Report: Lewis Agrees To Sign With Magic

[det2orl]

Originally Posted by trig

Hedo is a rashard clone. just so happen that something went wrong w/ the cloning process. they have the same skillset but different consistency.

but they can still sign darko and go over the cap but not over the luxury right? also, would they have an additional MLE?

I was saying this in another forum and was getting bashed. Both of them are 6'10" allergic to paint MFers. Lewis is a little bit better overall but surely not $9M better.

[John Starks]

Is Lewis over-paid? Moderately...did any of us doubt that he'd be getting something near max - 5 yrs, $65mill - on the open market.

The larger problem is that the Magic did not address their real team need - which is some one who knows how to move the ball. The problem the Magic had last year, from watching them a handful of times and knowing their personnel - was an inability to move the ball, especially without hill in the lineup.

When they went withtheir best lineup - Nelson, Hill, Turk, Howard, Battie - they could defend and they could even score a little, but when your pg is a shooter, and your SF is a shooter and your pf is a dunker and you C is there solely for D, no one is setting up teammates for easy socres, keeping everyone involved and interested --- i.e. moving the ball.

Now you bring in Rashard, who is an excellent scorer and a fine rebounder at the 3 -- but he, like everyone else on the Magic - does not move the ball. Luke walton would've been a better fit. Billups would've been a MUCH better fit.

[FPower]

Would Seattle have any interest in Hedo? Sending him out in a sign and trade would allow the Magic to offer Darko a decent deal.

[det2orl]

They have to move Turk now. He can't play when he doesn't know when he's going to play. When there was doubt whether Grant was going to play the last few years Turk was even more inconsistent. Last year knowing that he was going to start he a little better.

Also they definitely need to find more minutes for Ariza and Turk stands in the way of that.

[mlh1981]

Any team that pays him a max contract and plans on making him their centerpiece is making a big mistake. He's an excellent player, but not good enough to lead a team to a title.

[WildStyle]

Any team that pays him a max contract and plans on making him their centerpiece is making a big mistake. He's an excellent player, but not good enough to lead a team to a title.

Ever heard of Dwight Howard?

[Enigmatism]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2924228 gone to the magic - finally we'll get to see him in the playoffs again - ray allen too probably... poor durant lol

[bomber]

Good Scorer
Average Rebounder
Subpar defender

Should thrive as the real first option.

[dejordan]

Originally Posted by R.I.P.

The Magic team has absolutely nobody that can score consistently on offense. Howard is a garbage point machine and Hedo is turkish for streaky. IF Lewis is capable of carrying this team on offense he´ll average 27-29 PPG and might almost be worth the money Orlando pays him, kinda like Joe Johnson in Atlanta. One thing is for sure, he´ll be the focus of the opponents defense and he´ll have to prove his worth in Orlando.

nicely put.

[mlh1981]

Originally Posted by WildStyle

Ever heard of Dwight Howard?

I posted this before I heard of him signing with ORL. Whoops.

[RainierBeachPoet]

Originally Posted by Young HkM

I've watched him his entire career and at this point I think he's pretty overrated.

Good scorer, although his scoring comes in one of three ways; set 3-pointers (very good at them), in the post, and in transition. No midrange game. Pretty streaky, but he's been getting better about that.

In the post he usually has to be pretty deep before he's all that effective, it's usually him overpowering smaller defenders rather than having actual post-moves.

He's an above average ball handler, not the best ball handling 3, but better than a lot. Below average passer.

Sometimes he's passive on offense, I couldn't see him leading a team since he's always been the second banana. He will almost always settle for the jumpshot instead of driving and being aggressive towards the basket.

Defensively he's below average. he's a below average rebounder. It just doesn't seem like something that interests him much. He's had season's where he'll grab 7 a game (almost this season) and he'll have season where he'll only get you 5 (04-05, 05-06.)

That's all I can think of right now

this is a good post

the thing i would always think in the back of my mind while watching 'shard all these years is:


when is he going to do more and play with some heart?



we saw it a bit last year, but i think the free agency motivation was there and ray was out. before that, he would play very quietly during games and at times even disappear

i know that not all players show their emotions on their sleeve, but it is easy to interpret his non-emotional character with indifference

my fear for orlando fans is that he play passive because of dwight in the middle and it being howard's team.

[Take Your Lumps]

I'm telling you, Darko will have to re-sign w/ the Magic for decent money.

Memphis just made Varejao a huge offer.

That's another suitor off the list with some cap space.

In order for Darko to get more than the MLE.....he'll have to find a team stupid enough to pay him that much, or he could get an MLE offer from another team and then have the Magic match it and sweeten it a bit.

Otis Smith is playing hardball and Darko is getting left out in the cold...but he needs to find a way to keep these 6 guys together:

Nelson
Redick
Lewis
Ariza
Darko
Howard

[Take Your Lumps]

Meanwhile, Magic power forward Darko Milicic's agent said Monday afternoon that the club had yet to make contact. Milicic is a restricted free agent, meaning Orlando can match any offer as long as he remains so.

The Magic have told Milicic to bring back an offer.

"We have lots of options," said Marc Cornstein, Milicic's agent.

Cornstein said he has heard from "25 teams" since the green flag dropped on the free-agent courting period Sunday.

"There's a lot of interest," he said. "We've had some real offers to sign-and-trade deals. . . everything across the board."

Cornstein seemingly wondered if the Magic were truly committed to re-signing Milicic, a 7-foot power forward.

"We want Darko to go to a team that believes in him and makes him a focal point," he said. "If it's Orlando, great. If it's one of the other 29 teams, then that's fantastic, too."

Howard said he wanted both of his free-agent teammates -- Milicic and shooting guard Grant Hill -- to return.

"I hope Darko stays," Howard said. "He's matured a lot. He was a big reason we made it to the playoffs."

Howard, though, said if Hill signed elsewhere, he would understand.

"If Grant decided to play, great. If he decided to leave, he's already done enough here," Howard said.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sport...rl-calbookstop

LOL @ his agent talking to 25 teams about Darko...

[saKf]

I'd pay him no more than exactly half as much as the amount for which he just signed.

Really nice scorer who can post up and bomb threes, but he's heartless. You can't commit such a huge amount of salary to a guy that's heartless.

[Orlando Magic]

Originally Posted by John Starks

Billups would've been a MUCH better fit.

Billups would have been the absolute best fit. There's no doubt about that. But I hate his attitude. He's one of these "I'm deserving of everything" type guys. Deadly. Kills the Magic every time, but he's still a cocky prick.

JJ Redick knows how to move the ball, by the way. Better than most. But with the signing of Lewis, there's no way that Dooling doesn't start at SG this season for us because our perimeter defense between Lewis & Nelson is going to be awful.


So now that I've slept on it and calmed a little, here's what I see.

I see a logjam at SF between Lewis, Turkoglu & Ariza. Otis Smith loves Ariza... as do most of the fans in Orlando. There's no way that we're going to let Ariza sit at the end of the bench all year long and then opt out of his contract and go elsewhere without getting another look at him.

It's true that Ariza can play SG but he's definitely more effective playing SF. Not only that, but if they move him over to SG, then someone else has to rot on the bench all year long... JJ Redick. He did enough of that last year. When he played he proved he was our best shooter and most willing passer. It's just that Brian Hill was about as stubborn as they come, and he valued defense to a fault. Redick is a decent defender. He's not as poor as people think, but he certainly will never be on an all defensive team. He's a great shooter, a good/willing passer/sharer of the ball that's smart and has a great passion for the game.

So what's that mean? It means one of possibly a few things...

1) Lewis is going to be playing PF (I seriously as hell hope not because that'd be the biggest mistake ever)
2) Turkoglu is going to be traded. I hope it means that Turkoglu is going to be traded, and done quickly enough to add even more capspace to re-sign Darko.
3) Ariza is going to be traded. I seriously doubt it.
4) Redick is going to be traded. Possibly, and probably more likely than anyone except Turkoglu, but I hope not.
5) Dooling is going to be traded. See Ariza comments.

Final thoughts...

The Magic are most likely not going to bring Grant Hill back. If they do, they're still going to be jammed up at SG & SF, to an even larger degree.

If the team plays Rashard at PF, we are going to be worse than last year.

If the team plays Rashard at SF, and keeps Milicic, we are going to improve marginally (roster wise) because we're still losing Hill and probably a great deal overall because of Van Gundy.

We're going to improve as far as a team goes either way because of Van Gundy, however... if we play Rashard at PF(even as backup for Battie during stretches), I don't think Van Gundy's presence is going to matter much, because we won't get any better at all.

I don't want Grant Hill to return but there's no way one can possibly look at the Magic roster and say that we're going to get better by saying goodbye to Grant Hill AND Darko Milicic simply to bring in Rashard Lewis. Pure lunacy.