Who on the Magic had the highest net team points last season? Who had the worst? The answers will surprise you, and may help shed light on how GM John Gabriel makes his decisions.

Net team points, also sometimes called plus-minus, is just the number of points by which your team outscores your opposition while you are on the floor. Sometimes what is reported is the difference between the net team points and the team's production while you are benched, to stabilize for the strength of the opposition. Finally, 82games.com takes the difference of those two numbers weighted to reflect 48 minutes of performance. They call it the net team plus-minus, and they are the source for the numbers below.

Positive: Hedo Turkoglu 7.6, Steve Francis 6.3, Andrew DeClercq 4.5, Michael Bradley 4.3, Tony Battie 2.1, Kelvin Cato 0.4.

Negative: Cuttino Mobley 0.0, DeShawn Stevenson -0.8, Stacey Augmon -3.2, Keith Bogans -3.8, Pat Garrity -27.4.

Turkoglu edged out Francis for the best player last year by this measure. DeClercq had a surprisingly strong showing.

Plus-minus apparently is used quite often in hockey, and we all know John Gabriel is a hockey guy. Could he be relying on statistics such as these for some of his decision making? The only two players that he brought into the team this year that had negative numbers last year are Cuttino Mobley, who was essentially flat, and Stacey Augmon. The rest, especially Battie, were positive.

TEAM NOTES
The Second Annual Garrity Bass Classic is Sunday, September 19.

NEWSLINES

Stephen Buttigieg ofThe Times of Maltawrites: Indeed, Pat Burke, who played with the Orlando Magic in the NBA in 2003, has been allowed to play for the Irish national team by his club... going by the name of Real Madrid!

John McGrath ofThe News Tribunewrites: In March 2003, in the final seconds of a Cleveland Cavaliers blowout victory over Utah, Cavs guard Ricky Davis intentionally took a bad shot at the wrong basket so he could pull down the rebound he needed for his first career triple-double. Davis was justifiably ridiculed, but his pathetic bid for a triple-double was no more crass than Orlando's scheme to set up an assist for Anthony Bowie's 1996 triple-double.With 1.4 seconds remaining in a game the Magic led by 22 points, Orlando called a timeout on Bowie's behalf. Detroit coach Doug Collins ordered his team off the floor in disgust, and he was the guy who got fined $5,000 by the NBA.

Darragh Johnson ofThe Washington Postwrites: It will cost about $1.5 million to $2 million to renovate the auditorium. Organizers are looking at ways to raise money, including contacting famous alumni. Goldie Hawn went to Blair High, Graham said. Tim Britton, assistant principal at the middle school, added, "So did Ben Stein! And Steve Francis," a basketball player with the Orlando Magic. "He's got money."