Otis Smith ain't shy about spending money

A day after giving Rashard Lewis waayyy more money than he should be getting, the Magic have extended Dwight Howard's contract with 5 years / 85 million dollars.

As much as I hate the fact that Lewis got a max contract, I do think that Howard is worth the big bucks. He's just 21, but he's already one of the best big men in the game and he's obviously the face of the franchise and the leader of this team.

Howard played all 82 games last year, averaging 17.6 points and 12.3 rebounds per game as he was named to the All-Star team and led the Magic to a play-off birth for the first time in 4 years. So yes, the sky's the limit for that young man and it's great that he'll be in Orlando for some years to come. (if for any reason you doubt how awesome D-Ho is, please read this post)

But the problem with all this is that the Magic have now tied up almost 200 million of future payroll with these 2 guys alone and that really doesn't leave them much room to do anything down the road. The crop of free-agents is said to be very nice next season, but Otis Smith can just sit back then and play a nice game of Scrabble while reading articles on why he sucks beaver testicles as a GM .

With so much payroll tied up, I really would not be surprised if 3 years down the road the Magic trot out a starting five of Howard, Lewis, MC Hammer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Dane Cook. Like I said before, Lewis better put up some crazy numbers next year.