Orlando Magic: 10 stars you forgot played for the Magic

6. Juwan Howard

An actual All-Star. A member of the “Fab Five.” An eventual NBA champion, although that was down with the noisy neighbors down the road that are the Miami Heat. Juwan Howard is basketball royalty because of what he was a part of while in the college game, but his professional career wasn’t half bad either.

His lone season with the Magic (81 games, 77 starts) was a weird one too, because it came after his stellar work with the Wizards (then Bullets), and before he was gone beyond his last legs while with the Heat. When Howard got to Orlando he was 30 and capable. He averaged a hefty 35.5 minutes per game and put up 17 points per contest.

When McGrady went down with knee issues, Howard stepped up, and although the Magic finished 21-61 (which allowed them to nab another Howard with the first overall pick that summer), the performances of Howard were a real positive. So too was his locker-room leadership, which would go on to be a staple of his for the rest of his career.

Howard was traded to the Houston Rockets in the summer of 2004 alongside McGrady in a deal which we will come back to, and although the Magic ended up being just fine and getting to the finals themselves within six years, the short-lived run of Howard with the Magic was a good one.

In drafting the other Howard, it was clear the organization was rebuilding for the future, which was why McGrady and Juwan Howard were sent to the Rockets. But if McGrady had remained healthy, and they’d kept Juwan Howard too, that would have been a really interesting and quirky outfit. Even more so with Dwight joining as well.