Magic Considers Trading McGrady

The Orlando Magic wants to keep Tracy McGrady, but the team is willing to trade him if he wants to go. The league scoring champion wants to stay but is demanding some improvements to the NBA’s worst team.

It’s clear that the future of the Magic is cloudy and that the team faces one of the most crucial off-seasons in its 15-year history.

“I don’t want to leave. I’ll be the first to tell you, I don’t want to leave,” McGrady, 24, said Wednesday in Orlando, Fla. “But I’m a competitor and I want to win.”

McGrady, whose seven-year, $93-million contract runs through the 2006-07 season, can opt out of the deal after next season.

Magic General Manager John Weisbrod said he’d like McGrady to stay, but if he knows McGrady won’t be back after next season, trading him would be the best move for the team.

“I don’t want that misinterpreted that I’m looking for a way to trade him or we’re predisposed to trading him,” said Weisbrod, who also said the team would like to know McGrady’s intent sooner rather than later. “We’re obviously not. We’d like to build the thing around him.”

But, exposing a conflict that may never reach resolution, McGrady said he was willing to wait deep into the season -- perhaps as late as the February trading deadline -- to decide.

McGrady averaged 28 points this season, leading the league for the second year in a row, before going on the injured list last month.

*

Atlanta high school phenom Dwight Howard will make himself available for the NBA draft, where he is projected as a lottery pick.

The 6-foot-10 forward said he made his decision before last season but kept it quiet so he could enjoy his senior year at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy. He averaged 25 points, 18 rebounds and eight blocked shots last season.

*

Guard Ben Gordon of NCAA champion Connecticut will skip his senior year to make himself available for the NBA draft.

“Coming into the season, I knew I wanted this to be my last year,” Gordon said. “I wanted to win the championship and had all these goals set. Just the run that my team and myself went on, it was a pretty easy decision for me.”

*

New Jersey Net interim Coach Lawrence Frank will be back with the team next season, the New York Daily News reported.

Team President Rod Thorn would neither confirm nor deny the decision. Frank, 33, replaced the fired Byron Scott on Jan. 26.