JJ Redick and Duke Basketball Fansite

Orlando Magic shooting guard J.J. Redick expects to return next season, but he didn’t back off his request to be traded if he can’t find playing time.

Redick, the club’s 2006 first-round pick out of Duke who has played sparingly, requested in early January that the Magic deal him.

“I want to play. . .There were a lot of things that were said last summer and in the preseason, you know, and I thought I was going to play. It didn’t happen,” Redick said Wednesday after the team met for a final time this season.

“I’m certainly not going to sit there and hear the same stuff and think I’m going to get the same results. I’m going to put some of this on myself to get better, but there’s got to be an opportunity for me to get on the court.”

He has been playing behind starting shooting guard Mo Evans and his back-up, Keith Bogans. Redick’s trade request came shortly after the club acquired Evans from the Los Angeles Lakers in November.

“The thing I want to discuss is my future here and kind of what their plan is. As I said all along, I want to play here . . . . but I want to play,” Redick said.

“I can’t predict the future. I honestly think when training camp starts, I’ll be here —- that’s my gut feeling — but I don’t know.”

Magic General Manager Otis Smith still wants Redick to be patient. With Evans an unrestricted free agent and Bogans a restricted free agent (who is likely to return), Smith said Redick, “could easily go from the third guy to the first guy.

“We do think he’s a pretty good player, but he’s a backup 2 (shooting guard).”

Smith conceded he hears all the time from supporters of Redick, who remains a popular figure after his decorated career at Duke. “I don’t think that you reward playing time because I get an e-mail a day,” Smith said.

Redick has two more years on his contract and then the team can make him a qualifying offer.