FanPost

Sending out Good Vibes too all my fellow Magic fans




Greeting My fellow Magic fans! Long Time reader first time posting.

So Like many of you I woke up draft day more excited than a 16 year old who was promised a new car for his birthday only to find out the new car was the old family Station wagon.
To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.
As my disgust grew my niece who was watching the draft with me asked me why I was so angry? after i break things down to an 11 year old girl, who doesn't even care for sports, she still looked confused and says " So none of these guys have played in the NBA yet?" That's correct, I reply,, "Sooo how do you know whose gonna be good if they haven't played yet?"
That conversation made me start to feel better, because no one really knows and it prompted me to write this, even at the risk of getting pudding in my eye. Here are a few things I hope will make you if not more optimistic, at least not as down I was before that convo with my dear niece.
First to my nieces point, the draft is a crapshoot and I found this article on the history of the draft and where players were selected and if teams could redo that draft how it would have gone... very cool read, may have even been a link from someones post here, not 100% sure but check it out, it may make you feel better

http://grantland.com/features/nba-draft-crapshoot-repick-1995/ redraft

second thing is what if and it is a BIG IF I know, but what if all these players reach there ceiling, we could actually be scary if that happened


Aaron Gordon Ceiling is Blake Griffin , and remember Blake over the last couple of seasons actually developed a offensive game outside of dunks.. ie the post game and 10-15 jump shot.

Floor- hes a def stopper who can guard 1 thru 4 here's a link below that was written in January... that may put some perspective in what Henny saw when he made the pick

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1927179-aaron-gordons-advantage-over-top-10-2014-nba-draft-prospect-peers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_g7MjHxVAk arron gordon verticle


Elfrid Payton ceiling is Gary Payton at least the comparisons I've been reading, After watching him I think his potential would be in the line with Rondo... not alot of points but can facilitate , defend and rebound. I know he cant shoot but keep in mind this is a rebuild and my guess is that Henny is starting with glue guys. On the team as it is, I understand how most of you feel by drafting a guy who cant shoot for a team that desperately needs shooting, but if your thinking ahead (and I imagine Rob is) you put Payton on a team with shooters and his skill set becomes more effective. no pressure to score be a floor general. guards 1 and 2

Evan Fournier- ceiling Tony Parker... didn't even know who he was before draft day, and like most of you I'm sure, started looking for footage of him, and I'm actually pretty excited about him. For starters he has a cool nick name "The French Mamba".. his offensive game is pretty solid not an great defender, but we are all screaming for offense and I think Evan may surprise you, he plays both guard positions .. I have a feeling hes gonna become a fan Fav like Ryan or JJ... plus throw in the fact he's Only 20... when given the chance to play I think he could drop 20 every night,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idtFywqm3GE Evan Fournier

Dipo- ceiling is Wade ( I know most of you will beg to differ) but like I said this is to think of the possibility, and Personally I love Dipo's game, I'm not a stat guy like alot of you on here, but just on my eye test, I feel the positive out weigh the neg. I'm convinced that with his work ethic he can correct the things in his game that need help, but the things he does well are more valuable than his deficiencies. , On the team last year he was playing out position due to team need, but now we have a facilitator at PG he can play to his skill set which is off ball energy plus again defend 1-2 I think we will see a vast improvement from Dipo this year

Vuc becomes Vuc 1.2- We all know and love Vuc's game at least I think, but I actually think drafting Gordon helps Vuc more than it helps the Team as a whole right now, They offset each other weakness, Vuc on the def end of the floor and Gordon on the off end. ...Plus both VUc and KOQ are good passing big men, I can see alot of post up drawing a double and Gordon getting easy finishes at the rim. But the big thing is Gordon is a defensive freak and I think that pressure off Vuc is gonna help him.

My feeling is Rob is building the team from the Inside Out, like the successful NFL teams draft Lineman which is never the "sexy pick" but the foundation for your team and once that in place you go for the 4.3 40 wide outs. I know its a different sport, but once I started looking at things like that, the draft made alot more sense to me. What we know or at least think we know about the players is they are all Athletic, High BB IQ, above ave day one defenders and they all want to be here. which plays to a Team First Philosophy. I think that's the Culture the Organization is trying to build, and with a young core have a chance to do it from scratch. Once that is in place , we then go for that 4.3 40 wide out or in this case a lights out shooter or offensive phenom who may be a Superstar but he will come to a Team that has been together and has a team first Identity. To me this approach relates more to what the spurs have 5 chips in 15 year as oppose what we have been doing , grabbing a superstar build around him only for him to bolt, netting 2 finals wins.


This is just my humble opinion and my hopes for this team. I'm sure that people can post stats about why what i said above will never happen, and why we should have picked player x as oppose to player y . and they may be correct, but at this point it would only be hypothetical much like my scenario of all of our players reaching greatness, but as a fan I have to accept who we have and hope they will blossom into the players we want them to be. And so that will be my approach going into next year..

IF all else fails and all of you are correct and no one on our team can shoot, we can only hope that there will be no need for Vaugn to draw up offensive sets.. he can literately show up with a ball to practice and say "Here Now RUN, JUMP, DUNK, DEFEND" so see not everything is not lost.
PLUS my bold prediction for the 2015 season is Aaron Gordon will bring back the DUNK Championship back to City beautiful. Silver Linings anyone?

let the pudding throwing commence in 3,2,1

This FanPost was made by a member of the Orlando Pinstriped Post community, and is to be treated as the opinions and views of its author, not that of the blogger or blog community as a whole.

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