Orlando Magic News and Notes – Stan Van Gundy Gets Defensive
Josh Robbins has a great article about Stan Van Gundy’s camp this weekend. It sounds like Van Gundy’s emphasis was defense.
"“I think the first thing any coach needs is to be very, very clear on what your philosophy is,” Van Gundy said 10 minutes into his talk. “These are the things that will not change very often for you, unless you really have a philosophical revelation or something. These are the things you believe in and are going to be the same year-in and year-out.”So, it was no surprise that Van Gundy quickly transitioned into talking about coaching defense.“I don’t think there’s any doubt you’ve got a lot better chance in what you do as a coach of impacting your defense than you do impacting your offense,” he said. “Offense is a lot more [about] talent.”"
It’s not wonder the Magic became such a good defensive team last season. Van Gundy knows about all of the talent he has on offense and he worries about teaching his player how to make stops on the defensive end. That sounds like a solid formula to me. There are a lot of other interesting things that Van Gundy says about playing solid defense in the NBA, namely that he stresses that his guards sprint back on defense.
There are some other interesting bits of information to be found from Robbins today in his article and his Orlando Magic Basketblog.
Jameer looks “great” in his workouts.
Matt Barnes will take over Hedo Turkoglu’s role of inbounding the basketball late in games.
Vince Carter is going to be the go-to-guy because of his ability to create not only his own shot, but his ability to create open looks for the players around him.
You have to be happy about all of these things if you’re a Magic fan. Especially the news about Jameer.
You can find the complete article here.
Marcin Gortat had another solid game in a loss to Serbia. He had 16 points, nine rebounds and two blocks. Tomorrow, they’ll be a piece about Gortat’s awesome performance so far over in Europe and if he can translate that to an NBA court.
According to Yahoo, Vince Carter and Dwight Howard are to of the 10 best dunkers of the last decade.
"2. Dwight HowardYeah, he gets his head above the rim. A good chunk of the time, actually. He’s the only guy on this list, that I can recall, who has actually beat a team on a last second shot that was actually drawn up for him to dunk. That doesn’t happen very often."
"1.Vince CarterTell him that he could add four more points per game to his scoring average if he just drove more, getting to the line a la Dwyane Wade(notes). Try it. He won’t do it. It’s annoying as hell.Vince Carter is annoying as hell. On that, we can all agree.But he can dunk. And he’s gotten everyone.Weis. Dikembe Mutombo(notes). Alonzo Mourning(notes), repeatedly. The Pacers, the Celtics, the whole flippin’ NBA.Not only is he the best dunker of the last decade, he’s the best of all time. And that’s someone with Michael Jordan bedsheets talking.It’s annoying as hell, but VC can throw down. Bow down."
You may have seen Rashard Lewis and Dwight Howard hanging out at Raymond James Stadium earlier today. Lewis tweeted that he and Howard attended the game between the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
"@ the Bucs-Cowboys game in tampa w/ @dwighthoward"
Click here to see Rashard’s pictures from the game. It’s always good to see Magic teammates building camaraderie.
As I mentioned yesterday, the Magic are going to bring in Forward Linton Johnson. That leaves the Magic with a great rotation:
J. Nelson/J. Williams/A. Johnson
V. Carter/J. Redick
M. Barnes/M.Pietrus/L. Johnson
R. Lewis/B. Bass/R. Anderson
D. Howard/M.Gortat/A. Foyle
Of course much of thise could change. Pietrus may start over Barnes and if he doesn’t, he’ll be the number one backup to Vince Carter at Shooting Guard. Some of these players (probably Johnson and Foyle) won’t be on the active roster for a while. Bass may wind up starting at PF while Lewis shifts to SF. And don’t forget that Lewis is suspended for 10 games, but this is the deepest team in all of basketball. Otis Smith has done an incredible job of putting together a very good team during the off-season. It’s going to be a fun season and it’s great time to be a Magic fan.
You know what the best part of all of this news is?
Training camp starts in just over two weeks!
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger.Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)