2014 Summer League Rosters – Orlando
July 4th, 2014
Kadeem Batts – Batts is somewhere in between Mike Davis and Mike Scott. He is a wiry strong finesse power forward whose game is based around the mid-range jump shot and who rarely creates. Be it through the pick and pop, the pick-and-roll, cuts to the basket or through running the court in transition, Batts generally only finishes looks others or opportunity created for him. Even when he posts, it is normally only to a jump shot. He has the frame to do more in the paint, but not the game. He’s a finesse player who will take some contact, but hasn’t that much power. He just is. So be it. On the glass, Batts uses his activity and length to keep balls alive and is a good offensive rebounder for this reason, but is less effective on the defensive glass where he can be outfought. Similarly, he defends the perimeter well, but is not much of a rim protector. He struggles to do much in the post on both ends when up against players of true size, and though he anticipates well and hedges hard, he has not the power of a power position player. Batts has good speed and a good motor, and can seal and finish down low on smaller opponents, but there aren’t going to be smaller opponents at the highest levels. And while he can occasionally spot up from three and drive the ball from the line, he can also barrel people over and has yet to add consistent three point range. What separates Mike Davis and Mike Scott? Scott is smarter, tougher, competes defensively even when overmatched and has a little bit of three point range. Batts ought to channel some of this. He could make the league despite his rebounding and his defensive […]
2013 Summer League rosters, Orlando Summer Pro League – Orlando
July 9th, 2013
Jared Berggren True to the Wisconsin way, Berggren makes few mistakes on the court. Or at least, he does now. Throughout his career, Berggren significantly reduced his foul and turnover rates to the point that they’re now very strong suits of his. He also got bigger and tougher, turning himself into a sufficiently mediocre rebounder and much improved rim protector. Tougher, however, is not the same as tough. Berggren is frail, still too frail to play with NBA muscle on both ends. Recognising this and taking more jump shots to diversify his decent internal finishing would have been a successful move had he hit a good number of said shots. This didn’t happen, and thus Berggren projects best as a defender and finisher who can’t do such things as well against bigger opponents. Not an NBA combination. But he will make money in European leagues, such as the German and Belgian ones. Keith Clanton Clanton rather stagnated as an upperclassman, but still left UCF as the all-time leader in games, rebounds and blocks. Statistically, aside from some extra percent on his free throw and three point strokes, there is a lot to like. The mostly face-up power forward has decent if unspectacular size and athleticism, and a versatile skill set. Clanton can create in the post and finish with a turnaround jumper or with a hook with both hands, shoots reasonably well from mid-range (although he could stand to improve here, as well as shoot a bit quicker), can straight-line drive, and run the pick-and-roll. He rebounds well and can defend the basket even without overwhelming physical tools. However, it is this lack of physical tools that will surely prevent an NBA career of note. Like Berggren, he will make money in Europe, and may progress to the higher levels […]
Orlando's TPEs
July 26th, 2012
Before the sign-and-trade of Ryan Anderson to New Orleans, Orlando had one TPE, totalling $4.25 million, created in the Glen Davis/Brandon Bass trade of last offseason. That $4.25 million TPE is set to expire on December 12th. Orlando used some of that TPE in the Anderson deal to absorb the returning salary of the criminally overlooked Gustavo Ayon, who is to earn $1.5 million this season. The Bass TPE, then, is now $2.75 million big, and thus can be used between now and December 12th to absorb incoming player salaries of $2.85 million (as $100,000 leeway is allowed with TPE’s). By absorbing Ayon with the Bass TPE, Orlando were essentially trading out Anderson with no incoming salary. This then meant another TPE was created equal to the amount of Anderson’s outgoing salary. The issue is what that amount is. Anderson signed a deal that will pay him exactly $8.7 million next season – however, whilst the concept of Base Year Compensation (which now isn’t called that, or indeed call anything, but which term will suffice here) was largely eradicated in the latest CBA, it does still apply to sign-and-trade deals. The basic principle of BYC is that, if a team signs and trades a player using Bird or early Bird rights, and the player receives a raise in the first year of the new contract greater than 20% in the first year of the new deal over the last year of his previous one, then his outgoing salary is deemed to be only half of his actual salary. Anderson earned only $2,244,601 last year, so he easily earned more than a 20% raise, and thus is BYC-eligible. His actual salary of $8.7 million was therefore assessed to be $4.35 million for the purposes of the trade calculations, and thus that, […]
2010 Summer League Rosters: Orlando Magic
July 10th, 2010
This post is a bit late, considering the Magic have played their games. However, the site’s outages just before free agency started set us back a bit, and then obviously free agency itself kind of blew the cock off the whole thing. Sorry about that. Since I’d already started it, we’ll do it anyway. Jeff Adrien It’s hard for a 6’7 power forward to make it in the NBA. You have to be pretty exceptional at something to do it. Adrien, though, is exceptional at nothing. He’s solid at most things except foul shooting; decently athletic, willing and able to rebound, capable of defending the post, prepared to run, and able to shoot right handed hook shots. But despite his height, he’s in absolutely no way a small forward. He’s a very undersized power forward who is neither really athletic nor Chuck Hayes. Adrien played in the LEB Gold last year, averaging 12.3ppg and 7.7rpg for Breocgan Lugo. It’s a league ideally suited for him. Joe Crawford Crawford is slightly undersized for a shooting guard at 6’4, could use a slightly better three point stroke (and definitely from the foul line), and is not exactly consistent; he is, however, a talented and versatile scorer, mainly through penetration. Crawford is a former draft pick of the L.A. Lakers, 58th overall back in 2008. Had he been drafted somewhere else, he might have stuck in the NBA by now. He’s good. As it is, he’s appeared in only 2 games, for the Knicks in the last week of the 2008/09 season. He scored 9 points in 23 minutes. Not bad. Joe Crawford fact: Joe Crawford is Hawks draft pick Jordan Crawford’s brother. That is all. Paul Davis Davis has spent at least part of three years in the NBA, including starting last […]
Where Are They Now: 2009 NBA Summer League Teams Part 3
September 3rd, 2009
It’s been roughly two months since summer league started, and most of the players involved have been rehomed now. The following is a list of where everybody currently is, or where they might be going. This list gets a bit long, so if you want to just skip to your favoured team, you can do so. I’ll allow that. New York Knicks – Wink Adams: Adams is signed with Oyak Renault Bursa in Turkey. – Alex Acker: Almost as soon as he was back in it, Acker is out of the NBA again. He is signed with Armani Jeans Milano in Italy. – Blake Ahearn: See Nets/Sixers entry. – Morris Almond: Almond is unsigned. I haven’t heard anything about him agreeing to a training camp invite anywhere, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it was with the Knicks. – Warren Carter: Unsigned. – Joe Crawford: Crawford is, and always was, under contract through 2010. So he’s going to camp. – Toney Douglas: Douglas shot badly in summer league, but passed for an impressive seven assists per game. If he’s going to try and reinvent himself as a playmaking guard in the up-tempo system, then that’s a pretty good start. However, the entire team shot less than 39% for the tournament, which is less complimentary of Douglas’s offence-running skills. – Patrick Ewing Jr: Ewing missed summer league with injuries. He is unsigned, and sounds like a training camp candidate. – Jordan Hill: Jordan Hill may well prove to be the second-best big man in this draft. This says more about the draft than Jordan Hill. – Ron Howard: Unsigned. – Yaroslav Korolev: For the Knicks to have thought they could have gotten anything out of Yaroslav Korolev was ambitious. Although not nearly […]
More Creative Financing In The NBA, 2009
August 28th, 2009
Here’s a longer list of things that were not included in the original Creative Financing post, either because I forgot to include them, or (in one instance) because the sweet prince who called our hotline with the information had not yet come forward. Remember; all calls are anonymous and you could receive a cash reward for information. (Wait, no you couldn’t. That’s the slogan they use on Crimewatch. Ignore that.) – As a part of the new scheme of turning this website’s salary information from a static exhibit into a working reconstruction of life in First World War France, there now exists a page that lists all remaining salary cap exceptions for every NBA team. Of note on this list is the curious case of Channing Frye, the former Blazers and Knicks forward whose transformation from the next Dirk Nowitzki to the next Malik Allen is almost complete. The Suns signed Frye last month to a two-year, $4,139,200 contract; not coincidentally, that is the same amount as the full value of the Bi-Annual Exception. However, the Suns didn’t actually use their Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. Knowing that they wouldn’t be using the full MLE to sign somebody due to their payroll concerns, the Suns cleverly (and creatively) used an equivalent chunk of their Mid-Level Exception instead. As the name would suggest, you get to use the Bi-Annual Exception a maximum of once every two years, so if the Suns used it this year, they wouldn’t get it next year. But if they roll it over, they do. It’s pretty shrewd, when you think about it. (Teams that should have done this but didn’t include Washington – who used their BAE on Fabricio Oberto, and who won’t use their MLE – and Chicago – who used their BAE on […]
With apologies to Dwight Howard
January 6th, 2008
In my season preview of the Orlando Magic, written back in October and located here, I wrote something that looks a bit stupid in hindsight. At this point, I’d quite like to try and weasel my way out most of it. The following are some quotes that I stand by: It would be very difficult if not impossible to provide a commentary on the Rashard Lewis sign-and-trade while also managing to take an interesting or unique viewpoint, or to say anything that hasn’t already been said. So I won’t. But I will recommend that you look at the figure that he signed for (listed above), and think long and hard about whether he is worth it. And if you come up with any answer other than “no”, keep looking at it until you do. In 2013, a 33 year old Rashard Lewis is going to be being paid nearly $22.7 million. So now, ask yourselves whether the trio of Hill, Milicic and Diener (who should, without a doubt, have played over Carlos Arroyo all of last season, and who is now nicely lined up for a breakout season) is going to help any more than Rashard Lewis on his own. It’s a tough answer, but either way, the Magic’s player personnel did not improve much. If at all. Last season’s mediocre performance suggests that the good run to end the 2005/06 season was nothing more than an aberration. With better coaching and better performance this season, the Magic have the opportunity to show that it was last season that was the anomaly instead. If Orlando gets breakout performances from one or perhaps a couple of young players (specifically looking in the directions of Jameer Nelson and J.J. Redick), they could contend for the open Southeast Division title. If you only read […]
30 teams in 36 or so days: Orlando Magic
September 16th, 2007
Players acquired via free agency or trade: Rashard Lewis (signed and traded from Seattle, six years, $112,753,504) Adonal Foyle (two year minimum) Marcin Gortat (two year minimum) Players acquired via draft: First round: None Second round: Miroslav Rakovic (60th overall, unsigned) Players retained: Keyon Dooling (opted in), Pat Garrity (opted in) Players departed: Travis Diener (signed with Indiana), Grant Hill (signed with Phoenix), Darko Milicic (signed with Memphis), Bo Outlaw (unsigned, may yet return) Bobbins: In a seven-day period in February 2006, first-year GM Otis Smith made two trades. One saw the expiring contract of Kelvin Cato and a 2007 first-rounder (later parlayed into Rodney Stuckey) dealt to Detroit for Darko Milicic and Carlos Arroyo, and one saw falling star Steve Francis dealt to New York – in a trade only Isiah Thomas could make – for Trevor Ariza and the huge expiring contract of Penny Hardaway. Within a week, the floundering Magic had been re-invigorated. Since the McGrady/Hill era had failed several years prior, the John Weisbrod era had made the Magic’s fortunes worsen further. Managing to do almost everything wrong, Weisbrod saw fit to end the McGrady in Orlando era by dealing him and Juwan Howard to Houston for Francis, Cato and Cuttino Mobley, a trade which vastly improved Houston but which didn’t do much for Orlando. Daring and skilled enough to somehow make the situation worse, though, Weisbrod subsequently traded Mobley to Sacramento for Doug Christie, a man who played only 21 games with Orlando, scoring 119 points. And that’s not to even mention the Varejao and Gooden for Battie deal with Cleveland that he also rustled up. Weisbrod then resigned. Which seems fair. Yet with these two trades in early 2006, Smith had managed to get some serious value for the two […]
