Orlando Magic

Superman and the new Amway Center

The Magic moved into new digs in the offseason, leaving the old Amway Center for a new $480 million Amway Center. The team also made some offseason moves that should prove to be helpful down the long road of the NBA season. The team matched an offer from the Chicago Bulls for J.J. Redick, keeping him in Magic blue for at least three more seasons. The team also acquired free agents Chris Duhon and Quentin Richardson while signing their 2010 1st round draft selection (29th overall) Daniel Orton.

Head Coach Stan Van Gundy thinks the moves made will allow his team to keep pace in the East and he fully expects his team to make a run come playoff time. With the players he has acquired, look for the coach to mix and match his lineups like he did during a recent game against the tall Minnesota Timberwolves squad where he moved Rashard Lewis to small forward, Ryan Anderson at power forward. "Obviously, the changed lineup worked well for us," Van Gundy said. "I thought we'd be a little better starting off big. And we got tremendous production out of our two guys (Wednesday night)."

The Orlando Magic have been able to enjoy a good amount of success since joining the National Basketball Association in 1989. In the 15 seasons the team has been in existence they have been to the playoffs eight times. The deepest the team ever went into the playoffs came in 1995. The team was led by a couple of young studs in point guard Anfernee Hardaway and bohemian center Shaquille O’Neal. They’re veteran supporting cast of Horace Grant, Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott weren’t anything to sneeze at either. The team was coached by Brian Hill and they finished with a 57-25 record which was the best in the East and gave them the coveted number one seed. The team stumbled out of the gates when they dropped their second game at home to the Dominique Wilkins led Boston Celtics. The Magic took the next two and advanced to the next round. In the second round the Magic met up with the Chicago Bulls. Michael Jordan had just made his comeback from baseball and got to play in the last 17 games of the regular season and had to wear the number 45 and was determined to take his team back to the Finals.

Through four games of the series it was knotted up at two games apiece. The Magic then won the next two games and are the only team to beat a Jordan led team in playoffs in the last ten years of his career. In the next round the Magic met up with Reggie Miller, Rik Smits and the rest of the Indiana Pacers. The Magic ended up getting over on the Pacers by winning all of their home games but not being able to win a game on the road in the entire series. It was one of the stranger series in more recent memory that featured the Magic losing and winning by over 20 points in the last two games of the series. In the NBA Finals the Magic went up against Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets. Olajuwon had just finished demolishing the NBA MVP of that season David Robinson and the San Antonio Spurs and kept the pace up when he met up with Shaq. Olajuwon is the only player to ever dominate O’Neal for an entire series. The Magic only made one game close in the entire series and they got swept 4-0 with Olajuwon winning the Finals MVP.

Last season was an unforgettable season for the Magic and the city of Orlando for all the wrong reasons. The team finished the season with a record of 21-61 and fired coach Doc Rivers after 11 games. The only reason the team won 21 games was because of their lone superstar Tracy McGrady. McGrady carried the team all year by leading the league in scoring with 28 points per game and also averaged 6 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 1.4 steals a game. In one game at home against the Washington Wizards McGrady scored 62 points on 20-37 shooting. It was a night that would usually be loved by a player but it seemed empty to McGrady. "I couldn't get into it because of the record we have, the fact we're not going nowhere after the regular season -- it's just frustrating," McGrady said.

The off-season was huge for the Magic this year. To start things off the team won the number one overall pick in the Draft Lottery. The team was gearing to build their team around McGrady and their draft pick when McGrady dropped the bombshell that he didn’t want to play for the Magic for the next season. Team officials tried to sway McGrady to stay with the Magic but they didn’t change his mind. The Magic then pulled off the first blockbuster trade of the summer when they sent McGrady, Juwan Howard, Tyron Lue, and Reece Gaines to the Houston Rockets for Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, and Kelvin Cato. The team also traded Drew Gooden, Steven Hunter, and Anderson Varejao to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Tony Battie and two future second round picks. The team also signed small forwards Hedo Turkoglu and Stacey Augmon to play with their team this year.
In the draft the Magic were the big winners. With the number one overall pick Orlando passed on UConn center Emeka Okafor and instead selected high school phenom power forward Dwight Howard. The Magic then traded a future first round pick to grab point guard Jameer Nelson. Many thought Nelson would be a lottery pick since he won almost every single college player of the year award. The only knock on Nelson is that he’s 5’11” but it apparently didn’t matter much to the Magic who were thrilled to have the point guard.

The Magic starting five looks much improved from last season despite the fact they lost one of the best players in the league. At point guard will be Steve Francis, at shooting guard will be Cuttino Mobley, at small forward will be Grant Hill if healthy and Hedo Turkoglu if he isn’t, at power forward will be Dwight Howard and manning the middle will be Tony Battie.

The Orlando bench is also much improved this year and looks like they will be primed for a playoff run for the 2004-’05 season. Backing up the guards will be Jameer Nelson and Deshawn Stevenson. Backing up the forwards will be Hedo Turkoglu, if he isn’t starting for an injured Grant Hill, Stacey Augmon and Kelvin Cato. Backing up the big man will be Andrew DeClercq.