As to our needing depth at the 4, that is if you think that Lewis doesn’t project to start there again next year. If he is starting there, than Battie actually bolsters the big rotation behind him and Howard quite nicely. Also, in that case, upgrading our weakest starting position from last year makes the most sense. Pietrus and Lee are a very solid upgrade to Evans and Bogans. Now re-sign Dooling and we all of a sudden have a very good defensive back court.

Good Job Otis, I’m impressed.

we can go over the cap to re-sign dooling if we so please. they just said they didn’t want to do that. who knows though

mark my words: hedo and j.j. are both leaving via trade. otis is gonna shake this thing up.

Let Dooling walk and trade JJ for a backup point and Hedo for a starting PF.

This GM business is easy.

Although I have always had little doubts about Pietrus, he is a SERIOUS upgrade at the 2 spot. Like everyone has already said, there is no way the Magic will have 4 shooting guards by the start of the season. I actually think a lot of teams will lowball Orlando in a JJ trade because he never played. I have my doubts he’ll go anywhere without being attached to Hedo. I do think they can get something worthy out of Bogans though. He proved last year he could be a productive player for a competitive team, that’s worth something in this league. I also have faith that Courtney Lee can be a solid backup to Pietrus.

Trading Hedo is insane … the stats that he puts up for what he costs is beautiful. He’s a hot commodity in the league for the simple reason that he puts up fantastic numbers at a marginal cost. Talk about cost-efficiency, Hedo is that guy.

My comment about Dooling earlier was vague. Obviously we CAN re-sign him if we want, but we won’t. Guess I should have been more specific.

Trading Redick as opposed to Bogans is the better move. Reason being, because everyone knows what Bogans brings to the table. The jury is still out on Redick, for the most part, and that plays well in our hands a bit. Why? Because who knows how good Redick really is? For all we know, he’ll avg. 20 PPG. Not saying he will, but you never know. I think the cloud of mystery over Redick’s value plays into our favor when trying to trade for a need. Some GM might salivate over Redick’s potential and overpay. It happens in the league.

I’d be more apt in getting a back-up PG as opposed to a back-up PF. We have Battie, who is a true PF, split time at both PF and C. Cook is a PF by definition, but doesn’t play that way. Nevertheless, he’s another big body we have. Gortat should see minutes too, and again, he’s a big body.

We need a back-up PG more than anything. At this point, we don’t have one.

After this coming season, Turk has a player option for the 2009-10 season at 7.3 million dollars. If he stays with the Magic this year and has another season similar to last season’s, no doubt he will decline the option and become a free agent.

It might be worth it to pull the trigger on a trade if the Magic can get a top-level PF for Turk instead of taking the chance of letting him walk after next season and getting nothing for him; but who knows who might be available from another team or not, and the salary numbers would have to be similar also in any trade.

I still think the Magic can be a top contending team in the East the way they are now and they are probably better off keeping Turk because of all the reasons erivera and Ben have said. If the Magic do keep Turk, hopefully they will be able to sign him to a new contract after next season, but it will be difficult because he would be asking for a heck of a lot more than 7 million per year.

I shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself though… let’s worry about this coming season first.