John Denton of the Florida Today reports: Orlando forward Grant Hill sees another surgery in his future.

Hill, said doctors believe they know why Hill's ankle has continued to bother him and another "minor" surgery would require him to rehabilitate the joint just three weeks.

"If surgery will be required it won't be the same procedure or the same length of time that there was before," Hill said before Orlando's game against New Orleans Tuesday. "It's more to just fix the structural issues than the fracture.

"This is a little simple procedure that may have been the cause to all of these problems. I use the analogy of a car being out of alignment and the tires keep wearing down and you keep changing them. Well, you've got to fix the alignment, not the tires over and over. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's the kind of what we're dealing with. That's a three-week (rehabilitation) procedure instead of a long-term thing."

Hill hopes to return for the playoffs, if the Magic qualify of course, but with each day that passes, the more and more the scenario becomes unlikely.

However, Hill's spirit is still high.

"My spirits are real good,'' Hill said. "I feel relieved to know -- or at least have a good idea -- as to why this thing has occurred. I've never really had that before."