Corey Maggette spent his rookie season in Magic blue, but could return to Orlando as a free-agent this summer.
File photo by Eric Gay, the Associated Press

In his NBA Confidential piece in today's Orlando Sentinel, Tim Povtak mentions two possible free-agent acquisitions for the Magic this summer: Jason Williams and Corey Maggette:

Point guard Jason Williams of the Miami Heat isn't the only one who will go into free agency this summer hoping the Orlando Magic will give him a call. With the Magic having so many guards in the final year of their contracts -- and with center Dwight Howard locked in for many years -- there are players all over the league hoping for a ride to Orlando.

Shooting guard Corey Maggette of the Los Angeles Clippers will be another one looking to see what the Magic will do, which is why he smiled last week when he was asked about opting out of the final year of his contract to become a free agent this summer [....]

"We'll sit down this summer and see where it goes," Maggette said before the Clippers were pounded by the Magic last week [....]

I have no interest in Jason Williams at all -- seriously, if we want to have a pass-first point guard around to back-up Jameer Nelson, we'd be better off re-signing Carlos Arroyo -- but Maggette is an interesting proposition. So interesting, in fact, that discussing his potential signing merits its own discussion.

Consider these positives: Maggette is averaging career-highs in scoring (22.4 points per game), field goal percentage (.470), and three-point percentage (.413). Additionally, he's fourth in the league this season in free throw attempts per game, and he converts on a solid 84% of them. Adding him to a starting lineup that already features Nelson, Hedo Turkoglu, and Rashard Lewis along the perimeter -- not to mention Dwight Howard down low -- would make the Magic formidable indeed. Furthermore, Nelson, Maggette, and Turkoglu can all handle the ball well, meaning they aren't just going to stand around on the perimeter and launch threes. This year's Magic team is fourth in the league in offensive efficiency, and it's not a stretch to think that standing would surge to first with Maggette in the starting lineup.

There are a few downsides to Maggette, however. For one, he likes to dominate the ball: when he's on the floor, he uses 27% of the Clippers' possessions. Of course, if he's willing to sacrifice " million in guaranteed money next season to play for us, as Povtak suspects he might, I'm sure he'd be willing to share the ball. Second, he's a poor defender. He allows opposing small forwards to post a PER of 18.4 against him. For comparison's sake, note that Dallas forward Josh Howard's PER this season is 18.2. Understandably, I'm a bit leery of signing a guy who lets his man post borderline All-Star numbers. Finally, he's far from a beast on the offensive boards. The player he'd replace in the starting lineup, Maurice Evans, grabs 7.2% of the Magic's missed shots when he's on the floor. Maggette grabs just 3.6% of the Clippers' misses. Don't be fooled by Maggette's higher overall rebound rate: the Magic are 26th in the league in offensive rebound rate and third in defensive rebounding, and Evans is the better offensive rebounder. We could also retain Evans more cheaply than we could obtain Maggette. Even if Evans wants a raise this summer -- and he's earned it, by all accounts -- he'd still only command $2.5 million or so. Maggette would cost us the whole $5.5 million mid-level exception, and he'd be on our books for five seasons.

So, should the Magic make a run at Maggette to improve their already elite-level offense? Or should they look elsewhere, hoping to shore-up their 11th-ranked defense and save money? I'm still undecided. On the one hand, I like the idea of having yet another offensive threat, especially one whose presence could -- gulp! -- allow us to trade Hedo Turkoglu, whose value has never been higher, for help at the power positions. On the other hand, there's no reason to tinker with what's already a fantastic offense, especially not when the defense needs attending to.

Corey Maggette and Maurice Evans statistics from www.basketball-reference.com.

The Magic's Hedo Turkoglu drives to the basket against the Mavericks. Despite his first career triple-double, Orlando fell to Dallas Monday night, 107-98.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

The Magic tested their legitimacy as title-contenders last night against Dallas, an elite team that figures to make a deep playoff run. They failed that test, spotting the Mavericks a 13-point first quarter lead en route to a 107-98 defeat. The Magic never lead in the game and didn't seriously challenge until the second half. After the Magic made a remarkable comeback -- John Denton aptly described it as "gamely" -- the Mavericks scored 10 straight points to end the rally. Here's the GameFlow, and here's the boxscore.

I'm not too disappointed with the loss, however. Yes, falling behind in the first quarter is troubling, but the fact that it battled back instead of giving up, as last year's team would have done, is at least encouraging. On any other night, we might have been able to take the lead. Hedo Turkoglu, with 13 points, 12 rebounds, and a career-high 13 assists, recorded the first triple-double of his career, and his all-around contributions were great. However, he shot just 4-of-14 from the field. 5 of his 9 misses were driving layups, and none of them were blocked. Indeed, the eight turnovers by the team belies how many unforced errors it made.

My game-ball goes not to Turkoglu; nor to Dwight Howard, who lead the Magic with 28 points; nor to Rashard Lewis, who played surprisingly good defense on Dirk Nowitzki, holding last year's MVP to 20 points on 8-of-22 shooting. No, it goes to Maurice Evans, who scored 9 points on 4-of-4 shooting in the third quarter to make the game interesting. I admire his hustle and will to win, and sincerely hope Otis Smith re-signs him over the summer.

When the NBA released the Magic's schedule in August, I examined it and noted last night's game would be one to look forward to: "The Mavericks come to town to face us as part of a five-game homestand against teams that made the playoffs last year. The season could hang in the balance." It seems like a hyperbolic statement now, but back then I had no idea we'd be 13 games over .500 when the homestand started. But we can hardly afford to lose more than one of our next four games, as we need to use this long homestand to extend our division lead over Washington.

Other notes:

• Jameer Nelson was healthy and active for the game, but received his second consecutive DNP-CD.
• Pat Garrity was also active, despite the fact that James Augustine has recovered from the flu which kept him at home on the team's road trip to Philadelphia and Indiana last week. Perhaps there's truth to the rumor that Garrity is being showcased...
• Jason Terry killed us with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting in the 4th quarter. He had 20 points overall. Yeah, Josh Howard was great and tied with Dwight Howard for game-high scoring, but Terry was the real difference-maker down the stretch
• Dwight's total of 7 rebounds was just one higher than his season-low. I'd prefer to see him focus less on his scoring and more on his defense.
• Add Brandon Bass to the list of players the Magic could definitely use right now. The 6'8", 240-pound wrecking ball of a power forward tallied 16 points and 6 rebounds.

	vs.
31-18		31-15
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
FSN Florida
Probable starters:
Carlos Arroyo	PG	Jose Juan Barea
Maurice Evans	SG	Eddie Jones
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	Josh Howard
Rashard Lewis	PF	Dirk Nowitzki
Dwight Howard	C	Erick Dampier

Through a scheduling coincidence, Dallas is on the last game of a four-game set in which it faces the East's three division-leading teams. So far, the Mavericks haven't fared so well. They dropped a 96-90 decision to the Celtics on Thursday and got walloped, 90-67, by the Pistons yesterday. We'll try to hand the Mavericks just their second three-game losing streak of the season.

It won't be easy. Dallas is a team against which we don't match-up well. Dirk Nowitzki is a small forward in a center's body, and arguably the league's toughest player to guard because of his size and skill-set; he dropped 31 points against us in our first meeting with the Mavericks this season, a 111-108 Dallas victory which was only made close by a furious late fourth-quarter rally. Check the GameFlow for a good illustration of that.

The key to this win? Defense. The Magic surrendered offensive ratings of 116.4 to the 76ers and 119.4 to the Pacers, well above those teams' respective season averages of 104.6 and 108.1. Dallas is second only to Phoenix in offensive efficiency, so a poor defensive effort on our part is going to result in embarrassment. I'm not too optimistic about winning this one. Dirk is too much for us to handle, and the Mavericks will be extra motivated to beat us after getting blown-out on national TV.

Devin Harris, the club's usual starting point guard, is injured. As such, Jason Terry has shifted to point guard and Eddie Jones -- yes, that Eddie Jones, he's still in the league -- has taken the starting two-guard spot. Maybe we can goad him into throwing some more inbounds passes to his invisible teammate.

The slaughter game is at 7 on FSN. As always, you can listen to NBA games for free with NBA Audio League Pass. For your Mavericks fix, check out Mavs Moneyball. Go Magic.

UPDATE: Jose Juan Barea is starting at PG for Dallas.

	vs.
16-9		17-8
American Airlines Center
8:30 PM
Sun Sports HD
Probable starters:
Devin Harris	PG	Jameer Nelson
Jason Terry	SG	Keith Bogans
Josh Howard	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Dirk Nowitzki	PF	Rashard Lewis
Erick Dampier	C	Dwight Howard

• Still no word on if Carlos Arroyo and Rashard Lewis will be available. If I had to guess, I'd say Carlos will be out, but Lewis will be ready.
  • UPDATE: John Denton confirms that Lewis will be available tonight and will play in pain. The only way for his swollen neck to heal is through rest. The Magic don't have two straight days of rest until next Monday-Tuesday, so it may be awhile before Lewis is back in top form. Additionally, Denton's report says 55 minutes of the Magic's 70-minute practice this morning were devoted to defense. They'll have their work cut out for them against the Mavericks, who have the league's most efficient offense.
• Today's Sentinel preview mentions the Magic have lost 9 straight games in Dallas. Confidence is not high: Keyon Dooling told the Sentinel's Tim Povtak, "The road has been good to us, but that's about the only thing positive thing I can say right now."
• The preview also mentions that Maurice Evans or J.J. Redick might soon take Keith Bogans' starting role. I'd advise against that, though; Evans is colder offensively than Bogans is, and Redick's defense isn't going to set the tone at the beginning of games, which is what we need. Pass.
• Meanwhile, John Denton's article, entitled "Are the Magic Contenders or Pretenders?", takes a look at the offensive and defensive stats from the past five games. They aren't pretty.
• Seeing Juan Carlos Navarro have the game of his life against us Friday night only makes me wonder what Jason Terry will do to us.
• Here's the boxscore from our last victory over the Mavs in the Lone Star State. I dare you to guess our starting lineup. No peeking!
• Dallas' Erick Dampier, who is averaging 4.4 points and 6.1 rebounds this season, is third in All-Star balloting among Western Conference centers with over 100,000 votes. That's more than double the total votes that the Clippers' Chris Kaman has received, despite Kaman averaging career-best numbers in points (18.6) and rebounds (13.9).
• Clips Nation is hosting the second installment of Blogger MVP and Rookie of the Year rankings. Dwight leads the former category and Kevin "Kid Delicious" Durant leads the latter. Kevin Garnett and Durant received my first-place votes in their respective categories.
• Check out Mavs Moneyball, SB Nation's Mavericks site, for a view of tonight's game from a Dallas perspective.