GMs Taking Notice of Magic
After the team's strong finish to the 2005-06 season, Orlando Magic Head Coach Brian Hill has said a number of times that this team isn't going to sneak up on anyone this season.And apparently, NBA General Managers agree.
In the annual NBA.com GM Survey released today, the Magic are well represented. In comparison, Orlando and its players were only mentioned a little over a handful in the 2005-06 survey.
After bringing back the core of last year's team, at least a few of the NBA's general managers seem to think Orlando could be a legitimate candidate for the NBA Title.
The Magic received votes in the "Which team will win the NBA Finals 2007?" and also the "Which team will win the Eastern Conference?". The San Antonio Spurs received the highest percentage of votes with 42.9 percent, followed by the Dallas Mavericks and defending world champion Miami Heat. Minnesota and Phoenix also received votes.
The GMs selected Orlando and Washington (both received 3.6%) to finish second behind Miami (92.9%) in the Southeast Division and the Magic were received the second highest amount of votes (14.8%) for "Which team will be moved improved in 2006-07?" behind Houston (25.9%).
After his remarkable season last year - along with his play this summer at the FIBA World Championships - NBA general managers appear to be impressed with third-year standout Dwight Howard.
The Magic favorite was selected as the player to "Most Likely have a Breakout Season", capturing 32.1 percent of the vote. He also received votes as the "best center" in the NBA, behind Miami's Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan, along with receiving votes in the "most athletic" and "best offensive rebounder" categories.
Perhaps the most impressive votes Howard were received were in the "If you were starting a franchise today and could sign any player in the NBA, who would it be?" category. Others receiving votes in that category: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan - not a bad list to be included on.
But Howard wasn't alone in being recognized by the NBA's brass. After breaking out of Detroit and unleashing his skills on the NBA, Darko Milicic was selected as the "International Player Most Likely to Have a Breakout Season", receiving 28.6 percent of the vote. He also received votes in the "Best Interior Defender" category.
Other Magic players who received votes included rookie J.J. Redick in the "Best Pure Shooter" category, and Jameer Nelson and Bo Outlaw in the "Player Who Does the Most With the Least" category.
2006-07 GM Survey
posted by OVERWADED @ 1:04 PM
3 Comments:
At 4:44 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
The GMs around the league are certainly taking notice of the Magic. All the other teams know that they won't be able to take the Magic lightly any more, so BHill will have to prepare the team properly and have them ready to play in order for the Magic to fulfill their high expectations this season.
At 1:33 PM,
Big Figure said…
I'm still worried about our depth in the front-court,darko,dwight and tony are our only real big-men we have,at one point the other night during the pre-season game against the heat,we couldnt even stay respectable without dwight and tony in the game during the fourth period,pat and bo wound up being our back-up front court players,so we're and injury away (darko was out that night,giving us a glimpse of what i'm talking about)from seeing pat at 6ft9 and bo at 6ft8 man our front court with the second unit,thats just pathetic,we have to get a true back-up center,our GM is the only GM i care about right now "taking notice" of our glaring weakness,i'd even take mario back at this point to back-up dwight!
At 10:13 PM,
Matt said…
I totally agree with Big Figure. However, one has to realize that considering Hill's faith in Garrity, he may think that, if need be, bringing Garrity in will provide a different condition that may open up the middle of the opponents' defense. Of course he is wrong and I am not sure if Smith is not in agreement with him, otherwise they would not have let Mario go, knowing that Augustine is not a sure commodity. At this point our only hope would be to pick a decent veteran off the waivers, although that does not happen often with bigs in the league.
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