Orlando and selfishness

One thing has amazed me about Orlando since Stan Van Gundy took over as head coach. You can see it every time the Magic play and it is probably the key to their success.

It is simple really. The ball goes into Dwight Howard, he tries to bully his way to the hoop only to be double-teamed and dishes back out to Hedo Turkoglu. Turkoglu is fairly open and you would not blame him for taking the shot but with a defender rotating over to try and distract the sharpshooter, he fires it over the Jameer Nelson at the top of the key.

Now Nelson is WIDE open and easily drains a three -- or even worse for a defender, feeds the ball quickly to Rashard Lewis for an open three in the corner. There is simply nothing you can do about this kind of ball movement.

And it is something Orlando does incredibly well.

Back in May, Hardwood Paroxysm published this incredible analysis of "selfishness". I saved the link because it was something incredibly interesting pertaining to the Magic. Orlando is, as Stan Van Gundy has admitted, an incredibly unselfish team. And the stats even bear that out.

A lot of Orlando's big guns from last season rank above a 5.0 in unselfishness (that means they pass the ball and set others up to score). Turkoglu is noticeably low, but Howard is high, Marcin Gortat is high. And even Jameer Nelson comes in around a 6.0.

I don't know how much stock you can put in these stats, but that is something that definitely has separated the Magic team of the past two years from oh so many teams in the past. That ability to make the extra pass to find the better shot it what separates the good teams from the great teams.

Certainly things have changed with the roster overhaul (and it can be considered an overhaul) this summer. The Magic are still going to be the free-wheeling 3-point shooting team they have been, but it won't be all the time. The roster necessitates that there will be more traditional looks out there.

But Stan Van Gundy made an interesting observation during the team's introduction of free agent signing Jason Williams (a signing I am so indifferent toward that I don't think it deserves a full analysis).

Van Gundy said last year's team was characterized by this quality of unselfishness. But this year's team has a better collection of passes.

What exactly does that mean?

It might mean less three-point shooting and more playmaking -- drives and dish or drives and drop ins to Gortat, Howard and Brandon Bass.

Van Gundy has done a great job molding this roster and unlocking the best in every player. I am sure he will do the same with this roster to utilize every attribute available on the roster.