading an editorial that suggested Oladipo was always going to be lost to the FA market. And in that Orlando effective traded only their 10th pick for Ibaka. If one looks at it that way, this was a good experiment for GM Hennigan.

(let's recall the Magic got Biyambo for the salary line that went to Oladipo; so that was a salary slot in some sense).


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