Luke_FfS

quote: Originally posted by murphy13: quote: Originally posted by SmackDaddy: quote: Originally posted by Luke_FfS: quote: Originally posted by murphy13:he gets yanked and his replacements arent playing any better. ????????????????? I was curious about that also, considering that Bogans has been our most productive player off the bench and on some nights has outplayed our starter. bogans played key minutes in the preseason-so therefore he isnt a replacement. So if K-Bo is a starter, is MP a replacement? I really don't get it. Using the same parameter, JJ played more minutes than Bogans in the preseason. Is he an All-Star?

quote: Originally posted by murphy13:he gets yanked and his replacements arent playing any better. ?????????????????

quote: Originally posted by Drunk on Mystery:No, I just don't think any of them will ever be all-stars. Hell, none of them are even in the top 3 players on their own teams. And since this board is entirely too predictable: Memphis: Gay, Mayo, Conley Milwaukee: Jefferson, Redd, Bogut Portland: Roy, Aldridge, Oden Agree with the concept, corrected one name.

quote: Originally posted by Mr Charisma:I'm often amazed at how consistently successful teams like the Pistons can find time on the floor to develop players like Stuckey, Maxiell, etc., yet the consistently unsuccessful franchises like our Magic, whose top 6-7 players are generally no better than those others, still cannot find it in themselves to give young players a chance to develop. What astounds me is that we are not talking about having the same GMs and coaches around, as they have changed multiple times. Yet the organization continues to follow the same pattern. Does this mean that the ownership of the Magic is more involved in basketball decisions than we are led to believe? Or is it that they continue to hire folks that line up perfectly with their philosophies, thus only changing the faces of the franchise as opposed to its methodologies? I, too, am happy for Trevor, and hope he develops into the player that his biggest fans here suggested that he could become. I don't want him to fail just to justify the actions of the Magic organization. I would love to see a stop on Ariza talks one day... Trevor would have never resigned with us anyway (and our management wouldn't go over the luxury tax for a player like him) RESULT: we would have lost him anyway, so I'm happy for him to succeed and be at home. At least we have used Evans and Cook last year (and Trevor was injured on all this stretch) Outside Ariza, your point is really interesting and it matches with what's happening right now. We have serious bench problems but no intention at all to give them confidence and PT. Our bench is not the best of NBA by any means, but I believe that is not so bad as it seems right now. The only exception is maybe CLee, that is finding some minutes, but not on a regular basis. Is this a SVG problem? Or is the ownership always pushing for the W and ignoring the devolpment of young guys?

I think that's really important to have him playing meaningful minutes in the first month of his career. This is a great sign of confidence from coach and GM and I really hope it'll pay off. CLee seems to move in the field at another speed (or is the reast of the team moving on slow motion??? :=) ). His shot will fall when he'll calm down and understand more the style of the game. Until that, he could be a important asset on defense and fastbreaks.

Great thread Drain. LOL to the Bennett&Tumbleweed pics and the "Still having trouble finding previews?" advice. I'm really curious to see how the guys will react. Playing like a team? Could we be road warriors like last year? I hope so!

quote: Because of his laid-back nature and willingness to fit in (almost to a fault sometimes), I think Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy should start games by calling post-up plays for Lewis. It could help jump-start him offensively and make sure he

LOCATION & TIME: TV coverage: SunSports HD, NBA TV ROSTERS & STATS: ORLANDO MAGIC (Record: 4-2) - Starting Lineup Magic Bench Injury report : Mike Wilks PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS (Record: 3-3) - Starting Lineup Blazers Bench Injury report : Greg Oden Radio: http://www.nba.com/broadband/alp_schedule.html http://580wdbo.com/ Spanish Radio: AM 1030 WONQ Broadband: http://www.justin.tv/directory?category=sports http://www.channelsurfing.net/ http://www.livescorehunter.com/Live-Streaming-Video.php Stats (Updated throughout the game): http://sports.yahoo.com/nba http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/scoreboard http://www.nba.com/games/20081110/scoreboard.html Good places to look for previews: http://www.nba.com/games/20081110/PORORL/preview.html?nav=scoreboardhome http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orl-mscout1008nov10,0,6394900.story http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orl-magic1008nov10,0,3138707.story http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/preview?gameId=281110019 http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/preview?gid=2008111019 Still having trouble finding previews? google.com

Another article from Denton about threes not falling down: http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?categ...ategoryCurrentPage=0 A lot of things that confirms the unpleasant sensation that a lot of members of this forum have right now. EDIT: MP has been very solid on offense until now. And yes, Lewis words sounds like whining, but he's pointing out the right thing.

quote: Because of his laid-back nature and willingness to fit in (almost to a fault sometimes), I think Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy should start games by calling post-up plays for Lewis. It could help jump-start him offensively and make sure he

quote: Originally posted by Skywise316: quote: Originally posted by Luke_FfS:Great job Sky, time well spent. I really agree on every stock. Like you said, we're headed in the right direction and this 5 game homestand has helped us. Anyway, until now the best team we have played is Atlanta and I'm looking forward to see a difficult matchup this night and finally the team on the road. Yeah, after how ATL is clobbering everyone else, while Memphis has been competitive with everyone else, those two losses don't look quite so bad. Especially since at least the Memphis loss was on the road. Two seasons ago, late in the season, Grant Hill was worried. Not just about his ankle like usual, but the Magic were in the middle of a very long homestand. Even though they were winning, Grant was concerned about being at home so long and the team becoming complacent. Two years later, the Magic are in the middle of a similar situation and that could be the silver lining of struggling early in the year.. they got the complacency knocked right the heck out of 'em. Hopefully the Magic don't get short memories, remember the lessons from those two losses, and keep their edge for the forseeable future. The schedule is much more favorable than last season so the Magic need to take advantage of it. We had the same bad feeling and, unfortunately, we were right. Someties this team seem unable to learn the lesson...

quote: Originally posted by Marc Acres 3:16: quote: Originally posted by PEC: quote: Originally posted by Marc Acres 3:16:Ball movement stalls in the 4th and we start coughing up leads. What always happens in the 4th? We ignore Dwight and Hedo and Jameer do their thing. We had Portlands only active center on the bench and we didn't go to Dwight, not even to draw the defense in. Instead we got to see a variety of high degree of difficulty shots when we had a guy that could draw attention and another guy with a solid post game on the other side that could have also drawn attention. My point in mentioning all this is Hedo, you can still get your 50,000 attempts in the 4th but it would be nice if you moved the ball around first before chucking it. It might even get a few other people hitting and keep the offense from completely collapsing. Adding to that the 120 million dollar man was missing the broadside of the barn in 4th quarter as well and Bogans couldn't hit simple layups that adds up to a loss. That's part of my point, 21 attempts for Hedo, 12 for Jameer, 11 for Dwight and Shard. Now Shard has been in a shooting slump but he does have the ability to post up. He's been smart enough this season that when the 3 isn't going he is moving to the post or to a mid range, he adjusts his shot selection. Hedo and Jameer took 3's out of rhythm, forced off balance jumpers and while they are doing that, no one else is getting into a rhythm. I get that Dwight is bad at the line, do we really need to worry about that with 7 left in the 4th? Under 2 ok, I get it, but 7? If we looked at Dwight with any regularity we could have fouled out Aldrige, Outlaw, and Przybilla. Outlaw had 5 and Przybilla had 4, Aldrige had 3, shoot Frye had 5 in 16 mins and that is with Dwight getting only 11 attempts. How different is the game without Portland having a frontline? We bailed them out, if I'm an opposing coach, I say let Hedo and Jameer shoot all of the crazy crap just try to keep Dwight off the offensive glass. You can tell by Stan's comments that he wants the ball being moved and those 2 guys are the ones not moving it. Same thinking here. Only 6 points and 7 rebounds after a monster first half... this is not acceptable. And we haven't to worry about him shooting the FT, or this situation will hunt him and the team forever. It's the other team center that have to worry about not fouling out.

quote: Originally posted by Drunk on Mystery: quote: Originally posted by Skywise316:The only explanation for people blaming Hedo for this loss is... I mean, you must not of watched the game. Other than getting personal, it's the only explanation I can come up with. Complaints about Hedo and/or thinking he should be traded off of his overall play and contract situation are one thing, but based off tonight? I mean.. I honestly don't know how to react in a civil manner to that notion. So I won't say something I regret. I'm assuming you're directing this at me, and you're missing my point. We lost this game for a list of reasons I'm not going to go into. My issue with Hedo is that he's a) a terrible defender, and B) someone who will call his own number every play starting midway through the 3rd for the rest of the game. He could have made every shot, scored 60, and won us the game tonight, and my opinion, that that sort of decision making is detrimental to the team, wouldn't change. A stupid shot is a stupid shot, regardless of whether or not it goes in. Wanting to be the hero is ok when you're taking what the defense gives you. Hedo doesn't. At all. He runs the same awkward fake to his right then drives left before shooting an off-balance layup with the wrong hand. Reality: Dwight Howard had 3 FGAs in the second half. If Hedo really is our "primary distributor" as everyone on this board seems to love to claim, than isn't it logical to conclude that he failed completely in the second half because our most efficient, most effective scorer wasn't getting the ball? I get your point, DoM, and I agree that if Nelson would "call his number" like Hedo does, he'll be crucified in this forum. But: 1) Otis is not going to trade him. I can see a trade before the deadline only if the team will have a losing record (something that I hope no one wants to see) 2) So, responsibilities fall in the hands of SVG, and he's doing absolutely nothing to correct that situation. I mean, Hedo is clearly not smart when he thinks about his own stats and forget about team execution, but the coach is here for stop him and correct the plan. Clearly Hedo is not MJ or Kobe, so why Stan didn't stop him? Put the ball in the hands of Jameer, and if Hedo is still launching shots everytime he touches it, put him in the bench. If a kid stole money from his father pocket, and dad is not going to react, the kid will do it over and aver again. If dad reacts, maybe he'll learn the lesson. So my point is: blame the coach too, not only Hedo. The sad part is that Hedo could really fit very well in this team, but something had to change in his mind or in SVG coaching to see this working properly. Using the same rules, I believe that yesterday the one to be benched was Rashard. There

quote: Originally posted by Skywise316:Would anyone like to argue with me about Bogans defending Brandon Roy down the stretch? Haven't we seen this movie a time or two before?? Hedo can't stop him too, and Pietrus made a bad job early, so we haven't a lot of possibilities... Double teaming him maybe, forcing Blake to make shots.

When we stop to play inside-out basketball, bad things happen. But the game is not over yet.

quote: Originally posted by Kramer:...So we are going to lose on a night where Dwight goes 30-20. That is depressing There's a lot of time left too...

Offense is killing us right now. They've made a lot of fouls, but I hope that we keep feeding Dwight inside.

Well, this is not exactly one of those night in which we can blame Hedo... 20 points and more than 50% shooting. Tonight for me the problem is Lewis, and poor bench scoring. What if we stop to play smallball for a while???

quote: Originally posted by Mat

Glad to have only a one point deficit. Defense is not fixed yet, but better. And they'll not shot 6/7 forever from downtown... We need more from Rashard (very poor game), MP (foul trouble and bad defense) and all the bench. Bogans and Lee are defending quite well, but nothing more than that.

This is why I don't like Sergio Fernandez... ops, wait Sergio Rodriguez. Silly passes and horrible defense. I agree, it's time to found a nick for Lee. Is FirstPickNotWastedInTheLastFewYears too long? :=)

What a bad sign for JJ to see Lee already playing in the first quarter. I really believe that Dwight problems at the FT line are only mental. His mechanic is good, there's no way he can't shot 70%. Worst defensive quarter of the season.

MP in troubles early, not a good sign. Our defense is "not so good" too. Glad to see Hedo attacking the basket. BTW, this link is working very well for me: http://www.atdhe.net/live-tv-349.html

McDyess waived. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3694041 It'll be interesting to see who sign him, Detroit is the first candidate. (I'll like to see this rule changed... 1 month is not enough, with 6 maybe teams will stop that joke) The West is interesting too. The Rockets are a interesting team, but there are too much "if"'s... Phoenix seem to had absorbed the style change quite well. We'll see. Utah and N.O. are also strong teams, having problems with injuries right now. Okur is back to Turkey for personal problems. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3694258 I've seen Memphis twice and it's a pretty intriguing team for the future. Darko is still a waste and I thanks Otis everyday for not giving him the money.

quote: Originally posted by Skywise316:And definitely Kobe dunk > Rudy dunk. But let Rudy have his moment in the sun. Rudy'll have plenty more moments in the sun, but Dwight's the one with the gold medal and it probably won't be his last either. I can assure you that european players didn't give so much importance on a dunk on the face of someone. Probably Rudy would forget very soon the dunk on Howard, but he'll remember forever losing the gold metal. Anyway, my prediction is: tight game but not overtime, the game will be decided on a last second shot. Don't know who will make it.