Orlando Magic News & Notes: Dwight’s Offensive Troubles

Gary Dineen/NBAE/Getty Images

Yesterday, HTD linked Josh Robbins story saying that NBA defenses have caught up to Dwight Howard’s limited offensive game. You can find that story here.

Today, Robbins added to his story with comments about how teams defend Howard from various players and coaches.

“The guys that have been able to neutralize him can do one of two things. In Boston’s case, they’re big and physical and they play under him and they try to root him off his sweet spot, which is in the paint. The other thing is if you’re long and quick like [ Joakim] Noah from Chicago, you can try to do that, but when he gets around, you can use your size and your speed to try to front him.” —Indiana Pacers coach Jim O’Brien

Read those quotes here - it’s real interesting stuff.

John Denton reiterates what Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy has been saying – Orlando’s big four of Jameer Nelson, Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis and Dwight Howard need to get on the same page. He included some new comments

“Too much time is spent, me included, of why it isn’t working instead of just doing what it takes to make this thing work,’’ Van Gundy said Saturday after the Magic’s afternoon workout at the Lakers’ practice facility.  “It starts with playing harder all of the time.”

“I just talked to them and told them that we’ve gone through it all about lineups, rotations and combinations, but the bottom line is that it’s going to come down to those four (All-Stars),’’ the coach continued. “They’ve got to get it better and play with more energy. Play together and play better, nothing specific. Quit with all of the excuses and the analysis and just make it work.’’

You can read that story here.

As first reported yesterday, General Manager Otis Smith continues to give Gilbert Arenas advice.

Smith and Arenas go back to their days at Golden State in the early 2000s. Smith worked in the Warriors’ front office as executive director of basketball operations and Arenas was the club’s second-round pick.

Smith has been a mentor ever since the two moved on to other teams.

“First thing I told him was to end his Twitter account. Gil has to stop talking to everyone about everything,” Smith said. “I told him to only talk to people he trusts and stop listening to people who aren’t going to help him.

“I hope eventually he gets everything right for himself.”

You can read that and other Magic notes here.

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