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All of those arguments seem fair and in fact familiar (we owe that to our local pessimists maginno and richboy, among others). The most ridiculous statement I saw? This:

Rather than being at the top of the East alongside Detroit and Boston like last season Orlando looks poised to fight with Chicago, Cleveland, and Atlanta for the last four playoff spots.

and why do you ask?

With a dominant big man like Dwight Howard you're never too far from contention, but even Superman has limitations – and right now those limitations appear to be 40-45 wins and a first round exit.

40-45 wins? Really?

On a positive note I especially liked this part from Beer:

In the playoffs, when the pace of the game slows down and each possession is of the utmost importance, having a dominant post-player you can dump the ball into is invaluable. And yes, Howard's back-to-the-basket game still needs a good deal of refinement - but that is the scary part...

Very true, and the reason we will go the distance this year. Best big man in the East with a great supporting cast will mean Finals!

While I don't think we will be 40-45 win team this year I am not giong to say we go to the finals either. I am a little afraid of the loss of our energy guys like dooling and evans and our lack of PG depth. Hell, if hedo isn't the hedo of last year then we might as well be a 45 win team.

lets just say I am cautiously optimistic.

Washington is a year better and healthier, Atlanta is a year stronger and healthier and Charlotte might finally have a coach

Are you fricken kidding me?

Washington is exactly the same team it has always been: average. Atlanta looks horrible. Charlotte look to overtake the Hawks and climb out of the cellar, but the Baby-Cats are still in diapers.

Miami is ignored??? They are a solid 25-30 win team and could slug it out with Atlant and Charlotte for the "not-worst" title.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=9737

And they still bash Orlando pretty much

pwned

Edit: I just read through the article. I didn't see bashing...just opinions.

Maybe all these people know something that our fanbase refuses to see? Or maybe they're just wrong - like last season. Stay tuned to find out.

I love that the only justification for putting the Magic sixth seems to be that they're not better than Boston or Detroit. Last I checked, that's only two teams, not five. By their own admission, spots 3-8 are a crap shoot, and by that logic, should the Magic not get the 3 by default since they got it last year? It's not like the rest of the East signed superstars. The idea that we'll be battling Atlanta for playoff position is laughable. They got lucky a few times at home against an un-motivated Celtics team. Suddenly they're contenders? Give me a break. The only teams that I'd say got SIGNIFICANTLY better are Miami and Chicago, with honorable mention to Toronto (O'Neal alone was not a significant upgrade, but the combination of him and Bosh is pretty scary). And none of them (with the possible exception of Miami) are better than the Magic.

You dont think Philly is significantly better?? Their main weakness last year was a scoring PF, and they added two of those in Brand(a parennial all-star) and Speights(a promising young rookie)..... Factor that in with Thadd Young & Lou Will likely improving along with Iggy, and with veteran leadership in Miller and now Brand, and they are a very dangerous team. I would rank them ahead of Toronto right now. Are division is definately going to be alot tougher with a healthy Washington team and a vastly improved/heathly Miami. I could easily see us finishing anywhere from 3-6.

I feel like all the articles underestimate Dwight's supporting cast. All of them doubt Hedo because theyre unsure if he'll be the same as last year. If he's playing in the same offense, there should be no difference. JO and Brand are coming off injury plagued seasons and we dont know how well theyll play. And Lew is barely mentioned in some of those articles. One of the articles said that with Lew at PF we'll have match up problems with Detroit, Boston, Philly, and the Raps. We certainly will have defensive problems down low, but on the offensive end, opposing teams' power forwards, like Sheed, Bosh, or Brand, will have to go out to the perimeter to defend Lew who will either drain 3s or take them off the dribble. Then, SVG can bring Battie, Gortat, or Cook (who can also hit 3s) off the bench and pair one of them with Dwight down low to defend bigger front courts. The Magic dont play a traditional style of basketball, and I think Hoopsworld is a little weary on that.

MP is getting slack for not being a reliable scorer, but we dont need another scorer. Hes here to defend shooting guards and knock down open 3s when he gets them, just like Mo did.

Hoopsworld knocks our team for a lack of supporting cast, but what about Lebron's? Orlando has more depth than the Cavs and Raps. Hoopsworld cant assume JO is going to be healthy all season. Even with JO, there team is no better than Orlando's. Understandably, Hoopsworld has a concern for our lack of a 3rd point guard, but if Nelson or AJ goes down, I feel like we could get through a couple of games with Hedo playing some point or CLee.

I don't really have a problem with the article stating that the Magic would be 6th. You have to figure that the top two will still be Boston & Detroit. The Cavs will have a whole season to get used to their late season acquistions.

Philly will be ALOT better. Elton Brand will greatly improve that team. Chris Bosh will have Jermaine O'Neal to do the dirty work and the sporadic T.J. Ford is now gone.

That is 5 teams that you can argue that are better than the Magic. You probably could also argue that the Magic are better than them.

I didn't mention the Wizards. I think they are a big man away from being contenders, but they have a chance to win as many games as the Magic.

The Atlanta Hawks? The Milwaukee Bucks? Liek one of the writers said, the Magic have gotten better this off season, but the east has gotten significantly better.

That is why we play the games...

Gerhalt11 wrote:I love that the only justification for putting the Magic sixth seems to be that they're not better than Boston or Detroit. Last I checked, that's only two teams, not five. By their own admission, spots 3-8 are a crap shoot, and by that logic, should the Magic not get the 3 by default since they got it last year? It's not like the rest of the East signed superstars. The idea that we'll be battling Atlanta for playoff position is laughable. They got lucky a few times at home against an un-motivated Celtics team. Suddenly they're contenders? Give me a break. The only teams that I'd say got SIGNIFICANTLY better are Miami and Chicago, with honorable mention to Toronto (O'Neal alone was not a significant upgrade, but the combination of him and Bosh is pretty scary). And none of them (with the possible exception of Miami) are better than the Magic.

+1

I completely agree. I think that Philly has gotten a big boost but signing Brand but in order for that to become a big boost he needs to be healthy the whole season or at least play at 90%. Other then that by us winning the division which I hope we will, If we win the division we will at least get 4th. On that note those people are saying that Washington or Miami will win the division. I mentioned those 2 teams b/c we know Charlotte and Atlanta are not going to win the division.

Magic.City.23. wrote:You dont think Philly is significantly better?? Their main weakness last year was a scoring PF, and they added two of those in Brand(a parennial all-star) and Speights(a promising young rookie)..... Factor that in with Thadd Young & Lou Will likely improving along with Iggy, and with veteran leadership in Miller and now Brand, and they are a very dangerous team. I would rank them ahead of Toronto right now. Are division is definately going to be alot tougher with a healthy Washington team and a vastly improved/heathly Miami. I could easily see us finishing anywhere from 3-6.

Ive said this a few times already but no I dont think Philly is a threat. Brand is a boss no question about it. That team just doesnt have enough IMO to be a threat to us. Louis Williams has alot of potential but to this point has done NOTHING. Same with Thad. Unless Im wrong they really dont have much of a bench either. They still dont have 3 point shooting which will allow teams to easily double team Brand. I jus have the same feeling about Philly that I did about Miami when I said last yr they wouldnt be a threat to win the division. Philly is a playoff team, but not a threat to us.

I agree with Mo. Philly's not a threat, but they deserve respect with Brand and Dalembert in the low post. I feel like Philly might have trouble scoring the ball at times. AI has an on and off jumper and even though Williams has had some good games, I dont see him as a go to scorer. Dalembert has good two good games for every 5 bad ones on the offensive end. And theyre going to have a tough time spreading the floor for Brand with no outside shooting.

who cares, none of this will matter once the season starts, philly has greatly improved IMO

miami with a healthy wade, marion haslem and beasly should win 42-48 games this year if they all stay healthy

Hey SI picked us 10th in the East before last season. Who cares what hoopsworld says?

There is a lot of improvement in the East, but I felt a lot of these other teams are catching up with the big 3(includes us) from last season, not necessarily surpassing it... My biggest concern remains the same... turnovers, free throw shooting, and relying on the 3... The 3's were awesome last year, except for in the playoffs... We were not good except that one game against Toronto. It seemed we were tired and it showed in that area IMO.

It seems the 2 biggest changes (Elton and Jermaine) seem to have the POTENTIAL to put them ahead of us combined with our team not meshing well with the changes... Other than that I'd say the Magic will be better than last year and may be ahead of Detroit (Yes, I said it/May regret it but I said it). Although we do still need to get another pg...

I think the bigger question is will other teams leapfrog Boston and Detroit? Will they finally start to show their age or will they still be better than the Magic and everyone else in the East..?

magicfan84 wrote:miami with a healthy wade, marion haslem and beasly should win 42-48 games this year if they all stay healthy

I would not make the same win prediction, but we agree that Miami will compete next year!

Yes there is more talent in the East. But what the Magic did this off-season was take a group of talent and mold them into a team. The Magic now have no weak link in their starting five. And they regained depth at all positions. No other team in the East is built into a team like Orlando. Even Detroit lacks depth.

I predict the Magic will come in second in the regular season Eastern win total: to Boston.

drsd wrote:Yes there is more talent in the East. But what the Magic did this off-season was take a group of talent and mold them into a team. The Magic now have no weak link in their starting five.

Relatively speaking.

In terms of a potential championship winner, the Magic do have 2, possibly 3 weak links. Our backcourt is decent but not outstanding, and the Hedo/Howard/Lewis frontcourt is strong enough to beat lesser playoff teams, but not necessarily strong enough to win a title.

This does NOT mean we have zerp chance at *seriously* competing for a title. However, I still feel that the Magic are in the second tier of title contenders; the B-group if you will.

IMO, we're basically one of those 50-60 win teams that isn't truly favored to win it all, but has an outside shot if a couple of lucky breaks go their way.