Orlando Magic News for February 16th: Otis Isn't Busy, The Salary Cap Might Shrink, Jameer Discusses His Success, and More

Over the weekend, John Denton gave us the impression that Magic GM Otis Smith will not make any more moves before this Thursday's trading deadline. Marc Stein of ESPN dished the newest trade rumors today, and sure enough, there's no mention of the Magic.

Their rivals, though, might be a bit busy. Stein's sources beleive Detroit Pistons GM Joe Dumars is trying to position himself to acquire Amar'e Stoudemire from the Phoenix Suns. Better news, though, is the Cleveland Cavaliers probably won't make a deal, since the Los Angeles Clippers are unwilling to part with Marcus Camby, who is tops on their wish list.

The NBA's salary cap may decline next season, which will put the Magic in some pretty bad shape financially. A lower salary cap means a lower luxury-tax threshold, and the Magic are in no position to pay the dollar-for-dollar tax. Tom Ziller explains that the tax isn't necessarily the worst part; it's losing the approximately $3 million payout rewarded to teams that remain under the tax. The implications for the league are huge. Imagine that one-third of the league's teams will want to trade their best, highest-paid players at this time next year. Could the small-market San Antonio Spurs, for instance, trade All-Star point guard and Finals MVP Tony Parker? Weird.

Phoenix Stan of Bright Side of the Sun covered All-Star weekend from all angles. He was able to catch up with Jameer Nelson briefly during his media availability session; he also listened in while Dwight Howard was doing a bizarre q-and-a. You can find the MP3s in this post. Interesting that Jameer attributes a lot of his success this season to the Magic's decision not to re-sign Keyon Dooling and Carlos Arroyo, whom he does not mention by name.

Eric Blasco of Ballerblogger gives the Magic an A+ for their work this year.

Jerry Greene has details of the Orlando Magic's new Magic Text program, which will send SMS text messages to its subscribers when Magic news breaks.

Don't miss the final part of erivera7's interview with David Thorpe. Here are installments one and two. Many thanks to Mr. Thorpe for taking the time to answer our questions.