62points by t-mac

[magius]

today im a yes man so i agree with everything said, and even if i dont i'm open-minded enough to understand where its coming from. i wont say anything about the kobe stuff because i was probably wrong to have added that little bit lets just leave it as a difference of opinion, eh?

i agree that tmac shouldnt be hoisting 30-40 shots when he's not feeling it, and usually he doesnt as he averages around 24 shots per game, but look at it this way, take last nights laker game where he was 13 for 30 or something like that -- wannie howard still had 29, stevenson 18, and lue 8 or 10, so it wasnt as if tmac was hogging the ball, but tell me, aside from howard who else would you rather take the shot? i mean you cant call a player 'selfish' or a 'hog-ball' when he's the ONLY player on a team that can create his own shot.

i was reading the thread about how good kobe was and decided not to post there because i would obviously be gang banged i find it hard to believe these people watched the game! every time tmac touched the ball he was swarmed, the same can definetely not be said about kobe seeing as that if you double kobe it will create an easy shot for karl malone, shaqille o'neal, or gary payton, compare that with the threat of juwan howard, tryone lue, and deshawn stevenson --- get my point? i mean if i were the coach defending the magic i'd just triple team tmac every time down the court because orlando has absolutely no perennial perimiter threats right now. i would rather leave declerq open then have tmac play one on one the way kobe is allowed to do in LA. it is also very funny to see that kobe is now a 'great defender' because he and another guy doubled tmac and held him to 37 points and 10 assists. 37 points on 32 shots isnt hellishly bad at least he got to the free throw line, a worse statistic would be 37 points on 37 shots or 20 points on 20 shots, etc. etc.. (considering no free throws taken)

garrity and miller are obviously much missed (gooden-miller trade=bad), because at least they could stretch the defense a little. i dont see one healthy player on the magic aside from tmac and MAYBE lue that have any long range skill. stevenson for giricek looks fairly stupid to me. as i said before and i say again, orlando needs hill and garrity healthy so that howards scoring will become expendable and tradeable.

at least orlando gets the 1st pick this draft (hopefully), i hope orlando management is better at drafting than it is at assessing team needs. its just too bad this bad season hadnt happened a season earlier and maybe a new age scottie-mj era wouldve been born (tmac-lebron).

[Boyk]

Fair enough Magius
When Kobe was put on T-Mac there wasnt another guy, it was just him and t-mac in the end of that game.

i hear what ya saying about t-mac having to shoot alot etc.
But IMO if he played with a little more heart and worked harder, instead firing up threes and trying to knock down shots with a hand in his face, then the Magic may do a lil better.
you keep bringing up his supporting cast, but think of the 2000/2001 sixers team.
I know the sixers team was better defensivley and had a better coach, but it was AI's heart and will to win that made them a good team.
He'd do whatever he could, but what im trying to say is T-Mac still just chucks up threes and long range 2's.

[magius]

i think this is going to be long

first of all, did you watch last nights ot? tmac was doubled prettymuch every time he touched it if i recall correctly....... correct me if i really am wrong

anyway, i understand what you mean about ai having heart in the 2000/01 season, but that sixers team and this magic team are incomparable. a more likely comparison to the present magic team would be the present 76ers team except even the present 6ers are much better. why? because glenn robinson is better than juwan howard (with a 3 point shot to stretch the floor for ai -- so also more compatible to a franchise guard's game), eric snow is much better than tryone lue and possible the best defensive guard in the league right now, kyle korver is essentially pat garrity except garritys been injured all season, marc jackson is almost always preferable to declerq, drew gooden is okay but so is kenny thomas, stevenson scores more points than mckie, but mckie is defensively saavy AND more importantly has a 3 point shot which again stretches the floor. the rest of the fodder players cancel each other with maybe the exception of coleman. i guess ai and tmac cancel each other out as well, but maybe tmac has the edge in that now if only for height advantage and a much better shot percentage (just in case you dont think so ). so as you see even the PRESENT philly team is vastly superior to orlando and more well built to suit a franchise guard-- 3 legitime nba 3 point shooters (robinson, korver, mckie) to orlandos one (lue......garrity is not included because garrity has only played 2 games). SO to sum it up the present day philly team already is better defensively and better talent-wise then orlando.

now lets get down to business, the only reason i think you can compare the 2000/01 76ers to todays magic is because they as well didnt have great 3 point shooters to stretch ai's defense -- true. but as you pointed out they were so much better defensively that to me its almost funny to compare this years magic and those 6ers. defensse means everything -- ask the pistons, ask any winning team not named sacramento or dallas . lets sum it up:

mutumbo while still in his prime (around 10 ppgs, 14 rpgs, and 2.5 bpgs if i remember -- essentially a taller ben wallace)

tryone hill who i think was averaging 10 and 9 (better rebounding himself than any magic player presently), and who was known for his defensive tenacity -- he was kind of like a shorter pj brown i guess, and pj brown is very underrated.

george lynch is again one of those very very good defensive players -- orlando's best d players are maybe tmac, declerq, hunter, and then maybe bogans and then maybe lue and then maybe stevenson. thats ugly. lynch also grabbed 7.2 boards per game -- philly's 3rd best rebounder rebounds more than any present day magic (howard at 7.1 )

eric snow again is much better than lue

then on the bench you got geiger and maculloch -- players who can play and have size, and size matters big time in the nba. geiger and maculloch would probably start on the present day magic roster (juwan howard at sf).

ollie is better than whatever backup point orlando has these days (if they have any, i forget)

then you got jumaine jones and mckie -- tenancious defenders, the kind of character players you want on your team. name one player on orlando not named tmac that brings the spark jones or mckie did.

and then you've got mcleod and buford as well -- mcleod averaged around 9 points per game that season.

that team was basically the pistons today with iverson translating into billups and rip and then some.

todays orlando team has no defense, no 3 point shooting (save maybe lue who will hit you 1 per game) -- basically, all it has is tmac and juwan....... which might be enough to secure eastern playoffs, except that their is absolutely no defensive presence in the middle or anywhere else for that matter and that means losses no matter how good your star is.

how do i know that if orlando played better defensively they'd be in the playoffs? because they are the 9th best scoring team in the league. whats killing them? you guessed it -- they are the worst defensive team in the league too allowing a whopping 101 points per game! no one can win under those circumstances no matter how much heart he has.

[air gordon]

didn't mckie win the 6th man award that year as well?

[fgrep15]

yea Iverson was MVP, Mutombo was Defensive player, and Mckie was 6th man, they might as well have made Snow most improved player, and any rookie on that team ROY.

[magius]

by the way, i hope the magic get okafor in the upcoming draft. if they slip in position and draft a guard i will puke and never support orlando again....... maybe

[Nel]

I believe okafor has an injury in which might change the decision of the magic to draft him(the grant hill experience). What about dwight howard?

[Boyk]

Ok Magius point accepted.

Ice, no, why another High Schooler, I'd take Okafor hands down, Theres not gonna be another High School Phenom like Lebron.
If Dwight is taken in the top 5 i will puke.

[fgrep15]

Well I guess you're going to be puking then

[Boyk]

Well I guess you're going to be puking then

man people dont learn, we've sen how long it takes for high school centres and forwards to develop, i mean Kwames only just started to play great(thank god for that) and it took mister O'Neal 4 years(though u can half blame portland for that for making him get splinters)
Howard prolly does have a future, but hes not gonna produce like Lebron, he'll prolyl be like kwame for his first 3 years.

[Matthew]

It depends on the team if they want to draft a project player. It makes much more sense for a team like washington at the time, or minnesota when they took kg to draft a high school big man than say the situation with detroit taking darko