Orlando has a very good chance of making the playoffs this season.

I'd say there's a pretty good chance we'll see either Darko or Ben in the first round of the playoffs.

There seems to be a significant weakness on their perimeter defense... I believe teams will have no problem getting inside on the Magic..... unfortunately they will be hard to score on inside... particularly posting up.
They can be beaten if teams will penetrate and look for the extra pass... basically taking advantage of the two heads over aggressiveness.
I see the Magic as a team that gives away a lot of FT's.
The Magic should be a high scoring squad.
This is a tough team to predict... I'll go with the high side and say we end up with a pick between 15-18

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orlando will definitely make the playoffs. they barely missed it last year. they have had a summer to improve. darko showed a definite improvement from what he was providing at the end of the year when they went on thier run. his confidence level is where he improved most and that's just dangerous for teams in the nba. he's going to play starter minutes and provide starter type production. arroyo ripped the world championships and can carry the team from pg if jameer goes down. turkoglu is solid at the 3 last year he looked like he was having a breakout season. dwight howard is just a beast and he's improving over the summer too. jameer is great. their only weakness is at shooting guard. if jj can stand at the 3 point line and drop 3 pointers from dwight and darko orlando will be dangerous.

grant hill hasn't retired yet either. grant healthy for 40 games will make them a guaranteed playoff team.

i'm not worried about the draft pick. i'm worried about meeting this team in the first round of the playoffs. especially if they saved grant for the playoffs like we save lindsey for them.

I forgot about Grant Hill. They should think about playing him every other game or so. He obviously can't take a full NBA season.

Nice try Roscoe! It can't be done.

BTW TaShawn that was a great article about Darko!

It seems to me that whether or not Darko gets the starting nod over Tony Battie, whichever of them comes off the bench leading a very strong second unit makes them very deep.

Say Darko, Dwight, Hedo, Jameer and Bogans start, the second unit will consist of Tony, Grant, JJ, Carlos, and Ariza. Still be heard from would be Dooling who played a lot last year, James Augustine who has a full four year Big Ten career behind him, Travis Deiner, Bo Outlaw, and Garrity. Some of these will not be on the main roster, but I believe they are available. Garrity might be gone.

Their only soft spot might be the need for another big to get some minutes. Augustine and Bo might be able to fill that need. Also Hedo is 6'10".

Grant Hill should come off the bench to make sure he can play more as the season progresses. If and when healthy, he is still their best all-around player.

Depending on whether Grant can play through season, albeit in a smaller role, I can see them as the 5th seed, and if that good, why not the 4th? It would be good for them to get home court.

The other teams in the East have questions, too. How do we know that Chicago will jell; Indy will be kind of disjointed; in the late surge last year, the Magic beat Detroit, totally clobbered Cleveland, beat Miami, Dallas, Utah and other good teams who were still trying to better their position.

I think the team chemistry is already very good with the Magic and the summer's work in the worlds will help. I think they are ready to make a move into the play-offs, if not ready yet to come out of the East.

It is early to tell, but now is when the question was asked, wasn't it?

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Things appear to be at their darkest . . . . . . . . . just before they go totally black!!

I don't think that Tony Battie would have carried the Serbian National team in the FIBA championships.

However, he is a good player to have on the Magic team. Maybe a bit overpaid, but that is what you have to spend for mediocre veteran big men.

Don't blame me.

Forget Orlando's record from last year, and look at the team at the end of the year going into next. A solid starting 5, with a legit superstar center. Then throw in a solid bench. No reason this team can't win 48-50 games and be a 5 or 6th seed.

BTW, from a translation of a translation of Orlando's assistant GM on realGM, this is how Orlando plans on using Darko and Dwight next year:

DT: I love Darko. He helped us a lot when he came here from Detroit. I am glad to see that he is enjoying the Basketball. With us, he has a great opportunity, because he will get a lot of playing time.

B92: In our country, lot of people talk about his role on a team. Some people think he takes too many shots and that he is much better at Center?

DT: In Orlando, Darko plays pure 4. I don't mind him shooting from outside, he is a able of doing many different things on the court. If needed, he can go inside. He is quick and he thinks fast. Dwight at Center and Darko at PF is our frontline and we will build around that in years to come.

No speak of B. Hill here. He's got a lot of chemistry to brew.
He finally got it right late last year.
I'll take picks 19, 20 or 21 or worse.