[magicblue]

Dear Henny,
Please trade Afflalo.

Sincerely,
Every Magic fan

[OrlandoMagic777]

Oh well, Jameer being injured just gives us one more excuse to lose. I believe sub-consciously, the team enjoys having excuses for being such a poor team, they thrive off of it. Takes a lot of pressure off of them. JV has promoted an atmosphere of lowered expectations for this team, and a team is indicative of it's leader. They sense their leader expecting us to lose, and they follow suit. Call it a self fulfilling prophecy. Sure, we're bad, and have had injuries, but we aren't 15 win bad. All of those games we lost by 6 or less points, that's all mental. We are simply a team of lowered expectations and nobody is forcing any fire in our belly, winning isn't expected or craved bad enough. We are in "rebuilding mode" and sadly, that's an excuse to lose so many games we should be winning.

[Janders]

magicblue, on 20 February 2013 - 10:51 PM, said:

Dear Henny,
Please trade Afflalo.

Sincerely,
Every Magic fan

No.

[NittanyBuc]

magicblue, on 20 February 2013 - 10:51 PM, said:

Dear Henny,
Please trade Afflalo.

Sincerely,
Every Magic fan

Don't ever forge my signature again.

[OrlandoMagic777]

From the looks of Jacque Vaughn's smiles after the game, you'd think we won the game. Last game, when interviewed post game, a reporter asked him, "any fiery half game speeches to get your team back in the game"? JV froze, as if he'd been asked what kind of tree he would envision himself to be. "Nah, no fiery" he replied. He looked embarrassed to be asked the question. I know it's his first year coaching and he's trying to get a feel for his sudden leadership role, but I think he's uncomfortable with getting on his players and getting them fired up. He seems more placid and docile with his players, more of a mentor and friend than coach. On paper he looked to be a good selection as coach, as he's always been a student of the game and is good at drawing up plays and knows the x's and o's of the sport. But many a coach with good expectations has been fired quickly in this league if they don't promote a hunger and insatiable thirst for winning in that locker room. You won't see JV yelling at his players, ever. It's not who he is. Expect this atmosphere of lowered expectations to continue, because in a nutshell, our coach is simply too nice. There, I said it!

[magicblue]

OrlandoMagic777, on 20 February 2013 - 10:51 PM, said:

Oh well, Jameer being injured just gives us one more excuse to lose. I believe sub-consciously, the team enjoys having excuses for being such a poor team, they thrive off of it. Takes a lot of pressure off of them. JV has promoted an atmosphere of lowered expectations for this team, and a team is indicative of it's leader. They sense their leader expecting us to lose, and they follow suit. Call it a self fulfilling prophecy. Sure, we're bad, and have had injuries, but we aren't 15 win bad. All of those games we lost by 6 or less points, that's all mental. We are simply a team of lowered expectations and nobody is forcing any fire in our belly, winning isn't expected or craved bad enough. We are in "rebuilding mode" and sadly, that's an excuse to lose so many games we should be winning.

In our defense, we've been pretty banged up all year and we competed very hard for the first 30 games or so, losing a ton of close games and getting a couple no one expected. This team lacks talent in general and the injuries have taken their toll, but this really isn't playing out much differently than anyone expected. It's gonna be a tough couple years, but this is part of the process. At least we're seeing some growth in Harkless and have our center moving forward. A couple good drafts and FA acquisitions and we'll be back...hang tight. As for JV, we can only hope his approach evolves as the expectation level is raised. If he doesn't that's a problem, but its not at the moment in my opinion.

[Mauro Pedrosa]

Redick didn't look happy

[Soul Bro]

JJ absolutely looks rattled by the trade rumors

[MagicFromNZ]

Moe Harkless tho....

[Audi]

I disagree about JV. He isn't creating an aura of lowered expectations around the team - this is an era of lowered expectations. So we started the season out somewhat-decent and since then we've been plagued with injuries and have tanked miserably (which is ideal given the alternative of mediocrity). I simply do not believe another SVG screaming from the sidelines, teetering on having a coronary would have changed how things have gone down.

I would like to know what the rookies think of JV though.

[CTMagicUK]

I'm sure last game when we were down big the sideline reporter said Jacque was unhappy and at timeout he was saying stuff like "if you're not going to rebound and defend you can come sit next to me" except it was a long speech that also included making the right pass and taking good shots, then after the time out we had a team full of the young guys on the floor and we started to get back into the game a little. I think there's a difference between not shouting and screaming and not being able to motivate and until Jacque has a competitive team to coach I'm not going to comment too much about him. This team wouldn't get to over 30 wins with Phil Jackson or Greg Popovich as the coach so how Jacque can be made out to be the reason I don't know.