Kelly Dwyer thinks Magic will be a top team next season
You're the Orlando Magic. You just won 59 games, you probably should have beaten the Boston Celtics, you were designed to win a championship, and your best feature involves a 24-year-old, 6-11 center who can slap the top of the backboard while leading the NBA in blocks and rebounds at the same time.
Could you start things over, if you wanted to, Mr. Orlando Magic? No, you couldn't. Because you've already spent the money. You bought the tickets, and you're on the cruise. It doesn't matter if you don't like the buffet, if you can't stand the MC, or if you forget to pack your good slacks. You're on the boat. You're going to be there, with this crew, until at least 2012.
The Orlando Magic are stuck, but the Orlando Magic are stacked. I had them coming out of the East, all season. I had them offering all the answers, too quick for the Celtics, too sturdy for the Cavaliers, too good for Atlanta. I thought they were going to defend their crown, and I told anyone that would listen that the finals were to start in Florida two days from now.
I was wrong, obviously. The Magic leaned too hard on people, not players, who shouldn't be leaned upon. People who cannot be trusted. Respect the hell out of Jameer Nelson as a person, I implore you, but at times he's too unaware of his own talent. His own gifts. The same can be said for Vince Carter, who could be an absolute demon in the triple-threat position in a playoff game. The exact same for Rashard Lewis. All three failed Orlando, in May.
...a team that's probably going to return just about everyone next season, and a team that should probably have the best chance (with Boston possibly fading, and LeBron James going or staying or who the heck knows?) at taking the Eastern crown in 2010-11.You bring everyone back, and you try again. The Magic are a championship-level team. If only they knew.
Here is the complete column from Kelly Dwyer from Ball Don't Lie.
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 1:50 AM
6 Comments:
At 3:37 PM,
Jimmy Bee said…
Mike From Illinois...and i quote...
"All the pressure is on Boston tonight; they were supposed to have swept the Magic in four games after their dominant Game 3 win, but instead, the Magic are halfway to history!
Boston fans are still thinking about the Bruins blowing a 3 games to none lead to the Flyers in the NHL Playoffs a few weeks ago, and now the Celtics are in danger themselves of doing the same thing.
The Magic will be in the same dressing room as the Flyers were when they shocked Boston in Game 7 to complete a historical comeback, only the third time in NHL history a team has come back from down 3 games to none.
Of course, it's never been done in basketball before, but it's going to happen sometime, and the Magic find themselves in good position to be that team."
LOL LMAO!!!!!
hahahahahaha!!!!
LOL!!!
this is not hockey, if you know the game of basketball you would know, you cannot be down 3-0 and win the series....LOL!!
so funny, yet soooooo stupid...
bandwagon jumper!...
LOL!
At 3:41 PM,
ACBF said…
Jimmy---I think the part that is the most amusing is about how mike from Illinois actually belived that the pressure was on Boston...lol. boston was up 3-2 and the pressure was on boston? you crazy player! silly kid. you will learn one of these days how the game works.
-A concerned basketball fan
At 3:45 PM,
Kyle Mountain said…
I don't think they have to make that many changes, I just think they had a bad stretch of games at the worst possible time. Dwight needs to become more offensive, there's no doubt about that. Can you imagine if a baseline jumper and a turn around were added to his game?
Also, I think Vince Carter was a problem down the stretch. He just tried to do too much. They need to calm him down and run their offense if they want to win.
At 3:46 PM,
Phil's Jackson said…
hahaha...yall crazy holla at ya boy! i see ya working orlando. ya can believe what ya want dogg...but fo it ta happen, it aint gonna happen and yall learn from it dogg.
i jus be feelin bad for my man mike from illinois, people doggin him today. ill holla at ya mike. keep ya head up kid aight
At 10:19 PM,
Matt said…
Although I find myself in agreement with Dwyer on a lot of points that he made during the season, I disagree with this one. Yes, the Magic should have beaten BOS hands down since they were the better team, but they dug a big hole losing two games at home (the second one purely due to bad execution at the end), and the rest is history. BOS may fade next year (simply becuase they are old), and who knows what will happen with CLE. But the Rashard at PF is not working; it didn't work neither last season (against LA) nor this season (against BOS). Considering that the target is to win a championship, why bother to test the tested. The pressure is too much on Dwight to hold the fort down on defensive end, and he needs help. Amare is the perfect fit, and if that happens in Vince's expense, I will accept that thinking that J.J. would do just fine. That frontline of Dwight and Amare would be better than Shaq and Grant giving us the center lock-down which makes perimeter defense less relevant.
At 1:11 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Well, I can take the heat for saying what I did before Game 6; I'm certainly entitled to root for and have faith in my team. I sincerely congratulated Boston in my Game 6 recap because they responded very well in Game 6 and showed they were the better team in winning the series.
Kelly Dwyer is a highly respected NBA blogger on Yahoo! Sports, so us Magic followers aren't the only people who believe the Magic will be back strong.
From what I've been reading on OPP, a lot of Magic fans believe that they should stick with Rashard Lewis at the four and not go with the traditonal PF because there's no reason to panic since the Magic have advanced so far the last two seasons; also there's concerns that if the Magic start a traditional PF and move Rashard to SF, it will cause D12's game to suffer because he won't have as much room.
I guess it all depends on what the Magic front office and coaching staff thinks the direction the team should go in.
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