Since the Magic acquired Vince Carter and Hedo Turkoglu subsequently signed with the Toronto Raptors, analysts and fans have been criticizing the move that brought Carter to Orlando. Most sportswriters have suggested that it would have been a better move to throw all of the money at Turkoglu and keep rookie standout Courtney Lee rather than acquire Carter. Why? Let’s take a look at the numbers and not even consider the fact that Turkoglu rejected a 5-years $45 million deal from the Magic (which most of the writers, fans and analysts don’t consider anyway) after Vince Carter was acquired.
Let’s take a look at the numbers. Player A is 30 years old and has averaged 12.3 PPG, 4.2 RPG and 2.7 APG in his career, including averages of 16.8 PPG, 5.3 RPG and 4.9 APG last season while playing in 77 regular season games. He shot 41.3% from the field and 35.6% from beyond the three-point line. Player B is 32 and has career averages of 23.5 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 4.3 APG. Last year, he averaged 20.8 PPG, 5. RPG, and 4.7 APG while playing in 80 games. He shot 43.7% from the field and 38.5% from downtown. Player A has never made an All Star team, player B is an 8 time All Star. Who would you rather have? Seems like a no brainer, doesn’t it?
Player A is Hedo Turkoglu and Player B is Vince Carter.
The critics of Orlando’s offseason moves have seriously underestimated Vince Carter and his skill set. By the numbers, Vince Carter is as good of a playmaker is Turkoglu is and a far superior scorer. Carter has always been very underrated as a passer and his career average of 4.3 APG shows that. The most impressive thing about that average is that Carter has always been asked to carry the load scoring wise (Something Turkoglu has never been asked to do) and he still managed to dish out that many assists.
One of the biggest critiques of Carter’s game is that he is not a good performer in the playoffs or during crunch time. Not only has Carter made countless game-winning and tying shots, but he has excellent playoff averages. Carter has been to the playoffs in 6 of his 10 NBA seasons. He has averaged 25.9 PPG, 6.9 RPG, and 5.2 RPG. These are all up from his career regular season averages, showing that he actually performs better in the playoffs! He has never advanced to the conference finals, but has gotten his team into the 2nd round in three of his six seasons.
A lot of critics have said that there is a lot of pressure on Carter because he is back home and this is easily the most talented team that he is played for. Critics have said that Carter’s ego may be too big for him to defer to other players, but I don’t think Carter has ever had a problem deferring to other players-he just really hasn’t had any other very good scorer to defer too (outside of maybe one really good season from Richard Jefferson). Now he has several. And if you think that Carter needs to be the face of the franchise, you’re wrong. He acknowledged that Jason Kidd was the face of the Nets before he was traded to Dallas and the Miami Herald reported that he has already stated that he has no problem playing 2nd fiddle to Howard.
"“If you think about it, I never really said this is my team,” Carter said of his four-plus seasons in New Jersey. “I said, ‘I’m going to help this team win.’ When I first got here, it was Jason’s team. I just want to help make (Orlando) better. He (Howard) can be the face all he wants. My concern is more so just getting wins. I kind of leave that for people to say or debate on. I think for me, it’s can Vince come in and do his part for the Orlando Magic? That’s more so my goal.”"
Carter’s ability to take pressure off of Magic big man Dwight Howard is going to help the big man out. He has always been very good at setting up his teammates and spending a few seasons in New Jersey with Jason Kidd should have only improved his play-making ability. Howard has played with 2 very good scorers (Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis) but he has never had a scorer that can truly take over a game like Carter can. With all of Orlando’s perimeter scoring, their ability to drive into the lane and the passing of Carter and the returning Jameer Nelson, Howard should have just as many easy buckets as ever. It should help free up Marcin Gortat and Brandon Bass so that the Magic have many dunk-filled nights during the 2009-2010 season.
Carter didn’t have his best season last year (although it was still a better and more efficient season than Turkoglu’s season) but he may have been a bit distracted in New Jersey. The Nets began rebuilding by dealing Jason Kidd to the Dallas Mavericks during February of 2008, which essentially ended any chance that the Nets had at the postseason in 2008-09. The Nets also dealt Richard Jefferson to Milwaukee before last season started. Vince still managed to put up All Star like numbers and still had his Nets team within 5 games of a playoff berth. Returning to his hometown and joining a team that is poised to win their first NBA Championship should increase Carter’s energy on both ends of the floor, making him a better defender, which is something that Stan Van Gundy stresses. Carter knows that the Magic are a championship caliber team but also knows that winning a title will be no easy feat and he sounds like he is ready to work harder than ever.
"“It’s hard to say Vince Carter, Orlando Magic right now,” he said. “It won’t be once we start doing things as a team.”Carter said that in terms of talent and on paper, the Magic have everything. They just have to work to make it happen.“The target already is on the Magic because of what they accomplished,” Carter said."
Everyone fussed about Turkoglu leaving and many have said that the Magic shouldn’t have messed with something that wasn’t broken. That’s just not true. The Magic went as far as they could with the current team. They were not ready to compete with the Lakers for an NBA title and if they didn’t make some major moves (with the most important being Carter’s acquisition), they may not have been able to compete with the improved Boston Celtics and the improved Cleveland Cavaliers. Vince Carter has gone from one of the superstars and faces in the league to just another good player, but Carter is still an All Star caliber SG. He is part of a major overhaul that has made the Magic into a better, deeper team and has given them a better chance of accomplishing their ultimate goal of winning an NBA Championship. Carter seems ready not only to prove that he is still an All Star caliber player, but also ready to help the Magic bring a championship back to Orlando.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger.Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily. Check out his ACC Football preview here.)