Mr. 1st Quarter

[MagicStarwipe]

I really want to talk about this. Dwight Howard in the second half of our games. We don't pass him the ball. At all. Maybe 2-3 times tops. Why? Is it the game plan? Is it his free throws? Is it stupidity from our perimeter players? Stupidity from Stan? Lack of a quality point gaurd? All of the above?

Seriously, this has been ticking me off for a long time.

[j-ragg]

I don't get why we don't just put him in the post. All we do is have him set ball screens. Extremely predictable offense.

[MagicFan3]

Because Carlos Arroyo is our starting PG.

[Last Guardian]

Stan just loves the high pick with Hedo and Dwight. I think because we usually aren't blowing a team out he wants the team to constantly use our best play.

[UCFJayBird]

yea i really don't understand it either. I understand using the pick and roll, but Dwight getting the ball inside opens up a lot of areas too. But in the final 4 minutes all we do is set the pick and roll with Hedo and Dwight. Nothing else. And it's predictable, but it's working. I would like to see the Magic try and mix it up at the end of games, go inside to Dwight a little more. But right now Stan seems content to stick with what's working. it's winning us games, so why not.

[taruky1]

In a tight game 4th quarter it's very risky passing it in to Dwight. He's still a very poor passer out of double teams, turns the ball over a lot, and if he's fouled it potentially could be the equivalent of a turnover. I think in those situations Dwight is best suited setting the picks, rolling to the basket and either getting the pass (if open) or getting rebounds. The Celtics were swarming him as soon as he touched the ball. Dwight's time will come. When he develops the jumper away from the double team and learns to pass out of the post, believe me he'll get it a ton in the 4th.

[Typhoon20]

The only player that looks and tries to set it up for D12 is Hedo.
Other players (I'm talking about ALL our guards) need to stop being so selfish and stop taking so many forced shots. I said it before I'll say it again, I'd much rather see Dwight turn it over then to see Arroyo with a forced shot.

It's also a bit of Stan's fault. He keeps saying we need to give Dwight more touches but not much changes. And either his players don't really listen that well to coach or coach hasn't talked about it.

There's so many things I'd like to say about this topic,
but usually it results in me using profanity towards some ''bald players on our team''.

[MagicNolesFSU]

Its Lack of Jameer

[Logicjbr]

Its Lack of Jameer

Yeah, I think Jameer gets it to him more often. I really like Jameer and I think he's going to appear in at least one or two all star games. But I don't know if it's going to happen in Orlando. Dwight needs a true point guard to help in develop. I would love to see a Jameer and expiring for Andre Miller and Reggie Evans. Anyone else like this trade?

[electrofat]

In a tight game 4th quarter it's very risky passing it in to Dwight. He's still a very poor passer out of double teams, turns the ball over a lot, and if he's fouled it potentially could be the equivalent of a turnover. I think in those situations Dwight is best suited setting the picks, rolling to the basket and either getting the pass (if open) or getting rebounds. The Celtics were swarming him as soon as he touched the ball. Dwight's time will come. When he develops the jumper away from the double team and learns to pass out of the post, believe me he'll get it a ton in the 4th.

COULDNT HAVE SAID BETTER..DEFINITELY AGREED

[The Letter J]

In a tight game 4th quarter it's very risky passing it in to Dwight. He's still a very poor passer out of double teams, turns the ball over a lot, and if he's fouled it potentially could be the equivalent of a turnover. I think in those situations Dwight is best suited setting the picks, rolling to the basket and either getting the pass (if open) or getting rebounds. The Celtics were swarming him as soon as he touched the ball. Dwight's time will come. When he develops the jumper away from the double team and learns to pass out of the post, believe me he'll get it a ton in the 4th.

Dwight is the reason we pull out to most big leads in the first place. We start losing because all he is doing on offense is setting screens for pick n rolls. Soon enough the team starts settling for pick n pops, then our FG% goes down, and the other team comes back.

We're never going to be a consistent 4th qtr team with the way we play now. The only way to get Dwight better in the 4th is to start giving him the ball now during the regular season.

[MagicStarwipe]

Glad to see you guys share my concern. Earlier in the season Dwight was just killing teams on offense. He was getting the ball in the post a lot and making great plays. He was consistantly having 30 point games with 40 points looking not to far away. Now he struggles to hit 20.

We really do become a mainly a jumpshooting team in the 2nd half. Dwight constantly comes out to set the pick, and you just know he's not going to get it back. It's working lately, but I garauntee it won't hold up. We have to get Dwight going or we are nothing but a 1 and done team.

[pikimagic]

Because Carlos Arroyo is our starting PG,and Dooling and Jameer

fixed

[drsd]

But in the final 4 minutes all we do is set the pick and roll with Hedo and Dwight. Nothing else.

The only player that looks and tries to set it up for D12 is Hedo.

Well, against Detroit (first win), Lewis was the setup man for the win. And against Boston, Howard was absent for the last four minutes.

[OMPunk]

It's sad to say, but the reason Dwight doesn't get the ball as much is because he is still a fairly poor ball handler. Most times whenever he puts the ball on the court it's swatted away from him or stolen.

I wouldn't pass to him that much either. Plus is doesn't help that we have guards that think assists is a four letter word.

[Curtis Lemansky]

Well to be honest,Howard tends to turn the ball over a bit too much and his foul problems doesnt help either in terms of reliability in 4th quarters.

The one thing that bugs me is why we dont use Lewis in the low post when Howard is at the bench.Post-ups and spot-up shooting are the best qualities of Lewis on offense but we never seem to use that posting ability.I understand leaving low post to Howard but I dont see why we dont recall his number when Howard is resting.Yesterday,we tried it once and Lewis easily scored against his defender so IMO this play should be at least called 3-4 times per game in the strecthes when Howard is at the bench.

[Gerhalt11]

Dwight is at his best in transition and when he can get a clear lane to the basket. Even with Ewing's help, he hasn't perfected the art of creating his own offense against a sizeable defender. He doesn't have a crazy fast spin move or a pure hook yet. He'll get there, but when the game is on the line and the defense is set, I do not want the ball in Dwight's hands for these reasons and those mentioned before.

[Sharper]

People tend to blame only the guards for that, but Hedo Turkoglu, despite being great at setting plays and passing, etc., also dominates the ball a lot in 2nd halves(spell?). Leaving no much room for anything else.

I mean, he very often doesn't even let the PG bring the ball down the court (a good thing sometimes, LOL). He takes it, handle it himself to the offensive end, and then takes the shot himself. Or the PG bring it down and Hedo quickly ask for the ball and it's all Hedo's shot from there on.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about it!!! He does (Turk) very good things in the 2nd half ... well, at least in the final minutes. Stan wasn't really THAT happy with some of his decisions prior to that buzzer beater against Boston.

Thing is, he is dominating Orlando's offensive big time in 2nd half of games. And it takes a little from Howard's. Plus I agree with previous posts, Howard getting fouled (and missing FT's) and/or turning the ball over makes him a not-too-reliable (for now) option when the game is on the line and in its final minutes.

Finally, people who complain that Dwight doesn't get enough touches, often forget about his FT attempts numbers and only look at his FGA's. Most of those FT's are from him getting the ball from teammates to shoot it, but then getting fouled. So they are (most of them) also shooting attempts. I agree he should have more shots some games, but most of the time it isn't as bad as people make it to be.

[MagicStarwipe]

Please, he touches the ball maybe once every 4th quarter. I don't buy that his offense isn't good enough to handle it. This is the same guy that was dropping 30 point games like it was nothing. We have a problem here.

[craig01]

When the hard double team comes at Howard, he struggles with turnovers. Howard's game isn;t ready to dominate 4th qtrs on a regular basis.

When the time is right, we'll all know it.

That being said, there are times that Howard is forgotten, but some of that falls on him too as he doesn't stay active in the post. Other times the wing players get shot happy.