Magic fan, Whos your biggest threat?
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Re: Magic fan, Whos your biggest threat?
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campybatman
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Re: Magic fan, Whos your biggest threat?
You've the story wrong, Garnett got under Calderon's skin. He was taunting him and Calderon took exception to it as I recall.
Re: Magic fan, Whos your biggest threat?
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Slartibartfast
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Re: Magic fan, Whos your biggest threat?
The Cavs didn't really improve their team much (more versatile offensively, worse defensively), but they still cause the Celtics problems on paper with their huge, 3-headed offensive rebounder at center, their ability to wear down Pierce with LBJ and their effective suffocate Ray strategy. I do think Shaq/Z's vulnerability to pick and roll makes them a little less intimidating, thankfully. We do need to add another 3 to make me more comfortable against them, but I still think the C's have a pretty decisive advantage.
It's really hard to gauge Orlando till we see them on the court, but I don't see them as much better than last season. I like Vince a little better than Hedo. As inconsistent as he is, he's still more reliable than Hedo as a primary creator from the wing. But the improvement is very slight, and losing Lee hurts them. Lee was a great defensive role-player for shooting guards (like Eddie and Ray). Carter and Pietrus will have a much harder time with such players. Brandon Bass is a pretty average player: great mid-range shooter, mediocre rebounder, not much else. What he does do for them is give them more options to bump Lewis up to the 3 (his best position), but unfortunately fo the Magic, Bass doesn't bring much more than Lewis to the 4 position. Ryan Anderson is nice bench help, but probably not much better than Brian Cook.
Getting Nelson back will be big for the Magic, but not enough to bridge the gap between them and the Cs. The C's greatest advantage against the Magic is their ability to defend Howard 1-on-1, an ability they've duplicated this offseason. Their biggest disadvantages against the Magic in the playoffs were their inability to guard Rashard Lewis and their inability to spring their shooters free from the Magic's superb perimeter defense. The former is mitigate by the return of KG and the latter depends on Vince Carter's ability to perform at a high level on the defensive end.
Meanwhile the Magic are going to have difficulty with Pierce and KG and they'll be less able to send extra help if Wallace is on the floor.
So the C's look pretty good against the East. It's the Lakers that would cause us the most problems.
It's really hard to gauge Orlando till we see them on the court, but I don't see them as much better than last season. I like Vince a little better than Hedo. As inconsistent as he is, he's still more reliable than Hedo as a primary creator from the wing. But the improvement is very slight, and losing Lee hurts them. Lee was a great defensive role-player for shooting guards (like Eddie and Ray). Carter and Pietrus will have a much harder time with such players. Brandon Bass is a pretty average player: great mid-range shooter, mediocre rebounder, not much else. What he does do for them is give them more options to bump Lewis up to the 3 (his best position), but unfortunately fo the Magic, Bass doesn't bring much more than Lewis to the 4 position. Ryan Anderson is nice bench help, but probably not much better than Brian Cook.
Getting Nelson back will be big for the Magic, but not enough to bridge the gap between them and the Cs. The C's greatest advantage against the Magic is their ability to defend Howard 1-on-1, an ability they've duplicated this offseason. Their biggest disadvantages against the Magic in the playoffs were their inability to guard Rashard Lewis and their inability to spring their shooters free from the Magic's superb perimeter defense. The former is mitigate by the return of KG and the latter depends on Vince Carter's ability to perform at a high level on the defensive end.
Meanwhile the Magic are going to have difficulty with Pierce and KG and they'll be less able to send extra help if Wallace is on the floor.
So the C's look pretty good against the East. It's the Lakers that would cause us the most problems.