Orlando Magic News for October 27th: A Marcin Gortat/Dwight Howard Lineup
by Evan Dunlap on Oct 27, 2008 1:37 PM EDT
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PrintBrian Schmitz has written a fantastic profile of Orlando Magic reserve center Marcin Gortat, already one of my favorite players. The article is full of fun information, including that Marcin's suits are hand-me-downs from Dwight Howard, but my favorite part is this one:
Gortat, 6 feet 11, 245 pounds, is expected to be in the rotation when the season begins Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks.
"Definitely, I feel good I get this playing time. The coach trusts me. Hopefully, I'll get some playing time the regular season," he said. "I'm happy Coach gave me opportunity as a four-man [in the exhibition season]. . . . the chance to be on the floor the same time with Dwight [Howard]. I think we can both be a danger."
The possibility of seeing Dwight and Marcin on the floor together, perhaps with Rashard Lewis at small forward, delights me. Being able to play two young, athletic bigs at the same time is a luxury the Magic haven't had since 2006/2007, when they could pair Howard with Darko Milicic. But Brian Hill was reluctant to do that, preferring instead to play Howard with Tony Battie, so we never got a chance to see how Dwight would play with another banger flanking him. Now we will. Awesome.
Schmitz has his predictions for this season, which include a 53-29 record overall and a 30-11 home record.
John Denton takes a stab at naming the 20 most significant moments in Orlando Magic history, coinciding with the team's 20th anniversary season.
Britt Robson of The Rake puts the Magic third in the Eastern Conference and first in the Southeast Division and says that Orlando won't have to worry about Howard's struggles in the Olympics translating to the NBA season.
Charley Rosen, in the same vein, says Orlando is the second-most likely team in the East to upset the Boston Celtics' hope for a second consecutive NBA Finals appearance; he rates Cleveland first. He also says Orlando's defense is "underwhelming," which is only partially true. The Magic don't force a lot of turnovers, but that doesn't make them poor defensively. (ht: PistonsNationBlog)
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Gortat and Dwight on the floor together? Crazy, but makes sense. Neither one of them are stiffs so they could still maintain a fairly quick tempo. I’d love to see it.
And I agree, Gortat is also one of my favorite players on this team. I’m really happy to see his development pay off. He went from a player that was tossed to Orlando on draft day to a legit backup center. When I heard we got a Polish goalie late in the second round I never figured he’d actually make the team. Crazy
That John Denton list of the twenty most important moments actually made me a little emotional. I’m glad he included the Orlando/San Antonio game from a couple of years ago. I was actually supposed to be at that game, sort of. I was told by this chick in class that her parents were looking to sell there tix to that game, being that I was in Miami it was pretty random. I was all set to buy them but her parents gave them away before she returned from class. I was very bummed about it but went to a bar to see the game instead.
I remember sitting there by myself feeling miserable that we were about to lose by 20+ points. The Brian Hill decided to get the stick out of his ass and put in some abnormal lineups (Jameer and Arroyo played together in the fourth). Slowly but surely we climbed back but I never believed we’d actually win until the end. When Dwight threw it down I was the only one at the bar watching and I went ballistic. People were looking at me like I was crazy. I was so happy I bought a round of drinks for a bunch of strangers sitting around me. I eventually celebrated like we had won the freaken championship. Great moment.
Damn, Wednesday is too far away.
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