And since I haven't brought it up yet, I'll just say I love what the Magic are doing this offseason.
Hedo was asking for too much, and he wanted too long of a contract. So we get an upgrade in Vince Carter who's contract will come off the books in two years. Losing Hedo is a tough loss but Vince will definitely be able to step up and fill that hole for us. Vince has always been an underrated passer and he's just as good at running the pick and roll as Hedo, and he's a better and more efficient offensive player.
We lose Courtney Lee which hurts, however we do pick up a nice piece in Ryan Anderson who had almost as good of a rookie season as Lee did.
We lose Alston, but he was expendable assuming Jameer Nelson is healthy. We also lose Battie but the addition of Ryan Anderson will more than make up for that.
The addition of Brandon Bass is huge for us. We finally get toughness and someone to do the dirty work next to Dwight. We had no low post bangers outside of Dwight last year.
Otis Smith was a genius the way he played this Marcin Gortat thing. Dallas and everyone else out there thought we would not match Marcin Gortat so they let Brandon Bass leave freely. Bass signs with Orlando, and then Otis Smith shocks everyone and matches Dallas' offer for Gortat.... leaving Dallas with no one and Orlando with both Bass and Gortat. Hell of a bluff.
The Magic also picked up an $8 million trade exception when they did the sign and trade with Hedo/Toronto... so now we have the option of trading Gortat + trade exception for a $14 million player. We most likely won't trade Gortat until after the first year because he can veto trades, but when that expires I kinda expect him to be gone. Or if someone like Jameer goes down again this year, we can use the trade exception to get an $8 million replacement, so it's a nice insurance policy.
Next year's projected lineup:
PG: Jameer Nelson/Anthony Johnson/free agent
SG: Vince Carter/Mickael Pietrus/JJ Redick
SF: Rashard Lewis/Mickael Pietrus
PF: Brandon Bass/Ryan Anderson
C: Dwight Howard/Marcin Gortat
Rashard Lewis will spend more time at SF, and he will spend a lot more time posting up and using his size this year. Definite plus, and he will still cause plenty of matchup problems whether he's at SF or PF.
With Brandon Bass at PF it allows the Magic to match up better with traditional PF's, something we lacked last year when Rashard was guarding PF's in the post. Ryan Anderson also gives us a 6'10 shooter who can spread the floor and rebound. So the Magic are very versatile at Power Forward this year.
I'm also expecting to see Dwight Howard and Gortat together at the same time more, which will just be a shot blocking/rebounding nightmare for other teams. And then they still have to worry about the offense of Jameer/Vince/Rashard on the other end....
We still have the ability to play a lineup of Jameer/Vince/Pietrus/Rashard/Dwight and cause huge matchup problems for other teams just like last year.
I love how this team is built and we have a ton of versatility now, especially with our big men. We definitely improved and it'll be interesting to see how these improvements stack up to all these improvements teams like San Antonio, Boston, and Cleveland have made.
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