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John Denton was released today by Florida Today. The paper was taken over by new management and Denton was one of hundreds to lose his job. Today is a sad day for Magic fans because Denton IS the ONLY credible sports writer that covers the Orlando Magic. What makes this situation worse, Fl Today will now run Brian Schmitz articles to cover the Magic section in the paper (boooooooooo). We're screwed. Denton may have received some knocks over the years, but everything he has written about the Magic was truthful and our only pipeline for resourceful news that kept us fans involved. He may not have written "breaking news" as often as most had liked, but he did get the RIGHT story out everytime.

Denton will continue to work with Hoopsworld and is currently trying to get on with ESPN. Hopefully things go well, and he'll be able to give the Magic more national attention. Lookout for his ESPN article on Friday reguarding summer league standouts.


Now, some watercooler talk:

- BASS: Otis and Dutt are playing poker with each other. Bass WANTS to play for Orlando and Otis wants him here, but we're trying to get him on the cheap. No team has offered Bass over $3.5M and an offer of $4M will have him signed yesterday. The only other teams that could get in the mix is Detroit. They're currently trying to move Afflalo($1M) to clear more cap to outbid our offer (supposedly $3.5M). (I think Otis is an idiot for this and should just sign the guy for $4M) Otis is also trying to use the Gortat situation to gain leverage with Dallas in hopes they do not outbid our offer for Bass. We'll see how much longer this plays out. One thing for sure though, Bass wants to be here.

- GORTAT: No one knows what Otis going to do here. Otis always intended to match any offer for Gortat, but NEVER expected him to get the full MLE. This situation is truly in the air. One scenario that may happen is we match Gortat, then trade him to another team in need of a true C (possibly Houston because they went after Marcin, have no C with Yao's surgury, and have many assets we can get back in exchange (possibly Battier or Scola)). Gortat's agent informed Gortat of this scenario and he seemed OK with it. Again, totally up in the air of what might happen with Marcin.

- NATE ROBINSON: Nate wants to come to Orlando, but we aren't interested, lol.

- BARNES: Otis has spoken with Aaron Goodwin and there is a lot of mutual feelings on Barnes playing in Orlando; just like with Bass. However, Otis' priority is to get a big first, then sign Barnes with whatever is left of the MLE (that's why he's playing hard with Bass) and Barne's camp understands this. Barnes just has to stay low-key and we'll handle him when we get our big. Barnes' agent said there's "...close to 100% Barnes is coming to Orlando."

- VET BIGS: Otis is interested in getting Theo Ratliff for the minimum.

Tis all I've heard. As always, take it for what its worth. If you believe it, cool. If you don't, cool. One thing for sure, don't kill the messenger.

Discuss.....

Thanks for the info.
I hope we don't get Theo....he's older than Wallace and McDyess!

Good read.

Without further complicating the cooler talk, I'll just advertise this as 'good information'.

very entertaining. hopefully it's all true.

and good luck to John. He's been good to us.

Help us Tim Povtak, you're our only hope.

Is Nyce_1 an insider...or is he Tim Povtak....who is he?

Sad, he's the best Magic beat write out there.

Denton though does speculate a lot and that ended up costing him.

Man, Denton was the best Magic coverage. ESPN would be lucky to have him. He has done peices for ESPN and Hoopsworld, but I think he'll get full time with one of them or another good site/publication.

Just like Povtak, Denton will catch on somewhere.

I wish him the best.

Povtak was let go a few months ago to. Sad to say, but we're stuck with BS....literally.

As for me, I'm no insider at all. I just know some people. Denton filled in a friend of mine as some last goodbye info and said he didn't care if it got posted. Take it for what its worth.

So basically your saying that chances are we are going to get Bass, Barnes, and Ratliff?

This sucks!

Denton was the sports department for FL Today.

The Sentinel should can Shmutz and hire Denton!

mattyBoi wrote:So basically your saying that chances are we are going to get Bass, Barnes, and Ratliff?

If Otis stops dicking around with Bass and gives him $4M before Detroit, yes.

damn... Denton was the best we had the thought of schimtz and bianci makes wanna puke

Now, with this new TPE in the works, I wonder how/if it'll affect Otis' plan(s) for this offseason? One thing for sure, July just got a whole more interesting.

Nyce_1 wrote:Now, with this new TPE in the works, I wonder how/if it'll affect Otis' plan(s) for this offseason? One thing for sure, July just got a whole more interesting.

and i cant wait for it to end... i now know not to take 2 classes during summer semester B as this is stressful enough. just take it easy from now during the summer lol

I don't get how BS keeps his job and Denton loses his. Cruel world we live in folks, hide your kids and keep your pets in doors.

As to the info, I would be very happy with all that happening. The way Otis is handling his assets I now don't expect him to let anything just walk, so a S&T with Gortat could be the real deal, and Houston has a lot to like.

Wow, I like the sounds of this. I especially like the sound of us matching Gortat and trading with Houston. Battier or Scola would be HUGE for us.