If you remember a few months back, I posted the Value Rating % of each of the players on the Orlando Magic roster. To refresh your memory, this particular metric (created by Jon Nichols) measures the relative value of a player's performance based on his Composite Score and salary. The difference between their actual Composite Score and expected Composite Score determines their Value Rating.
Nichols tweaked his statistic so that it doesn't penalize high paid superstars.
With all that said, let's see how the reserves faired during the regular season:
Rafer Alston
78.65%
$4,900,000
Tony Battie
34.45%
$5,746,000
Marcin Gortat
90.24%
$711,517
Anthony Johnson
67.07%
$1,910,000
Tyronn Lue
80.48%
$2,250,000
Mickael Pietrus
62.80%
$5,300,000
J.J. Redick
61.89%
$2,139,720
The numbers should speak for themselves, but I'll explain the data a bit.
From the group of players above, Battie is the only individual on the Magic roster who sports a bad percentage. This makes sense, given his price tag in correlation to his production. If/when Orlando attempts to move Battie's contract during the off-season to clear some salary, it should come as no surprise. It's highly unlikely Battie gets moved via trade at this moment in time, but never know. Anything is possible.
Marcin Gortat, not surprisingly, is the high man in the group, sporting excellent value. His worth as a player is why the Polish Hammer is garnering interest from a few teams - New York, for example - as he heads into free agency. When looking at the team as a whole, the Magic have individuals who have good to great VR %; meaning that the majority of them perform above the worth of their contracts. Which is good.
The numbers show that the reserves were productive players during the regular season. It's why the Orlando Magic were able to make it to the NBA Finals, because of guys like Alston, Gortat, Johnson, Pietrus, and Redick contributing to the cause.