Orlando Magic News for October 5th: Quentin Richardson in Tonight's Starting Lineup, Dwight Howard's Free Throws, and More

Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel reports the Orlando Magic's first starting lineup of the preseason will include Jameer Nelson at point guard, Vince Carter at shooting guard, Quentin Richardson at small forward, Rashard Lewis at power forward, and Dwight Howard at center. He also says coach Stan Van Gundy will only use 11 players this evening, with Malik Allen and Stanley Robinson likely to sit out. The Magic and Houston Rockets will tip off tonight at 8:30 PM.

The Magic posted this video of Dwight Howard shooting free throws after Monday's practice. A 59.9 percent shooter from the stripe in his six-year career, Howard can certainly use the work. Note here that he appears to have raised his release point from last season. Also, you can see the glass wall of the Magic's practice court at Amway Center reflected in the background.

Eddy Rivera interviews statistical analyst Neil Paine about the coming NBA season, covering the Orlando Magic as well as the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics, their chief rivals for Eastern Conference supremacy.

Writing for Basketball-Reference, Paine takes a look at the most disparate best and second-best seasons for a given player in league history, using Win Shares. Former Magic swingman Tracy McGrady appears, as Paine observes:

Also note the sad presence of Tracy McGrady, who had an all-time great year in 2003 but never really put together an all-time great career.

In an interview with Tim Povtak of NBA FanHouse, McGrady discusses how he wishes the Magic were able to form a "Big Three" of their own featuring him, Grant Hill, and Tim Duncan during McGrady's Magic days.

I encourage you to "Like" Magic Basketball on Facebook. Eddy's done a great job with that site, and I know he's dedicated to making the Facebook thing worthwhile, given how often he tried prodding me to make one when he still wrote for this site. That's not a dig, by the way, but rather an illustration of how driven he is.

USA Today's gallery of NBA Jam photos includes a shot of Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh dunking while Carter and Howard passively look on. Note that you may need to sit through a pop-over advertisement before viewing the gallery. Hat tip: The Basketball Jones