[flamesbball84]

Yeah, but not Miami. He played horribly average ball with the Miami Heat, immediately before going to Toronto.

It was a terrible fit for him. He was expected to be the man on the team and the go to guy when DWade was out, and when DWade was played he was expected to be the #2 guy on the team and also be a go to type of player. He was also expected to be a go to type of player in Toronto. That's not his type of game, never has and never will be. His most successful years was when he never had to be that and just scored "junk" points for lack of a better word.

Yeah, but "being the man" was something that Marion always wanted to do. There was a story (back when he was in his prime) where he was asked if he'd want to be the second-fiddle on one of the best teams in the league, or be "the man" on a lousy team. He had to seriously ponder that question before choosing the latter, but only if the lousy team was still a playoff-bound team.

Besides, what kind of situation is he going to be in at Dallas? Is he going to be "the man"? Or will a fading Irk Nowitzki (remember, Nowitzki has no "D") be the man? Jason Kidd?

I know he wanted to be the man, that doesn't mean he's suited for it. Just because you want to be the man doesn't mean you can actually be the man...

Dirk is the man in Dallas, I can't believe you even asked that question. Did you see him in the playoffs? He was unguardable at times. He still averaged 26 points and 8 boards a game. In the playoffs he averaged 27 and 10 along with 3 assists while shooting 51.8% overall. He went absolutely bonkers against a good defensive team in Denver, going off for 34.4 and 11.6 per game in that series along with 4 assists, 1 block, and 1 steal a game. How in the world is that fading? That Denver playoff series was one of his best ever performances in the playoffs for his entire career.

Also, Josh Howard is a very good player and Jason Terry is still playing at a pretty good level too. Marion won't ever have to be the man in Dallas this year unless all three of them go down. He won't have to be put in a situation where he is required to be one of the focal points of the offense - that's why he was an epic failure in Miami and Toronto, plus he didn't have Steve Nash, but not he'll have Jason Kidd who fills the same "make everyone better around him" role that Nash did for Marion in Phoenix.

Despite being in a situation which was a terrible fit for him, he still managed to average 12.9 points 8.5 boards, 1 block, and 1.3 steals a game - more than servicable numbers for a guy who will most likely only be expected to be the 4th or 5th best player on the team. His first year in Miami wasn't nearly as bad as it is made out to be, his last year in phoenix he had a PER of 20.87, the first year in Miami it was 19.10 - a decline but not overwhelmingly significant. This past year it was 16.02 - a significant decline, but it's still over the league average of 15. This year he actually shot a higehr FG% than his career total - he just didn't shoot as much. Of course, when nearly 2/3s of your season is played on a team that has both Dwayne Wade and Michael Beasley, your shot totals going down are is nothing but inevitable. When he went to Toronto, he took 2.1 more shots a game than he was in Miami and finished the season second on the team in shot attempts per game behind Chris Bosh. Marion can still play pretty well, it's just a matter of the right fit.

[flamesbball84]

Free agent forward Brandon Bass has reached an agreement in principle on a four-year deal with the Orlando Magic.
With Marcin Gortat all but gone, and Tony Battie traded away to New Jersey, the Magic were desperate to add a big man to their roster. It stands to reason that Bass will get decent minutes in Orlando, but having him on the court with Dwight Howard will be a drag on their shooting, for which they will turn to Ryan Anderson.

Bass and Howard - have fun taking up the same space on the floor.

[ToTheLeft]

Free agent forward Brandon Bass has reached an agreement in principle on a four-year deal with the Orlando Magic.
With Marcin Gortat all but gone, and Tony Battie traded away to New Jersey, the Magic were desperate to add a big man to their roster. It stands to reason that Bass will get decent minutes in Orlando, but having him on the court with Dwight Howard will be a drag on their shooting, for which they will turn to Ryan Anderson.

Bass and Howard - have fun taking up the same space on the floor.

Bass has a jumper, he isn't just a banger. This is more like Duncan/Robinson, with Bass being a very very poor man's Duncan... and Howard being Robinson... not saying they're the same kind of players as The Admiral and Timmy, but it's the same idea. And Anderson has been doing really well in summer league, and should bring a good shot off the bench at the 4.

[flamesbball84]

Free agent forward Brandon Bass has reached an agreement in principle on a four-year deal with the Orlando Magic.
With Marcin Gortat all but gone, and Tony Battie traded away to New Jersey, the Magic were desperate to add a big man to their roster. It stands to reason that Bass will get decent minutes in Orlando, but having him on the court with Dwight Howard will be a drag on their shooting, for which they will turn to Ryan Anderson.

Bass and Howard - have fun taking up the same space on the floor.

Bass has a jumper, he isn't just a banger. This is more like Duncan/Robinson, with Bass being a very very poor man's Duncan... and Howard being Robinson... not saying they're the same kind of players as The Admiral and Timmy, but it's the same idea. And Anderson has been doing really well in summer league, and should bring a good shot off the bench at the 4.

Remember, it's summer league, and the Pepsi Pro Summer League is normally the weakest summer league. Most of the players that are any good aren't even playing today and left yesterday to go to the Vegas Summer League that starts today, that's if their team is participating in that league. That to me is a pretty good indication of what many NBA coaches and execs think of the Pepsi Pro league.

The best forwards Anderson has played against that has NBA experience are Nick Fazekas, Rob Kurz, and DJ White. So as a guy who actually had an impact role in the NBA, he should be dominating those scrubs who will be lucky to be in the league for more than a couple years. Not saying that what he has been doing is meaningless or that his play has not been good, but it's not like he's been being defended by anyone that's any good.

Bass was a decent jump shooter, had an effective field goal percentage of .445 on jumpers but just .387 on close jumpers. Sasha Vujacic, who by all accounts had one of the most horrendous years shooting of all guards in the NBA this season, had a .489 efg% on all jumpers and a .436% efg% on all close jumpers - both of which are significantly better than Bass. Meanwhile, he had a pretty darn high inside efg% of .569. He also had a foul drawing percentage of 17%, which was amongst the top 30 in the NBA, which means he does a good job of drawing fouls, and considering he shot 86.7%, he's the kind of player you want drawing fouls. By being a jump shooter, he isn't very likely to do one of the things he does the best, which is draw fouls. Which would you rather have him doing, shooting under 45% on jumpers and not getting to the foul line very often, or shooting over 55% on inside shots and getting to the foul line often? To me, the second option is clearly superior because that's what puts him in the best position to succeed and contribute to a team.

[ToTheLeft]

well, what you could do is have howard stay on the block and bass be the main pick and roll guy, and then have an option of bass coming off the roll or howard in the post...

[LUconn]

The Pepsi Pro Summer League is for queers.

[ToTheLeft]

The Pepsi Pro Summer League is for queers.

Is John Amaechi going to make an appearance? The Jazz do have a team.

[flamesbball84]

Magic played against the only team with more than one good forward in the summer league in the Pacers, who Tyler Hansbrough and Trey Johnson (one of the best D-Leaguers, apparently) and was shut down, going just 2 for 11 with six points, 10 boards, and six fouls in 28 minutes.

On another note, Patrick Ewing got called for a technical in a SUMMER LEAGUE game, how sad is that?

[flamesbball84]

if you ignore the hacking and the turnovers, Stephen Curry is having a solid debut over in the Vegas league. It's in the third quarter, and he has 16 points (4-10 overall, 3-7 from three, 5-6 from FT), with five fouls and three turnovers in 16 minutes of burn.

[flamesbball84]

The Orlando Magic will keep Marcin Gortat by matching the five-year, $34-million offer sheet extended to him by the Dallas Mavericks, the Orlando Sentinel first reported Monday.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/stor ... AHeadlines
Pretty surprising. Guess they wisely decided winning the championship was more important than going over the salary cap.

[ToTheLeft]

The Orlando Magic will keep Marcin Gortat by matching the five-year, $34-million offer sheet extended to him by the Dallas Mavericks, the Orlando Sentinel first reported Monday.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/stor ... AHeadlines
Pretty surprising. Guess they wisely decided winning the championship was more important than going over the salary cap.

They might have backed themselves into a corner by promising him, and instead of killing their integrity, they bit the bullet and took the luxury tax hit. Marcin loves it in Orlando, so this isn't a huge surprise. He also would make a solid trade piece in the middle of the season if the magic need anything for a stretch run, along with the exception from Turk, we could get a 13-15 million dollar player for Marcin.

[thepostman]

The Orlando Magic will keep Marcin Gortat by matching the five-year, $34-million offer sheet extended to him by the Dallas Mavericks, the Orlando Sentinel first reported Monday.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/stor ... AHeadlines
Pretty surprising. Guess they wisely decided winning the championship was more important than going over the salary cap.

They might have backed themselves into a corner by promising him, and instead of killing their integrity, they bit the bullet and took the luxury tax hit. Marcin loves it in Orlando, so this isn't a huge surprise. He also would make a solid trade piece in the middle of the season if the magic need anything for a stretch run, along with the exception from Turk, we could get a 13-15 million dollar player for Marcin.

I don't know why I let Otis Smith talk me into anything...he has said over and over again he would not pay that much for a back up center...then he goes ahead and does it...Typical Otis Smith...I should be use to it by now, but for some reason I am not

I am really happy though..the Magic are finally keeping a solid young player they developed...crazy

[flamesbball84]

Magic are pretty solid at PF and C now, just need to add another guard that can come off the bench and actually score to help out the starters more. pietrus is perfectly fine at sg/sf, but jj redick and anthony johnson as your backup guards isn't a pretty situation. maybe they can perhaps play ryan anderson at SF some now to allow pietrus to primarily play as a guard? don't know how that will work defensively though.

[TDDance234]

JJ didn't play badly when given the chance. He's a liability on the defensive end but Orlando needs his outside shooting.

[flamesbball84]

and the magic get another quality guard

The Magic are close to signing free agent point guard C.J. Watson, according to Fanhouse.com.
A deal could be struck this weekend, giving Orlando an affordable insurance policy for starter Jameer Nelson (they also have Anthony "Old Head" Johnson). Watson thrived as a starter in the final games of last season, including April 11th's performance -- 38 points, seven rebounds, nine assists and one steal. Keep a very close eye on Watson this year, in case Jameer Nelson gets injured.

Better than JJ redick and anthony johnson thats for sure. He produces when given the chance and isn't benched at a whim like Nellie did to virtually everyone in golden state.

[Liberty4Life]

Is this the official NBA thread?

Clippers (!) traded the newly-acquired Quentin Richardson to Minnesota for Sebastian Telfair, Mark Madsen, and Craig Smith.

For Richardson... That guy has to be pooping a brick every time he signs a lease for an apartment or a house... He ended the season as a Knick, was traded to Memphis in June, then dealt to Los Angeles as part of the Zach Randolph deal, and then Minnesota.

[flamesbball84]

Is this the official NBA thread?

Clippers (!) traded the newly-acquired Quentin Richardson to Minnesota for Sebastian Telfair, Mark Madsen, and Craig Smith.

For Richardson... That guy has to be pooping a brick every time he signs a lease for an apartment or a house... He ended the season as a Knick, was traded to Memphis in June, then dealt to Los Angeles as part of the Zach Randolph deal, and then Minnesota.

he's been east, west, north, and midwest, next stop is somewhere in the south. it's inevitable lol

clippers will like craig smith - he's a highly efficient scorer for a fat version of elton brand. he got to the foul line a ton (over 8 attempts/48 which is amongst the best in the league) and had an effective field goal percentage of over 60% on close and inside shots. he was actually even better playing at center than he was power forward, offense was a lot better there and he didn't give up much more on defense compared to playing at PF.

they also get a guy who is a solid backup PG in the league, certainly an improvement over the brigade of scrubs they had behind baron davis on the depth chart last year.

overall the clippers have done a pretty solid job working on the team this summer. get griffin, deal randolph, then deal richardson for two guys they could use in telfair and smith and one guy who will be a valuable locker room presence.

[flamesbball84]

magic just keep loading up the talent stockpile...

The Orlando Magic's active offseason continued Monday when they closed in on a deal to sign free-agent forward Matt Barnes, according to sources with knowledge of the talks.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/stor ... AHeadlines

That gives them a good quality small forward who also can play PF in a small lineup. Not a spectacular player, but he'll be better than mostly every other teams backup SF.

PG: Nelson, Watson
SG: Carter, Pietrus, Redick
SF: Lewis, Barnes
PF: Bass, Anderson
C: Howard, Gortat

That is going to be one heck of a team. If they stay healthy and still can't win the title, then I'd like to see the team that takes them out in the playoffs because the only weak spot I see is PF and they aren't that weak there with Bass, Anderson could be a solid player but that remains to be seen, and Gortat could play some there too possibly.

[Liberty4Life]

magic just keep loading up the talent stockpile...

I'd like to see the team that takes them out in the playoffs

[ToTheLeft]

magic just keep loading up the talent stockpile...

I'd like to see the team that takes them out in the playoffs

Just like this past year, right?

Oh, wait...

[flamesbball84]

Orlando has made their team a lot better than Cleveland has this offseason...

[ToTheLeft]

Shaq clogging up the lane in CLE isn't a huge concern for the Magic in terms of contending in the East. Rasheed alongside KG and Paul Peirce, however. That is a concern. Cavs are the third most talented team in the East right now. If everyone stays relatively healthy, I don't think the Cavs will be in the Eastern Conference Finals this year. I think the conference is the Celtics' to lose, and the Magic are the most formidable opposition.

[thepostman]

the celtics improved with getting Rasheed, no doubt about it...much more so then the cavs did with shaq..but i think with the moves the magic have made this off season make them a more talented, deeper team then they had this year....i honestly believe the East is the Magic's to lose with the Celtics given them a good fight...but if the Magic made it to the finals this year with the team they had, there is no excuse not to make it back there with the talent they have now...but I guess we shall see

[flamesbball84]

the celtics improved with getting Rasheed, no doubt about it...much more so then the cavs did with shaq..but i think with the moves the magic have made this off season make them a more talented, deeper team then they had this year....i honestly believe the East is the Magic's to lose with the Celtics given them a good fight...but if the Magic made it to the finals this year with the team they had, there is no excuse not to make it back there with the talent they have now...but I guess we shall see

I agree with its the Magic's to lose, but it took them seven games to take down the Celtics who were without arguably their best player in Kevin Garnett. Basically, next year in the playoffs the Celtics will be adding two good players to their team they didn't have this year in the playoffs - Garnett and Rashweed - and they will finally have a capable backup to Paul Pierce in Marquis Daniels, who is coming off a career year, and who can do more offensively than just shoot the three ball (e.g. James Posey during the title run). I still think the Magic beat them, but it will probably be another 7-game series with a bunch of nail biting finishes.

[thepostman]

the celtics improved with getting Rasheed, no doubt about it...much more so then the cavs did with shaq..but i think with the moves the magic have made this off season make them a more talented, deeper team then they had this year....i honestly believe the East is the Magic's to lose with the Celtics given them a good fight...but if the Magic made it to the finals this year with the team they had, there is no excuse not to make it back there with the talent they have now...but I guess we shall see

I agree with its the Magic's to lose, but it took them seven games to take down the Celtics who were without arguably their best player in Kevin Garnett. Basically, next year in the playoffs the Celtics will be adding two good players to their team they didn't have this year in the playoffs - Garnett and Rashweed - and they will finally have a capable backup to Paul Pierce in Marquis Daniels, who is coming off a career year, and who can do more offensively than just shoot the three ball (e.g. James Posey during the title run). I still think the Magic beat them, but it will probably be another 7-game series with a bunch of nail biting finishes.

I agree completely...the Celtics will be improved as well without a doubt and will give the Magic all they can handle, but it will be a disappointment for them with the improvements they have made if they don't make it back to the finals even with the improvements the celtics have made