For the last few months, we at OPP have been proud to have Jon Nichols aboard. His regular stat-driven posts provided plenty of insight into this year's Orlando Magic. He's among the best and the brightest analytical minds we have in the blogosphere.

Thing is, we're hardly the only people to notice his talent. He wrote for Hardwood Paroxysm before joining us (which he continued into earlier this week), and occasionally contributes to the New York Times' NBA blog. Now, another, larger entity has swooped in to claim him as its own. Last night, Jon notified us via email that an irresistible opportunity presented itself and he had to stop writing for us, effective immediately, to seize that opportunity. Unfortunately, I can't say more than that. Jon used vague language in his email, and asked me to be vague in this post in order to protect this new endeavor of his. So, well, there you go.

Really, I'd just like to take this time to thank Jon for his hard work here, and wish him well as he continues his career. Wherever it is. I hope you'll do the same in the comments.

Thanks, Jon. It's been real.