#1:
I'm sitting here and watching the Magic-Pacers right now (on League Pass recast), and the only thing bringing me down more than JI's recent injury is how easily the Pacers got so many great pieces for a contending team.
Are you ready for that good ol' fashioned, arrogant jump into the GM armchair that we all love to do..
- T.J. Warren and #32 pick acquired by Pacers via cash considerations and cap space. TJ Warren's on a three year, $11.75 mil contract.
- Justin Holiday acquired by Pacers via one year, $4.7 mil FA contract.
*Note: I see ORL meeting a similar offer with its TPE on Baynes and a DJ for Warren deal. Or something along the lines of a trade that would have netted PHO good cap space, and then made up for the "less then full cap space in return" by incentivizing, say, #32 staying in PHO's hands.
Look at the great contract value on these two players (especially pre-epidemic).
Look at their basketball impacts on the floor, too. It's BIG relative to contract.
The ORL FO's direction has very frustratingly been to hold-pace. They made some really big hits by getting great contract values on players like Vooch, T Ross, and Gordon. As well as adding youth to the young/medium-aged team through JI, Fultz, Bamba and Okeke.
On a semi-rational basis, you can't knock a FO for not clearing cap space and getting younger if you're going to get great value contracts on a team that is slowly improving into something like a #7 seed and give its youngsters a proper winning environment, but at the same time, you're not making any big home-run type swings (like a trade up to Doncic), nor are you chasing FURTHER great value plays in PLAYERS LIKE TJ Warren and Justin Holiday at the same time!
So, what is it ORL FO? Are you trying to find the superstar first? Are you trying to make a contending team full of great pieces across the entire roster like say, a DEN team, (especially if it's in a non-comprising way with great value contracts)?
For ORL, it is neither. That is the FO's direction..
This is not miracle, 20-20 hindsight complaining here either.
Do you know who else had a lot of vision to get a player like TJ Warren to ORL?
Many of us here in our very own board!
Granted, his name slid a little from our board's posts because, (let's face it), he was "2 years older" than Kelly Oubre. But so many of us saw the value of a player like Warren for ORL! And right now, his impact for ORL would have been huge!
Add a second, veteran player in Justin Holiday, a 3pt shooter who has shown flashes of great value-for-price throughout his career. And its someone else I've watched a long time who I would have grabbed at the price.
And if ORL simply kept that same mindset of great value-hunting the past two seasons, they may have also upgraded another spot's strength, like PG. The examples of missing out on great value hunting/trading don't stop with the Pacers.
So what exactly then, is ORL's FO direction?
#2:
I know Aaron Gordon didn't show those first few seasons of someone who's going to be superstar or maybe even a perennial, constant All Star. But I'm still on the boat that he's going to have an All Star type career in some of his seasons very soon.
I see some mirroring in Aaron with JI, where they are just too athletic, big or strong, and it's starting to translate in these things where, with experience, Aaron is slowly but surely improving at a variety of things with greater and greater success. You throw in the mix his above average handles, his above average passing vision, and his great defensive pressure and transition threat.. and I personally still see Aaron as untouchable.
His shooting has also improved on top of it all, with some scary hot stretches of shooting in his career so far. You can even analyze and gameplan around what have been his hottest shooting scenarios; off the catch, in his hands, in the corners? And make it happen for him!
The final nail in the coffin for my high belief in Aaron has been his consistent improvement curve as well. Even in, say, a season/stretch where he attacked too much instead of playing smart, or shot below his averages, I literally sit there and see things like a greatly improved passing vision blooming one year. And then this year, it's been his posting up and driving that has seemed to make a big jump to me!
Plus a growing veteran IQ awareness in many areas like the defensive-end.
And he's also been one of our few players who always seems to step up in those clutch scenarios like not letting ORL fall more than 8 points behind, or to hold a small lead, because Aaron will do something such as drive and attack on their best player (hunting for And-1 and foul trouble on an opposing star).
We saw Oladipo go through a big number of seasons before blowing up? What's to say Aaron won't come a similar effect soon too?
