Signing Q-Rich, and looking at the team Otis Smith has assembled, I'm reminded somewhat of the '04 Pistons - a team of talented role players, built around a dominant post presence. Though Karl Malone and Gary Payton were hardly in their prime when they joined the '04 Lakers, Shaq and Kobe (particularly Shaq) were obviously in the thick of their own.

I don't know. The comparison doesn't work on too many levels, but I remember marveling at the Pistons and their ability to win by playing solid team basketball, maximizing efficiency, moving the ball and looking for the easy bucket. Also, they played stifling defense.

The Magic roster (with the exception of Howard) isn't star-studded, but it is full of solid players at their respective positions, with a few clear weak spots. The '04 Pistons were able to acquire Rasheed Wallace in February of that season. Such an acquisition would be pretty much ideal for this team, a dominant big man with shooting range. Fingers crossed.

But I think it'd be fair for Magic fans to maintain a wait-and-see approach. If SVG can rein in Chris Duhon, and Q-Rich still has that shooting touch and step on defense, they could prove to be solid acquisitions. Further, with a little development and tweaking of the offense, I think Brandon Bass could prove to have been a solid pick-up last season.

There's no way we can hope to compete with the sheer glamour of the Miami Heat. Wade and James are going to put up big numbers, without question. Bosh, I'm not so sure about. I see his numbers declining slightly. But I believe with Dwight Howard in the middle, intelligent, fundamentally-sound basketball could go a long way against them. If you check the stat columns of some of our greatest wins the past two seasons, there is remarkable balance in the stat column (particularly scoring).

Just about everybody in the rotation would have scored between 10-15 points. When you've got 9-10 guys doing that, you're going to win games.

Anyway...thoughts?