What is going on with the Orlando Magic. The Orlando Magic have made some serious off season moves and on paper they look terrific right now, They have aquired as much talent as any team in the East except for NJ and Detroit. They made some offseason aquisitions through free agency and the draft. Through the Draft they got- Reece Gaines(can play 1 and 2) Zaur Pachulia( needs at least 3 years to develope, could be a complete bust) Keith Bogans ( My sleeper of the Draft, last year I picked Boozer) Free Agency Juwan Howard(can still play is only 30, people judged him cause of his salary) Tyronne Lue ( Avg. PG, very intense, nothing special) Training Camp- Britton Johnson(will get cut, highlight was dunk on Bron) Rick Apodaca( will get cut, good Puerto Rican guard not good enough for NBA) Ousmanne Cisse(will make the team , had injury 2 years ago, unbelievable athlete) Donnell Harvey(will make the team, avg. 8 points 5 reb last season) Shammond Williams( make the team, might even start) others Derrick Dial Alton Ford Johh Crotty The Current Depth Chart of the Magic looks like this. PG- Tyronne Lue,Shammond Williams,Reece Gaines (strength at PG-AVG.) SG- Tracy McGrady ,Keith Bogans, Jeryl Sasser (at SG-Very Strong) SF- Juwan Howard, Gordan Giricek, Pat Garrity (at SF-Above. Avg.) PF- Drew Gooden, Donnell Harvey, Ousmane Cisse (at PF- Strong) C- Steven Hunter , Andrew Declerq (at C- very weak) They could be AVG. at the Center position if Steven Hunter has a breakout year, if not it will be a struggle again.
Great post. The magic will get past the first round of the playoffs for sure. But we really need a solid center. It would be a bigger deal if we were in the west. Steven Hunter might have a breakout season and I believe he is our best at that position.
I still don't see Howard a SF, never have. That small forward spot is Gordan Giricek's to lose. They can get away with Gooden and Howard up front, because what teams in the NBA don't have 2 power forwards starting anyway? Plus they again, are in the East. Even withj Gooden and Howard up front, the team is still tall, athletic, and rangy. They will rebound very well too.
People dont know this about Juwan , but he played SF sometimes in Michigan and later on with Washington alongside C Webb. I remember having C Webb , Juwan Howard, and Rod Strikland in DC. They were all young with good talent, especially C. Webb and Juwan but they kept on getting in trouble with the law.
