Orlando Magic News for January 26th: Dwight Howard's Offense, Jameer Nelson's Assessment, and David Berri's Midpoint Evaluations

by Evan Dunlap on Jan 26, 2010 7:22 PM EST in News

Three Thoughts after Magic's 99-94 loss to the Grizzlies
Philip Rossman-Reich of Orlando Magic Daily gives us his 3 impressions after the Magic's loss to the Grizzlies last night. Of particular note is how Dwight Howard has played since a loss at Portland in which rookies Dante Cunningham and Jeff Pendergraph managed to limit his offensive contributions.

Since that game he is averaging 22.4 points per game, shooting 59.3 percent from the floor, receiving 11.8 shots per game and shooting a scorching (for him) 73.7 percent on free throws.

That is a very good stretch offensively for Dwight. The kind of offense I think fans, pundits, coaches, Howard himself and everyone else was expecting from him this season.
The Train Isn't Off The Tracks in Orlando
Magic point guard and team co-captain Jameer Nelson discusses his team's disappointing season with Alex Kennedy.
Every Team and Player at the Midpoint of the 2009-10 Season
Professor David Berri, the creator of the Wages of Wins metric, posts a detailed chart explaining how each team and player has fared in the first half of the season. Curiously, by Berri's calculations, Matt Barnes has produced more for Orlando this season than Rashard Lewis, Vince Carter, and Nelson combined. In fact, Brandon Bass is the only Magic player less productive than Lewis.

The next five days will determine if Stan Van Gundy coaches in the NBA All-Star Game
Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel explains how Magic coach Stan Van Gundy could still wind up coaching the Eastern Conference All-Stars next month.
The Magic faced the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night at FedEx Forum.
Eddy clipped Brian Schmitz's latest Magic notebook earlier, but I'd like to call your attention to a different part of it.

Tony Dutt, agent for Lewis and Brandon Bass, was in Charlotte to attend the Magic's game against the Bobcats. Dutt is just as frustrated as Bass over Bass' lack of playing time. GM Otis Smith has said he doesn't plan on trading Bass, who had played in 27 games as of Monday.
NBA Awards Watch
In a guest appearance at ESPN.com, Howard, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, lists his top 5 candidates to win the award this year.

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Is Berri taking the 10 game suspension into account though?

by fwedo on Jan 26, 2010 9:58 PM EST reply actions 1 recs

Good catch.

It is not up to Berri to take it into account, he just gives a chart. Ben didn’t mention that Lewis is only in front of Bass in absolute Wins Produced.

Unfortunately, Lewis is LAST in Wins Produced per 48 minutes. Which is made even more horrible considering he plays the third most minutes on the team.

by thermodynamic on Jan 27, 2010 2:12 PM EST up reply actions

Right, just look at Rashard's per minute statistics.

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 Jan 27, 2010 4:15 PM EST up reply actions

Ohhh mansz. thanks

by fwedo on Jan 27, 2010 6:02 PM EST up reply actions

Can we get D12's attempts in the 15-18 range?

FEED THE BEAST!!!
Twitter Account

by Wmillion on Jan 26, 2010 10:54 PM EST reply actions

I don't know if that's possible with the roster as currently constructed.

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 Jan 27, 2010 4:14 PM EST up reply actions

re: David Berri - One more metric saying Anderson > Lewis

How long can Stan ignore the difference between Ryan Anderson and Rashard Lewis’ numbers?

Speaking yesterday of New Orleans’ lineups, Wayne Winston closed his analysis with the remark

Many of the listed lineups play poorly and deserve fewer minutes.

The deserve fewer minutes jumped out at me. In most sports, greater production gets you playing time. But it seems in the NBA, the possibility of returning to your highest reputed performance means more than actual production. Cf. Carter, Lewis, Iverson This shows up, too, in the draft; where “upside” carries more weight than accomplishment.

Sure, I get Carter over JJ, but I’m increasingly puzzled by Lewis over Anderson. Does the size of one’s contract mean that a team has to extract a certain amount of play time in the first unit?

I guess Lewis-to-the-bench has the possibility of being such a rhythm and locker room issue that it is probably not worth it this season.

"I’ll go into practice and strangle every single one of them." Kobe's plan to get his teammates engaged after they lost the season series to the Cavs. Leadership.

by magicfaninTN on Jan 27, 2010 11:51 AM EST reply actions

I believe the thinking is that it's the playoffs that matter.

And in the playoffs, you want your best players playing your best. Currently Lewis may not be a better player than Ryan, but if both were playing at their best ability, Lewis is the clear-cut better player. Some people may debate the last point (I’m not completely decided myself), but it makes sense, then, to start Rashard and play him as much as possible in the hope that he will become that better player by playoff time.

by thermodynamic on Jan 27, 2010 2:30 PM EST up reply actions