Stock Meeting: Week One.

Skywise316 · November 3, 2008

Alright, here's my first attempt at a weekly version of Stock Up/Stock Down. Now this is supposed to be a reflection of the difference between how we view the Orlando Magic after the first week of the new regular season, as opposed to how we viewed the Magic after last season, and after the preseason. The whole idea is take the entire week into account, not just how things are going after the Kings game.

Let's see if this works out.

Stock Up:

Hedo Turkoglu. (This is the case of the biggest improvement from preseason to the end of Week 1 on the roster. After being the NBA Most Improved Player, Turk pretty much laid an egg this past preseason. But in the first week of the season, Turk returned to the Turk of old. If last year counts as old.

It took him a while to shake the Turkaflu, 13 points, 8 boards, and only 1 assist in the first game against ATL. But against Memphis & then Sac-town, he had game lines of 18-9-7, and 21-3-4. The offense started to flow through him again. We were worried about Hedo coming into the season. No worries.)

Mickael Pietrus. (Note to David Steele & Matty Guokas. It's Mickael. Not Michael! Geez.

Okay, who saw this coming? MP scored 20 points in 2 out of the first 3 games. Now, he had a bad game against Memphis thanks to massive foul trouble, but that's how good he was in the other two games. Against ATL he also had 3 boards, an assist, and a block while against the Kings he also had 4 boards, 2 assists, and a steal. His defense has been good, better than SVG will admit, but he hasn't been a defensive stopper. He's made some mistakes of being overly aggressive that he needs to correct. But still, he's clearly over performed most people's expectations.)

Dwight Howard. (Is it possible for an All-NBA first teamer to have his Stock go up? I say yes. Most things are the same here as last season. 3 straight double doubles including getting at least 14 rebounds in all 3 games. But shaky free throw shooting and bad turnovers in the first two games, more of the same that's been bad for Dwight. The one silver lining in those two categories is that Dwight only had one turnover against the Kings, hopefully he can keep that up.

So where does the "Up" come from? First game.. five blocks and five steals. Second game.. three blocks and a steal. Third game.. five blocks again. God knows how many shots he changed by just scaring people this past week. The defense is picking up and he's owning the paint like never before. This may be this season's next leap forward for Dwight, and he very well could back up his promise to lead the NBA in blocks this season. Especially if Marcus Camby can't get on the court.)

Rashard Lewis. (Another 2 out of 3 scenario for Shard. Even the one "bad" game he had against ATL it was because he fouled out early in the 4th quarter. However he still looked good when he was out there, even if his stats were just alright. 11 points, 5 boards, and an assist. But then he bounced back with games of 23-5-2 and 26-7-6. His game against the Kings was Hedo-esque. Also over the whole week he managed to get 5 steals and 2 blocks.

This builds off his stellar preseason, and these days it's like he sees the Detroit Pistons every time he plays. This is a good thing and when it comes to all phases of the game I have the highest of confidence in Rashard Lewis right now.)

Stock In The Middle:

Jameer Nelson. (He nearly got a Stock Up. Hear me out. This past week he's been a bit below average coming off an absolutely putrid preseason. Sounds like improvement to me... but I couldn't pull the trigger. He needs to show more of a body of work like his performance against the Kings before I can do that. Now to some people even this much might be a surprise, but if you sit back and look at it Jameer's had ups and downs last week, not just downs.

The Magic have played six halves. Jameer Nelson's actually played 3 good halves. The first half against Memphis he played well against Mike Conley, and both halves of the Sacramento game.

Against ATL he wasn't very good. He wasn't aggressive enough, shot poorly, and had 2 assists against 3 TOs. Memphis was a mixed bag, as he against shot poorly but had 4 assists against 2 turnovers with a steal of his own. Against Sac-town he shot the ball better, 4 of 9, while having 5 assists against 2 TOs and another steal. Overall his shooting just wasn't good enough, 12 made out of 35 attempts including his now infamous 6 bricks in a row in the fourth quarter against Memphis. But his effort and aggressiveness as the week went on salvaged his week. In conclusion, the jury's still out but he's now headed in a better direction.)

Stock Down:

Turnovers. (Feels like the middle of last season all over again when I had to keep harping on our turnovers. 15 with a lot of them ill-timed against ATL, then 17, and then a little better with 12 last time out. Turnovers are clearly the primary reason why we started 0-2 on the season. The second biggest reason?)

Free Throw Shooting. (This is 2 out of 3 in a bad way. Even though last time out the Magic were 25 of 31 for 80%, they started the season only 33 of 53. That's only a little over 62% and will not get the job done.)

Anthony Johnson. (A bit surprising perhaps, but this is a reflection of just how good he was in the preseason and then ordinary at best in the regular season.

Want an idea of what I'm talking about? In the entire preseason, A.J. had 29 assists against only 6 turnovers. In his last two preseason games against ATL & Memphis? 14 to 1! But in the regular season? Only 7 assists against 3 turnovers. Now assists aren't always on the passer, the guy catching it has to make a shot, but that's a pretty dramatic drop-off. He went from "Wow, he could be the starter" to "Yeah.. we're happy with him, but he's our backup.")

J.J. Redick. (To start the season, Redick is 0 for 8 from the field. Considering his hot shooting in the preseason, he's definitely off his offensive game. So despite the fact that he looks to be much smarter and comfortable on the defensive end than certainly last season, he's out there for one reason. To shoot it. You feel like watching the game Redick's just tight and expecting to get pulled any second, and he just needs to relax. Gee, I wonder why he thinks he has a quick hook. Can't blame him for that, but he needs to stop thinking so much and just read and react, as those infernal better basketball commercials on NBA TV keep saying.)

Tony Battie. (Here are his combined totals from THREE basketball games. Nearly 45 minutes played. 7 points. 3 of 8 shooting. 9 rebounds. 2 assists. 1 measly block. Really? That's all he could manage over the course of a week??

One play stands out in my mind. There was a loose ball out by the three point line, and Bogans was fighting two opposing players for it. Where was Battie? No more than 3 feet away in a defensive stance watching it all happen instead of going for the ball. Where is Battie's hustle, his energy? Bo Outlaw he has not been, that's for sure.

To make matters worse, over the past couple of games he's been backing up Dwight instead of Rashard and taking Gortat's minutes! SVG must be doing this off his reputation, because it sure can't be for his production on the court. As much "bad press" as J.J.'s taken overall and Bogans took in the Memphis game, no one on the bench that's been getting any sort of minutes has been more ineffective than Tony Battie by a wide margin. And this is coming from someone who was happy that Battie was coming back this season. Now, I'm not so sure.

But then again, he can't be doing any worse than Brian Cook would be doing if he were out there. Could it?)

Well, that's it. You wanted long and detailed, there's long and detailed. Overall we feel down about the Magic, and that's reflected in a 1-2 record. However the last game was a win, so we got a good taste in our mouths going. Let's hope the Magic build from here and exploit being in the beginning of a 6-game home stand.

Until Monday against those dastardly Bulls....

Good night and good luck.

P.S. Mods, please sticky.

Skywise316 · November 3, 2008