Archive for December, 2010

Here is the official word from the Orlando Magic: Magic Players Spend the Day “Decking the Halls” of Central Florida On Wednesday, December 22, Orlando Magic players Dwight Howard, Jameer Nelson, J.J. Redick, Ryan Anderson and Brandon Bass “decked the halls” of Central Florida providing youth and families with gift cards for shopping sprees, coats, toys and holiday cheer. The day began with Howard distributing gift cards to 100 kids from Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Florida for a holiday shopping spree with the All-Star center at Toys “R” Us. Howard then provided 100 children from Community Concept Services, [...]

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger, co-host of CB Sports Radio from 5-7 pm week days (1420sports.com) and ESPN 1080′s Magic Insider (http://espn1080.com). Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter to follow him daily. You can download the HTD app here).

The Magic experienced another loss Tuesday night, falling to the streaking Dallas Mavericks by a score of 105-99.  Despite the 4th consecutive loss (8 out of last 9), this one somehow felt different.  The Magic struggled at points of the game on both offense and defense, yet they never gave up.  They had multiple chances throughout the game to fold and wilt away, but the team overcame another poor shooting night to make it a competitive game down to the last possession. The team was often out of place on both offense and defense and that is to be expected [...]

The Orlando Magic will try to get back on the right track when they play host to the Dallas Mavericks Tuesday night. It will be the second game for Gilbert Arenas, Hedo Turkoglu and Jason Richardson but they still won’t have had time to even have a real practice, having played in Atlanta the night before. Still, you’ d expect some of the nerves to be gone in game 2. It won’t be easy for the Magic to get a win. The Mavericks are 22-5 and ended Miami’s 12-game winning streak behind Dirk Nowitzki’s 26 points with a 98-96 victory [...]

After a 1-3 west coast road trip that left them reeling and on the outside looking in terms of being a championship contender, the Magic shook up their roster. Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickael Pietrus, a first round pick and cash considerations were shipped to the Phoenix Suns. The Magic received Jason Richardson, Earl Clark and welcomed back former Magic wing Hedo Turkoglu in return.  They also sent Rashard Lewis to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Gilbert Arenas. It’s obvious the newly acquired players are going to have a profound impact, but how are they going to affect the [...]

The Orlando Magic didn’t get off to the start they wanted to with their brand new team, falling to the Hawks in Atlanta 91-81. With Hedo Turkoglu and Jason Richardson in the starting lineup and Gilbert Arenas the first one off the bench, the Magic offense continued to struggle, posting an effective field goal percentage of just 38.0%. The Magic showed flashes of what their new squad could do. They erased an 11-point Hawks lead, tying the game at 55 with 4:39 to play but then allowed the Hawks to go on a 13-3 run and push the lead back [...]

We all get the chance to see how Orlando’s new acquisitions will perform when the Orlando Magic travel to Atlanta to take on the Hawks Monday night. On Saturday, Orlando acquired Gilbert Arenas from the Washington Wizards and Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu, and Earl Clark from the Phoenix Suns. They sent Rashard Lewis to the Wizards in exchange for Arenas while sending Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, Mickael Pietrus, a first round pick and cash considerations to the Suns. After pretty good starts, both teams are struggling. The Hawks have lost three of their last four games and after a 6-0 [...]

After letting the recent major trades sink in for a few days, I’m finally ready to offer some basic analysis of the 2010-2011 Orlando Magic, Squad 2.0. It’s tough to offer any definitive examination of the trades at this point, mostly because nobody has taken the court yet, so I tried to take a brief position by position look at the potential impacts. The Trade(s) Orlando: Receives Gilbert Arenas, Guard Washington: Receives Rashard Lewis, Forward Orlando: Receives Jason Richardson, Guard – Hedo Turkoglu, Forward – Earl Clark, Forward Phoenix: Receives Vince Carter, Guard – Mickael Pietrus, Guard/Forward – Marcin Gortat, [...]

The Magic, who are in need of a backup Center after dealing Marcin Gortat to the Phoenix Suns, have inquired about New York Knicks Center Ronny Turiaf. They are also interested in bringing back current Philadelphia 76ers big man Tony Battie. Battie spent part of both his pregame and postgame in Orlando’s locker room when the Magic took on the 76ers Saturday night. Tim Povtak of NBA Fanhouse has the story. The Orlando Magic have asked about the availability of both New York’s Ronny Turiaf and Philadelphia’s Tony Battie, hoping to fill quickly their new void at backup center behind [...]

(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger, co-host of CB Sports Radio from 5-7 pm week days (1420sports.com) and ESPN 1080′s Magic Insider (http://espn1080.com). Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter to follow him daily. You can download the HTD app here).