Orlando Magic

By Doc319@yahoo.com (David Friedman) A big change in the basketball landscape since Kelser’s playing days is the parade of players who have gone straight to the NBA out of high school or after just one collegiate season. “I think that the overall talent of the (NCAA) game has declined because you don’t have a fifth year Larry Bird or a fourth year Ralph Sampson or a fourth year Patrick Ewing,” Kelser says. “If those guys were playing now you would have never seen them in college and those are some of the greatest college players ever. So that’s what the game is lacking now. The game is still a great game and the players are still good players but the greatest of the great—LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady—it would have been pretty nice to see them in college competition. That is wha...   [read the full post]

By Doc319@yahoo.com (David Friedman) Phoenix opened the game with an 11-0 run, led most of the way, perfectly executed an out of bounds play late in the game to score the go ahead layup--and still found a way to lose to their nemesis, the San Antonio Spurs. This time the dagger came in the form of a Roger Mason three pointer at the buzzer, delivering a 91-90 win for the Spurs. Tony Parker scored a game-high 27 points and tied Steve Nash for game-high honors with eight assists. Tim Duncan added 25 points and a game-high 17 rebounds. Amare Stoudemire led Phoenix with 25 points and 13 rebounds, while Shaquille O'Neal powered his way to 23 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots. O'Neal looked better than he has in quite some time; he opened the game with a spin move leading to a powerful dunk...   [read the full post]

By Doc319@yahoo.com (David Friedman) After a 106-103 setback in Orlando on Saturday, the Lakers have now lost consecutive regular season games for the first time since last March. Kobe Bryant scored a season-high 41 points versus the Magic and tied for team-high honors with eight rebounds but his efforts were not enough to cancel out fine performances by Jameer Nelson (27 points, five assists), Rashard Lewis (22 points, five rebounds) and Dwight Howard (18 points, 12 rebounds); other than Derek Fisher, who scored 27 points (just two off of his regular season career-high), the rest of the Lakers were MIA, scoring just 35 points on 13-40 field goal shooting. Lakers Edge Mavs, Improve to 6-0 Lakers Slip Past Energetic Knicks   [read the full post]

By Doc319@yahoo.com (David Friedman) 1) Boston Celtics, 24-2 2) L.A. Lakers, 21-3 3) Cleveland Cavaliers, 21-4 4) Orlando Magic, 20-6 5) New Orleans Hornets, 15-7 1) Dwyane Wade, MIA 28.0 ppg 2) LeBron James, CLE 27.3 ppg 3) Dirk Nowitzki, DAL 26.4 ppg 4) Kobe Bryant, LAL 25.0 ppg 5) Danny Granger, IND 24.4 ppg 6) Devin Harris, NJN 23.8 ppg 7) Chris Bosh, TOR 23.6 ppg 8) Kevin Durant, OKC 23.2 ppg 9) Joe Johnson, ATL 23.0 ppg 10) Vince Carter, NJN 22.5 ppg 17) Dwight Howard, ORL 21.1 ppg 20) Tim Duncan, SAS 20.8 ppg 21) O.J. Mayo, MEM 20.8 ppg 25) Chris Paul, NOR 19.7 ppg 31) Paul Pierce, BOS 18.6 ppg 32) Ray Allen, BOS 18.5 ppg 43) Kevin Garnett, BOS 16.5 ppg 45) LeBron James, CLE 6.7 rpg 50) Jason Kidd, DAL 6.4 rpg   [read the full post]

By Doc319@yahoo.com (David Friedman) 1) L.A. Lakers, 8-1 2) Boston Celtics, 10-2 3) Cleveland Cavaliers, 9-3 4-5) Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, 8-3 1) LeBron James, CLE 29.5 ppg 2) Dwyane Wade, MIA 28.2 ppg 3) Chris Bosh, TOR 25.5 ppg 4) Joe Johnson, ATL 25.3 ppg 5) Dirk Nowitzki, DAL 24.7 ppg 6-7) Kobe Bryant, LAL 24.3 ppg 6-7) Danny Granger, IND 24.3 ppg 8) Amare Stoudemire, PHX 23.3 ppg 9) Tim Duncan, SAS 22.8 ppg 10-11) Vince Carter, NJN 22.6 ppg 10-11) Al Jefferson, MIN 22.6 ppg 13) Kevin Durant, OKC 21.5 ppg 15) Paul Pierce, BOS 21.1 ppg 16) Dwight Howard, ORL 21.0 ppg 18) Chris Paul, NOR 20.7 ppg 24) O.J. Mayo, MEM 20.1 ppg 16-17) Yao Ming, HOU 9.5 rpg 16-17) Jermaine O'Neal, TOR 9.5 rpg 27) LeBron James, CLE 7.8 rpg 28) Shaquille O'Neal, PHX 7.8 rpg   [read the full post]

By David Friedman(noreply@blogger.com) 4) Orlando Magic: Reasons for hope: Dwight Howard won his first rebounding title while also posting career highs in scoring and blocked shots as the Magic posted their best record since 1995-96. Hedo Turkoglu had a career year and won the Most Improved Player award. Rashard Lewis may not be quite worth the huge contract Orlando gave him but he was a very productive third scoring option whose three point shooting helped to space the floor. Reasons to mope: Other than Howard, this team is not strong in the paint. Turkoglu and Lewis are both good players but neither is a true power forward; the Magic will not reach their full potential until Orlando acquires another big body to help Howard in the paint. Orlando also is still looking for a top notch sh...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman(noreply@blogger.com) When Patrick Ewing is officially enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame tomorrow, he will be the fifth member of the legendary Dream Team to earn that honor, following in the footsteps of Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler and Magic Johnson. It is possible that all 12 Dream Teamers will eventually be enshrined; the only players about whom there could be the slightest question are Chris Mullin and Christian Laettner but Mullin has already been a Hall of Fame finalist twice, while Laettner's great college career may be enough to convince voters of his worthiness (keep in mind that the Hall of Fame honors all levels of the sport, not just--or even primarily--the NBA).<br /><br />Speaking of great...   [read the full post]

By noreply@blogger.com (David Friedman) Fraschilla: "It’s funny--I just talked today to (Boston assistant coach) Tom Thibodeau, who is a very good friend of mine. He was Doc Rivers’ defensive guy. He’s been anonymous for about 18 years. I was going to dovetail back to something you said. He’s been a good assistant coach all these years, for Jeff Van Gundy, for John Lucas and now Doc but here’s the interesting thing. I had a couple years when I wasn’t coaching and I had the chance to do advance scouting in the NBA for about a month or two at a time before my television season (in college basketball) started and the one thing that I always laugh about on Draft Night—I don’t get a chance to talk about the college players because everyone thinks that I am the international guy but I do 60 college ga...   [read the full post]

By noreply@blogger.com (David Friedman) Even before the moment that the Orlando Magic selected J.J. Redick with the 11th overall pick in the 2006 NBA Draft, I compared him to Trajan Langdon and questioned whether he could be a starting shooting guard on a playoff team. A couple months ago, David Thorpe of IMG and ESPN directly contacted me to explain why he still thinks that Redick can in fact successfully fill such a role but apparently Thorpe has a lot more confidence in Redick's skills than even the Magic do at this point--and the Magic certainly have a vested interest in seeing Redick succeed considering the valuable draft choice that they used to obtain him, quite possibly the last lottery pick that they will have in the Dwight Howard era.   [read the full post]

By noreply@blogger.com (David Friedman) 3) As long as the San Antonio Spurs have Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich they are going to be a formidable team. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are perfect complements to Duncan and the Spurs do an excellent job of finding veteran players who fit in perfectly to their system. Barring injuries or a marked decline by Duncan, the Spurs should be right back in the mix as a contender. 8) Dwight Howard is already the dominant low post force in the NBA and the scary thing is that he is still improving. I question whether Jameer Nelson is a championship level point guard and I think that the Magic need to still improve their overall talent base but Orlando is a team on the rise.   [read the full post]

By noreply@blogger.com (David Friedman) 1986-87 NBA Leaderboard 1) L.A. Lakers, 65-17 2) Boston Celtics, 59-23 3) Atlanta Hawks, 57-25 4) Dallas Mavericks, 55-27 5) Detroit Pistons, 52-30 MVP 1) Magic Johnson (Lakers) 2) Michael Jordan (Bulls) 3) Larry Bird (Celtics) 4) Kevin McHale (Celtics) 5) Dominique Wilkins (Hawks) Scoring 1) Michael Jordan, 37.1 ppg (Bulls) 2) Dominique Wilkins, 29.0 ppg (Hawks) 3) Alex English, 28.6 ppg (Nuggets) 4) Larry Bird, 28.1 ppg (Celtics) 5) Kiki Vandeweghe, 26.9 ppg (Trail Blazers) Assists 1) Magic Johnson, 12.2 apg (Lakers) 2) Sleepy Floyd, 10.3 apg (Warriors) 3) Isiah Thomas, 10.0 apg (Pistons) 4) Doc Rivers, 10.0 apg (Hawks) 5) Terry Porter, 8.9 apg (Trail Blazers)   [read the full post]

By David Friedman(noreply@blogger.com) 1) Boston Celtics, 63-19 2) L.A. Lakers, 62-20 3) Milwaukee Bucks, 59-23 4) Philadelphia 76ers, 58-24 5) Denver Nuggets, 52-30 MVP 1) Larry Bird (Celtics) 2) Magic Johnson (Lakers) 3) Moses Malone (76ers) 4) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lakers) 5) Terry Cummings (Bucks) 1) Bernard King, 32.9 ppg (Knicks) 2) Larry Bird, 28.7 ppg (Celtics) 3) Michael Jordan, 28.2 ppg (Bulls) 4) Purvis Short, 28.0 ppg (Warriors) 5) Alex English, 27.9 ppg (Nuggets) 1) Isiah Thomas, 13.9 apg (Pistons) 2) Magic Johnson, 12.6 apg (Lakers) 3) Johnny Moore, 10.0 apg (Spurs) 4) Norm Nixon, 8.8 apg (Clippers) 5) John Bagley, 8.6 apg (Cavaliers)   [read the full post]

By noreply@blogger.com (David Friedman) Obviously, if Orlando Coach Stan Van Gundy thought that Redick could make a significant offensive contribution while also guarding Hamilton then he would have played Redick in the Magic's playoff series versus Detroit, during which Hamiliton was the leading scorer. Still, there are certainly cases in which a player has not received much playing time with his first team only to emerge as a valuable contributor with another team. I don't believe that this will happen with Redick for the reasons that I listed above and in my previous posts about him but it will be interesting to see what happens if Redick is indeed traded by the Magic.   [read the full post]

By noreply@blogger.com (David Friedman) The Detroit Pistons beat the Orlando Magic 91-86 on Tuesday to win that series four games to one and thus advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the sixth straight season. The Showtime Lakers from the 1980s are the most recent team to make it to the Conference Finals at least six years in a row (they did it from 1982-89), so this is quite an accomplishment for the Pistons. On the other hand, the Lakers did a much better job of taking advantage of those opportunities than the Pistons have: the Lakers made it to the Finals seven times and won four championships during their run while the Pistons have only made two Finals appearances and won just one title during their streak. Basically, the Pistons of the 2000s are like the Atlanta Braves of the...   [read the full post]

By noreply@blogger.com (David Friedman) The San Antonio Spurs have won four championships in the Tim Duncan era but they have never captured back to back titles or even won consecutive Western Conference crowns--and unless they can beat the New Orleans Hornets two games in a row they will once again follow a championship season with a year in which they did not make it back to the Finals. New Orleans broke open a close game five with a 20-4 third quarter run en route to a 101-79 victory, the Hornets' third convincing win over the Spurs in three home games in this series. David West established playoff career-highs in scoring (38 points), rebounding (14 rebounds) and blocked shots (five) despite battling back spasms after the second quarter. West shot 16-25 from the field and he also h...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Detroit led for most of the game but the Pistons were only up 43-42 at halftime and they did not pull away for good until the fourth quarter. That suggets that Orlando should be able to compete with Detroit if the Magic tighten up a couple key areas: they must get the ball to Howard deeper in the post so that he can get Detroit in foul trouble and they must cut down on their turnovers (13) and/or force more Detroit turnovers (six) . The Pistons have repeatedly shown that they have a tendency to relax during a series, so a vigorous effort by Orlando in the wake of Detroit's easy game one win could very possibly lead to a victory for the Magic in game two.   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Of course, most "experts" are going to look right past Nash, throw a few barbs at Stoudemire and then lay full force into Suns President Steve Kerr, Coach Mike D'Antoni and midseason acquisition Shaquille O'Neal, who finished with 19 points and six rebounds. The reality is that the Suns proved on several occasions that the Nash-Stoudemire-Shawn Marion trio was never going to win a championship. O'Neal was brought in to provide paint presence and shore up the team's staggering rebounding deficit and, after a brief adjustment period, he did just that. O'Neal is no longer a player who can dominate for four quarters but he can still have an impact on the game, as he showed even during the game three debacle: O'Neal posted a -5 plus/minus rating...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Part IV of my Pantheon series has just been published at ProBasketballNews.com. It discusses Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. Although many people would probably define the 1980s NBA by the Bird-Magic rivalry, it is worth noting that for the first part of the decade Bird's biggest rival was actually another Pantheon member, Julius Erving. Bird and Erving played the same position and their teams annually battled for Eastern Conference supremacy while they competed for MVP honors. Bird and Magic only faced each other twice a year until the Celtics and Lakers met in the 1984 NBA Finals. The next season, Jordan entered the league and as Erving's career drew to a close a new triangle of elite players formed, culminating in 1987 when...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Hedo Turkoglu's three pointer as time expired gave Orlando a 96-93 win over Boston, enabling the Magic to join the Washington Wizards as the only teams to beat the Celtics twice this season. Turkoglu finished with a game-high 27 points. Dwight Howard controlled the paint, producing 18 points, 16 rebounds and five blocked shots. His task was made much easier due to the absence of Kevin Garnett, who missed the game due to a strained abdominal muscle. Paul Pierce had 24 points, nine rebounds and four assists but the key player for Boston--and the one who nearly led the Celtics to victory--was Rajon Rondo, who scored 15 points, grabbed five rebounds, dished off five assists and racked up six steals. His plus/minus score of +11 led the Celtics. When...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Bianchi says that Hill's departure can be explained by five simple words uttered by Howard. Hill has refused to publicly comment on his dismissal but when Howard was asked about it recently he admitted that Orlando management asked his opinion prior to making the move. What did Howard say? "I was cool with it." Howard may as well have declared, "Off with his head!" It is extremely unlikely that the Magic will fire a coach who Howard likes or hire one he does not like. That is just the way of the world in the NBA. Bianchi quotes a famous line by Chuck Daly, the former Pistons and Magic coach: "It's a player's league. The players allow you to coach them or they don't. Once they stop allowing you to coach, you're on your way out."   [read the full post]

By David Friedman D’Antoni: "Yes, it is." Steve Kerr won five championships in a 15 year NBA career and he holds the all-time record for career regular season three point field goal percentage (.454). Now his job is to try to evaluate talent and put together the right mix of players to help the Suns win the franchise's first NBA title: Kerr: "Yeah." Kerr: "No, if you’re in the NBA, you’re a good athlete. Everybody in the NBA is a great athlete." Kerr: "Yeah. Trust me, I was always known as one of the least athletic players in the NBA." Kerr (laughing): "I’m not either. The one thing that guys can improve is shooting--with enough repetition. Terry Porter became a great three point shooter by the end of his career. Magic Johnson became a solid three point shooter."   [read the full post]

By David Friedman Everyone who penciled the Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic or Detroit Pistons into the NBA Finals better have some erasers or liquid paper handy. As LeBron James warned everyone last week, "Teams better get their wins against us now. They're trying to kill us and talk trash about us now because we have guys who are out but when we get our guys back it's going to be a different story." James is more than capable of delivering on those words--he's no Anthony Smith. It is tempting to say that James carried a bad team to the NBA Finals. Certainly, the Cavaliers roster is not perfect and James had a tremendous playoff run but it is not correct to dismiss the talents and contributions of his teammates, players who may not be able to create much on their own but h...   [read the full post]

By David Friedman The second article discussed the Detroit Pistons and tried to make the case that they are being disrespected. Huh? Consider these preseason predictions: The Sporting News picked the Pistons to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, CBS Sports.com ranked the Pistons as the third best team in the East, David DuPree of USA Today also had the Pistons third and Sports Illustrated called Detroit the second best team in the East. In addition, most of the NBA analysts on ESPN, TNT and NBA TV generally offer nothing but praise for the Pistons, even though Detroit has failed to return to the Finals since the departures of Coach Larry Brown and center Ben Wallace. I guess that the magazine in question wants to say that is it taking a "countercultural"...   [read the full post]