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.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

The latest on Hedo Turkoglu and Marcin Gortat

Here are excerpts from an article Saturday night from the Orlando Sentinel's Brian Schmitz regarding Hedo Turkoglu, and also Marcin Gortat:

The Magic are braced to lose Turkoglu, the 6-10 small forward who apparently --- and we now stress apparently --- has agreed to sign with the Toronto Raptors after jilting the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday.

Various media outlets had reported that Turk had agreed to sign with the Trail Blazers. But the romance unraveled after the Raptors committed to make moves to give him more money, reports indicating that the deal will be more than $50 million over five years.

Turkoglu's might not be signed on Wednesday, considering the Raptors might want to trade players to receive compensation instead of renouncing their rights. And that could take a while.

The Magic are prepared to close their five-year history with Turkoglu. General Manager Otis Smith told the Sentinel late Friday that the team would not be involved in a sign-and-trade with the Raptors in order to receive compensation for Turk.

Smith said Saturday that he didn't expect to receive an offer sheet from another team until Wednesday for center Marcin Gortat, who apparently has committed to sign with the Dallas Mavericks. "No, I will not until signing day," Smith said, adding, "if it's true."

Orlando has the right to match any offer because Gortat is a free agent, but Smith has said that the club likely will pass if the offer climbs above $5 million per season.

Reports indicate that the Mavs are offering Gortat --- a 6 foot 11 second-year player out of Poland --- $5.8 million to start his contract.

Smith is hoping that the Magic's emergence as a contender can work as a tiebreaker in competing with other teams for players. "I think we have an attractive situation here," he said.

The Magic will be going into the tax, perhaps as much as $10 million.

Smith's top priority is find a big man after losing Tony Battie in the Vince Carter trade and, apparently, Gortat. Smith has contacted the agents for power forward Rasheed Wallace and Brandon Bass, but is no hurry to sign players. "There's more players than money," Smith said.

21 Comments:

  • At 8:47 AM, Blogger Matt said…

    "There's more players than money," Additionally, there is the report of not matching any offer over 5 mil. First, I don't understand such a broad statement. Second, why would anybody set a self-imposed cap at 5 mil? Please note the following:

    Fact # 1. Big men are hard to come by.
    Fact # 2. Gortat played well and proved valuable as a back up for Dwight.
    Fact # 3. The Magic is thin on the frontline, and they probably need 2 or 3 versatile big men (Gortat included in the count).

    Additionally, with Hedo gone they cannot play Rashsrd at PF and expect the same mismatch advantages when the two were filling in SF and PF positions. I am saying that a combination of Rashard and MP (at PF and SF) would not be the same mainly because of the ball handling skill of Hedo.

    I pointed out the pros and cons of the trade for Vince Carter concluding that the move adds value with the caveat that the future moves consolidate the frontline position. If not the added value would be offset by a weaker frontline which may diminish Dwight's productivity. That is true as the East rivals have, or attempting to have, upgraded their frontlines, and also in light of the NBA finals proving that the series was lost at the PF combination of Gasol and Odom.

    "There's more players than money,"???!!! There is your outstanding GM worthy of executive of the year award. He would have been better off not to have commented at all. That sentence, if correctly structured, should read "There are ...".

     
  • At 10:21 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    W/O Gortat and Turk, the Magic are taking a step back. They are way too thin on the front line. Please don't sign Rasheed wallace! He's old and definitely not a character person!

     
  • At 9:05 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Matt, I agree with what you say about the Magic being too thin on the frontline now, which would offset any benefit from having Vince Carter at SG.

    I'm sure Otis Smith realizes this too, especially with him saying that the Magic aren't going to match any offer over $5 million that Gortat gets.

    There's still time to pick up a quality big man... let's see what Otis has in mind, knowing the Magic are so weak in that area right now.

     
  • At 9:07 PM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    I have my concerns about Rasheed Wallace if the Magic sign him. Like "Anonymous" mentioned, there are questions about his character, and also his age.

     
  • At 9:35 PM, Blogger WeRDevos said…

    ESPN reports Sheed signing with Boston.

     
  • At 12:35 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    I wonder just how much Rasheed Wallace is going to help the Celtics.

    He's going to be 35 years old in September; in the Pistons' embarrassing four game exit from the playoffs against Cleveland this past season, he averaged just 6.5 ppg on 36.7% shooting along with 6.3 rebounds in those four games.

    Quite a comedown from his 12.0 ppg on 41.9% shooting along with 7.4 rebounds that he averaged during the regular season.

     
  • At 9:18 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    I'm happy that rasheed is now stuck on the celtics bench. Now we shouldnt have any problems beating detroit with billups and sheed gone. Its truely now a three team race to the eastern final and i like the magic over boston and cleveland starter for starter. Both teams have guys in the starting line-up that we were able to completely shut down and that hasnt changed yet so i still have to favor the magic as the top team in the east. The magic HAVE up graded their starting line-up with the addition of VC and rashard moving over to the three,almost doesnt even matter who the starting PF is because this line-up will be tougher,bigger and no longer finesse oriented.

     
  • At 10:25 AM, Blogger Matt said…

    We have to be realistic. A Boston team with KG back (at whatever capacity), and Rasheed Wallace added (again at whatever capacity) would be tougher than their last year's play-offs line up. Say what you will, but Shaq is a bona fide 15-20 points and 8-10 rebound player, and that is an upgrade for CLE.

    In comparison, we lost a play-maker and a dependable C/PF and most probably will lose another dependable back up center. Magic's success was in great part due to Dwight's dominance, but he cannot operate effectively and efficiently with a disassembled frontline. In fact, Magic needs not one but two frontline players. That is a must considering that both BOS and Cleveland's frontlines have been upgraded. We also need attention to frontline since we should have our eyes on the championship, and not just coming out of the East.

    Considering the aforementioned, I am questioning Magic brass's approach (since I consider light weight GM just a follower of the orders received) to:

    1 - Setting a self-imposed cap on signing Gortat. Who is to say that Gortat is worth 5 mil and not 5.1 mil? In fact, if somebody is willing to pay more for Gortat that would set a new market value for him.
    2 - How far are they willing to go over the salary cap? They cannot shoot for the stars by trading for Vince Carter, and then stupidly gut out the frontline thus risking to diminish the performance of their super-star center.

    As you all know, I am not a "wait and see" type of person especially when I don't trust the judgment calls of the management. They need to make sense in every step that they take, and be transparent about it.

     
  • At 10:35 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Some would say "now the celtics have both the guys who defend dwight the best" and i would agree with that statement. But lets look at it from dwight's perspective,you think superman is gonna back down from a challenege? (1)Now both the guys who defend him the best are on one team cutting down the amount of match-ups per season. (2)At some point dwight will figure out a way to be successful against wallace (he's had good games against garnett),if thats the case how much does having rasheed on your bench really help you?

     
  • At 10:40 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Matt,do you think gortat as a back-up center is worth our whole MLE? Just wondering what your opinion is there.

     
  • At 10:55 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Everybody in the world is now gonna put all the pressure right back on boston to return to glory,i love it. Sheed is the savior...LOL. Lets be honest,ray ray sucked against the magic basically and he had a rookie guarding him. We showed that if you force paul left he's way less effective,his best shot was one dribble right and pull up all series. Rondo as much as he has improved will never be clutch,and his relationship with doc rivers seems to be getting worse. At the same time their frontline isnt so great as some would make it seem,they lost powe and if they lose big baby (which it looks like they will)all they will have is KG,wallace and perkins. I think the celtics time is over,its our time now. We'll be bigger,tougher and stronger.

     
  • At 11:09 AM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    I completely agree about needing two quality Big's though. At least one starting PF and probably one back-up center. I beleive ryan anderson is gonna be a pleasant surprise at back-up PF for us so we only need a starter there,i like antonio mcdyess because he's proven,gritty and experienced. And losing gortat is not that big a deal as long as we sign a back-up who is also proven,lets remember we have an all-star at that position. Zaza would be great as a back-up and come alot cheaper right now.

     
  • At 3:06 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    Big Figure:

    In my view, Gortat is worth whatever value the market puts on him shown through an offer tendered by a team, but to answer your question, I personally think he is worth more than just the MLE. My problem is when somebody sets a self-imposed cap; to what purpose? Discourage others from tendering an offer because they may have to go through with it? How foolish is that? This is not a poker game. Nobody makes a multi-million dollar offer thinking that somebody may match it and they will be relieved. What if they don't despite announcing so? Obviously they will be stuck with a multi-million dollar deal that they did not intend to go through with.

    As for Ray Allen, he is a pure shooter and I have no doubt that he will come back making those clutch shots that he is so used to making. He just had some off time; that's all.

     
  • At 3:55 PM, Blogger Big Figure said…

    Got you matt. I personally cant see paying that kinda money for a guy who is gonna play minimal minutes behind an all-star. I agree that gortat is worth the money so its in my opinion that its time for him to cash in and go. Otis will find the same production for a fraction of the cost,the player only has to play 10-12 minutes behind the best center in the league.

     
  • At 3:12 AM, Blogger Mike from Illinois said…

    Otis Smith's latest comments about Marcin Gortat, courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel's Josh Robbins:

    "I have to round out the roster, that goes without saying, but I'm not so sure that you feel any more pressure to (re-sign Gortat). I mean, he's still playing behind my best player. I'd like to have him back at a number that's reasonable."

     
  • At 12:23 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    Who is to say what is a reasonable number? If one needs something or somebody then the market decides the value. I have always been fascinated by Australian real estate market whereby 80% of real estate properties are sold through auction.

    Otis Smith is best served to keep quiet and go to work. The more he speaks the more he shows that he is a gutless/low weight GM who just follows orders, and not necessarily smart ones, as evident in Magic's history.

     
  • At 8:53 AM, Blogger Richard Marquette, PA said…

    Perhaps everyone is forgetting, the magic hold most of the cards when it comes to Marcin. Other teams are basically trying to pay more than the magic will be willing to match.. If I'm Otis (who based on team performance and expectations has become one of the best gm's in the league)- I'm trying to set the bar as LOW as possible without being seen as intentionally misleading.

    What he says makes sense. Our backup center will only be that- a backup.. That's what happens when you play behind the best big man in the league (and most likely why Marcin picked Dallas over Houston- for playing time!).. To overpay for that position is not a good idea, and the skill sets of D12 and Marcin don't currently make them very compatible to share time (and more importantly space on the floor)..

    With all that being said- I hope the Magic do resign him. I'm hopeful they'll only have to match a 4 year offer of around $5.9 million per year.

    He'll be a very expensive insurance policy- but would be great to have. Then it's simply up to Stan to get Marcin to buy into reduced playing time and a backup role again. That could be the hardest part of the entire transaction!

     
  • At 2:52 PM, Blogger Matt said…

    Folks:

    Let's stay away from meaningless cliches. Here are the facts:

    Fact # 1 - We are currently thin on the frontline.
    Fact # 2 - Our success depends on our super-star center's performance which requires providing him with adequate back-up.
    Fact # 3 - As it stands, the back-up center may have to do dual duty of filling in as back-up PF, as well.

    The fact that Gortat was, and may still be, a back-up to arguably the best center in the league means nothing unless we are willing to establish a pay schedule for starting and back-up players. Teams fill in gaps in their rosters based on their needs, and the norm is that they pay market value for players. Exceptionally, they may find players who are willing to get paid less to play on top teams. Occasionally, there are back-ups who get paid more than starters.

    There are not many quality big men out there, especially in center position. A couple are available in PF position, most notably McDyess who probably is not gonna sign for MLE. I agree that Magic is in control when it comes to Gortat but I don't understand Smith's posturing. I personally believe he will be best served to keep quiet.

     
  • At 9:28 PM, Blogger Unknown said…

    Ottis is the same gm that got the magic through loosing Jameer to injury remember the Rafer Alston acquisition i rest my case

     
  • At 4:05 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I think most of the Orlando fans are still not aware of what they have lost.Hedo was the man who made Howard Number 1 player of OM.Hedo was the guy who helped the 2 playmakers to fullfill the place of Jameer Nelson after his injury.And he wanted to stay at Orlando.But Orlando Magic Management has made a transfer which meant that they did not want Hedo anymore.He is such a valuable player that even when he goes to Toronto,this helps OM for their tax situation.

    In the end,if you compare 53 million US Dollars with 36 million US Dollars,there are 17 million US Dollars different,am I right?So which one of the Orlando fans could have paid this 17 million US Dollars to Hedo?Don't they make their advertisements all around the world as NBA is a PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL LEAUGUE?So,Hedo behaves exactly as a professional basketball player must behave.If your team does not want you and does not give you what you really deserve,then you must go to a team which really wants you and which really gives you what you really deserve.

    My final opinion is that,if OM would have suggested Hedo 45-46 million US Dollars and not make that transfer which means as a replacement of Hedo,I am 100% sure that Hedo would have stayed at OM.

     
  • At 6:45 PM, Anonymous بناتي said…

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