Orlando Magic

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 09-10 season                                                           Cap Room: -31,811,582                               Best Bench Player: Marcin Gortat

2nd place Overall                                                    Luxury Tax: Yes.  Fine: 19,548,582             Power Rankings: 4

2nd in Conference                                                   Best Player: Dwight Howard                        Owner/Net Worth: Rick DeVos/4.5B

Reached Eastern Conference Finals                         Coach: Stan Van Gundy                               Team Value: 349 million

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 Starting 5 

                                                 PG  Jameer Nelson PR#11                              SG Vince Carter PR#9                                                                                                                                               

                                              SF Michael Petrius PR#21                   C Dwight Howard PR#1                     PF Rashard Lewis PR#14                                                                                                                                                     

Bench Grade: A

PG Chris Duhon, Jason Williams SG SF Quentin Richardson PF Ryan Anderson, Brandon Bass, Daniel Orton C Marcin Gortat

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Are the Magic still the best team in Florida?

At this moment I am going to have to say no. Yes I know you have the best Center on the planet and your team has great chemistry but it doesn’t have Lebron James or Dwayne Wade. Last season games between Orlando and Cleveland where very close. And now Lebron has Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. Yes they are weak at center and Howard will exploit that but the truth is that Miami can rotate 5 guys on him. Start with Big Z, then to Joel Anthony, then to Dexter Pittman who probably will be the best matchup, then to Haslem and finally if needed Bosh can play some minutes on Howard. And the last time I checked he still sucks at free throws. So with that many big men Miami could try a hack a Shaq strategy on Dwight. Vince is another year older and if needed Dwayne Wade can always guard Jameer Nelson if he is causing problems. And Guarding Lebron James and Dwayne Wade without Matt Barnes is going to be impossible. Pietrus can contain James but Vince Carter guarding Dwayne Wade is a complete mismatch. People will disagree but my vote goes to the Miami Heat.

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Was it smart to keep JJ Reddick and Marcin Gortat?

Basketball wise it is smart. It never hurts to have a great shooter like Reddick in the lineup and Gortat is probably a starter for most teams. Besides the owner is the co founder of Amway and worth $4.5 billion. They are paying a lot of money for reserves who see limited minutes but who knows maybe they plan to give an aging Carter more rest this year and play Reddick more.

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Can we make any trades to help us compete?

There are always things you can do to help you team. The most visible so far would be acquiring Chris Paul via trade but New Orleans has made it very clear they will not trade him. Chris Paul I believe secretly desperately wants out but is to afraid to voice his opinion after seeing James turned into a villain by the media. So there is a better chance of acquiring him right before the deadline if the Hornets are playing badly but likely Orlando’s current roster is the one they finish the season with.