Josh Cohen of OrlandoMagic.com takes a look back at Orlando’s best games of the year, which includes Vince Carter’s 48-point game against the New Orleans Hornets and Orlando’s victories over three of the league’s four best teams.
You can read his stories about each game here.
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel wonders why the Magic can’t get in the running for one of the big-time free agents like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh.
"Why wouldn’t one of these guys be interested in the Magic? Orlando has two things that are vitally important to big-money free agents: (1) The chance to win a championship while playing alongside the most dominant big man in the league, (2) The chance to play where there is no state income tax.The Magic should package anything and everything they can think of — Vince Carter and his expiring contract, Marcin Gortat, Brandon Bass, J.J. Redick, Ryan Anderson, Mickael Pietrus, Stuff, Dante and Galante, three Magic dancers and four leftover boxes of “Blue and White Ignite” T-shirts – and offer it to Toronto for Bosh."
You can read that story here.
Ben Q. Rock of Orlando Pinstriped Post takes a look at Jameer Nelson’s season.
"And his play style isn’t an issue. Again, he gets heat for being a shoot-first point guard, but consider Orlando’s system. It’s a pick-and-roll-heavy attack, and needs a point guard who can shoot off the catch, shoot off the dribble, get to the rim for his own shot, get to the rim to set up a teammate, and who has range out to about 25 feet. There are not many point guards in the NBA who can do all that, and the ones who can–guys like Chris Paul and Deron Williams, for example–are franchise-level talents making franchise-level money. Which is why I always make this point about Nelson: not counting players on rookie contracts, which point guard at Nelson’s salary or cheaper is a better fit for coach Stan Van Gundy’s offense? Take your time on that one. Also, consider that he’s the team co-captain, a responsibility he takes quite seriously."
Obviously, Rock likes Jameer Nelson for the Magic. And he’s right.
You can find that story here.
Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel hands out Stan Van Gundy’s grade.
Van Gundy also reacted to the death of all-time great John Wooden.
"“John Wooden’s legacy, I think, is his philosophy about fundamentals. He wasn’t a guy who was real complicated in terms of his X’s and O’s. His legacy from a coaching standpoint was a real, clear attention to detail in terms of the fundamentals and teaching. His consistency over time was amazing.”“People talk about how the college game has changed and how it’s not as easy to win a national title today as it was in Wooden’s day because there are so many teams in the tournament now. I’m not buying it. Yeah, the NCAA Tournament was smaller back then, but one of the reasons it was smaller is because you had to win your conference just to be invited. There was none of this finishing fifth and getting an at-large bid to the tournament. There were no fluke teams in the tournament back then.”"
You can find that story here.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger, a contributor on the Fansided Front Page and on Sir Charles In Charge. Subscribe to his RSS feed and add him on Twitter to follow him daily. You can download the HTD app here).