I am commenting on a player who rode the bench for about 4 years and then found his niche..... I think Darko is an upgrade over any PF we have so I am all for it.
It's all kinda sad. He is his draft class' version of Kwame Brown. He went as a high pick in the draft, and management (Jordan vs. Larry Brown) expect results quickly. When that doesn't happen, he is traded for basically nothing. Both players have become quasi-productive on their new teams. There is one difference in the two; Brown's confidence is completely shot. Darko luckily only had Larry Brown to deal with and not the greatest basketball player to grace the hardwood. Plus, Darko has had success in his home country, so he has confidence that he can play, hence why he is looking for big bucks. Two 7 foot shot blockers patrolling the paint is a scary thought. Especially two that can play in the high post and low post. A good coach would constantly switch the offense between the posts so the defense can't get into a consistant attack. Obviously its tough to pick up a guy like this after the Swift debacle, but for Swift's price, he wasn't a terrible waste. If we can get Darko for the MLE, then I would be content with the Rocket's summer Yao / Deke / Landry Darko / Hayes / Landry Battier / Wells / Snyder Tmac / Head / Snyder Alston / James / Brooks
The magic are greedy because it's all about howard, Darko doesn't even fit into what they wanna do, Stan vangundy is the same as jeff and the same as riley. Dump it into shaq,dump into Ewing,dump it into howard and everybody else get out the way. Darko would be looked upon to just play defense like haslem and rambis and do the little dirty thing to help howard out. His game will suffer as it always has from detroit now in orlando. He will be desponded on the bench and stan van gundy will looking for the front office to move Darko. Dark for the longevity of his career needs to force himself out of that system because it will stunt his growth and his real abilities will never be seen in the NBA.
This is pure bs. I watched plenty of Magic games and they never ran an offense like this. Why do you think Howard's FGAs were always so low? Beacause of his lack of post-up skills, everyone on the floor BUT Howard would put up shots while he was looked to to get rebounds and putbacks. In this offense, Darko had plenty of touches. As an NBA PF, he is SERVICABLE, nothing more, nothing less.
What orlando magic team did you watch this season. Some quotes afte the season GM Otis Smith likes what Hill has to say. Apart from dropping Rashard Lewis' name, the Sentinel reports that Hill said the Magic would play at a faster pace under his tutelage. Smith has said one of the factors leading to Brian Hill's firing was his slow-paced, grind-it-out offensive strategy.
quotes from orlando magic fans about the slow down no touches offense: Fire Brian Hill, because of him i am not renewing my seasons tickets. Let Darko play facing the basket he does not like posting up that much. he is a way better shooter than Howard. If he consistently makes the open jumper that will open the middle for Dwight so he can dunk the ball because that is all he does. Dwight needs to stay in Orlando and work on his shot and forget about playing for the U.S. this year. Orlando needs him here working on his game. By the way also get rid of Jameer. I was at the game Saturday and if we would of kept Keeyon in the game we would of won at least one game. "Let Darko play facing the basket he does not like posting up that much" You got that right but he is certainly not worth $50 million so I say let him move on. "Dwight so he can dunk the ball because that is all he does" You got that right also!, can not shoot from the outside and cannot make free throws, just dunk the ball
more quotes :The offense is so slow in the half court that the defense gets to prepare the double team on Howard every time he touches the ball. You've got to use more ball reversal with the intention of getting Howard the ball...more picks, more pick and roll with Howard....more
Very true, darko needs to get away from the larry brown's and van gundy's. You have to find the right fit for how you play the game.
Nobody should be talking about systems. Flip Saunders had detroit run a motion offense with plenty of cuts and mid-range jumpers, even from the big men. It was higher tempo and the pistons excelled at it. Everyone's offensive production exploded, with the exception of Ben Wallace. Detroit won 64 games that season because of it. Saunders was supposed to be Darko's savior, one to bring out all his talents where Larry Brown had failed. You know what happened? He got badly outplayed by rookie Jason Maxiel, that's what happened. Two different teams, three vastly different coaches. He's sucked for all of them. Not enough defense for Brown, not enough offense for Flip, just bad all-around for Hill. Let's blame the coaches. Better yet, let's compare him to Jermaine O'Neal. Because the Stromile Swift comparison is way off base.
Darko is the best young PF we can get in this FA class, so I am all for him getting the MLE, but nothing more than that. I hope we won't use our MLE to sign any PF that is in their 30's (Joe Smith, Chris Webber, PJ Brown) even though they still play relatively well last season or so. Otherwise we'd have to pull a trade to get a good starting PF, but this is not easy because the tradable assets we have are limited.
There were too many people playing the same position in Detroit, he wasn't going to ever get a fair shake with wallace and wallace + mcdeyss and then they drafted a rookie who played the same spot. Not enough minutes and oppurtunity to show what you can do with limit playing time or only spot chances to make things happen liek that. Here in houston he would be give a chance because there is a big need to fill that position and the psoitive is taht he would fot perefect with teh sysytem.
I'd love for us to get Channing Frye from Portland and maybe even Rudy Fernandez with him too for a draft pick, Battier, and Sura (well, his contract). This trade with Portland is less likely, but most realistically we should try to sign Darko Milicic to the MLE. If a similar deal were to go down with Portland our line up would be: Yao Frye McGrady Bonzi Alston And if we got Darko: Yao Frye Battier McGrady Alston
My questions are: What teams out there could offer Darko more than the MLE? Then, What teams out there would offer Darko more than the MLE? If there are none, then, Is any team offering the MLE more attractive to Darko than the Rockets? I would think not. He can come here and (A) instantly start, (B) play for a winner, (C) play for a high profile team, and (D) play for a coach who is highly regarded by his fellow Slavs, Vlade and Peja.
Milicic is a decent PF, his upside (big men take longer to come into their own) and the current market situation makes him our best option. I'm willing to take the risk with this guy, it's not like we are going to win a championship any time soon, that's reality folks. Unless McGrady's back suddenly heals or we get a third star player on this team, we are not going anywhere. That's why Milicic is what we need, he has the potential to become the third star.
I doubt Houston could land him for just the MLE, but you never know though. I would think 8-10 teams or so would offer at least that amount. Without a sign and trade I believe the full MLE will be something like roughly 5 years $35.6 million (or roughly around $7 plus million a year) based on early reports of what it will start at this year. Considering some of the contracts for 7 footers out there, that would seem to be too cheap for Darko.
But who has the cap space to offer him more than the MLE? Plus vacancy at PF or C? That's the real question. I agree that someone out there might value Darko at $9 to $10 million a year, but can anyone actually put together an offer like that? A big question is could the Magic really sign and trade him? If they had to take contracts back, wouldn't that #$%* up their ability to offer Lewis max dollars?
