Who's to blame in Orlando?

[jdz101]

I've had a longstanding theory that any team that has Hedo T.  as a vital piece of the puzzle isn't going too far in the playoffs.

That's a pretty bad theory given they made the Finals with him being a key cog not very long ago.

Basketball doesn't care about what you did previously. Turkoglu is just plain bad compared to a lot of the elite wing players in the east.

[Fafnir]

Gilbert Arenas played better than Rashad Lewis ever did last year. 

When? Gilbert was a net negative on the court when he played. It would've been better if he didn't play at all. 

   He was a net negative because he played with a unit that was struggling.  He played pretty well.  He attacked the basket and had nice passing.

He struggled with every unit he played with, even when he was playing the Magic's other starters.

[Yogi]

   Gilbert Arenas averaged 8.6 points 2.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists coming off the bench in 16 minutes.  Is that what you call struggling?

[Fafnir]

  Gilbert Arenas averaged 8.6 points 2.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists coming off the bench in 16 minutes.  Is that what you call struggling?

Yes, because he shot 43% from the field and 25% from three point land. He also played horrific defense.

He was a large negative for Orlando in the regular season and the playoffs with a few brief quarters of solid play offensively.

[Roy H.]

  Gilbert Arenas averaged 8.6 points 2.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists coming off the bench in 16 minutes.  Is that what you call struggling?

Yes, because he shot 43% from the field and 25% from three point land. He also played horrific defense.

He was a large negative for Orlando in the regular season and the playoffs with a few brief quarters of solid play offensively.

Yeah, the saddest thing is that 43% shooting from Arenas is about 10 percentage points above his regular season average.  Seriously, the guy misses 2/3rds of his shots.  He's a disaster of a player right now.

[Smitty77]

Gilbert was bad as evidenced by his below average Efficiency Rating that really misses how bad his defense is/was, as someone else has already mentioned.

http://www.nba.com/playerfile/gilbert_arenas/index.html

I think this Orlando loss makes it likely that Dwight leaves Orlando.  With Ray and KG expiring just in time, we should have a shot at luring Howard to Beantown.  Thoughts?

Smitty77

[manbehindtheman]

I've had a longstanding theory that any team that has Hedo T.  as a vital piece of the puzzle isn't going too far in the playoffs.

That's a pretty bad theory given they made the Finals with him being a key cog not very long ago.

Regardless if it is a good or bad theory, it is my theory.  He does not perform well in the playoffs and I don't think a team that has him as a crucial piece is going to be kissing the trophy, which is what I should have said to begin with. 

[guava_wrench]

Orlando had a competitive team, but decided they wanted to do whatever it takes to try to win it all. The gamble didn't work, but that doesn't mean that status quo would have been any better.

This is the nature of competition when the top teams have the same idea in mind.

[gar]

Don't know why they brought back Turkolu (sp?)

[Fafnir]

I've had a longstanding theory that any team that has Hedo T.  as a vital piece of the puzzle isn't going too far in the playoffs.

That's a pretty bad theory given they made the Finals with him being a key cog not very long ago.

Regardless if it is a good or bad theory, it is my theory.  He does not perform well in the playoffs and I don't think a team that has him as a crucial piece is going to be kissing the trophy, which is what I should have said to begin with. 

When you have a theory that is so clearly contradicted by facts, you should probably revise it

I do think that Hedo's current level of play means he's done as an impact player.

[Tai]

I've had a longstanding theory that any team that has Hedo T.  as a vital piece of the puzzle isn't going too far in the playoffs.

That's a pretty bad theory given they made the Finals with him being a key cog not very long ago.

Regardless if it is a good or bad theory, it is my theory.  He does not perform well in the playoffs and I don't think a team that has him as a crucial piece is going to be kissing the trophy, which is what I should have said to begin with. 

I agree with Fafnir that Turk's better years are behind him, but I get the feeling you just never liked him if you admit it might be a bad theory but you're sticking with it. What's the point?

[Yogi]

  Gilbert Arenas averaged 8.6 points 2.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists coming off the bench in 16 minutes.  Is that what you call struggling?

Yes, because he shot 43% from the field and 25% from three point land. He also played horrific defense.

He was a large negative for Orlando in the regular season and the playoffs with a few brief quarters of solid play offensively.

Yeah, the saddest thing is that 43% shooting from Arenas is about 10 percentage points above his regular season average.  Seriously, the guy misses 2/3rds of his shots.  He's a disaster of a player right now.

   Actually that stat shows that besides missing 3's he shot pretty well from the field.  You can't blame a guy for missing 3's.  I saw all the games and he never took a bad 3 unlike Crawford or Nelson.  His defense was not bad either.  He kept his guy off the paint and forced Atlanta to take contested jumpers.  His contests were maybe half a second too slow, that's because of his knees and not a lack of effort. 

[ballin]

Otis Smith, who decided to blow up a contender for no good reason.  

When you have a team as close as Orlando was, you add to it, rather than destroying it.  Gilbert Arenas wasn't a good gamble at the time, and nothing about his play has changed my thinking on that one.

You think Orlando would have gone further with Carter, Rashard, Gortat, and Pietrus?

Smith's errors started with letting Hedo walk.  He looked pretty smart at first because Hedo's game fell off a cliff, but maybe that doesn't happen if Hedo stays where he's comfortable in Orlando.  Regardless, Smith broke up a NBA Finals starting 5 in order to bring in Vince Frickin' Carter.  That was never going to work and while Rashard Lewis imploding the last two seasons made it all wthe orse, Smith should have never given Lewis that ginormous contract in the first place.

Then, instead of just letting it ride and seeing what he could do under the new CBA, he traded the only size he had besides Howard to get back the struggling Hedo with his big contract that has 3 more seasons to go and shipped out Lewis to bring in the just-as-bad-and-with-an-even-worse-contract Arenas.  And remember, even if Arenas suddenly starts playing great...are you going to play him and Jameer 35 minutes a game as your starting backcourt?  Orlando is going to spend 26 million dollars a year for the next two seasons for their starting and back-up point guards.

Mike

/end of thread.

[ElChe]

Who to blame? - Van Gundy and especially Otis Smith because he didn't buy some decent playoff players. This is team sport, and no matter how Howard is good, he just need support...

[2short]

Otis Smith
I believe he killed most of his chances at getting howard to stay with bad moves, bad contracts and more bad moves