News on the Orlando Magic free-agent front is slow through one day of negotiations, but there are two developments to monitor.
Combo guard Nate Robinson "desperately" seeks his release from the Oklahoma City Thunder, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, and if he's able to reach a buyout agreement with the Thunder, "Orlando could be a landing spot for Robinson." Robinson has one year remaining on his contract, valued at $4.5 million, according to ShamSports. He initially signed that contract with the Boston Celtics, who traded him and Kendrick Perkins to Oklahoma City for Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic at February's trading deadline. Counting the playoffs, he appeared in just seven games with Oklahoma City.
This isn't the first time a rumor has linked Robinson to Orlando. In the summer of 2009, Howard Beck of the New York Times reported the Magic and Los Angeles Lakers were among two teams who pursued Robinson.
In his six-year career, Robinson has averaged 11.3 points in 23 minutes per game, mostly in a reserve role. At 5-foot-9, Robinson is often likened to a shooting guard in a point guard's body, which strikes me as a fair assessment. Though he'd certainly add some offensive dynamism to Orlando's bench, it's unclear how many minutes he could expect to play with the defensively demanding Stan Van Gundy as his coach. He'd also seem to be redundant with Gilbert Arenas still on the roster.
Elsewhere, it appears Earl Clark would really, really, really like to re-sign with the Magic. "I don't want to play anywhere else," Clark told HOOPSWORLD. "Hopefully I can stay here, I want to. We’ll see what happens."
This site touched on Clark's situation in its look at Orlando's own free agents Thursday morning. The second-year combo forward averaged 4.1 points and 2.5 rebounds with Orlando after it acquired him from the Phoenix Suns.