I'm getting "J.J. Fever"! But, he can't start with Jameer in the backcourt.

[ball junkie 277]

I'm not the only one. You should have heard Tim Povtak yesterday in the Magic podcast. He insinuated Redick should be starting over Grant Hill and how Grant really looks to be slowing down a lot. The media is catching on today and talking about his improved play.

 

In the Miami game when the Heat started to make a run after Dorrel Wright had that big dunk, who silenced the crowd with a dagger 3-ball from the corner! I loved it when he ran back down the court with that confident swagger. If he plays on your team you gotta love him.

 

Now to the but part. And I've been saying this since the day he was drafted.

 

"He will never start together with Jameer Nelson in the backcourt". And certainly not with a defensive minded coach like Brian Hill. I would venture to say that most coaches wouldn't start the two of them together.

 

Why? Because defensively it would hurt you.

 

Now before you start getting your panties in a wad hear me out.

 

I agree that J.J.'s defense is better than I thought. Most of the time he keeps his man in front of him. But, most coaches(Brian Hill included) want a team that dictates tempo with an agressive defense. You will "never" get that with Jameer and J.J. starting and playing a lot of minutes.

 

If you notice Redick is getting the bulk of his minutes when Keyon Dooling is at the point.

 

Lately our best line-up has consisted of Dooling at the point, Redick at shooting guard, Trevor at small forward, Darko or Battie at power forward and Dwight. You've got slashers, you've got deadly shooting, you've got post play and defense.

 

Here's a Redick comment from the Florida Today:

 

quote:

"It's definitely a different feeling now than a week ago when my minutes weren't as consistent," said Redick, who is averaging 5.7 points in 28 games this season. "The rhythm is what I needed and when I'm getting consistent time and knowing when I'm going in the game helps my rhythm."

 

Here's a comment from Coach Hill:

 

quote:

"J.J. has worked hard to gain our trust and he deserves it," Hill said. "Opposing defenses obviously don't want to leave him, and when he's out there with Dwight (Howard), it opens up the floor for us. As long as he continues to handle his defensive assignments, he's earned getting more and more playing time."

 

Here's a quote from the Sentinel that may ultmately play into J.J.'s favor and help shore up our point guard position. Very interesting comments from Keyon Dooling about opting out of his contract when most of us thought he would. Here it is:

 

quote:

Magic guard Keyon Dooling can opt out of his contract after the season but doesn't plan to test free-agency. "That probably is not the way to go for a guy like me," Dooling said. "We all saw what happened to DeShawn Stevenson."

 

Stevenson turned down an offer with Orlando similar to Dooling's current contract -- $9 million over three years. He wound up signing a one-year deal with the Washington Wizards for $930,000.

 

 

So to conclude, I'm loving J.J.'s play and he is starting to get me excited! But, he will never, ever be able to start as long as Jameer is our starting point guard.

 

 

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/...03200326/1002/SPORTS

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/local/orl-schmitz...orl-sports-headlines

[ball junkie 277]

I'm not the only one. You should have heard Tim Povtak yesterday in the Magic podcast. He insinuated Redick should be starting over Grant Hill and how Grant really looks to be slowing down a lot. The media is catching on today and talking about his improved play.

 

In the Miami game when the Heat started to make a run after Dorrel Wright had that big dunk, who silenced the crowd with a dagger 3-ball from the corner! I loved it when he ran back down the court with that confident swagger. If he plays on your team you gotta love him.

 

Now to the but part. And I've been saying this since the day he was drafted.

 

"He will never start together with Jameer Nelson in the backcourt". And certainly not with a defensive minded coach like Brian Hill. I would venture to say that most coaches wouldn't start the two of them together.

 

Why? Because defensively it would hurt you.

 

Now before you start getting your panties in a wad hear me out.

 

I agree that J.J.'s defense is better than I thought. Most of the time he keeps his man in front of him. But, most coaches(Brian Hill included) want a team that dictates tempo with an agressive defense. You will "never" get that with Jameer and J.J. starting and playing a lot of minutes.

 

If you notice Redick is getting the bulk of his minutes when Keyon Dooling is at the point.

 

Lately our best line-up has consisted of Dooling at the point, Redick at shooting guard, Trevor at small forward, Darko or Battie at power forward and Dwight. You've got slashers, you've got deadly shooting, you've got post play and defense.

 

Here's a Redick comment from the Florida Today:

 

quote:

"It's definitely a different feeling now than a week ago when my minutes weren't as consistent," said Redick, who is averaging 5.7 points in 28 games this season. "The rhythm is what I needed and when I'm getting consistent time and knowing when I'm going in the game helps my rhythm."

 

Here's a comment from Coach Hill:

 

quote:

"J.J. has worked hard to gain our trust and he deserves it," Hill said. "Opposing defenses obviously don't want to leave him, and when he's out there with Dwight (Howard), it opens up the floor for us. As long as he continues to handle his defensive assignments, he's earned getting more and more playing time."

 

Here's a quote from the Sentinel that may ultmately play into J.J.'s favor and help shore up our point guard position. Very interesting comments from Keyon Dooling about opting out of his contract when most of us thought he would. Here it is:

 

quote:

Magic guard Keyon Dooling can opt out of his contract after the season but doesn't plan to test free-agency. "That probably is not the way to go for a guy like me," Dooling said. "We all saw what happened to DeShawn Stevenson."

 

Stevenson turned down an offer with Orlando similar to Dooling's current contract -- $9 million over three years. He wound up signing a one-year deal with the Washington Wizards for $930,000.

 

 

So to conclude, I'm loving J.J.'s play and he is starting to get me excited! But, he will never, ever be able to start as long as Jameer is our starting point guard.

 

 

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/...03200326/1002/SPORTS

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/local/orl-schmitz...orl-sports-headlines

[mymaster 0]

i agree some lineups you might not want to play together. ive noticed that when nelson and JJ are in together nelson takes more shots. dooling and JJ seem to be getting more comfortable playing together and the more minutes JJ gets he will get more looks. this team has been playing the same lineup, same plays all season and now things are being switched up. junkie you are right about the defense but another reason might be that nelson is jealous of JJ.

[bhnole 153]

Lots of subjects here!

 

I agree that JJ can't play big minutes alongside Jameer, we are just too small in the backcourt then. But the Dooling, JJ and Ariza lineup has been a wrecking crew off the bench lately. The second half of the Kings game was the only one it did not increase a lead in. But that had as much to do with Hedo(sick) and Hill(foul trouble) messing up the rotations.

 

What makes JJ such a potent scorer is his ability to catch and shoot off a screen. This put huge pressure on our opponents perimeter defense. Which gives our talented bigs more room to work. Bogans on the other hand can only shoot when left alone and spotted up for his slow windup and release.

[davcivic 11]

and who said Jameer will be our starting point guard next year?

 

JJ has proven he can play in this league. He might not be the #1 option for a team, because of his size, or defense or blah blah blah. BUT he can give us a good 12-15 pts a game, maybe more, while spreading the floor and playing great off the ball defense. I said it from even before the season started. He can help us.

 

Right now I rather see Dooling on the floor. Last year, he was not as good running the point when Jameer went down. This year he is owning the position. I like it.

 

with that all said, which is great to think of the positives this year, we have a lot of work to do still as a team in order to become a serious contender. Hell even to be a playoff team.

[random 19]

You are definitely not the only one! And yeah as you say, there is not much chance that JJ will ever start with Nelson in the back court. I hope next year he remains our first backup on SG position and gets constant 20 minutes so he can show us what he can do. After that it will be much clearer if he is a starter material or not.

[Adam_Magic 56]

quote:

"J.J. has worked hard to gain our trust and he deserves it," Hill said. "Opposing defenses obviously don't want to leave him, and when he's out there with Dwight (Howard), it opens up the floor for us. As long as he continues to handle his defensive assignments, he's earned getting more and more playing time."

 

That is the most sensible thing I have heard Coach Hill say, period!

[vic110 0]

quote:

Originally posted by bhnole:

Lots of subjects here!

 

I agree that JJ can't play big minutes alongside Jameer, we are just too small in the backcourt then. But the Dooling, JJ and Ariza lineup has been a wrecking crew off the bench lately. The second half of the Kings game was the only one it did not increase a lead in. But that had as much to do with Hedo(sick) and Hill(foul trouble) messing up the rotations.

 

What makes JJ such a potent scorer is his ability to catch and shoot off a screen. This put huge pressure on our opponents perimeter defense. Which gives our talented bigs more room to work. Bogans on the other hand can only shoot when left alone and spotted up for his slow windup and release.

 

 

 

I agree with you bhnole.............

I said the same thing under another discussion. The combination of JJ and Ariza on the court with Dwight is amazing. I do not think Dooling will be the ultimate starter but a Defensive minded / Pass first Point Guard will be a must in the Off-Season.

[jack daniel 999 27]

I'm glad to see JJ getting some PT...

 

The more I see him the more I want to see him .

 

I hope they can find a way to get him more minutes...

 

His defense isn't all that bad and he's an active player.

[Emory889 353]

I have got to be honest, I'm still not sure if Dooling is the long term answer to the pg problem. He has played well the past few games but all players have stretches when they play well and I want to see it over the long run. I'm a little torn because I like Steve Blakes' game alot but I want another season to evaluate our pg's improvement.

 

There are definitely matchup problems with Jameer and JJ playing together. I do think alot of these problems can be countered with Ariza. Most teams don't have a dominant 2 guard and small forward. Take the Lakers for example. It would be suicide to leave JJ on Kobe but we could probably get away with JJ playing Luke Walton. If we could acquire one more tough perimeter defender (Pietrus would be perfect) then these lineups could work. Remember they have to play us on our end as well. Something tells me that Kobe doesn't want to chase JJ around screens all game either.

[MagicmaninMiami 0]

quote:

Originally posted by Adam_Magic:

quote:

"J.J. has worked hard to gain our trust and he deserves it," Hill said. "Opposing defenses obviously don't want to leave him, and when he's out there with Dwight (Howard), it opens up the floor for us. As long as he continues to handle his defensive assignments, he's earned getting more and more playing time."

 

That is the most sensible thing I have heard Coach Hill say, period!

 

Which only goes to show that we are all geniuses on this board. We've been saying this for months.

[FENDI 4]

Very nice analysis Junkie. Anyway, I do believe that JJ will be starter sooner than later, it might even come next year. But eventhough him and Jameer wouldn't compliment well on defense, I do believe that the day will come that both of them will be playing a large chuck of minutes with each other. Defense is only through hard work and dedication.