[SI] - Orlando Preview

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/basketball/nba/10/11/state.magic/index.html

This article absolutely rips Francis, Mobley, and Cato apart. Unbelievable. Francis and Cat wern't prefect, but they didn't suck as bad as this either...

By Kelly Dwyer, Special to SI.com
Orlando Magic

This is going from bad to worse.

After a three-season run in the Eastern Conference's playoff picture, the Magic stumbled out into last season with a 1-19 record, a mark largely created through a combination of bad breaks (Grant Hill, again) and poor personnel decisions (Tyronn Lue, etc.). Not surprisingly, Coach Doc Rivers and general manager John Gabriel were dismissed. With the Magic in freefall, it seemed like a good time to blow things up and start anew. So in comes John Weisbrod, Harvard graduate, former pro (hockey) athlete and a veteran of the Magic system. Good choice, right?

The early returns aren't promising.

Weisbrod began by engaging in a pathetic war of words with franchise player Tracy McGrady, a local product who happened to lead the league in scoring two straight years. He retained the coach -- Johnny Davis -- who led the squad to a 20-51 record in his 71-game tenure. He drafted an 18-year-old with the first pick in the 2004 NBA Draft. The 19-year-old "future" center was left unprotected in the expansion draft. And he jettisoned his three best players (McGrady, Drew Gooden, and Juwan Howard) across the league for a series of individuals who weren't especially loved on their former teams.

Debuts rarely come this inauspicious. In a fit of misplaced ambition, Weisbrod has already established that he can be talked into one-sided trades (twice in one summer), that he won't stand up to or for his franchise player and that he doesn't think twice of mortgaging his team's financial future. The Magic will win more games and play a more competitive brand of basketball in '04-05, but their future is just as uncertain as it was when Gabriel was running things.

While Weisbrod's moves have done little to reverse Orlando's slide, make no mistake, the Magic's struggles predate Weisbrod's arrival.

This was a mind-numbingly bad defensive team last year, and McGrady was at the forefront. McGrady could not have disappointed more last season. He won a scoring title but he also managed to come through with the most indifferent year on the other side of the ball we've seen in quite a while: arms at his side, watching the seconds click away on the opposite court's 24-second clock. McGrady shut himself down with a few games to go last year, which gave Weisbrod (in his, what, second month on the job?) opportunity to lay into his sensitive superstar.

T-Mac responded with a trade demand, and Weisbrod quickly complied with McGrady's request. The deal set off an entire summer of maxed-out stars asking to be sent elsewhere, essentially transforming McGrady into the Curt Flood of quitters.

As bad as McGrady looks in this situation, he still gets to play with Yao Ming and receive his millions this season. While McGrady undoubtedly would have opted out of the final year of his contract when he became a free agent in 2005, the Magic at least would have opted into some cap relief. Instead, they traded for three players who provide no such relief, including Steve Francis, who is on the books until 2009 (at $16 million). If Weisbrod had shown an ounce of patience, he could have watched the trade offers pour in all summer, or until next February, and made his superstar sweat.
A limited future

The Magic looks like a team that could grow into a 40-game winner in a few years, but with little chance for greatness.

The team took a chance on high-school star Dwight Howard with the first pick in the draft. The Magic feared that they'd seen the best of Emeka Okafor already, and rolled the dice on a youngster who, by most accounts, should have a long NBA career. Howard is an uber-athletic banger who could develop into the All-Star Stromile Swift will never be. Orlando got this one right.

Trading for Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley, however, was a miss. The former Rockets backcourt mates have shown little in their NBA careers besides an ability to pile up points, so long as hefty minutes and plenty of shot attempts are available. But neither does much to help a basketball team, at least one that wants to make the playoffs. Francis can rebound as well as any guard out there, and Mobley at least tries to defend with his 6-foot-4 frame, but they don't make their teammates better and they won't lead this team back to the playoffs. Francis will get his assists but he's hardly a creative playmaker (being able to cross people over to clear room for a jump shot doesn't count), and Mobley just turned 29.

There were rumblings that both Francis and Mobley will thrive in an "up-tempo" system the Magic planned to initiate. Of course, every team has an "up-tempo" system -- until training camp starts. That's when teams find out that you have to defend and rebound in order to sprint the other way, coaches find out that they're not allowed to call plays in transition and the whole idea falls apart by Halloween.
Potential realized or fool's gold?

After waiting multiple seasons for center Kelvin Cato to fulfill his promise as a quality low-post threat, the Rockets banked the renaissance he enjoyed last year and included him in the deal for McGrady. Cato doesn't appear to enjoy playing the game; he rebounds well and makes a difference on D, but what's the point if it only happens for half a game, every other time on the court? Cato has to contain the middle and pull in the rebounds; otherwise that vaunted Johnny Davis up-tempo attack may never come to fruition.

Cato isn't the only player the Magic will be waiting on. Orlando threw close to $40 million at Hedo Turkoglu last summer. Turkoglu isn't a great small forward, but his contract isn't that horrible. He just spends too much time on the perimeter, which is unfortunate for a player his size and with his ball-handling skills. If he's interested, his length will help on defense.
For want of a healthy ankle

Hanging over this team's fortunes, as it has every year since he signed with the team as a free agent in 2000, is the possible return of Grant Hill. In his last attempt ('02-03) Hill looked pretty good for 29 games (14.5 points and seven boards in 29 minutes per night), but the signs of injury were obvious: the man didn't drive to his right (and off his bum left ankle) once. He's been on the shelf since. In a not completely indirect manner, Hill's ankle cost Rivers and Gabriel their jobs, so Hill obviously wants to make this work, which the league and its fans wouldn't mind, either. The Magic, well, they wouldn't mind putting that all-encompassing insurance plan to work.

Weisbrod has said that, above all else, he wants his Magic to compete, to stick it out through even the toughest of blowouts and give their opponents something to think about until the rematch comes around. It's a desire that underlies trades for Tony Battie and DeShawn Stevenson to backup the center and point guard spots. And it's an admirable concept, but it's hard to reconcile the moves he's made, especially when Battie cost Gooden and Steven Hunter while Stevenson arrived in exchange for Gordan Giricek. And that doesn't take into account losing Zaza Pachulia, left unprotected in the expansion draft, an inexplicable mistake considering that brittle Pat Garrity and Michael Bradley will back Howard up at the power forward slot.

The defense will improve this year, but after last season, any personnel shift could have Orlando looking like a better defensive team on paper. They could have signed the remains of Stacey Augmon and it would have made a difference. Luckily, the Magic weren't that desperate.

But it's clear that this team won't go anywhere until they shake the roster up again and build around Howard.

Edits: Did not want to be mean....

 

lol - now I do. Hrmmmmm.

Fixed!

 

I said the ariticle must have been intentionally inflammatory. I have not changed that opinion, but I was trying to be courteous. In hindsight, there was really no reason to edit my opinion - it's not mean or anything.

I think that statements like:

"And he jettisoned his three best players across the league for a series of individuals who weren't especially loved on their former teams."

and

"Mobley at least tries to defend with his 6-foot-4 frame, but they don't make their teammates better and they won't lead this team back to the playoffs."

Are a little unfair.

Edit: I also was excited to use the edit feature for the 1st time. I finally donated.