Lewis to Magic Official?

[[S]Reaver]

$126 million

No words can explain my emotions, so...

[Clock]

This just makes wanna stop watching NBA basketball. This is just disgusting.

[Sauru]

lol, the bad thing is, if he can get that, half the players in the nba will think they deserve it now also. thing is probably about 20% of them do more so than he lol.

[maes]

I'm guessing there must have been a bidding war between Presti & Orlando for Rashard's contract. Orlando got stupid and offered up a ridiculous contract to simply buy him out.

[BigKaboom2]

I don't really know enough about Lewis to make a judgment. I agree that the contract is awfully huge, but he's been playing on a run-and-gun team for a while and I have no idea how he'll react to the Magic's more traditional style. Maybe they'll make another move by the trade deadline and turn into a title contender - could be part of some zany master plan.

EDIT: Who cares about his rebounding when you've got Howard on your
team?

I think the Sonics are in terrible shape after blowing up their team
completely. Durant doesn't solve everything.

EDIT 2: Catch-and-shoot players are incredibly undervalued in a league where only a handful of American guys can shoot worth a lick.

[Silas]

I think in the end, it's sad what's happened to the Sonincs. It's a shame they've lost both Ray and Rashard, but I think the moves they've made were the right ones. I'm very, very glad Sam Presti didn't offer Rashard the contract that he took with the Magic. I'm glad that the Sonics have Jeff Green, who is performing very well so far.

I think that having Ray Allen would have been much better than having Jeff Green, but with his Contract off the books now, and the cap space from not signing Rashard, plus the increase in the Salary Cap, the Sonics will have enough money to sign just about any player who's a free agent in the 2008 off season.

Here are just a few of the many players... (assuming some don't sign extensions)

Andre Iguadala
Al Jefferson
Emeka Okafor
Baron Davis
Ben Gordon
Bruce Bowen
Corey Maggette (player option)
Dorell Wright
Elton Brand (player option)
Jason Kidd (player option)
Jermaine O'Neal (player option)
Josh Smith
Kevin Martin
Luol Deng
Nenad Krstic
Ricky Davis
Shawn Marion (player option)
Shaun Livingston
Tim Duncan (player option)

And of course Gilbert Arenas, who's already confirmed he's going to opt out of his contract.

The Sonics will have the money to sign any of these players, and perhaps more than one. I think this upcoming season will be rocky, unless they can implement that very hefty trade exception they acquired for Rashard, but the 2008 off season will be very, very interesting for the Sonics.

[benji]

Real quick, as Silas linked, it'll be about ten million less than the original report. That person didn't know the new cap figures and overinflated the starting salary. (Just like in the Howard case a few weeks ago.)

Basically they traded Darko and Grant Hill for Rashard Lewis.

Orlando is arguably one of the most short-sighted teams in the league. They so want to just land that "one star" to put them over they make lousy moves.

As bad as this deal may be, it's hardly on par with that 2004 offseason. They could've had Howard-Gooden-McGrady-Hill-Nelson with Varejao and Tyronn Lue off the bench this year. (Don't forget they went into panic mode and ditched Pachulia as well.)

Overpaying Rashard Lewis in this stupid inflated market (by all the idiot GMs) is hardly worse than trading Gooden and Varejao for Tony Battie. (Who they promptly resigned twice for over $5 million per.) Or trading McGrady (and Howard and Lue) for Carlos Arroyo, Trevor Ariza, twenty games of Doug Christie and a year and a half of Darko Milicic.

Especially since Lewis is a good player, even if not worth anywhere near that amount. They do lose about $14 million in contracts I don't see why they'd want to resign for next season. So they can add a third star in the year before Howard's extension kicks in.

[Andrew]

If I'm Presti, I can live with a future second round pick and the $9 million trade exception over paying Lewis his $100 million contract that he's been chasing for years; at the very worst, it's better than losing him for nothing in return. He's a fine player and all but for that money he ought to be the player who'll join forces with Dwight Howard and take the Magic to the championship and I can't see that as being a given.

[The X]

good trade by the Sonics....funnily enough I liked the look of the Magic one year ago with Hill, Redick, Diener, Arroyo, Howard, Nelson & Darko....now I have no time for them (I'll keep tabs on JJ though, hopefully they trade him away for a conditional 2nd Rounder or something like that) & hope they go back to the lottery....

[Sauru]

well, bad moves or not, whatever your opinion, i think we can all agree that they will be interesting to watch for awhile atleast to see how it all pans out.

[air gordon]

Basically they traded Darko and Grant Hill for Rashard Lewis.

maybe my numbers are wrong here... but you could say they passed up keeping Darko/signing Gerald Wallace

Overpaying Rashard Lewis in this stupid inflated market (by all the idiot GMs) is hardly worse than trading Gooden and Varejao for Tony Battie. (Who they promptly resigned twice for over $5 million per.) Or trading McGrady (and Howard and Lue) for Carlos Arroyo, Trevor Ariza, twenty games of Doug Christie and a year and a half of Darko Milicic.

is that the same GM who made those moves that's still in charge?