Dwight Howard is ready for this season. He’s more motivated and dedicated than ever.
"Trainer Bryan Meyer would have preferred less traveling for Howard: “But I understand he wants a life outside of basketball. That’s why he brought (me) along … and we had time to accomplish what I wanted.”Whenever they could, be it 5:30 a.m. in Africa or, after a long day in Los Angeles, at 1 a.m.“There were times I was icing his knees in the dressing room (or) making sure he stayed hydrated,” Meyer says. “He would have so much on his mind, he wouldn’t think about that.”Howard often thought of that Celtics series. “Boston knew how to get under my skin, and not too many teams did last year,” he says. “Kendrick was the main reason. He’s a big load, and I got frustrated.”"
Chris Colston of the USA Today has the full story here.
Tania Ganguli says the Dwight Howard know he is not Shaq but he doesn’t want to be Shaq anyway.
"“I can remember my rookie year telling people I play for the Orlando Magic and they’re like, ‘We got a basketball team?’ I’m like ‘Are you serious?’ It went from that to now everybody everywhere I go I see Orlando magic tags. That’s one of the things me and Jameer [Nelson] wanted to accomplish by coming here is bringing the life back into Orlando.”“…I think the thing that makes it special is how all of us have grown with the city. Me and Jameer especially we had to come into our own. Like I said, the city was dead. Downtown was dead. Now it’s coming alive. More and more people are migrating down here to Orlando. It feels good to see that.”"
See Ganguli’s story here.
Josh Robbins writes that Jameer Nelson looks healthy and ready to go.
"“I’ve been able to make that pass from numerous different angles,” Nelson said Thursday, a smile on his face. “Yeah, I’m fine.”One of the Orlando Magic’s most important goals this preseasonhas been to make sure their all-star point guard has recovered fully from the torn shoulder labrum he suffered last February. The entire team plays better when Nelson, the floor leader, feels confident."
See the full story here.
See the Orlando Magic notebook here.
"Van Gundy said Thursday that PG Jameer Nelson, SG Vince Carter and C Dwight Howard are the only players who are certain to start when the Magic open their regular season on Oct. 28 against the Philadelphia 76ers."
This makes sense for now. With how well Brandon Bass, Ryan Anderson, Mickael Pietrus and Matt Barnes have played, it’s anyone’s guess.
Here are the reasons why the Magic will win the NBA Championship.
Check out Tania Ganguli’s mid-morning buzz.
Chris Broussard and Zach McCann held a chat previewing the Magic yesterday. I really liked Zach’s answers but some of Broussard’s didn’t make sense.
Here is his answer on how Shaq will defend Dwight Howard on Orlando’s pick-and-roll.
"That is Shaq’s greatest weakness. What Cleveland will do, though, is have Shaq play Dwight soft up top. There’s no reason to crowd Dwight on the perimeter (he’s not going to pop, he’s going to roll). So Shaq can essentially give Dwight room, stay closer to the basket and wait for his roll to the hoop. If Jameer kicks it to Dwight on the perimeter while Shaq’s giving him space, that’s not a problem for Cleveland. Heck, they’d love for Dwight to shoot that. Of course, it’s not that simple, but my point is, I think Cleveland will handle that. The problem Shaq will have is with a center who can hit the 16 footer and roll to the hoop. Then he has to guard that guy on the perimeter and is also susceptible to him rolling to the rim."
Let’s say the Cavs try this strategy and Shaq protects the rim rather than defending Dwight outside. The guard will then have to fight through the pick from a 270 lb. Dwight Howard, which is quite the task. It will leave the guard (most likely Jameer Nelson or Vince Carter) with a wide open look and both of these players are more than capable of knocking down these shots. If they don’t take the shot, the guard should have an open path to the basket. Shaq will have to focus on them and Dwight will be open anyway.
See the entire chat here.
Here’s a little reminder of what happened last time Shaq tried to cover Superman.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger. Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)