In Eddy's latest mailbag at MagicBasketball.Net, he explains under which circumstances he'd approve of the Orlando Magic moving Rashard Lewis to small forward. Those circumstances happen to be All-Star power forwards named Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, and Amar'e Stoudemire, and each will be an unrestricted free agents this summer. Kick your imagination into overdrive... now.
When it comes down to it, against the Lakers and the Celtics, the Magic need someone that can get them buckets. Each of these guys bring to the table some skill-sets on offense that would make it easy for head coach Stan Van Gundy to adjust and tweak the current system in place. Even though Boozer, Bosh, and Stoudemire don’t shoot threes, they can still spread the floor to give [Dwight] Howard enough room offensively to operate on the low block as his game continues to mature. And even if teams decide to double-team Howard, the aforementioned trio can shoot efficiently enough from 16-23 feet to keep defenses honest and make them pay for leaving them open.
Eddy uses some Synergy Sports Technology data to support his point. And although he says "there's almost no way" the Magic could nab any of those three players via a sign-and-trade deal, he's careful to make this point, too:
General manager Otis Smith always talks about assets and he has plenty of them to make a splash — Ryan Anderson, Brandon Bass, Marcin Gortat, Mickael Pietrus, trade exception of roughly $6.9 million, and draft picks. It’d be tough to move Vince Carter, but he is essentially an expiring contract that can be used to match salaries if necessary. Would those pieces be enough to trade for a big-time player? Maybe.