Funny thing on my way in to my email account. I figured well it has been an interesting day for the Magic I might get a couple emails asking about it. LOL...Thanks guys for going way over my expectations and swamping me.
Well the biggest question of the day seems to be what the Magic are going to do with Darko? I attempted to contact both of my sources with the Magic and was only able to get a hold of one. Accordingly I was told there is absolutely no plans to trade Darko and in their opinion Darko's agent should have known Otis was not going to be calling him at 12:01am. What I was told is the last time Otis spoke with Darko's agent he let his intentions be known and Darko's agent was going to field offers and establish Darko's market value. End of story.
I probably do not have to reitterate that this is exactly what Otis did with Trevor last year because his agent wanted a firm offer and was asking for the moon. It is a little different when you are a resttricted free agent. No team in their right mind wants to get in to a bidding war against themselves. Here is the other thing, no team in their right mind is going to give Darko a contract above the MLE without knowing what they are bidding against. If you take the 4 teams with cap room, only Memphis can offer a deal over $8 million without losing a significant free agent. But if Darko signs an offer sheet with Memphis at their $8 million per season he did the Magic a favor, because the Magic would match the offer and keep Darko. The other thing is that by signing a offer sheet Darko would be willing to accept less of a raise (8%) than the one the Magic can give (10.5%). His agent can yell and scream and use the local Orlando beat writers to get all of you Magic fans bent out of shape but at the end of the day why would he be complaining unless he is nervous that he has nothing concrete to go back to Darko with. Darko wants to be in Orlando and it is his agents responsibility to make it happen. There is no chance of Orlando losing Darko outright and this ties his agents hands big time. This will not be a repeat of what happened to the Cavs when the rennounces Boozer with the agreement they would resign him once they sin Larry Hughes. I was assured that will never ever again happen in the NBA, especially not with the Magic.
For a moment lets use Memphis for an example. They are believed to have interest in Darko and Varejo. If you are them you have to calculate which player to offer a contract to based on if you think their current team will match the offer. Since Varejo's team is a lot less likely to match a offer above the MLE you would think they would target him first because not only would the Magic match an offer they would probably wait until the last minute to make a decision on the offer and then you put your team potentially out of the running for any other free agent. So while Darko may be considered a top free agent only 4 teams can offer up the kind of money his agent wants.
Speaking of what his agent wants, I was told his agent wants a deal like Nene got last year which would average over $10 million per year. Well the Magic have news for him, no team BUT the Magic can give him that kind of deal so why bid against yourself. Also Darko has really only 1 choice, see what other teams are willing to offer and then wait on the Magic to negoiate or match the offer he signs.
Here is the pickle facing the Magic, what is Darko's true worth. A team normally overvalues the assets it has. It is just human nature to think your assets are worth more than they actually are. Maybe it is good that his agent is saying 10+ teams has already contacted him. That means atleast 6 of those teams think Darko is a MLE type player, because only 4 teams could actually offer Darko decent money and only 1 Memphis can do it without rennouncing free agents, the other 3 can barely put a deal on the table slightly over the MLE and the bucks would have to rennounce Mo Williams to do it.
I appreciate the emails, I really do, but seriously it is day one and the top free agent in this years class is in ORLANDO right now. The last time this happened for Orlando they got a commitment from Duncan, Hill and TMAC. Yes unfortunately David Robinson swayed Duncan to renig, but that is the past and Lewis does not have anyone on his team back in Seattle to talk him in to staying. As far as Darko goes, my source still maintains there is nothing that has changed and this is the same M.O. that Otis followied last season because he did not want to bid against himself.
As for other free agents, I believe Gerald Wallace will be in Orlando mid-week depending on when Rashard leaves. The Magic do not want to have thier visits overlap unless they have to. Another interesting thing I heard today was that the Magic are willing to work out a sign and trade. But not for who you are thinking. I was told that the Magic plan to meet with Grant Hill and discuss his future once they know where the top free agents are going to land be it in Orlando or not. The sign and trade part comes in to the fact the Suns are interested in both Grant and Travis and for the first time I was told that if Grant decides he really wants to play elsewhere, management is going to ask him to do so in a sign and trade, unless they had to rennounce him to sign a free agent outright.
If you want more speculation, I can tell you exactly what I heard and you can run with it or take it as a grain of salt. The Magic are willing to trade Tony Battie if they can work a sign and trade with Seattle. The reason they are willing to do that is they believe they can get a deal with the Suns where they would trade for Kurt Thomas as Tony's replacement. The Magic want a veteran big man on thier bench regardless what happens this summer. Again you need to take what I say probably with a grain a salt because I am not Otis Smith and in the end he is going to make the final decision. There are always many scenarios that get talked about and I blog what I hear from time to time. I expect if a sign and trade deal happens there is a good chance it would be using Tony and not Hedo as thought. Hedo may still end up being traded, it just does not make a great deal of sense to trade him to the Sonics. But with his 3 point shooting it makes a lot of sense to trade him to the Suns.
So much to work out and so much speculation you will hear from now until the Magic announce who is going to be in uniform. Otis wants to have it all and I think Darko's agent is just frustrated that he can't have it all at the moment. His agent has already let too much be known. I mean come on if 10 teams contacted him great that means Otis can go in to the negoiation saying that it is obviously 6 teams in the league think Darko is only worth the MLE. Worst case scenario is he agrees to the offer tendered by the Magic at $6.8 million, because the Magic have no plans to lose him without compensation.
