Insider Special: Best/Worst ~ Magic

[Weez]

By Chad Ford

ESPN.com

Editor's note: Here's a glimpse of the good -- and the bad -- that could happen to the 2003-04 Orlando Magic.

Tracy McGrady, judging by this look on media day, is still upset about the Mike Miller deal.

Best Case Scenario

Three things need to happen for the Magic to lock up home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

1. Tracy McGrady stays mad. Remember when the Magic traded away best buddy Mike Miller and McGrady showed his disgust by dropping 50 points in three quarters on the first team he could get his hands on? The Magic need more of that. T-Mac is arguably the most gifted player in the league. If he had the razor-sharp focus and killer instinct of Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, he'd be unstoppable. The good news is that McGrady is just 24 years old and still getting better. He's been a little surly in camp and the folks in Orlando hope he starts taking it out on the competition.

2. Drew Gooden averages 10 to 12 rebounds a game. The Magic haven't had a decent rebounder since they shipped Ben Wallace to Detroit. For all of Gooden's talent on the offensive end, the Magic need him most on the boards. They brought in Juwan Howard to take the bulk of the offensive load off McGrady. Gooden's job will be to crash the boards relentlessly. The team continues to give up way too many offensive boards. If they can just take care of their defensive rebounding, it will be a big improvement.

3. The bench gives the team something. Pat Garrity is the Magic's best player coming off the bench. But they'll need more than a 3-point shooter to go deep in the playoffs. Someone else -- Steven Hunter, Andrew DeClercq, Shammond Williams, Zaur Pachulia or Reece Gaines -- needs to take a big step this year. The Magic starters were overburdened in 2002-03 and seemed to run out of gas as the season wound down. If they can play an honest eight-man rotation, they'll protect themselves from fatigue and injury.

Worst Case Scenario

The Magic will slip into the lottery if the following three things happen.

1. T-Mac can't stay healthy. The Magic are a one-note team. Like the Spurs and Sixers, they're a playoff team with their best player and a lottery team without him. McGrady's back acted up again at the Olympic qualifying tournament. On Tuesday, the team revealed that McGrady was diagnosed with pleurisy, an inflammation of the lining of his lungs that was leaving him breathless on the court. For the last few seasons, McGrady has struggled to keep himself healthy for 82 games If the Magic are going to make a strong run at home-court advantage in the first round, McGrady has to play and stay healthy, for all 82 games.

2. The Magic don't find a real point guard. Tyronn Lue is a nice undersized, backup point guard. Williams is a journeyman who's shoot-first, ask-questions-later attitude couldn't even buy him a real job on the point-less Nuggets last season. Gaines, a rookie, looks like a deer in the headlights. In other words, the Magic's point guard position may have actually gotten worse than the Jacque Vaughn/Darrell Armstrong disaster from last season. If someone doesn't step up, or if John Gabriel doesn't find a point guard via trade, McGrady (who led the team in assists last season) will be the point man again this year.

3. Howard doesn't score 18 points a game. No one is exactly sure how Howard will respond to being second fiddle on a good team. He's put up most of his numbers on bad teams that used him as a first option almost nightly. The only exception was a brief stint in Dallas, where he was closer to a fourth option most nights. The Magic brought him in to score and rebound. Four games into the preseason, Howard was still struggling to get a feel with the team. He passed up several open shots and instead deferred to other guys on the floor. The Magic need Howard to take the pressure off T-Mac offensively if they want to stay in the playoff race.

Chad Ford covers the NBA for ESPN.com's ESPN Insider.