Outlook: Magic Season 2011-12

[LaVar 108]

The way I see the Magic season beginning successful is in 4 ways:

1) SVG

2) Big baby and Supporting Cast (Coming Soon)

3) Playoff Run (Coming Soon)

4) The Howard Factor (Coming Soon)

 

 

Stan Van Gundy

This season is the biggest season in Magic history and it is all riding on Stan Van Gundy's shoulders. Stan has his strengths and weakness.

 

On the positive side:

1. He is an extremely hard worker.

2. He has knowledge of the game.

3. He preaches defense/energy and the players seem to like him.

4. He has won more than lost (Overall he is a good coach in this league)

But on the negative side:

1. He is slow to make adjustments on the court

2. He does not put players, other than Howard, in good position to score. (Lewis and Jason Richardson could have been used better in our set offense.)

3. He gets flustered easy. (As a coaching leader, this rubs off on the team in tough moments.)

 

 

Stan Van Gundy: Stan, the biggest problem with the Magic last year was Def and energy. You saw it. You pouted every other game about it, but you refused to add defense and energy to the line up. WHY? We had too many offensive minded players in our line up: Bass, Turk, J Rich, and Nelson. We needed defense, toughness, and energy. When we won the most games it was Lee, Barnes, and MP in the line up. PLEASE, for the love of God, bench Turk; start Q Richardson or see if Clark can run with the big boys. Big baby will help a lot in this area, but we need more. I think people will be surprise with Big Baby. On the defensive end, it is night and day between Baby and Bass. Baby’s strengths are: passion/energy, toughness, help def, and a mid range jump shot. He does not finish at the basket like Bass, nor does he get to the line like him, but we don’t need offense. If you start: C Howard, PF Baby, SF Q Rich, SG J Rich, Nelson- We will get the right mix of Def and offense needed to win games. Turk can play point forward off the bench (a better option than Chris D.) Bench Rotation: Anderson, Clark, Turk, JJ, Von

(Note: Wafer played really well for Houston, during their short handed playoff run [2 or 3 years ago], as a setup man and play maker. He is a very good combo guard player.)

[Marc Acres 3:16 418]

Stan had to leave the offensive guys out there because we have had issues scoring, in the 2nd half of the season and in the playoffs we went through long draughts which put pressure on the D to stop the other team every time down the floor. The defensive guys that we've had on the bench also were not doing a very good job playing defense so they were not helping on either end. What it really comes down to is that Stan hasn't been given very good players to work with. Otis has brought in offensive players and he seems to think that Stan will work miracles with guys that have never played D. Stan gets the most out of players but this is asking too much, this also happens to be what Dwight has been griping about, not bringing in guys that will give their all when they are out there.

[LaVar 108]

i remember q rich and clark playing very good mins when given a chance on the court. It is also hard to be constant on offense when your mins are every other week. I do agree with you about the roster lacking some what last year, but we just added about 30mins of very good defense with baby. I really want to see how he effects the team overall. Last years team had to out score teams because of the lack of defense and time for our defenive players. If stan ran more solid plays for jason richardson and ryan anderson, we could get the pts needed. I think bring turk off the bench is key.

 

(I think clark could have been our second best defender if given the mins, but he has to hit his open shots. Q would have been fine because he can hit the 3 ball.)