Turn Back the Clock: Orlando Signing Rashard Lewis
1-liner, NBA June 1st. 2009, 11:30amOrlando Magic: July, 2007. The Magic just splurged to ink Rashard Lewis. Here’s John Hollinger’s reaction at ESPN: “Does this make Orlando a contender? Goodness no. The Magic still have a ton of weaknesses to address, most notably a glaring hole in the frontcourt … and an open spot at shooting guard if one presumes Grant Hill leaves. Much like the Ray Allen deal with Boston, the Magic still need one more big gun to make the Clevelands and Detroits of the world start sweating.” The Magic never got that other “gun,” and before you mention that Orlando filled the SG spot with Pietrus last summer, Hollinger wasn’t fond of that signing, either. See? The NBA’s tough to project, even for the highly-paid pros. (Expectations, thankfully, are much lower for bloggers.)
63 Responses to “Turn Back the Clock: Orlando Signing Rashard Lewis”
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June 1st, 2009 at 11:33 am
I remember when Rashard Lewis cried when the Rockets didn’t draft him. I guess the joke is on us
June 1st, 2009 at 11:33 am
Irish is gonna be pissed that Orlando only got a one-liner…. I’m pissed that this argument validates SVG as a good coach, which he is.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:37 am
Cavs need some crappy team to overpay for Turkoglu this offseason.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:38 am
I remember when Rashard Lewis cried when the Rockets didn’t draft him. I guess the joke is on us
There’s a Stevie Franchise joke in there somewhere……
June 1st, 2009 at 11:39 am
False. Much like you would think a coach of the year would validate Mike Brown, which it doesn’t because he’s fucking terrible.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:40 am
Did you read the whole article?
They had a lot of work to do, and they did it: Added Pietrus, Lee, Gortat.
Now they’re a contender.
What’s wrong about anything he said?
June 1st, 2009 at 11:41 am
Irish is gonna be pissed that Orlando only got a one-liner
not at all. I expect this. TBL hates the chuckers and thinks Greg O-done will be better than Dwight one day. TBl also says Dwight is not a “true center”
June 1st, 2009 at 11:41 am
in all fairness, they never made Detroit sweat.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:42 am
Hollinger still insists that LeBron’s season was better than any of MJ’s.
/probably
June 1st, 2009 at 11:42 am
Nick, you can take your “whole article reading” and “well thoughtout argument” somewhere else.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:44 am
False
Coop- you dont think SVG is a good coach?
June 1st, 2009 at 11:44 am
Dumbest question ever.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:45 am
Jesus I just looked at the 1998 draft again, The Rockets had 3 first round picks and took Mike Dickerson, Bryce Drew, and some dude from Turkey. Thank god for Daryl Morey
June 1st, 2009 at 11:47 am
In all fairness, Detroit did it all to themselves.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:48 am
TB: So let me get this straight. You nail John Hollinger for this signing, and in your earlier post you linked to another article of his on how he drank the Cavs kool-aid and picked them to beat the Magic in 6.
Why do you read this so called “expert”??
June 1st, 2009 at 11:49 am
HA!
June 1st, 2009 at 11:49 am
Hedo is a completely different player since this article was written. Maybe he should have been able to forsee that, but he essentially became the “Ray Allen” piece he was talking about.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:51 am
Did you read the whole article?
Shit, I didn’t even read your whole comment.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:53 am
Better than average (and Mike Brown) but not great, at least not yet. It only took him two years and Dwight publicly calling him out to realize he should probably get the best center in the league more touches. I liked it better two weeks ago when Dwight was largely ignored offensively.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:53 am
But honestly, I didn’t like the signing of Lewis when it happened, because they were bidding against nobody. I also couldn’t figure out where they were going to play him because he’s a 3/4 tweener, and I usually expect teams to play basketball with similar formulas.
That said, getting to the finals 100% validates that signing. They’re still on the hook for the Adonal Foyle signing, though. That was a crappy deal.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:55 am
Mike Brown is obviously a moron. But in this series, Cle would come out strong and SVG would make sure he made the right adjustments. He always got someone open down the stretch when he needed. The man does seem like he is having a coronary in tight games, but his guys are never unsure of themselves in the second half.
June 1st, 2009 at 11:58 am
Did you read the whole article?
If Hollinger really believed those closing comments he should have said so in the headline!
/blogger’d
June 1st, 2009 at 11:58 am
They’re still on the hook for the Adonal Foyle signing, though. That was a crappy deal
what? Colgate BMOC makes $294,000 this year
June 1st, 2009 at 11:59 am
Was this series like when Golden State hit every shot against Dallas a couple years ago or can Orlando keep this up?
June 1st, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Was this series like when Golden State hit every shot against Dallas a couple years ago or can Orlando keep this up
weak comparison
June 1st, 2009 at 12:03 pm
They’re still on the hook for the Adonal Foyle signing, though. That was a crappy deal
what? Colgate BMOC makes $294,000 this year
Irish, that was a joke. The same year Dallas signed Ericka Dampier to a 100 year, 1 trillion dollar deal Orlando had signed Foyle to a deal to be a backup center. Everybody praised the Dallas deal, and killed the Foyle deal.
So I was joking about how every deal Orlando makes is an awful deal.
June 1st, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Orlando had the number 1 Defense for the regular season.
June 1st, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Courtney Lee = most underrated rookie this season??
I think so, dude is pretty damn good
June 1st, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Courtney Lee = most underrated rookie this season??
w/o a doubt. I was surprised he wasn’t named to the ALL rookie teams
June 1st, 2009 at 12:19 pm
I’m with you @clown… Gonna have to evaluate that further
June 1st, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Wally just shot another air ball
June 1st, 2009 at 12:38 pm
well played…just choked on my water reading that.
June 1st, 2009 at 12:46 pm
1: tampa i have been left hanging on a high five for like 3 days for bears signing pisa hawaiiguyname
2:cavs lose haha
3: when people talk about sa when he is not here the terrorists win
4: fuck deadspin
June 1st, 2009 at 12:51 pm
By what statistical measure was Orlando the number one defense this season? Serious question. I saw someone else write that on a Cavs blog and I looked it up, and I found different numbers.
Also, I legitimately don’t understand the Mike Brown bashing. Chris Broussard agrees with what I had previously pointed out, that Brown made adjustments in the series, they just didn’t work and ran into a team clicking on all cylinders. No shame in that.
People are all bashing Mike Brown and the Cavs supporting cast (rightfully so on the second part, they didn’t show, and I was wrong about them..Duder, did you read that?).
But if the supporting cast was as bad in this series as has been stated, then seriously what could Brown have done. Double D-Ho, don’t double him, either way, it didn’t work. Go small, go big, it didn’t work. Put LeBron on Rafer, put him on Hedo, put him on Lewis, it didn’t work.
I’m not saying Brown is a genius, but name me solutions… and bringing in Joe Smith (which I would have liked to see), doesn’t count as the end all.
June 1st, 2009 at 12:55 pm
1: tampa i have been left hanging on a high five for like 3 days for bears signing pisa hawaiiguyname
mrejr: way to leave on a high note!
/Costanza’d
June 1st, 2009 at 12:58 pm
@cursed: Defensive efficiency (points allowed per 100 possessions).
Also, please stop supporting your points by citing a shitty ESPN scribe, as if that gives credence to your argument. Just give us YOUR opinion. You are a Basketball Expert, after all. (As well as myself, dirt, Darrell, and I think maybe SM.)
June 1st, 2009 at 12:58 pm
what could Brown have done
Air France outscored the Cavs bench by himself
June 1st, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Good point, I am an expert. Just sometimes lack the confidence. But technically I was reciprocating b/c Broussard quoted me last week.
/link?
June 1st, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Here.
June 1st, 2009 at 1:07 pm
But if the supporting cast was as bad in this series as has been stated, then seriously what could Brown have done?
whatever it was that he should have done, it was a halftime, game #1 adjustment. what he did in that halftime, i don’t know, but the 2nd half of that game told the story of the series.
/expert analysis
June 1st, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Nick, the Lakers fifth in the league? Really? That just discredited every stat on ESPN, including Brandon Phillips slugging percentage!
/master devaluer
June 1st, 2009 at 1:17 pm
1. Wally, despite shooting airballs and his inability to guard me, got the most minutes off the bench.
2. I know none of the bench players played well, but maybe thats because you spent the entire series jerking the minutes around, Wally/Boobie/Sasha all had DNP’s and other games of 25 min.
3. Give Darnell Jackson a shot at being physical with Dwight (and do some hacking). Z/Andy couldn’t even begin to keep him off his spots, Darnell at least has the size to bang.
4. Consider guarding Pietrus, at least consider it.
I know its not all his fault, but he’s been a pretty shitty coach for some time now and I haven’t seen much improvement.
June 1st, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Glad to have you come around cursed. Cant blame Brown for the Cavs not making shots. Cant blame Brown that the bigs(John Lucas voice) are slow and have no offensive game. Orlando was better, theres no one to blame.
June 1st, 2009 at 1:21 pm
ahem…
June 1st, 2009 at 1:23 pm
this is great: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-63R0T6N1k&feature=player_embedded
/did i duckworth myself?
June 1st, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Legitimate point of few. Benches shrink in the post-season so one problem for Brown was that he had to hope he chose the right shooter every night, which was a crapshoot (worked in game 5..not so much any other time). The fact that he didn’t trust Sasha and Boobie defensively was why they didn’t see more minutes. And when we tried to go small, we didn’t exactly reap any rewards.
June 1st, 2009 at 1:27 pm
sparty: that’s funny. Bet The Overhyped One doesn’t think that one’s so cool
June 1st, 2009 at 1:29 pm
nice sparty. that was new to me
June 1st, 2009 at 1:30 pm
/Looks around aimlessly whistling
June 1st, 2009 at 1:31 pm
THANK YOU @coop MIKE BROWN IS A BUM (in regards to NBA-Caliber coaching)
Coaching is everything when you’re in the Conference finals and striving to win a championship … MORE PROOF
Mike Brown < Phil Jackson, George Karl & the Master of Panic SVG
Mo Williams every other No. 1 except Kobe (LBJ = Kobe as Alpha-Dogs !!!)
Other than Tim Duncan NO OTHER Superstar-n-Franchise player has had their greatest success & achievement with their first head coach…
And G-POP was the GM and decided to become head coach when TD was drafted and really, WHO wouldn’t be a great coach with Tim Duncan on it
June 1st, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Correction (TBL what’s up with the site man)
Mike Brown < Phil Jackson, George Karl & the Master of Panic SVG
Mo Williams every other No. 1 except Kobe (LBJ = Kobe as Alpha-Dogs !!!)
^^^
That it what I originally typed/posted
June 1st, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Mike Brown less than Phil Jackson, George Karl & the Master of Panic SVG
Mo Williams < R-Rhondo, Rashard Lewis, Pau Gasol, Chauncey-B, B-Gordon
LBJ greater than every other No. 1 except Kobe
(LBJ = Kobe as Alpha-Dogs !!!)
June 1st, 2009 at 1:41 pm
at what exactly? because it sure as hell isn’t basketball.
June 1st, 2009 at 1:47 pm
You’re right… It’s actually Professional basketball that I speak of
June 1st, 2009 at 1:56 pm
LBJ has accomplished W/O a NBA Head Coach or Legit NBA Elite player …
MVP, several first team ALL-NBA selections, NBA Finals appearance, Truly historic feats (Regular season & Post season exploits) and is widely considered ONE of the best professional athletes IN THE WORLD !!!
Kobe has a GREAT NBA Head Coach & Legit NBA Elite players (Gasol & Bynum)
Along with proven ownership & executive mgt for winning championships
Something Cleveland WILL ALWAYS LACK… IMO
June 1st, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Bynum is an elite basketball player? Dude didn’t belong on the floor in the Houston or Denver series. He was a liability at all times, no exaggeration. Even when he scored, he gave it up on the other end.
What? Honestly? Mike Brown did an excellent job in the regular season and in the first two rounds of the playoffs. They ran into a better team in the ECF, plain and simple.
June 1st, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Phil Jackson is still coaching? Gary Vitti has more influence at this point on their day-to-day game planning.
June 1st, 2009 at 2:27 pm
mike brown is a horrendous coach. an embarrassment. he may win 15 games when lebron goes to the knicks.
June 1st, 2009 at 2:35 pm
and you’re wrong.
kthxbai!
June 1st, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Again cursed, I’m not putting it all on Mike Brown, buuuut, the past two years he’s been sent home by teams that were basically equal to the Cavs, and those two equally matched teams have been coached by Doc Rivers and SVG. Not exactly Phil and Popovich.
June 1st, 2009 at 2:59 pm
@spence
YOU saying I’m wrong IS LIKE an overt-racist saying he loves minorities
IT MEANS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL !!!!!
@cursed
I’ll LET @coop’s comments speak for themselves (Cause I AGREE w/ them!!!)
June 1st, 2009 at 5:33 pm
What BS! He can play the 4 and the 5 just like Gasol, so then because he has MORE talent he is not a true center? Who else can do that? Nowitzki’s a 4 only, and Yao’s a 5 only.
June 1st, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Nothing.
Try reading his assessment about Orlando as a contender again, Nick.
FWIW, any NBA writer is going to like picking up a guy in his 20s who can score inside and out.