On the eve of this season, Doc Rivers noted the vastly different circumstances of his second Orlando Magic team, enriched by the additions of Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady. Rivers noted, "I realize we've got a target on our backs now. But that's all right. I'd rather be the hunted than the hunter ... although I guess there are a few deer who would disagree with that."

	Grant Hill is done for the season.

Things change.

Saturday, the Magic admitted Grant Hill isn't ready to play for them. The bigger question is why they even allowed him to try, but that's hindsight. The company line holds that Hill will be gone about two weeks. Rivers says, don't bet on that. It could be two months, maybe more.

This time, he said, he's learned a lesson when it comes to Hill. "This time Grant's not coming back until his ankle's completely healed. I don't care if we don't have him for the whole season. He's got a seven-year contract. I double-checked," Rivers said, laughing. "If he doesn't play at all this year we still have him back healthy for six."

Rivers said he was haunted of Hill hobbling around in March "because I didn't stop him. I couldn't let that happen."

Hill broke his ankle trying unsuccessfully to salvage a game as his going away present to the Pistons in their first-round playoff series with Miami last April. The fracture required a metal plate and five pins. When they inquired, the Magic organization was told that normal healing time for such a procedure is nine months. They were not deterred in their long-term pursuit of Hill.

	“	I don't care if we don't have him for the whole season. He's got a seven-year contract. I double-checked. If he doesn't play at all this year we still have him back healthy for six. ”
		— Doc Rivers on Hill

But they gave him $93 million and then they let him try to play too soon, maybe feeling the pressure of rebuilding a dwindled fan base, of meeting the high -- and perhaps unreasonable -- expectations of their team, maybe wanting their money's worth right away.

"It's just six months now," Rivers said, "so if Grant didn't play for three more months that would be normal time. But we figured that he, being an athlete, he could come back quicker. Well, it didn't happen."

Rivers said he made up his mind during Friday's home loss to Philadelphia that he would stop Hill. He wasn't moving well and the 76ers were exploiting him..

"When I saw the Sixers going at Grant I knew we were in trouble," Rivers said. "Then we put him in the post late in the game, knowing he couldn't play his game, but hoping to draw a double team and we couldn't even do that."

Over the final weeks of the exhibition season and into week one, Rivers said he was alarmed by Hill's limitations. "He wasn't Grant Hill, not the old Grant Hill. He did some good things for us, had some good minutes, but you could see he was laboring. And he certainly couldn't elevate like we know he can when he's healthy."

Worse, Hill's teammates were confused. Rivers' role players, point guard Darrell Armstrong in particular, had welcomed Hill with open arms. Now, Armstrong was not handling matters well with Hill on the court. "Darrell kept treating him like the old Grant Hill. He deferred to Grant but Grant didn't respond. That made Darrell unsure of himself. He wasn't the aggressive Darrell Armstrong who played so well for us last year."

	McGrady

	Armstrong

So, Rivers said, enough. Over the short term, whether it be two weeks, two months, three months, he's going to play "feed the pig" with Tracy McGrady. "When he's got it going he'll get the ball. We'll focus on Tracy and build something around him. Then, when Grant's ready, we'll work him back in. And, no, I'm not worried Grant will get lost in the shuffle."

McGrady is 21, feuding with his cousin Vince Carter after their very public divorce in Toronto. He is extremely talented and he has a real chance to be a terrific player, but he is emotionally immature and teams will go to school on what the clever Sixers did to him Friday.

Eric Snow baited him throughout and McGrady was ejected midway through the fourth quarter, earning a one-game suspension with an open-handed shove to Snow's face.

"I thought it was a stupid play on [McGrady's] part," Snow said. "They said I taunted him. [McGrady] said I kind of hit him on the leg when he went up for a shot. I didn't think it was that bad. I said, 'Get out of my face.' "

Rivers said it was more than leg touching, it was under-cutting and that it was premeditated and that it went on all game. "They did it at least a half-dozen times and once Tracy came down awkwardly on one leg and almost got hurt, so I think he was frustrated because he wasn't playing well and angry. But he's also got to recognize that he's a target now. He's got to learn how to handle it."

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