Orlando Magic
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An opposing team's scout sizes up the Magic

Stan Van Gundy will have some immediate credibility because he had a pretty good big guy or two before [Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning in Miami], so when he challenges them, they'll listen. He's won and they've seen him win, and they're young enough that that's a big thing for them to have a veteran coach they can rely on ...

Obviously, he'll try to skew things more defensively. They were just an average defensive team last year in a lot of ways, but their slow style of play offensively helped them create stats that made them appear better than they really were on defense. But with the exceptions of Dwight Howard and Darko Milicic blocking shots, their best defenders were Keyon Dooling and Trevor Ariza coming off the bench. Van Gundy will demand better defense out of all of them with the result that they'll be more of a team ...

Howard is great, obviously. The big thing with him will be his free throw shooting because the best way to deal with him is to beat the crap out of him to keep him from dunking. He's probably 90 percent on dunks but 58.6 percent last year from the line, so your best bet is to put him on the line. Then when he isn't making his free throws he gets frustrated, and then his teammates get frustrated ...

He has to come up with another move or two -- for example, a step-away move to shoot off the glass that will help take him away from the double teams. He needs one more offensive move and a counter. But he's also 21 and he's already a dominant force, the best young big guy in the league by far. He affects your game plan because he'll block shots, he rebounds and he will go to the basket with ferocity ... Look at the two guys Van Gundy had in Miami: Zo has a jump hook, and Shaq's gotten better on his jump hook. They don't have a tremendous number of moves themselves. Stan's mentality is that he's going to give Howard the ball in different spots and try to get you to pass out of the double teams ...

Let's also see how they play this. If they put Rashard Lewis at power forward and spread the floor with shooters, then Howard can continue to be a dunker and be a force because there'll be more room in there. But if they're going to have guys who you can help off of, then Howard is going to get the crap hammered out of him. Their big man coach is Patrick Ewing, who was a pretty damn good player with a lot of moves, so if he can relay that and work hard, it will be a good relationship for Howard ...

Their big addition was signing Lewis as a free agent, but they've lost two starters in Grant Hill [who signed with Phoenix] and Tony Battie [out for the year with a torn rotator cuff] and a key big man in Milicic, who was starting to play better by blocking shots as well as serving up high-low passes to Howard's benefit. When Milicic was on the perimeter, you couldn't lay off him into Howard's lap. Hill was important as a guy who could help handle the ball and make plays, and he was their second-leading scorer ...

It's obvious they spent more than they had to on Rashard, and I think they might have been able to find a way to get him while keeping Milicic. The result is that Lewis is going to have a lot more pressure on him than he's going to want. The Magic are going to be structured like Houston with all of the money going to two players and then a bunch of guys filling in around them. That's putting a lot of pressure on a guy like Rashard Lewis, who was more efficient in Seattle when he served as the No. 2 guy to Ray Allen than he was when Allen was out of the lineup. Lewis takes a lot of shots and there are games when he gets hot, but there are a lot more games when he settles for jump shots. He does have a lot of skills. He's a very good jump shooter for his size, and he can shoot off screens. I don't think he's comfortable with utilizing all of his tools all of the time. He's not a great dribbler, and he's a sometimes-defender. When things are going badly, he doesn't seem like the guy who wants to have ball in his hands to turn things around -- that's when he passes the ball. And he's not the best passer in double teams, which is why he likes to step out off the blocks so it's harder to double him ...

With the losses of Milicic and Battie, I think they have to play Rashard a lot at power forward. But then they'll be poor defensively and in rebounding, so Stan will have to come up with some kind of a team approach to mask their deficiencies ...

I get the impression J.J. Redick is going to have bigger role because the owner wants to make sure he has a bigger role. But outside shooting is also going to be big key for them. Defense is not his strong suit, but he has enough guys behind him that he can afford to make a mistake as long as he's making shots ...

Because of Jameer Nelson's size, he's a more effective point guard when he's surrounded by veterans. If you ask him to try to do a lot of stuff, he'll turn the ball over. But if he has guys he can rely on and he knows he doesn't have to do everything, he plays more under control. And then if he plays with a guy who is able to handle the ball -- as Hill could last year -- then that also helps him because he can just play. Unfortunately, I don't know if they have a secondary ball-handler on this roster ...

Jameer is good at hawking and pressuring the ball, but he tends to foul a lot when he really attacks defensively. He has a tendency to go for steals because he's really handsy. The slow pace they played at last year didn't work to Jameer's benefit, so up-tempo should bring out the best in him -- and in Howard too ...

Backup point Carlos Arroyo is a fan favorite down there and he has lot of people behind him who will make it uncomfortable if he's not playing a lot. But I doubt he'll defend to Van Gundy's liking, and it wouldn't surprise me to see them trading his expiring contract at the deadline. I expect Keyon Dooling to play more minutes as a backup point than he did last year ...

Hedo Turkoglu can shoot the crap out of it but he can't guard anybody. He may have trouble getting minutes if they acquire another big guy because then they'll be playing Rashard at small forward ... Like Dooling, Trevor Ariza may have a bigger role because of the defense he'll play off the bench. Ariza jumps out of the gym, but he's not a great shooter. Keith Bogans was in the doghouse last year, but he'll be good with a tough-minded coach like Van Gundy ...

As for Adonal Foyle, they can throw him in there when Howard gets in foul trouble. But if Foyle and Howard are on the court together, the defender will leave Foyle and beat the crap out of Howard ...

I think they can be a better team, but I doubt that their record will be better because of the losses of those three guys [Hill, Milicic and Battie]. I think it will be a good year if they can reach .500 without the leadership of Hill in the locker room and on the court, though they may be able to help themselves by acquiring an extra guy for the frontcourt ...

Based on the money they've set aside for Howard and Lewis, they're going to have to build around those two guys. They can rent a No. 3 player at different times, but they won't be able to afford a significant third star for the long haul. They're going to have to rely on drafting to get that guy and then try to hold on to him after his rookie contract, but their draft record is not stellar.