Orlando Pinstriped Post: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Around SBN: Can Tebow Say No To Anything?

Orlando Magic sign Mickael Pietrus: The Morning After

A couple more details from the Orlando Magic's signing of Mickael Pietrus have trickled in. The team will host an introductory news conference to introduce its new starting shooting guard this Thursday, says Brian Schmitz.

  • John Denton, who first broke the news of Pietrus' signing, has more details. It's a four-year deal worth $25.1 million. If you ask me, the Magic overpaid, but Pietrus fits their system and upgrades their weakest starting position from last season. Here's my favorite nugget from the piece, though:

    Also, Pietrus is close friends with Magic small forward Hedo Turkoglu and the two families recently vacationed together in Turkey for a week.

    So he's friends with Hedo and knows Otis Smith from his Golden State days. He should be comfortable here, especially since he'll play his natural position.

  • Sean Deveney of the Sporting News spoke with Bill McCandless, Pietrus' agent, and gives us this information about which other teams pursued Air France:

    McCandless said 11 teams were interested in Pietrus but only five were serious. It came down to Orlando or Detroit, with Atlanta also a possibility. For the Pistons, Pietrus would have been a reserve. With the Magic he will start, McCandless was told, not at power forward, but at the more natural shooting guard spot.

    "It was not the most lucrative offer," McCandless said. "But the opportunity, combined with the money, to start for an up-and-coming team was too much to pass up. He could have gotten the same money, or more, from Detroit. But he would have been coming off the bench. ... It becomes a matter of timing. Orlando had the perfect spot for him. You have the threat of someone else moving into the spot. We did not want to wake up tomorrow and find that Otis had signed someone else."

    First, I love that we beat Detroit to signing Pietrus. I'm sure it's no big loss to Pistons fans, but it feels good to get something from them for once. Jeez.

    Deveney notes that the four-year deal includes an Early Termination Option for Pietrus after the third season.

  • If you're wondering what this signing means for the Magic's chances of re-signing Keyon Dooling, you aren't alone. Dooling himself doesn't even know what's happening. When reached for comment, Dooling told Brian Schmitz the following:

    "It looks like they have filled their position at the 2. Pietrus will help us," Dooling said. "I don't know what's going to happen. Things are all over the place."

    The switch from third-person to first-person probably doesn't mean much, -- dude was probably a bit frazzled -- but it can't be a good sign that Dooling isn't confident he'll return. And, frankly, why should he be? The Magic made overtures to Chris Duhon, to Corey Maggette, and to Pietrus, but have yet to present him with an offer.

    The Magic can sign him, but doing so will bring them close to luxury-tax territory, which they want to avoid. The Magic's best bet is to make Dooling a long-term, front-loaded offer, which would give Dooling the money and security he wants while simultaneously freeing-up cap space as the salaries of Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, and Jameer Nelson increase.

Woof. Busy offseason ahead. Either J.J. Redick or Keith Bogans will surely move via trade -- the smart money's on J.J., as he has more value -- and the Magic still have plenty of holes to fill.

0 recs  |  Comment 1 comment

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Display:

Like it

A) We beat Detroit to him,

B) The price seems high, but Detroit was apparently willing to offer more and we still got him, and

C) He upgrades the defense without slowing the team down.

Win-win-win. I like it.

by Year2 on Jul 9, 2008 1:21 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Start posting about the Magic »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recommended FanPosts

Darryl_armstrong_dive_small
A Statistical Comparison of Vince Carter, Hedo Turkoglu, Courtney Lee, and Matt Barnes (SGs/SFs) in 2009-2010

Recent FanPosts

Small
Trade: Gortat for Collison
Small
what the hell is wrong with jameer nelson?
Robe_small
Thank God Vince had a good game, now we can trade him!
Nba_g_nelson_576_small
A Trade idea (just for fun)
Dwight-howard_small
How good is Jameer Nelson?
5520_124883688787_74504778787_2312115_2623014_n_small
Mid-season perspective
Small
Trade Possibility
47715577_small
Thoughts from Magic-Celtics game
Sadisticcomradepookey2_small
Losing: Do Magic fans know what it is?

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >

Win Magic Tickets!

Keep watching this space for details on your chance to win tickets to an upcoming Orlando Magic home game, courtesy of T-Mobile.

Contact Us

Ben Q. Rock, Managing Editor / Press Contact

Eddy Rivera, Contributing Editor

Tiny Blogroll

Rather than include our complete blogroll in this space, we've decided to link to it instead. That way, you won't have to do as much scrolling. Enjoy.


Managing Editor

3qcrockjersey_small Ben Q Rock

Contributing Editor

Depaul_small erivera7