Many things are wrong with the Magic. Many things will continue to be wrong without a change of direction. The season started with the heavy weight of Dwight Howard may not resign with Orlando and exercise being a free agent to go to another team. Orlando was hurt by their last big man, Shaq O'Neal left as a free agent and more recently LeBron James leaving Cleveland.
The Magic's best deal would be to resign Howard as soon as possible or they will be forced to trade him to get something for him to continue being a contender in the NBA. One thing is for sure, Howard will not be traded be traded before the all-star game because it is being held in Orlando. If he is not traded, the Magic may suffer until the 2013 draft when they can get another big man.
Howard is not the only thing wrong with the Magic this season. I was impressed with the trade of Brandon Bass to the Celtics for Glen Davis and Von Wafer. I felt Bass and Davis were similar players, so I was surprised that the Magic received an additional player. I am sure the Magic had to give a draft pick too. The huge problem is Wafer is the most energetic player on the Magic and Coach Van Gundy doesn't utilize him well. The Magic have played really bad this past week and Van Gundy didn't play Wafer until the 4th quarter after they have been blown out.
The blow outs have largely due to the lack of having a quality point guard that can handle pressure bringing the ball up the court. Orlando's starting point guard, Jameer Nelson has missed some games this season, but was not effective when he has played. Nelson's play is the same his whole career: he only plays hard for a couple of minutes a game and does not force the opposing player to turn the ball over. The Magic's backup point guard is Chris Duhon and is not much better than Nelson.
Duhon does not penetrate into the lane off the dribble, so the Magic's offense is often stagnate and Orlando had a couple of the franchises lowest scoring games all time. Duhon has knocked down open 3 pointers and has stepped up the defense with far more steals than Nelson. Maybe a new point guard is on the horizon for the Magic to draft this year.
Hopefully this year's draft will bring more speed to Orlando. The Magic suffer from a lack of speed getting back to the open man on defense along with careless ball handling combined with a lack of rebounders crashing the glass. Sounds simple. I do believe this is the fault of the coach for a lack of focus to improvement. Van Gundy might be dismissed after the all-star break in an effort to be able to retain Dwight Howard.
Come on Phil Jackson.
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