Magic will make Mavs wait for Marcin Gortat

Orlando isn't expected to match the Mavs' midlevel offer to Marcin Gortat, who didn't get many minutes behind Dwight Howard. But the Magic plans to take the full week allowed to mull the decision, GM Otis Smith told Florida Today's John Denton. "Sure, sure I will," Smith said when asked if he would wait the maximum seven days before reaching a decision on whether to match Gortat's contract offer. "The market will dictate what happens. There will be guys who go early and guys who go late. I know there are not a lot of teams spending the mid-level and they certainly aren't spending it all on one guy. Some teams are aggressive and some of us are waiting." The Magic and Mavs are also among the teams competing to sign Brandon Bass. Neither intends to give Bass the five-year, $25 million deal he is seeking. The Mavs' offer is thought to be in the $3.5 million per year range. It sounds like the Magic's offer is somewhere in that neighborhood, too, since Smith says he wants to split the midlevel option between two players. The only two forwards on the Orlando roster right now are Rashard Lewis and Ryan Anderson. (Anderson, drafted by the Nets' with the Mavs' first-rounder last season and shipped to Orlando with Vince Carter, had a 33-point, 14-rebound debut with the Magic's summer league team.) As for Gortat, he knows he's getting paid. It's just a matter of whether he'll have a chance to start for the Mavs or continue to serve as Superman's backup. "I just hope that I end up with the team that wants me the most and I can show them that I'm ready to play," Gortat told Florida Today. "I'll sign my contract just after midnight, and what happens next I don't know. Going to Dallas would be a huge opportunity to get more playing time and have a bigger role. That just tells me that I have to come back a better basketball player."