Editor's note: As part of "The Stein Line" every Monday, ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein takes you around the league for the latest news in "Coast to Coast."

The solution in Orlando is obvious.

Miss the playoffs, then win the lottery.

That's about what it has to come to for the Magic. Landing LeBron James, to keep him or trade the pick for the size it so badly needs, is probably the only way Orlando can recoup a measure of what it has lost since the summer of 1996.

	LeBron James, right, with Tracy McGrady? Magic fans can only hope for that dream duo.

Shaquille O'Neal bolted for L.A. in a huff. Tim Duncan thought about signing on to replace Shaq, then passed. Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill signed on to fill the void, only for Hill's left ankle to get progressively worse no matter what the doctors try.

There have also been mistakes to augment the bad luck. Ben Wallace was thrown into the Hill sign-and-trade with Detroit, instead of John Amaechi. Tony Parker was passed over in the draft for Jeryl Sasser. Hill also acknowledges now that trying to rush back the past three years, after the Magic gave him the $93 million, has "gotten me into the trouble I've been in."

Then there's last winter, when the Magic gave back a first-round pick to Phoenix from the Penny Hardaway trade as an enticement for the Suns to take on the contract of Bo Outlaw. That pick, No. 9 last June, became Orlando native Amare Stoudemire.

These are some of the things the Magic think about now, at 21-21, facing another hellacious struggle just to finish No. 8 in the East. Because of that blasted ankle, one of the most admirable stars in NBA history is unavoidably facing the prospect that he will eventually be forced to retire without having won a single playoff series.

Doc Rivers' dream scenario is that Hill sits for the rest of the regular season, while the rest of the Magic scrapes into the eighth and final playoff spot without him -- again -- to set Hill up for a dramatic playoff return. Because, in the playoffs, Hill wouldn't have to play back-to-backs.

Given how Rivers consistently gets the gutty, little Magic to overachieve, Orlando probably will make it -- even though the supporting cast has been stripped of Outlaw, Troy Hudson and Monty Williams. All three were jettisoned in an effort to stockpile salary-cap room for another run at Duncan this summer, but the first lowering of the cap in league history entering this season helped force the Magic to abandon that dream as well.

So, then, the solution is obvious. The Magic would never intentionally tank its way into the lottery, especially with a favorable second-half schedule, but that would probably be the wiser course.

If any team is overdue for a fairy tale -- and that's what it'll be for whoever wins the lottery -- it's these guys.

Another Hill story, with the same ending
At this time last week, the Magic was actually feeling a bit hopeful. Hill's ankle was said to be feeling better with the help of a newly constructed left shoe, fortified by an extra rubber strip for reinforcement. Rivers, meanwhile, had promised himself and the team that he would stop writing Hill's name into the starting lineup, to spare the letdowns that followed whenever Hill would have to pull out.

	Grant Hill may have to rest his ankle again.

"We were playing Houston and (Rockets) trainer Keith Jones came up and said, 'You guys are in the same situation we were in last year with Steve Francis,' " Rivers said. "Then Rudy (Tomjanovich) and I talked and I asked him, 'How did you deal with it?' " He said, 'We got Yao Ming, Doc, so we obviously didn't deal with it very well. We won 28 games.'

"We had a good talk. I asked Rudy what mistakes he made, if there was anything he would have done differently. One of the things he said was, 'You've just got to the tell the guys, this is what it is.' He said every time he erased Francis' name from the board right before the game, you could see his guys go, 'Aw, (expletive).' That's happened to us and now the reaction is gone. We've removed that."

Of course, this being the Magic, Hill was out again within two quarters of Rivers' story-telling before Thursday's loss in Washington. With his father in the audience, hoping to give his family a show, Hill played 12 fruitless minutes before halftime.

Even sadder, those might be the last 12 minutes he plays all season unless the latest prescription of extended rest and rehab works wonders.

Clippers' words help Gentry
The Clippers are 3-2, including a home victory Saturday over Sacramento, since a very even-tempered but nonetheless bizarre team meeting on Jan. 6. That's when three players -- Lamar Odom, then Michael Olowokandi, then Quentin Richardson -- calmly admitted to general manager Elgin Baylor that various members of the group had been playing selfishly because none of them has been signed to a contract extension.

	Alvin Gentry got the truth from a Clips team meeting.

If it were up to Baylor to make the Clips' money decisions, that probably wouldn't be an issue, since he likes much of the talent he has assembled, as do many of Baylor's peers. The decision not to re-sign anyone yet, with no less than 11 current Clippers bound for free agency over the next two summers, is owner Donald T. Sterling's, of course.

The irony, though, is that the players' admissions to Baylor, with Alvin Gentry in the room as well, have all but guaranteed Gentry's security for the rest of the season, without the under-fire coach having to say a word. Gentry has been the fan scapegoat for weeks, with the Clippers falling far short of expectations at 15-24, but how can he get the majority of the blame now?

The players themselves told the GM so. They spelled out the problems (Sterling and themselves) and have thus put off the coaching change until the offseason. That's what team intimates have insisted for weeks anyway, but the meeting put the onus on the players themselves. Bizarre, huh?

Warriors' Boykins scores again
Earl Boykins update: After a loss to Memphis last Monday, which threatened to add another chapter to the Stein Line jinx file, Boykins' Golden State Warriors routed Cleveland and then held off Minnesota for a 107-98 victory Friday.

Boykins? He led all scorers in that one with a career-best 28 points.

So now we know why Denver resisted persistent preseason lobbying from Boykins' agent, Mark Termini, and why the Cavaliers -- who need a point guard, you might have heard -- passed on giving the 5-foot-5 dynamo a third shot at Gund Arena.

Earl clearly would have messed up those teams' King James lotto hopes.

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here. Also, send Stein a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.