AtTheDriveIn

I actually think New York will be half way decent next season. Teams that will contend for the #1 pick in next years' lottery: - Houston - Minnesota - Memphis - Milwaukee (dead last if they trade Redd)

What about Pietrus? He's a guard; not really relevant to the conversation.

I didn't watch the game, and wont have access to watching the games unless they're archived somewhere other than NBA.com (so if anyone has a site, feel free to share) =). But just thought I'd share some stuff: - Smush Parker is on the Raptors Summer League team. LOL! - It's good you guys are giving Paul Davis a run. He's always a back-up fan favourite wherever he goes - O'Bryant and Ukic seemed to have played well - Even your Summer League team can't play post defense or any perimeter defense with consistency, haha

So are we finally moving Rashard down to the Small Forward position? start Bass at PF and have him backed up with Ryan Anderson? Or play him for energy off the bench? Definitely like the signing.

Insurance companies pay for injured players. + the Rockets can apply for an injured-player exception, which they can receive up to $5.6 million extra which they can spend on a player to fill in for Yao.

I'm pretty sure there's a cap on how much money you can give in 'trade exceptions' and the numbers not high. Last year, it was done with Camby going to the Clippers for a trade exception, and the exception wasn't $13 million. I don't remember the exact number, but it was in between $3.5 and $5 million, I think. I might be way off on that, but I do recall the Nuggets having an exception of around abouts that price. Riot, a trade exception is basically cash added onto a trade to make the deal work. Obviously, you know that players can't be trade for another player unless their contracts add up correctly, or within 20% of each other. A trade exception gives you the right to add on money to a trade to make it work properly. For example, say if we wanted to trade away J.J Reddick and his $2 million dollar contract for Kobe Bryant and his $20+ million dollar deal. Obviously this doesn't work financially (or realistically). But, if we could attain trade exceptions of roughly $18 million dollars, then we could throw that money in and the deal works. Trade exceptions usually come about when a team recieves more money in the contract then they give away, therefore, with their next trade, they can, for example, add on the exception they recieved, even if it's $200,000 to make a deal work. With the Turkoglu-for-money trade, however, it seems to work differently. Since there was no player traded, I'm guessing Toronto traded all the exception money they had from previous trades to the Magic for the rights to sign Turkoglu. Hey, even if it's a million dollars, at least we got something out of this.

No, it's not an exaggeration. Someone should be shot for giving out such big money to such a mediocre player, haha.

Taking all things into consideration, this seems like a pretty nice deal. If the contract works how these long term ones normally do, meaning each year, the contract ups itself by 10%, then his starting salary would roughly be in between $8 and $8.5 million, and reach about $11/11.5 million in his final season. That's not such a bad deal. If it looks like it's not going to work out over the first season or two, there's always some team who find the prospect of a shooting 7-footer too tantalizing to pass up. And if it does work out, Colengalo will look like a genius when Bargnani is averaging 24/9 + 1.5 blocks on a balanced team and doing it for the right price. On the bright side, the Cavaliers just signed Varajeo for $50 million as well. If that's anything to go off, Toronto just got themselves a bargain!

To build around; Eric, no doubt about it. Though Ben is a pure scorer, Eric has the potential to be even greater than Ben. Eric also plays defense really well; seems to be more well-rounded; stronger; quicker end-to-end. Though he seems to have struggled a little with his shot, that will pick up. It's what Eric was known for in college.

Richard Hendrix had a very strong game today for us versus the New Jersey/Philadelphia combined team. He finished with 17 points, 12 rebounds with 5 offensive boards and forced Speights into some really tough situations on defense. This is the kind of game I'd expect him to bring the court every time he plays. Wonderful competitor and quite athletic. He ran up and down the court without problem with our guards today. On the PG situation, it doesn't appear as though any of the PG's we brought it will have a shot at making the team. All of have below average in their showings. Russell Robinson and Mo Ager have been running the point a lot more than any of our true 1 guards, and neither are true floor generals, or even close to it. The back-back-up PG is a position that Van Gundy wanted to fill, but it doesn't appear that they'll get anything out of the Summer League roster.

He sure is. I'm really happy with his acquisition. Even when they traded for Carter, I was more happy that we got a good, young power forward who's got potential than just Vince Carter by himself. Today's game was great; he was stroking it from mid-range and from the three point line. He was a little more under control this game, and wasn't throwing up erratic shots. His basketball IQ seems to be fairly high. David Thorpe of ESPN twittered that he expects Anderson to compete for minutes right away.

Not just one performance. But one Summer League performance. This is why I'm convinced that Klashnekoff could be the greatest GM ever. He's just so great at judging level of competition and players skill levels. *rolls eyes*

Nahh, they played Livingston at the SF and Weaver as the 2-guard.

Roster Link ^ That's the link to the breakdown that the Orlando Magic site has for their entire SL roster. There's a few players on there that are good, quality players who can fill out the rest of the bench for us. Firstly, Van Gundy said that he was looking for a young, third-string point guard whom could be called upon at times to run the team for short stretches. There's two guys on our SL team that fit that roster: Levance Fields - Pittsburgh Jeremy Pargo - Gonzaga I'll be the first to admit, the Gonzaga team doesn't get much airtime here in Australia, so the games I was able to catch, there was limited thoughts I could really take away from it. However, Fields is someone who impressed me with his leadership at Pitt this past season. As with all the Pitt players from last season, Fields is a pretty strong player, especially for his 5'10" frame. Unfortunately, today, we played a little bit of Pargo, who in the few minutes he played, looked a little bit flustered, but we also played Brian Chase who carried the team exceptionally well offensively, but seemed to get burned a little too hard by Westbrook on the defensive end, which resulted in 4 personal fouls. Though all of these guys probably deserve a second look somewhere, I don't think any have the qualities that the Magic are looking for. If one had to make out Training Camp roster, I'd personally prefer it to be Fields for what he can bring, but right now, Chase might have the edge because he's a little more experienced than the other point guards. Moving onto the Forward rotation that the Magic have brought with them, and I can honestly say that I was 1) impressed with how they all played today and 2) think they all have a chance to make an NBA roster somewhere. The three players that made up the rotation today were: Ryan Anderson - previously of the New Jersey Nets Jeremy Richardson - Part of the Magic Finals team Richard Hendrix - last seen with the Golden State Warriors Beginning with Anderson, he's already got himself a guaranteed contract with the Orlando Magic for the upcoming season, so there isn't much to worry about for him. He scored 21 points today, shot 2/7 from three point range, but showed that he can played a little bit of the three spot due to his surprisingly good athleticism. He still looks a little bit stiff defensively, though, so it might be something that he's going to be looking to improve on this season. Reports were that the Magic weren't going to do the trade for Vince Carter unless Anderson was being sent to them, so the Magic are obviously very high on him. His PER rating was good enough to be ranked in the top 10 within the rookie batch last season. Though PER isn't actually efficient with players who play major minutes, the per minute production that Anderson showed is good. I'm hoping he can build a little bit on it, and perhaps become a starter for us at the Power Forward spot next season if we don't get any other 4's in. The other two guys, Richardson and Hendrix are both phenomenal athletes. Richardson didn't get to show himself to the world last season playing with the Magic, and it likely wont change next season, but his talent is definitely on the NBA level. With Atlanta a few seasons ago, he did a surprisingly good job as the back-up for Joe Johnson, scoring about 5 points per game. Today, he scored 18 and grabbed 11 rebounds. I am honestly hoping that we keep Richardson around, if for nothing else than for that extra scoring punch if we ever decide we need it. Hendrix, on the other hand, is such a good player in the low-post. He's a little undersized, but he's got a wide body and he's super athletic. I was a little shocked when I saw that he was waived from the Golden State Warriors. He scored 10 points today, grabbed 4 rebounds, and blocked a shot. I'm almost sure that some team out there is looking for a player who can do a little scoring, and a lot of defending. Certainly has NBA potential. That's my thoughts, if anyone has their own, feel free to post. By the way, the Magic lost 88-77 today to the OKC Thunder. Was an entertaining game, Thunder have a promising team, I must admit.

Playing well in the Summer League doesn't prove your worth in the NBA. Courtney Lee is three thousand times the player Douglas-Roberts is.

This was in the news yesterday about McGrady: "The other Rocket star, forward Tracy McGrady, is recovering from knee surgery and may not join the team till January." Source (fifth paragraph) And you just know that even when he comes back, he's not going to be anywhere near the player we remember him to be, so his return, whenever it comes (and I don't think it will until mid-February at least, with McGrady's history) really wont mean much for the Rockets in the long run.

"Sources close to Rockets center Yao Ming tell Local 2 this afternoon he will announce he is having major surgery on his left foot in the next few days, and that the procedure will keep him out of the upcoming Rockets season." Source -- One playoff spot in the West just opened up. Rockets are a lottery/amongst the worst in the league without McGrady and Yao.

That was.. unexpected. Adds athleticism, if nothing else.

Having a low 'bust factor' doesn't mean you're going to be among the best players from the Draft. Different players have different expectations. For example, most people don't see James Harden being a bust; giving him 7 to 9 ratings almost all the time. But most people don't think he's going to be a star either; just he's more of a 'sure thing' than other players.

Exactly what I'm trying to figure out. I don't think it's a co-incidence either that the people who were already calling him a 'bust' in a few of the other Rubio related threads are in here calling him stupid for reasons that make absolutely no sense, other than to satisfy their agendas. Some of you guys don't get enough satisfaction for making the outrageously early 'bust' calls on him, even though most haven't even seem him play, and the games you have, he was 'wasn't that impressive', right? Some of you guys are retards. Contrary to some of your warped, deluded minds, it's not uncommon for any player in the last few seasons (even American) who believe they're not ready for the NBA, for whatever reason, to go back to/to go to Europe to work on their game and come back and test themselves out when they're ready. At least now when Rubio comes back, he's guaranteed a contract. I'd take that rather then uncertainty over my basketball career for two seasons. At least, even if doesn't meet expectations, he's still got a base contract of at least $3 million when he begins his NBA career.

I don't think he expected to fall past #3 or #4. the NBA is a business, it's about money. Why play when you're making next to nothing, meanwhile, your scrub teammate is making $5.5 million for sitting on the bench. As I said, difference between the #3/#4 pick and the #5 pick roughly equates to a few million dollars being lost. That money could have gone towards his buyout, as he's the one who has to pay it. It's better for him to wait until his contract expires and earn the money he deserves in the meantime.

Yeah. It was on Yahoo! Sports this morning: "Turkoglu had agreed on a five-year, $50 million deal with the Blazers, but changed his mind and could be headed for a five-year, $56 million deal with the Raptors. Toronto would have to renounce three free agents" Hedo is a SF Carter is a SG Pietrus is a sixth man. C: Howard F: Lewis F: Hedo G: Carter G: Nelson 6: Pietrus

Just letting you guys know the contract that was apparently offered by Toronto exceeds $56 million for 5 years. The contract's first year total is $10+ million with raises every season after that.

How did we 'def' get worse? Carter is a consistent 20 point per game scorer. Hedo was, at best, good for ~16 points on a good night. Plus, Ryan Anderson is someone who 'def' fits into our system. He's double the player Tony Battie is, at the very least and he's not even begun to develop yet. Plus, free agency just started. How are you so quick to judge? God, I think some people just like to look like retards sometimes.