Outside of their beast in the middle and waterfall of threes, the Orlando Magic are a team of uncertainty for fantasy owners. Their starting shooting guard is most likely on his way out, their backup point guard appears more primed to stir up controversy on Twitter than do anything provocative anything on the court and a timeshare looks likely at the power forward position. All that said, there are open doors for a few players to assert themselves as fantasy stalwarts. Of course, if that beast in the middle wiggles his way out of town before season’s end, this house of cards will come tumbling down – hard.
Depth chart:
PG: Jameer Nelson, Gilbert Arenas, Chris Duhon
SG: Jason Richardson*, J.J. Redick, DeAndre Liggins
SF: Hedo Turkoglu, Quentin Richardson
PF: Brandon Bass, Ryan Anderson, Earl Clark*, Justin Harper, Malik Allen*
C: Dwight Howard, Daniel Orton
* unrestricted free agent
Relevant fantasy players and their projected draft positions/per-game stats:
– Dwight Howard, C (Rd. 2): 58% FG, 59% FT, 24 Pts, 13.5 Reb, 1.5 Ast, 1 Stl, 2.5 Blk, 3.5 TO
– Ryan Anderson, PF/C (Rd. 8): 44% FG, 80% FT, 2.3 Threes, 12 Pts, 6 Reb, 1 Ast, 0.5 Stl, 0.5 Blk, 1 TO
– J.J. Redick, SG (Rd. 8): 45% FG, 90% FT, 2.3 Threes, 14 Pts, 3 Reb, 2.5 Ast, 1 Stl, 1.5 TO
– Hedo Turkoglu, SF/PF (Rd. 9): 42% FG, 75% FT, 1.5 Threes, 11 Pts, 4 Reb, 4.5 Ast, 0.7 Stl, 0.5 Blk, 1.7 TO
– Jameer Nelson, PG (Rd. 10): 44% FG, 80% FT, 1.5 Threes, 12 Pts, 3 Reb, 5.5 Ast, 1 Stl, 2.5 TO
– Brandon Bass, PF/C (Rd. 13+): 50% FG, 80% FT, 10 Pts, 5 Reb, 0.7 Ast, 0.5 Blk, 1 TO
– Gilbert Arenas, PG/SG (Rd. 13+): 35% FG, 75% FT, 1 Three, 9 Pts, 2 Reb, 3 Ast, 1 Stl, 2 TO
Sleeper:
Redick
Most likely to surprise:
Bass
Most likely to disappoint:
Turkoglu
Category specialists:
– Threes: Anderson, Redick, Turkoglu, Nelson
– Blocks: Howard
Things to consider:
– Richardson’s likely departure opening the door for Redick
– Who, if anyone, wins the majority of minutes at PF
– Howard’s future with the team (and ability to improve his free-throw shooting)
Team’s statistical NBA ranks from 2010-11:
– Pts: 16th
– FGM: T-24th
– FGA: T-26th
– FG%: 16th
– FT%: 30th
– 3PTM: 1st
– Reb: 6th
– Ast: T-26th
– TO: 25th
– Stl: 24th
– Blk: T-16th
– Pace: 18th
– Offensive Efficiency: 10th
– Defensive Efficiency: 3rd
Throughout the season, be sure to leave your questions, comments, concerns, trade offers, roster problems and more in the comments below.
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