We have several position battles where guys will be fighting for a starting spot during training camp and the preseason. New acquisitions, Keith Bogans and J.J. Redick, will both look to fill the starting shooting guard spot left by our best one on one defender, Deshawn Stevenson. The other main battle is at our center position with the veteran Tony Battie competing for the starting job against Darko Milicic who is hoping to use this season to show what he can do given playing time. I'm going to break down both of these position battles and tell who I think should be named starter and who should be on the bench. The first battle is one that many Magic fans debate about. Is J.J. Redick the answer to our starting shooting guard needs? While he is a great scorer, many people think his defense will be taken advantage of by opposing scorers. Keith Bogans on the other hand, is an excellent defender but he doesn't have the ability to go off and score 20 points on any given night. What you see is what you get with KB and he is your typical role player. He does the dirty work, averages a career 8.4 PPG, and has only started in 109 out of 219 games. Here is how this battle breaks down. Offense: On offense, Redick has the clear advantage. At Duke, he broke many scoring records and showed he can score from anywhere on the court. He is automatic from three point range and will help the Magic who ranked dead last in three point attempts last season. He is a good scorer and will spread the floor with his range. Bogans can hold his own on offense and is also a pretty good three point shooter, but offensively you have to go with Redick. Advantage: J.J. Redick Defense: The obvious winner of this category is Bogans. He is a much better defender than Redick. J.J. is known for his scoring and his defense is non-existent. Bogans on the other hand is a good replacement for Stevenson on the defensive end because his defense is above average and he can contain some of the better players in the league. It makes sense to start Bogans simply because of his defense because both Jameer Nelson and Hedo Turkoglu are defensive liabilities. Advantage: Keith Bogans Size: J.J. Redick is 6'4 and 190 lbs. while Bogans is 6'5 and 215 lbs. As you can see, Bogans is bigger and has a larger build than Redick. This could help him since some people have said Redick is too small to be a starting shooting guard in the NBA. Advantage: Keith Bogans Health: As everyone knows, Redick hurt his back in a pre draft workout at the Orlando camp and it hasn't been right since. He was held out of the summer league to rest and now he is going to miss Team USA tryouts. Bogans on the other hand, has never had any serious injuries and most of his missed games have been due to the fact that he was buried on the depth chart. Also, Bogans is healthy right now while Redick's back problem stillgiving him the edge. Advantage: Keith Bogans Potential: Redick's potential is obviously a lot higher than Bogans' because he is young and has never shown what he could do at the NBA level. He probably would have been a higher pick had he not injured his back or gotten the DUI one week prior to the draft. Like I said before, with Bogans, what you see is what you get. We know that Bogans can come in and be a consistent role player but the 22 year old Duke graduate has more potential. Advantage: J.J. Redick Experience: Redick has a lot of experience for a rookie since he stayed at Duke for four seasons and is already NBA ready (meaning he isn't a high school project or some foreign guy who is just tall). As far as NBA experience goes, Bogans is the answer because well, he's actually stepped onto an NBA court. KB has 4 years of NBA experience under his belt and he has already proven that he can make an impact in this league. Advantage: Keith Bogans The Eastern Conference has a lot of scorers like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Michael Redd, Gilbert Arenas, and Allen Iverson (for now) so having someone who can actually play defense is important for the Magic. Bogans is better in every category except for offense and potential so I think he should get the nod to start. He can also match up on all those scorers, something Redick can't do. Redick is better coming off the bench when he has a defensive minded small forward playing alongside him (ala Trevor Ariza). Redick might get worked into the starting lineup later in the season but on opening day, I see Bogans starting. The next position battle would have been the small forward position had Grant Hill actually stayed healthy. However since he is still hurt I give the nod to Hedo Turkoglu and officially declare Grant Hill dead to me. Moving along, let's take a look at the center position battle. Tony Battie and Darko Milicic are both hoping to secure the starting job next to Dwight Howard. Battie has played on many different teams and has never really had a permanent stint with a team until landing in Orlando. Last season, he won the starting job from Kelvin Cato who was often injured and then traded to the Pistons in exchange for Darko Milicic and Carlos Arroyo. Just when Battie thought he was the fulltime starter, in came Darko. The Human Victory Cigar came off the bench for the Magic throughout the second half of the season and he played great when he was on the floor. Let's break down their battle. Offense: Darko Milicic wins the offensive section of the battle because he can score all over the floor. Many people don't know that he can knock down threes but he is a very good three point shooter. He hasn't been able to showcase this skill much in the NBA but I've seen him in pregame shootarounds consistently knock down long range shots. Battie can score in the paint (sometimes) but he's more of just a rebounder on offense. Darko has the edge here. Advantage: Darko Milicic Defense: Last season, Darko displayed great interior defense and averaged 2.1 BPG in the last 20 games of last season (while still playing limited minutes). If he were to get a chance to start, these numbers would be higher and he would be able to help Dwight a lot in the paint. Battie is also a good defender but he has never averaged more than 1.5 BPG in a season and that number is likely to go down as Battie ages. Advantage: Darko Milicic Rebounding: Darko Milicic's rebounding numbers don't really do him justice since he has never been given a chance to play big minutes for a team. Tony Battie was our second best rebounder last year (behind Dwight) and has better fundamentals than Darko. Coming into last season, Milicic was bery rusty and out of shape due to his lack of playing time since the start of his career. I'd say at this point Battie and Milicic are the same when it comes to rebounding because eeither is great. Advantage: Push Size: Tony Battie is 6'11 and 240 lbs. while Darko is 7'0 and 245 lbs. Darko has the advantage in this category. Advantage: Darko Milicic Health: Early in Battie's career he had some injury problems and that caused him to bounce around several different teams before finding the Magic. Since he has been in Orlando, he hasn't had any serious injuries and has been bery healthy. Darko has only had one serious injury during his career mainly because he hasn't even played in a game long enough to break a sweat, let alone a bone. He broke his wrist during the Pistons championship run but since then he's been healthy. Advantage: Push (since neither has had any significant injuries for awhile). Potential: The winner for this part of the break down is obviously Darko. At 21 years old, he has loads of potential and nobody knows how he will fare in the league since he never got a chance to perform in Detroit. Some people say that the Magic should offer him a large contract extension now before it's too late but the one thing that scares them is, what if Darko doesn't live up his potential? Many people already label him a bust due to the fact that he had such great talent around him and because he hasn't gotten to showcase himself on the NBA level. The truth is, we have no idea how good Darko can be. He showed glimpes of stardom at times last season but this season is really Milicic's chance to show everyone what he can do. Tony Battie on the other hand is more than 30 years old and past his prime. He hasn't had potential for years. Advantage: Darko Milicic Experience: Tony Battie may not have potential but experience is something he definently has. He is going into his 10th season in the NBA and he has bounced around a lot since entering the league in 1997. He has played in many different schemes and for many different coaches. Darko has "played" for two teams and has only actually started in three games since entering the league. Battie's experience helps him in the locker room because he has leadership skills and is a respected veteran. Milicic on the other hand doesn't speak much English and his leadership skills are weak. Advantage: Tony Battie At 7'0, I think Darko is the man for the job. Last year there were times where he played brilliantly. His defense was amazing and there were times where he would play 19 minutes and have 4 blocks. I see him helping Dwight more than Battie would on both ends of the court and why not give him a shot? Our team isn't ready to win now so might as well go with our guy that will be helping us in the future. Right now, Darko needs to learn from getting into the game and actually playing. He has sat on the bench long enough and it's about time he secures a starting job. I say start him from day one. That leaves me with this roster for opening day: PG- Jameer Nelson SG- Keith Bogans SF- Hedo Turkoglu PF- Dwight Howard C- Darko Milicic That's a very good team and we have talented bench players at every position as well who can come in and perform at a high level. Arroyo, Redick, Ariza, Augustine, and Battie would be a very deep bench and would give Redick someone who can guard his man in Ariza. That's my position battles and I'll be looking forward to seeing some of your responses to see what you think.
I would have thought that bogans was gonna be your energy guy off the bench. i know jj wont be starting right away if at all this year, but are they your only options at the two with hedo at the three?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheFreshPrince:</div><div class="quote_post">I would have thought that bogans was gonna be your energy guy off the bench. i know jj wont be starting right away if at all this year, but are they your only options at the two with hedo at the three?</div> Well we can always move Hedo/Hill/Ariza to SG and start 2 of those 3, but having Bogans and JJ and Dooling on the bench at the 2 spot would be very deep and we should start one of them. I bet Dooling ends up starting at the beginning of the season at SG for us.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TheFreshPrince:</div><div class="quote_post">I would have thought that bogans was gonna be your energy guy off the bench. i know jj wont be starting right away if at all this year, but are they your only options at the two with hedo at the three?</div> Bogans and J.J. are pretty much the only options unless we have someone play out of position like Ariza, Hedo, or Dooling.
I say by the time the season starts that Bogans will be starting and Battie will start. After 10 games or so and maybe less than that Darko will be starting with Bogans. Just thinking about it now, we have a lot of depth on this team.
I think Darko will start this year if he can come in in shape. Last year he put up 8 and 4 and Battie put up 8 and 6 in 7 more minutes. Last year Darko wasn't in shape, he was rusty, and he was finally getting acclimated to the NBA level. He also had no chemistry with his teammates. Don't say Arroyo, because Darko never played in Detroit when Arroyo was there. Now with a full offseason of getting into shape and playing with Dwight(I think I heard they are working out together this offseason) and with Dwight's "veteran" leadership.(He's not a veteran, but everything he does seems to be something that a veteran would do-taking a player under his wing, etc.) So basically I think you will see a totally new Darko next year. I think he could be a solid 12 and 6 guy with 2-3 blocks this year. With the SG spot, I wouldn't mind starting Ariza and Turkoglu, that is probably the best possible combination that we have right now. (again assuming we resign Ariza) One thing I would like to see is Grant Hill coming off the bench for 20 minutes a game, then after about 25-30 games if he is still healthy improve his minutes a little more to 25-30 and then from there see whether or not he should be starting. I think with him not starting and only getting 20 minutes he will be better prepared to play an entire season. It's what Cleveland did with Z after he had 2 surgeries and look where Z is now. If we start Hedo at SF, then I would much rather see Bogans starting over JJ.
In my opinion Bogans is a better player than Redick, and better option to start. Although, he is not a superstar who will get you 20 points a night, if given playing time Bogans is very capable of averaging double-digit points. His career average is only eight points, but you have to take into account the situations he was placed in. In his rookie season with Orlando Bogans played very well, he only averaged six points, but he was arguably the best rookie on the roster that season. Bogans? has career average of 8 points, but he also has a career average of only 25 minutes. If you translate his production into points per 48 minutes, he is an offensive threat when on the court. I think that this upcoming season he will give you more offensive production than Redick will to be honest with you. Redick will struggle when Howard is off the court to get an open shot. Although, in the future he might become a better player than Bogans on the offensive end. I don?t see it happening this year. Even with Howard on the court I believe Redick will struggle a bit, teams will undoubtedly have to double down on Howard in the post, but as long as they rotate a player to cover Redick he will not get an open look. Redick may enoy early success, but it will not take teams long to adjust to him. As far as the battle for center goes, I think you have to allow Darko to start. Battie is getting up there in age, and likely will not be with the team much longer. The Magic need to allow their young players to develop not only that, but Darko does produce more when on the court than Battie. Battie should be restricted to the mentor role, playing limited minutes, and being more of a player/coach type presence, in my opinion.
The best overall lineup I can see right now is with Bogans at the SG, Hedo at the 3 and Darko starting with Howard in the frontcourt. Bogans gives them the perimeter defender they need to check the elite guards in the East. Certainly he's a better option than Turkoglu for guarding them, and until Redick proves that he can play effectively and shows that he's worth starting, they have to keep Bogans in there. It's interesting how you can acquire a starter in this league like that without giving much, but Bogans is a perfect fit. Along with Hedo, he'll be able to knock down shots created from Jameers break down of the defense, and double teams down low. As for Battie and Darko, I believe unless Darko shows nothing in training camp or something to that extent, he has to start from the start. Battie is a nice solid veteran who compliments Howard well, but Darko showed enough signs last year that he's worthy of starting. Battie is a perfect player to come in the game for Darko because they both bring something different to the court. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting Best Kept Secret:</div><div class="quote_post"> As far as the battle for center goes, I think you have to allow Darko to start. Battie is getting up there in age, and likely will not be with the team much longer. The Magic need to allow their young players to develop not only that, but Darko does produce more when on the court than Battie. Battie should be restricted to the mentor role, playing limited minutes, and being more of a player/coach type presence, in my opinion.</div> How do you figure when the Magic just signed him to a 4 year extension a few months ago? He's 30, not 34. You're acting like Battie has nothing left in the tank, when infact he has plenty to offer. He's still a very good post and big man defender, who can hit some J's from mid range. Plus he has alot of mobility left in his body. To me, I see him playing a role similiar to PJ Brown of the Bulls.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting P.A.P.:</div><div class="quote_post"> How do you figure when the Magic just signed him to a 4 year extension a few months ago? He's 30, not 34. You're acting like Battie has nothing left in the tank, when infact he has plenty to offer. He's still a very good post and big man defender, who can hit some J's from mid range. Plus he has alot of mobility left in his body. To me, I see him playing a role similiar to PJ Brown of the Bulls.</div> You know what your right I thought Battie was actually older around 32-34. If he plays a PJ Brown role, I do not think it would matter having Darko come off the bench. I believe Darko should see a majority of the minutes at the center position though, with that said. Darko has yet to even scratch the surface, when it comes to how good he can be the Magic need to put him in a position in which he can reach that potential. Unlike Tyrus Thomas (who Brown will be starting over) Darko is ready to contribute right now due to playing overseas, and learning under Ben Wallace for the last season seasons. As long as he sees a majority of the minutes, I don?t think it will matter who starts.
Does anyone know how Redick is doing health wise? That could really affect him in his position battle with Keith Bogans.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Swish15:</div><div class="quote_post">Does anyone know how Redick is doing health wise? That could really affect him in his position battle with Keith Bogans.</div> i've tried to find updates on his status, but there is nothing out there that says how he is doing. every article says the same thing, redick did not play in the summer league due to back problems (which we all know). great post swish, im with you 100% on the darko battie position battle. i was a little disappointed last season when they didn't give darko more minutes to prepare him to be the definite start for this season. i really hope coach hill does the right thing by rallying a young core together so they can all learn how to play together and gain experience together. as for the hedo hill battle, i think that hedo is the better player but i think hill is going to get the nod from coach hill to start the season. i dont think there is going to be much of a position battle between bogans and redick. i agree that bogans will get the nod, and i think that redick could have started if he didnt have his back problems. if he could hav played with Krzyzewski for one more stint, it may have been a good one, but we'll never know.... for now, bogans.
This would be my pick. PG: Jameer Nelson/Carlos Arroyo/Keyon Dooling/Travis Diener/JJ Redick SG: Keith Bogans/Keyon Dooling/Trevor Ariza/JJ Redick/Travis Diener SF: Hedo Turkeyglue()/Trevor Ariza/Grant Hill PF: Dwight Howard/Darko Milicic/Bo Outlaw C: Darko Milicic/Tony Battie/Dwight Howard/Bo Outlaw
