Orlando Magic News for October 28th: Vince Carter is Home; All That Matters is a Championship

Contenders Get Boost by Trading Up
Sean Deveney of The Baseline takes a look back at the moves made by several NBA contenders to keep pace in the title hunt for the 2009-2010 season.

Looking back: "I love Vince [Carter] to death. Vince is one of the classiest players that we've had, and he's a great player. Quite frankly, without a guy like him who draws so much attention, we're going to have to work harder on the defensive end to force turnovers and get easy baskets, and we're going to have to work harder on the offensive end off the ball because we don't have Vince."

For Orlando Magic guard Vince Carter, tonight is a true 'home' game
Brian Schmitz talks about how Vince Carter is finally home.

Vince Carter was relaxing in his Isleworth mansion recently, staring out from his balcony and into the moonlight.

He lives alone in one of Orlando's most exclusive communities — and he likes it that way.

But for the first time his house of eight years feels like home. "Out on that balcony, it finally hit me — I'm in Florida," Carter said.

Nothing less than a championship will do for the Orlando Magic this season
Mike Bianchi states the Orlando Magic aren't making a big deal about opening night because ultimately it's a championship that matters.

They want it; you want it; we all want it. We've seen too many times and too many towns celebrating championships while Orlando has sat here watching the party like a dirty-faced kid with a runny nose pressed against the glass. We watched Shaq and T-Mac both quit on the Magic. We watched coach Brian Hill get hired and fired twice. We watched Grant Hill come to town on crutches and leave five surgeries and $93 million later.

The Orlando Magic have announced that longtime Florida and NBA beat writer John Denton will provide exclusive Magic and NBA coverage on the team’s official website, orlandomagic.com.

Denton will provide in-depth coverage of the Magic, including post-game analysis and reports that will only be available on orlandomagic.com. In addition, Denton will write features, daily blogs, participate in Q&A mailbags with readers, and host live chat sessions with fans.

UPDATE (from Ben): Tuesday Morning Quarterback: Coaching is overrated
Gregg "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" Easterbrook of ESPN.com devoted 1% of his column this week to the NBA, since the NBA is 1% as interesting as football to him. Here's his take on the four-way trade between Orlando, Memphis, Dallas, and Toronto, which Hedo Turkoglu and Shawn Marion headlined:

At least to me, it looks like these two teams [Orlando and Memphis] seem to have been willing to help a rival -- Dallas is now a lot stronger. Why? Maybe because both know that a winning Dallas franchise is good for the television promotion of the NBA, and thus in every NBA team's best interest. This would make pro sports clubs seem like divisions of a single enterprise.

I doubt that Dallas' television revenue played a part in Orlando's decision to facilitate Turkoglu's moving on to Toronto. The real boon for the Magic was the $6,864,200 trade exception they received.

UPDATE 2 (from Eddy): Dwight Howard Flies One Millionth Twitter Follower to Orlando Magic Game

NBA star Dwight Howard is doing something pretty neat as well – he’s providing his one millionth follower with an all expenses paid trip for two to the Orlando Magic’s home opener tonight versus the Philadelphia 76ers.