Late Magic Wands: October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween!

-The season has started and so Uni Watch, a favorite column of mine on ESPN.com, has its official review of the new jerseys. As I have said (before I started this blog), the uniforms are not perfect. They blend the old and the new and create some horrible hybrid that probably is fuel efficient. I think the blue jerseys look pretty sharp, but the white jerseys need some work.

-As you get to know me, you will find that I have an affinity for random bench players. As a bench warmer myself, I appreciate the hard work these guys put in for so little reward. My bench warming all stars include Andrew DeClerq, Steven Hunter, Mario Kasun and Marcin Gortat. Gortat though is working his way into the rotation after a great postseason. Keep fighting the power Marcin.

-Also in the Orlando Sentinel: the 20 greatest moments in Magic history. They are trying to make a point about the founding of the Magic, but Nick Anderson's steal No. 15? That is clearly a top five moment in team history.

-And an amazing photo gallery by the Sentinel to honor the team's 20th anniversary.

-I am an optimist. But even I think this is a little much. The Magic in the Finals? Not quite yet. But the door is open.

Happy New Year!

The day we have been waiting for is finally here. All the records have been reset and we are finally ready to tip off. I will try to leave some nuggets about tonight's matchup somewhere on here later today. But for now, let me prep you on how you should get ready for tonight's game

-Plan on getting to Amway Arena earlier than usual. I usually settle into my seat with a box of Uno (I miss you Pizza Hut!!!!!) and a bottle of water around half an hour before the game. But for opening night, I get there a little earlier to take in the pregame festivities. Expect a live marching band drumline and lots more pyrotechnics for tonight's game. I am sure the team has something special planned for the 20th anniversary season.

-Listen to the "Orlando Magic Theme Song" and "Are You Ready for This?" at least twice before getting to the stadium (even better if on the way up). Nothing pumps up Magic fans better than these two songs.

-Wear blue. Treat the first game like a playoff game. The best way is to get off on the right foot. And it feels good to put on that jersey for the first time in a while. Bonus points for wearing the original jersey desing -- throwback or otherwise.

-Finally, enjoy the win. Orlando is 12-7 in opening night games and has not lost since losing to the Indiana Pacers in 2005.

Next year might be this year

It seems for 19 seasons (with very little exceptions), Orlando has waited for next season for things to get better. In the Tracy McGrady-era it was wait until Grant Hill is healthy. Early on it was wait for a big signing or some lucky ping pong balls. Up until last year, fans waited for Dwight Howard's maturity.

But probably for the first time since the Magic went to the Finals in 1995, expectations can realistically be raised for this team.

Orlando's improbably 52-win season and Southeast Division championship last season set several benchmarks for the franchise. It was the realization of three years of building and the coming together of the right pieces at the right time.

Hedo Turkoglu finally realized his potential. Howard fulfilled (a fraction) of his. Rashard Lewis was the big free agent signing that boosted a mediocre team. Stan Van Gundy was the coach that put the team over the top.

Now this team has expectations to get better. And this year might be THE year for something special to happen.

Guards: clearly the one weakness on the team. Jameer Nelson had a fantastic postseason, but during the season he was average at best. The point guard position was propped up by a career year by Keyon Dooling.

Van Gundy always had Dooling as a fall back plan when Nelson struggled. It is Nelson's show now.

I have always doubted Nelson as a starting point guard. He is serviceable, but his injury problems and defensive ability (read: height) have always cast some doubt in my mind. But the team will find out if it smartly invested its money in Nelson as the starter.

The big issue is depth. Anthony Johnson is also a run-of-the-mill player. I do not have confidence that he can change games off the bench.

The Mickael Pietrus signing is an incredibly big signing for Orlando. He is a versatile player who was always put out of position under Don Nelson in Golden State. Pietrus has shown some defensive ability and shooting ability -- more than replacing Maurice Evans. The real question is can he do it for an entire season?

It seems the Magic are locked in on Pietrus and believe he can give them more than Evans did last season (and I believe that too). But he has not done that yet. It leaves Orlando in the same position as they were last year starting Keith Bogans. The Magic hope he can drastically improve and live up to some potential but might be happy (or stuck with) the level he was producing at earlier.

The bench is a nice amalgamation of players. Keith Bogans is a solid defender and good 3-point shooter. JJ Redick can shoot (and has not shown he can do much else). Courtney Lee is the highly coveted draft pick.

There is going to be some good competition in this group for sure. Van Gundy should feel relatively confident putting any three of these guys out there. None of them will wow you (or really push Pietrus for minutes), but they should get the job done.

Forwards: Turkoglu and Lewis worked well together last year and there is no reason to think they will not again this season.

Turkoglu finally showed the aggression everyone was waiting for him to show. That should attract more defenses to him this season. And the double-edged sword attacks again. Lewis has said publicly that he deferred a lot last year.

If this preseason has been any indication, Lewis is going to be much better in year two. He was attacking the basket and scoring a lot more in the preseason games.

Either way you look at it, Turkoglu and Lewis combined should have better seasons. Teams will not which player to guard and whoever is open will take advantage of it. I expect Turk's numbers to drop a little and Lewis' numbers to increase.

But it is a net gain for Orlando.

Center: this was one of the weakest positions depth-wise last year. Now Orlando has a good stable of big men behind Howard.

Howard is going to do what he does: make thunderous dunks, clean up under the rim, rebound and block shots. His offense should improve again this year. If he becomes a more consistent offensive option, the Magic can compete with anyone in the playoffs.

What Detroit killed Orlando with was physical play underneath and aggressive double teams at Howard.

That should not happen if the big men behind Howard improve. Tony Battie is a solid player who will draw defenses away from Howard. But how he comes back from injury is a big question mark again for Orlando. Marcin Gortat also needs to improve to take pressure off Howard.

Prediction: the Magic did not really improve themselves this year. There are marginal improvements in certain areas, but losses in others. The Southeast Division is not that strong and they should still win that. But expecting the team to challenge for a championship (barring something amazing) might be unrealistic -- but the team should not stop belieiving, it is certainly possible.

A realistic expectation is to make it back to the second round and have a better showing than a five-game exit.

Record: 50-32
Finish: 1st, Southeast Division
Playoff Finish: Second Round
NBA Champions: Los Angeles Lakers

Magic Wands: October 24, 2008

New feature alert! Here is a (hopefully) weekly amalgamation of Magic news and tidbits. Kind of like Truehoop's bullets... or morning cup... or late bullets (you get the picture).

Still feeling out (trying to find time for) the blog so this may become a rolling feature throughout the week as news items get added or it may just be a weekly thing. Enjoy either way.

-So Orlando is involved again in changes to the replay system. The NBA Board of Governors voted to expand the use of instant replay this year to include decisions on whether a shot was a two- or three-pointer.

Of course this started when Chauncey Billups got an extra 1.5 seconds before hitting a three to end the third quarter in the decisive game five of the Eastern Conference Semifinals last season against the Magic. The referees ruled in that case that the clock started late, but they could not use that as a ruling and had to make the call as it stood.

The Pistons went up four to end the quarter and won the series.

Now the referees can make clock determinations and decide whether the clock started late or not and whether that shot would have gotten off in time if it does start late. That is a good decision.

The bad decision is letting referees stop the game besides at the end of quarters. The college game uses replay this way and it takes a long time to go through the challenge of a three-point shot. This is not a good way to keep the game moving. Stopping the game for five minutes while they zoom in as close as they can to the line will kill team's momentum and possibly change games more than just one point.

The NBA is trying to do something good here, but it will inevitably cause more harm than good. Referees are right most of the time (except you, Tim Donaghy), trust them.

-So Dwight Howard has his own blog now on NBA.com. Outside of the grammatical errors and general PR'ishness the blog will have, it will be interesting for readers to get to know his personality off the court.

Howard is reported to be a pretty fun-loving guy off the court. Hopefully he will get to show this personality in the blog a little bit. It will be interesting to keep up with.

More interesting is his plans to unleash DwightTV on the world. Think Chris Bosh's videos except with Dwight Howard. I am expecting some good battles between the two both on the court and on YouTube.

-All the previews are coming out (including mine which will hopefully drop Tuesday night or shortly thereafter), and the consensus seems to be the Magic will finish fourth in the East and win the Southeast Division by default. Go to your favorite sports site for your favorite talking head.

More interestingly is the respect Orlando is getting from the GMs. The NBA released its annual GM polls and Howard and coach Stan Van Gundy had pretty solid showings.

Howard tied for second with Tim Duncan for best interior defender (Kevin Garnett won) and he was third for which player you would build your franchise around. Howard is mentioned plenty more times in the poll.

Van Gundy also got some love as one of the best coaches in the league. Pretty big expectations for this year's team. Regular season is only days away now.

Attention is great but...

Magic fans: that hexing feeling you feel is not your imagination. Someone is actually placing a curse on Orlando.

That someone? Sports Illustrated.

The pre-eminent sports magazine's NBA preview is coming out and so are its notoriously cursed teams. Dwight Howard (curiously wearing a sleeve, that is what I get for not being in Orlando) is featured on one of the regional covers.

Howard is putting up monster numbers in the preseason. It is nice that Orlando is getting some love (everyone on ESPN picked the Magic to finish first in the Southeast Division and fourth in the conference), but everyone is also mentioning the team's injury fortunes last year.

The SI curse is the last thing the team needs. Enjoy the publicity while it lasts.

Richie Adubato likes Sarah Palin

You know it is preseason when the conversation drifts to politics. Thank you Dennis Neuman for drifting us back to basketball.

What? The game is another blowout.

End of the third quarter now, and the Magic are handling CSKA Moscow pretty easily. Don't expect to see starters in the fourth, so I feel pretty safe saying Dwight Howard scored 28 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

He is playing very well so far this season -- no thanks to the McDonald's he is peddling on the TV, I am sure. He has pronounced that he is focusing more on blocking shots offense . But this game was all about him dominating the inside. Romanus (spelling?) Siskauskas, the Euroleague MVP last year, could not handle him inside and he had his fifth foul by the middle of the third quarter.

I listened on the radio. Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu look like they will be ready for the season. The team is not turning the ball over and the defense has played well since giving up 45 points to Atlanta on Monday.

Still preseason, so take it all with a grain of salt.

This is what I am talking about

So I had a few notes here and there in the past week, but was unable to post them. Why?

Because apparently Blogger thinks this is a spam blog. Whoops.

Only an Orlando Magic blog would face these things. No knock on Blogger, they are doing a decent thing and I am not going to complain about it.

But this is tantamount to David Stern fining Rich DeVos for donating to a charity in Grant Hill's name. Yes, it is following the letter of the law but fining someone for donating to charity is not the message you want to send.

Allowing a referee to fix games is not one either -- did we thank Tim Donaghy for making us look better in game two in 2007? Never mind.

But since I last posted, some things have happened. Namely, the Magic have started playing.

The beauty of not being in Orlando is that you cannot watch or go to games. But from the highlights I saw against Charlotte things are... eh.

The first game against Atlanta looked decent enough. It is never fun to lose, but it seemed like Mickael Pietrus made a nice debut and Dwight Howard is forming in to shape.

But Stan Van Gundy has got to be concerned with his defense. I do not care if it is preseason, 45 points in one quarter is never acceptable. First preseason game or not, you got to have more defensive pride than that.

The Magic were good last year because of a dynamic offensive attack, but they won 52 games and the division because they were a halfway decent defensive team.

The first quarter against the Bobcats definitely helped quell those fears. But then again, the highlights I saw showed some bad rotations and dribble penetration and kickouts. Two games in, I am not too worried. But keep an eye on it.

I have been looking forward to Orlando's battle with CSKA Moscow since it was announced in the summer and I will be listening on the radio -- ah, the sweet voice of Dennis Neuman.

The Curse of the Big Aristotle

In 1997 the history of professional basketball was changed inexplicably.

It was that summer when Shaquille O'Neal left the Magic Kingdom in Orlando and leaped across the nation to the Magic Kingdom of Disneyland. It was that summer that the Los Angeles Lakers became a championship contender while the Orlando Magic were left to pick up the pieces.

It was that summer that the Curse of the Big Aristotle was born.

Ever since Orlando won that fateful Draft Lottery in 1992, the team's history would forever be tied with O'Neal's. He led the Magic to their first and only NBA Finals three years later (where they were swept by the defending champion Rockets).

His departure left a gaping 7-foot-1, 300-plus pound hole in Orlando's front line. The Magic were forced to watch from the sidelines as the Lakers won title after title while they slipped into mediocrity and irrelevancy.

It was at this moment that Orlando became somewhat of a laughing stock -- making questionable moves (trading Ben Wallace), poor draft choices (Reece Gaines) and poor free agent decisions (Grant Hill).

It was at this moment the Curse of the Big Aristotle began.

The time after O'Neal's departure was not horrible for the franchise. Orlando has made the playoffs in seven years in the 12 years since Shaq left. But the team did not make it past the first round until last season.

Between then there were successful years, unsuccessful years and mediocre years.

While the curse may be broken, its effect on the Magic fan will not be forgotten. An indelible print on the franchise forever.

This blog is dedicated to the culture of the Orlando Magic. As the team enters its 20th anniversary, it is trying to find the Magic Generation.

I am part of that generation. These are our (my) stories.

The Magic have been part of my life since I was born 20 years ago and I have been going to games ever since I can remember. While I am at school now away from Orlando and Florida, I keep a close eye on how the team is doing and the perception of the team away from the City Beautiful.

I hope my experience and commentary will add a new perspective on the Magic.

Welcome to the Curse of the Big Aristotle...