Insider Editorial on the Magic

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NBA position battles: Who's going to do the Magic's dirty work?

By Terry Brown

Friday, September 13 Updated 10:31 AM EST

Wait a second. You look familiar. TV? Music video? Wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys?

No, no, no . . . I know.

Didn't you used to be Grant Hill?

In the six years before becoming a member of the Orlando Magic, Hill scored 9,393 points for the Detroit Pistons, averaging as much as 25.8 points per game and never below the 19.9 he put up his first season in the league on his way to being named Co-Rookie of the Year.

Career averages of 7.9 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1.5 steals on 47 percent shooting. It didn't matter if he needed to score 46 points or grab 18 rebounds or hand out 14 assists in a single game for one win. He did.

Five-time All Star. Four-time All-NBA member.

But in two seasons as the starting small forward for the Magic, Hill has scored a total of 290 points.

Last year, as the backup small forward for the Magic, Pat Garrity scored 884.

Mike Miller scored 956.

Tracy McGrady scored 1,948.

In fact, McGrady averaged 25.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 5.3 assists on 45 percent shooting, sometimes needing to score 50 points or grab 17 rebounds or hand out 13 assists in a single game for one win. He did. All Star. All NBA.

Ring a bell?

But that isn't why we're here. As the Magic prepare for the upcoming season, we're gonna pretend that we didn't see Shawn Kemp pick up that twinkie out of the corner of our eye and simply hope that the white substance on his upper lip is cream filling. We're gonna assume that Andrew DeClercq and Horace Grant are averaging out ages and skill levels while Darrell Armstrong pretends that he wasn't on the trading block. Again.

But we can't ignore the fact that of the 8,240 total points that the Magic scored last season, nearly half of them, 4,023 to be exact, came from the same swingman position.

We've done the math. One swingman is good. Two good ones are even better. But when four of your Top 6 scorers are in a single-file line on the wing, well, then, that's just too much of a good thing. Bad.

And don't expect any of these guys to run the point. Armstrong drilled 139 three-pointers last season and the Magic brought in Jacque Vaughn to back him up. The only player to hit more buckets from long range was Garrity with 169. But you'd need a high-voltage cattle prod to get that guy in the paint. He's averaged only three rebounds per game over his career, a block every four games last season and stands 6-foot-9 with his arms fully extended behind the three-point line. A power forward in name but not practice.

That leaves McGrady at shooting guard. Period. Forty minutes accounted for. With Miller, Hill and Garrity fighting over the 48 minutes at small forward and eight left over up top.

That's less than 20 a game for each of them.

But Miller's averaged 31 per game during his budding career. Hill is royalty even if he has hit only 57 three-pointers in his career. Garrity logged 30.1 per game last season.

Mix and match them all you want. Even cheat a little at the point and power forward positions. Heck, have all four of them lock fingers and wrap arms around Kemp for all I care. London Bridges falling down. But the more production the Magic try to squeeze out of those two positions, the less they're going to get down low.

During the month of November of last season, all four players were in the lineup. They averaged a combined 65.2 points per game of the team's 95.4 total. The swingmen accounted for a whopping 68 percent of Orlando's scoring. Yet, the team finished the month with a record of 7-9.

The dynamic had been pushed too far. In a traditional lineup, 1 thru 5, point guard to center, the Magic were getting all they could get from the shooting guard and small forward positions and it wasn't enough. Or, rather, it was too much. After Hill's ankle could go no longer, the Magic went 37-29 while scoring 100.3 points per game.

Simply, not everyone can cut to the bucket at once or spot up behind three or take two quick dribbles before pulling up for the jumper. Someone's got to get dirt underneath their fingernails. Someone's got to indian wrestle for rebounds. Someone's got to put their back to the basket even when they know they're not going to get the ball.

But these four aren't that some one.

Which means even if the Magic find some way to split time, touches and television spots between them, it isn't going to make the team as a whole necessarily better. They're still going to be outrebounded offensively, outrebounded defensively, outscored in the paint and outshot in the paint.

Which means McGrady will have to score at least 25 points, grab 7 boards and hand out 5 assists each and every game while Hill scores 25 points, grabs 7 boards and hands out 5 assists in the same amount of time just to get where they've always been.

Just like the organization always pictured it when they spent almost $200M on the two free agents in 2000 before realizing just how bad a broken medial malleolus could be for a small forward regardless of how great Hill used to be.

Two All Stars. Two All NBAers. Two positions carrying the entire team just like last season when they escaped by only three games of missing the playoffs all together before getting pummeled in the first round by a team loaded with power forwards and, ironically, missing its swingman, who also led his respective team in scoring, due to illness.

Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Which brings us back to where we started 12 months into the future.

TV? Music video?

Hey. Didn't you used to be Rookie of the Year Mike Miller?