Magic(2-2) @ Celtics(2-2)

[Typhoon20]

Well said Nostradamus.

I'm quite furious @ Dwight. He is becoming a very selfish player if he keeps this attitude up.
He keeps stressing the offensive touches he isn't getting yet he is being lit up by Davis, time after time again. Sure SVG is also to blame but you expect your DPOY to show some...defensive intensity. First do what you're expected to do...dominate defensively. You do THAT, than you can blame your coach for not getting the touches you deserve. Cause you sure as hell didn't deserve any last night.

[rcklsscognition]

I think we are nearing a point in Dwight's career where we no longer say he "deserves" the rock. It is now his rock to distribute to others when he deems appropriate. After hearing Dwight's comments I hit google news and read all the Shaq/Brian Hill crap that happened in 1996, not pretty, but bares very scary resemblance to the tree Dwight is barking up right now. Dwight isn't nearing walkouts like Shaq was, but his concerns are and probably will continue to be similar to Shaq. I believe Dwight is starting his engines, I'm not saying he's said any of this yet, mind you. But, Shaq began to question why he wasn't getting touches. Then he questioned why Dennis Scott and Nick Anderson were getting so many touches when they weren't our star players. Then he went after Penny. Shaq was averaging a ton of shots that season and was still complaining, he had only a couple of games the whole season with anything near only 10 attempts a game. Let's just hope we ditch SVG before our whole team collapses (unless it helps us get rid of Rashard's contract, love him, but...). Management told Brian Hill to shut up and feed Shaq and SVG is probably getting the same talk now. Does he want to sacrifice his beliefs or his job? We'll see in game 6.

[rcklsscognition]

Who was guarding Davis ?

The same player that was critisizing svg for not getting enough touches on the offensive side ?

I think that is both the stiff who is making $178,871 a game...and the guy who can't make a 4-foot hook shot and demands the ball

[Last Guardian]

I think we are nearing a point in Dwight's career where we no longer say he "deserves" the rock. It is now his rock to distribute to others when he deems appropriate. After hearing Dwight's comments I hit google news and read all the Shaq/Brian Hill crap that happened in 1996, not pretty, but bares very scary resemblance to the tree Dwight is barking up right now. Dwight isn't nearing walkouts like Shaq was, but his concerns are and probably will continue to be similar to Shaq. I believe Dwight is starting his engines, I'm not saying he's said any of this yet, mind you. But, Shaq began to question why he wasn't getting touches. Then he questioned why Dennis Scott and Nick Anderson were getting so many touches when they weren't our star players. Then he went after Penny. Shaq was averaging a ton of shots that season and was still complaining, he had only a couple of games the whole season with anything near only 10 attempts a game. Let's just hope we ditch SVG before our whole team collapses (unless it helps us get rid of Rashard's contract, love him, but...). Management told Brian Hill to shut up and feed Shaq and SVG is probably getting the same talk now. Does he want to sacrifice his beliefs or his job? We'll see in game 6.

Lol, this is Dwights problem. The media and hype got to his head. He isn't even in the same stratosphere as Shaq. If he thinks he can demand the ball like that then he is even dumber than I thought.

Losing a quality coach like SVG because Dwights thinks he is Shaq would be horrible.

[rcklsscognition]

I totally agree with you. I didn't get my point across very well, there was a lot of stuff and I didn't want to write a lot. But at the time in 1996 when Shaq went off the deep end, I mentioned he was averaging ridiculous numbers from the field, he was a beast. If you guys watched the team back them, you know, he was crazy good. He had games where he was shooting 30+ shots a game, sometimes 40. Then he started whining. We have a whiner who isn't at his prime yet. Is that a good sign? Our management doesn't want a repeat of what happened to Shaq and will cater to Dwight's every need, but what it might mean for us is a couple of playoff series and more years of waiting until he is ready. Unfortunately for us, Shaq was ready and we didn't deal with him. Now we will deal with Dwight and wait for him to pay off down the road.

[Magicalltheway]

This has now gotten personal, very personal. These magic players are now effecting my life. I dont even feel like working today. Im so pissed and still depressed.

[whocares]

I think we are nearing a point in Dwight's career where we no longer say he "deserves" the rock. It is now his rock to distribute to others when he deems appropriate. After hearing Dwight's comments I hit google news and read all the Shaq/Brian Hill crap that happened in 1996, not pretty, but bares very scary resemblance to the tree Dwight is barking up right now. Dwight isn't nearing walkouts like Shaq was, but his concerns are and probably will continue to be similar to Shaq. I believe Dwight is starting his engines, I'm not saying he's said any of this yet, mind you. But, Shaq began to question why he wasn't getting touches. Then he questioned why Dennis Scott and Nick Anderson were getting so many touches when they weren't our star players. Then he went after Penny. Shaq was averaging a ton of shots that season and was still complaining, he had only a couple of games the whole season with anything near only 10 attempts a game. Let's just hope we ditch SVG before our whole team collapses (unless it helps us get rid of Rashard's contract, love him, but...). Management told Brian Hill to shut up and feed Shaq and SVG is probably getting the same talk now. Does he want to sacrifice his beliefs or his job? We'll see in game 6.

Lol, this is Dwights problem. The media and hype got to his head. He isn't even in the same stratosphere as Shaq. If he thinks he can demand the ball like that then he is even dumber than I thought.

Losing a quality coach like SVG because Dwights thinks he is Shaq would be horrible.

1. ideal truths do not hide how unfortunate and catastrophic the dilemma is.
2. dwight is being a child.
3. but between svg and dwight, it is not hard to guess which one will be favored by the management.
4. recipe for a failure as a team: let the players run the team.

[rcklsscognition]

Well D-bo just made front page ESPN big pic and story.

[MagicMadness]

Lets just win game 6. Get it to a final game and anything can happen. Its not over yet.

The past is behind us. We are ONE win away from forcing a Game 7 with the defending champs.

Make it happen, Magic.

[Curtis Lemansky]

Wouldnt it be just wonderful to convince Howard to follow Moses Malone's footsteps instead of Shaqs on the offensive end of the court ? That is less iso's on the low posts for him,making him focus on strong rolls after setting picks and chasing offensive rebounds like a madmen.

I looked a bit in 82games.com in Howard's offensive production. I'm trying to find out a stat that is representative of Howard's success rate and efficiency in isolations.
http://www.82games.com/0809/08ORL16.HTM#pstats

I couldnt find such a stat but I tried to "read" the other stats and gauge Howard's efficiency in iso's.

-Howard's eFG% in "close" shots is significantly worse than Nelson's/Hedo's/Lewis' . However he gets majority of his points from these type of shots (7.3 ppg). I think this "close shots" indicate mostly his isolations.

-Howard's eFG% in jump shots is downright awful (32.5%) and still he attempts 17% of his shots as jump shots. So roughly speaking,every 1 of 5 shot that Howard takes is a jump shot. Moreover roughly 1/5th of his jumpshots gets blocked ( a very high rate)

-If he gets the ball on early offense(within the first 10 seconds),he is incredibly effective (eFG% of .698). Nevertheless his efficiency goes down immensely if he receives the ball later in the offensive possesion.(only .498 eFG% if he shots between 16-20th seconds of offense and only .374 eFG% if he shots after 21st second of offense) . I thought this was related to him finishing early fast break opportunities however only 45% of his fg attempts within first 10 seconds is assisted(the lowest percentage of assisted fg% in any time intervals for Howard). So IMO if he gets his touches early in offensive possesions

I think we(and Howard himself) need to accept that Howard, at this stage, is an inefficient low post scorer (especially if you also take his turnovers into account) . Howard's value comes from his terrific defensive presence and he somehow perceives his value related to his point totals. If he continues to be a defensive menace,focuses on offensive rebounding (and in my opinion offensive rebounds are much more destructive and demoralizing for any opposing team) ,setting picks and finishing drive & dishes on offense, I think we can still beat Boston (and I dont want to sound overconfident but I think we can blow them out).

BTW I think this adversity is good for the team. As a team, we are simply too mellow and relaxed. Maybe this controversy will lit a fire under them.

[flyingvee]

Hey, I said this day was coming. When you put a team together that lacks a strong frontline and Dwight keeps getting doubled and beat up, he'll eventually snap and one day want out. All of you guys laughed at it. Well this is the exact same path this team went through with Shaq. And Shaq had Penny AND Horace. You think Nelson and Hedo and Lewis will keep Dwight happy? Guess again. Sure, his offensive skills need serious work this summer, but face it, the guy got 3 million votes so he's no longer the choir boy. Its gone to his head. This will be ugly. Either SVG will go or Dwight will go, just like Shaq. If we only had a PF we would have hel don to some of these leads, it would be series over already and ready to face the Cavs. As it stands, LeBron says he wants to face the better team, BOSTON. A Boston team without KG he feels is better than Orlando. Adding insult to injury.

[MagicMadness]

Hey, I said this day was coming. When you put a team together that lacks a strong frontline and Dwight keeps getting doubled and beat up, he'll eventually snap and one day want out. All of you guys laughed at it. Well this is the exact same path this team went through with Shaq. And Shaq had Penny AND Horace. You think Nelson and Hedo and Lewis will keep Dwight happy? Guess again. Sure, his offensive skills need serious work this summer, but face it, the guy got 3 million votes so he's no longer the choir boy. Its gone to his head. This will be ugly. Either SVG will go or Dwight will go, just like Shaq. If we only had a PF we would have hel don to some of these leads, it would be series over already and ready to face the Cavs. As it stands, LeBron says he wants to face the better team, BOSTON. A Boston team without KG he feels is better than Orlando. Adding insult to injury.

Nope, some laughed at it. You have a tendency to think you're the only one who knows we have problems around here, when that's really not the case.

Some of us just choose not to harp on it day in and day out.

[Bensational]

Hey, I said this day was coming. When you put a team together that lacks a strong frontline and Dwight keeps getting doubled and beat up, he'll eventually snap and one day want out. All of you guys laughed at it. Well this is the exact same path this team went through with Shaq. And Shaq had Penny AND Horace. You think Nelson and Hedo and Lewis will keep Dwight happy? Guess again. Sure, his offensive skills need serious work this summer, but face it, the guy got 3 million votes so he's no longer the choir boy. Its gone to his head. This will be ugly. Either SVG will go or Dwight will go, just like Shaq. If we only had a PF we would have hel don to some of these leads, it would be series over already and ready to face the Cavs. As it stands, LeBron says he wants to face the better team, BOSTON. A Boston team without KG he feels is better than Orlando. Adding insult to injury.

really? you said that?

*pats flyingvee on back*

well done buddy!

(is that what you were after?)

[flyingvee]

I'm not after anything. But when I kept saying this team would collpase come playoff time, the vast majority of you guys kept telling me to look at our record, that Hedo was the glue of this team and would collapse without him and for me to shut up. So simply pointing out to those of you that thought 59 wins guaranteed us a spot in the finals. So I'm saying I guess I was not the crazy delusional person you guys jumped on for saying this team would sink without a real PF.

[mhectorgato]

I'm not after anything. But when I kept saying this team would collpase come playoff time, the vast majority of you guys kept telling me to look at our record, that Hedo was the glue of this team and would collapse without him and for me to shut up. So simply pointing out to those of you that thought 59 wins guaranteed us a spot in the finals. So I'm saying I guess I was not the crazy delusional person you guys jumped on for saying this team would sink without a real PF.

Do you really think it's that simple that we swap Hedo out for "real" PF and *bam* we're ECF champs?

[MagicMadness]

I'm not after anything. But when I kept saying this team would collpase come playoff time, the vast majority of you guys kept telling me to look at our record, that Hedo was the glue of this team and would collapse without him and for me to shut up. So simply pointing out to those of you that thought 59 wins guaranteed us a spot in the finals. So I'm saying I guess I was not the crazy delusional person you guys jumped on for saying this team would sink without a real PF.

Dude, again, who is this vast majority?

The vast majority predicted/hoped that the Magic would go to the ECF. Well, we've still got a shot.

And we've had countless threads in the past debating the merits of keeping Hedo versus getting a 'real' PF. I've stated many times myself that I think a real PF is what we need, and I've seen others do the same.

I think you take a few peoples' responses and skew it as meaning that's what MOST people think.

This team has problems. Most of us know this. But on that note, every team has problems to a certain extent - luckily, our problems are small compared to most. So, most of us don't sit around bitching about them every chance we get (ie - whenever the team loses)...

[mhectorgato]

I'm not after anything. But when I kept saying this team would collpase come playoff time, the vast majority of you guys kept telling me to look at our record, that Hedo was the glue of this team and would collapse without him and for me to shut up. So simply pointing out to those of you that thought 59 wins guaranteed us a spot in the finals. So I'm saying I guess I was not the crazy delusional person you guys jumped on for saying this team would sink without a real PF.

Dude, again, who is this vast majority?

The vast majority predicted/hoped that the Magic would go to the ECF. Well, we've still got a shot.

And we've had countless threads in the past debating the merits of keeping Hedo versus getting a 'real' PF. I've stated many times myself that I think a real PF is what we need, and I've seen others do the same.

I think you take a few peoples' responses and skew it as meaning that's what MOST people think.

This team has problems. Most of us know this. But on that note, every team has problems to a certain extent - luckily, our problems are small compared to most. So, most of us don't sit around bitching about them every chance we get (ie - whenever the team loses)...

WWF name: The Vulture