Word of the Day: Patience
patience (n.) - tolerant and even-tempered perseverance
After the Orlando Magic's disheartening loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder last night, I'm sure people are doing their best Vince Lombardi impression and asking themselves, "what the hell is going on out here?" For all the talk about how impressive the Magic's offense has been in the regular season, so far, the defense hasn't been up to snuff. Head coach Stan Van Gundy made that explicitly clear after the Thunder game.
The fact of the matter is that it's hard to judge Orlando's body of work defensively without a full complement of players available. The Magic have been shorthanded since the year began (Rashard Lewis' suspension) and the players understand that, but the problem has been exacerbated lately with injuries (Ryan Anderson, Vince Carter) and sicknesses (Matt Barnes, Mickael Pietrus). It's clear that one needs to exhibit patience because the defense is a work in progress.
What's making things difficult, aside from individuals being unavailable to play, is the fact Orlando hasn't had much practice time on the court to work out the kinks. Check the Magic schedule - the team hasn't had more than a day off between games since the regular season began. With so many new players trying to learn defensive schemes on the fly, it's been admittedly painful to watch Orlando play on that side of the floor sometimes. The important thing is that the Magic have shown flashes of good to excellent defense, varying by degree, on the court so the potential is there. It's a matter of consistency and execution.
0 recs |
2 comments
Comments
This piece reminds me to think about if SVG has seen flashes of good defense that he’s looking for so far this season? And if he labels inconsistent minutes and rotations as a big factor so far in having a bad defense?
Although.. There should be no reasons at all to not be in top 10 defensive efficiency when Dwight is still anchoring it as good as ever.
by derekk on Nov 9, 2009 5:12 PM EST via mobile reply actions 0 recs
Practice Time
The problem is the way the NBA schedule is set up you hardly ever get extended practice time. Orlando has been hurt and that has limited what they can do in practice, but the Magic don’t get a lot of time between games (they have a four-day break after the Christmas showdown with Boston and two two-day breaks — one this weekend and one before the Thanksgiving back-to-back). It is going to be tough and Orlando is going to have to work out these kinks on the fly.
Philip,
The Curse of the Big Aristotle
http://bigaristotle.blogspot.com/
by philrsquared on Nov 10, 2009 6:00 PM EST reply actions 0 recs





















