Vinsanity to ORL?

[Fafnir]

Cleveland should have gone after him instead of Shaq.

Worth giving up their cap room next year you think? I'm not so sure, plus I think they'd demand West or Hickson back too.

He is also exciting, will sell jerseys, bring in fans

I don't buy that, maybe 5 or 10 years ago he did. But he wouldn't bring more excitement than Shaq. Plus Cleveland already has pretty much all the hype it can handle from LeBron anyways.

I think it'd be a better move talent wise, but their front court is what killed them against Orlando. So they'd do better to focus on the 4/5 spots. Heck even a quality backup 3 so they can slide LeBron to the four more effectively.

they had delonte west guarding hedo in the conference finals.  I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I'm cleveland with Carter on Hedo.

I'm not sure why you would be more comfortable, West did a solid job on Hedo. He's also a better overall defender than Carter. Rashard and Dwight were the two players who did the most damage to Cleveland.

Having a tall 2 guard isn't really an answer to dealing with a two tall perimeter front court players. They need another SF/PF who can guard Rashard. They also needed to get another C other than Z, who has fallen off a cliff with regards to production.

[Moranis]

Cleveland should have gone after him instead of Shaq.

Worth giving up their cap room next year you think? I'm not so sure, plus I think they'd demand West or Hickson back too.

He is also exciting, will sell jerseys, bring in fans

I don't buy that, maybe 5 or 10 years ago he did. But he wouldn't bring more excitement than Shaq. Plus Cleveland already has pretty much all the hype it can handle from LeBron anyways.

I think it'd be a better move talent wise, but their front court is what killed them against Orlando. So they'd do better to focus on the 4/5 spots. Heck even a quality backup 3 so they can slide LeBron to the four more effectively.

they had delonte west guarding hedo in the conference finals.  I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I'm cleveland with Carter on Hedo.

I'm not sure why you would be more comfortable, West did a solid job on Hedo. He's also a better overall defender than Carter. Rashard and Dwight were the two players who did the most damage to Cleveland.

Having a tall 2 guard isn't really an answer to dealing with a two tall perimeter front court players. They need another SF/PF who can guard Rashard. They also needed to get another C other than Z, who has fallen off a cliff with regards to production.

Lebron can guard Rashard.  Frankly I have no idea why he wasn't guarding him.  terrible coaching decision.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Cleveland should have gone after him instead of Shaq.

Worth giving up their cap room next year you think? I'm not so sure, plus I think they'd demand West or Hickson back too.

He is also exciting, will sell jerseys, bring in fans

I don't buy that, maybe 5 or 10 years ago he did. But he wouldn't bring more excitement than Shaq. Plus Cleveland already has pretty much all the hype it can handle from LeBron anyways.

I think it'd be a better move talent wise, but their front court is what killed them against Orlando. So they'd do better to focus on the 4/5 spots. Heck even a quality backup 3 so they can slide LeBron to the four more effectively.

they had delonte west guarding hedo in the conference finals.  I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I'm cleveland with Carter on Hedo.

I'm not sure why you would be more comfortable, West did a solid job on Hedo. He's also a better overall defender than Carter. Rashard and Dwight were the two players who did the most damage to Cleveland.

Having a tall 2 guard isn't really an answer to dealing with a two tall perimeter front court players. They need another SF/PF who can guard Rashard. They also needed to get another C other than Z, who has fallen off a cliff with regards to production.

Lebron can guard Rashard.  Frankly I have no idea why he wasn't guarding him.  terrible coaching decision.

I didn't watch any of the series, but I thought it would've been a no brainer for Cleveland to go a bit small with LeBron playing the 4.

[Moranis]

Cleveland should have gone after him instead of Shaq.

Worth giving up their cap room next year you think? I'm not so sure, plus I think they'd demand West or Hickson back too.

He is also exciting, will sell jerseys, bring in fans

I don't buy that, maybe 5 or 10 years ago he did. But he wouldn't bring more excitement than Shaq. Plus Cleveland already has pretty much all the hype it can handle from LeBron anyways.

I think it'd be a better move talent wise, but their front court is what killed them against Orlando. So they'd do better to focus on the 4/5 spots. Heck even a quality backup 3 so they can slide LeBron to the four more effectively.

they had delonte west guarding hedo in the conference finals.  I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I'm cleveland with Carter on Hedo.

I'm not sure why you would be more comfortable, West did a solid job on Hedo. He's also a better overall defender than Carter. Rashard and Dwight were the two players who did the most damage to Cleveland.

Having a tall 2 guard isn't really an answer to dealing with a two tall perimeter front court players. They need another SF/PF who can guard Rashard. They also needed to get another C other than Z, who has fallen off a cliff with regards to production.

Lebron can guard Rashard.  Frankly I have no idea why he wasn't guarding him.  terrible coaching decision.

I didn't watch any of the series, but I thought it would've been a no brainer for Cleveland to go a bit small with LeBron playing the 4.

they hid Lebron defensively had him guarding Lee or Alston pretty much the whole series, which meant West and Williams were often guarding Lewis and Hedo.  It was an awful decision to do that every single game.  I couldn't believe it.

[Fafnir]

Cleveland should have gone after him instead of Shaq.

Worth giving up their cap room next year you think? I'm not so sure, plus I think they'd demand West or Hickson back too.

He is also exciting, will sell jerseys, bring in fans

I don't buy that, maybe 5 or 10 years ago he did. But he wouldn't bring more excitement than Shaq. Plus Cleveland already has pretty much all the hype it can handle from LeBron anyways.

I think it'd be a better move talent wise, but their front court is what killed them against Orlando. So they'd do better to focus on the 4/5 spots. Heck even a quality backup 3 so they can slide LeBron to the four more effectively.

they had delonte west guarding hedo in the conference finals.  I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I'm cleveland with Carter on Hedo.

I'm not sure why you would be more comfortable, West did a solid job on Hedo. He's also a better overall defender than Carter. Rashard and Dwight were the two players who did the most damage to Cleveland.

Having a tall 2 guard isn't really an answer to dealing with a two tall perimeter front court players. They need another SF/PF who can guard Rashard. They also needed to get another C other than Z, who has fallen off a cliff with regards to production.

Lebron can guard Rashard.  Frankly I have no idea why he wasn't guarding him.  terrible coaching decision.

They tried that while putting West/Wally/Sasha on Hedo. It didn't really work well because LeBron couldn't get through the picks on the outside well enough.

[Fafnir]

Cleveland should have gone after him instead of Shaq.

Worth giving up their cap room next year you think? I'm not so sure, plus I think they'd demand West or Hickson back too.

He is also exciting, will sell jerseys, bring in fans

I don't buy that, maybe 5 or 10 years ago he did. But he wouldn't bring more excitement than Shaq. Plus Cleveland already has pretty much all the hype it can handle from LeBron anyways.

I think it'd be a better move talent wise, but their front court is what killed them against Orlando. So they'd do better to focus on the 4/5 spots. Heck even a quality backup 3 so they can slide LeBron to the four more effectively.

they had delonte west guarding hedo in the conference finals.  I'd feel a lot more comfortable if I'm cleveland with Carter on Hedo.

I'm not sure why you would be more comfortable, West did a solid job on Hedo. He's also a better overall defender than Carter. Rashard and Dwight were the two players who did the most damage to Cleveland.

Having a tall 2 guard isn't really an answer to dealing with a two tall perimeter front court players. They need another SF/PF who can guard Rashard. They also needed to get another C other than Z, who has fallen off a cliff with regards to production.

Lebron can guard Rashard.  Frankly I have no idea why he wasn't guarding him.  terrible coaching decision.

I didn't watch any of the series, but I thought it would've been a no brainer for Cleveland to go a bit small with LeBron playing the 4.

They did, it didn't work well at all. They got no production at all from the 3 spot if LeBron wasn't playing at that slot. Also defensively LeBron got picked off far to easily, so it didn't help even on that end. His frame is just too big to go through solid picks by Howard.

[cmbvale]

Hedo is opting out.

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/06/26/turkoglu.contract.ap/index.html?rss=true

[Finkelskyhook]

The great irony of this trade is that Tank Carter, a guy  who bragged about tanking to force a trade from Toronto, is going to a team who was a victim of his cousin doing exactly the same thing.

Character trumps talent about 99% of the time.

Van Gundy might as well start looking for work.  This is a killer for Orlando. 

[youcanthandlethetruth113]

I don't really understand why everyone thinks Orlando gets better with this trade.

Courtney Lee - was exceptional in his rookie year and will obviously only continue to improve. Remember, if Dwight hits 1 of those 2 free throws and Courtney hits a gimmie layup perception of this kid could be entirely different. I thought he was surprisingly aggresive and effective on offense and he blanketed Eddie House in that game where Alston was suspended. Seriously, I don't even remember Eddie sniffing a touch/shot.

Rafer Alston - I understand why they included him in the trade - because Anthony Johnson exercised his option and they've already got Jameericle starting. The PG spot would be too clogged and Alston AND Johnson sulking on the bench would be a chemistry killer IMO.

Tony Battie - they're going to miss this guy a lot more than they think. A strong veteran presence who provides nothing but solid play, hard work/hustle, strong defense, and even a mid-range jumper t'boot.

And for what? Vincent Lamar Carter? A man with a terrible history of injuries who's known to give up on his team and is reluctant to take the ball to the rim with consistency? A crybaby who voluntarily chose to attend his University graduation ceremony over a HUGE playoff game?

Clearly they value Ryan Anderson and believe he can fill the void left by the departure of Tony Battie, but I don't think that's likely.

Thoughts?

[Cman]

Courtney Lee - was exceptional in his rookie year and will obviously only continue to improve. Remember, if Dwight hits 1 of those 2 free throws and Courtney hits a gimmie layup perception of this kid could be entirely different.

I agree.  This trade is billed as a "cut salary" move by NJ, but they got a steal in Lee, and decent tradeable assets in Battie and Alston.

[Lucky17]

I'd feel a whole lot better about the deal from NJ's perspective if they hadn't included Anderson. He's arguably as good a young prospect as Lee.

[Cman]

I'd feel a whole lot better about the deal from NJ's perspective if they hadn't included Anderson. He's arguably as good a young prospect as Lee.

I would feel better as well if Anderson wasn't included, but I think Lee has shown more than Anderson -- and don't get me wrong, i am a big Anderson fan (after all, I also went to Cal!)

[Moranis]

I don't really understand why everyone thinks Orlando gets better with this trade.

Courtney Lee - was exceptional in his rookie year and will obviously only continue to improve. Remember, if Dwight hits 1 of those 2 free throws and Courtney hits a gimmie layup perception of this kid could be entirely different. I thought he was surprisingly aggresive and effective on offense and he blanketed Eddie House in that game where Alston was suspended. Seriously, I don't even remember Eddie sniffing a touch/shot.

Rafer Alston - I understand why they included him in the trade - because Anthony Johnson exercised his option and they've already got Jameericle starting. The PG spot would be too clogged and Alston AND Johnson sulking on the bench would be a chemistry killer IMO.

Tony Battie - they're going to miss this guy a lot more than they think. A strong veteran presence who provides nothing but solid play, hard work/hustle, strong defense, and even a mid-range jumper t'boot.

And for what? Vincent Lamar Carter? A man with a terrible history of injuries who's known to give up on his team and is reluctant to take the ball to the rim with consistency? A crybaby who voluntarily chose to attend his University graduation ceremony over a HUGE playoff game?

Clearly they value Ryan Anderson and believe he can fill the void left by the departure of Tony Battie, but I don't think that's likely.

Thoughts?

Lee is no where near the player Carter is, the other guys are just filler.  Now if they don't re-sign Hedo they will be worse because I'd take Hedo, Lee, and Alston over VC any day of the week, but if they re-sign Hedo, the Magic will be a much better team next year.

[Fafnir]

I don't really understand why everyone thinks Orlando gets better with this trade.

Courtney Lee - was exceptional in his rookie year and will obviously only continue to improve. Remember, if Dwight hits 1 of those 2 free throws and Courtney hits a gimmie layup perception of this kid could be entirely different. I thought he was surprisingly aggresive and effective on offense and he blanketed Eddie House in that game where Alston was suspended. Seriously, I don't even remember Eddie sniffing a touch/shot.

Rafer Alston - I understand why they included him in the trade - because Anthony Johnson exercised his option and they've already got Jameericle starting. The PG spot would be too clogged and Alston AND Johnson sulking on the bench would be a chemistry killer IMO.

Tony Battie - they're going to miss this guy a lot more than they think. A strong veteran presence who provides nothing but solid play, hard work/hustle, strong defense, and even a mid-range jumper t'boot.

And for what? Vincent Lamar Carter? A man with a terrible history of injuries who's known to give up on his team and is reluctant to take the ball to the rim with consistency? A crybaby who voluntarily chose to attend his University graduation ceremony over a HUGE playoff game?

Clearly they value Ryan Anderson and believe he can fill the void left by the departure of Tony Battie, but I don't think that's likely.

Thoughts?

Lee is no where near the player Carter is, the other guys are just filler.  Now if they don't re-sign Hedo they will be worse because I'd take Hedo, Lee, and Alston over VC any day of the week, but if they re-sign Hedo, the Magic will be a much better team next year.

Their GM has admitted that because of this trade it is likely they won't be able to keep Hedo. I thought they made this trade because they thought they were going to lose Hedo either way and needed to get Carter to stay contenders.

Basically they've traded Hedo, Lee, Gortat, Battie, and Alston to get VC and Ryan Anderson. Though I imagine they'll add some more free agents to shore up their bench.

[Finkelskyhook]

I don't think any team improves with the tankster on it.  Maybe San Antonio, which has strong leadership at management,coaching, and player levels.