Trade 1: Darko Milicic Carlos Arroyo for Kelvin Cato This year 1st(top 3 or 5 protected) Trade 2: Crawford Penny Lee for Francis Battie Dooling The reasons for these deals.... 1. Dwight will now be the man of this team and can develop faster and will be a stud next year. 2. We now have 2 big guys who are both under the age of 21 and both were drafted no worse than #2 in their respected drafts and are oozing with potential. 3. We get rid of Francis and Jameer will be the man if he gets healthy. 4. We continue to lose and if it's Top 5 protected, we will likely be one of the 3-4 worst teams in the NBA this year, so with a little luck of the pingpong balls, we keep our pick this year. 5. We get around at the salary cap this year and with Hill's contract coming off next year we will be able to max out someone in the class of Lebron, Melo, Wade. Who wouldn't want to play alongside Dwight? 6. Crawford is a good shooter, we just need to minimize his shots though. David Lee would be a good role player with his energy off of the bench. Arroyo is a very good pass 1st PG and will be a good pass 1st PG until Jameer gets back and he gets to come home(lived in Orlando).
That Darko deal would be horrible. You get a guy who'll never amount to anything in this league and ANOTHER Point guard. How many players in the NBA have gotten less than 2 PPG in their first 3 seasons and even turned out to be decent? I still laugh everytime I think about the 2003 Finals. Darko breaking his fingers in the final two garbage minutes of the game. The second deal I would do though. I don't see Melo or Wade leaving their respective teams and if LeBron does decide to leave I doubt it would be for Orlando.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Diesel:</div><div class="quote_post">That Darko deal would be horrible. You get a guy who'll never amount to anything in this league and ANOTHER Point guard. How many players in the NBA have gotten less than 2 PPG in their first 3 seasons and even turned out to be decent? I still laugh everytime I think about the 2003 Finals. Darko breaking his fingers in the final two garbage minutes of the game. The second deal I would do though. I don't see Melo or Wade leaving their respective teams and if LeBron does decide to leave I doubt it would be for Orlando.</div> So who would you have played Darko over? Rasheed, Ben, McDyess, Okur? He has never had a chance to play. Pistons are on top right now and they will continue with the veterans so they can continue to win now. The kid isn't even 21 yet and won't be until the offseason. I don't see how you can give up on a kid who has gotten a combined 5.8 mpg in 96 games in 3 seasons in the MOST STACKED FRONTCOURT in the NBA when he was 18, 19, and 20 in his 3 seasons. I won't say he will be a stud, but he's still oozing with potential and if given time he could be good. Personally I like Trade #1 over #2 as a Magic fan.
Sheed wasn't there in the begining of his rookie season and darvin ham was getting more min then him but it doen't matter anymore as the Darko trade has gone through
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheHighness:</div><div class="quote_post">Sheed wasn't there in the begining of his rookie season and darvin ham was getting more min then him but it doen't matter anymore as the Darko trade has gone through</div> He just barely turned 18 years old, I didn't think he would start right away from a good team like them.
If you think if Dwight Howard was that pick instead of Darko He wouldn't have been starting your crazy (Dwight was 18 coming into the league too) (I know they weren't in the same draft just using him as an example)
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting GatorsowntheSEC:</div><div class="quote_post">So who would you have played Darko over? Rasheed, Ben, McDyess, Okur? He has never had a chance to play. Pistons are on top right now and they will continue with the veterans so they can continue to win now. The kid isn't even 21 yet and won't be until the offseason. I don't see how you can give up on a kid who has gotten a combined 5.8 mpg in 96 games in 3 seasons in the MOST STACKED FRONTCOURT in the NBA when he was 18, 19, and 20 in his 3 seasons. I won't say he will be a stud, but he's still oozing with potential and if given time he could be good. Personally I like Trade #1 over #2 as a Magic fan.</div> Theres a thing you should be asking yourself. Why would Detroit add a frontcourt player when giving up a front court player? They are giving up on Darko. They are trading the 2nd overall pick for a big boy whose best days are behind him. Darko can play Center too. Now why would they give up Darko a guy "oozing" with potential for a center thats past his prime? Doesn't make sense to me. If Darko was as good as you say he is he would've gotten more minutes. There has been no player in the NBA with under 2 PPG in his first 3 season turn out to be decent. I like the Magic and I wouldn't do this trade.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Diesel:</div><div class="quote_post">Theres a thing you should be asking yourself. Why would Detroit add a frontcourt player when giving up a front court player? They are giving up on Darko. They are trading the 2nd overall pick for a big boy whose best days are behind him. Darko can play Center too. Now why would they give up Darko a guy "oozing" with potential for a center thats past his prime? Doesn't make sense to me. If Darko was as good as you say he is he would've gotten more minutes. There has been no player in the NBA with under 2 PPG in his first 3 season turn out to be decent. I like the Magic and I wouldn't do this trade.</div> Cato has a big expiring contract and that allows them to resign their big guys. Also Cato is injured right now and might not play the rest of the year. It's a strictly salary cap room and maybe he will be healthy for the playoffs and give them one more guy to bang against Shaq and Duncan. Also do you remember a guy named Jermaine O Neal? He avg 3.75 in his first 4 seasons getting double the PT that Darko had. That's pretty close to what Darko did. It's a very similar situation, He wasn't getting any time in Portland, so they traded him to Indiana and he turned out great. Magic fans can only hope that Darko does even half of what Jermaine does. This is a very low risk high reward trade for the Magic. We give up a pick next year if we aren't really bad again. Darko could just need some PT to develop. I'm not gonna say that he's our savior or anything until I see him play, but I do think he will produce at least a little more than Battie's 8 and 6.
Pistons drafted him #2 for a reason, yeah he didnt get the playing time but remember another big young guy that took 3 or 4 years to develop Jermaine O'neal didnt amount to anything special till he got to the pacers. Change of venue and a chance to play is all certain players need to do better and gain some confidence. I hope he plays well here and proves everyone wrong. The kid can only go up from here.
I've been pretty quiet throughout this whole situation because I was waiting for it to become official. Well now that it is a done deal, I think this a great trade for the Magic. With Dwight Howard emerging into one of the better power forwards in the league, this will allow him to stay at his original position and have another young big man playing by his side. Many of you say that Darko is a bust and that he is never going to become a better player. I disagree because when has Milicic ever been given the chance to show his talent? Larry Brown hates playing rookies (this has been known ever since his days with the Pacers) and Darko was never even given a chance. Larry Brown has never been a great long term coach and usually stays with teams for about 4 years. He can turn a club around but his strategy is to win right away so molding a rookie doesn't top his priority list. I'm sure some of you are going to say, "But Swish, this year the Pistons have a new coach and Darko still didn't play!" For those people, I say look at their rotation! They have so many big men on that roster of course a young rookie isn't going to get the chance to grow as a player. Rasheed Wallace, Ben Wallace, Antonio McDyess and Dale Davis were all ahead of Darko on the depth chart. In Orlando, Darko will probably start or come off the bench for Tony Battie and will get many more oppurtunities than he did in Detroit. I'm not saying that Darko will become an All-Star but I think he will become a consistent guy who can score 12 points and grab 8 rebounds each night. That is something we haven't been able to get out of our centers this season. I think Darko will suprise a lot of people in Orlando, whether it's this season or not. He might take a little bit longer to develop since this is his first chance to actually play and this could basically be considered his rookie season. I'm looking forward to watching Darko and Dwight grow as players together and it should be fun. Twin Towers? Maybe not yet. Twin Toddlers is more like it at this point.
That was one of the big reasons the pistons brought in Flip He was supposed to give Darko a chance to play, now he has played less than he did under Larry Brown. Everyone that has followed the Pistons say's Darko is lazy and he thinks that playing time should be handed to him. That is the ONLY reason darko hasn't gotton any playing time IMO
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheHighness:</div><div class="quote_post">That was one of the big reasons the pistons brought in Flip He was supposed to give Darko a chance to play, now he has played less than he did under Larry Brown. Everyone that has followed the Pistons say's Darko is lazy and he thinks that playing time should be handed to him. That is the ONLY reason darko hasn't gotton any playing time IMO</div> Actually I think one of the big reasons they brought in Flip was they needed a good coach to replace Larry Brown. Brown was detrimental to the team's mentality, with all his BS in the media, which could have very well cost the Pistons the title. Just curious, what makes you think that they would hire Flip to put Darko in? Sure, he was expected to get playing time under Flip. . . but I guarantee you Darko was the last thing on Dumars' mind when he hired Flip.
well if pistons by chance lose out on wallace which i doubt happens, dumars will be in some serious heat. they skipped on bosh, wade and anthony then trade that pick away for nothing. Yeah the pistons are winning now but injuries havent caught them yet. In there 3 season run at being at the top they havent had to battle any long term injuries to their main players, which is unheard of the in the league. that is why they are doing so well. every other team has an injured player or one playing injured. i think pistons really messed up with that pick. they should have traded it if they werent gonna use it.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting GatorsowntheSEC:</div><div class="quote_post">Cato has a big expiring contract and that allows them to resign their big guys. Also Cato is injured right now and might not play the rest of the year. It's a strictly salary cap room and maybe he will be healthy for the playoffs and give them one more guy to bang against Shaq and Duncan. Also do you remember a guy named Jermaine O Neal? He avg 3.75 in his first 4 seasons getting double the PT that Darko had. That's pretty close to what Darko did. It's a very similar situation, He wasn't getting any time in Portland, so they traded him to Indiana and he turned out great. Magic fans can only hope that Darko does even half of what Jermaine does. This is a very low risk high reward trade for the Magic. We give up a pick next year if we aren't really bad again. Darko could just need some PT to develop. I'm not gonna say that he's our savior or anything until I see him play, but I do think he will produce at least a little more than Battie's 8 and 6.</div> Jermaine O'Neal averaged something like 4.1 PPG his first season and showed flashes of potential in his rookie season. Darko has yet to get what Jermaine did in his rookie year and he is in his third year already. Darko has not shown any flashes of potential at all. If you think Darko wil get better than Batties 8 PPG and 6 RPG you are gratly mistaken. I root for the Magic whenever I can and I think this deal is not that good for them.
I said it was <u>one</u> of the reason they hired flip at that time one of the biggest knocks on Larry Brown was that he didn't develop his young guys. One of the biggest things Flip is known for is developing Garnett when Flip was brought in he was supposed to get Darko more mins Flip was not the only good coach avalible but one of the thing Flip had over some of the other guys was that Flip coached an athletic big man (Garnett) into an all star. I live in Michigan this was all they ever talked about around here at that time.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Diesel:</div><div class="quote_post">Jermaine O'Neal averaged something like 4.1 PPG his first season and showed flashes of potential in his rookie season. Darko has yet to get what Jermaine did in his rookie year and he is in his third year already. Darko has not shown any flashes of potential at all. If you think Darko wil get better than Batties 8 PPG and 6 RPG you are gratly mistaken. I root for the Magic whenever I can and I think this deal is not that good for them.</div> I don't know man. They were talking about the Darko trade and Dwight during the Rookie/Soph game and they said that Sheed had a lot of good stuff to say about him including calling him the Serbian gangsta. I forgot the specifics, but he said that he has a lot of talent and could do good on this level if given the chance. DARKO HAS AVERAGED 5.6 MINUTES. Do you really expect him to avg 4.1 pts in 5.6 minutes? How many of his 553 minutes have you seen? I'll be honest, I haven't seen any. I'm gonna wait and judge myself when I finally get to see him play. I hope we give him 10-15 mins at least the 1st couple of games, then start expanding him until hopefully 25-30 mins in the last 10 games(we are basically tanking now anyway). 8 and 6 isn't that hard to get, especially playing alongside Dwight. Battie doesn't really have that much skill at all(but he hustles all over the place which makes him an effective player. I do like Battie) and he puts up 8 and 6 and gets some monster games with guys leaving him wide open as they double Dwight or getting easy boards as 2 guys try to box out Dwight, etc.
well said gatorsownthesec, darko needs mins in order to produce, u cant expect someone to play 5 mins and score 8 points. even when he does play he isnt the first, second or third options, there are other players that want to score. Sure he misses wide open shots and makes stupid mistakes but he has to grow into his body. The man is what 20 maybe 21. He will be a good asset to this team whether its now or 2 years down the line.
When darko plays he is usually going against 2nd or 3rd sting players so with that said I think his average should be more than 1pt in 5 mins. Joe Dumars said in the paper here that you shouldn't be surprized to see Darko with a couple 18pt 10 rebound nights. I'm not so sure about that but hopefully he will be better than he was in Detroit.
All I am asking is don't judge Darko on the first couple of games, because he will probably struggle because he's not used to being in that situation and trying to grasp a new offense/defense. If he struggles in game 1, please don't come in here and say Darko sucks.
