Official Speculation Thread '20-'21 VI: "I like this team"

[zaymon]

Cmon guys last guys standing from Henny era are Fournier, Vucevic, Ross and Gordon.
Vucevic is rare skilled big man and allstar, Ross would fit on any team with his shooting and Gordon/Fournier are rumored to be in trade talks all the time.
No one is excited to watch Cole and Okeke ? They are both so different from what we have seen so far.

So... the entire rotation for offense production?

Yeah, they haven’t addressed or changed anything in their tenure related to the extremely limited and predictable offense.

Cole could be a change, but how much is he really going to impact anything with the aforementioned players taking all the minutes under Clifford? Maybe in 2022.

This is a clown show at this point. The FO has almost become a parody of itself.

Vucevic and Fournier were our temporary engine. Funny thing is they were not even limiting our ceiling, Isaac and Gordon were. Fournier improved to the point he is well above average pick and roll ball handler. His struggles are similar to what Cole Anthony went through in NC. You drive and have Fultz, Isaac, Gordon and Vucevic for kick out. Last year he played with Dj more and we were a seriously dangerous team at the end of season.
We wont be better until Fultz, Gordon, Ennis, whoever, become better shooters or get replaced.
I think Fultz and Vucevic becoming better shooters, bringing Okeke into rotation and possibly replacing Gordon will improve us infinitly better, than replacing Fournier and Vucevic which are not the problem in the first place.
There is a chance we have our offensive engine in place with Fultz, Anthony and Okeke. Why not give them a chance ?
Who do you think had better offseason, us or Detroid, Atlanta, Charlotte, Knicks, Wizards ?

[Nyce_1]

I assume we'll have preseason games within a couples weeks.

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3-4 preseason games, for each team, starts December 11th, I think.

[GelbeWand09]

Oh, I agree in team direction with you, I just don't want to really entertain bad FA signings and forcing trades "just for change". If we legit do go another season without ANY moves then I will have a lot to bitch about, but it's not like I expected anything thus far anyway. Still think AG or Fournier will be traded potentially by the time season starts, but I do think this season will be extremely telling as far as what direction we want to take.

I don't know. I have trouble defending patience at this point. If you hired a contractor to fix your roof, but had a couple tarps patching the same roof three-and-a-half years later, I don't think it would be prudent to advocate for patience.

I think people that believe these trades are coming sooner or later haven't really been paying attention. The time to move Vucevic came and went. He was on an inexpensive and expiring contract, in the midst of a career year, and on a team that was adrift of the playoffs at the trade deadline, yet this front office chose not to deal him. His value will never be that high again. With Boston losing Hayward, I don't see a team in the NBA that is going to value him. Nobody wants to pay a center that doesn't protect the rim $25M per year. Look at the contracts that Harrell and Wood just got in contrast with what comparable players at other positions received. If nobody could meet the price tag for Vucevic when he was a more appealing target, how is anyone ever going to meet it now or going forward?

I think the issue is that Weltman has no appreciation for the team's present condition. He doesn't want to choose a path forward, which is an untenable position to negotiate trades from. It was easy for Presti or Weaver to execute trades because they accept where they are and have plotted a course forward. You have to be willing to sacrifice something to acquire what you value more. You can't expect to get younger, better, and clean your cap all at the same time.

It's just asset management. I've seen nothing to indicate that Weltman will figure this out. He will continue to be underwhelmed by trade offers. He will continue to idle until he inevitably loses his job. For me, we are in purgatory.

Yeah, but timing matters in all of it. If I want someone to cut to the basket when it would make them open, them doing it 5 seconds later when they're being covered is a dead play to me (to make an analogy of making moves just to make it/when better opportunities may present themselves). We haven't **** our future yet like a few contracts that have been handed out this offseason to teams in similar situations as ours. That's not even credit to WeHam, just they "like our team so much" and we have no money to really **** ourselves that badly thankfully.

My hope is that we naturally just suck because the Southeast is way better this year and we get offload some of our vets for young talent from desperate teams that are trying to contend or something. It seems every year our FO is so close to picking a direction and then we hit a hot streak or like, the year Vuc randomly decides he wants to start shooting threes and being effective again. Very hard to get our front office to pick a plan and see it through.

But do you really think, there is even a 5% chance we are out of reach of the 10th place at the deadline in the east, with a super experienced veteran core & Cliff? I think we are even worse than last year (i think many people doesnt really remember how bad we were because we somehow still reached the PO in the horrible east) but the play-in tourney is almost impossible to miss with such a experienced team in the east without heavy injuries. Because thats what needs to happen for them to give up on the PO. If we do a trade, its probably a sideway trade for another veteran & not for youth.

[Skybox]

Iwundu signing with Dallas.

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Better days ahead for him. TAKE US WITH YOU WES!!!!

Fricken stuck in this **** hole.

Friendly reminder that none of us are stuck here...we’ve been at a crossroads for a couple years now, but I’d still take our prospects and potential direction over quite a few others. If you can’t see any positives with the mix of old and young, trade able and developing, etc ...CLE, DET, SAC, CHI and NY would love to have you.

I REALLY want them to pull the trigger on Fournier/AG already but “blow it up”? No way!

[Furinkazan]

Maybe its time for a new thread title.
Apologysts time.

[j-ragg]

Maybe its time for a new thread title.
Apologysts time.

ezzzp is gonna make his comeback

[j-ragg]

Iwundu signing with Dallas.

Sent from my SM-G950U using RealGM mobile app

Better days ahead for him. TAKE US WITH YOU WES!!!!

Fricken stuck in this **** hole.

I REALLY want them to pull the trigger on Fournier/AG already but “blow it up”? No way!

Ignoring all of the "like it or leave it..." and blind fellatio given to our FO....


What is the big difference between "blow it up" and trading Fournier/AG? Trading 1 more guy? I don't get what the hold up or the willingness to hold on to pieces that aren't getting us anywhere.

[Furinkazan]

Maybe its time for a new thread title.
Apologysts time.

ezzzp is gonna make his comeback

[pepe1991]

Magic are entering season with non less than FIVE top 15 picks on ROOKIE SCALE contracts.

It's not amount but quality of young players that keeps from selling vets.

Not saying vets are amazing, but also it's obvious that not a single good GM will do what Hennigan did and just run bunch of 20 years old.

[Skybox]

I guess Vuc is TRULY the tipping point...anyone else could be traded for marginal risk/improvement...trade Vuc for picks or prospects and we're temporarily toast. Sounds like many here want to make bad deals on purpose to lose games and garner hypothetical stars in the the draft someday...no thanks for me. Vuc is not the problem...he's the only player on the team to sniff an All Star game and it's no fluke. We've been bad and he's been good for 5+ years, why is he the problem? He would be a perfect 2nd or 3rd option for most existing contenders, so why not for us?

Westbrook/Vuc makes a heck of a lot more sense than Westbrook/Harden to me.

The worst possible treadmill is draft high picks, waste a few years with them on the bench or in ill-suited roles, then trade them for future picks.

[Skybox]

Lot of people know what our chicken-s**t FO ISN'T going to do...tell us, what should they do? It's a lot more interesting discussion than "I'm leaving", "We suck", "ownership doesn't want to win", "they hate our freedom"(oops wrong board)

Contribute to a discussion, bitching is boring

[jonbob17]

Iwundu signing with Dallas.

Sent from my SM-G950U using RealGM mobile app

Better days ahead for him. TAKE US WITH YOU WES!!!!

Fricken stuck in this **** hole.

Friendly reminder that none of us are stuck here...we’ve been at a crossroads for a couple years now, but I’d still take our prospects and potential direction over quite a few others. If you can’t see any positives with the mix of old and young, trade able and developing, etc ...CLE, DET, SAC, CHI and NY would love to have you.

I REALLY want them to pull the trigger on Fournier/AG already but “blow it up”? No way!

They don't need to blow it up, they just need a good pick in this draft. Move AG and Fournier while they have value. Should have moved AG before the draft. Move Fournier, but it's got to be for another expiring.

[Furinkazan]

Lot of people know what our chicken-s**t FO ISN'T going to do...tell us, what should they do? It's a lot more interesting discussion than "I'm leaving", "We suck", "ownership doesn't want to win", "they hate our freedom"(oops wrong board)

Contribute to a discussion, bitching is boring

we did that million times already nothing left to say
half of this board would do a better job

[Skybox]

Lot of people know what our chicken-s**t FO ISN'T going to do...tell us, what should they do? It's a lot more interesting discussion than "I'm leaving", "We suck", "ownership doesn't want to win", "they hate our freedom"(oops wrong board)

Contribute to a discussion, bitching is boring

we did that million times already nothing left to say
half of this board would do a better job

The roster is full. The only remaining option is a trade. They drafted Cole Anthony. The offseason isn't technically over...what's the next move you(anyone here) recommend?

[Skybox]

Lot of people know what our chicken-s**t FO ISN'T going to do...tell us, what should they do? It's a lot more interesting discussion than "I'm leaving", "We suck", "ownership doesn't want to win", "they hate our freedom"(oops wrong board)

Contribute to a discussion, bitching is boring

we did that million times already nothing left to say
half of this board would do a better job

The roster is full. The only remaining option is a trade. They drafted Cole Anthony. The offseason isn't technically over...what's the next move you(anyone here) recommend?

Fire Martins, Sell the team, relocate to Seattle, cheer for the Dolphins, bang my head on the wall

[pepe1991]

Gordon Hayward inking $120M contract for a team that is definiton of mediocrity and in same time Lakers adding 50 new players on championship roster despite all cap regulations is clear example why nba has 30 teams but vast majority of them are there to fill need for schedule and not really compete for anything.

[MoMM]

Why NBA is so different than NFL? NFL is much more competitive, even NHL is.

[Skybox]

Why NBA is so different than NFL? NFL is much more competitive, even NHL is.

I guess because only 5 guys play at a time, so one big piece makes a huge difference

[pepe1991]

Why NBA is so different than NFL? NFL is much more competitive, even NHL is.

I guess because only 5 guys play at a time, so one big piece makes a huge difference

Also players are way easier to replace, much like in soccer. Even best players can be replaced.
In nba you have same 10 -20 players who are best players for years and it's impossible to win title without them.

And that huge power gives them all the leveredge in the world to create superteams, manipulate with teams, manipulate front offices, owners...

[Def Swami]

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