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.