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What an exciting week for the Magic as we say good bye to Grant Hill and Darko and we say hello to Rashard Lewis. By the time the summer is over Diener and Outlaw will probably be dawning new uniforms as well.

The recent movements of the Magic have shown that they are growing and learning from their past errors. A season or two ago, they might have risked losing Lewis to acquire the Potential that is Darko, but this time they went for a sure thing first.

Magic Nation is a funny nation that Shrinks and expands more then Oprah’s waist size, and I can see it now: Next season, the Grizzlies come into town with Darko averaging 20PPG, 11RB, 5BLKs and 6As per game and the headline reads from wishy washy, band wagon hopping Mike Bianchi “MILICIC SHINES ANOTHER LARGE AND DARKO MISTAKE FROM THE MAGIC”. Then we’ll hear people saying things like “losing Darko was almost as bad as losing Shaq.” Some people are already saying that he is the biggest steal this summer. But before everyone starts thrashing the Magic yet again, let us put things in perspective.

Darko came to us with wood chips up his butt from riding the Piston’s bench since he was drafted 2nd only to King James and above the likes of Bosh, Wade, and Mellow. Now most can argue that the reason he never had a chance in Detroit was because the Pistons had too many good veterans and that Larry Brown has no faith in rookies; but after Larry Brown moved on, the Pistons trade him to Orlando, marking him off as a bust and we take him right before the trade deadline. This was two seasons ago.

From his first game in a Magic uniform we all saw his potential and the vision of him and Howard dominating the boards for years to come filled our dreams. The Magic ended that season with a great run and we knew that the playoffs was at our grasps for the first time in awhile.

Now in a new season and under Brian Hill, Darko wasn’t able to play his style of game. He wanted to shoot from the outside, he wanted to pass, he wanted to be something similar to Dirk, but Hill wanted him to be a low post player; another argument in Darko’s favor. But we must remember one thing, although Brain Hill has similar views of rookies as Larry Brown does, Brian Hill is a defensive minded style coach and during his latest run with the Magic, he proved that if your offense was okay, it would be good enough to start if your defense was solid. Darko’s defense was there but his offense was inconsistent which is why he never made it to the starting lineup and Brian Hill gave him plenty of chances to start.

The Magic wanted their cake and to eat it too, they wanted both Lewis and Darko, but if they tried to do that it would have been at the risk of losing Lewis, a risk the Magic couldn’t afford to take at this time, after all Lewis has averaged over 20 ppg in the last 2 season and he's an all star. I have no doubt in my mind that Darko more than likely will make us regret losing him, but in this case the Magic made the right decision in choosing a proven scorer over a potential star.