Orlando Magic face plenty of questions in the NBA offseason

gee Tim, I'm glad ur not our GM. Other than the Jammer fiasco, I beleive Smith will do the right desicion for the team. Unfortunatelly, I don't see Dooling/Arroyo/Redick back in Orlando, and I don't expec big value from them... I saw the PG from UCLA and he is a solid defender... wait a second I'm not talking about Jerryl Sasser <some sarcasm>, however he will fall back under the Nelson fiasco, It will be something to be sorry for him... One bad game, and go deep on the bench, remember Jammer is the future of our franshice <more sarcasm here>

After having Battie and Cook back, and see Gortat development, I see us getting another thin-fast big man, any shotblocker not called Steven Hunter <yup, more sarcasm here>.

Garrity/Foyle/Vazques (aka the eurochicken) can be use as trade filler in order to attract some other player.

IMHO we should not expect a rookie to change our frinshice, unles is a top 10 pick, no college player will move us over the second round... We should go for a PG that can accept the disrespect of been behind Nelson regardless of... just as a safeguard of loosing Dooling/Arroyo. Or have an actual PF/Center combo that can pair with D12... someone that can defend one-on-one and that block and cover the penetration lanes...

enough for now, time to go to sleep.... ;-)
Luis

Looking at the stuff that was put up on Bianchi's blog, people are going to lose their mind when they read this. But for the most part I agree with the gist of the article.

I'm not up on the draft, but I agree that the only way the magic get into the top 10 is by trading Hedo. Considering the Magic's draft history when not picking #1, I'm kinda hoping they leave that idea alone along with Roy Hibbert (are you freakin' kidding me).

As for free agency...if a player who is a pending free agent like Maggette wants to come here then LA is facing a situation of losing that player without compensation. The Magic wouldn't give up Hedo in order to get Maggette in a S&T. I don't know that Orlando does that deal straight up, much less buries themselves in more salary to pull it off.

As for the rest of the free agents listed...why would we want J. Williams, how could he in any way be an upgrade from Dooling. Wait, forget that, why in any circumstance would we want J. Williams again?

I really like the trade for Haslem. I wish they had been able to pry him away from Miami during the season. The only problem is at the price we're offering for him, I think Miami would be inclined to find that similar kind of value from a team not in their conference.

Why would we want Jamaal Tinsley, how's he an upgade in any way from Dooling... Oh wait, you want to give up a young player with a reasonable contract and remaining potential for a perennially injured, half the time benched, never was, veteran...

Nothing like being an armchair GM!

Greg

GIbberish. Making changes to the team to win a championship by going after draft players ain't gonna cut it. What's Timmy smoking and where can I get some?

I thought the Orlando Magic was on probation from the NBA for 3 years for amateur play in a professional market.

How about 2 first round picks, JJ Redick (former #11 pick) and Arroyo for undrafted Haslam? Sounds like a typical deal for the Magic, and any other good franchise we want to deal with. I guess that's the price for having substandard ownership and management all these years.

for someone who covers the Magic, you sure lack in basketball smarts Trade Hedo??? Trade for Tinsley??? I could go on and on. Are you sure that your last name isn't Weisbrod?? I personally think that you must hate the Magic and want to see another downard spiral. Can't the Sentinel send you to cover the Lady Seminoles softball games instead of filling the paper with all of your misguided basketball suggestions??

Why not Artest you pansy?

I dont know what the big hurry you seem to be to trade Turk. Agreed he's the most "tradeable" because he should have been an all-star last year and his salary is so small. But that dosen't make trading him a smart move.(Unless you're the other team giving up nothing to get him) None of the possibilities gets IMO equal value in return and also breaks up our big three (Howard, Lewis and Turk) who seem to play well together and like each other. That's good chemistry that's hard to replace.

The key for the Magic is to get a good quality PF so that Lewis can move to the 3 and Turk move to the 2. Lewis' numbers were down this year 'cause he was constantly matching up with bigger fowards all year. Getting him back to his natural SF position must be a priority this off-season.

While I like watching Nelson play, I have to admit that he will never be the PG we truely need. Unfortunately he's just too small to match up well against the Guards of todays game. Unless he's an assist-to-turnover machine like Nash then it will never be ideal to have his liability on the defensive end. Trading him for Tinsey would be a disaster. I would much rather have Nelson on the floor than a Tinsley that may or may not have some injury or another keeping him off it. Orlando as a whole has had enough of that from Hill over the last seven years.

And BTW, letting Hill leave was a great move on our part. Look at what happened over in Pheniox, he had a decent year but when the play-offs started (the real reason they signed him) he was hurt again. I like Hill, he's a true gentelman of the game, but we just don't need anymore of that dissapointment around here.

I hope the Magic are past trying to make some sort of slam-dunk trade now like they have been going for ever since O'neil left. That almost never works. If you look at teams like the Pistons or the Spurs one of the biggest reasons they are so good is thier chemistry. The play so well togetherbecause the've had the same basic team for 5 6 or even 7 years. They know each other so well and know how to play around each other strengths. That I think that gets lost in all these trade possibilities people throw around. We have a great group of young guys that deserve a chance to grow and develope that kind of chemistry together.

nick collison? r u serious?

the best way to predict a gm's future moves is to look at his past history. which means come october, otis will be spinning his words to mean that the best move was to not make any moves at all. i know joe dumars, and trust me, otis is no joe dumars.

oh well, i'll count on the sentinel to write another nice article about how i rose from a lowly garbageman to become the spouse of a rich woman.

I agree with the previous post. Why would we want to go and bust up the Hedo, Rashard, Dwight trio? The chemistry and trust is there after playing hard this year. We just need to add a PG (with Dooling as the backup) and let Jameer come off the bench as the SG behind Hedo. Then if we can get a big guy to help Dwight we're golden. The big thing is Dwight has to realize that Jameer is not going to be the PG that gets us to the NBA finals/championship. Until we can change that nothing will improve.

I'm sure Smith realizes now he made a mistake with Lewis. He is not worth that contract. Turk is worth more than Lewis but lewis is stuck here forever. Here's to a better next year but this year was sure fun. Cheers to a gutsy magic team

The answer is to trade the deadweight - Arroyo, Reddick, Garrity ect. These fringe players are not going to hurt the team if we lose them. Moving up in the draft is not the answer for a team trying to get to the finals. We need practical free agents with experience who can fill some roles. We need an upgrade to move Lewis to his natural position and we need a serious upgrade at the guard position. I am a fan of Nelson but he could be the 6th man. Artest and Magette sounds good but I don't want to pay to much.

I like a lot of the options Tim listed. I am for the ones that allow us to keep Turk and still improve the team.

Finally a decent article at this website.

Trading Hedo isn't the answer. We have to develop Gortat and Augustine and Battie should be back next season.

If Maggette wants to come here...that would be lovely and would make us a lot better! but how is his defense? can he stop RIP?

I would rather get a big SG to play next to Nelson than trade him. I thought he turned the corner in the Play Offs. I would draft Chris Douglas Roberts for the SG. Then use the midlevel on a PF. Dwight will be a year older and more mature. The future looks very bright to me.

Mickael Pietrus at 6'6" a SF/PF? He's a frikin SG dude.

Well, if you'd like for a supporter like yours truly back in the stands this Fall, here are my recommendations. Turk for Shane or Smith is viable option number 1. Option 2 is to get rid of Nelson.

Come to think of it, I'm more inclined to make a Nelson trade my first option

Please don't suggest that the Magic trade Turk. If his "production vs. cost" is such a good value, we should keep him. It kind of offsets the low "production vs. cost" value of Rashard Lewis.
I agree... we need to move Lewis back to his natural 3 position and Turk should be 6th man like Ginobili in San Antonio.
Also, we want nothing to do with Jamal Tinsley. Bad chemistry + injury prone = flushing money down the toilet.

And forget Najera or Pietrus. No more undersized PFs.

I like the idea of trading JJ and Arroyo for Udonis Haslem. Or working some deal for Shane Battier. Battier is a good NBA citizen and a smart player... a "glue guy" who would have a positive effect on team chemistry.

Mark wrote:

I dont know what the big hurry you seem to be to trade Turk. Agreed he's the most "tradeable" because he should have been an all-star last year and his salary is so small. But that dosen't make trading him a smart move.(Unless you're the other team giving up nothing to get him) None of the possibilities gets IMO equal value in return and also breaks up our big three (Howard, Lewis and Turk) who seem to play well together and like each other. That's good chemistry that's hard to replace.

Exactly... I about fell out of my chair when i read this article. Trade Hedo?? Are you SERIOUS??! Otis Smith, I hope to God that you have more going on in that brain of yours than this sports writer does.