The Orlando Howards

[ButterMPancakes]

I forgot where I heard this but I remember hearing someone saying that the Magic are trying to "call Howard's bluff" and that him and his agent won't be able to pass up on, potentially, an extra 30 million dollars the Magic can offer him that no one else can. I think this is an interesting way to look at it because so far all Howard has done has given a list of places he wouldn't mind playing, he hasn't literally come out and said, "I'm leaving 100%, trade me or you're going to lose me for nothing". It's a huge gamble for Orlando's F.O. to keep Howard past the deadline, and one I honestly think they can win, even though Otis Smith has been just awful for that franchise (the Courtney Lee for Vince Carter trade was the worst thing to happen to the Magic, even though it netted them Ryan Anderson).

I'd say the December trades were a LOT worse, and not just because I can't stand Hedo and Arenas, but because the team destroyed any cap flexibility they had and more importantly, did not plan for 2012. Wince wasn't any better and while a combination of JRich/Hedo does benefit the team on the court more (Gortat playing for 5-10 mins a game was a game changer every other month), the benefits of having Wince's expiring, Gortat's decent trade value, AND had we kept Lewis his very tradeable contract this year, this team would've been in a VERY good position to clear cap space and go after DWill or whoever else in the summer.

Instead, we're left with Hedo's ugly mug, a re-signed JRich, a fat infant, and Ryan Anderson's QO (which I assume will be hard to match because of the numbers he's putting up & the amount of dumb GMs in the league). Maybe this is DeVos' fault. Maybe he has been pressuring the GM to win now or gtfo, and he was forced to make those trades, because the old man refused to wait a few more years. If that's the case, unfortunately for him and Magic fans, all that did was prolong the rebuilding process and a year or two from now, when he could've truly seen his team compete with two superstars, he'll be watching Hedo Turkoglu run pick and rolls with Big Baby and get mild thrills when the Magic receive the 19th pick for the draft!

Oh yeah. Remind me to send an email to that hack columnist for the Sentinel who was talking about how the sun still shined after Shaq left but when Lebron left people would still have to wake up in Cleveland.

That hack columnist for the Sentinel isn't specific enough

[Chris]

Bianchi, I think his name is?

[ButterMPancakes]

That's one of them, Brian Schmitz might be worse though. . . not sure

[Chris]

My problem is I would dig their job, covering local sports teams, and I know I could do a much, much better job. Why do they have jobs? I'm not just talking about the clowns at the Orlando Sentinel, but everywhere.

[chrisrich91]

That's one of them, Brian Schmitz might be worse though. . . not sure

I trust that this Schmitz character sucks, but I have a personal vendetta with Bianchi. When it was Cavs/Magic in the ECF, all he would write about was LeBron leaving because he didn't have nearly as good of a supporting cast as Dwight. He took unnecessary jabs at the city over and over again. Giant doucher.

When Dwight leaves I'll feel bad for people like you, but I'm going to rock Bianchi's inbox. Knowing him he'll just respond with 'Hey at least I live in Orlando and not Cleveland'. Hoes gon be hoes

[ButterMPancakes]

The OSen earlier this season was writing articles begging Dwight to stay and all this crap, then they'd write another claiming he was all these terrible things, then they'd write another "I'm sorry babe" article. They don't really know much about basketball and are more emotional and knee-jerk than your average realGM member.

[blank964]

Yeah it was Bianchi who kept writing all those lame columns about Cleveland and was kissing the Magic organization's ass so much. I remember what a joke the coverage was in the paper about the Finals essentially having to tell people what the game of basketball was. I won't be happy to see Howard go because he'll probably land somewhere else to form a super team.