Official Speculation Thread ‘19-'20 III: It's B-ball Time !!!

ezzzp · Post #341 » by **ezzzp** » Fri Sep 20, 2019 6:01 pm

basketballRob wrote:I could see Fultz and Bamba having good chemistry on the court, like Evan and Vuc do now.

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

yep I agree, it will take some time but they have good potential to work well together...

...I think the Al-Farouq acquisition is going to really help Bamba...someone who can really help stabilize that second unit and help Bamba with his bbIQ on both ends

ezzzp · Post #342 » by **ezzzp** » Fri Sep 20, 2019 6:08 pm

people with nearly 10k posts in a 3 year span on an online forum making jokes about people spending time on that forum...classic

VFX · Post #343 » by **VFX** » Fri Sep 20, 2019 6:15 pm

ezzzp wrote:“certain” posters when their comically bad hot takes get called out

Thanks for proving my point.

ezzzp · Post #344 » by **ezzzp** » Fri Sep 20, 2019 6:16 pm

MagicMatic wrote:
ezzzp wrote:“certain” posters when their comically bad hot takes get called out

Thanks for proving my point.

Thank you for proving mine

VFX · Post #345 » by **VFX** » Fri Sep 20, 2019 6:19 pm

ezzzp wrote:
MagicMatic wrote:
ezzzp wrote:“certain” posters when their comically bad hot takes get called out

Thanks for proving my point.

Thank you for proving mine

ezzzp · Post #346 » by **ezzzp** » Fri Sep 20, 2019 6:31 pm

Read on Twitter

cedric76 · Post #347 » by **cedric76** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 8:19 am

Evan s interview on French media

https://youtu.be/gOsv-z3X-Is

Take away (magic related)

He likes the fultz gamble
Barely talked to him last year as players were too focus on playoff, he looks forward to meet him at training camp
Think we ll be a too 5 team in East
Wants to be an sll star next season
Love our team and coach
Happy that we finally have continuity as the past 5 years under Rob and co were a mess
Loves AG, AG works hard very hard and will keep improving

Go magic

Ducklett · Post #348 » by **Ducklett** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 8:57 am

ezzzp wrote:
MagicMatic wrote:
ezzzp wrote:“certain” posters when their comically bad hot takes get called out

Thanks for proving my point.

Thank you for proving mine

BadMofoPimp · Post #349 » by **BadMofoPimp** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 7:58 pm

Vooch gonna prove em all wrong again!!!

ORLANDOMAGIC.COM: The day that Vucevic signed, he said that he feels like he is just now entering his prime and that last season wasn’t some random career year. Do you agree that he can be even better? CLIFFORD: “I just don’t see that he did anything that he wouldn’t be capable improving on this year. It’s not like he shot the ball really well from 3-point range, it’s not like he shot 43 percent and won’t be able to keep that up. I think he’ll shoot it even better this season. “The thing that goes unnoticed with him is that for as good as he was offensively, he was very good defensively. He put a lot into last season and he’ll be back here next week after playing in the World Cup. But, I do agree with him that he’s in his prime. Talent comes in different ways. He’s not a high flyer, but his basketball IQ and his decision-making for a man his size – there’s not many who can do all the things that he can do.’’
5 days ago – via NBA.com

AG still working hard to prove RealGM haterz wrong!!!

ORLANDOMAGIC.COM: Aaron Gordon was at an event recently and he mentioned wanting to become a more efficient post-up player. Is that an area that you pinpointed for him to train his focus on this offseason? CLIFFORD: “He’s been in here working. He’s done a lot with Pat Delany and he’s done a lot of shooting with Bruce Kreutzer. I think he’s in terrific shape and he was here for both optional workouts this week. He’s done a lot, working on his iso-game, working on his post-up game and working on his range shooting. But, also, people got to see his ability last year to be a good passer and he was a much better passer than I ever realized. It will come as we become more consistent and relevant, he made strides as a two-way player. He had a great year defensively and I was really disappointed that he didn’t get votes for the All-Defensive team.’’
5 days ago – via NBA.com

Optimus_Steel · Post #350 » by **Optimus_Steel** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 8:58 pm

cedric76 wrote:Evan s interview on French media

https://youtu.be/gOsv-z3X-Is

Take away (magic related)

He likes the fultz gamble
Barely talked to him last year as players were too focus on playoff, he looks forward to meet him at training camp
Think we ll be a too 5 team in East
Wants to be an sll star next season
Love our team and coach
Happy that we finally have continuity as the past 5 years under Rob and co were a mess
Loves AG, AG works hard very hard and will keep improving

Go magic

Is that Evan hates AG narrative dead now????? Can't believe people put so much stock into that.

Optimus_Steel · Post #351 » by **Optimus_Steel** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 9:03 pm

BadMofoPimp wrote:Vooch gonna prove em all wrong again!!!

ORLANDOMAGIC.COM: The day that Vucevic signed, he said that he feels like he is just now entering his prime and that last season wasn’t some random career year. Do you agree that he can be even better? CLIFFORD: “I just don’t see that he did anything that he wouldn’t be capable improving on this year. It’s not like he shot the ball really well from 3-point range, it’s not like he shot 43 percent and won’t be able to keep that up. I think he’ll shoot it even better this season. “The thing that goes unnoticed with him is that for as good as he was offensively, he was very good defensively. He put a lot into last season and he’ll be back here next week after playing in the World Cup. But, I do agree with him that he’s in his prime. Talent comes in different ways. He’s not a high flyer, but his basketball IQ and his decision-making for a man his size – there’s not many who can do all the things that he can do.’’
5 days ago – via NBA.com

AG still working hard to prove RealGM haterz wrong!!!

ORLANDOMAGIC.COM: Aaron Gordon was at an event recently and he mentioned wanting to become a more efficient post-up player. Is that an area that you pinpointed for him to train his focus on this offseason? CLIFFORD: “He’s been in here working. He’s done a lot with Pat Delany and he’s done a lot of shooting with Bruce Kreutzer. I think he’s in terrific shape and he was here for both optional workouts this week. He’s done a lot, working on his iso-game, working on his post-up game and working on his range shooting. But, also, people got to see his ability last year to be a good passer and he was a much better passer than I ever realized. It will come as we become more consistent and relevant, he made strides as a two-way player. He had a great year defensively and I was really disappointed that he didn’t get votes for the All-Defensive team.’’
5 days ago – via NBA.com

You are consistant!

drsd · Post #352 » by **drsd** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 9:41 am

Hawks Re-Sign Vince Carter For Final Season

Playing in the NBA in 4 differing decades clinches Carter for 1st-year consideration to the Hall of Fame. Frankly I think he will help the Hawks this coming year in a real growth model.

The only other NBA players who have been in the league for 21 seasons are Parish, Kevin Garnett, Kevin Willis and Germany's Dirk Nowitzki.

So: Carter will be Mr. Number-1 in total seasons played at 22-seasons.

WOW!

p.s. Looking back we all thought Carter was aged as a 33-year old Magician. That was nearly 10 fricken years ago !!!
He went for mid-teens in scoring for the Magic, but as a Daytona Beach native, he always had his Central Floridian roots.

..

dsg2021 · Post #353 » by **dsg2021** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 6:50 pm

drsd wrote:
Hawks Re-Sign Vince Carter For Final Season
 Playing in the NBA in 4 differing decades clinches Carter for 1st-year consideration to the Hall of Fame. Frankly I think he will help the Hawks this coming year in a real growth model. 
The only other NBA players who have been in the league for 21 seasons are Parish, Kevin Garnett, Kevin Willis and Germany's Dirk Nowitzki.
 So: Carter will be Mr. Number-1 in total seasons played at 22-seasons. WOW! p.s. Looking back we all thought Carter was aged as a 33-year old Magician. That was nearly 10 fricken years ago !!! He went for mid-teens in scoring for the Magic, but as a Daytona Beach native, he always had his Central Floridian roots. ..

I was always a little sour with him for not trying harder in Orlando, but as a 32+ age player, my retrospect keeps shifting more and more towards Otis taking the L on that. Plus VC was always a consummate professional. Otis really needed to play the line-up-the-ducks for a FA game instead, but honestly, with how D12 tapered out after injuries even that is becoming all a moot point too.

dsg2021 · Post #354 » by **dsg2021** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 6:55 pm

If anyone's really bored and interested in my in-progress business paper on the Magic's business side, it's in the spoiler below.
The miles-long reference page is done, and in-paper citations coming soon after more re-drafting and changes, but I was restrained to this size of the paper (leaving out plenty more). Feel free to accuracy-check, tear-it-apart, constructive-feedback, whatever you want. I just figured, hey it's Magic related! hah (And actually still quite interesting imho!)

Spoiler:

It is a late night on April 19th in 2019. A NBA Playoffs basketball game is raging below a massive crowd of Orlando Magic and NBA fans. Precisely, there are 19,367 fans cheering at the top of their lungs. This was the second largest crowd in history for Orlando’s relatively new, state-of-the-art Amway Center - the home of the Orlando Magic. The arena is filled with an electric energy of thunderous support for the Magic players below. And the energy throughout the city of Orlando was only heightened even further when a few days prior, the Orlando Magic had already won the first game against who would later on become the NBA champions, the Toronto Raptors from Canada. And for the Orlando Magic’s Business side and Operations Management team, this was a sort of a “business playoffs” for them as well.

See, for the last few years, as the NBA was becoming more and more popular, the Magic were missing the Playoffs from a rebuilding phase within the team. From an Operations Management standpoint, you savor the opportunity to even put your operations into practice with these extra Playoffs games and their huge windfalls of business profit. On this night of April 19th, it was the Magic’s team on the basketball side giving the boost to its Operations Management team. But what exactly are some of the Operations Management elements that come into play for this Playoffs game, and the 41 other guaranteed home games in Amway Center during any given year?

It is a standing credo within the Operations Management discipline that achieving the biggest goals in a business is made by reaching and sustaining a unique, hard-to-copy competitive advantage in its Operations. All of the elements and supporting activities of Operations Management thus shift towards this very competitive advantage, fitting together and revolving around its key success factors and advantages. Like with every other NBA team, the pinnacle of basketball on the planet, the Magic’s competitive advantage is the sheer product differentiation and high demand it has with its customers. And the elements of the Magic’s Operations management are all shaped towards maximizing that demand for its team, and managing it well.

For the Magic, there are a lot of highlights in its Operations Management that helped it earned the 11th highest EBITDA of $64 million in 2017-2018, despite having smaller market size, smaller revenue size per fan, and lower brand value than many of its peers. And a lot of that Operations action happens before the season even begins.

It starts with Anthony Perez, once the Magic’s director business strategy and now the CEO of VenueNext which counts the Magic as one of its partners, who upgraded one of the critical Magic’s Operations Management elements. This big part of Operations Management is called demand-forecasting. Without accurate demand-forecasting in a business’ operations, you are liable to leaving a huge chunks of profit on the table in the form of customers who buy tickets at prices lower than they were willing to pay, including the third party resellers who take advantage of that exact mistake. For Anthony Perez, what was once an exercise of gut instinct and simpler models for sports executives in the past now became a multiple-regression model backed by significant variables such as prior season third-party vendor ticket prices, and then current season’s day of the week, opponent popularity, and time of the year. The practice was revenue management at its finest, a staple of the airline and hotel industries, and now spreading to professional sports with two NBA teams, the Magic and the Boston Celtics leading the pack in this dynamic pricing model of its product. Furthermore, instead of doing 90% of the pricing work before the season, as required by the league, and largely forgetting it, Perez made sure to switch the Magic from freezing its seat prices and instead adjusting them frequently to match the evolving market demand of the unpredictable rollercoaster of a NBA season. After all, where one team was not a popular opponent before the season started, but then traded for a big star into the season, the Magic were now ready to adjust their ticket prices in its frequent analytical forecasts. And while it was a tough mission to balance ticket prices into that sweet spot where most customers would not pass up the ticket for being too pricy with those customers who were ready to pay a bit more premium if they had to, it was a mission accomplished for the Magic’s Perez. He helped found the “true market” price of its Amway Center seats during Magic games and met the goal of selling out all seats on paper.

The remaining major elements of the Magic’s Operations Management are then its big role in Designing the state-of-the-art Amway Center, with arena features too numerous to list but with dividends paying off for years to come, its Merchandise Operations, its use of technology with its Magic App leading the way, its local Sponsorships, Partnerships, and Advertisers, especially in its long-term relationships and contracts, and finally, its highly segmented and specialized Departments of ticket sales. And while some elements of its operations and revenue streams are mostly optimized thanks to league initiatives, other elements are where there is the most room for shaping.

For merchandise sales, the league helps guide every NBA team like the Magic with its merchandising schemes, planned and coordinated with its official apparel provider Nike. The regular variations of new jerseys - along with new players- drives new product demand for teams like the Magic in its Merchandise Operations.

Furthermore, in a sports event steeped in pastime traditions, a fan does want a drink, a concession food, and some merch during a two and a half hour event, and many of the advertisers and sponsors such as the Bud Light Baseline Bar are naturally at home here in Amway Center during a sports game. Same with the Nutrilite Fan Experience and the Orlando City On Demand sections as well. The Magic also make a point of seeking out the best matching corporate sponsors and advertising partners/providers, which are often other organizations with a big presence in Orlando like Advent Health, Arnold Palmer, Harris, and Disney, or with connections to the Magic like VenueNext and Amway. Naming the center after Amway, the company of the Magic’s ownership, is not just a close match as a partner, but also provides $40 million over 10 years. Gameday promotions are worked to mutual benefit with companies of, again, a big local presence, like Chick-fil-A’s free throws in-game promotions. And after helping the Magic, Anthony Perez moved on from the Magic to be CEO of the very company that powers the Orlando Magic App, VenueNext. Critically, this partnership has opened up new channels of revenue and new levels of operations efficiency for the Magic. Finally, all of the Disney placements spotted during a Magic game in the arena; Disney pays for not just those placements, but also for the Magic’s very first jersey patch (an estimated $4 to $20 million dollar fee per year to the team). The two brands recognize each other as major draws in Orlando, and their partnership is not just a natural fit, but a boon to helping each other. For instance, the Magic have hosted contests featuring Disney products and prizes during games for several years. Likewise, Disney annual passholders will have an opportunity to receive seat upgrades at select Magic games. And the Magic will also sell and renew Walt Disney World annual passes at Amway Center, where those purchasers are often seeking out the free Disney-branded Magic jerseys. With added perks and benefits to higher tiers of sponsorship with the Magic, there is even a drive for all sponsors and advertisers to partner further together in the future. And in sum, it is all of these partnerships and sponsorships worked towards long-term contracts and to mutual benefit that power the Magic to long-term sustainable growth.

The Magic also made great strides in another element of its Operations Management; improving the efficiency of its concessions, seat upgrades, and fan services. Operations Management as a field of history is littered with testimonials to its most traditional improvements, from the assembly line at factories improving outputs, to the process analysis of operations to shave off seconds in taking and preparing orders in companies like McDonald’s and Starbucks, seconds saved that added up to more customers being able to be served in shorter times and millions and millions of dollars added in profit and savings. For the Magic, this element of Operations Management is carried out incredibly efficiently by its Orlando Magic App. Adding paperless tickets is not just convenient for customers, but highly flexible and sharable. Furthermore, the Magic added its Wallet and Magic Money features, allowing tickets to be resold to the Magic minutes before a game, gifted to a friend electronically, upgraded before the game, upgraded during the game, all with concession and merchandise money packages. The Magic Money also rolls over, adding further convenience and flexibility. Now the Magic took it a step further and have smoothly implemented even more popular features in its App that also shaved off seconds and enhanced its operations efficiencies. Some of these features include giving you step-by-step navigation to locations within the Amway Center such as to your seats or to a specific shop. The App will also not only suggest the most popular shops and restaurants near you, but also the expected wait time for the restaurants and concessions, an option to pick-up or deliver the food straight to your seat, and an option to share food or drink with a friend elsewhere in the Amway arena. The Magic also worked with VenueNext not just in the advanced functionality and smoothness of the App, but also in its proximity beacon technology. With the convenient free WiFi and the prevalent use of the Magic App, VenueNext and the Magic are able to track fan locations to pinpoint locations through its proximity beacons, from their seats to the concourse and specific shops. When a fan is sitting down in their seat, the beacon technology will naturally pull up drink and food options. When a fan is wandering in the concourse, the proximity technology will plug in the most relevant merchandise ads for them. The Magic says these beacons have opened up entirely new revenue streams beyond merchandise and ticket sales by connecting fans to sponsored content. It enables sponsors to interact with fans and monetize hyper-accurate visitor segments through advertising with much higher ROI than other advertising channels. And not only have these paid placements provided an additional revenue assist, but it’s also promoted greater app engagement with teams’ respective fans. For the Magic, this Magic App that feels highly attuned to its fan only reinforces the drive toward higher ticket sales and Magic merchandise purchases. Win-win.

When it comes to that person-to-person interaction between operations and customers, it is the segmented and specialized ticket sales departments that stands out as another highlight. With Event and Tickets Operations, the Operations Management is tasked with detailed Scheduling and excellent Customer Relationship Management on not just game days, but also for other exclusive Magic events on non-game days. And a well-crafted customer relations experience significantly adds to the draw of these highly-demanded sports experiences (an experience that adds even more benefits and perks to many of its season-ticket holders). With the tickets sales departments divided and specialized into a general admissions staff, a season-ticket holders staff, a high value season-ticket holders staff that will even sometimes coordinate between both players and customers’ schedules for player interactions and facility tours, and a corporate suites and sales staff, there is an opportunity for every level of fan, big to small, to always have a specific Magic rep to email, call, or talk to in-person about their tickets and services. For instance, in many a NBA teams’ operations, there is an established 1:20 business practice that even ensures there is at least one team representative whose duty is to happily connect face-to-face with a specific group of 20 season-ticket holders throughout a game’s two hour plus span. Such a practice is done not only with the same exact rep who has been emailing and talking with you on the phone throughout the year(s), but it also gives the rep an opportunity to grow a genuine friendship and to offer an upscaled, tailored concierge experience to its customer, with each rep having the capacity to fulfill any request, big and small, of its higher value season-ticket holders. So when it comes to wanting a game-view table in Jernigan’s Restaurant inside the Amway Center, attaining preferential parking, upgrading your luxury Club level seats down to courtside seats before or during the game, or simply meeting with a bunch of drinking buddies in one of the bars that are open in the Amway in the hours both before and after the game, there is a distinct possibility that your Magic rep will stop by to say hello and make sure your experience is going very well. All the way from the ticket purchase and parking, to the Magic App use and any requests, to even that friendly conversation where you’ve both been keen to hear each other’s basketball opinions for the team and for around the league.

J the Drafter · Post #355 » by **J the Drafter** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 12:50 am

dsg2021 wrote:
drsd wrote:
Hawks Re-Sign Vince Carter For Final Season
 Playing in the NBA in 4 differing decades clinches Carter for 1st-year consideration to the Hall of Fame. Frankly I think he will help the Hawks this coming year in a real growth model. 
The only other NBA players who have been in the league for 21 seasons are Parish, Kevin Garnett, Kevin Willis and Germany's Dirk Nowitzki.
 So: Carter will be Mr. Number-1 in total seasons played at 22-seasons. WOW! p.s. Looking back we all thought Carter was aged as a 33-year old Magician. That was nearly 10 fricken years ago !!! He went for mid-teens in scoring for the Magic, but as a Daytona Beach native, he always had his Central Floridian roots. ..

I was always a little sour with him for not trying harder in Orlando, but as a 32+ age player, my retrospect keeps shifting more and more towards Otis taking the L on that. Plus VC was always a consummate professional. Otis really needed to play the line-up-the-ducks for a FA game instead, but honestly, with how D12 tapered out after injuries even that is becoming all a moot point too.

I wasn’t aware people considered Vince a bust here. He wasn’t Hedo, and Stan clearly missed Hedo’s playmaking skill, but Vince did bring scoring.

MagicStarwipe · Post #356 » by **MagicStarwipe** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 1:43 am

J the Drafter wrote:
dsg2021 wrote:
drsd wrote: Playing in the NBA in 4 differing decades clinches Carter for 1st-year consideration to the Hall of Fame. Frankly I think he will help the Hawks this coming year in a real growth model. So: Carter will be Mr. Number-1 in total seasons played at 22-seasons. WOW! p.s. Looking back we all thought Carter was aged as a 33-year old Magician. That was nearly 10 fricken years ago !!! He went for mid-teens in scoring for the Magic, but as a Daytona Beach native, he always had his Central Floridian roots. ..

I was always a little sour with him for not trying harder in Orlando, but as a 32+ age player, my retrospect keeps shifting more and more towards Otis taking the L on that. Plus VC was always a consummate professional. Otis really needed to play the line-up-the-ducks for a FA game instead, but honestly, with how D12 tapered out after injuries even that is becoming all a moot point too.

I wasn’t aware people considered Vince a bust here. He wasn’t Hedo, and Stan clearly missed Hedo’s playmaking skill, but Vince did bring scoring.

We needed him to be the Nets Vince Carter but it seems as soon as he got here, he began his decline.

dsg2021 · Post #357 » by **dsg2021** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 4:50 am

MagicStarwipe wrote:
J the Drafter wrote:
dsg2021 wrote:I was always a little sour with him for not trying harder in Orlando, but as a 32+ age player, my retrospect keeps shifting more and more towards Otis taking the L on that. Plus VC was always a consummate professional. Otis really needed to play the line-up-the-ducks for a FA game instead, but honestly, with how D12 tapered out after injuries even that is becoming all a moot point too.

I wasn’t aware people considered Vince a bust here. He wasn’t Hedo, and Stan clearly missed Hedo’s playmaking skill, but Vince did bring scoring.

We needed him to be the Nets Vince Carter but it seems as soon as he got here, he began his decline.

Exactly. And I think me and many other fans weren’t even being overly expectational of VC either, we just needed him to bring some fire and take the onus of closing out games, being a leader with the ball.

I remember one of the early season games of VC’s first season in ORL blue, against the Boston Celtics. And while we lost that game, that was one of those nights where VC really brought the fire and battled very hard. I remembered a lot of us were thrilled to think about how with more team chemistry building up over the next months, we’d be the most dangerous Magic squad yet. But nope, VC ended up blending into the background team more and more instead (with age undoubtedly a major reason).. and we were way better off with those days of Turk at point, Jameer the efficient scoring PG, and Sweet Lew and shooters all around Dwight.

pepe1991 · Post #358 » by **pepe1991** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 6:27 am

Vince was 33 when he arrived in Orlando, he was already out of his prime.

Orl_Magic · Post #359 » by **Orl_Magic** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 1:16 pm

Hopefully AG can have one of those blistering hot 3 point shooting starts again like 2 years ago. He was shooting like 70% the first 10 games if i remember correctly

Post #360 » by **Knightro** » Mon Sep 23, 2019 2:03 pm

Read on Twitter