Day 3 Summer League Thoughts, Bass Narrows it Down, Other Magic News
The Orlando Magic completed day 3 of Orlando Pro Summer League by blowing out the New Jersey/Philadelphia combination team in the last game of the day. According to announcers Dante and Galante and their diligent research, the Magic broke the previous Orlando Summer Pro League scoring record by one point as they beat their combo squad 108-86. Once again, Ryan Anderson was very impressive. He scored 21 points on 8 of 15 shooting, going 3- 5 from beyond the arch. He added 7 rebounds and 3 assists.
–For the second straight day, Kasib Powell played very well. He had 19 points on 70% (7-10) shooting.
–Maurice Ager had far and away his best game of the summer league scoring 21 points.
–Russell Robinson didn’t see as much action but continued to impress me with his decision making and passing. He had 7 points & 5 assists
–Richard Hendrix was back in action and looked good again. He scored 17 points and muscled his way to 12 boards. I really think Hendrix is going to make the Magic roster.
–Brian Chase missed all 3 of his 2-point attempts, but his 5 of his 6 3-point attempts.
–We finally saw more of Lance Allred and we probably didn’t need too. He was very ineffective.
–We are still yet to see Milovan Rakovic. Steven Milosevic did not play today either.
–On other note on the summer league is that Shaun Livingston has looked really good. He doesn’t have his same explosiveness but he still should be an excellent defender.
There is very good news for one summer league player that did not even get in the game today. Jeremy Richardson expects to be back with the Magic this season.
"One guy who might fill out the roster is Jeremy Richardson, a guard/forward who played in 12 games last season. Richardson said he expects to sign a contract with the Magic in the coming days."
See all of Ben Q. Rock of Third Quarter Collapse’s article here.
He also mentions that Fran Vazquez will most likely not play for the Magic in 2009.
The Magic take on the Utah Jazz in summer league action tomorrow at 5:00 PM. Check out the action on OrlandoMagic.com.
Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported earlier that the Dallas Mavericks got the Memphis Grizzlies to take Jerry Stackhouse and will be receiving Shawn Marion from the Toronto Raptors. Marion was tied to the Magic in a few rumors but none of them really seemed like they would happen. This trade seals Brandon Bass’ fate with the Mavericks and he knows it. Bass named Orlando, Portland and Detroit as his three choices.
"“We’ve narrowed it down to about two or three teams,” said Bass’s agent Tony Dutt. “Orlando has shown a lot of interest, Detroit is another option, and Portland is up there as well. We’re expecting something to get done in the next couple days.”"
See the full story here.
Bass would not be signing for the Mid Level Exception. It would take less, allowing the Magic to potentially split the MLE between Bass and a player like Matt Barnes or Drew Gooden and still be able to sign other players to, having money like VLE to spend. It’s possible that they could sign Bass to a deal other than the MLE and match Gortat’s 5 year, $34 million offer from Dallas. Gortat says he’ll be happy in Dallas or Orlando. This would be a good move. I believe the Magic would be paying quite the hefty price for a player that’s value has soared above his actual worth. If the Magic do indeed bring back Gortat and sign Bass, even with the loss of Turkoglu, Lee, and Alston, the additions of Vince Carter, Brandon Bass and Ryan Anderson would far outweigh those losses.
The Magic almost have to get Bass now because they are almost out of options. According to sources, Antonio McDyess is going to sign with the San Antonio Spurs. This would probably take the Spurs out of the Big Baby race, but Magic GM Otis Smith is said to have no interest in Glen “Big Baby” Davis, which is probably a good thing. I’m not sure Big Baby would fit in with the Magic. He’s a few steps too slow.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger.Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)