Orlando Magic News for October 6th: Dwight Howard Promotes NBA Live 10; Notes from the First Pre-Season Game

Fun-Loving Dwight Howard Talks About Faith and Nudity
Matt Moore of NBA FanHouse reveals an exclusive interview he had with Dwight Howard, who's promoting NBA Live 10, today.

This season the Magic will try to improve upon last year's highly successful run that saw them advance to the NBA Finals. Each year since Howard has entered the league, he's markedly improved on one area of his game over the summer, usually whatever his critics would point to. In the beginning it was his aggressiveness, until he started dominating inside. Then it was rebounding, until he took the rebounding title. Then last season, people questioned his defensive acumen. That resulted in nothing less than Defensive Player of the Year. So what has Howard been working on this summer? "Free throws, actually. I committed to trying to work on being consistent from the free throw line. I spent a lot of time in the gym this summer with the coaching staff. I'd spend about two hours a day doing nothing but working on free throws. I'd have to hit at least 200 makes a day, but even when I hit that, I usually stayed after to keep shooting. Sometimes I'd shoot 600 free throws a day."

Your Final Pocket Guide to Summer of '10
Bethlehem Shoals of The Baseline has a quick tutorial of what one might expect in the NBA next summer for every team in the league. 

Orlando Magic: Nothing to see here, folks, move along. They had better win a championship sometime soon.

The Magic's preseason opener: Did Vince Carter take too many 3's?
Josh Robbins post a few notes following the Orlando Magic's victory over the Dallas Mavericks in the team's first pre-season game. Check it out. 

Dwight Howard will appear via satellite to give away 100 copies of NBA Live in New York City, check out the trailer
Tania Ganguli shares additional information about Superman.

Dwight Howard and his old pal Courtney Lee will reunite today in New York to give away 100 copies of NBA Live on today, the video game's debut date.The event starts at 5 p.m. at the NBA Store.

Howard, who is on the cover of the game, will buy 100 copies to give away, and will greet the lucky recipients via satellite from Orlando. Knicks forwards David Lee and Al Harrington and Lee, now a Nets guard, will be on hand to work the register and hand out the games.

GMs love a winner, but where's the love for the Magic?
UPDATE: John Schuhmann of NBA.com wonders aloud why the Magic aren't given more respect from their peers in the league's annual GM survey.

So why do more than 10 percent of the GMs believe that the Magic did the most to improve their team, but still won't make it back to The Finals? Is it the prospect of a healthy Kevin Garnett (Boston got 50 percent of the vote to win the East), a more motivated LeBron James (Cleveland got 42.9 percent), or is it just a lack of respect?

Before you answer that question, take note of the responses to one of the two new questions in this year's survey: "Which is the best defensive team in the NBA?" The GMs voted for Boston (60.7 percent), San Antonio (32.1 percent) and the Lakers (7.1 percent). Again, the Magic didn't get a single vote.

But the numbers show that Orlando was the No. 1 defensive team in the league last season, allowing just 99.5 points per 100 possessions, edging out Cleveland (99.6) and Boston (99.7). The Lakers ranked fifth (101.9) and the Spurs ranked sixth (102.0).

Almost half of the GMs said that Dwight Howard is the best defensive player in the league, 64.3 believe that Howard is the best interior defender, and one GM voted for Van Gundy as the coach with "the best defensive schemes." But none of them showed love for the Magic as the best defensive team in the NBA.