Orlando Magic Blog

Group Blog talking about the NBA 2009 Eastern Conference Champions. Due to the amazing success of the 2009 playoff run comments are now frequently deleted to kill offensive comments, incoherence, or asininity. Comments can no longer be anonymous and require either a Blogger or OpenID account.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

The Blog's Temperature

I've spent a week on the road driving through Ohio and didn't think it could be more depressing. It's cold and snowy here, and it's unhappy and blue on this blog.

When I started posting on the Sentinel chat area last summer I was very negative on the organization and its total lack of preparation for this year. I'm unhappy to say that I was accurate in that assessment.

My gripe all along was the lack of professional basketball management employed by the team. That leads to a lack of vision of what the team intends to accomplish and it leads to hiring one cast-off coach after another without a plan. From Hockey Guy to Co-GM's. Brian Hill's return for no good reason -- he is such a loser without Shaq & Penny.

There are a few slivers of hope that can come from this season:

1. They lose enough to "earn" a top 5 selection. Magic history in the top 5 includes: D. Scott, Shaq, Chris Webber, Mike Miller & D. Howard. I'm tired but can only really think of Nelson & Anderson as decent picks outside of the top 5.

2. Howard makes the All-Star team which boosts his confidence and continues his growth.

3. A valuable trade -- the kind where the Magic wind up with the best player in the deal. Someone help me here and show me where in the Magic's history this has happened. (I'm tired)

4. A salary dump. -- Latest Francis rumor said the Knicks would take Francis for Hardaway. I would love this, especially if they activated Penny just to annoy Hill.

5. They actually hire a basketball president with a clue. Or how 'bout this one. Get G. Hill to retire and hire him to try and fill the Joe Dumars role on the team. Get a salary dump and someone who has a 50/50 shot of having a clue to run the team.

6. Team sold.

The playoffs seem pretty far away to dream about at the moment. They would likely need to go at least 21-15 to earn a thrashing from Detroit.

Back to the road...

6 Comments:

  • At 5:58 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    WeRDevos, thanks for trying while being tired. Just one note; losing enough to make a top 5 pick is not an option. I rather try and miss playoff by a couple of games than losing what is left of the fan base. Please see my earlier posting under "Road Ahead for the Magic".

     
  • At 8:38 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    WeRDevos, I was looking at your post last month of the all-time Magic transactions. Since the year 2000, the only trade that I can see where the Magic definitely got the best player was in Feb 2004, when the Magic traded Gordan Giricek to Utah for Deshawn Stevenson.

    Their stats today: Giricek-- 10.6 ppg on 43% shooting and less than 2 rebs and assists per game. Stevenson-- 12 ppg on 46.4% shooting and 3.2 rebs per game. Plus, he's a much better defender than Giricek.

    In Feb of 2000, the Magic obtained Chauncey Billups and 2 other players from Denver in exchange for Tariq Abdul-Wahid and Chris Gatling. But Billups went on the injured list shortly after we traded for him, and never played a game for the Magic. The Magic aren't the only team who gave up on him... he actually played for 4 teams (BOS, TOR, DEN, and MIN) before finding a home in Detroit.

     
  • At 9:18 PM, Blogger WeRDevos said…

    Mike,

    I'll give you Giricek for Stevenson, with the caveat that Stevenson did not start to produce meaningful minutes until this year. And I'm not real confident he won't force his way out of Orlando and into a long term contract after this year. Next year is a player option for him.

     
  • At 9:34 PM, Blogger WeRDevos said…

    Matt,

    I disagree. The fan base is not sticking around for the 10th straight year of not winning a playoff series. At least with a big salary dump and a high draft choice there would be hope.

    By the way, I watched the Cleveland Milwaukee game 2 nights ago. I like Battie, but he wasn't worth Gooden and Varejo, both of whom looked good.

    Last ten non-top 5 picks:

    2005 Spanish Guy (I won't say his name any other way...
    2004 Nelson (not really a Magic pick, but a trade from Denver.)
    2003 Reece Gaines
    2002 Curtis Borchardt -- out of the league
    2001 Steven Hunter
    2001 Jerryl Sasser
    1998 Michael Doleac
    1998 Keyon Clark
    1998 Matt Harpring
    1997 Johnny Taylor
    1996 Brian Evans
    1995 David Vaugn
    1994 Brooks Thompson

    '98 was a decent draft class. Harpring was drafted 15th and was a good to very good NBA player for a number of years, only played 54 games in 2 years for the Magic.

    Keyon Clark was a good, if goofy, NBA player but was immediately traded to Denver for ?

    Michael Doleac is a serviceable NBA player. Played with the Magic for 3 years. 10 years, 13 players, and Doleac contributed the most of the first round picks that were picked later than 5th overall.

    That hurts.

     
  • At 2:35 AM, Blogger Ken said…

    Thanks for the "slivers of hope " WRD... We can always use them. I realize it had to be difficult, especially while drive through, of all places, Ohio. Bleh.

     
  • At 9:32 AM, Blogger Matt said…

    I checked the pulse of the fan base through the survey that I had conducted. In my view, they can temporarily put up with a Heart & Hustle type of team even if they don't make to the playoffs with the bright hope for the next season. However, if they take a nose dive towards the end of the season they will lose a lot of fans and, as you know well, when you lose them it's hard to win them back.

    As for the salary dump, you are absolutely right provided they use the freed money to go after good free agents. I am not sure that would be the case, and if I am wrong, I don't trust the front office to spend it wisely. With a badly lost season, there is also the danger of not being able to attract good free agents.

     

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