Tracy McGrady shed his second-banana status when he bolted Toronto for Orlando, but he also left behind his ace running mate, Vince Carter. No matter. T-Mac and new partner Mike Miller not only have melded into the NBA’s best young scoring combo (40.1 ppg): they have become one of the league’s tightest off-court duos as well.

Miller’s crib is just a one-minute scooter ride from McGrady’s mansion, so the two are rarely more than a BlackBerry buzz from the next video game or poolside chowdown. Says McGrady: “We’ve been tight since the day we met.” Miller, a second-year forward, knows McGrady’s idiosyncrasies. (Example: T-Mac won’t venture outside if it’s raining.) And the two constantly swap favors. (Example: When Miller bought a boat but lacked a lake, he docked it at Tracy’s.) But it’s when the Xbox is switched off that they really hum in harmony.

“They sit around and talk for hours,” says T-Mac’s longtime personal trainer, Wayne Hall, under whose whip the pair work out daily in the summer and most days in season. They talk about goals, rings, more rings (they’re both engaged), yardwork and their favorite movie (Scarface).

One minor downside: T-Mac doesn’t appreciate how much he influences his protégé. “Mike only works as hard as Tracy,” says Hall. “If Tracy goes hard, so does Mike. If Tracy doesn’t, Mike doesn’t.” Recently Hall had them running full-court sprints with huge rubber bands tied around their thighs to improve their stride. Hall ripped into McGrady for goofing because of the effect it was having on Miller. They finished the drill double-time.

And one big upside: On the floor, McGrady is constantly in Miller’s ear to get after it on D and go hard to the hole. “I want to get where Tracy is,” says Miller. “So I want him to get on me.”

This summer McGrady and Miller plan to take their fiancées to Italy. But first they plan on taking the Magic to the Finals. Together.

This article appears in the April 29 issue of ESPN The Magazine.