Day 4 Summer League Thoughts; TPE, Gortat Update, Boozer on the Move?

The Magic had a double digit lead for a good portion of the day, but they blew their lead and wound up falling to the Utah Jazz in overtime 92-84. The Magic were outscored 41-12 from the start of the 4th quarter and on, 33-12 in the 4th quarter and 8-0 in overtime. Magic superstar Dwight Howard joined Dante and Galante for commentary during the first half and said that one offensive fouled called during the game was “the worst call in the history of the NBA.” Anderson had two potential three-point plays taken away by the officials. Dwight Howard talked about how much he was going to miss Courtney Lee, Tony Battie, and Rafer Alston, but he was very excited about the new acquisitions and talked about having a “dunk-off” with Vince Carter.

Howard also said that he was very impressive with Ryan Anderson and Anderson did not dissapoint the big man. He was the man for the Magic. He picked up 8(!) fouls, but many of his fouls were the more than questionable calls. He still wound up with 26 points and 9 rebounds. He shot 9-18 from the field and 5-11 from downtown.

Some other thoughts from today’s action:

Kasib Powell had a chance to make the team at the beginning of the week and his chance only seems to get better every day. He had a poor shooting night, going 4-12, but he had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Powell is 28 years old and is a 6-7 SF from Texas Tech. He spent last season in the D-League and was a 48.7% shooter. He went for 18.6 PPG, 4.1 APG, and 4 RPG. He actually finished the 2008 season on the Miami Heat roster. Powell was named D-League MVP in 2008. Many analysts think he will be on the Magic roster come opening night.

Richard Hendrix was 0-4 and scored just 2 points, but he still managed 8 rebounds. I really like this guy’s toughness.

Russell Robinson had 17 points and 4 assists. He has looked very good this week. If he doesn’t make the Magic, I’m sure he will get a chance somewhere else very soon.

Jeremy Richardson scored 16 points and had 5 rebounds, but he had another poor shooting night, going just 5-13 from the field. As reported yesterday, it sounds like Richardson will sign with the Magic. Although he was on the team last season and knows the system, based on summer league performance, it seems like Powell would be the better choice.

No one else really stood out.

It looks like Milovan Rakovic will not play a minute in summer league.

The Magic will finish the 2009 Pro Summer League tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 PM against the Indiana Pacers, who are lead by Tyler Hansbrough, the ACC’s all time leading scorer and the man who lead North Carolina to the 2009 National Championship. The Pacers have some other big names like Roy Hibbert, Josh McRoberts and Brandon Rush on their team.

Here’s a look at the entire Pacers roster.

Every day it looks less and less likely that Carlos Boozer will ever play another game in a Utah Jazz uniform.

"Two sources with knowledge of the three-team proposal confirmed that there have been substantive talks regarding a trade that would send Carlos Boozer to Chicago, Kirk Hinrich to Portland and Tyrus Thomas to Utah.The Blazers, according to a source, prefer Hinrich over Paul Millsap.Sources say it is clear that the Jazz are becoming increasingly open to the possibility of moving Boozer now to increase their financial flexibility to re-sign restricted free agent Millsap."

Marc Stein and Chad Ford of ESPN.com have the story here.

It’s obvious that the Magic would have interest in a player of Boozer’s caliber. He has career averages of 16.8 PPG and 10 RPG. He upped those in the playoffs, going for 20.6 PPG and 13.2 RPG against the Lakers. He’s still just 28 years old. The Magic probably don’t have the money or the resources to acquire Boozer.
The trade exception that the Magic acquired from the Toronto Raptors was originally thought to be worth between $8 and $10 million, but it’s actually going to be worth $6.8 million. Magic General Manager Otis Smith said that this all that the Magic received in the deal, but in an ESPN chat, John Hollinger said that the Magic will also receive a 2nd round pick.

"Orlando gets a protected second-round pick (essentially worthless), some cash, and an $8 million trade exception. To me, it wasn’t nearly enough compensation for letting Toronto up off the mat — Raps were screwed without doing Hedo as a sign-and-trade. Orlando probably won’t even use the exception given that they’re already a tax team the next two years and still have their midlevel."

The Orlando Sentinel explains how the trade exception works. They are also reporting new news on Marcin Gortat.

"Smith also addressed his plans with Marcin Gortat, who signed an offer sheet yesterday from the Dallas Mavericks for a deal worth $34 million over five years. The Magic have seven days from yesterday to match the offer or Gortat goes to Dallas.“If I had eight,” Smith said. “I’d take eight.”Smith also said Gortat’s offer made sense.“Think about it from his standpoint,” Smith said. “There’s not very many centers left so he obviously done himself good by going out and getting an offer that size. Because there’s not a lot of centers left, we turn all our centers into power forwards. The few centers that are out there are either getting that kind of offer or offers pretty close to it.”"

Otis Smith is going to take his time and that’s a good idea. By then, he will know if the Magic have acquired any other players (like Brandon Bass) and will be able to better gauge the team’s needs.

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger.Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily. Check out his ACC Football preview here.)