I hear people talking about teams such as the Nets and Raptors improving and maybe contending with some of the elite teams in the East, but no mention of the Magic. Orlando was one of the better defensive teams last season, but they were just missing a consistent scorer. Lewis was a brilliant pickup, all though they majorly overpaid him. They now have a great inside-outside balanced offense with Howard and Lewis. They have a good young PG in Nelson who brings a lot of energy, and a good role scorer in Hedo. Ariza is another solid NBA player with the potential to get better. This team has a good offense-defense balance and can definatly hold it's own in the East.
They did a good job in helping out their team offense by grabbing Rashard Lewis, even if they did overpay him. PG Jameer NelsonSG JJ Redick SF Rashard LewisPF Tony BattieC Dwight HowardBench: Hedo Turkoglu, Carlos Arroyo, Trevor Ariza, Keyon DoolingPretty small backcourt, but they'd certainly provide offense. Redick only played half the season but still managed to contribute some offense to the team. He will only improve next year, but he has to stay healthy.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zards @ Jul 25 2007, 05:10 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>They did a good job in helping out their team offense by grabbing Rashard Lewis, even if they did overpay him. PG Jameer NelsonSG JJ Redick SF Rashard LewisPF Tony BattieC Dwight HowardBench: Hedo Turkoglu, Carlos Arroyo, Trevor Ariza, Keyon DoolingPretty small backcourt, but they'd certainly provide offense. Redick only played half the season but still managed to contribute some offense to the team. He will only improve next year, but he has to stay healthy.</div>Instead of Redick, Ariza should be the starting two-guard for the Magic. With Rashard Lewis being an exellent shooter, and Nelson being the third option shooter, we really don't need another shooter in the starting lineup. We need some defense, and athleticism, and Ariza provides both for us. He will be much better as a starter, than Redick will. It will also allow the Magic to have some pop off the bench with a duo on the wings of Turkoglu and Redick coming in, which will keep the scoring pressure on the defense at all times. I think we should be 100 times better this season, and it all centers around the signing of Rashard Lewis, and what he does for us. First off, he stops the opposing teams from running those zone defenses on us that they did so much last year. With us having a consistent shooter from deep, if they go to zone, he will just light them up and it's proven he can go off for 30 or 40 points on just about any night that he starts shooting. That will help us cut down on the turnovers that was created from trying to drive in on these zones, as well as the turnovers created by trying to force the ball onto the inside to Dwight Howard. With us having clearer passing lanes to Howard, and better lanes for Ariza and Nelson to drive in on, we will be able to cut down on all of our turnovers. It will also make Dwight Howard's scoring that much more dangerous, with him receiving more passes on the inside, due to the passes not getting picked off as much. So he will have an effect on the entire offense like that.It also greatly add's pop to our bench, something we didn't have last year. We had good defense and energy from the bench with Arroyo, Dooling, Bogans, Ariza and Milicic, but we didn't have much scoring. None of those guys were legit threats to be able to light it up on the score board. Now that Turkgolu will be coming off of the bench, we will have a threat on the bench that is capable of going off for 20 points on any given night. With that, our bench will be ten times better than this past season, and make us even more dangerous than this past season. The Magic will be a team to watch out for this next season in my opinion.
