Projections & Previews for Magic (Broussard & Hollinger)

[ball junkie 277]

They have the Magic ranked 4th behind L.A., Miami & Boston

 

4. Orlando Magic

The more things change: Wildly busy last season, the Magic have done only small-scale tinkering this summer. But it could have large-scale implications. The loss of hard-nosed wing defender Matt Barnes will hurt, pure and simple. And the addition of backup (third-string?) point guard Chris Duhon will have minimal impact. Rookie Daniel Orton has promise, but he's a major project.

 

The more they stay the same: Vince Carter's wishy-washy play will only get more disappointing and inconsistent after a summer's worth of aging; Rashard Lewis' pattern of declining productivity in each of his three seasons in Orlando should continue; and summer spies say Dwight Howard hasn't been diligent about adding post moves to his sub-par offensive arsenal, so there's not much reason to believe the Magic will improve this season.

 

Duhon 3rd string???...What's up with that???...I'm sure you all can read so I won't re-quote the other depressing projections.

 

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/news/story?id=5500805

[BMP 424]

Calls Duhon third string, talks about Dwight not improving offensively, and says Orton has promise (at least for next year)

 

 

 

yep, we should definitely consider this guy to be intelligent and make a thread about things he says because he's definitely worth our time

[Franchero MVP 391]

People are still criticizing Dwight's offense?

 

[howard is a beast 80]

People are still criticizing Dwight's offense?

 

i guess being the best center in the league is not good enough. maybe he needs to block 10 shots a game pull down 20 boards, and avg 30 ppg.

they criticize him to no end.

[magicfan83 23]

While suggesting Duhon might be 3rd string and that Dwight won't improve is pretty lame, the man does have a point. There's probably 5 players on the roster that might improve upon their respective numbers of last year. Nelson, Howard, Bass, Anderson should be better players than they were last year (Nelson might not improve, but he should have a higher usage rate and that should up his numbers). Duhon is an upgrade over J-Will. JJ is probably the player that he's going to be at this point, while he made a good leap last year I think he's probably maxed out. Same for Gortat.

 

Vince will see a drop-off. Shard is a bit of a mystery in the sense that we don't know if he's going to be more involved in the offense or if he's going to play more SF. Q-Rich and Barnes is at best a wash and probably a slight drop-off.

 

Taking everything into consideration, we're probably as good as we were last year (which was, in fact, REALLY good). If we are better, its not significantly better. Where we could improve is in team chemistry (on the court) and in better distribution of offensive touches. Increasing the involvement of Howard and Nelson in the offense will be huge. If Ryan and Bass get better, it may allow Lewis some more post up opportunities at SF where he is ridiculously efficient. But looking at is as a whole, we were a damn good team last year and we can probably expect to be around 59 wins again and if not an ECF appearance, a 2nd round beast of a series against Boston or Miami.

[BMP 424]

While suggesting Duhon might be 3rd string and that Dwight won't improve is pretty lame, the man does have a point. There's probably 5 players on the roster that might improve upon their respective numbers of last year. Nelson, Howard, Bass, Anderson should be better players than they were last year (Nelson might not improve, but he should have a higher usage rate and that should up his numbers). Duhon is an upgrade over J-Will. JJ is probably the player that he's going to be at this point, while he made a good leap last year I think he's probably maxed out. Same for Gortat.

 

Vince will see a drop-off. Shard is a bit of a mystery in the sense that we don't know if he's going to be more involved in the offense or if he's going to play more SF. Q-Rich and Barnes is at best a wash and probably a slight drop-off.

 

Taking everything into consideration, we're probably as good as we were last year (which was, in fact, REALLY good). If we are better, its not significantly better. Where we could improve is in team chemistry (on the court) and in better distribution of offensive touches. Increasing the involvement of Howard and Nelson in the offense will be huge. If Ryan and Bass get better, it may allow Lewis some more post up opportunities at SF where he is ridiculously efficient. But looking at is as a whole, we were a damn good team last year and we can probably expect to be around 59 wins again and if not an ECF appearance, a 2nd round beast of a series against Boston or Miami.

 

 

I honestly think we'll have a better record because it wasn't until the 2nd half of the season that this team looked good. I expect our season to look a lot like that last half and maybe a month or two of average play (hopefully nothing like January).

 

 

And Hedos, you're not supposed to take that literally. Don't go check the win% of the team post all-star break, average it for the entire year, and substitute a few wins for losses (for those "average" months), and come out here saying that I meant to say we're going to have a record of 68-14.

 

 

 

Obviously in the playoffs it'll be a whole different story, but I'm fairly certain we'll have a better regular season record than we did last year, barring any major injuries.

[VCplusD12 91]

The Barnes and Duhon statements were simply disgraceful. Barnes got burnt by Pierce and Q is a much better shooter, and Duhon 3rd string? God, and they get paid for this?

[crisby pancakes 126]

Wow, I just find the statement that Duhon is a third string PG quite funny. I could have sworn the guy has been a fringe starter most of his career? I don't even know why I wasted my time skimming through comments made by Broussard at all.

 

Has he got the Magic projected as finishing 4th in the East? If he has I would like to know who he has ahead of us.

[Secretly Space Jesus 670]

And Hedos, you're not supposed to take that literally. Don't go check the win% of the team post all-star break, average it for the entire year, and substitute a few wins for losses (for those "average" months), and come out here saying that I meant to say we're going to have a record of 68-14.

 

The hell do I have to do with this?

[jec 427]

Chris Broussard is the same guy who said losing Hedo was going to set us back.

[UBBALLER8 248]

Welp guess the seasons over... why even bother watching if Chris Broussard and John Hollinger told us already?

 

:svgsad:

[Captain Hi-Top 791]

I hate it when my team is projected to be one of the top four teams in the league, so I can understand all the anger, doom, and gloom here in the thread.

 

Lakers are defending champs, Boston knocked us out of the playoffs last season, and everyone is in love with the major overhaul of Miami.

 

We made small tweaks to our roster. I don't understand why everyone is up in arms again, is it raining again?