I don't believe Isiah has ever made a move to lighten salary. His deal with Orlando to take on Francis for Hardaways expiring contract is what made our deal possible.

i don't agree on flip. i think flip's hands were tied somewhat with having to try to keep ben happy. cleveland figured out that not checking ben and fouling him if he was close to the basket would grind our offense to an halt. tay's and sheeds post ups will be nullified by ben's zone playing/ double teaming man. rips curls would be nullified by ben's zone playing man. with an offensive threat center our offense would have been much better.

we needed a center at the time when we picked darko. we had tay and rip so there was no need for melo or wade. darko was a great pick it was our use of the pick that stunk. his attitude turned bad after the way he was treated. his attitude is great in orlando and on the serbia team because the team is treating him right. they aren't trying to prove points to him cause he's a young player. they see he is good and they are treating him accordingly. just think if the dhof had gotten thier wish we would be 3 time nba champions right now. no tay checking duncan in game 7. no miami/cleveland center playing zone. no hack a ben.

lee did predict we wouldn't win the ship without darko. lee saw and continues to see his great potential. that is one of lee's strong points he identifies potential well. darko does have craploads of potential.

i've watched darko in pregame also and the guy can flat out shoot it. the problem is we didn't put him on the court enough and allow him to do that. when lb did put him on the court he stuffed the square peg into the round hole and made darko post player only. darko was mishandled right from the start. how is it that 2 serbian coaches and b. hill can get production out of him and hall of fame lb and flip couldn't??

anyway this trade was about darko not being happy in detroit. joe wanted make one more run at the championship so that's why ben got the nod over darko. darko is better than nazr and will be better than ben in 2 years.

Are you guys still going to stick around in the future if Darko does not make it?

There's already been quotes out of Orlando about Darko's inconsistent effort.

Sure there have. They were hidden in the reports where they were gushing over how great he was.

Don't ignore the haystack because you found a needle.

Great line hobbs. I never really found any real bad comments regarding darko by orlando fans. If anything it was comments on his inconsistent play (foul trouble) but DArko was inconsistent which is to be expected as he learns the NBA and the Orlando system.

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You all know how much of a Darko fan I am but if any of you pay any attention to my posts, you will remember that I was talking a fair amount about how he stood around at times and wondered if it was because he did not know the system yet or was not involved in the play that was called and just stayed out of the way. Getting there so late in the season, he had no plays called for him in any game, and had no reponsibilities in them. I wanted him to block out and go for rebounds.

The Orlando fans and people who have seen him a while, know that he is still very raw and an inexperienced near-rookie and know that he will not be consistent for a while yet. We can see glimpses of greatness but also periods of a barely 21 year old kid who has played under 40 games in the NBA.

But we can 'get over it'. He is being given the chance and playing with and in front of people who have not made up their minds that he is a failure, and he is responding.

It will be interesting to see what happens this year. He will be coming back from the FIBA games in good shape and will start training came and the season, much the same as he did last year for Detroit. Wonder if there will be the same result .

Don't think so !!!

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Things appear to be at their darkest . . . . . . . . . just before they go totally black!!

I like the line too, Hobbs, but it was more than just once. The Rosen story and the quotes from the Orlando management -- that's two in half a season. How many players are publicly called out for effort twice in that time, especially ones that have been %%%%%ing about PT for two years?

Rosen isn't legit (he's too biased and emotionally driven to offer even the slightest bit of objectivity--and that's certainly not "out of Orlando") and please post the quotes.

Orlando was very happy with what Darko did. Their defense was 10 points better when he was in the game. They went on a huge win streak because of their improved play (not all Darko, clearly, but a significant portion was) and they almost universally believe they'll be a playoff team this year when they were a joke for most of last season (I doubt the drafting of Redick is the reason for their optimism).

Rosen is a little too close to the franchise for my comfort. Great writer, but his objectivity is not very, objective.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."