Orlando Magic Shooting Month: Top 20 shooters in Orlando Magic history
Top 20 Shooters in Orlando Magic History
15. Courtney Lee
By Caleb Hager
Courtney Lee is one of the most interesting names on this list.
He only played one year for the Orlando Magic during the 2009 season. This happened to be his rookie year and he started 42 games that year for the team as they went to the NBA Finals.
But Lee is a player who bounced around to a lot of different teams in the NBA, playing for eight different franchises. He always found his place on contending teams as a desirable shooter. He made 82 total three-pointers during his career in Orlando and shot 40.4-percent that season.
Courtney Lee was part of a package that included Rafer Alston and Tony Battie to bring in Vince Carter and Ryan Anderson from the New Jersey Nets following the Magic’s 2009 Finals run.
While Orlando never reached the same success they had of getting to the Finals with Lee, I do believe that trade was for the better of the team. Lee went on to have a very good NBA career averaging 38.8-percent from deep during his 12 years in the league.
Some of you may remember that masked rookie starting 16 of 21 games during the team’s Finals run in 2009 — only missing games because Dwight Howard inadvertently elbowed him and broke his orbital bone in Game 5 of the team’s first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers.
His three-point shooting dropped a little during the playoffs, but he still shot lights out from the free-throw line going 23 for 26.
Many may point to the missed layup at the end of Game 2 of the NBA Finals in Los Angeles. To his credit, that was a hard shot to make on the biggest stage in basketball for a 23-year-old rookie. He played very well during the postseason, averaging 8.0 points per game and helping this team make their first Finals appearance since 1995.
Lee would probably be a lot higher on this list if he were to have played in Orlando for more than one season.
His tenor with this team cemented his spot on this list with some of the franchise leaders in shooting. I wish we could have gotten to see some more out of the 2008 first-round pick from Western Kentucky.
Regardless when I think of all-time great Orlando Magic shooters Courtney Lee needs to be in the discussion.