# Magic Off-Season



## Enigma (Jul 16, 2002)

What should the Magic do this off-season in your opinion?

I'd like to see the Magic get rid of some of these soft players. Pat Garrity can, at times, put the ball in the basket. However, he's not worth what we are paying him. If his shot isn't falling, he's of absolutely no use, which was shown during the playoffs. Anything we can get for him would be helpful even if it's just moving up a spot or two in the draft.

I have a new philosophy for our team. Instead of getting offensive players and begging them to play defense, let's get quality defenders and just have them feed off T-Mac, Grant Hill, and Gooden.

A shooter like Hinrich would be nice especially if we do get rid of Garrity, but do we really need more offense? He's decent at defense, but not great. Defense should be the priority. If I had my way with the draft, I'd like to see them draft Sofoklis Schortsianitis. Then acquire a second round pick and take Marcus Banks, and if he's not available, Justin Hamilton.

In free agency, we need to pick up someone who can play center. If we can free up enough room for guys like Jermaine O'Neal or Elton Brand, let's go for it. If not, guys like Olowokandi, P.J. Brown, and Dale Davis should be our priority.

I know that's a lot to ask for, but we need it to get out of the first round.

What do you guys think?


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## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>Enigma</b>!
> What should the Magic do this off-season in your opinion?
> 
> I'd like to see the Magic get rid of some of these soft players. Pat Garrity can, at times, put the ball in the basket. However, he's not worth what we are paying him. If his shot isn't falling, he's of absolutely no use, which was shown during the playoffs. Anything we can get for him would be helpful even if it's just moving up a spot or two in the draft.
> ...


I was originally in favor of drafting Ridnour or Hinrich, but I dont think we should add any more people that could be defensive liabilities. We need tough, somewhat defensive minded players that can hit wide open jumpshots.

As for our draft pick, I am in favor of picking Reece Gaines. He's tall, but unlike Jeryl Sasser, has real PG abilities. Just because of his size he should be a better defender and rebounder than Hinrich or Ridnour. I was getting tired of watching jacque Vaughn, Armstrong, and Whitney getting posted up down low. And Gaines cant be any worse of a shooter or distributor than Vaughn.

As for the rest of the draft, I think we need to get ourselves an early second round pick and try and get lucky on a big man, possibly a foreign one. I wouldn't mind Orlando spending a second round pick on Chris Marcus. At least he has legitimate center size. If he could remain healthy, he could be a big addition. Guys i'd like to see for Orlando in 2nd round -

1 - Chris Marcus
2 - Slavko Vranes 
3 - Uche Nsonwu-Amadi
4 - James Lang 

As for free agency, I think PJ Brown would be the best addition, although he might not be needed with Gooden and Hunter around. I have heard we could make a play for Gilbert Arenas, which I doubt highly, but that would be a great addition, especially for depth, since he can probably play PG and SG for Orlando.

Here is the lineup I would like to see next season.

PG - Arenas/Armstrong/Gaines
SG - Tmac/Giricek
SF - Hill/Garrity
PF - Gooden/Kemp/Jerome Moiso (if team take free agent option)
C - Hunter/Marcus/ other foreign guy we own the rights to

That would be pretty sweet. Maybe play Hill at most 25 mins a game, no matter what the situation. 

But that lineup is only good if a bunch of "ifs" come through, like being able to sign Arenas, Hill being healthy, Chris Marcus staying healthy..


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## robyg1974 (Jul 19, 2002)

*Orlando salary cap-luxury tax situation*

Here are Orlando's 2003-04 guaranteed contracts right now:

T-Mac $13.3 mil
Hill $13.3 mil (UGH)
Gooden $3.0 mil
Garrity $2.2 mil
Giricek $1.5 mil
Hunter $1.4 mil
Sasser $1.0 mil

That's a total of just $35.7 mil.

I believe that Orlando has team options on both Andrew DeClercq AND Horace Grant, which means that Orlando will decline each option, of course, and maintain that $35.7 mil cap number.

This means that Orlando has right around $5 mil under the cap. Unfortunately, this doesn't do them as much good as you think. Why? Because all teams have a $5 mil mid-level exception to play around with. And, just in case you don't know, you don't get a MLE to play around with IF you're under the cap.

What makes matters even worse is IN ORDER for them to be $5 mil under the cap, they have to renounce all of their free agents. This means they have to renounce Darrell Armstrong. This means that if they go get, say, Juwanna Man Howard for $5 mil, they no longer are able to offer Armstrong anything more than the veteran's minimum, and he will get more than the veteran's minimum from SOMEBODY this offseason. Mr. Orlando, Darrell Armstrong, may have played his last game with the Magic, in other words.

However, it does really help that Orlando is under the cap. It means that they don't have to worry about the luxury tax. They can go get a guy for $5 mil and they're STILL at least $10 mil away from exceeding the luxury tax threshold.

So, who should Orlando sign with that $5 mil? First of all, I should respond to some other ideas here. Dale Davis is apparently not a free agent this summer. You cannot afford Gilbert Arenas or Michael Olowokandi, both of whom will get a bit more than the MLE. You certainly cannot even begin to afford either Elton Brand or Jermaine O'Neal. P.J. Brown was mentioned. He will get the full MLE from SOMEBODY, he will be a hot commodity this offseason, but don't you guys need another scorer?

It's pretty obvious that you guys need to get a PF or C with that $5 mil. Here are three possibilities:

Possibility #1: Juwan Howard with the full $5 mil, signed to a longterm deal.

Possibility #2: Keon Clark opts out of his Kings contract, you give him the full $5 mil, you give him a longterm deal.

Possibility #3: You get two players for around $2.5 mil each. Let's say you get either Elden Campbell or Derrick Coleman for $2.5 mil to help you up front, and either Darrell Armstrong or Scottie Pippen with the remaining $2.5 mil to help you in the backcourt.

The rest of your roster would get filled out with minimum salary players. You have six healthy players currently under contract, plus one first round pick, no second round pick. You sign at least one free agent with that $5 mil of cap room. This means that you will need to sign about four players to minimum salary deals. To get an idea of who will be available, feel free to take a look at the post I made on the "Free agents, Trades, and Rumors" page entitled "2003 Free Agent Crop: Who is out there, and how much they'll get" if you want some ideas.

Two of the four players you bring in to fill out your roster could very well be Mario Kasun and Rashard Griffith, two former Orlando second round picks who are currently playing overseas. I have no idea if either one of these dudes is ready at all for the NBA. You guys probably know a lot more than I do. You certainly don't know less than I do, that's for sure.

And who can you get at #14 overall in the 2003 draft? I honestly think that either your coveted C (Chris Kaman) or your coveted PG (Kirk Hinrich) will fall into your lap at this slot. Kaman would be fantastic, obviously--he would start right away for you guys, he would not be expected to score, he would only be expected to rebound, play defense, set picks, etc., at least as a rookie--but so would Hinrich. Either dude would start for Orlando for many, many years, in my opinion. So you'll get somebody pretty helpful in the draft, definitely somebody who will immediately fit into your nine-man rotation.

Nine-man rotation for 2003-04:

1 Tracy McGrady
2 Drew Gooden
3 Gordan Giricek
4 Pat Garrity
5 Draft Pick (Kaman or Hinrich)
6 Big Guy Free Agent (either Howard, Clark, Campbell, or Coleman)
7 Free Agent PG (either Armstrong, Pippen, or a minimum salary guy)
8 Big Guy (either Hunter or a minimum salary guy, e.g., Corie Blount)
9 Either a G or another big guy (depends on who you get get in the draft)

In any event, fellas, don't expect anything out of Grant Hill next year. Do yourselves a big BIG favor and just assume that the guy will never play for you EVER AGAIN. I will be SHOCKED if he ever plays another game for the Magic, I really will, and so should you.

That team up there should probably be better than this past season's team. Indiana should slip in the standings a bit, down to #6 or #7, I think. So should New Orleans--they are losing their entire coaching staff and probably P.J. Brown. Milwaukee continues to rebuild, they'll be lucky to make it back to the playoffs. The rest of the East is mediocre at best. The top three teams in the East next year should AGAIN be:

1 Detroit
2 New Jersey
3 Philly

The #4 and #5 spots are there for Orlando and Boston in some order. And who knows what will happen in Philly, they are certainly not lock for #3. I expect Orlando to move up into the #3-#5 range next season.


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## zerotre (Sep 28, 2002)

excellent post robyg1974 BUT i gota tell you it was very depressing. I can't believe we only have 5 mil to play with? so all of the dumbass trades gabe made to get under the cap basicly didnt do us any good? bo and amare for jud bushler and capspace? gawd dang im pissed now. My only hope this offseason was for gilbert areanes but with only 5 mil i doubt that one will happen. Although we need a pointguard we do NOT need to draft one. There is no points available for us that i like. Hopefully we draft some more size that will be willing to throw their bodies in there. Maybe that kid from greek, baby shaq.................................... Say no to hinrich and ridnour!!!!!!!!!!!


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## grizzoistight (Jul 16, 2002)

*they should trade tmac for vince carter*

becuz tmac is a fraud.. and we all saw one tmac left toronto they made it to the second round..


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## T(he)-MA(gi)C (May 8, 2003)

roby, 

excellent post! thanks for the solid read.

:yes:


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## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

*Re: Orlando salary cap-luxury tax situation*



> Originally posted by <b>robyg1974</b>!
> 
> So, who should Orlando sign with that $5 mil? First of all, I should respond to some other ideas here. Dale Davis is apparently not a free agent this summer. You cannot afford Gilbert Arenas or Michael Olowokandi, both of whom will get a bit more than the MLE. You certainly cannot even begin to afford either Elton Brand or Jermaine O'Neal. P.J. Brown was mentioned. He will get the full MLE from SOMEBODY, he will be a hot commodity this offseason, but don't you guys need another scorer?


Don't underestimate the value of having no state tax. If someone offers Arenas a contract anywhere near what Orlando could, then Orlando would have a good shot since he could make just as much or more than somewhere else. Plus he would be in an immediate playoff contending, winning situation.

Also, don't expect Darrel Armstrong to be gone. The effect on the Orlando community could be disasterous should that happen. 

I would love to see Kaman fall to Orlando, but I doubt it will happen.


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## zerotre (Sep 28, 2002)

*callin out grizzo*

GRIZZO why do u hate tmac that much? so the kid screwed up this playoff but damn hes only 24 and lead the league in scoring. How long did it take jordan before he won anything???? Isnt jordan considered the best ever? When we was young and not winning no one thought he was the best but once he got some good teammates it was all over for the rest of the league. Give tmac a chance, he has been better each year in the league. Oh by the way if you respond to this post then i hope you say something intelligent otherwise it will confirm my suspection that you are a complete moron.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: they should trade tmac for vince carter*



> Originally posted by <b>grizzoistight</b>!
> becuz tmac is a fraud.. and we all saw one tmac left toronto they made it to the second round..


Grizzo give it up. I love Kobe, but I am gonna stop liking him if you keep being such a jerk with this TMac debate. I mean TMac is great but no need to tear him down. I mean the one thing I like that TMac does that Kobe doesn't is go hard to the basket, because Kobe is afraid to get hurt, it is really sad to me. He needs to get tough and go strong.


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## grizzoistight (Jul 16, 2002)

*Re: Re: Orlando salary cap-luxury tax situation*



> Originally posted by <b>Dee Bo</b>!
> 
> 
> Don't underestimate the value of having no state tax. If someone offers Arenas a contract anywhere near what Orlando could, then Orlando would have a good shot since he could make just as much or more than somewhere else. Plus he would be in an immediate playoff contending, winning situation.
> ...


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## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

*Re: Re: Re: Orlando salary cap-luxury tax situation*



> Originally posted by <b>grizzoistight</b>!
> 
> 
> > Originally posted by <b>Dee Bo</b>!
> ...


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## grizzoistight (Jul 16, 2002)

*im saying*

if hill retires yall can use his money to land a fa like jermaine oneal or kg
:no:


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## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

*Re: im saying*



> Originally posted by <b>grizzoistight</b>!
> if hill retires yall can use his money to land a fa like jermaine oneal or kg
> :no:


If Hill retires, we'd actually only get a small portion of the money back and he would still be on the books for awhile, I believe.

I'd much rather see him playing than retired.


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## JNice (Jul 13, 2002)

JNice said:


> I was originally in favor of drafting Ridnour or Hinrich, but I dont think we should add any more people that could be defensive liabilities. We need tough, somewhat defensive minded players that can hit wide open jumpshots.
> 
> *As for our draft pick, I am in favor of picking Reece Gaines. He's tall, but unlike Jeryl Sasser, has real PG abilities. Just because of his size he should be a better defender and rebounder than Hinrich or Ridnour. I was getting tired of watching jacque Vaughn, Armstrong, and Whitney getting posted up down low. And Gaines cant be any worse of a shooter or distributor than Vaughn.*
> 
> ...



:laugh:

I had to toot my own horn earlier this year when I predicted a Ron Artest blow-up this season, among some other things. But how bout this gem?

The Reece Gaines comment .. :laugh:

And how bout those big men ... haha ... where are any of those guys?



> And Gaines cant be any worse of a shooter or distributor than Vaughn.


Guess he could.


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## hobojoe (Jun 20, 2003)

:laugh: Classic.


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