Dwight Howard, Stan Van Gundy leave Magic in tough spot

• Magic lost center Dwight Howard and coach Stan Van Gundy in offseason
• Howard trade made roster young, plus GM Otis Smith left with Van Gundy
• Overhauled team likely will struggle to make playoffs for seventh season in row

ORLANDO — The Big Two — the elite, diva center and his relentlessly grumpy and competent coach — are gone. So where does the enchantment come from this season for the Orlando Magic?

"You're going to enjoy watching us. We're going to be the hardest-playing team in the league," Magic forward Glen "Big Baby" Davis said.

"Everybody appreciates a hard worker. You start pulling for that guy. Everybody loves the underdog. That's our approach."

No Dwight Howard. No Stan Van Gundy. No drama.

And probably fewer victories for a franchise that has advanced to the playoffs for six consecutive seasons, the longest run in the Eastern Conference. That streak is in serious jeopardy.

Since the DeVos family purchased the franchise 20 years ago, the Magic are tied for first in the conference for best winning percentage (54.4%).

Finishing .500 this season is considered virtually impossible and highly undesirable if Orlando wants a juicy lottery pick. (Only twice in the last 18 years has the NBA's worst team won the lottery; the Magic did it in 2004, when they drafted Howard.)

Just don't tell first-year NBA coach Jacque Vaughn about lowered expectations. Or use the word "rebuilding."

When he recently was told many thought the Magic would not be competitive, the upbeat former All-America guard from Kansas said, "I believe in this team."

"It's my job to disguise some of the weaknesses and bring out some strengths," said Vaughn, an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs from 2010 through last season after finishing his playing days with them. "The word 'rebuilding' will not come out of my mouth. I wouldn't want it any other way — the slate is clean."

Finally, the organization is wiped free of last season's dysfunctional team chemistry.

Howard, an elite pivot man and sometimes-goofy three-time NBA defensive player of the year, now lives closer to Disneyland than to Disney World. He now plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, after recovering from back surgery.

Of course, at one time that was the same Hollywood hoops home of Shaquille O'Neal, another Magic expatriate who feuded with his coach and whose departure in 1996 had devastating consequences for the franchise for a decade.

Van Gundy? The coach, who told it like it is and bitterly clashed with Howard in their final season with Orlando, was fired in May after five seasons. Van Gundy, who appeared headed for an analyst's role with ABC that ultimately unraveled, now will have to figure how to spend his time and the nearly $5 million the Magic owe him.

Under Van Gundy, the Magic twice advanced to the Eastern Conference finals, reaching the NBA Finals in 2009 before losing in five games to the Lakers.

What is to become of the Magic in the post-Howard era, at least in the short term?

Amid all of the uncertainty, a team-first culture has emerged.

Last season, Howard was front and center in a toxic locker room as the Magic underachieved and were bounced from the playoffs in the first round for a second season in a row.

The team was all but ripped apart by private and all-too-public tension between the team's star player and his coach and teammates.

"Sometimes, you need a change," veteran Magic forward Hedo Turkoglu said. "Nobody wants to lose their franchise player, but (teams) move on. It's always hard when you go through that kind of stuff. It affects everybody; it affected (Howard), Stan, us, the organization and the city. I wish it had been handled a better way."

Howard, the 6-11, 265-pound center with the peerless physique, packed it up in August after months of waffling about whether he wanted to re-sign with the Magic. He desired a trade to the Brooklyn Nets, but the Magic never pulled the trigger on a deal, preferring to try to re-sign him.

After it became apparent Howard would not return, the Magic shipped him to the Lakers in a four-team, 12-player trade.

The deal sent six players and five draft choices to the Magic, who return seven players from last season. As of Oct. 1, their 19-man roster included three players — forward Andrew Nicholson, forward-center Kyle O'Quinn and guard J.J. Redick — procured through the draft.

The Magic's major roster makeover includes a mix of aging pieces, including guards Jameer Nelson and Redick, swingman Quentin Richardson, plus front-courters Turkoglu and Al Harrington, who will try to carry an inexperienced group through an inevitable two-year transition to a younger team as valuable salary-cap space is created.

"It's a little weird to have all the new faces around," said Nelson, whom the Magic are paying $8 million a season after re-signing him in July. "I think we can be better than most people think."

This much is verifiable: Howard's career averages — 18.4 points, 12.9 rebounds and 2.2 blocked shots a game — are impressive and irreplaceable. He averaged 20.6 points and 14.5 rebounds in last season's abbreviated NBA campaign.

"We're a team that just traded away Dwight Howard," Richardson said. "No matter how you look at it, you're never going to get what you're giving away. At the same time, (people) undervalue what we did get."

The blockbuster deal included the Magic, Lakers, Denver Nuggets and Philadelphia 76ers. In return for six-time All-Star center Howard, the Magic received shooting guard Arron Afflalo, developing center Nikola Vucevic, veteran forward Harrington, second-year guard-forward Christian Eyenga, rookie swingman Maurice Harkless and journeyman power forward Josh McRoberts.

Afflalo, 26, averaged a career-best 15.2 points last season for Denver, plus 3.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 33.6 minutes.

Harrington, 32, averaged 14.2 points and 6.1 rebounds for the Nuggets.

Harkless, 19, was a first-round draft choice by the 76ers who started all 32 games as a freshman for St. John's last season.

Vucevic, a 7-footer, is a 21-year-old center who was drafted by the 76ers as the 16th overall pick in 2011. He averaged 5.5 points and 4.8 rebounds as a rookie.

The Magic also received five draft picks over the next five years: a second-round choice from the Nuggets in 2013; a first-round pick from the Nuggets or the New York Knicks in '14; a conditional first-rounder from the 76ers and a conditional second-rounder from the Lakers in '15 and a conditional first-round selection from the Lakers in '17.

Orlando gave up guard Jason Richardson to the 76ers, plus guard Chris Duhon and forward Earl Clark to the Lakers.

"You know what? It's not about one player," Magic CEO Alex Martins said. "If you don't have a superstar and you're a winning organization, that's all fans care about."

But Howard also sold a basketful of season tickets and was the player the Magic used to drive their marketing machine. Martins described preseason ticket sales as brisk. "We're on track to be close to where we've been the last couple of years," he said.

As ESPN Radio analyst and former NBA center Will Perdue said, "Fans have to realize that the next couple of years will be rough. You don't have a proven product or a proven coach. There are so many unknowns."

The Magic's roster will continue to evolve with a major transformation under Rob Hennigan, at 30 the league's youngest general manager.

Hennigan, who replaces ousted Otis Smith after spending the last four seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder, wants to construct a sustainable basketball model in which the Magic need only to tweak the roster in years ahead to avoid the task of a complete reconstruction. Hennigan also spent four years working for the Spurs, an example of that philosophy.

"I think everyone can expect a lot of adventure, a lot of fun," he said. "We're in a position where there's some unknown.

"The team is taking shape. I think this is a team that fans will want to root for."

Echoing that belief, Redick said, "I would love for us to be a team that other teams don't like to play because we grind it out.

"There's a chance for this group to be a fun group to watch and to play with," he said. "There is some excitement and nervous energy. It will be different. But it doesn't necessarily have to be bad."