Like It or Not, the Orlando Magic's Roster is Nearly Complete

Orton is the only one who is not starting quality. JJ, RA , MG and BB have never had major starting minutes in the NBA, but any one of them could. It is a well rounded, deep roster that should win 55-60 games baring two major injuries. The playoffs are always a crap shoot, but I like our chances.

As for the Heat, they should withdraw from the NBA and go on tour with the Globe Trotters.

I got this feeling that we’re going to rule this coming season. Hopefully this feeling is correct.. More power to those who believe in Magic!!! Blue White!! ignite?? can we change that one?? LOL

VC might have lost a little bit of his athleticism as he ages, but here’s hoping another year in the SVG system will do him well. Same goes for Bass
RA hopefully will be hitting the gym and he’ll be a better defensive player; for Rashard I can only hope last season was an aberration for him, with the suspension and all.

Orton will basically take over Foyle’s role as the big benchwarmer. Hopefully his teammates will do him a favor and blowout some teams letting him some garbage time.

The upside of this “veteran elite” team is very encouraging.

Does anyone has a speculation number on what the new Amway may represent as revenue on a season?

I know how most magic fans as myself feel about Vince Carter but when he is a free agent next year would you guys welcome him back if he is willing to take a smaller role say a 6th man??? Just Asking

As an already great basketball team, the only thing we could’ve done this summer was make a huge move (unlikely) or not take a step back. Otis has made sure that we have not regressed in terms of talent, and now it’s up to the players to get better. While other teams are making splashy moves, our continuity will help us. If we are using the logic that our guys are becoming smarter basketball players together, then we are definitely a more dangerous team. Obviously we are all very interested to see what happens with Dwight this year, as he made great improvements last year.

Also, the Magic always play better when they aren’t the frontrunners. I think at the beginning of last year we were pegged as top contenders and it hurt our energy a little bit. We only got it back after that horrible month of January, when we were starting to get written off. Then, we became frontrunners again when we entered the Boston series and I think that clearly hurt. This year, the Magic should have a definite chip on their shoulders after the ECF from last year and now with the Superfriends in Miami getting all the attention.

As always, injury hopefully won’t be a factor. Luckily we have depth at most positions. I’m really hoping for a full year of Jameer.

im going with like it not!

I don’t see us having another January ‘09, which was a struggle to get through. I’m looking forward to this season. Miami has some great players, but I still see them as being very beatable, just like Boston.

With our roster I think the Magic will win 60 games this season.
But I also think that we will see one or two more trades made during this season.
Gortat and Bass are great assets that other teams need and will pay a higher price for later on.
Lets not forget folks that we are one of the 3 best teams in the NBA right now.

I don’t know how I feel about that :|

I think VC will have a better overall year with the team, and consequently by playing together more/understanding each other better, so will Shard. Dwight really could avg. 25 a game if he improved his FT % slightly. Hopefully VC has started to understand when he creates, he doesn’t have to just create for himself anymore. He can now pass and create shots for others, and trust that they will make them. I think he will and I think Jameer will have his best statistical season w/o major injury. (Peak of his prime is my reasoning for this, and its just a hunch) I think JJ will embrace his role again and come back even more hungry than next year. Hopefully Gortat’s agent gets in his ear about actually playing hard again because it can only help his chances of getting out of Dwight’s shadow. If this falls into place, we will be right there again and I said it before in another post but think about how much talent was on our Olympic team this past year. (I know, different rules/tourney set up but bear w/ me) Now think about the talent level of the teams that the USA team played. Our Magic team is better than that Spain team. That Olympic team was astronomically more talented than this Heat squad. The outcomes of those games in the Olympics vs. Spain and Argentina were not exactly locks throughout.

Hey BQR, get us an edit button will ya!!! JK. I should just go ahead and tell myself “proof read it first, will ya!?”

dooling, jwill, AJ, diener and quinn (from sentinel – i know, i know, its the sentinel) what do you guys think about javaris crittenton as the 3rd string pg?

oh thats right! forgot about that major detail! yup, on 2nd thought, no thanks!

That is the question. Richardson and Duhon in; Barnes and Williams out. Is that an upgrade? I would say Duhon and Williams is a wash, or just thereabout (could be argued differently), but Richardson is not an upgrade, in my view. Besides Dwight being the anchor of our defense, Barnes was the only starter with some defensive prowess. Richardson is not at that level defensively but offensively he is a better shooter although Barnes had some garbage collection skills (I mean it positively) that Richardson does not have. Can we argue that these two are a wash, as well. I say no because that defensive mind set in the starting 5 as it stands in relationship to other startes has some intrinsic value. The answer to the primary question is then negative, in my view.

In a general sense, if Magic fans are expected to be all rah rah, don’t count me in as one, although I am just about as fanatic as a fan that one could be. For years I have blasted the ownership for being penny pinchers, and stated time and time again that they don’t understand the intrinsic added business value of going over the salary cap because paying excise tax is not as important as the bottom line. In other words, if a business makes more by spending more on marketing and advertising or any other expenses but make more at the bottom line, the extra expenditure is simply warranted. That is not the case with the owners any more. They have opened their vallet in investing more so that they can earn more.

As for Otis Smith, he is just an average GM, in my view. Don’t ask me to prove it becuase that would be a long writing. Granted, having the flexibility from the owners he made some good moves to build a competitive team by signing Rashard and trading for Vince. My problem with Smith is for years he announced that the ultimate goal is winning a championship but he does not see that this structure is not conducive to that goal. This Magic team is very good and they would win 60+ games in the regular season. But wisdom does not allow testing tested. We could not match with Lakers’ big front line last year, and this year did not even get the chance to test ourselves against Lakers again becuase this time we could not match BOS’s big front line. Say as you wish, but Rashard at 4 has not worked for us when it mattered most, and it does not matter how good we are at regular season if we could not match BOS and LA, one again. I don’t worry about MIA becuase they are not big or fast at front line (Z, Haslem, Anthony?) but come playoffs time we should pray that MIA take care of BOS for us. We have to finish as a high seed in the East in a way that we don not face BOS except in the East final.