Orlando
With Pat Garrity and Grant Hill healthy, the Orlando Magic have quite a reserve of players at the wing.
Assuming the Magic use mainly a three-guard rotation for the point and shooting guard slots of Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley, and Jameer Nelson, and even penciling in Keith Bogans for mop-up minutes in that slot, that leaves four players for one spot. Garrity and Hill will compete with Stacey Augmon and Hedo Turkoglu for minutes at the small forward position.
The Magic are stacked at center, with Tony Battie, Andrew DeClercq, and Kelvin Cato all looking for time, though apart from Michael Bradley, averaging 15 minutes per game over his career, they have only the rookie Dwight Howard as a natural power forward. Sure, Battie and even Turkoglu can slide over to that spot but it would be a difficult adjustment for them.
The Magic have gone from being deep at power forward with Juwan Howard and Drew Gooden to essentially just looking to ride Dwight Howard's talent as much as they can.
TEAM NOTES
The Magic have released the complete 2004-2005 regular season schedule.
Joe Davidson ofThe Sacramento Beewrites: Already in a summer as wacky as NBA front-office folks can remember, Tracy McGrady and Shaquille O'Neal in effect forced their employers to move them.McGrady, entering the last year before he can opt out of his contract and vowing to leave the Orlando Magic, was shipped to Houston. O'Neal, frustrated in the belief Kobe Bryant appeared to be running things in Los Angeles, insisted he wouldn't report back to the Lakers and was traded to the Miami Heat. Now there's Peja.
The Florida Ledgerwrites: Charlie Ward and Bob Sura, both Florida State University products, signed with the Houston Rockets on Monday and will compete with recently acquired Tyronn Lue for the point guard job. The Rockets are looking to offset the loss of Steve Francis, who was traded to Orlando in a blockbuster deal that sent twotime league scoring champ and Auburndale product Tracy McGrady to Houston.