Archive for May, 2011

The Dwight Howard saga took another turn Monday when Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel reported Dwight Howard’s preference is to remain with the Orlando Magic: “I’m not trying to run behind nobody like Shaq or be behind somebody else,” Howard said, referencing Shaquille O’Neal’s decision to leave the Magic for the Los Angeles Lakers via free agency following the 1995-96 season. “I want to start my own path and I want people to follow my path and not just follow somebody else’s path. I want to have my own path, and I want to start that here in Orlando. [...]

Philip Rossman-Reich of Orlando Magic Daily discusses the Magic and how they can’t rebuild through the draft: As it stands now, Orlando has just one pick — the 53rd pick — having traded the No. 23 pick to Phoenix in the Jason Richardson/Hedo Turkoglu deal (it was then traded to Houston in the Aaron Brooks/Goran Dragic trade). It means the Magic are not likely to be players on draft night. No one can be quite sure what Orlando will do with its pick. It is still far too early to tell. What they might get is just as questionable. As [...]

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  Last week, HtD took a look and an internal replacement for Jason Richardson should he decide not to return to Orlando, in current Magic backup shooting guard J.J. Redick. Today at HtD, we’ll take a look at another possible internal replacement – Gilbert Arenas. First, let’s take a look at Arenas’ numbers with the Magic last season: GP GS MPG PER PPG eFG% TS% 3pt% 49 2 21.8 8.6 8.0 40.6 44.4 27.5 FT% TRB% AST% TO% USG ORtg DRtg WS/48 74.4 6.5 23.8 19.3 23.7 88 102 .008 Arenas had far and away the worst season of his [...]

Zach McCann of the Orlando Sentinel offers up a primer on who may be available this offseason, which could include the likes of Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Monta Ellis and Andre Iguodala: With the playoffs still in full swing serious trade talks haven’t yet begun (be assured that the phones are buzzing, though), but it’s never too early to talk about what players might be available to the Magic this summer on the trading block. Now, this isn’t to say the Magic will necessarily have the desire or enough to acquire these players. The Magic don’t have many valuable trade [...]

After a disappointing end to the season for the Orlando Magic, it’s hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel given their current cap situation. Of course, we could see some big changes if there is a new CBA (like the departure of Gilbert Arenas with a potential amnesty clause). Since the Magic don’t really have any flexibility and will likely bring back a very similar team, we’ll take a look at what lineups worked the best for the Magic this season. Unit Min Off Def +/- Nelson-J.Richardson-Turkoglu-Bass-Howard 629.8 1.08 .98 +111 Nelson-J.Richardson-Turkoglu-Anderson-Howard 215.3 1.18 1.13 +30 [...]

Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post has an interesting post about Orlando’s offense last season. He discusses Orlando’s lack of a go-to perimeter scorer. Because the Magic don’t have a dynamic, one-on-one perimeter scorer–something Van Gundy lamented after a playoff loss to Atlanta–they must rely on crisp, clean ball movement and split-second decision-making to create those open shots. We see this reflected in the percentage of their offense generated in the pick-and-roll: 29.8 percent, the third-highest figure in the league. The problem here is that the Magic turned the ball over on 14.5 percent of their possessions this season, tied [...]

Zach McCann of the Orlando Sentinel wonders if the Magic would bring back Rashard Lewis: If the league institutes an amnesty clause in the new collective bargaining agreement, there’s a chance the Wizards would use it to waive Lewis and the remaining $30 million on his contract (he’s paid $21.1 million in 2011-12 and could be bought out for approximately $10 million before the 2012-13 season). Of course, the Wizards could use the clause to undo the mistake of Andray Blatche’s contract (5 years, $35.7 million agreed to before this season), but it’s unclear if the Wizards view that deal [...]

The NBA’s annual draft lottery will be held Tuesday night around 8:30 pm EST., just before game one of the Western Conference Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder gets underway. As you’ll remember, the Magic have won the lottery three different times behind the apparent luck of their current Senior Vice President, Pat Williams. Although the Magic had a couple of promising young former first round picks on the wings in Nick Anderson (who was Orlando’s firs ever draft pick – he went 11th overall in the 1989 draft) and Dennis Scott (who the Magic selected fourth [...]

Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel discusses how the situations of Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Deron Williams could be similar to that of Carmelo Anthony: Their lone options and exit strategies could be prospective trades/sign-and-trades, perhaps before next season’s deadline if their clubs want to receive compensation with their leverage at its peak. Paul floated a trial balloon last summer, telling the New Orleans Hornets that he was “open to being traded.” He eventually backed off when the Hornets made it clear they weren’t dealing him. Williams hasn’t committed to staying with the woeful New Jersey Nets after essentially [...]