I believe Reece Gaines is among the players Orlando left unprotected for the expansion draft. If Charlotte decides to select him, how can Orlando trade him?
Someone needs to confirm that Channel 13 report. I like the deal however. We already figured that T-Mac and Howard would be in the deal. But I like the fact that Declercq and Reece Gaines are thrown in. Gives us a backup center and a guy in Gaines that is young and athletic.
Nothing on their website. I suspect this is bogus, at least at this time, otherwise national media would be all over it.
Your right, Gaines is supposedly one of the players that Orlando left unprotected. However, I'm guessing that any deal for T-Mac will not be made between until the Expansion Draft/NBA Draft is done (at least the deal won't be agreed upon seeing that it can't be official until Stevies BYC ends July 1st). Regardless, Gaines would be a throw in since Declerq takes care of the salary cap issues. But who knows, people in Houston let me know what is said on Channel 13 at 6, this should be the best way to find out if any of this is true or not.
Not sure that Howard will be part of the deal...but just in case...lets examine the acquisition of Howard... A few notes about Howard. There's no way that his performance justifies his large contract. But he's definitely an upgrade to our PF spot. Not the best, but a little better... Here's the comparison...
Yeah, that is what I was thinking. Berman is usually all over breaking news and inside scoops. I suspect that is false since there is nothing on the KTRH website, but I'm not in Houston to confirm, just putting it out there.
I believe Berman was off yesterday and he doesn't work on the weekends. You can bet he is working on the scoop this weekend, though.
usually i hear reports from berman on the weekends as well.. like the roger clemens deal i think.. what do i know though..
i think Horward is worth what he is getting paid. His contract is longer then desirable, but its nowhere near his last contract. Back to the Howard and MoT comparison. Ive really never seen howard play that much, but he seems like he duplicates MoTs production, but may be a better defender. Just wondering does he have the outside jumper MoT has?
You know, the fact that rumors are starting to surface regarding the players asked for by Orlando (Jermaine O'Neal, Francis, Stoudamire) and the word that they are not going to just give McGrady up for nothing tells me that they want more than just a good group of players. They want a NAME to replace McGrady and go with Oakfor. Since we know O'Neal and Stoudamire are untouchable, that makes Francis top of that list. Marion, Johnson, Artest, Harrington, Bender, etc. are all fine players, but Francis has significant marketability to go with his talent. The others do not have that same marketability.
Not sure it's fair comparing a starter to a 6th man. If you adjust numbers per 48 minutes (a dubious practice, I know- but at least as good as comparing a starter to a non-starter. Just take with a grain of salt): Howard Taylor MPG 23 20 RPG 9.5 8.8 APG 2.7 2.4 SPG 0.9 1.0 BPG 0.4 1.1 basically a 3 ppg increase, and 0.7 rpg increase. And a loss of 0.7 bpg. Not as big of a help as it first appeared. but if you compare him to Cato, I think our offensive prospects look much better. Then again, if you compare MoT to Cato offensively, it looks like we would improve almost as much by starting him.. It just seems like we're giving up our defensive PF in exchange for a clone of what we already have, thereby eliminating an option from the spot.
Per 48 minutes (with the caveats mentioned in my previous post), Howard gets 0.7 rebounds more than Taylor, and gets virtually the same steals, and less than half of the blocks. So it's not a given that he will be a more defensive version of MoT. Although maybe JVG can help him in this regard. He is 25 lbs lighter, maybe his stamina will be better.
Jeff - I think many of these rumors are more along the lines of people floating stuff out there and likely not at all representative of what is going down. I imagine you aren't talking about the message board rumors, which are likely just people making stuff up that sounds plausible from what they've heard in the press, but even then - what else is left to go by? There's Peter Vescey, which is akin to a message board rumor. When has anything he said carried much credibility? There's the Orlando press, which is reporting what the team is seeking from each squad. There's the national press, for the most part going off of what Orlando and Indiana management has said. For what it's worth, Orlando management was gushing over Dwight Howard after his workout today; the interviews are on orlandomagic.com. In the end, I think they still take Okafor, but the team and fans are more worried about getting the best group of players, not necessarily the most marketable player. It'd be a plus, yes, but I think there's too much being read on everyone's part into the rumors floating about the Internet. In many cases, it's the deals and players you *don't* hear about that end up getting done. It would not shock me in the least to see that come to fruition here, either.
