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Orlando Magic center Glen Davis has emerged as a leader almost a year after being acquired by the team. When he first arrived, while he was loud and bold with his words, he had difficulty commanding respect. In the early stages of last season, he took a lots of shots that were out of his range, Ryan Anderson beat him out as starting power forward and was suspended two games last season after an argument former head coach Stan Van Gundy.
After Dwight Howard went down for the season, Davis emerged as a leader, averaging 19 points and 9.2 rebounds per game in the Magic's postseason series against the Indiana Pacers.
New head coach Jacque Vaughn has been impressed with how he has embraced the leadership role:
"It's a lot to ask of one individual, but the impressions that I got, he wanted to shoulder that responsibility," Vaughn said. "So I'm going to give it to him."
The Magic play the Memphis Grizzlies in their next preseason game on Wednesday night. The regular season begins for the Magic on Friday Nov. 2 against the Denver Nuggets.