Orlando Magic Summer League Roster

In continuing the series of spending way too much time telling you more than you need to know about players that don't have NBA contracts, I present the Orlando Magic Summer League roster in excruciating detail.

For the rest of the Orlando Pro Summer League rosters, refer to this constantly updating post.

For the Vegas Summer League rosters, refer to this post.

Other entries thus far in the series include: New Jersey Nets, Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers.

ORLANDO MAGIC

For your reference, I won't be talking about Daniel Orton or Stanley Robinson - Ben Q. Rock should have already taught you enough about them over at Orlando Pinstriped Post.

I'm going to list the players by position, then how likely it is that they'll appear on any NBA roster next season.

Guards

Curtis Stinson, PG, Iowa State - I've been known to waver on my stance with Stinson, going all the way from being his biggest critic to his biggest fan - and everywhere in between.

The best reason to like Stinson is that he's a near-triple-double machine in the D-League, a task that is difficult regardless of the competition (and, for the record, the D-League competition is probably better than the Orlando Magic are led to believe).  He's also a great leader and will do whatever it takes for his team to win.

The reason's to dislike Stinson are that he's a bit of a hot head, doesn't have range on his jump shot and miraculously has excelled in Nick Nurse's offense after bouncing around with four different teams in his first two D-League seasons.

Also playing: Toronto Raptors, Vegas.

Jerome Randle, PG, Cal - The biggest problem with Randle is that he's not the biggest guy on the court - in fact, he'll probably always be the smallest guy on the court as he measured in at just over 5-foot-9 in Portsmouth.

To make up for his short stature, however, he's pretty great on the offensive end.  He's a good leader, is able to find my teammates with relative ease, has a great jump shot and is smart enough to recognize and avoid his limitations.

Defensively, well he's not bad, but he's also probably too small to ever really be a capable NBA defender.

Also playing: Washington Wizards, Vegas.

Joe Crawford, SG, Kentucky - Crawford was the 58th pick of the 2008 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers but after spending a season and a half with their D-League team and not earning a call-up, Crawford left the D-League for a more lucrative contract overseas in the middle of this past season.

Crawford' biggest strength is as as a scorer, as he's averaged just under 20 points per game in his 75 career D-League games.  He's also got a pretty good handle and even ran the point part-time in his first season in the D-League.

This past season, though, Crawford regressed across the board.  After averaging 20.8 points on 47% shooting from the field (including 38% from beyond the arc), he averaged 17.8 points on 43% shooting this season - including making an abysmal 43-of-145 shot attempts from beyond the arc.

Sean Singletary, PG, Virginia - After a strong four year career at Virginia, Singletary was drafted with the 42nd pick of the second round by the Sacramento Kings. He was quickly traded to the Houston Rockets and then moved onto Phoenix before again being traded, this time to Charlotte, where he saw limited playing time as the team's third point guard as well as spending some time in the D-League. Needless to say, his initial NBA experience didn't work out all that great.

This past season, then, he decided to go to Spain and play for Caja Laboral, but his overseas career hasn't gone much better.  In 16 games of Euroleague play, Singletary averaged 3.4 points in just over 12 minutes of action while shooting 42% from inside the arc and 29% from beyond it.

If he can get back to his college ways, he might have a chance to make an NBA roster - hopefully he learned something in Spain even without putting up any numbers.

Wings

Donell Taylor, SG/SF, UAB - Taylor was one of the less heralded players in the D-League this past season after an atrocious start in which he was drafted to play point guard for the Erie BayHawks.  A mid-season trade that saw him moved to the Idaho Stampede, though, put him in a better position to exhibit his strengths - and it worked.

For Idaho, Taylor was part of a three-headed backcourt (along with fellow former NBAers Andre Barrett and Coby Karl) that allowed him to run the offense on occasion, but also left him available to slash to the basket and get out and run in transition.  With the Stampede, Taylor averaged 21.9 points on 49% shooting (37% from beyond the arc) while contributing 7.2 rebounds and 4.8 assists and 1.7 steals.

With Taylor's solid defense and NBA resume along with his standing out with the Stampede this past season, I'm guessing he's got a good chance of catching on with an NBA team next season.

Trey Gilder, SF, Northwestern State - For a recap of everything Trey Gilder before this past season, read Jon L's player profile here.

Since then Gilder randomly made the Memphis Grizzlies after playing for them in the Vegas Summer League, though he was cut rather early in the season (which probably shouldn't have surprised anyone - even us D-League junkies).

Gilder's pretty good on offense as he's got a solid mid-range game and is a very capable slasher, but he's not really going to stand out on that end.  Defensively, he usually knows where to be and his rangy frame helps keep him in front of players.

The biggest thing Gilder has going for him is that he's comfortable and effective in the role player role (he's started just 34 of his 95 D-League games), something that doesn't always come easy to D-League players trying to make it to the NBA.

Yaroslav Korolev, SF, Russia - Oh, Yaroslav.  Since being the 12th overall pick in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers, he's - uh - had some issues.  Billed as a possible point-forward who could maybe even play the 4 when he came into the league, he's developed into a spotty spot-up shooter that needs to be more aggressive when trying to get to the rim.

This past season, he split time with the Albuquerque Thunderbirds and Reno Bighorns with varying degrees of success.  For the first 20 games of the season, Korolev averaged 11.3 points on 48% shooting (43% from beyond the arc) while starting 13 of those games.  Nevertheless, he was traded to the Reno Bighorns and his numbers plummeted.  With Reno, he averaged 9.8 points, but didn't fit in very well in the offense and shot just 39.5% from the field (35% from beyond the arc).  He also took more jumpers with Reno - whoever made that decision probably made the wrong one.

At just 23 years of age, Korolev still has some upside left - but I still don't think he's ready to contribute to an NBA roster.

Patrick Ewing Jr., SF, Georgetown - I'm really intrigued by the invite of Ewing, and not just because of the possible nepotism that has to do with his father being an Orlando coach.

Ewing had a pretty good D-League season in 2008-2009 for the Reno Bighorns (16.8 points, 8.9 rebounds), but suffered an MCL sprain in March that took him out for the rest of the season.  He then was scheduled to play for the Knicks in Vegas last year, but the same injury left him off that team.  He didn't play anywhere last year, either, which means an MCL sprain effectively kept him out of basketball for almost a year and a half - this scares me.

If he's healthy (and found a jumper while doing whatever it is he's been doing), he'd probably move up on this list - but not until those questions are solved.

Bigs

Paul Davis, C, Michigan State - Davis is probably most famous for being on Millionaire Matchmaker.  Okay - he's not, but I like to remember him that way anyway.  He's actually most famous for accepting a ton of money to get dunked on by Dwyane Wade in a commercial.  Yeah, he probably wasn't that recognizable in that role, either, but it's always fun to look back on the acting careers of NBAish players, amirite?

The 6-foot-10 big man, who more than likely had to drop the moniker DJ Pauly D after this guy started using it, started out this past season with the Washington Wizards but was waived early in the year.  This left Davis some options, though, and he chose to enter the D-League pool before being picked up by the Maine Red Claws. Davis played 16 games for Maine and averaged 15 points and 8.8 rebounds in just under 29 minutes of action.  Most impressive, perhaps, is that he made over 90% (56-of-62) of this free-throw attempts.

Toward the end of the season, in an attempt to once again become a millionaire, Davis latched on with the Xacobeo BS (that isn't a typo) in Spain.  In six games with the team, he again put up a solid 13.2 points and 7.7 boards, but averaged four fouls per game.

Davis is pretty soft, but he has a good amount of talent, size and an NBA resume.  He'll at least get another training camp invite.

Ben McCauley, C, North Carolina State - Big Ben was one of the most impressive "unknown" players in Vegas last year for the Los Angeles Lakers.

He should essentially duplicate Paul Davis' contributions, except he's not as tall, not as skilled in the low block (but a better passer), three years younger and seems to have a better attitude.  I guess those are all noticeable differences, though, so maybe I'm just group the two white guys together.

This past season the North Carolina State graduate played for Strasbourg in France, averaging 10.5 points and five boards in 30 French League games.  Most surprisingly, he shot 34 three-pointers - and made 47% of them!

Jeff Adrien, PF, Connecticut - Adrien would excel in the D-League as a tough 6-foot-7 back-to-the-basket power forward, but that typically doesn't fly in the NBA.

Even though Yo Adrien doesn't have ideal size, he could have a chance at an NBA future if he's able to show that he's still willing to do the dirty work in Orlando.  He plays hard, he rebounds well and his post defense is better than you'd think for a player of his stature.

This past season he played for Breogan in Spain's LEB-Gold Division (not the top division) and averaged a solid 12.3 points and 7.7 boards.

Vladimir Stimac, C, Serbia - I don't know anything about Stimac except that he kindof looks like Jordan Eglseder in this picture and that he hasn't averaged double figures in anything since playing in the Latvian League during the 2007-08 season.

Three years ago, Draft Express had this to say about Stimac's NBA prospects: However, if we talk about potential, his athletic shortcomings and the fact that he's an undersized center are not the most intriguing combination. In simple words, he doesn't look like an NBA prospect at this point at all. Still, his emergence in the Baltic League was too spectacular to ignore here.

Considering his statistics have steadily regressed since then, I'm not optimistic about his chances at cracking an NBA roster.