Let's get to it, shall we?
- J.A. Adande writes in this countdown of this season's NBA storylines that if the Magic improve this season it will be due to Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson, not Rashard Lewis. Adande thinks that the death of Jameer's father has made him more aggressive, and he'll be a better player for it. We'll see.
- John Hollinger, known mostly for his basketball metrics, was with the Magic and Cavaliers in China. He has some observations here and speculates that the Magic may make an offer to Wang Zhizhi, who looked impressive in Team China's exhibition loss to the Magic last week. Wang, a 7'0" center, has career NBA averages of 4.4 points and 1.7 rebounds in 9.2 minutes per game. His last stint in the NBA was with Miami in 2004/2005, where he finished behind only Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade in PER. Hmmmm...
- Raptors coach Sam Mitchell (from the Toronto Star via TrueHoop) thinks the NBA should count the "hockey assist" -- the pass that leads to a pass that leads to a made basket -- as an official NBA statistic. It's hard to disagree with him. Tom Ziller believes that counting these passes would greatly improve Jameer Nelson's assist totals.
- J.J. Redick's poor shooting and defense in last week's exhibition games, combined with Keith Bogans' resurgence, has made Bogans the favorite to start at shooting guard on opening night, writes John Denton. Thanks to Black and Blue for pointing it out first.
- Over at Believing in Magic, Damien Nielsen writes that Dwight Howard is "on the verge of something great." To illustrate his point, he includes a picture of Dwight dunking on Yao Ming, which has since been added to my rotation of Magic screen-saver images. Thanks, Damien!
- One of our division rivals, the Charlotte Bobcats, will be without the services of Adam Morrison this season after he tore his ACL in a preseason game. The Bobcats were already missing Sean May, another regular rotation player, who is out for the year following knee surgery.
- FreeDarko is writing one-sentence previews for every player in the league this season, with bold statements like "Dooling, Keyon: injures himself at Epcot Center." Here is A-F.
UPDATE - Here are two more links for you:
- The Orlando Sentinel reports that Rashard Lewis practiced last Friday and is expected to play in Thursday's exhibition game against the San Antonio Spurs.
- I've finally found photographic evidence of J.J. Redick's fauxhawk, which I alluded to at halftime of Saturday morning's game against the Cavaliers. The light behind J.J. highlights the fact that it goes from front to back, which is an absolutely awful look. Let's hope he switches back to what works when the season starts.
After the jump, your unofficial 2007/2008 season-opening Orlando Magic depth chart.
| Position | Player | Depth |
|---|---|---|
| PG | Jameer Nelson | 1 |
| " | Carlos Arroyo | 2 |
| SG | Keith Bogans | 1 |
| " | J.J. Redick | 2 |
| SF | Hedo Turkoglu | 1 |
| " | Trevor Ariza | 2 |
| PF | Rashard Lewis | 1 |
| " | Pat Garrity | 2 |
| " | James Augustine | 3 |
| C | Dwight Howard | 1 |
| " | Adonal Foyle | 2 |
| " | Marcin Gortat | 3 |
| Inactive | Tony Battie (shoulder) | -- |
| " | Keyon Dooling (groin) | -- |