If the magic don't get a legitimate center in the draft I think it's very possible we could trade Francis and Cleveland could sign and trade Ilgauskus for him. and throw a few picks and roll-players in that aren't even gonna matter, I think that would be excellent, we could even throw in cate of battie so they'd have somebody. That would make the Lineup as I see it. PG- Jameer Nelson SG-Draft Pick, Hopefully Webster or Wright SF- Hill/Turk PF- Dwight Howard C- Zydrunis Ilgauskus Is that not Amazing, probably impossible but that would simply be marvelous.
First Of all, trading our franchise player for a foreign player will cause us to lose a lot of our fans and tickets sales will plumit enough to move the team to kansas city. Francis is an exciting player and the only way we would get rid of him is to pick up another player like him. For example, seattle has showed interest last season for a trade of ray allen for francis. If allen isnt resigned by seattle i would love to see that trade. Also, teams are allowed to release one player with expiring contracts. The magic will most likely release Doug Christie and dallas would most likely release michael finley. I would like to see both ray allen and michael finley be acquired. Also Blount from boston is a free agent and i think he would be a good pick up. this could be a possible line-up G - Francis(allen),Nelson,Diener Sg- Finley,stevenson sf-Hill,turkalo PF- Howard,Big V C - Battie,Blount,kasun No matter what though, michael finley is a must, we better be the first team on the phone with Finley's agent when he is realeased.
Now that the draft is over, this wouldn't work. We now have a foriegn big man in Fran Vazquez and no shooting guard to fill in for Francis if we make this trade. I think drafting Fran showed that Francis is our guy and he will be our main guy until his contract ends or he becomes unhappy for some reason. More then anything, I think the Magic need to pick up a shooting guard from free angency this offseason or we will be pretty hopeless when the season starts. Steve Francis is point guard and needs to stay at that position. He is to small to play both guard positions and is a better fit when he can slash through the lane at the point guard position. I think we need to sign someone like Larry Hughes or Michael Finley this offseason so that they can compliment Francis and give us a complete lineup. Jameer is our future starter but as of right now, playing Francis at the point and having Jameer come off the bench is better for the team. When you look at our shooting guard position, you see a few options right away. There is the obvious choice of starting Deshawn Stevenson who never had much success under Johnny Davis but played well when Chris Jent was filling in. Stevenson is a nice player but he lacks consistency and I think he would be better coming off the bench for us. Another player that was sometimes placed at the shooting guard position last year was Hedo Turkoglu. He would fill our need for a perimeter shooter and showed that he could run the court on fast breaks last year. I'm not sure how Hedo would perform as a starter out of position but it might be worth a try for a few games. There is also Doug Christie who said he wants out of Orlando so I am expecting the Magic to either trade or drop him. Hopefully we can get some future picks for him or something. Then of course the next option is signing a guy. Ray Allen and Michael Redd are out of our price range but there are still some options. I like Flip Murray and would be thrilled to sign him. He is a great player who played well in Seattle. If the Magic can sign him, I think it would help out our offense a lot. As long as we go into next season with someone other then Francis at shooting guard, I will be happy. Our front court is in place with Fran at the power forward and Dwight at the center. Tony Battie and Kelvin Cato will give boosts from the bench. We have four great defenders on our front line and all of our big men can rebound and score when they get the chance under the basket. I think we have definently improved since last year and I am really pleased with our lineup. I am also very happy with our bench players because we have a much better second unit then last year with Jameer, Augmon, Hedo, Battie and Cato. We have the talent and potential to be a great team next year and we avoid injuries and build chemistry, I think this will be a very succesful season and we might make the playoffs.
First of all we can afford Ray Allen or Larry Hughes after his season last season. We can go after Finely but everyone in the league is gonna go after him. I heard one report of him going to pistons and another of him going to suns. I think our best option is A. Daniels out of seattle for a taller PG. Maybe a Eddie Curry is he can play for a center. Free agency will be active it all depends on what we do with christie and if we move cato. Both of them have expiring contracts and could get us some trades. I hope we can make a move that helps this team, we really messed up with the mobley trade last year.
