Abbott: Orlando's defensive coaching challenge
One of the only insightful articles the national media have written on the Magic trades.
"[...] the big question for the Magic: is it really possible to add Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu and most amazingly, Gilbert Arenas -- three mushy defenders, for sure -- to any team and remain good at defense?"
"The Magic made it to the Finals a couple of years ago with reputed poor defenders Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis (and a rookie, Courtney Lee) all starting. Statistics suggested Ray Allen was a horrible defender before he arrived in Boston and was an integral part of the most memorable NBA defense of the last decade. But coaches like Doc Rivers, Tom Thibodeau and Van Gundy have been able to make good defenses that include bad defenders."
over 1 year ago
kerem
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If van Gundy gets this lot playing top five in the league D
I’ll start referring to him as St. Stan.
Otis clearly has a lot of confidence in his coach…
SVG has already done this.
In 2008/2009, people said Hedo was too lazy to play defense. They said Lewis was too soft to cover other PFs. Courtney Lee was a rookie, and the Magic’s starting PG in the playoffs was Rafer Alston.
How is:
Alston, Lee, Hedo, Lewis, Howard
More to work with than:
Nelson, Richardson, Hedo, Bass, Howard
Just from a “building blocks” perspective (skillsets, size, experience), the current lineup has to be considered better than the group that made it to the finals.
by The BBQ Chicken Madness on Dec 21, 2010 9:19 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
THIS^
Just one mans opinion...
"We will pick 2 corners within the first 4 rounds" - 2009
"We will have 4 new linebackers via FA and the draft" - 2010
by MagicDolphin on Dec 22, 2010 2:30 AM EST up reply actions
Turk didn’t play much defense. Courtney Lee and Pietrus were used alongside him to guard the main opposition scorer. Hedo basically only had to cover a secondary option for the most part and a big reason Paul Pierce used to light up Orlando when Hedo was here is because the two guard defender had to take Allen, and so Hedo was left guarding Pierce, who naturally went nuts.
Lewis was a better team defender than Bass, though not a better individual defender. Lee is a vastly superior defender to Jason Richardson. Neither Nelson nor Alston are particularly relevant to the conversation as Rondo’s not much of a scoring threat and he gets his assists regardless.
by eltharion_doa on Dec 22, 2010 3:15 AM EST up reply actions
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