This article appeared on another site in Spanish but was put through an internet translator and says this. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Bozidar Maljkovic goes outlining the staff of Madrid for the next season and one of the news is the return al team of Eduardo Hern?ndez-Sonseca. After its step by the Great Canary, where played yielded it passed campaign and jelled a good action, the center of 2,12 meters will replace Antonio Good in the white staff. Another of the aspects that can be confirmed in brief is the arrival of Fran V?zquez. After many doubts, the Spanish center seems determined to retard his leap to the NBA and to play two years in the Madrid, that will pay the cla?sula of a million euro al Unicaja of malaga. -N. Mart?nez Spain did not be able with the Frenchwomen After finishing unbeaten the initial phase, the Spanish Selection he lost the first party in the end rooms pools of the European one Sub 16 female (Poland). This first one I trip he arrived before France (64-69) and he obliges al joint Spanish to gain the two following parties to opt to a plaza in the semifinals. The maximum scorers were Dawn Torrens (23) and Elena Espiau (14).</div> Source (In Spanish) You can't be serious. This is terrible. I will so upset if he signs with Real Madrid over us.
Wow, why is he doing this? If he goes overseas then I will feel bad for ever supporting him and trying to get you guys to at least give him a chance. Come on Fran, don't screw us.
As far as I can understand this, my Spanish is not that great, but it's not his fault but his current contract situation with Unicaja malague?o. Madrid is willing to pay the one million Euros to his current team Unicaja malague?o so that they let him out of his current contract. It's not all his fault, I also blame our management for drafting a player who is still under contract with another team. So it's really not like with Roko Ukic (but I don't blame Roko Ukic not, he is not only paid more in Europe but it comes also with other benefits, such as less games per season and nearer to home)
I thought we were buying out his contract Thursday and he would play with us. If he signs with Madrid then drafting him was a hugge mistake. I never liked him anyway and we should have gotten a swingman instead.
granger,May,McCants and green were still on the table this was a huge mistake. if he goes this could mean a new GM.plus with the money you ll just spent on dooling the only way youll be able to sure up the centre pos is through a trade. hard luck!!!!!!!
That was the worst pick in NBA Draft History since Darko was taken No.2....You guys had a solid draft last year..What happened?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Lakers1:</div><div class="quote_post">That was the worst pick in NBA Draft History since Darko was taken No.2....You guys had a solid draft last year..What happened?</div> That's a huge exaggeration. How about Araujo last year? Vazquez hasn't even played yet, I don't see how you could judge him yet.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting GatorsowntheSEC:</div><div class="quote_post">Wow, why is he doing this? </div> I think guys now a days are getting great $ over seas, and another reason probably is that their seeing the Darko situation and probably afraid of the lack of minutes they recieve.
Well Well Vasquez could really improve his game his toughness and fame here in the NBA lets hope its a rumor that isnt true beacuse we will need alot of help if he doesnt show up.
This is not terrible news for Magic fans. Let's be honest, Franz Vazquez will probably develop faster playing overseas than he will on the Magic. Instead of fighting for minutes with Dwight Howard, Pat Garrity, Tony Battie, and Kelvin Cato, he will be a starter playing the majority of the minutes on the best European team in the world. Keep in mind players like Peja Stoyakovic and Manu Ginobili, who played an extra year overseas to develop their game and confidence to compete in the NBA. I don't think anyone expected Franz to step right in and start for the team. I'm sure the team realized he was going to be a one or two year project at the very least, so why not allow him to develop overseas and use his roster spot for player who can contribute now?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">This is not terrible news for Magic fans. Let's be honest, Franz Vazquez will probably develop faster playing overseas than he will on the Magic. Instead of fighting for minutes with Dwight Howard, Pat Garrity, Tony Battie, and Kelvin Cato, he will be a starter playing the majority of the minutes on the best European team in the world. Keep in mind players like Peja Stoyakovic and Manu Ginobili, who played an extra year overseas to develop their game and confidence to compete in the NBA. I don't think anyone expected Franz to step right in and start for the team. I'm sure the team realized he was going to be a one or two year project at the very least, so why not allow him to develop overseas and use his roster spot for player who can contribute now?</div> Has he been guaranteed a starter role there? They normally don't give the new guys starter mins. I don't mind him going for 1 year, but he can live his dream and play. Honestly he's probably better than Battie and Garrity now(close to Cato). We need him here.
He would not be a guaranteed starter, but I think he is more than capable of starting for the Real Madrid team. I don't think they would offer him that type of deal just to play limited minutes off the bench. Hard to say if he's better than Battie or Garrity, but I think those two would get the nod over Vazquez when it came to minutes. The Magic are in that limbo stage right now with their team. They are good enough to squeek into the playoffs, but not bad enough to start rebuilding again. I think the organization would like to get into the playoffs so Dwight Howard can get a taste of it and grow from post-season play. Then in a few years they will have the cap space to start building around Howard once Grant Hill is gone. Right now the trio of Howard-Hill-Francis is good enough to get the Magic an 8th seed if the team can stay healthy. Then next year they bring Franz over to pick up all the minutes Battie and Garrity played.
This is terrible. I cant understand why you would draft a player if he cant play here. We need him now, we arent the spurs, who can draft overseas players and call them as they need them. We havent won a ring or even made the playoffs in 2 years. We can be worrying about if he is coming or not. THis is why I am against drafting overseas players. They want to be in the draft, they get drafted and if they dont like the situation they just go back overseas. Which puts teams at a disadvantage.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting smokrockz:</div><div class="quote_post">This is terrible. I cant understand why you would draft a player if he cant play here. We need him now, we arent the spurs, who can draft overseas players and call them as they need them. We havent won a ring or even made the playoffs in 2 years. We can be worrying about if he is coming or not. THis is why I am against drafting overseas players. They want to be in the draft, they get drafted and if they dont like the situation they just go back overseas. Which puts teams at a disadvantage.</div> You need him now to do what exactly? Franz Vazquez is not going to make or break the Magic's season and having him develop overseas in the best International league in the world is not a bad thing. It's a lot better than him riding pine all season, losing confidence, and getting frustrated. The Magic can afford to take their time with Vazquez instead of rush him into a bad situation. He's going to be playing against quality big men playing for Real Madrid. Luis Scola, Tiago Splitter, Axel Hervelle, to name a few.
shapecity, can you do me one favour and don't call him Franz but by his name Fran? Franz is a very typical German name, quite out-of-date so to say also. Besides that, I kind of agree with you. Madrid wouldn't spend the one million euros for the buyout of his current contract just to let him rot on the bench. Madrid is one of the top teams in Europe and he should have a great environment for improving his game. Besides, we know that his English isn't that good and maybe he finds enough time to work on this as well. And guys, don't make it look like Fran wants to sign with Madrid rather than with us, Madrid is just willing to buy him out of his current contract. And I just read that the Orlando Magic deny that Report: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Orlando Magic are disputing a report on a Spanish-language publication/Web site that first-round draft pick Fran Vazquez may play for Real Madrid in his native Spain instead of coming to the NBA this season. The report was published on AS.com, but it did not attribute the source, saying only that he could sign a two-year deal with Real Madrid. "We fully expect him to be in our training camp this fall," said Scott Herring, Magic director of basketball administration. "We've been in contact with his agent almost daily, and we've heard nothing that would lead us in that direction. That would be 180 degrees different from what we've been hearing."</div> Source Just found an Article from January 2005 about a Real Madrid deal, maybe someone got confused and brought this up again: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Spanish basketball has suffered a wild week after Real Madrid made an offer to Unicaja M?laga's stud Fran V?zquez. It was Chema de Lucas from SoloBasket.com who first reported the shocking news, the same day Fran delivered a huge performance against Opel Skyliners, and soon it was all over the media. It seems the wealthy soccer club has a lot of cash and had decided to invest some more of it in the basketball section. V?zquez's buyout is reportedly worth one million euros, and Real Madrid is willing to pay that, provided the player accepted the six-year contract that he had been offered (reportedly worth around 6 million euros). He would had to decide whether to take it before January ends, though, because that's the deadline for ACB League players to change ACB teams.</div> Source and more to read
Interesting. I seriously doubt that Fran will sign a 6 year deal and ruin his chance to live his dream and play in the NBA(I think it's his dream, which is why he declared for the draft). He is in his prime now and he will be a solid guy off the bench, I still think he would get 15-20 mins a game off the bench, expecially if we do that Finley trade. Honestly I think that Vazquez could probably start for us later on in the year. They say that he is low risk, which means he's NBA ready now. I would much rather him come and play in the NBA, because we will be way shorthanded when Cato has his annual injury and it will be nice moving Garrity farther down the bench and make him a situational player, then a player that gets in every single game for 20 mins a game. We really aren't that deep at the PF/C position, this is how I see it playing out.... C-Cato/Battie/Kasun PF-Dwight/Fran/Garrity I like Battie a lot because of his hustle, but he's more of an Andrew Declerq type player who gets his mins because of hustle and not really on his skills. Vazquez more than likely has more skills than Battie now. Basically I just want to see what he can do in the NBA now and shut the Magic fans who are pissed off that we drafted the guy over some of the other guys before they've even seen him play.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting GatorsowntheSEC:</div><div class="quote_post">Interesting. I seriously doubt that Fran will sign a 6 year deal and ruin his chance to live his dream and play in the NBA(I think it's his dream, which is why he declared for the draft). He is in his prime now and he will be a solid guy off the bench, I still think he would get 15-20 mins a game off the bench, expecially if we do that Finley trade. Honestly I think that Vazquez could probably start for us later on in the year. They say that he is low risk, which means he's NBA ready now. I would much rather him come and play in the NBA, because we will be way shorthanded when Cato has his annual injury and it will be nice moving Garrity farther down the bench and make him a situational player, then a player that gets in every single game for 20 mins a game. We really aren't that deep at the PF/C position, this is how I see it playing out.... C-Cato/Battie/Kasun PF-Dwight/Fran/Garrity I like Battie a lot because of his hustle, but he's more of an Andrew Declerq type player who gets his mins because of hustle and not really on his skills. Vazquez more than likely has more skills than Battie now. Basically I just want to see what he can do in the NBA now and shut the Magic fans who are pissed off that we drafted the guy over some of the other guys before they've even seen him play.</div> Uh.. he's 22 and hasn't even played in the NBA yet. How is he in his prime?
22 is normally when some of the younger players get into their prime. Sorry, I meant that he was just getting ready to enter his prime, not that he was in it right now.
