Orlando Magic News for February 2nd: Stan Van Gundy is Your Coach of the Month

Congratulations to Stan Van Gundy are in order, as he won the Eastern Conference Coach of the Month award for January. The Magic went an East-best 10-3, including a road sweep of the West's division leaders, and had an average point differential of +10.2. Great stuff. Not that awards mean anything to Stan, but still.

The Puns Are Starting to Bore Me thinks Carlos Arroyo's decision to leave the Magic to join Maccabi Tel Aviv is just about the best thing to ever happen to Jameer Nelson.

Nelson is so good, in fact, that he's the NBA's 25th-highest producer of wins this season, according to The Wages of Wins. If you believe that, you'll also believe that Rashard Lewis is actually a below-average player whose Wins Per 48 of .091 puts him behind Tony Battie (.092) and Courtney Lee (.093) by the slimmest of margins.

When Nelson was named an All-Star, his agent also said he would participate in the Skills Challenge at All-Star Weekend. We now know who else will participate: Chicago's Derrick Rose, New Jersey's Devin Harris, and San Antonio's Tony Parker. If a GM were given a choice of any of those four point guards around whom to build a team, Nelson would be the last one picked. He relishes the underdog role, so I wouldn't be surprised if he won the darn thing.

John Hollinger of ESPN.com tries to figure out how the heck Rashard Lewis made the Eastern Conference All-Star Team when arguably more deserving players didn't.

[T]he irony would be that Orlando got three players even though only two coaches voted that way -- and those two only did so because they couldn't vote for their own players.

There's one to ponder.

On a lighter note, Hoop Heads North has video of Dwight Howard's fantastic impression of Magic coach Stan Van Gundy.

Not quite related to the Magic, but it's worth noting that the Detroit Pistons could miss the playoffs entirely this year, depending on how they fare in their next 14 games. What does it say about the Magic that if they were to meet the Pistons in the playoffs, they would probably be the underdog?