File Photo by Red Huber, the Orlando Sentinel

Otis Smith has finally seen the light.

The Magic's General Manager told reporters, including John Denton of Florida Today, that he is indeed looking to acquire a power forward before the playoffs:

"It would be really nice to have another big body, but quite frankly we've played really well with what we've had," Smith said. "You'd be crazy to not want to help your team get better. But you have to do something that's going to make sense and not just because you feel like you have to make a move."

I wrote earlier this week that power forward was the Magic's weakest position. Let's take a look at which power forwards might be available, and what it might take to acquire them:

• Reggie Evans, Philadelphia 76ers:
  • The Good: Based on rebound rate, he's the best rebounding power forward in the NBA.
  • The Bad: He doesn't do anything else, and he's an exceptionally poor free throw shooter. Additionally, his contract runs for another four years.
  • What It Would Take: The 76ers are better than their record indicates and have plenty of young talent. However, they're pretty thin up front, so trading Evans would be difficult for them to do.
  • My offer: Keyon Dooling, J.J. Redick, and the draft rights to Fran Vazquez for Louis Amundson and Evans.
    • Why it works for us: The Magic need rebounding, and Evans is an exceptional rebounder. Amundson is a throw-in to make the salaries match.
    • Why it works for them: Dooling and Redick can provide solid backup minutes to two-guard Willie Green, whose current backup is the woefully inept Gordan Giricek. Additionally, Dooling's expiring contract combines with Giricek's to give the 76ers a bit more cap room this summer, which they earmark to re-sign restricted free-agent Andre Iguodala. Fran Vazquez sweetens the deal and gives the 76ers a decent backup power forward whenever he chooses to leave Europe.
• Chuck Hayes, Houston Rockets:
  • The Good: He's a fantastic rebounder (16.0 rebound rate) for his size (6'6"), even in the big-man-heavy Western Conference. Think of what he can do out East!
  • The Bad: Like Evans, he's a non-factor offensively. Like Evans, he's also a poor free throw shooter, connecting on 27% (!) of his attempts this season.
  • What It Would Take: Not much, which is surprising given the Rockets' eagerness to re-sign him last summer. He's regressed a bit and is losing power forward minutes to rookies Luis Scola and Carl Landry. The Dream Shake, the best Rockets blog on the internet, has an entire section entitled, "I like you, Chuck Hayes, but I like winning more."
  • My offer: Carlos Arroyo for Steve Francis and Hayes.
    • Why it works for us: Hayes can give us 15-20 solid minutes a night. Honestly, I feel better about our chances with him in the lineup than I do with Brian Cook, who is two inches taller but a much worse rebounder. Francis, who is out for the season, is a throw-in to make the salaries match. The Magic would buy him out.
    • Why it works for them: Arroyo is much more consistent than any of Houston's other point guards (Rafer Alston, rookie Aaron Brooks, Mike James) and can distribute the ball well.
• Joe Smith, Chicago Bulls:
  • The Good: Although not much of a rebounder, he's leaps-and-bounds better than Rashard Lewis in that regard. He also has good range on his jump-shot; that is, he won't hog the painted area from Dwight Howard
  • The Bad: There are indeed better rebounders available.
  • What It Would Take: Not as much as one might think. The Bulls want to make a playoff push, and the best way for them to do that is to upgrade their point guard rotation. Chris Duhon may have scored a career-high 34 points Thursday night, but he's still Chris Duhon.
  • My offer: Arroyo and James Augustine for Smith.
    • Why it works for us: In addition to getting a solid, reasonably priced (~$10 million over 2 season) veteran, the Magic free up a roster spot by trading two players for one.
    • Why it works for them: I'll let Matt from Blog-A-Bull explain:

      The Bulls don't get a 'prospect', but would I really want [J.J.] Redick? I'd rather see if they could re-sign Arroyo cheap enough to where bringing Duhon back is definitely not an option.

• Kurt Thomas, Seattle SuperSonics:
  • The Good: He's a strong, powerful banger of a big-man averaging 7.5 points and 8.8 rebounds for a woeful Seattle team in the midst of rebuilding. He boasts a robust 18.8 rebounding rate and defends the post well. He's in the last year of his deal, which is worth approximately $8 million.
  • The Bad: At 35-years-old, he's creaky; indeed, health is an issue.
  • What It Would Take: This part is where it gets tricky. Carlos Arroyo and Keyon Dooling are two solid trade assets, but they're both point guards. The SuperSonics have a log-jam at that position already, and there's no reason for them to add to it. Additionally, there's no incentive for them to want to trade Thomas' expiring contract when they can keep it and let it come off their own books.
  • My offer: Arroyo, Augustine, Keith Bogans, and Redick for Thomas and Delonte West.
    • Why it works for us: Thomas bolsters our frontcourt for the rest of the season and for the playoffs, and West can play combo-guard a la Keyon Dooling.
    • Why it works for them: Arroyo is a huge upgrade over West and has an expiring contract to boot; Augustine and Bogans also have expiring contracts, and Augustine would instantly become Seattle's third-best big man (after Nick Collison and Chris Wilcox, ahead of Johan Petro, Mouhamed Sene, and Robert Swift); and Redick is a sweet-shooting prospect who would get the chance to flourish playing ahead of Damien Wilkins.
• Charlie Villanueva, Milwaukee Bucks:
  • The Good: He's a tall, versatile four/three with decent range. He's also an underrated rebounder.
  • The Bad: He's having the worst season of his young career, and his contract runs for another two years.
  • What It Would Take: Probably not a heckuva whole lot. He's losing minutes to Yi Jianlian and the Bucks don't seem too impressed with him.
  • My offer: Augustine and Redick for Villanueva.
    • Why it works for us: We get a solid "buy-low" option without giving up anyone who sees significant playing time.
    • Why it works for them: Redick instantly becomes the Bucks' backup two-guard; he won't lose minutes to Charlie Bell (having arguably the worst season in NBA History) or to Awvee Storey, that's for sure. Augustine has a small expiring contract and provides the Bucks with the sort of hustle coach Larry Krystkowiak admires.

Which of these deals sounds most appealing to you?

Sixers4Guidos, which bills itself as the first Italian blog for 76ers fans, is hosting the fourth round of NBA MVP/ROY rankings as voted on by bloggers. BrewHoop hosted Round 1, Clips Nation hosted Round 2, and 3 Shades of Blue hosted Round 3. Dwight Howard came in third place in MVP voting in this edition. Shockingly, Marcin Gortat was nowhere to be found in ROY voting.

Look after the jump to see the ballot and comments I sent to Sixers4Guidos for them to compile. I'm surprised that I was the only person who gave Daequan Cook any ROY votes. He's good, people!

Continue reading this post »

	vs.
8-12		16-6
Bradley Center
8:00 PM
Sun Sports HD
Probable starters:
Mo Williams	PG	Jameer Nelson
Michael Redd	SG	Keith Bogans
Desmond Mason	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Yi Jianlian	PF	Rashard Lewis
Andrew Bogut	C	Dwight Howard

• UPDATE: The Orlando Sentinel reports that Rashard Lewis is a game-time decision tonight with neck spasms. If he's unavailable, James Augustine will get his first career start. James Augustine!
  • UPDATE: Lewis is available and will start. Carlos Arroyo will not play due to a sore left foot.
• I'm still battling a nasty cold. Six hours of sleep after an 18-hour day? Ben Q. Rock's life: Where Exhaustion Happens.
• It'd be nice to get Rashard Lewis back on track tonight, wouldn't it?  His swag, which he debuted against Milwaukee on opening night to the tune of 26 points on 9-of-13 shooting, has since disappeared. More of this, please.
• It'll be interesting to see if Jameer Nelson is on a short leash tonight. He has not played well lately and might start losing minutes to Carlos Arroyo.
• The Magic: 4th in eFG%. The Bucks: 29th in eFG% defense. Start raining threes!
• Check out Brew Hoop's preview of tonight's game from the Bucks' perspective. They're worried about Hedo Turkoglu, and rightfully so. He torched the Bucks for 24 points on opening night and averaged 21 per game against them last year.

Jameer Nelson made signing a contract extension part of his pre-game routine last night.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

You know the drill.

• Tim Povtak and Brian Schmitz seem to have found the details of Jameer Nelson's contract extension: five years, $35 million, and the option for Jameer to opt-out after the fourth season. Sounds fair to all parties involved.
• I know we're only two nights into the young season, but Rashard Lewis is currently second in the league in PER. Manu FREAKING Ginobili is first.
• BrewHoop posted a second reaction the Magic's victory over the Bucks last night. Frank, one of the two BrewHoop writers, expects Andrew Bogut to bounce back from his poor performance against the Bobcats, and he describes Mo Williams' and Desmond Mason's attempts to drive the lane on Dwight Howard as "comical." Good stuff.
• Two former Magic players made their regular-season debuts with new teams last night. Darko Milicic started at center for the Grizzlies and posted 8 points and 7 rebounds in Memphis' loss to San Antonio.  Meanwhile, in Indy, Travis Diener scored 6 points, grabbed 2 rebounds, and dished 2 assists for the Pacers in their win over the Wizards.
• You know, Yi Jianlian isn't such a bad player. His defense needs PLENTY of work -- he fouled out because he couldn't guard anybody down low -- but he made the most of his touches on offense. Too bad the game's highlights didn't show Keyon Dooling schooling him, though. Keyon got the ball on the left wing, and Yi came out to challenge him. Keyon dribbled right, gave a half-spin, then went left, laid the ball into the basket, and got fouled. It was kind of like this movie he put on Jameer during his Miami days:
• Mike Bianchi is happy that the Magic played well, but he's pissed that so few people got to see it:

  What a scene. What a show.

  And what a shame you didn't get to see it.

  How's this for sad irony: Millions of people in China could actually sit in front of their televisions and watch the Magic open the NBA season Wednesday night, but shockingly and shamefully most fans in Central Florida could not. That's right, Shanghai got the Magic game, but Sanford didn't.

More news as it happens.

UPDATE:

• I'd like to thank my mother for pointing me in the direction of this Orlando Sentinel article, which states that Harris Rosen's bid to block construction of the Magic's new arena in downtown Orlando is faltering. Rosen needs 31,000 signatures to put the funding issue on the ballot, but has collected just 1,215 so far. I know where he can stick those, if you catch my meaning.
• If you were wondering, like I was, why Trevor Ariza hardly played last night, Brian Schmitz has the answer, and it may not make you happy:

  Maybe it's just because new Coach Stan Van Gundy wanted to win the first game, getting the Magic off on the right foot, and liked the way the game was going.

  When a reporter asked him if Ariza had fallen behind, Van Gundy bristled and said, "We were trying to get more shooting on the floor. It's tough. It's situational. We're not real settled into a rotation if I have to play 11 guys."
  [....]
  Van Gundy had intimated before the season he would play eight, maybe nine players at the most in games.

  Pat Garrity was getting more burn than Trevor Ariza. That seems wrong to me. Sure, Stan the Man wants more shooters on the floor, but shouldn't he have at least one slasher out there too? The spot-up shooters we have -- Garrity, Keith Bogans, J.J. Redick -- are fairly one-dimensional. Trevor can at least get to the basket and score off offensive rebounds. I hope last night wasn't a real indication of what Stan's rotation will be the rest of the season. If loving Trevor Ariza is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

	vs.
0-0		0-0
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
Probable starters:
Mo Williams	PG	Jameer Nelson
Michael Redd	SG	Keith Bogans
Desmond Mason	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Yi Jianlian	PF	Rashard Lewis
Andrew Bogut	C	Dwight Howard

25 words or fewer: The Magic and Bucks open their 2007/2008 campaigns and will get to see their offseason additions play in regular-season action.p

Know your enemy: According to the Bucks blog "Bango's Bunch," Milwaukee is starting Desmond Mason and Yi Jianlian over Bobby Simmons and Charlie Villanueva, respectively, because they fit in better with the running game that Bucks head coach (and former Magic player) Larry Krystkowiak will implement.

Useless information: This game features a matchup of two centers who were selected with the first overall pick in the NBA draft: Dwight Howard (in 2004) and Andrew Bogut (in 2005).

Bullet points:

• The SB Nation Milwaukee Bucks site, BrewHoop, is up-and-running just in time for tonight's game. Cool!
• Jameer Nelson got that contract extension he wanted yesterday. Now it's time for him to prove that he earned it.
• It'll be interesting to see how well Keith Bogans defends Michael Redd, the Bucks' sweet-shooting All-Star shooting guard. He's the Bucks' best offensive option, and they don't have any other big offensive threats to turn to if he's shut down.
• Another interesting matchup will be Rashard Lewis vs. Yi Jianlian. Yi, a rookie, is supposedly a good offensive player, but he didn't work out against actual human beings before the draft; instead, he showcased his offensive moves while being guarded by chairs. Lewis isn't a great defender, but he should be able to handle Yi if Yi plays out on the perimeter rather than close to the basket.
• I know I link to this site in every pregame thread, but I only do it because it's so important: NBA Audio League Pass is free this season, and you should take advantage of that. Tonight's Magic game will be televised on Fox Sports Net, which is unavailable to most Orlando residents. If you're dying to listen to the Magic's first game with Rashard Lewis, you'll want to use Audio League Pass. And you can see photos uploaded throughout the game on the Magic's photo wire.
• I really want Dwight Howard to dunk on somebody, preferably Yi, but Andrew Bogut would also be acceptable.
• This news was posted yesterday, but I somehow forgot to include it in any of my updates: negotiations between FSN and Bright House Networks were called off Tuesday evening without a resolution. As a result, Orlando Magic fans with Bright House service in Orlando will be unable to see the game. Brian Schmitz has a team source who says the Magic will be applying pressure to both sides so an agreement can be reached soon. I hope he's right.

This is an open thread, so feel free to discuss Bucks/Magic business in here before, during, and after the game.

I don't get NBA TV where I live, and NBA Audio League Pass doesn't seem to be working, so I'm being forced to follow today's game via the blogs of Brian Schmitz and John Denton. Schmitz says the Magic lead by 25 points at the half after falling behind early, while Denton writes that the Magic shot 17-of-18 in the second quarter. James Augustine, of all people, has 10 points and 4 rebounds.

The starting lineup tonight was Jameer Nelson, Keith Bogans, Hedo Turkoglu, Pat Garrity, and Dwight Howard. The Chinese National Team, which is without Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian, features former NBA players Wang Zhizhi and Olumide Oyedeji (remember him?) as well as future NBA player Sun Yue, whose rights are owned by the Los Angeles Lakers.