Orlando Magic News for August 17th: The Offense, "Building Magic" Week, and More

I really like what Dwyer wrote about him, because in my opinion, he’s 110% right on (except the ranking is too low). For all intents and purposes, Jameer is the most important player and now the closer of the team. Carter has been too slow and inefficient at times. 3 point bomber Rashard can get versatile but only does at times. Dwight’s obviously the franchise, but the FTs can hurt in late game scenarios.
How do I come to this conclusion (that Jameer is the most important player and the closer)? Because I saw Jameer soundly beat Rondo and his Celtics team defense for 2 straight games, and an earlier solid showing in a playoff loss. And his whole entire playoffs record speaks to a player who steps UP and it’s time for him to force the issue with his role, get more jealous in the playoffs, get ready/healthy for the playoffs, and be the defined closer over VC or any other Magic player, up his usage rate but at the same time up his passing, even if he has to get risky with it or force the issue. When I saw the Magic lose the series to the Celtics, I didnt blame anyone more than I did Jameer Nelson. VC was long and gone inefficient and not a net +/-, Rashard was terribly ill and not performing offensively (did stop KG tho), and Dwight,.. after a scary reoccurring trend of playing poor the first or second games of a playoff series.., was already playing like the MVP and DPOY he is, as much as possible at that point… But Jameer was the X factor, he was successful against the Celtics defense, and carried the Magic through two wins coming from a 3-0 DEFICIT, and spawning 3-0 comeback of all time talk. The double/stagger screen SVG added in the playbook for Nelson was a total success. I know Thibodeau, the Celtics defensive coach/coordinator, was reacting/countering to it, but Nelson pulled off two wins already and this was pretty close to unstoppable. It was up to Jameer himself to force the issue and consistently repeat his PnR action to score, pass, ultimately win the game a third time again (come on.., a 3-3 comeback to go home.., Magic kill Celtics in the 7th game),.. but he sort of just sunk in behind the 3 line for VC plays and team offense that was not penetrating or creating any good shots. So I expect Nelson to be the same, efficient force he’s been in the playoffs, but to take a leading role and be more consistent than ever.
On an unrelated note, I really think playing weak playoff opponents is hurting the Magic in the next series. But with what should be an improving Hawks, Bucks teams, and the Bull’s rise, I suspect the Magic will have the annual playoff wake-up call BEFORE they start playing the Celtics/Heat/Lakers, and thus possibly avoid a stupid loss or two and subsequently the series momentum. No reason why the Magic shouldn’t be the champions this year.

1 – Making it to the ECF or even NBA finals does not mean anything if we don’t win it all.
2 – Regular season success may work for or against us in determining whether or not we play the team we have worst match-up against (i.e., we get seeded at 1 and BOS at 4/5 or we get seeded at 2 or 3 and BOS at 3 or 2). I would rather see video examples in BOS series (i.e., 5th game in Orlando which worked to perfection). It is, however, encouraging that there are some varieties of 4-out, 1-in.
3 – The series against LA (08-09) and BOS (09-10) were not really close, in my view.
4 – If we make it to the finals against LA, Jameer is going to do fine, but he is going to perform inconsistently against the likes of Rondo with expectedly mixed results.
5 – So it seems that we are going to be dictated by personnel structure to use the same system again. Let’s hope that Rashard and Vince operate at a higher level because it all depends on them or a noticeable improvement in Dwight’s game.