RealGM

From tonight pre-season game?

Personally aside from the great work of our young players catching a real hot streak, it was our ability at our weakest spots to defend Magics strongest spots really well.

Orlando centers -
Dwight Howard - 29:35, 2-9, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 turnovers, 3 blocks, 5 points
Glen Davis (Isn't a center but really only other player to play there) - 31:36. 2-8, 5 rebounds, 6 points

Orlando point guards -
Jameer Nelson - 29:47, 0-10, 7 assists, 1 point
Chris Duhon - 18:13, 1-2, 1 assists, 3 points

You look at all those stats for those players and they're absolutely well below their averages. Miami's weak spots played the best defense which is awesome.

My biggest disappointment was probably our recklessness with some offensive fouls, but hard to fault many things from a big win like that.

Derrick Byars & Terrell Harris. Gotta find room on the roster for both.

norris cole...kid is gonna be a good one

Impressed by:

Pittman - It was refreshing to see a guy not do 0 0 0 0 across the damn box score and have an impact. I like that he went after Howard, he's a tough kid.

Cole - He didn't do as well from the scrimmage BUT he still had 8 pts and 8 assists. He finds the open man, almost broke Jameer's ankles, is fast. He just needs to learn more. Having a guy like that off the bench is something new and it's good to see this season.

Haslem - He is back!!!

Harris and Byar - sad these guys aren't on the team but they played really well. I liked Harris more since he was not afraid to shoot the 3. It's frustrating since Miller is suppose to be doing what Harris did tonight but will we ever see that Miller ? Only saw it once last season. I know it's one game but still frustrated by Miller.

Bosh - He defended Howard well, even when Howard was trying. I don't like him handling the ball so much though or shooting 3's. But whatever.

Disappointed -

Joel Anthony - Spo will never learn. The thing is, he was up against Dwight so many he couldn't rebound well or even try to do anything offensively. But Pittman did . He still frustrates me though. He was better off the bench anyway.

Defense - We will never learn how to protect the 3 point line. I know it's preseason, but it happened last season and against 3 point shooting teams, the perimeter defense always sucks. Saw it with the Mavs obviously. Remember when Orlando came back down by 24? All 3 ball lol. I wouldn't be surprised if ONE game even goes like that.

Whole Orlando team besides Andersen - Everyone sucked but him. They still live by the 3 and die by it. I know Howard wants out, but could his body language scream any louder he didn't want to be there? Atleast try to give a real test for the Heat before the real season starts. :|

Pros:

Cole - I gotta stop dickriding, but it was another impressive outing considering who he plays with. He was out there with Harris/Jones/Haslem/Pittman. Not exactly an offensive arsenal. Shot selection should be fine-tuned, but could also be him trying things out when the stakes are still low.

Team defense - Still legit. We swarm and trap and funnel well. We don't cover the 3 very well. When Cole is in, we really need to stop sending help on his man. I noted one time UD floated off Anderson on the perimeter to help Cole who was busy smothering Meer already. Jameer kicked it out for a the easy 3. With a quick PG, our men can stay with their assignments on the perimeter. Only the quickest PGs like Rose or Wall should pose a problem for him.

Bench scoring - Cole makes it happen. He distributes well enough it seems like our bench will have a pulse this season. 70pts was the magic number for the Big3 last season, right? Add 30pts from the bench and we should be good.

Cons:

Bron/Bosh - Didn't show off enough of what they claimed they worked on. Bron with the post game and Bosh with the rebounding. They did put in work the first half, but that's about it. Interested to see if Bron is gonna try exploiting the post all season or if this is still just an experiment. He passed out of it enough times to keep me on the fence.

PEACE.

DefenseWins wrote:Impressed by:


Defense - We will never learn how to protect the 3 point line. I know it's preseason, but it happened last season and against 3 point shooting teams, the perimeter defense always sucks. Saw it with the Mavs obviously. Remember when Orlando came back down by 24? All 3 ball lol. I wouldn't be surprised if ONE game even goes like that.

Actually thinking about it, this was what I was most upset with as well. The amount of times a Magic player drove and kicked to 1 or 2 wide open Magic players on the perimeter was disturbing. At time you just watch off ball and Chalmers/Lebron/Wade don't even watch their guy, they just watch the guy driving and then when he passes it out they cover someone elses man.

I hope Spo noticed this and will try and make a few tweaks. Man to man defense was pretty good, I especially liked our defense against post players, just when someone like J Rich started a drive, we'd collapse and leave Redick or Anderson wide open, fix that and defense is looking mighty fine.

Allthough you have to excuse the HEAT a little bit, that is Magics specialty and all they do is shoot 3's the whole game (I feel bad for Magic supporters, what a crap way too watch basketball for years), s they are elite at it.

One other positive is that Dwight is likely to get traded especially after a performance like this, and seeing as they are in our division, you can pretty much chalk up 4 wins against Orlando and the SE division title every year for next 5-6 years.

On the post thing, Lebron when he works hard can get deep position in the post, but what he needs to do more of is when he doesn't have good position, post, kick it out to the pg, and re-post to get deeper position. It opens up the outside players and gets you a closer look at the basket.

Him and Chalmers did it once tonight and it worked well, they just need to keep building that chemistry I guess.

I remember Spo saying he doesn't want easy buckets. So I'm sure that means he will have the 3 point line be vacate all game long.

But when it's up against teams that can actually shoot the 3 ball, it's serious...

Magic I am not worried about for the next few years lol. Sad this happened with Shaq and now Dwight.

But teams like the Bulls have some 3 point shooters and even last season when it came down to the wire, the 3 ball killed us.

In all the games Heat were trying to make a comeback or prevent one, it was always the 3 ball....

Harris was real impressive.

Heat fan06 wrote:Harris was real impressive.

+3

Very Impressive!!!!

I felt like all the regulars moved off the ball more than they did last season. When Wade and Lebron went into the post on a few occasions, Haslem or Wade/Lebron would cut off him and the posting player found the cutter.

I personally think that's a big deal.

I'm impressed with Bosh's speed. He is running up and down faster than last year. At least that's what I noticed.

impressed - the youngins, Cole, Pittman and i sincerely hope Harris can find a spot on this roster. I really think Pittman and Cole have to play considerable minutes for them to truly develop into NBA talent.


Dissapointed - Joel Anthony. He is quite possibly getting WORSE and not better. He was terrible in the scrimmage as well. I dont understand why some folks continue to overvalue him for moving his feet a little bit on defense, or pulling a block or two out of his ass once every few games.

I don't know how Joel could be on anyone's disappointed list unless they had somehow convinced themselves a 28 year old player was going to magically get a lot better in the offseason. He looked exactly like he always does to me.

I was impressed by everyone except Joel to be honest.

Pro's -
Everyone but Joel

Con's -
Joel

I'm not kidding either. Literally every guy that came in from the Big 3, to Cole, to Pittman, to Howard, to Harris, Byars, and Wise played well.

Joel was the only minus on the court for our team (-3), and the only statistics he recorded were 1 turnover and 4 fouls in just under 7 minutes of play.

Joel, step it up. Everyone else, good work.

On a side note, Spo claimed that he wanted to try and stick to the actual rotation as closely as possible in the 1st half.

After Joel picked up those 2 quick fouls Dexter came into the game at C. I wonder if that will be the case in the regular season, or if it'll be UD?

coolstorybro wrote:Pro's -
Everyone but Joel

Con's -
Joel

I'm not kidding either. Literally every guy that came in from the Big 3, to Cole, to Pittman, to Howard, to Harris, Byars, and Wise played well.

Joel was the only minus on the court for our team (-3), and the only statistics he recorded were 1 turnover and 4 fouls in just under 7 minutes of play.

Joel, step it up. Everyone else, good work.

On a side note, Spo claimed that he wanted to try and stick to the actual rotation as closely as possible in the 1st half.

After Joel picked up those 2 quick fouls Dexter came into the game at C. I wonder if that will be the case in the regular season, or if it'll be UD?

in tight games im betting it's gonna be UD, but i really want DEX to get as much playing time as possible - THE ONLY WAY TO GET BETTER FOR A YOUNG PLAYER IS TO PLAY. we need to devolpe him during the season so we could get quality contribution from him by playoff time.

Dexter has the SIZE,
he has the WILL,
he has the POTENTIAL,
and WE NEED HIM cause WE DONT HAVE AND PROBABLY WON'T GET ANY BETTER CENTER!

it's on us, the team and SPO, to give him the best chance to become a player.

Cole will be alright, just give him more game time, he's a fast learner.

I like Dexter's effort, he is our best option at center, the opposing team actually has to guard him. He just need to keep on improving his fitness. All he needs to focus on is catching rebounds fiercely and dunking. With those velcro mitts of his, he should hold better on the rebounds and knock people around with his elbows, like Zo and Malone used to do. That's what he's got to work on everyday, we need him to become a monster rebounder.Pitt has all the abilities to become an elite rebounder, just look at what Kevin Love does while being shorter, with smaller hands, and with comparable athletism. You can do it Dex, make rebounding and dunking you specialities, the blocked shots will come as you continue to improve fitness and conditioning.

Absorb knowledge and inspiration from these guys.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WFznHgi560[/youtube]

It really annoyed me how many wide open 3's the magic had. I know there one of the best three point shotting teams in the league, but still how could a team get so many open three's.

radikalBaller wrote:Cole will be alright, just give him more game time, he's a fast learner.

I like Dexter's effort, he is our best option at center, the opposing team actually has to guard him. He just need to keep on improving his fitness. All he needs to focus on is catching rebounds fiercely and dunking. With those velcro mitts of his, he should hold better on the rebounds and knock people around with his elbows, like Zo and Malone used to do. That's what he's got to work on everyday, we need him to become a monster rebounder.Pitt has all the abilities to become an elite rebounder, just look at what Kevin Love does while being shorter, with smaller hands, and with comparable athletism. You can do it Dex, make rebounding and dunking you specialities, the blocked shots will come as you continue to improve fitness and conditioning.

Absorb knowledge and inspiration from these guys.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WFznHgi560[/youtube]

velcro mitts

great vid, i really wish Dex would watch it.

the thing i like about him and the reason he's agood fit for us is that with his great hands, great size and suprisingly quick feet he can be an awesome rebounder, whice is one of the biggest things we need help with. plus like Zo sais : rebounding is all about heart, will and balls. from everything i saw and herad from Big Dex - he has those too.