Gordon/Ibaka/Vucevic Front court could be scary. Payton/Hezonja/Gordon/Ibaka/Vucevic starting five could be well balanced.
I don't KNOW anything, but in my opinion, Sabonis is mediocre and would have been a late 1st round pick if it weren't for his last name. I saw him get outworked by inferior competition too many times.
Yeah, in the eye of the beholder I guess. I do remember this game pretty well. http://www.sbnation.com/2016/3/21/11274376/donatas-sabonis-gonzaga-basketball-nba-draft-jakob-poeltl-ncaa-tournament-2016 Definitely doesn't replace Ibaka by any means. But I do think he helps their bench.
Haven't watched a ton of the Magic but wouldn't a better lineup be: Elfrid Fournier Hezonja Ibaka Vucevic With Gordon coming in off the bench to play 3 or 4 depending on the matchups. As I understand it, Hezonja doesn't have good enough lateral movement to be a guard, and Gordon probably isn't good enough to be a starting 3 yet on a playoff-bound team.
Hennigan should be lynched for making this trade. Terrible for Orlando. OKC keeps getting better with Oledipo and Ersan; if they bring back KD i put them right there with GS and the Cavs.
Why? OKC just got better, Oladipo is a seriously good piece and Sabonis allows them to roll over their talent. Honestly they didn't have a choice, Ibaka was getting overshadowed and outworked by Steven Adams and clearly wasn't happy, it was better to trade him now than lose him for nothing (or at a steep discount) later. I think it was a very smart move by OKC, it might backfire and cause KD to leave but then again its better to get what you can now rather than put yourself in the mercy of KD, Ibaka and WB isn't enough to even make the playoffs we saw that when KD went down.
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-version="7" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);"><div style="padding:8px;"> <div style=" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50.0% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;"> <div style=" background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;"></div></div> <p style=" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BHCydszhz5S/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Time flies. 7 years in Oklahoma City, a place where I grew up, became the player I am today, competed with a great team and made great friends. A place I can call home. Thank you state of Oklahoma and your wonderful people. Thank you @okcthunder, staff, employees, teammates and fans. You will be in my heart forever.</a></p> <p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;">A photo posted by Serge Ibaka (@sergeibaka9) on <time style=" font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px;" datetime="2016-06-24T16:15:27+00:00">Jun 24, 2016 at 9:15am PDT</time></p></div></blockquote> <script async defer src="//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js"></script>
Lol Luis Scola was not much of an Above the Rim player either but he got it done. Not suggesting anythign but there are other ways.
I think the worst case scenario is that they gave up a really good player in Sabonis. I know, I know...many players in the draft don't live up to the hype. But they are a team that really should not be in a rush to compete. They had time to see who they drafted and see his upside. This seems like a move closer to contending makes. I think that poster is mostly a troll any ways. As for Oladipo I can understand why they got rid of him. I see him too like Ibaka. A really great role player but his defense is average and yeah I think he came into the NBA projected to be a better defender than he is now. I do think the Magic probably could have gotten more for him but I guess it depends on what they are looking for. You mentioned in the thread about Parsons and I guess I can see them picking him up and making a run for the playoffs which they have to now just to get Ibaka to resign. And now they have to throw a lot of money at Fournier. I don't know, I just feel this was a bad trade for them, they should have stopped at Oladipo. For the Thunder this could work out but defensively they did not get better. They lost a big man that blocks a ton of shots and has a really good presence in the paint. So now their only good paint defender is Steven Adams. All while according to reports they have no idea what Durant thinks about this.
As I previously noted, great trade for the Thunder from a simple value standpoint. One would have expected Oladipo + lotto pick would have netted more in return. Having slept on it, there's definitely risk to the move. More than I thought initially. Ibaka seems to have declined... but he was still a super valuable player and super super solid defensively. Oladipo IS a good defender, but Roberson isn't bad either. The Thunder are trading big man defense, lateral movement and size, for more offense, generally. Again, yes, Oladipo IS a good defender, but in today's NBA, he's going to be picked off his guy just like everyone else. And who will be that big that has to switch now. Kanter? And I DEFINITELY think Kanter deserved more PT, but he's still a relative disaster defensively. The formula in today's NBA seems to be great offensive backcourts paired with great, athletic, defensive frontcourts, that can help offensively, but more than anything else are capable of switching and moving laterally defensively, and understand how to move the ball in an offensive system. The Thunder seem to have gone away from that a bit. They already had the great offensive backcourt/wing players. They're overloading on that side. Perhaps a move recognizing that KD might not be there. So the risk is in roster balance.
Who? I'd take Ibaka over Aldridge at this point. Aldridge played like a p***y in the paint this post season. Griffin has the injury bug for the rest of his career from this point on. Ibaka is something special. They have to pay him summer of 2017 but the cap space is going to top over 100 million by them, so why does it matter?
If Gordon isn't good enough and you have him come off the bench when he will get the pt and experience needed? Now it will be his third year. He does have superstar potential. The most out of all the Magic players imo. A lot of people think he should even develop to be a small ball 5, he's extremely versatile defensively with elite athleticism and a good passer with some handles, and working on his shot. I mean..it wouldn't surprise me if that happened but it would be a shame and a waste. If the Magic needs to focus on someone to develop most of all it's Gordon and then later after that Hezonja. But with Payton there it limits a lot of the things the Magic could do because he doesn't offer scoring or spacing. That's the problem the Magic had. Because of too many lottery picks and raw players with great potential they struggled to find pt for all of them and then when the time is coming to pay them they can't. They dumped Harris and now Dipo. Even if this traded didn't happen they wouldn't be able to keep all their talent. It's not Henny's fault. It's the owners. They are the ones who are too tired of losing and impatient to win now even if they are wasting assets left and right. It started from last year. The hiring of Skiles who was the owner very good friend, and the trading of Harris. Henny on his own when he had freedom he was a great drafter and had done good trades. They got Fournier and Harris for basically free and got Vuc in a bargain contract. He was one of the first who recognised Porzingis talent a year before everyone else and wanted to draft him. He didn't hire good coaches but the best tank commanders. Perhaps that was his main mistake because while they ended up with high lottery picks it cost in player development and developing bad habits.
Nobody really pointed out why was Ibaka expandable: he didn't score much when it mattered. He was missing threes for the second straight year in the playoffs, now. He was good in regular season, but in games 5, 6, 7 against GSW he was throwing bricks. I know it's not entirely his fault as superstar duo panicked and went solo, which resulted to other players not getting many touches. But if he would hit just a one or two more threes when he was wide open..
