Archive for June, 2010

With the Draft only a few short hours away I thought we would take a look at what all the mock drafts around the “net” have to say about who the Magic will select.  Take a look. Site                                        1st Round                                                             2nd Round Howard the Dunk SF Quincy Pondexter, Washington           N/A DraftExpress SF Quincy Pondexter, Washington          PG Jerome Randle, California ESPN.com (Insider) SF Darington Hobson, New Mexico         PG Mikhail Torrance, Alabama (12 more site after the jump)

We’re just hours away from the 2010 NBA Draft and things are starting to clear up. Barring any trade, it looks like the top 5 picks are set. After the jump, you can check out the final HTD Mock Draft.

Happy Draft Day!  While fans remain focused on what player(s) could be joining their teams via the NBA Draft, the free agency and trade rumor mill never rests.  Mike McGraw from the Daily Herald (a suburban Chicago newspaper) is reporting a rumor that Luol Deng could be on his way to the Magic in exchange for Mickael Pietrus and Marcin Gortat.  However, while he says the rumor has had some “legs”, he doesn’t believe anything will go further. This deal would save the Bulls about $22 million in future salaries, but it wouldn’t give them any more cap space to add [...]

Click here to read the latest on a possible Gilbert Arenas-Vince Carter swap. The Orlando Magic plan to hang on to their first round pick and will make the obligatory call to one superstar. James is the big fish in a well-stocked pond. The Magic can’t acquire any of the marquee players in this star-studded class unless they strike gold in a sign-and-trade or a player takes less to join Dwight Howard and a contender. For instance, Orlando has available the mid-level exception (which starts at $5.5 million) to entice LeBron (and Redick wants all or most of that). Asked [...]

Draft Express first reported this rumor earlier Wednesday evening via twitter. Hearing some chatter from a trusted NBA source about a potential Gilbert Arenas for Vince Carter trade in the works. Wonder how real it is. Arenas has a terrible contract and would be an awful fit seeing as he is point guard/shooting guard tweener. Magic General Manager Otis Smith is a friend of Arenas’, but this seems like a rash decision and one that Smith would not make. For now, this is nothing more than a rumor and I expect it to remain that way. Update: Michael Lee of [...]

Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reports Chris Paul is open to a trade. “I’m fine with staying in New Orleans, but I want to make sure we’re committed to winning,” said Paul, whose been lauded for the community work he’s done in New Orleans. “I don’t want to rebuild. I want to win now. It’s nothing personal against the city. I love that city. But my biggest thing is winning.” Broussard also has an interesting quote from on Eastern Conference higher-up. “If George Shinn can’t sell the team, I think Chris Paul will be traded,” an executive from an Eastern Conference [...]

Ask any Magic fan about the NBA draft and you generally get quite polarizing opinions on the subject.  The Magic faithful either love it or hate it.  And while the Magic have had some success stories recently, the overall team’s draft history in relation to success has been up and down. The NBA lottery has been very kind to Orlando, with the ping pong balls falling our way three times during the franchise’s brief history.  While winning the lottery is definitely a noteworthy feat, having the number one overall pick is not always a guarantee of success.  Since the Magic [...]

Tim Povtak of NBA Fanhouse got into the specifics of a potential Chris Paul-to-Orlando deal. The Magic, as part of the early discussion, would receive both Paul and small forward James Posey, according to a second NBA source that confirmed the original FanHouse story by Sam Amick involving the two teams. Although Paul clearly is the best player in the talks, the Hornets are interested in reducing future salary obligations. The team is in the midst of an ownership sale/transfer that has been stalled by the debt obligations that the new owner would incur. Paul has three years remaining on [...]

Here is the video courtesy of the Orlando Magic: (Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor on the Fansided Front Page. Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Twitter to follow him daily and you can get the HTD app here).

Jordan Crawford is probably the most recognized name among the Magic invites because of his dunk over LeBron James last summer. Although it got Crawford’s name out there, it’s really a shame because it overshadows just how good of a season Crawford had. Crawford spent the 2007-08 playing for Indiana before deciding to transfer to Xavier. By rule, he had to sit out the 2008-09 season. Crawford returned to the court last season and was fantastic. Crawford exploded during his sophomore season, averaging 20.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. Crawford also shot the ball efficiently – he [...]