Give Me The Rock

With Jameer Nelson, the Magic had the second worst “best” fantasy player of any NBA team last season. But, unlike the team with the worst best fantasy player (I bet you can guess who they are) things are looking up for the Magic both fantasy-wise and in real life. I could go on about the young talent, the explosiveness, the length, the upside, the great athleticism, but I’ll spare you that pleasure chest. Basically, the Magic have two qualities that make every fantasy owner happy: Actual young talented players and no depth.

2005/2006 Orlando Magic Fantasy Rankings
(2005/2006 per game rank in parenthesis)

(64) Jameer Nelson
(67) Dwight Howard
(71) Hedo Turkoglu
(98) Grant Hill
(162) Tony Battie
(182) Keyon Dooling
(195) Deshawn Stevenson
(245) Darko Milicic
(260) Carlos Arroyo
(266) Trevor Ariza
(298) Pat Garrity
(310) Travis Diener
(312) Bo Outlaw
(331) Anfernee Hardaway
(386) Mario Kasun
(393) Stacey Augmon

Oh yeah, this guy used to be around too.
(91) Steve Francis

You have to love the list of names above. It’s like the Magic found a way to create half their team from 2006 and half from 1996.

I’m guessing no one’s fantasy fortune was won or lost on Magic last year, unless you were leaning way too heavily on Grant Hill and Steve Francis. Howard made a really nice step forward in his second year, Jameer Nelson went ballin outta control for a while (when he wasn’t hurt), and Turkoglu filled in pretty nicely for the artist formally known as Grant Hill. Stevie Franchise started the year off slowly, threw a hissey fit, and then got traded and played even worse for the Knicks. I hear the police have a warrant out for his nickname. Oh yeah, and some very tall guy with strange yellow hair came in towards the end of the season.

STRONG BUY

Dwight Howard – Thank god they don’t let high school players into the draft anymore. I mean, these kids just end up embarrassing themselves. Howard averaged 16 and 12.5 and 1.5 last year and has yet to miss a game to during the past two years. Unless he comes down with Grant Hill disease, Howard is going to be awesome this year. Mark my words.

Darko Milicic – free, FREE! After being traded to Orlando, Darko’s stats went up by about infinity. Just think about how good he would have been if he’d actually been playing the past couple of years. But the only stat that matters to me is 2.1 blocks in 20 minutes. Per 48 minutes, that’s Kirilenko territory.

BUY

Jameer Nelson – The Magic have a lot of point guards, but Nelson got the chance to start last year and just went off. With the Franchise now gone to the nether regions of the NBA, Nelson should at least be able to repeat his good year again, crowded backcourt and all.

JJ Redick – The next Steve Kerr? Probably because they have similar haircuts (they must both go to Supercuts). I don’t have traveling correspondents like Nels, but it appears that Redick’s got a chance to jump right into the starting lineup if his herniated disc heals over the summer (which it should). He’s also got the honorary Christian Laettner invitation to Team USA in 2008. And he apparently had a 42% 3-pt percentage in college, which should translate into some threes next year. My fantasy team doesn’t care about defense, why should yours?

HOLD

Hedo Turkoglu – The Turkish Assassin looks to get the start by default, at least right now. At 30+ minutes, I can stomach his game. He just doesn’t feel like starting material to me though.

SELL

Grant Hill – The 67 games that Grant Hill played in 2004 was enough to convince me to draft him in the 3rd round of the Basketbloggers fantasy league last year. Do not doubt my powers of prediction!

Carlos Arroyo – Two years ago, he was starting for Utah, but that train has passed a long time ago. He only averaged 22 minutes with the Magic last year and there are way too many point guards on this team.

WATCH

Trevor Ariza – He has shown “some flashes of star potential”. Does that get you excited? No, not me either. Also watch for the fact that he might not even be with the Magic much longer.

Like any halfway decent fantasy owner, the Orlando Magic have identified good, young talent and jettisoned overrated “all-stars”. But, getting rid of the old guys and letting the young guys take their place means that the young guys who use to back up the old guys now are starting and have no one to back them up. Got me? That’s really good news for fantasy owners looking for guys with potential, but not so good for, you know, actual, honest-to-goodness real life NBA teams. At least this year. However, there’s plenty of sunshine headin’ their way.

Where I’d pick em (in a 10 team league)
Howard – 4th
Darko – 6th (that’s right – I just did that)
Nelson – 7th
Turkoglu – 9th
Redick – 11th
Ariza – Last round flyer
Hill - DND
Arroyo - DND