Francis being shopped?

In one of my previous articles, I created a stir when I said I thought Francis was possibly going to be traded.
Well, those rumblings I hear from people close to the situation have not died down. However, teams are not offering the farm for Francis. Everyone is trying to get him cheap and while some of the offers are decent, there is no guarantee anything will happen. The good news here is that my sources tell me they will not give Francis away for nothing. What to do with Francis is without a doubt that most dividing issue amongst Magic fans. When I ran a Magic Front Office before the draft on whether fans wanted Francis back, it showed Magic fans have a divided opinion on whether the Magic should trade Steve Francis. Out of 332 votes cast, 119 (51%) wanted the Magic to trade Francis and 113 (49%) did not. For those who want him to stay, there is some good news. The Orlando Sentinel reported a week ago that Francis has told by management that he is staying put. Still, co-assistant general manager Otis Smith denied our report about Keyon Dooling being offered a contract and the next day a report leaked that Dooling had agreed to sign with the Magic. So, the Magic could be saying this as it is there approach to keep things tight-lipped. I would not mind seeing Francis back as maybe new head coach Brian Hill can control him better than Johnny Davis did. For now though, it is wait and see thing but do not be surprised if a move is made.
Some possible destinations include Boston, Dallas, Denver, and Minnesota.
Like I said though, teams are trying to get Francis cheap so unless something changes, Francis will be here in Orlando next season.

Source

There is also some information about Cato and Christie. The article also mentions that Jameer is strongly expected to be traded...I dont like these rumors.

 

i think that francis could be a good fit in boston with guys like davis,jefferson and the rest of them.magik could get peirce and maybe even payton or another good PG.if them sending off nelson is legit, i would like to see him go to the lakers. i think he would really improve with some of the guys there.maybe a three team deal.

 

Honestly right now, I believe Jameer would be better trade bait than Francis. Jameer is younger and very talented without the problems. I definetely wouldn't be against finding a good young SG to play alongside Francis. (a la Joe Johnson, although he is gone) We have a logjam at PG, so I do see us trading either Francis or Jameer by midseason. We better not trade Cato/Battie without getting a big man in return. Let's throw Christie in the Jameer trade, that'd be like 9-10 million and we could get a good player for both and maybe a draft pick.

 

Bring Jameer to Miami!

 

I say trade Francis for the bets offer. I still don't get why the Magic don't like Jameer Nelson. When he got a chance to play last year, he shined. What is wrong with him, seriously.

Trade Christie, he's washed up.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Mr.Wade:</div><div class="quote_post">Trade Christie, he's washed up.</div>

Ya Magic need to do that Christie didnt help much last year.

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Bring Jameer to Miami!</div>

lol i wish, Jameer would be amazing for the Heat.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Mr.Wade:</div><div class="quote_post">I say trade Francis for the bets offer. I still don't get why the Magic don't like Jameer Nelson. When he got a chance to play last year, he shined. What is wrong with him, seriously.

Trade Christie, he's washed up.</div>

Christie seems to be looking worse every year. it would be good to trade him.

 

I think we should trade Steve Francis not Jameer Nelson but I am biased. I like Jameer and he is one of my favorite players so I would hate to see him leave and I think he will be a great point guard someday. Steve Francis just isn't a good fit for Orlando because he is to small for the shooting guard and will get in the way of Jameer's development at the point guard. I say we trade him for either a shooting guard or power forward. I admit Jameer is probably better trade bait but I would hate to see him traded. Jameer is young and played excellent last year when he was given the chance so to trade him wouldn't make sense. Him and Dwight Howard have good chemistry and are the future of this franchise so there is no reason to ship Nelson out. As far as the entire Christie situation goes, I would like to get rid of him as soon as possible. He is a distraction to the team so we should ship him out whenever we get the chance. The Magic have a lot of players that could be used as trade bait and I hope our GM's don't make a deal just because they can. We need to make smart moves because many Magic fans are already mad at the new GM's after the draft and one bad trade could lose many fans and could pressure the owner to move the Magic out of Orlando.

 

I honestly feel that if they trade either depending on whom they receive in return it will be a step and a half backwards for the Orlando Magic, and a step and a half forward for the Kansas City Magic. The Magic as an organization right now is thriving for survival in a city that is quickly losing interest. If they trade Steve Francis, and get role players rather than a superstar (like a Paul Pierce) in return the fans will lose interest. They need a big name to entice them to follow the team, and come to the games. That is why there was really not that much of a problem even when they were suffering first round defeats one after another, because the name Mcgrady drew fans. Now to a certain extent the name Steve Francis draws fans. People who follow the Magic closely may not like how he over dribbles the ball, does not play defense as much as he should, and is at times a selfish player. However, the casual fan just sees the name the accolades and the dunks, moves, and overall talent level.

The Magic will need to find a new draw quickly if they trade Francis Hill can hold the fans attention for a while if he stays healthy, but he is aging, and his contract is up soon. Then all eyes are on Dwight Howard I feel he will raise his game to the 17-19 points per game range this season, but by the time he reaches the level we all expect he will it may be to late to keep this franchise from moving. Jameer as trade bait is also a bad move in my opinion. Who would we start at point guard Dooling? He is athletic and taller as well as a spark, but is he a better overall player then Jameer? I don?t think so. He is not right now, and this is only after Nelson?s rookie season imagine what we will be saying when he really gets a chance to be a full time starter.

I honestly believe that NBA GM?s these days are to concerned with what the paper says. Most notably vertical, height, how much you bench, etc. What happened to being a ball player? That is something that is seriously over looked and under hyped by NBA GM?s these days. They figure that the criticism is not worth the risk of taking a player who could be great over a player who will be solid.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I honestly feel that if they trade either depending on whom they receive in return it will be a step and a half backwards for the Orlando Magic, and a step and a half forward for the Kansas City Magic. The Magic as an organization right now is thriving for survival in a city that is quickly losing interest. If they trade Steve Francis, and get role players rather than a superstar (like a Paul Pierce) in return the fans will lose interest. They need a big name to entice them to follow the team, and come to the games. That is why there was really not that much of a problem even when they were suffering first round defeats one after another, because the name Mcgrady drew fans. Now to a certain extent the name Steve Francis draws fans. People who follow the Magic closely may not like how he over dribbles the ball, does not play defense as much as he should, and is at times a selfish player. However, the casual fan just sees the name the accolades and the dunks, moves, and overall talent level.

The Magic will need to find a new draw quickly if they trade Francis Hill can hold the fans attention for a while if he stays healthy, but he is aging, and his contract is up soon. Then all eyes are on Dwight Howard I feel he will raise his game to the 17-19 points per game range this season, but by the time he reaches the level we all expect he will it may be to late to keep this franchise from moving. Jameer as trade bait is also a bad move in my opinion. Who would we start at point guard Dooling? He is athletic and taller as well as a spark, but is he a better overall player then Jameer? I don?t think so. He is not right now, and this is only after Nelson?s rookie season imagine what we will be saying when he really gets a chance to be a full time starter.

I honestly believe that NBA GM?s these days are to concerned with what the paper says. Most notably vertical, height, how much you bench, etc. What happened to being a ball player? That is something that is seriously over looked and under hyped by NBA GM?s these days. They figure that the criticism is not worth the risk of taking a player who could be great over a player who will be solid.</div>

Very well said BKS!

Size shouldnt matter in the NBA, people say it matters but when your small your quick and thats something Big guys dont have (that extra step). AI was once a Sg and since Stevio is kinda style of play as AI getting the ball outa his hands and putting it in Nelson to make the decisions is what should happen it would take away on Stevios time wasting and chucking up dumb shots also make Nelson a better player. Stevio is a human like everyone else and as reports from Dwight have stated that Stevio told Dwight its his team(Dwight's) and thats something he hasnt been through before but hes a smart person to relise that he needs to get others involved(Old school Jordan).
Also big names attract fans is right but role players is a must have fans might not like it if someone gets traded for a role player but thats what keeps teams winning and having depth plus the name on your jersey does sway calls from the refs.(AI gets alot of calls for him that others dont)

I say a big NO to trading Francis or Nelson but a big YES on Dougy and a little maybe on Kato.

 

We Should trade Christie and kasun for unrestricted free agent reggie evans in seattle, they might be looking to save on some money after resigning allen.

Evans is a good rebounder and i think he could start at pf and we can move dwight howard to center

C-Howard cato Battie
PF- Evans Battie garrity
sf - hill, turk
sg - francis, stevenson
g- nelson, dooling, diener

If not by trade we need another big guy, so then we should go for tractor.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting slickkid816:</div><div class="quote_post">We Should trade Christie and kasun for unrestricted free agent reggie evans in seattle, they might be looking to save on some money after resigning allen.

Evans is a good rebounder and i think he could start at pf and we can move dwight howard to center

C-Howard cato Battie
PF- Evans Battie garrity
sf - hill, turk
sg - francis, stevenson
g- nelson, dooling, diener

If not by trade we need another big guy, so then we should go for tractor.</div>
If we do pursue Reggie Evans, we can just offer a contract with some of our remaining MLE. We still have some left over despite signing Keyon Dooling so instead of having to do a sign and trade with the Sonics, we can just sign Evans and get some other players or picks for Chrisite. I definently like Reggie Evans and I even emailed Otis Smith in the Question and Answers segment he has on the Magic's website asking if they are going after any big men. I threw Reggie Evans and Tyson Chandler out there and I am still waiting for a response.

The only thing I disagree with is Evans playing power forward. I think we should keep Dwight at PF and move Evans over to C because he is a great rebounder and it would be better to keep him in his original position. In Seattle, Evans averaged almost 10 RPG in only 25 minutes so he is definently someone who would compliment Dwight well and would be a nice role player that could come in and make an impact. Hopefully our GM's will try to work something out with him because signing Reggie would also let us trade Cato and his expiring contract during the season.

 

Swish I agree with u 100% on reggie evans. I think he is the perfect fit for this team right now. We can bring in a player that plays with heart and doesnt demand the ball on offense. He is a strong rebounder and can he hustle. He reminds me of a bigger DA. I wish we could get him, we have missed a player like him since we lost Ben Wallace. I just hope the front office doesnt screw this up. Trade christie's crying ass to seatlle for reggie evans.

 

Well in order to trade Christie for Evans we are going to need to get within 15% of Christies 8.2 mil contract.(8.2 x .85=6.97)(that was also the old CBA, not sure about the new one if that still applies) That would be nearly 7 million dollars at the lowest possible contract, unless they throw someone else in, but with Ray manning the SG, they won't want to throw something else in for Christie and I doubt they would want Christie anyway. That is waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much for Reggie Evans, so just sign him.

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting FlaBoy:</div><div class="quote_post">
Very well said BKS!

Size shouldnt matter in the NBA, people say it matters but when your small your quick and thats something Big guys dont have (that extra step). AI was once a Sg and since Stevio is kinda style of play as AI getting the ball outa his hands and putting it in Nelson to make the decisions is what should happen it would take away on Stevios time wasting and chucking up dumb shots also make Nelson a better player. Stevio is a human like everyone else and as reports from Dwight have stated that Stevio told Dwight its his team(Dwight's) and thats something he hasnt been through before but hes a smart person to relise that he needs to get others involved(Old school Jordan).
Also big names attract fans is right but role players is a must have fans might not like it if someone gets traded for a role player but thats what keeps teams winning and having depth plus the name on your jersey does sway calls from the refs.(AI gets alot of calls for him that others dont)

I say a big NO to trading Francis or Nelson but a big YES on Dougy and a little maybe on Kato.</div>

The reason why AI at SG worked out so well in the championship contending years was he had a big defensive PG in Eric Snow right next to him. AI would guard the 1 and Snow would guard the 2. Also AI has some of the quickest hands I have ever seen defensively, he gets a lot of steals.


I think we really need to start to pursue a Pierce for Francis trade again and get Pierce to be SG, with Jameer/Dooling at the point. We will get a true SG, give Jameer/Dooling the starting spot.

Pg-Jameer
SG-Pierce
SF-Hill
PF-Dwight
C-Cato

Bench-Dooling, Stevenson, Hedo, Battie, Kasun. Our bench is still solid.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting GatorsowntheSEC:</div><div class="quote_post">Well in order to trade Christie for Evans we are going to need to get within 15% of Christies 8.2 mil contract.(8.2 x .85=6.97)(that was also the old CBA, not sure about the new one if that still applies) That would be nearly 7 million dollars at the lowest possible contract, unless they throw someone else in, but with Ray manning the SG, they won't want to throw something else in for Christie and I doubt they would want Christie anyway. That is waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much for Reggie Evans, so just sign him.</div>

Since it is rumoured that we'll waive DC it probably doesn't matter any more but to get things right, the new CBA is better in terms of trades. You only need to get within 25% of the other contract.

 

Alright, thanks Coranar.

KB8, When Jameer got mins he shined. Even if he was coming off the bench. I think 30 was the key number for Jameer.

 

Hey swish, if we don't trade for Evans, and we offer Evans the 2 million we have left to offer, don't you think seattle with prob match the offer, its only 1 million more than he was getting paid last season.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting slickkid816:</div><div class="quote_post">Hey swish, if we don't trade for Evans, and we offer Evans the 2 million we have left to offer, don't you think seattle with prob match the offer, its only 1 million more than he was getting paid last season.</div>
Yeah that makes sense. I'm not really sure if Seattle even wants him back though so we might as well try to offer the remaining MLE.