Orlando Magic News for December 28th: A Look Back at an Era; A Closer Look at Ryan Anderson and Vince Carter
by erivera7 on Dec 28, 2009 6:48 PM EST
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Moment of the Decade: Christmas Gift of Bron and T-Mac
Bethlehem Shoals of The Baseline writes an excellent article, in which he looks back at Christmas Day in 2003 when former Orlando Magic player Tracy McGrady and LeBron James went toe-to-toe in a game that marked the end and beginning of two eras.In December of 2003, though, T-Mac was still T-Mac, as potent and lithe a scorer as I've ever seen. He was so relentless and creative with the ball, so varied in his attack, that the world slept on his passing, rebounding and all-around floor game. Put simply, McGrady was a monster, LeBron was the Baby Beast tromping toward the shores of Tokyo. The two met on that fateful day. At the time, it seemed like the league was heading for its greenest pastures in years. The two stars spurred each other on, with McGrady's positively unreal 41 points, 8 rebounds, and 11 assists—plus five threes—setting the standard. Orlando took the game in OT, 113-110. But James also made a major leap forward, hitting four threes as part of his 36 points. Okay, so he also had 8 turnovers, and his six boards and two assists weren't exactly stat-stuffing. But you had to be there. LeBron went toe-to-toe with all that McGrady was and more than held his own. [...]
That Christmas Day, T-Mac and Bron were two ships passing in the night. I didn't realize it then, but T-Mac would soon be greatly diminished, while LeBron would ascend to heights that make us all nauseous. For a few hours, though, they crossed paths: McGrady at his finest vintage, LeBron for the first time displaying the "I can do anything" game that's made him the cosmic force he is today. It was just a few hours. But oh, how it has haunted me, haunted me ever since. -
Fox Sports Florida
Be sure to check out Fox Sports Florida's inside look at how Ryan Anderson's career with the Magic has been progressing since his arrival during the summer. -
Denton: Magic's Carter Happy, But Hungry
John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com states how Vince Carter is happy he is back in the state of Florida but is hungry to win a championship.Carter knows that the Magic traded for him with one thing in mind: Winning a championship. And playing on a team where there are so many weapons and one that has a legitimate chance to contend for a title seems to have re-energized him.
``The goal to win it all is greater now than it ever has been for me,’’ said Carter, who is a month shy of his 33rd birthday. ``I know what I’m playing for now and there’s no confusion. Earlier, I’d talk about (winning a championship), but I just had to hope that the team was good enough. But this situation now with the Magic, we all know that (winning a title) is a very possible reality. None of the outside stuff doesn’t bother me or distract me.’’ -
The brutal early-season L
Kevin Arnovitz of TrueHoop wonders how much a team can take away from a single regular season loss early in the year, like Orlando.No, because pre-New Years basketball is about discovery. If I'm Stan Van Gundy (and can you imagine being Stan Van Gundy for a day? If that were a silent auction item, I'd be hovering over that sign-in sheet until last call, boxing out all comers, money no object), I want to understand and diagnose why Boston's big men give Dwight Howard the yips. Better to acquire that information now rather than later. I get four months to employ my coaching prowess to make an adjustment to the offensive scheme. How do we get Dwight deeper position and buy a little more space and a little more time to go to work on the block?
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What to eat before a game or practice?
Want to know what an athlete should eat before a game or practice? Click through to find out. - Mickael Pietrus — the other starter
UPDATE (from Ben): Tania Ganguli got Van Gundy's take on Mickael Pietrus, the only Magic starter never to appear in an All-Star game.
"I still think his size and athleticism gives him the best chance to go out against the best players in this league and make it hard for them defensively," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "Plus he can really shoot the ball. I think he’s a huge key for us. His energy is up and down as a result he’s up and down. When he’s playing well I think he makes us significantly better."
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Kevin Arnovitz
Is completely right. Stan has to find a way to get D12 in position to score. I don’t care if he turns the ball over or is having an off night, feed the beast. He needs to shoot the ball like a superstar-What other superstar stops shooting the ball after 7 attempts?
FEED THE BEAST!!
"No matter where you go, you are what you are playa"-Jay Z
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by Wmillion on Dec 28, 2009 11:01 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
ya but dwight is very limited on offense. and perkins has his #.so does sheed.
if dwight were to get 30 touchs i can see him having large amounts of turnovers against teams like la and boston.
by magicman775 on Dec 28, 2009 11:42 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
i am all about D12 learning on the job
He has said it over and over again that he practiced new moves. He needs the ball to learn what works and doesn’t work… is the guy even averaging double digit attempts? What other superstar avgs as many atts. As Dwight? The guy shots 60+ % from the field. This isn’t rocket science.
"No matter where you go, you are what you are playa"-Jay Z
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by Wmillion on Dec 29, 2009 2:12 AM EST via mobile up reply actions 0 recs
Efficiency doesn't necessarily hold steady when usage increases
He’s shooting a high percentage because he takes easy looks. If he gets more touches, he’s not liable to keep shooting a high percentage.
But I do think he needs to be more involved, especially in the pick-and-roll. Don’t expect him to maintain that high shooting if he gets 4 or 5 more shots per game, though.
by Ben Q Rock on Dec 29, 2009 2:37 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
im cool with that.
"No matter where you go, you are what you are playa"-Jay Z
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by Wmillion on Dec 29, 2009 2:56 AM EST via mobile up reply actions 0 recs
Remember he IS getting a lot of looks.
Try adding his FT attempts to his FG attempts — those are possessions that ended with him. (Usually, they’re possessions that ended with him scoring.)
It's a good thing Larry Bird's initials weren't MJ. '80s basketball was confusing enough -- Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Marles Jarkley, Mominique Jilkins... Makeem Jolajuwon...
by 3.3seconds on Dec 29, 2009 2:58 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Howard averages 13.6 shooting possessions per game, down from 17.1 last year and 16.7 the year before.
Carter’s averaging 18.4 shooting possessions this year, FWIW.
by Ben Q Rock on Dec 29, 2009 4:17 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Fair enough.
And I do think Carter is getting far too many of our possessions. But if that gets resolved, I don’t know that we have to make a specific effort to get MORE possessions for Dwight — I feel like Dwight’s reduced minutes early this year + Carter getting the ball all the time does a pretty good job of explaining the difference.
It's a good thing Larry Bird's initials weren't MJ. '80s basketball was confusing enough -- Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Marles Jarkley, Mominique Jilkins... Makeem Jolajuwon...
by 3.3seconds on Dec 29, 2009 3:05 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
It's clear that Vince has had a negative effect on Dwight, in that regard.
I write for Orlando Pinstriped Post and have a Twitter account.
"The second unit is kind of crazy because the second unit is only white guys." - Marcin Gortat
by erivera7 on Dec 29, 2009 4:01 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I dunno about Perk having Howard's number
I’ve heard it a lot, didn’t see it in the post-season last year and checked the stats and didn’t find it there either. Howard vs Celtics last season in the playoffs = 16.4 PPG, 55% FG, 54% FT, 1.4 Ast, 2.7 TO & 2.7 BPG. Dwight’s PPG was down 4.2 but he shot 4.2 less FTA & shot 5.4% below his FT average. FTA could be credited to Perkins forcing D12 into more difficult shots but shooting 5.4% less than his average can’t be credited to Perkins. In the end D12 only shot 2.2% less from FG than his regular season avg.
Perkins avg 10.4 PPG, 52% FG, 11.6 RPG, 1.6 Ast, 2.1 TO, 2.3 BPG. Perkins had a very good series but Dwight pwned him soundly.
I would like to see Dwight continue to improve his FT & I would like to see a pump fake in the low post. When he’s in the paint and he goes up for a hook there are 2-3 bodies trying to block his shot. Throw the pump and jump into a body. More FT’s for Dwight and less playing time for opposing bigs.
Perk plays Dwight physical but in the most recent loss and last season’s playoff series one of the biggest issues for the Magic is/was putting a body on Rondo. A PG cannot average 10.1 RPG in today’s NBA. It was gut-wrenching to watch Rondo pull double-digit boards in 4 of the 7 games including a 14 & 16 rebound game. It’s no secret that Rondo is going to try and get every Celtic’s miss so I’m shocked the Magic know what’s coming yet still fail to stop it.
by Warlando on Dec 29, 2009 8:12 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Dwight's biggest issue on offense that I've seen is that he almost always brings the ball down before making a move.
This leads to the ball getting stripped way more often than it should. I don’t know what Ewing is teaching him, but keeping the ball up is pretty fundamental. As far as his FT% goes, I think it’s mostly in his head, because he’s had games where he’s shot very well from the line.
Another problem, and this is probably partly Ewing’s fault, is he has no alternate moves when he gets pushed outside his comfort zone. No fade away, no drop step, nada.
Loco por volver a verte, estoy aqui sentado y solito.
Mi corazon ya no responde, porque ya no estoy contigo.
by Diosnomeama on Dec 29, 2009 12:28 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Aside from the Finals, Howard had his worst performance in the playoffs last year against the Celtics.
And that’s mostly because of Kendrick Perkins, who’s one of the few players in the NBA that can effectively guard Dwight one-on-one. Don’t undercut Kendrick’s defensive ability because that wouldn’t be fair.
I write for Orlando Pinstriped Post and have a Twitter account.
"The second unit is kind of crazy because the second unit is only white guys." - Marcin Gortat
by erivera7 on Dec 29, 2009 4:00 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I feel like if his "worst performance" is 17 points and 16.6 rebounds a game, we're probably okay.
My main concern with the Celtics wouldn’t be Dwight. We can survive on 17 PPG from Dwight. (I’m not sure we can survive on 5 points from Dwight.)
My main concern is, where’s the shooting? We need to make the threes — we did that in November against Boston, and won. We shot 5-26 beyond the arc on Christmas, and lost. Well — if we had shot even 35% (9-26), we would’ve won.
And honestly, I feel pretty good about that. We shot 45% on threes in November, so I think it’s pretty clear it’s not like the Celtics have some kind of foolproof scheme to prevent the Magic from making their threes. We just had bad luck. If we can get Dwight some offense, cool. If not,, well, let’s get out there, make the open threes, and see if the Celtics can score more than 86 points against us.
It's a good thing Larry Bird's initials weren't MJ. '80s basketball was confusing enough -- Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Marles Jarkley, Mominique Jilkins... Makeem Jolajuwon...
by 3.3seconds on Dec 29, 2009 4:59 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
The Magic got open looks, the shots didn't fall.
It happens. In another game, the shots will fall and Orlando will have a better chance to win.
I write for Orlando Pinstriped Post and have a Twitter account.
"The second unit is kind of crazy because the second unit is only white guys." - Marcin Gortat
by erivera7 on Dec 29, 2009 5:23 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Exactly.
That’s why I’m not panicking — well, the fact that it’s only one game. But also the fact that everything went right for the Celtics… the Celtics had the chance to play their exact style of ball for two games… and the teams came out 1-1.
Wjhich doesn’t mean that the Magic wouldn’t be better off figuring out how to make the style and tempo of the game more in their favor. But by rights, a game with 80 or so points on either side should completely favor the Celtics, and it really hasn’t favored either team so far.
It's a good thing Larry Bird's initials weren't MJ. '80s basketball was confusing enough -- Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Marles Jarkley, Mominique Jilkins... Makeem Jolajuwon...
by 3.3seconds on Dec 29, 2009 5:48 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I do think that the Magic need to figure out how to consistently score on the Celtics.
BUT Orlando has already beaten Boston at full strength on the road.
I write for Orlando Pinstriped Post and have a Twitter account.
"The second unit is kind of crazy because the second unit is only white guys." - Marcin Gortat
by erivera7 on Dec 29, 2009 10:47 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I said this elsewhere...
…but I’ll say it here. If the Magic need to figure out how to consistently score on the Celtics, it’s just as imperative for the Celtics to figure out how to consistently score on the Magic.
(And honestly, I thought the three-point shooting was the way the Magic were going to score on the Celtics. 10-22 in November, 38.1% in the playoff series last year. Celtics have keyed in VIOLENTLY on Howard… there are open shots on the perimeter. In the long run, those shots will fall… Magic just need to keep taking them.)
It's a good thing Larry Bird's initials weren't MJ. '80s basketball was confusing enough -- Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Marles Jarkley, Mominique Jilkins... Makeem Jolajuwon...
by 3.3seconds on Dec 30, 2009 3:19 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
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