Orlando Magic News & Notes

The Orlando Magic are making 3-pointers cool again. Just as Matt Humphrey (and Jonathan Adams).

The Magic successfully blended Dwight Howard in the post with potent 3-point shooters. Of all the Magic’s shots last season, 33.5 percent were 3-pointers, eclipsing the record of 33.1 percent set by the 2002-3 Boston Celtics. …

In some ways, the Magic can be viewed as an evolved version of the successful Houston teams of the mid-1990s. The Rockets flanked Hakeem Olajuwon in the middle with shooters like Clyde Drexler, Robert Horry and Sam Cassell. The Magic broadened the approach, a reflection of the league over all.

In the place of the gritty power forwards like Karl Malone and Charles Barkley, the N.B.A. now has the Magic’s Rashard Lewis, Dallas’s Dirk Nowitzki and the Knicks’ Al Harrington, chameleons who can post up, take defenders off the dribble and shoot from the perimeter. And the league freed offensive players from defensive hand checks, allowing smaller players to navigate the lane. Coaches use the 3-pointer to make the court longer and stretch defenses. Perimeter threats spot up while defenses break down, rotate and scramble.

Click here to read the full story.

Tania Ganguli says Stan Van Gundy does not regret his comments about the officiating.
The NBA fined Van Gundy and the Magic $35,000 each on Friday “for publicly criticizing game officials.”

“What I said was accurate, reasoned and positive,” Van Gundy said. “I thought it was positive about both groups. I don’t regret anything I said.

“You work under the auspices of David Stern. He decides what you can talk about and what you can’t talk about. I talked about a subject I’m not supposed to talk about and he hit us hard.”

Here’s the full story.

Brian Schmitz has a nice piece about Magic assistant Coach Brendan Malone. You can find that here.

Nets Daily takes a look at the other offers the Nets received for Vince Carter, including Orlando’s first offer.

My preview of Orlando’s backcourt should be up within the next two days. That will be followed by previews of Orlando’s Forwards and Centers.

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger. Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)