Jameer Nelson is more confident than ever - for good reason. <..."/> Jameer Nelson is more confident than ever - for good reason. <..."/> Jameer Nelson is more confident than ever - for good reason. <...","articleSection":"","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Andrew Melnick","url":"https://orlandomagicdaily.com/author/andrewmelnick/"}}
Orlando Magic Daily
Fansided

Orlando Magic News & Notes: Q-Rich Sits Out, Dwight’s Album, Nelson Confident

By Andrew Melnick

facebooktwitterreddit

Jameer Nelson is more confident than ever – for good reason.

"Now in his seventh year with the Magic, Nelson said he’s comfortable calling out a teammate when need be or directing traffic on the court or in the locker room. He’s learned that different sort of leadership is needed for different players. But he knows now that he’s earned the respect of his teammates because of his fearlessness out on the court.“I think I’ve shown that over the last two years that I want to be more of a leader and take more of a role as a vocal leader,’’ he said. “You have to put in the work for guys to respect you as a leader and I’m putting in the work. Everybody is a unique character so you have to know how to approach them. I might not be able to holler and scream at (one person) as I can holler at (another person). And I just have to be myself. Off the court, they call me one of the clowns, but I really look at myself as a mature guy.’’Mature enough to analyze his own game and know where he needs to improve to be an elite player who can take his team to a championship. Nelson said he replayed the Boston series over and over in his head for weeks, trying to figure out where he could be better this season. He then worked hard on his body to get lighter so that he could become a more agile defender. Van Gundy said the next step for Nelson is making strides defensively."

John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com has that story here.

Quentin Richardson is having some hamstring problems and missed practice yesterday.

"Quentin Richardson didn’t scrimmage with the team on Wednesday, sitting out the day after feeling spasms in his hamstring during an offensive dummy drill. The injury isn’t serious; in fact, Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said Richardson should scrimmage on Thursday.But Q sitting out put the team down to 12 players, and with some pretty intense scrimmaging this week, it’s taken a toll on the team.The players were beat by Wednesday night. They didn’t even lift weights or shoot in the evening practice, instead working on double teams in the low post and calling it a night early. Additionally, Van Gundy canceled tomorrow’s evening practice, meaning the Magic will have a morning practice and be off till Friday morning."

Zach McCann of the Orlando Sentinel has that and more in his Wednesday practice report.

Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel says Wednesday’s practice was very taxing.

"Rookie SF Stanley Robinson played the first two quarters of the scrimmage without subbing out.“Those perimeter guys especially got virtually no rest,” Van Gundy said. “They were just going straight through.”In the late-afternoon practice, the Magic went over how they attack opponents’ double-teams in the low post. The Magic also focused on the situations when they will double-team on defense.Van Gundy has raved about his players’ effort on defense and his players’ willingness to address their individual weaknesses."

You can read that story here.

With Jason Williams hurt, Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel thinks the Magic should sign a point guard.

Schmitz also thinks the Miami Heat are the best thing to happen to the Magic.

Is it fair to compare Dwight Howard to the all-time great big men on offense?

Maybe we can compare Howard to other types of worldwide superstars.

(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).