Anybody else feeling good about the Magic picking this guy up in the draft? I was a bit skeptical at first about him since European big men really seem to be rather hit or miss, but in the last two games where he has gotten some meaningful minutes, I've seen a lot of potential in this guy. He plays aggressive defense, he's not a bad rebounder and seems relatively poised in the post when he gets the ball. I think I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I think we might have ourselves a guy that can fill the role of starting center in a couple years, I just hope that the Magic don't let him go.
Yeah, I agree with you. I like his rebounding skill and I think he still need lots of improvement on his offence and he'll grow up and become a decent C in a couple of years while getting experience in blocking, rebounding etc... Really hope Magic won't let him go with another cheap trade...
Mario does look good, his average for rebounds in 48 mins is great, so in theory should be a good rebounder down the stretch. We dont rely on our forwards for scoring much, so mario does a good job getting 4 or 6 off the bench in small minutes. Hopefully we can keep him, since Howard might develop into that utility foward type like a Garnett, so a solid center would be quality, when Cato gets a bit older that is. Think thats been a massive prob in the past. We have made some awsome trades to GET players but we have often let players go to easy: Great Trades / Aquiring: T-Mac G. Hill S.Francis, C.Mob, C.Kato Just as a few examples Bad Trades: Penny for next to nothing Loosing Shaq to easy Ben Wallace Corey Magette Matt Harpring Mike Miller Chris Webber Darrel Armstrong And they are just a few I thought of in a few seconds.
Mario has still a very long way to go. He has problems with his defence and does all the times some stupid fouls. ^Our history of bad moves (not only trades but also free agent signings and draft decisions) is long. But as of now, I don't see Kasun becoming a solid starting C and in case we let him go, I don't see him up there with the other names you mentioned. And in the same way, some of your points don't make sense at all (e.g. you like the aquisition of Hill but on the same way you don't like giving up Wallace? It might be true that we could have included another player in that sign-and-trade deal but Wallace didn't suit in our style of play. - The Miller trade was great, we got two really good players in return, however last season and the trades before, meaning Howard and Ty Lue, mixed all up - and we didn't have any chance to keep Shaq and he showed no sign that he wanted to go away before he did, but all that doesn't belong in here, open a new thread and I'm happy to discuss it).
