I don't think so and I'm fine with being on the opposite side of an opinion from you. I'd rate the Blazers chances for internal improvement from their young roster to easily exceed the Magic's mishmosh of moves. they also lost Lee and Alston. Bass looks to be a poor fit beside DH as neither has game away from the hoop and Barnes is meh... It's easy to confuse activity with progress. Their greatest potential for improvement hinges on Howard hitting his Free Throws. STOMP
STOMP, I know there was a 4 page thread on this earlier, but what gives you the warm fuzzy that Bayless and Batum (I don't have an issue with counting on Oden improvement) will get better with summer work and ~15mpg, when Sergio didn't improve much in 3 years, Jack and Telfair didn't improve much is a far greater amount of minutes, and we've seen minimal improvement from Outlaw and Webster with starter's minutes (if not position) over the last couple of years? I submit that Roy and LMA's improvement (as well as solid play from Joel and Blake, to some extent) was a far greater impact on our 21-to-54 than anything that Jack, Telfair, Sergio, Webster, Outlaw, Khryapa, (all young guys at the 1 and 3 picked b/w 6 and 30 on Nate's watch) did to improve. I count Oden in that "high lottery talent--expect to improve a ton" category, but not necessarily Bayless or Batum or Rudy. What gives you that optimism that the "young roster" will improve more than talented, proven players playing they way they have (I'm not necessarily including Barnes in this comment--VC and Bass)?
Yes, Carter is a SG, who can play the 3 Nelson/Johnson/Lue Carter/Pietrus/Reddick Lewis/Barnes Bass/Anderson Howard/Gortat Nice off season, but they still need to add a big I think. Although Lewis showed he can play there in that offense, and Bass could play the 4 if need be for short stretches
If Barnes is meh, Alston is just the same. Bass can stick the midrange jumper (59% of his shots). They also received Ryan Anderson who is arguably a better prospect than Lee (3 years younger and +4 PER despite shooting bad). I'm not crying about Portland not making any moves (yet). But to discredit what the Magic have done this offseason just to make the Blazers inactivity look less unimpressive is laughable. Activity without progress is what Toronto did, not the Magic.
It could certainly be a case that the Magic ruined their chemistry, but you can't fault them for trying to win and bring in some real talent at some good cheap deals. Losing Hedo hurt.. but Courtney Lee is not irreplaceable by any means like they traded some big up-and-coming star. And who cares about Alston, the guy played no D and they got their All-Star PG in Nelson back, along with a vet like Johnson to back him up. Orlando is still a Top 2-3 team in the East, and could easily see themselves back in the NBA Finals. I like their moves.
it seems you're just relisting your views from that thread... mine haven't changed either and don't want to spend that much time avoiding work rewording the same views. Basically I never thought much about the talent level of the guys you listed as examples of failures to improve. Rudy and Batum were already better as rooks then any of those guys. I think much more of Greg, Roy, LA, Rudy, and Batum as talents and feel they've got more to tap into. I don't think any of those guys have plateaued. STOMP
laugh all you want today... I'm not impressed. Hopefully both teams will enjoy a healthy season and we'll truly be able to judge which team improves their record the most. The Magic's ability to spread teams out took a significant hit with the loss of Hedo... teams will be able to keep both Bigs inside to help on Howard much more then before. And feel free to add Bass to the mehs... 6'6 PFs are usually backups for a reason. one question for you funny man... since you listed some ages of prospects, why did you fail to mention the ages of the prime time time guy they lost compared to the guy they added? 33 is not exactly on the upswing for an NBA SG. STOMP
