The Orlando Magic will head west for a four-game road trip that starts tomorrow in Sacramento.
Mike Bianchi, who originally agreed with the change in Head Coach Stan Van Gundy’s attitude thinks Orlando needs their old coach – Stan Van Grumpy – back.
"Granted, it’s sheer folly to make determinations on a long NBA season after a subpar week or two, but this hasn’t been just any subpar week. The Magic have been losing to awful teams. It doesn’t matter what time of year it is; champions simply don’t lose in succession to the Bulls, Pacers, Raptors and Wizards.This is why we need the old Stan back — to keep these guys from showing up for work only when they feel like it. I know, I know, I originally endorsed the idea of Van Gundy transforming himself into a more mellow fellow, but now I’m ready to admit I was wrong."
Read his column here.
The Magic are still trying to fit Vince Carter into their system.
"“It’s different. We weren’t used to playing like that last year … Turk [ Hedo Turkoglu] had the ball, Jameer [Nelson] had it. It was pretty balanced at the end of every game. Everybody got about the same amount of shots,” forward Rashard Lewis said.And now?“Vince is the type of player who needs the ball in his hands. He dominates the ball sometimes. That’s how he became Vince Carter,” Lewis continued. “We got to adjust to that, learn how to play with him dominating the ball.“We’re still adjusting to it, but he’s not going anywhere. He’s our teammate.”Asked who makes the changes — Carter or the team — Lewis said, “I think it’s a little bit of both.”"
Brian Schmitz has the story here.
Eddy Rivera discusses the possible move of Vince Carter to the bench and J.J Redick to the starting lineup.
"If Redick were to start, the issues on the offensive side of the ball probably won’t exist. Redick’s usage rate (17.4%) is considerably lower than Carter’s (28.1%), which means that shots can be redistributed among Howard, Lewis, and Nelson. And as has been stated many times before, Redick is an efficient player so naturally the offense, as a whole, should become more efficient with his presence on the court. Also offensively, Redick doesn’t need the ball in his hands like Carter, which allows Howard, Lewis, and Nelson more opportunities to be playmakers. To sum it up, the offense for Orlando could become a more balanced attack like it was last year if Redick starts."
Read more on the move here.
The Magic made the wrong category of a “Who’s hot, who’s not?” list on Hoops World.
"Eastern Conference Team: Orlando Magic – Orlando lost three of four games this week, including seven-point defeats at the hands of the Indiana Pacers and Washington Wizards, both of whom were playing without their top scorers (Danny Granger and Gilbert Arenas, respectively). The Magic bounced back with a win over the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday and extending Orlando’s lead in the Southeast Division to 1.5 games."
Luke Byrnes has more here.
Rashard Lewis has a new blog entry – he’s excited to get a win.
"I think some of our problem has been that we’ve been putting too much pressure on ourselves, especially on the offensive end of the floor. We were actually playing pretty good defense, but our offense has been really bad.But on Saturday against Atlanta, we were really aggressive, getting good shots and attacking. And when we backed that up with some really good defense too, that just made for a really good night for us.We still know that we’re a good basketball team, but we’ve got to go out there every night and take care of the Xs and Os and playing with great energy. We have to know that just because we went to the Finals last year and we’re a good team, if we don’t play hard, we’re not going to win."
Read Sweet Lew’s blog here.
In case you missed it, the Magic were mentioned on Saturday Night Live. Watch the video here.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger and a contributor at NFL Mocks Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily.)