Orlando Magic Blog

Group Blog talking about the NBA 2009 Eastern Conference Champions. Due to the amazing success of the 2009 playoff run comments are now frequently deleted to kill offensive comments, incoherence, or asininity. Comments can no longer be anonymous and require either a Blogger or OpenID account.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Magic finally show a pulse in win over UT

12 Comments:

At 3:48 AM, Mike from Illinois said…

Sorry I couldn't publish my usual game preview and post-game statistical recap, but twice, I tried to publish it, and it kept telling me I wasn't typing in the right letters for word verification, but I was. A new word did not automatically appear, like it always did before, and when I reloaded the page to get a new word, my post disappeared and I wasn't able to recover it. Don't know what's up with that, but if it continues to give me problems, next time I'll just post the headline and do the rest of my post in the comment section.

Anyway, glad to see the new, improved player rotation for the Magic, like you guys mentioned on the other post. If they can beat SAC on SAT and win 2 in a row, I'll feel a lot better about their chances for making the playoffs.
At 10:27 AM, Big Figure said…

I def agree with matt and intro about someone getting on bsh to make some drastic changes,change isnt part of his vocab as we've come to understand as fans of this team that watch his every move,that style of play isnt in his coaching handbook either i have to agree,so what does this mean? Will we play with the same rotation saturday night? Will we run saturday night? If we play with that same rotation the rest of the season like intro said i'll become a keyon fan too,and getting to watch JJ play will be heaven sent,also we've seen what trevor can do and only expect him to even better as time goes by,his jumper seemed to be on last night which is a sign that he can become a consistent shooter,as long as bsh only expands and puts darko into the rotation,i'll return to supporting the team in a playoff appearance. If bsh turns back into the clueless coach,carlos gets back into the rotation,keyon plays the shooting guard,jj gets sent back to the end of the bench,and the team starts walking the ball up,i'll return to not supporting the team in a playoff appearance and would hope the team doesnt make the playoffs so that everyone can be evaluated and change can come.
At 1:59 PM, Matt said…

I think Hill has bought some time with this win, but we will see if he remains faithful to a run and gun offense. It's funny that right before the game, in tinkering with the team's future structure, I mentioned that I like Keyon as a back-up PG over Carlos. In fact, whenever Keyon was running the point, defense picked up causing turnovers for Utah leading to fastbreaks for the Magic. Jameer can run the same offense, as he has proven last year, but Hill's restrictions on him has killed all that ability since he wants to be faithful to Hill's preaching.

Call me a pessimist, if you want, but I think that Hill may fall back on the style that he is comfortable with, as soon as he feels that his job is no longer in jeopardy.

By the way, a couple of Matts have come up posting on Sentinel, none of whom are me. But of course I don't have a monopoly on the name Matt. Just wanted to clear it up. The funny part is the outrage of Puerto Rican community who are crying conspiracy since Carlos has been benched. In my view, Carlos is a fine point guard, but him and Jameer are the same type of players with minor differences while Keyon is a totally different point guard compared to them both. So when Keyon comes in, it is more of a defensive stance to start with, and then based on his foot speed it is more of pushing the ball, to which Grant, Hedo, Dwight, Trevor and J.J. are all direct beneficiaries.
At 4:17 PM, Big Figure said…

Matt i dont think that view is pessimistic at all going by bsh's history,i think its realistic when it comes to what bsh has shown us in the past,i totally agree that he may fall back into that sleep mode basketball,why should we think he would do anything else? As they say proof is in the pudding,i'll have to see it to beleive it (him sticking with the style that best suits us,running)(and staying with the same rotation).
At 9:26 PM, Mike from Illinois said…

Question... with this new player rotation, do you guys think that TBattie should remain the starting PF, or should Darko be the starter when his back gets better?

The team knows what it's going to get from the solid veteran Battie, even though he isn't quite 100% yet, but Darko can be either terrific or mediocre from game to game, which is to be expected from such a young player.

The Magic played much better against UT with the fast-break approach on offense and the solid defense, along with the new player rotations. So maybe the Magic would be better off to keep Battie as starter, and Darko coming in as backup for around 23-25 minutes a game?

I, too, am curious to see what type of game plan BHill is going to have against SAC. He seemed to be really happy with the 8 players who played against UT.
At 11:08 PM, Matt said…

While I admit that Darko has been erratic at times, I don't think that we can do worse with him as a starter. His defense, rebounding and shot blocking is superior to that of Battie, and his offense although less reliable can only improve. Regardless, we need to get him ready for next year. This year even if the Magic makes it to the play-offs, and that is still a big if, they are not going far. Hopefully, by next year we will be relieved from putting up with Hill at the helm, and will have a coach who will encourage the development of young talents rather than killing them. Hill, in my view, is the main reason for Jameer regressing. Don't be deceived by his grand fatherly look. He is quite autocratic who holds grudge, for which there are plenty of evidence if you look deeply into his professional history. The lesson from this situation has been that nobody can treat the public as the immature kids to whom no accountability is in order.
At 7:52 AM, Ken said…

Good question Mike. It's true that Battie is the more consistent player, but I got to agree with matt on this one. Darko is the one being groomed for the future. And I think there are still some questions that need to be answered concerning his mental and physical toughness (Not that BSH is a good judge of any of these). The only way Darko is going to get any better is by being on the floor with the starting line-up. Sure, he'll have his share of struggles, but there's nothing better than on-the-job training. The thought of Dwight and Darko hitting their collective strides on the same team at the same time should make opposing coaches wet themselves whenever they have to face them. Darko is going to get better, but for those times he struggles, what better back-up than a solid veteran like Battie?
At 3:36 PM, OVERWADED said…

I agree with all of you. This year is all but over. We only won a single game. Regardless how we finish, we're not going to win the Finals. And when the season ends, Darko is still a restricted free agent. We must continue to start him, as that is all we have to assess his value.

Now if we had a coach who was a little smarter, or a GM who had some form of power over the coach, Darko would have been starting all year, and there wouldn't be so many lingering questions around him.

But that's why I believe he should continue to start. And as Ken said, when he struggles, who better than to have than a veteran like Battie coming off the bench behind him?
At 3:38 PM, OVERWADED said…

FBH.org said: "As reported by WDBO,
Brian Hill did not design last night's game plan, Tom Sterner did"....
At 12:57 AM, Matt said…

I don't know how reliable that report is. I have not read any thing to validate that statement.
At 1:03 AM, Ken said…

That's news to me also...
At 8:53 AM, Matt said…

As expected, Hill is going to start a not fully healthy Battie over Darko. I have disgustedly posted the following on Sentinel:

"It is the same boneheaded Brian Hill that we got to know, all along. It is foolish to start a not fully healthy Battie over Darko, whose defense, shot blocking and rebounding is superior to Battie, although I agree he could be erratic at times. Regardless, Darko is the future, and this season is lost thanks to Brian Hill, even if the team makes to the play-offs, in my view, because a disgraceful exit from the first round is awaiting the Magic. Don't get me wrong, I love the Magic, but we have to be realistic about the situation with a so-called coach that lacks logic in all facets of his operations but acts autocratically with little or no regard for anybody else's opinion.".

2009 Eastern Conference Champs