Magic On Verge Of Signing Pietrus
by erivera7 on Jul 8, 2008 7:14 PM EDT
9 comments
From the FanPosts. My thoughts to follow. - BQR
Word is the Magic are going to sign Pietrus to the full MLE ... starting at 5.2 Mill. next season.
'The signing of Pietrus ends the Magic’s chase of free-agent shooting guard Corey Maggette and could end their chances of retaining combo guard Keyon Dooling.
Pietrus is especially appealing to the Magic because of his ability to defend. He is a strong defender with a long wingspan, traits that appealed to Smith. Smith, who used to work with the Golden State Warriors, is quite familiar with Pietrus’ toughness and defensive grit.
Smith said the Magic needed to upgrade their shooting guard position in order to make a dramatic improvement next season. He is expected to be the opening day starter at shooting guard.'
This FanPost was made by a member of the Orlando Pinstriped Post community, and is to be treated as the opinions and views of its author, not that of the blogger or blog community as a whole.
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Air France!
I didn’t think they would pull the trigger but they did. Love his defense, don’t like his bball IQ. But i think its a great signing. Who is gonna be the backup PG? Can they still re-sign Hedo next season? Don’t we still need another big?
To answer your questions:
Still no backup PG.
I have no idea if the Magic will be able to afford Hedo next summer. Obviously, I hope they can.
Yes. Gortat, Battie, and Augustine are our only bigs left. Cook is a “big,” strictly speaking, but he plays on the wing, so I don’t really count him as one, if that makes sense…
A nice move, but now...
the Magic have four SGs… Bogans, Lee, Redick, and now Pietrus and no backup PG. One of the SGs has to go… either Bogans or Redick. I still like Courtney Lee, but now it appears that he will be the third SG off the bench, especially if Bogans remains with the team. I kind of wish now the Magic had concentrated more on drafting a PF, but I’m willing to wait to see how things work out the next several months.
by Mike from Illinois on Jul 8, 2008 7:54 PM EDT reply actions
My Thoughts
... it’s a good move, for the most part. I’ve always been a fan of Pietrus. He is a freak athletically and his defense is outstanding. Offensively, he’s limited but he can shoot the three-ball real well, which makes him useful on our team. I think a change of scenery will go him wonders, because when he’s motivated to play, he can be a real force to be reckon with (see 2006 season).
Redick is most likely to go, even though is value is limited at this point. I really wished the Magic would have drafted Arthur so we didn’t have this problem, but oh well. We need Otis Smith to be creative (is that possible?) for once and try to find either a backup PG/PF via trade. It’s still early in the off-season so we have time.
Nevertheless, I like the prospects of a Nelson/Pietrus/Turkoglu/Lewis/Howard starting five. We improve offensively a bit, because Pietrus has a bit more to offer than Evans, and we improve a little bit defensively. Not bad.
Freelance Writer for the Chicago Tribune
Class of 2009 - DePaul University
Redick will probably be the one to go
He’s not as good a player (yet) and he has more value.
I think Bogans will slide to the three to back-up Hedo, making Lee the backup two.
Thanks man.
Yeah, I think we’ll see Pietrus play some 3 as well to lighten the load a bit on Turkoglu. He has the size to play the position effectively.
Freelance Writer for the Chicago Tribune
Class of 2009 - DePaul University
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