Off-Day Open Thread: Should the Orlando Magic Curb Their Complaining to Referees?

So, which players tend to collect technical fouls? Generally big men and better players. Note there are no Matt Barnes or other “enforcers” on the list. The Magic question refs most often on Dwight.

As has been pointed out before, Brians job is to produce copy and create interest. The say and publicity is good publicity, and the article will stir up fans, so he has done his job. But realistically, if Schmitz wants to worry about a team, he should focus on the Celtics.
 
                                 
        Player Team Technicals
      howard,dwight Orl 17
      wallace,rasheed Bos 16
      perkins,kendrick Bos 15
      jackson,stephen cha 13
      bryant,kobe LAL 12
      anthony,carmelo Den 11
      stoudemire,amare Pho 11
      hamilton,richard Det 10
      smith,josh Atl 10
      kaman,chris LAC 10

Note: does not reflect resended techs

I mean B. Schmitz is probably the most hated person on here. He does nothing to show any type of support for the Magic without slipping in a couple of back handed comments in also…I know his job description has already been eloquently described by BDL already but it pains me to log in and see that an Off Day Thread has been hijacked by another one of Brian Schmitz articles….gimme a legit one, Ben Q. please. The guy goes at Dwight Howard and calls him a lost cause?? For what doing the same thing Lebron and Kobe do?

 I watched the entire game and if Matt would had did nothing but put his hands up after Thabeet pushed him…I would have been pissed. Does Schmitz remember that they threw beer on us after the S.A. game but I see no articles from him chastising them..Just dont get it….but maybe I never will… let me stop ranting…

Just the end of the season, I would complain if I was Dwight….He has been getting absolutely mauled out there….

Period.

The most notorious crybabies of the last decade were the Spurs and Pistons. That’s 5 Finals appearances, 4 titles. The Celtics cry, Kobe racks up T’s, and they all win. That foul on Barnes was a BS call, and Dwight is the #1 target for the refs every game. As long as we keep winning, this “cause for concern” is irrelevant. Go Magic!

The only big stars who don’t get called for Ts are the ones like Wade, Durant and LeBron who get to he line ten times a game and get all the calls – anyone who’s getting whacked and not getting calls gets frustrated and chippy. And, of course, on those days where the annoited aren’t getting calls, they get chippy too – Durant spent half the game whining at the refs a week or so a go when he wasn’t getting his usual step-across-the-defeender-and-draw-the-foul calls.

I’ve noticed Dwight has started bottling his frustration a bit more since he got close to a suspension…against the Nuggets has almost burst the ball after getting called for one foul.

why bother listening to him if he complains ALL THE TIME. Just give him a T and shut him up (I would do it). There’s a reason why he’s considered a great talent but soft (actually another word was used) by some (can’t say many, haven’t talked to many) in the league. He can throw elbows but can’t take them. Now I love Dwight but a true fan will see the positives but most important call out the negatives and Dwight may not be a “lost cause” but he definitely looks like a “punk” (wasn’t the word used either but close) complaining about almost EVERY CALL. Smile, clap your hands and run the other way sometime so when you do say something it has some weight.

But it’s important that he stays “one step away.” He has use just enough self control to not pick up his 7th tech until the elimination game in the finals. The rest of the regular season? He should go nuts. It gets everybody fired up. It makes the team play with more focus and intensity. That’s what they will have to have in the last two legs of the race.

Absolutely. 100%. He should’ve gotten his 16th tech by now. The refs are really doing him a solid, and I don’t know why. He’s become the biggest baby in the NBA. At some point you have to own up to your mistakes. Dwight never does. Even if he knows he fouled the guy, if he knows he traveled… he’ll throw a few complaints in there for good measure. He never raises his hand after a whistle. Never says “my bad, guys.” In his mind, he can do no wrong. He wears down the referees whining about obvious calls. Eventually, there will be a marginal call, one that should be argued, and Dwight will go over the line and pick up the T.

If he was going to “figure it out,” we would have seen signs by now. Even with 15 techs, he hasn’t changed his behavior.

The Lakers complain more than any team in the NBA…look at last night’s game and post game comments by Phil Jackson. They’ve won NBA titles. Schmitz needs to check himself, per usual.

You can’t prove that refs call more fouls on Dwight because of the chirping. No way to prove it. Sure, Dwight has the most fouls this season. But he is also defending (and likely, repeating) DPOY, so it is obvious that he’s going to get some contact in the paint. And, he’s only 5 to 6 fouls ahead of the 2nd through 5th place players….all centers. So without a lot more digging into game replays and watching for trends in how the refs call Dwight vis-a-vis his complaining, we can’t correlate whining to foul trouble.

All NBA players whine and gripe at the refs. Dwight happens to be especially demonstrative about it (Yes, he’s probably top 5 in whining…one more category where he and LeBron can lead the league…maybe Dwight’s better at defensive whining and LeBron is better at offensive whining).

Regarding the technical fouls, Dwight hasn’t been suspended for a game (let alone a key game) this season, right? Can’t remember if he’s been tossed on a double tech or not. But at this point, we already have the playoff spot locked up. No way we slide enough to drop out of the #2 seed. So, he’s kept himself under the tech limit when it has counted.

Now if somebody has the time, you could look for a number of stats:

o – times Dwight gets T’d up in a game after getting in 1st quarter foul trouble (i.e. does sitting make him whiny?)
o – times Dwight gets T’d up in a close game so that the tech free throws turned the momentum of the game.
o – times Dwight gets T’d up and either the Magic or the opponent follow it with a scoring run (i.e. does the fire get the Magic going like last nights encounter with the Griz? or does it make Dwight go soft in the paint?)

Finally, last night’s double T for Barnes was not for chirping, it was for the shoving match. Barnes has already said it won’t happen again. (h/t: Howard the Dunk….by the way, Melnick is reporting.

So again to repeat Ben’s question: Has the chirping HURT the team? If so, how?

But the culture of barking at officials should go away. It just doesn’t look right and it adds this stupid political aspect to the game. Although Dwight would do well to try and be more political with his handling of the officials rather than the barking.

this has been fun to read! *thumbs up *

TGS is right, this a Magic forum or the view.

And for the record, Dwight is a cry baby

…just as long as they can keep their focus on the game and not get caught up in the complaining.

I like how the Magic responded against the Grizzlies after that third quarter scuffle.

…..the chirping at the ref’s is not the biggest issue the Magic face. The question is can they control their emotions when they need to, and get it done. Anyone in Orlando whose saying that the Cavs, Lakers, or C’s don’t chirp at the refs clearly doesn’t watch any of those teams enough. (I don’t think anyone in Orlando hasn’t seen any of those teams play yet.)

Teams do it to their advantage, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I personally think that the Magic are like a lot of teams where sometimes things get too easy and they have to find challenges for them to keep playing.

Do I think it’s a major issue? Only if Dwight keeps playing like he has where teams know they can get in his head and take him out of the game with a cheap shot or two. If Dwight lets a lot of it go and picks his spots to lose his mind, it might make the Magic better not worse.

I’ve heard of much worse things on a NBA team than not being able to control your emotions at the right time. The thing that concerns me as much as anything is whether Orlando can control the game with Dwight inside and everyone else on the outside. If they can’t figure out how to do that consistently, and that includes feeding the ball inside to Dwight at times when maybe he isn’t at his best or performed at his highest level, I don’t know that the Magic can ultimately beat the Cavs. But, assuming they don’t have major injuries or go completely cold from 3, they will make the ECF. The question is to the ease and the level of which they do it.