Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla
I'm not in any way, shape, or form a Lakers fan, but I remember that team well; I used to live the NBA. Thanks for posting this.
Wasn't Mag a power forward when he returned?!? My brain is telling me he played on the block a bit like he did when he had to as a rookie.
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Yeah. He came back...uh...thick.
He didn't have the lateral ability to defend guards and the Lakers has a couple of pretty good guards already in Jones and Nick the Quick. And Ceballos was their best player at the 3 so Magic just kinda settled into the 4. Fortunately it was just a tick before the stretch 4s really started to show up so you could get away with Magic's more limited mobility because he was still a pretty tall dude and could body up some of the more lumbering 4s in the league (who in many cases were just mediocre 5s).
Offensively he played point forward a lot. Van Exel still brought the ball up a fair amount but most of the offense went through Magic once he came back.