jav25 0 Report post Posted March 13, 2007 From CNNSI.com's Kelly Dwyer I know it seems as if every other one of these columns turns into a Brian Hill ripfest, but we've been watching this same pattern doom teams for years. His early Orlando squads, led by Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway, didn't just lose to better teams in the playoffs -- they lost to better teams that had half of Orlando's playbook memorized by halftime of the first game. This is why Hall of Fame-level coaches like Larry Brown (with Indiana, 1994), Rudy Tomjanovich (Houston, 1995) and Jackson (Chicago, 1996) made mincemeat of those Magic teams with playoff sweeps. Revisionist history wants to lay the blame at the feet of the feuding superstars or Shaq's foibles at the free throw line. Though these issues didn't exactly help things, they don't lead to four-game sweeps, either. It appears as if the same stylistic issues are dooming this year's Magic: Hill had his team playing next-to-perfect basketball coming out of training camp, taking advantage of an league that usually takes six weeks to get its act together. But the team hasn't been able to think on its collective feet, offer up a new quirk or 10, and Orlando has fallen out of the playoff bracket as a result. The Magic aren't really playing much worse than what we sawin November (although Jameer Nelson stunk it up pretty badly in February); it's just that the rest of the league has grown wise to the team's ways. And it's hard not to foster a dour outlook for a team in the playoff hunt that allows the Bobcats to score 119 points against it with just 17 games left to play. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jav25 0 Report post Posted March 13, 2007 From CNNSI.com's Kelly Dwyer I know it seems as if every other one of these columns turns into a Brian Hill ripfest, but we've been watching this same pattern doom teams for years. His early Orlando squads, led by Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway, didn't just lose to better teams in the playoffs -- they lost to better teams that had half of Orlando's playbook memorized by halftime of the first game. This is why Hall of Fame-level coaches like Larry Brown (with Indiana, 1994), Rudy Tomjanovich (Houston, 1995) and Jackson (Chicago, 1996) made mincemeat of those Magic teams with playoff sweeps. Revisionist history wants to lay the blame at the feet of the feuding superstars or Shaq's foibles at the free throw line. Though these issues didn't exactly help things, they don't lead to four-game sweeps, either. It appears as if the same stylistic issues are dooming this year's Magic: Hill had his team playing next-to-perfect basketball coming out of training camp, taking advantage of an league that usually takes six weeks to get its act together. But the team hasn't been able to think on its collective feet, offer up a new quirk or 10, and Orlando has fallen out of the playoff bracket as a result. The Magic aren't really playing much worse than what we sawin November (although Jameer Nelson stunk it up pretty badly in February); it's just that the rest of the league has grown wise to the team's ways. And it's hard not to foster a dour outlook for a team in the playoff hunt that allows the Bobcats to score 119 points against it with just 17 games left to play. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JC Aponte 0 Report post Posted March 13, 2007 Could not agree more when she said : (although Jameer Nelson stunk it up pretty badly in February Thank you for reading my mind! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Marc Acres 3:16 418 Report post Posted March 13, 2007 http://orlandomagiczone.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/88910298...701091643#5701091643 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
