Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway was a very solid second option to Shaquille O’Neal when they played together with the Orlando Magic.  Hardaway played in 369 games (365 starts) in his six years with the Magic and he averaged 37.2 minutes, 19.0 points, 4.7 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.9 steals per game.  Hardaway is all over the Magic’s record books despite only being with Orlando for six years.  Hardaway is #5 in points scored in Magic history with 7,018 points.  He is also #10 in three pointers made (366), #8 in rebounds (1,752), #3 in assists (2,343), #3 in steals (718) and #9 in blocked shots (191) in Magic history.

26-year old power forward Brandon Bass sent out the old play me or trade me vibe before the 2010-11 season started.  The Magic then decided to give Bass a chance to show them what he could do and he played well.  Bass played in 76 games (51 starts) for the Magic last year and he averaged 26.1 minutes, 11.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game.  Bass has now played in 336 games (59 starts) in his first six years in the NBA and he is averaging 18.4 minutes, 7.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game.  The Magic will likely go into next year with Brandon Bass as the starting power forward.

51-year old head coach Stan Van Gundy is still doing a solid job for the Orlando Magic.  They were 52-30 (63.4%) during the regular season but they were 2-4 (33.3%) in the playoffs against the Hawks.  Van Gundy now has a 222-106 (67.7%) record during the regular season in his four years with the Magic.  He is also 30-24 (55.6%) during the playoffs as the head coach of the Magic.  Van Gundy might be a whiner, but he’s still a very solid NBA head coach.  Van Gundy has a career record of 334-179 (65.1%) during the regular season and he is 47-35 (57.3%) during the playoffs.

25-year old center Dwight Howard has been the best center on the planet for quite some time now, but, he’s growing frustrated with the Magic’s inability to surround him with impact players.  He has declined to sign a long term deal with the Magic, which lends me to think that they could make a huge mistake and deal him.  Howard played in 78 games (all starts) for the Magic last year and he averaged 37.6 minutes, 22.9 points, 14.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 2.4 blocked shots per game.  He has now played in 567 games (566 starts) in his first 7 years with the Magic and he is averaging 36.0 minutes, 18.2 points, 12.9 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.0 steal and 2.2 blocked shots per game.  Howard is already the Magic’s all-time leader in both rebounds (7,287) and blocked shots (1,228).  He is also #2 in games played (567), #4 in steals (545) and he’s #2 in points scored (10,322) in Magic history.  They need to keep Howard at all costs, so they will need to find some way to improve the roster around him.