The 2009 Orlando Pro Summer League came to a close Friday afternoon with a 68-54 loss to the Pacers, dropping Orlando to 2-3. Roy Hibbert dominated the Magic, scoring 16 points and grabbing 11 boards. Ryan Anderson, Orlando’s summer league hero shot just 2 of 11 and had only 6 points, but he did manage to grab 10 rebounds. Kasib Powell had 12 points and had 8 rebounds, including going 2-3 from downtown, further showing the Magic that he thinks he belongs on this team. The man who’s likely to get that spot is Jeremy Richardson, who didn’t play. Brian Chase had a pretty good game, scoring 16 points on 7-11 shooting but he only dished out one assist. Russell Robinson only played 8:41 and went 0-4. Richard Hendrix continued to impress me. He played 27:27, shot 7-11, had 16 points and 4 rebounds. He even made his only three-point attempt.
The all summer league teams were announced today.
First team:
G Russell Westbrook, OKC
G James Harden, OKC
F Tyler Hansbrough, IND
F Ryan Anderson, ORL
C Roy Hibbert, IND
Second team:
G J.R. Giddens, BOS
G/F Kasib Powell, ORL
F Nick Fazekas, BOS
F D.J. White, OKC
C Marreese Speights, NJ/PHI
Some thoughts about the Magic from the week:
Magic fans have to be excited about Ryan Anderson. He was named to the All Summer League first team and averaged 21.4 PPG and 9.4 RPG. Both of those averages were higher than Hibbert’s MVP numbers of 20.2 PPG and 9 RPG.
Kasib Powell deserves a spot on this team. He made 2nd team all summer league and played very well throughout the week. He out-played his main competition, Jeremy Richardson. He shot 46% from the field in the week and shot 53% from downtown.
As reported earlier this week, Richardson is likely to sign with the Magic.
Richard Hendrix improved his chances to make the team. He has a big body. He fights for the ball. He showed off some good shooting skills and got a lot of rebounds and although he’s undersized, he uses hisbig body and 7’3 wingspan to overcome the height issue. With his length, Jay Bilas would probably start him and make him team captain. He’s a very smart player. I’ll be disappointed if Hendrix is not on the team in September.
If a Guard from the summer league team is going to make the Magic, it’s going to be Russell Robinson. Head Coach Stan Van Gundy told the Orlando Sentinel that he liked what he saw from Robinson.
"PG Russell Robinson played significant minutes for the Magic’s summer league team and impressed Orlando Coach Stan Van Gundy, who watched Friday’s games from the scorer’s table."
Van Gundy had a very nice quote about Robinson.
"“I think Russell’s a very solid guy who plays under control, makes the right play, makes very few mistakes and plays very solid defense,” Van Gundy said."
That has to be good news for Robinson so the team is currently only carrying 2 PGs and could use another SG.
It sounds like Milovan Rakovic won’t be playing in America until next season.
The Magic are also believed to be in talks with Houston Rockets G Von Wafer. Wafer was a very important part of Houston’s playoff success in which they won their first round series with Portland and took the eventual champion Lakers to 7 games. Wafer averaged 8.2 PPG in the 2008 playoffs. He averaged 9.7 PPG in 19.4 MPG during the regular season. Wafer is a 6-5 swing man who is just 24 years old. He played two years at Florida State. Wafer could provide instant scoring off of the bench.
The Orlando Sentinel speculates on Wafer and some other potential players that could join the Magic.
"Von Wafer would be a nice addition.The Magic only have nine players on the roster right now and are still looking at some key needs including a wing player.Some of those options might include Marquis Daniels, Keith Bogans and Von Wafer.Wafer’s agent, Mitch Butler, told me he has had some preliminary discussions with the Magic about Wafer. He said they’ve targeted Orlando as a place where Wafer can “thrive and continue to grow as a basketball player.”"
I’m not sure about Daniels or Bogans. Daniels is a local guy who is a very good scorer, but he can’t seem to stick with a team.
Bogans has been with the Magic twice now and twice Orlando has dumped him. What makes anyone think that it will work this time?
The Magic are still very interested in Matt Barnes. It sounds like the Cleveland Cavaliers are not involved. With the Cavs acquiring Anthony Parker earlier in the week, the Magic do not want them to be able to throw Barnes at them as well.
The Magic remain very interested in Free Agent C Theo Ratliff.
Every day it looks more and more likely that the Magic will match the offer that the Dallas Mavericks gave to Marcin Gortat. It is not known if the Magic intend to keep Marcin for the long haul or if they are only potentially matching so that they won’t lose Gortat for nothing and they eventually plan to trade the “Polish Hammer.” Gortat expressed some dissapointment that the Magic might match and who can blame him? He’d rather be a starter than a backup. Either way, I think matching the offer is the best option for General Manager Otis Smith at this time.
(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.)