Washington Wizards forward Rashard Lewis plans to visit a knee specialist in New York today to "receive a third opinion on the sore right knee that has kept him sidelined for the past five games," reports Michael Lee of the Washington Post. The 31-year-old veteran is experiencing discomfort in the knee and would like to avoid surgery if possible, but has been unable to play through the pain so far.

The Orlando Magic traded Lewis to Washington in December for Gilbert Arenas after a disappointing start to the season, in which Lewis struggled to shift back to his theoretically more natural position of small forward to make way for Brandon Bass in their starting five. Lewis averaged only 12.2 points per game with the Magic this season, his fourth in Orlando, down from 14.1 last year. He's scoring even less (11.4 points) in D.C., but is shooting better from the floor (46.4 percent) and contributing in other areas (5.8 rebounds, 2 assists) in which he made a minimal impact in Magic pinstripes.

Does Lewis' injury at all change your opinion of the trade which brought Arenas to town? The veteran combo guard is shooting just 34.9 percent with Orlando and has committed too many turnovers, but he's also provided an upgrade over Chris Duhon, who entered the season as Jameer Nelson's backup and has played erratically at best.

Today marks the NBA trade deadline. After 3 PM Eastern this afternoon, teams can't complete trades until the end of the regular season, so if they want to upgrade via trade now, time is running out.

You can keep track of all NBA trade rumors in this StoryStream at SBNation.com. Familiarize yourself with NBA trade rules if you like.

Everything I've heard from my sources indicates the Orlando Magic will not make a trade. Should they make a move, though, I'll create a separate thread to cover it. Consider this post your space to comment on non-Magic trades as they happen.

We've already seen a number of trades happen throughout the league, with Carmelo Anthony going to the New York Knicks; Deron Williams becoming a New Jersey Net; and Kirk Hinrich joining the Atlanta Hawks, a Southeast Division rival of Orlando's.

In smaller moves, the Kings and Hornets swapped Carl Landry for Marcus Thornton, the Nets nabbed Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuric from the Warriors for Troy Murphy, and the Toronto Raptors sent a future first-round pick to the Chicago Bulls for James Johnson.

It promises to be a fun deadline, with at least one big suprise. Discuss it here.

If whether or not the Orlando Magic ought to bench Jameer Nelson in favor of Gilbert Arenas wasn't a hot topic before last night's Magic win romp over the San Antonio Spurs, it sure is now. Arenas, in just his third game with the team, tallied 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 9 assists in 29 minutes, and in so doing earned high praise from his coach and, in Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich, a pair of future Hall-of-Famers from the opposition. "That's a good all-around game," Van Gundy said, indicating Arenas' box-score statistics.

And indeed it was, coming at Nelson's expense on a night when the Magic's starting point guard suffered from dehydration. Nelson played 21 minutes in the victory, and though he performed well--he scored 7 points on 3-of-4 shooting, and dished 4 assists--he was not as big a factor as Arenas was.

"I don't want to start," Arenas said following the win. "This team is too talented."

If nothing else, though, Arenas demonstrated Thursday night he's still capable of producing in a major way at the NBA level. Should Van Gundy lose confidence in Nelson, Arenas may be a viable option to replace him.

Van Gundy, for now, wants to stick with Nelson as his starter. "I don't know," was his response when asked of the possibility of replacing Nelson with Arenas. Later, he said "I don't think it matters a whole lot" with regard to who starts and who comes off the bench. The decision to keep Arenas there, he said, is that "he most easily plays two positions," referring to Arenas' ability to play shooting guard if called upon. Regardless of which one starts, Van Gundy said, Arenas and Nelson will play between 28 and 32 minutes per game. The same is true of J.J. Redick, Jason Richardson, and Hedo Turkoglu.

When the Orlando Magic signed Chris Duhon as their long-term backup point guard behind Jameer Nelson, the six-year veteran's limitations were clear. He can't shoot a reasonable percentage inside the three-point line, he's not exceptionally quick or dynamic, but he sure can make plays. But this season, he's struggled, despite playing alongside the most talented overall team of his career. His usage and assist rates career-low, his turnover rate is a career-high, and one prominent Magic beat writer is asking if coach Stan Van Gundy ought to go with Jason Williams instead.

Eddy Rivera went into great detail, using some Synergy Sports Technology data and advanced metrics, on Duhon earlier today, so I apologize for the redundancy, but Duhon's stretch of three starts in place of the ill Nelson has put him squarely in the spotlight. The fact that his man, Mike Bibby, got free for the game-clinching three-pointer last night in a Magic loss to the Atlanta Hawks only adds to the frustration with him.

What's clear right now is that Duhon isn't performing to his capabilities; his suddenly prodigious, and to a large extent silly, turnovers are indeed cause for concern. We're one-quarter of the way through the season and he still doesn't look quite comfortable in Stan Van Gundy's offense. His reluctance to shoot, even when open, also does opposing defenses favors, as Bret LaGree of Hoopinion detailed in his Hawks game recap:

Bibby consistently went under ball-screens, willing to let Duhon shoot. To Duhon's credit, he didn't. Such discretion did little to help move the Orlando offense toward a good shot, though.

All I'm asking right now is how comfortable you are with Duhon backing up Nelson. Please vote in the poll attached to this post. RSS readers, please visit Orlando Pinstriped Post to participate in the poll.

As they announced over the weekend, the Orlando Magic will introduce a black alternate uniform this season, debuting it on December 14th against the Denver Nuggets. The complete schedule calls for them to wear the new threads 16 times total this season, including 14 road games and 2 home games. As the Nuggets game is their 25th of the season, that means Orlando will wear the new uniform for 16 of its final 57 games.

Today's question, then, centers on the frequency with which the team will wear those uniforms. As sharp as they are--and I've heard no one say anything different, really--is 16 times a bit too much? Is it excessive? Not enough? And, more broadly, does the proliferation of alternate uniforms in the NBA and professional sports at large bother you?

Let your voice be heard below, via the comments section and poll attached to this post. RSS readers, please visit the site to participate. And if you happened to purchase one of the uniforms on Black Friday, when they went on sale at the Magic Team Shop, I'd love it if you'd post a photo on our Facebook page.

Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy had a lot on his mind after his team blew an 18-point lead to the Utah Jazz last night, so his post-game press conference proved more enlightening and candid than usual. For today's off-day open thread, I'd like to discuss some of the points he brought up. With which of the following quotes do you most agree? Vote in the poll below and elaborate in the comments. RSS readers, please visit the site to participate in the poll.

1. That was a very tough loss, a very disappointing loss.

2. The end of the third quarter was ridiculous professional basketball.

3. The turnovers have got to stop.

4. That's not championship basketball tonight.

5. We are a very poor passing team.

The NBA preseason is a time for, among other things, experimentation. Coaches can tinker with new lineups, plays, and philosophy in games of no consequence in a real game setting against real opponents, as opposed to on the practice court in a scrimmage.

The Orlando Magic began their preseason Tuesday night in a victory over the Houston Rockets which can alternately be described as thrilling and sloppy. The banner change in their lineup was playing Rashard Lewis at small forward for a majority of his minutes, though he indeed started at power forward. But as I noted yesterday, Lewis was the only player who manned more than one position for Orlando. Which, in turn, got me thinking about the other multi-positional players on the team's roster, and which two-player combinations might be similarly compelling.

I'm curious to hear what you think on this topic. Now that we've seen how Lewis and Brandon Bass fare together that the forward spots, for example, what's next? Your poll choices are:

• J.J. Redick at shooting guard, Vince Carter at small forward: the Magic tended to play much better with this alignment than with Carter at the two and Matt Barnes at the three against the Bosotn Celtics in the postseason, so to an extent, this pairing is a known commodity. Yet it's also something that might need another look.

• Marcin Gortat at power forward, Dwight Howard at center: we've seen this group before too, but in very small, sporadic doses over the last two seasons. Aren't you the slightest bit curious to see whether Gortat can make good on his promise that he can stretch the floor on offense alongside Howard?

• Stanley Robinson at small forward, Malik Allen at power forward: both of these players sat out Tuesday's win despite the fact that they're healthy. They're playing on unguaranteed deals and have yet to make their Magic debuts. Why not see what they can do together, even if it's in garbage time? There's always the chance for the high-flying Robinson to tip-in a missed Allen layup. And believe me, Allen misses a lot of layups.

I'm sure there are other combinations that are worth our attention, but those are the three that stood out the most. Feel free to vote the "other" option if you'd prefer to see an alternative lineup first. RSS readers, please visit this post on the website to vote in the poll. It ends tomorrow night at 7 PM.

The Magic's next chance to experiment is tomorrow night in Indiana against the Pacers.

In the wake of Jason Williams' knee surgery--a proccedure this morning to remove loose cartilage will cost him the next four weeks, and thus the remaining two days of training camp and the entire preseason--Brian Schmitz argues the Orlando Magic need to sign another point guard to replace him:

They are one twisted ankle away from having just one PG, and Williams will be out the entire preseason.

Jameer Nelson is the starter and Chris Duhon the back-up, but Nelson has been injury-prone and you don’t want to overwork him.

Schmitz also says Magic coach Stan Van Gundy told him the team isn't interested in signing another point guard.

Whose side do you take here? For relative chump change, the Magic could sign a free-agent point guard strictly to serve as a body in training camp so Duhon and Nelson can get some rest; as it is, the Magic are having Vince Carter and J.J. Redick slide down there from shooting guard. The fact that Anthony Johnson, who spent the last two seasons in Orlando, is still on the market may make this option especially attractive, as he would not need to be brought up to speed on the Magic's system. In fact, no point guard played more minutes for the Magic in 2008/09 than Johnson did.

Some other free-agent point guards on the market, according to ShamSports, are Dan Dickau, Jamaal Tinsley, and Rafer Alston. Given GM Otis Smith's preference for signing NBA veterans--as opposed to younger players who are perhaps rougher around the edges but with more upside--it's safe to say that the likes of Oliver Lafayette and Sean Singletary would not be considered.

On the other hand, the Magic "are one twisted ankle away" from losing depth at any position, not just at point guard, so spending money on a late camp/preseason invitee there might not make a lot of sense. And would anyone be interested in collecting a comparatively minor paycheck for a few weeks of work with the Magic knowing that he stands no chance of making the final roster?

Both viewpoints are defensible. Where do you stand?