Before the start of last season, the Orlando Magic were already considered a top team, but few believed that they could reach the NBA Finals. However, Orlando enjoyed a terrific regular season and then, they beat the Celtics and the Cavaliers in the Playoffs to go the NBA Finals for the first time since 1995 and just the second time in franchise history. They had a 59-23 record in the regular season, but they could have easily reached the 60's wins mark, as Stan Van Gundy decided to give some rest to their starters and the Magic lost 4 of their last 6 games.

For this season, while the others top teams decided to stay with the same core of players and added marginal pieces to their rosters, the Magic decided to change their structure and probably they will need their time before they start peaking. When they traded and received Vince Carter from the Nets, it was clear that they wouldn't re-sign Hedo Turkoglu and suddenly all the team chemistry from last season ended in the off season. Although Turkoglu isn't an elite player, he has some specific characteristics that clearly helped the team. His size for a Small Forward and his playmaking abilities allowed him to post up his undersized opponents or being a point forward, with Jameer Nelson being more a shooting point guard and the Magic were a tough matchup for any team because of that - just ask the Cavaliers about this question.

With Vince Carter on the roster, the Magic will be a more "standard" team, however Vince Carter is still playing at is best offensively. Last season, he had a solid campaign averaging 20.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game, while shooting 43.7% from the field and although he is 32 years old, he has been able to remain healthy lately, as he has only missed 11 games in the last 4 seasons! We have to wait to see how he will help the team defensively, but the Magic has an all star player at the Shooting guard position who will just need to adapt to the Van Gundy's system. This is a legit shot for him to win a championship, so he'll be ultra-motivated for this season.

Despite having a perennial all star in the team, Dwight Howard is still the "man" in Orlando and he will be in that position for a long time. Howard enjoyed a great season last year and he led the team in scoring by averaging 20.6 points per game and shooting 57.2 % from the field. It was a shame that he regressed in the charity stripe, as he only shot 59.4% from the free throw line. If he keep these numbers in the future, their opponents won't mind foul him, however Dwight passed a considerable time in the off-season working on mid-range jumpers and so, we can expect some improvement from him in this department. Howard led the league in rebounds with 13.9 rpg and in shot blocks with 2.90 per game - and these two stats were the main reasons why he earned the NBA defensive player of the year award. He improved dramatically his offensive rebounding numbers by grabbing 4.3 offensive boards per game and there is no reason to think that this season will be different. In fact, I expect Howard to improve his scoring numbers, as he will have more options to work and the centers in this league are constantly overpowered by him.

Jameer Nelson will be the full time Point Guard of the team for this season and it was unfortunate that a shoulder injury derailed what was being a career season for him. Nelson missed 40 games and although he made an appearance in the Finals, he was out of shape and didn't help his team. However, when he was healthy and in shape, Nelson was making a huge season, averaging career highs in points, steals, 3-pointers, field goal percentage and free throw percentage! He averaged 16.7 points per game, but dished a mere 5.4 assists per game - a number slightly low for a point guard, but the Magic were ran in a system in which Nelson was mostly a scorer. He also shot a great mark of 50.3 % from the field, which was huge by taking in account that he is a Point Guard and attempted 4.3 treys per game. For this season and without Turkoglu, Nelson will have the challenge to increase his playmaking abilities, while he wants to bounce back after a bad series in the NBA Finals.

The Magic will pay $18M to Rashard Lewis this season and although his personal numbers don't look good enough for him to earn such paycheck, it is the way Stan Van Gundy uses him at the Power Forward position that gives the Magic such advantage in the matchups. Lewis can play at both SF or PF, but having such a dominate center in Howard, the Magic don't need another body down low, so Lewis can play more in the perimeter due to his unbelievable range on his jump shots. Last season he averaged 17.7 points per game and shot almost 40% behind the arc and led the league with 220 3-pointers made, while he was decent on rebounds with 5.8 boards per game and 2.6 assists per game. We can expect another solid season for Lewis, as he will be able to explore the constant mismatches created by his position on the court.

The problem is that Rashard will miss the first 10 regular season games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance, so the Magic will have to adjust to his absence early on. The Magic signed free agent Brandon Bass in this off season and Bass can be a solid addition to this team. He is fearless down the post and he is also an extremely physical player, despite being just 6-8 and playing at the PF position. He can be an option to take Lewis's place, but Van Gundy can also opt for Ryan Anderson to replace Lewis while he's suspended.

Anderson was involved in the Vince Carter trade package and he can be a huge piece for this team. He had a relatively good rookie season with the Nets by averaging 7.4 points per game, while playing 19.9 minutes per game, however he shares some characteristics with...Rashard Lewis, because he is a 6-10 player who has a good range on his jump shot and can shot behind the arc. In the last summer league, he played great and I wouldn't be surprised if he receives major minutes in the absence of Rashard Lewis.

GM Otis Smith made a solid job in providing quality and depth to the Magic's bench. He added veteran Point Guard Jason Williams to the mix in a low risk signing, as Williams will battle with Anthony Johnson for the backup job of Jameer Nelson. After a good postseason last year, where he played some tough defense and rebounded very well, the Magic re-signed Marcin Gortat and he is a solid backup of Dwight Howard and the Magic are happy with him in this role. Meanwhile, Mickael Pietrus lost his place in the starting lineup to Courtney Lee in the regular season, but in the Playoffs he played great by being the 6th man for the Magic and the Magic stopper for Lebron James and Kobe Bryan in the crunch time. Smith also signed free agent Matt Barnes in another good acquisition, as Barnes can play some defense as well and the Magic will have a pretty good bench with multiple solutions. Last season the bench struggled to offer quality minutes to the team, but this won't likely happen again this season.

On paper, the Magic don't look an inferior team when comparing to their last season's version, however they changed their structure and they will need time to be at their best again. The 10-games suspension of Rashard Lewis won't help at all for their development early on the season. While the Cavs and the Celtics kept their structure and at the same added pieces to battle Howard (Wallace and Shaq), the Magic need quickly to peak as soon as they can. Head coach Stan Van Gundy is a terrific coach and he has plenty of solutions to work with, so the challenge for the Magic is start strong the season, while their main goal is to defend their Eastern Conference champions status.