Sounds right to me. Doesn't preclude a deal or deals at all. What it does do is make us seem a little less eager to do a deal, as you point out. End result? Morey steals someone's lunch money. I hope so, anyway. The roster could use a little tinkering by Daryl, in my opinion.
Your argument was never that drummond is a bust or over rated. It has always been boban is better. Boban=brooke Lopez + defense/rebounding. If you want to move the goal posts fine. We will agree he is over rated and disagree he is a bust. What we won't agree on is your original argument that boban is better than drummond
Aaron Gordon is moving back to PF, his experiment as SF was huge failure. Fournier is seeing a lot of time at SG, even starting there. And Hezonja is a bust, in their system anyway.
My argument has ALWAYS been that Drummond was a bust and overrated. All you have to do is search for Drummond and my name.
Change it to Bojan and I'm down. Would probably cost a 2nd but he is a better fit and player than Kj and brewer. Expiring also.
While this is what Orlando wants outside of our draft pick, keep in mind that Ibaka is in the last year of his contract and we can sign him in the offseason and keep Dekker. Orlando knows this, so what is more likely is that Houston would give up a draft pick or take a longer-term contract to make the Magic more willing to take on Brewers contract.
Wish we could have gotten Korver.. not sure who else out there is dropping 3's like that. Or get someone who can rebound a missed 3pt shot. our rebounding blows.
I believe all those moves could be made. Not sure I buy Gordon as a failure or Hezonja as a bust so soon. My opinion on Orlando is the combo of Biyombo & Ibaka has prevented progress. Remove Ibaka & Biyombo & replacing them with Harrell would go a long way. Harrell is not the shot blocker/ rebounder Biyombo is at the moment; but that's not to say he can't become that. Harrell has made tremendous progress in basically 45 games this season. There is still room for improvement while logging in mins at the big league level. I would argue Harrell might be more active than Biyombo (I haven't looked at speed & distance stat) while having greater instincts than Biyombo on the offensive end. Harrell being a fraction of the cost. There would still be room for Aaron Gordon mins at PF with Harrell. Everybody could slide a chair over to the benefit of the players and the team. Jodie Meeks might show improvement with more playing time and greater defined role at SG & SF. I will be honest that I do not know much of Hezonja. I hear he has a bit of an attitude. That could change with more playing time and improved definition of his role with the team. I say Harrell would be preferred by Orlando because of the attempt to fit Biyombo & Ibaka with Vucevic. I'm not sure they are completely ready to abandon that experiment type. Harrell might not be too different than Biyombo; but on the cheap. Magic have time to harness the potential of Harrell. They aren't a threat to beat the Cavs this year & Harrell had a PER of about 20 this year with basically rookie type minutes. I'm cool with Dekker going in the deal.....just think they have enough wing players. Not saying you are; but others may be trying to get Hezonja in the deal to fit some narrative or desire. Orlando improves with addition by subtraction; much like the Rockets this year from the D12 situation of a year ago.
I'm not the one saying the Aaron Gordon experiment at SF is a failure, Orlando is (media and team). If Ibaka is moved, AGordon is the starting PF, those are Vogel's own words. I personally would love AGordon as a SF for Houston. Simply because Ryno is our starting PF and AGordon can defend from 2 to 4. http://www.orlandopinstripedpost.co...-succeeded-failed-small-forward-power-forward Same with Hezonja, he's dropped out of Orlando's rotation. It may be that Vogel doesn't like him or trust him very much. But he's too high of a pick to just give away so soon, IMO anyway, unless the Magic FO agree with or are even behind Hezonja's benching. http://orlandomagicdaily.com/2017/02/01/lack-of-opportunity-stunting-mario-hezonjas-growth/
Thanks for clearing that up. Supplying the links. Their media is as screwed up as their management. They don't know whether to piss, poop or go blind. They look like keystone cops to me. Gordon is competing for the ball on the perimeter with too many people. PG's, SG's, SF's. They need to simplify things like the Bucks did with the Greek Freak. As the article said Gordon would need time on the perimeter w/the ball to improve his skills. Too early to abandon that part of the experiment....imho. I'm just neutral on the matter with no horse in on this race.....just looking it from the Magic's point of view. I wouldn't want another wing with such an abundance of guys that can play 2 & 3. Apparently the Magic are capable of doing anything. Biyombo contract may be unmovable while Hezonja attitude may be unbearable.
Re-posting from the Ibaka thread. All this talk about Ibaka and whether he is the missing piece to a championship run, made me think about what sort of line-up featuring Ibaka would make us a realistic contender. My highly ambitious, Houston-biased proposal is: Trade 1: - Houston gets Ibaka - Orlando gets our 2017 1st, our 2018 2nd, our 2020 2nd, Harrell, KJ and Brewer Trade 2: - Houston gets Millsap and Hardaway Jr - Hawks get Anderson, our 2019 1st, and a 2017 2nd owed to us from Denver or Portland (if needed throw both 2nd round picks in) http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ha2j78o Biggest issue with the above is that I have no clue what is the relative trade value of an expiring 32-yo Millsap vs the 2017 version of Ryan Anderson signed for another 3 years at $20m per year. Maybe the Hawks see Anderson as the better fit. Why Rockets do it: Our playoffs rotation would be Ibaka/Millsap/Ariza/Harden/Bev with Capela/Dekker/Gordon/Hardaway coming off the bench. I think this team would have a decent chance against the Cavs and Warriors. With Ibaka and Millsap our defense becomes top-10, and our bench gets much stronger on both sides of the court. Of course, if it does not work, we lose a lot of picks for the option of overpaying two past-their-prime players. But that's the nature of all-in moves. If it works, we can go over the cap in the summer to extend them, but will have limited room to make any other moves. Why Hawks do it: They are playing well, but are going nowhere. Millsap may flee in the summer. They want to get as much value from him before he leaves. Anderson is a good fit next to Howard, gives the Hawks spacing and outside shooting they lack. The two picks give them the upside to upgrade their wing rotation. Why Orlando does it: Rumours about Ibaka being available have recently come out. The Magic do not seem keen to offer him a long-term deal in the summer. Typical package in those rumours is a young talent and a 1st. If Harrell and a 1st can be bettered by competition (eg Toronto), maybe the two 2nd rounders are enough to seal it for us. 3 picks and Harrell is more than a decent haul for an expiring Ibaka. Orlando can then trade one of Biyombo/Vucevic for a wing or a point guard.
After watching Montrez and how much James and he have so much chemistry, I hope we keep him. He simply produces every time he plays and at that contract, no reason to move him. I don't think our 5 is our weakness. We could definitely use more defense and rebounding from the 4 though.
Love both proposals. Orlando probably waits to the last minute in hopes of topping that offer (1st proposal). I'm not sure they could find a better offer for a soon to be UFA. On basketball-reference.com Harrell PER last year was 14.6 & now 19.6. Ibaka: 15.2, 17.7, 19.0, 19.4, 19.6, 19.6, 16.6, 13.9, & 17.5 (16/17). So you can see why Morey may not want to let go of Harrell and why Orlando would want him. Ibaka has never topped what Harrell has done this year.....& Harrell may be just showing the tip of the iceberg. Biyombo has never topped a PER of 15.2. *Yes i know stats don't tell everything....but they do suggest a possible baseline from which to work with as far as estimates or projections. Oh yeah Biyombo makes $17 mil. I would love Millsap & Hardaway. There is something to the notion that future FA's would dislike the signing of Ryno this past summer, only to trade him during the very same season. It "MAY or MAY NOT" be held against the Rockets. If the Rockets are exciting and fun to watch while players sport great numbers with Bzdelik & D'Antoni.....trade of Ryno so soon may be over-looked. It's that fact that Ryno keeps saying he loves it in Houston that might taint the situation. But, winning tends to overshadow most problems.
While searching for trade rumors I stumbled across a trade proposal posted by a Lakers fan site. Houston gets swaggyP/ajinca Pelicans get mozgov/hou2nd(via por)/lak2nd(2018 via den) Lakers get asik/brewer I like this scenario for Houston because the simple fact we shed brewer and acquire a backup wing and center for the cheap price of a 2nd. For Lakers they explained that it is really just a shuffling of bad contracts. Moving away from misgov and take on the lower salary per and years of the 2 contracts compared to the one. It hinges on pelicans striking out and wanting a different look at Center next to Davis while acquire assets and moving 2 bad contracts/players themselves for one.
I love Swaggy P on this team, but some fans won't appreciate him. and say he's a cancer even though there is nothing to prove that HE was in LA.