Orlando Magic News for December 6th: Praise for Vince Carter; More on Marcin Gortat

Vince Carter earns praise, Ryan Anderson saddled with DNP-CD
Brian Schmitz quotes head coach Stan Van Gundy praising Vince Carter for his performance in yesterday's win against the Golden State Warriors.

"Those are the numbers I've been waiting for from him," Van Gundy said.

What Van Gundy really liked about it was Carter getting fouled taking the ball inside.

"We're at our best when he's taking it to the basket," he said. 

Denton: Magic-Warriors Postgame Analysis
John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com analyzes last night's game.

"They had us on the ropes and we were struggling, but we gathered finally, gained our composure and made plays on both ends to dig it out," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "It wasn’t pretty and we didn’t play well, but I was happy we stuck with it to get a win. Anytime you win seven in a row on the road in this league you’ve got to be pretty happy."

D-League offers option for prep-to-pro players
Marc J. Spears shares a neat story about Latavious Williams, the first player to be drafted out of high school by the D-League.

Orlando Magic forward Brandon Bass knew Williams from the AAU team Bass sponsored and recommended him to his agent, Tony Dutt, when it became apparent Williams wasn’t going to attend college. Dutt had Bass work out for former Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson before deciding to represent him.

Gortat's Growing Discontent
Bethlehem Shoals of The Sporting News chimes in on the Marcin Gortat storyline that's slowly been developing these past few days.

Stay tuned, I guess. Retaining Gortat was a luxury and perfectly within the Magic's rights. You'd have figured, though, that this year would've brought us more Gortat, so it's understandable he's frustrated. Presumably talking it out will make sense of it all, because it would've been massively weird of the team to sign two backup centers if they only planned on playing Howard. If they do end up trying to move him, though, there should be takers for a young, skilled center—like maybe the Mavs?

UPDATE (from Ben): John Schuhmann of NBA.com tweets this quick fact about Dwight Howard's lagging block totals.

Stat of the Day: Through 20 games last season, Dwight Howard had blocked 82 shots. Through 20 games this season, he's blocked 36.

Orlando Equals Franchise Record with 7th Straight Road Win
UPDATE 2 (from Eddy): Matt Steinmetz of NBA FanHouse chimes in on Orlando's road success.

"We treat home and road pretty much the same," Van Gundy said. "I never really addressed it as anything else. We get ready for road games and home games the same way and expect to win. So there's really no difference to our approach."