Here's something interesting John Hollinger said: I'm not sure why he would want to come to Houston if he didn't choose us over Dallas in the first place, so there's a good chance he wouldn't consent to a trade to Houston after Dec. 15.
Oh and big men always get overpaid. At least he's a young big man, isn't a stiff, and looks motivated to play and improve, which you see in his disappointment in having to backup Howard instead of competing against an overpaid waste one a 1 year contract. You could do a lot worse with a full MLE contract IMO.
Dallas always like to throw their MLE at stiff big men don't they??? DeSagana Diop last year and Marcin Gortat this year. Its not a mistake signing by anyone. It just looks bad for Orlando because everyone sees they have Dwight Howard... anyone remember the Jermaine O'Neal trade from Portland to Indiana? Just because you don't need him that much doesn't mean you are going to ditch them... Orlando obviously didn't want to lose him for nothing...but they have a good trade chip on hand right now. Gortat will get A MULTITUDE of offers from Dec 15....probably even before that...Centres are so hard to find these days. That said Morey IS NOT going to go after him now that he's got a fat contract. But I still think we need him to backup Yao. Yao isn't getting any younger and Gortat can play serious minutes if Yao goes out for whatever reason. I don't think Orlando is just gonna let him go for expirings, otherwise they wouldn't have matched the offer in the first place. But seeing Orlando is STACKED at every position I don't know what to offer...
I remember the days when we used to laugh at Otis Smith and the Magic. His shrewd handling of the Gortat situation while signing Bass has solidified him as the 09-10 GM of the Year (which GM's normally win a year or two after their moves add up). Not sure if Bass or Gortat will start, but both will log 25 +mpg and this makes the Magic a much less streaky team from the times they had to rely on hot shooting games from their small lineup to do well. You also have to hand it to Rich DeVos for letting Orlando fall into luxury tax terrirtory the year after they made it to the finals (the anti-Florida Marlins), and in general overpaying for talent that will help Orlando win (Lewis, Pietrus, trading for Carter's contract).
But is Carter really or still that good to compensate for the lost of Lee and Hedo? The Magic had stellar performances from Lee and Hedo. These two players helped win games. Can the net effect be a positive one regarding adding VC and losing 2 starters?
I wonder if Mavs would have been able to do something similar to what Portland did with Millisap where they would have to offer a bit larger contract for the 1st year so that way Orlando would have to think really hard on matching it. I guess Mavs were too confident that Orlando wouldn't match it so they didn't pursue it that way.
Good news for us (well, not really since we wanted him too) but good news that the Magic just screwed the Mavs. Now, they're either forced to keep Dumpier (which takes rumors like Dump-for-Redd off the table) or look to upgrade the position elsewhere.
I think you're overrating Lee's impact, he's a borderline player along the lines of Calbert Cheaney. The Magic will miss Hedo's ability to handle the ball in the half court (for someone his size), but with Carter able to create his own shot and a healthy Nelson, it isn't going to be noticeable. It was a calculated tradeoff the Magic took; I don't think it hurts them with Carter showing a resurgence in his career... and Vince is always an x-factor down the stretch.
I think getting VC and Bass makes them better than keeping Hedo and Lee. With Hedo and Rashard Lewis, the Magic never had a legit PF on the floor and their lineup was not balanced. VC is every bit the creator that Hedo is, and more. He's also a huge upgrade over Lee, who might get better, but that's to be determined. Now Dwight Howard won't be the only guy on their team who can play physical around the basket. He finally has someone else throwing elbows and dishing out punishment. I'm not penciling the Magic into the Finals, but after losing Turkey-Glue, getting VC and Bass were A+ steps to remaining a contender. Re-signing Gortat is another story. But if he is traded before deadline for a piece they need because of injury or whatever, matching was a good move.
Yeah, you are correct, but there's still some crazy ass "cap/tax level" that your team cannot exceed based on some crazy formula. If your team exceeds that dollar amount, you pay a dollar for dollar tax, so by going over that limit you wouldn't necessarily be paying player x double their salary, just 2x the amount the are over the tax. Salary cap talk is awesome, no?
Has Carter ever stepped up to "lead" a team? He's the perfect second or third banana on a championship contender. I see him as a nice upgrade over Hedu, and his addition should mean at least another ECF for the Magic.
Now that Randolph is out of the picture I doubt the Clips have any real interest in moving Camby. He can back up both Kaman (who's been know to miss some time with injuries) and Blake Griffin. I say the only way that they move Camby is if they can also get someone to take Barron Davis's contract with him, and I'm not sure if Morey would be willing to add a contract like that. Here's a Rockets/Clip Trade that works financially Would you make this deal?
Btw, I think I might actually prefer Brad Miller on a one year deal over Marcus Camby. He's the perfect C for Adleman's offense, I just don't think the Bulls move him (especially since the rumor is they've been looking to move Ty Thomas). Thoughts?
Yes, but like I said, the only way you get Camby is by also taking Barron's contract. More than likely, I don't do this deal either, but I'm sure something like this has at least been discussed by the Rox/Clips.
Um...this is going a little overboard. Neither Gortat or Bass can play small forward. Which means they have to take minutes from the 96 that are available per game at PF and C. Dwight played 36 minutes per game last year at center. I see no reason for this to go down. Rashard played 36 minutes per game last year, a whopping 95% of which were at PF (see 82games.com). I DO expect his minutes to weigh more towards SF next year than previously, but still, the Magic success, ESPECIALLY against Cleveland, was because of their ability to play Rashard at PF, and I expect it to take soem time to get away from that. Say he still gets 36 minutes per game, but now only 65% at PF - that's 23 minutes. That's 59 minutes, leaving 37 minutes for backups. At most, if split evenly, Gortat and Bass will get 18-20 minutes per game. And while the whole hot-shooting negative aspect of their team makes sense - you can't rely on hot shooting all year long, the fact of the matter is, they basically did last year...it's just it wasn't hot shooting, it was their style of play. They definitely needed to get more frontcourt help - which they could have achieved by either signing Bass or signing Gortat (and playing him more than the 12 mpg he got last year). By signing both, losing Hedo and Courtney Lee for Vince Carter, they are almost forced to change their style a bit. IMO, the reason they made the Finals was because of their style. Why try and be more like the Cavs (who will be even more prone to use a half-court, beat em up with big, bulky, somewhat less athletic big men) or Celtics (with their impressive front-court when healthy) when you just beat both teams in route to a Finals appearance because of the style of ball you play? Personally, much less GM of the Year, I think Smith has made his team worse while taking on some strange salaries. The only way I see the team getting better is by Dwight taking the next step, which may happen, or may not. I view their offseason moves as such: Added a lot of long-term salary while changing the style of ball the team will play and ending up with a weaker bench. On the plus side, as has been noted, and could turn out to happen, if Dwight gets even a bit better, if the new style of play works, if Vince's explosive game is a better fit than Hedo's point-forward big 4th quarter game, if everyone stays healthy...well, they could win a championship.
I think Orlando's chances to win a championship depend quite a bit on Jameer Nelson and whether he can play like an All Star again. I thought that the main weakness of the Magic was that they were deficient in perimeter creating and scoring in the finals last year. With Howard not a go to post scorer having a solid perimeter presence is important for them and Hedo alone wasn't enough, and I don't think Vince at this point in his career will be sufficiently good by himself to compensate for the perimeter guys they lost (Turkoglu, Lee, Alston). They need Nelson to play like he did in the regular season last year.
