Give Me The Rock

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Fantasy Team Preview: Orlando Magic

In trying to crank out the Team Previews and actually get them finished, I let Rachel take one off my hands. I’m sure no one will notice.

shana

Addition by subtraction and then addition. That’s what the Magic did. They let Darko and Grant Hill go and landed Rashard Lewis. The Magic Dancers are hoping for the same kind of equation as they lost a few promising young ladies, brought back a bunch of middle of the road girls, and fleshed out the roster with what we in the business would call “upside potential.”

Orlando Magic Dancers in the pool

(Also, this blog should totally have been called Upside Potential)

Anywho, to check out a semi-retrospective of last year’s dance squad, check out Black and Blue Magic’s August Archive. You have to get about half way down and there’s a dancer tournament. It acutally starts in July, so you can go back there if you want to see more.

As for a semi-retrospective of the Magic fantasy team… check this:

Last Season’s Ratings (without TOs, with TOs):
14, 9 – Rashard Lewis
50, 98 – Dwight Howard
105, 114 – Hedo Turkoglu
113, 151 – Jameer Nelson
186, 207 – Trevor Ariza
239, 237 – Tony Battie
230, 238 – Keyon Dooling
289, 251 – J.J. Redick
255, 272 – Carlos Arroyo
292, 276 – Keith Bogans
308, 279 – Adonal Foyle
394, 383 – Pat Garrity
434, 393 – James Augustine
NR, NR – Marcin Gortat
NR, NR – Mikolan Rakovic

I put in the ratings with and without turnovers because in this case, it seems to demonstrate a pretty profound problem (hooray for consonance). If you’re drafting Dwight Howard, you know he’s going to hurt your FT% (8.1 attempts per game at 59%). But it might also help (or hurt) to note how much he’s going to kill your Turnovers, if that’s a category in your league (3.9 turnovers per game). The turnovers, though, should go down this season, because that generally happens as players get more experience and learn how to take care of the ball better.

Magic Starting Lineup:
PG: Jameer Nelson
SG: Trevor Ariza
SF: Rashard Lewis
PF: Hedo Turkoglu
C: Dwight Howard

With Ariza coming in at 186/207, there’s not a lot beyond the starting lineup that you’ll want to take in your draft. The Magic’s rookies, um, I’ve never heard of them. I’m pretty sure that any rookies who will be worth having on your team, I would have heard of them. Trust me. I don’t just follow the cheerleaders.

At least the Magic didn’t go after this guy:
fantasy basketball guide 1997

So here’s where you should draft these guys:
Dwight Howard – 2nd round
Rashard Lewis – 2nd round
Jameer Nelson – late 7th/early 8th round
Trevor Ariza – last round if there’s more than 12 rounds
Hedo Turkoglu – last round if there’s more than 12 rounds

And here’s some gratuitous cheerleader pics:

brooke

lacey heather

shana heather

rachael

Okay… so I’ve been waiting a while to bust out this kind of joke. Thank You Isaiah did it first with the Luolcats, and I think it’s pretty much the greatest thing ever. If you don’t get the reference, please click here. I would like to thank Rachel for giving me the opportunity to finally make use of the Lolcat Generator. I knew it had to be good for more than just cats.

lolcat cheerleader basketball

lolcat cheerleader magic boobies

lolcat cheerleader

lolcat cheerleader palm tree

If you’ve read this far, you may have noticed that I didn’t make LOL versions of the first two pictures that Rachel had in her gratuitous section. I leave that as a challenge to the reader. The first one should be pretty easy, but I couldn’t come up with anything short enough to fit on the picture. And yeah, I know the rock in mai boot one isn’t that funny. You want your money back or something?

Other Stuff Like This:

  • http://thirdquartercollapse.com Ben Q. Rock

    I think Ariza has some sleeper potential if he gets major minutes. He’s a solid offensive rebounder, especially for a two-guard, and the presence of three-point shooters should open up the lane for him to throw down some pretty vicious dunks, such as the ones he laid on Alonzo Mourning, Emeka Okafor, and Jermaine O’Neal last year. Jeez.

  • http://www.givemetherock.com Nels

    I thought Ariza was doing to be a sleeper for the past few years, so I’ve kind of lost faith in him.

  • http://thirdquartercollapse.com Ben Q. Rock

    The Lewis signing hurts his value because his natural position is small forward, which is where Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu play. Were it not for Lewis, Ariza might be on the fast track to starting ahead of Turk… now he has to learn to play a new position. Oh well. At least he’ll probably have SG and SF eligibility this season, just as Lewis should gain PF ability now that Tony Battie is done.

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