Sports Illustrated: Rockets offer to Magic was much lower than reported

LOL at this, I still can't comprehend how little the Magic got for a top 5 player. I mean no true prospects, lotto picks, nothing. Even if we were to do a 3 way and end up with Bynum, we still would've blown away any other offer they were getting....just mind boggling

 

Exactly. And the posters that kept harping on the point about how much leverage Morey has all ignored, or refused to acknowledge possible stupidity on the Magic's side.

And stupidity on the Magic's side is exactly what happened.

 

I expect Washington and Broolkyn to be better than Toronto. The only play-off team from last season that I think will be as bad or worse will be Orlando. Why?

The Nets - Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries and Brook Lopez
The Wizards - John Wall, Bradley Beal, Trevor Ariza, Nena and Omeka Okafor

The only teams from the west that I expect to be worse than Toronto are Sacramento and New Orleans and possibly Houston.

A big part of the reason for my thinking on Toronto is because they will likely have two rookies in the starting line-up Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross. I think Valanciunas is going to be a really good defender at some point but I think his lack of offensive skills are really going to hurt, plus rookie centers usually get rookie treatment from the refs.

So as I see it only 6 teams are likely to be as bad or worse than Toronto (Sac, NO, Hou, Cle, Cha, Orl)

Toronto starting 5: Kyle Lowry, Terrence Ross, Landry Fields, Andrea Bargnani and Jonas Valanciunas.

Their best offensive option in that group is a 7 footer that only shoots 45% from the field and Kyle Lowry or a rookie. That team's best defender is Kyle Lowry with the hope that Valanciunas becomes the a stud defender at some point. Personally I think Houstons starting 5 is much more promissing. Regardless, depending on that many rookies or even if they start DeRozan instead of Ross, that team is not going to win many games IMO. Having said that, I think they have some great peices to grow with but they just are not close to being ready IMO. I think the Raptors are just as likely to get the top pick in the draft as making the play-offs. I will be slightly shocked of they are not one of the 10 worst teams in the league.

 

10 pages of drivel now. Here's my thoughts:


GIFSoup

 

GIFSoup

 

GIFSoup

 

Dude... http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=7073077&postcount=14

 

it's likely i'm being a Kleiza homer after the Olympics.
But i just like them. Kleiza looked fully healthy in the Olympics, and he was becoming one of the most important Raptors players before knee injuries shut him down a year ago.

If he's fully back to how he played before the surgery, he's a perfect fit at wing for their new tough, defensive system.
And Terrence Ross looks like a solid shooter and defender in camps, if nothing more.

Their success might not depend on DeRozan anymore.
Which was my big issue with them at the time of the trade.
I can't like a "defensive" team where two "veteran starters" are soft or don't care.......... the single veteran defender is a newcomer and the smallest guy on the floor.............. and the other two starters are rookies who can't be expected to lead the team on defense when main "leaders" slack off.

But this team just makes sense for me atm. They are now Bargnani + a ton of toughness, energy, defense and veteran leadership everywhere else.
And they added Lucas-3 from the Bulls, another tough defensive minded little guy. The pieces simply seem to make sense now.

 

But do you see Afflalo as an NBA starter?

I think he's a viable starter at the wing spot. I don't think he's a star, but hey, funnier things have happened. What the Magic are doing here is locking away an above average wing who has the potential to be a good defender (should he set his mind to it), for 4 years.
I suppose they figure to add the 'real' pieces via a max contract in 2013, or via a high draft pick in 2013 or both.

For me it's a bit short sighted, and probably not a viable strategy (summer of 2013 will tell the story I suppose). If they had pursued "double max space" in their salary cap, they probably could've steamrolled OKC by offering the max to both Harden and Ibaka, forcing OKC to choose one or the other (or both and be in tax mega-hell).
When it's hard to get a superstar, it's really worth taking a massive gamble like that - even if you "only" end up with Ibaka out of it.

They also had a really great chance to tank REALLY HARD by playing all rookie scale contracts over the next 2 seasons, since the Gilbert amnesty would've kept them up there near minimum league salary anyway.....


Afflalo better work out to be REALLY good.....

 

This...

 

Jeremy Lamb and Donatas Motiejunas might have been the difference. This excites me that Morey values these 2 rookies specifically so much so that we passed on Dwight *****ing Howard.

 

again Morey didn't pass on D12. ORL passed on Houston's offer even without Lamb and Donuts was still better than what they got