Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy talked up the Miami Heat on Dan Lebatard’s radio show.
"Van Gundy went on Dan LeBatard’s radio show in Miami earlier this week and compared the Heat to the Michael Jordan Bulls teams that broke the NBA record with 72 victories in 1995-96. “If I look at what the Bulls did winning 72 games and I look at the Heat roster, I am going to tell you that the Heat roster is better than any roster that Michael Jordan played with with the Bulls,” Stan Van Gundy said. “I don’t think that people predicting them breaking the win total and being in the 70s and the whole thing, I don’t think those are expectations that are out of line based on their roster. Whether they come true or not, we’re going to find out in a few months, but I don’t think those are crazy predictions for the roster they have.“Dwyane Wade is certainly, in my opinion anyway, as good as he was, is better than Scottie Pippen. Chris Bosh is better than Toni Kukoc. Mike Miller is every bit as good a shooter as (John) Paxson or (Steve) Kerr or anybody they put there. Plus, he’s 6Œ8. If you start going down the list, I don’t think there is any question that the roster the Heat have is as talented a roster if not more so as any roster there has ever been in the NBA.”"
Mike Bianchi has that story here.
This sounds a lot like what Van Gundy’s brother, Jeff, has been saying. I discussed why I thought Van Gundy was making those comments here.
John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com opened up his mailbag and discussed Carmelo Anthony.
"After seeing what transpired in Miami this summer, of course anything can happen in the NBA. But acquiring superstars isn’t easy and to get one you usually must pay a heavy price.For example, for the Magic to pull off a blockbuster and acquire Anthony it would also mean they likely would have to assume other undesirable contracts. Losing Melo would mean Denver would be starting over, so the Nuggets might also be looking to unload Chauncey Billups ($27.3 million still owed), Nene ($22.9 million still owed) or Kenyon Martin ($16.5 million still owed).The Magic could trade Vince Carter ($17.3 million) straight up for Anthony ($17.1 million), but it assuredly wouldn’t be that easy. While Orlando holds the team option on the final year of Carter’s contract, few know that there is a $4 million penalty that Carter will get if a team buys him out. Orlando would likely have to throw $3 million (the most allowed by NBA rules) into any trade to make the transaction work.And for all of his flash, Anthony does have his flaws. He’s an incredible scorer, but he would be taking more shots away from Dwight Howard. And defense and rebounding are but rumors with Anthony. If the Magic could land him without sacrificing too much it would be a no-brainer. But trades of this magnitude are rarely that easy."
You can read Denton’s mailbag here.
You can read about Dwight Howard’s time in India here.
Josh Cohen of OrlandoMagic.com tells Magic fans to be careful when discussing rumors.
You can learn more about the 1/5 pick-and-roll here.
(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger, a contributor on the Fansided Front Page, and co-host of CB Sports Radio from 5-7 pm week days (1420sports.com). Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Twitter to follow him daily. You can download the HTD app here).