Howard and Van Gundy in a conflict?

[flyingvee]

I so agree with the above and is a major reason why I say we need to be careful as Dwight will get frustrated at this roster and demand to be traded one day. This is just the beginning. Instead of having all these saps on the team, get real goddam PG that will get him the ball. and a PF to help him with the physical beatings he's taking each game being the on;y power player out there. Lewis makes Alan Houston look like Bill Laimbeer when it comes to toughness. Dwight's one of the top players in the game and he took the least shots tonight from the starters. Brilliant flow.

And I'm sick of this JJ won't play cause of his bad defense crap. Hughes lit up our defensive stoppers for 40 points. End of argument. Let the kid play and sit Bogans.

[thepritz]

I **** agree with Dwight.

He scores 10 points in the first 7 minutes and only TOUCHES the ball maybe 4 more times the rest of the game.

He was 5/6 in the first quarter and 6/11 for the game.

Agreed... Dont know what it is but i think its us not being able to hold a lead. We get panicky and just jack up 3's and dont focus on getting Dwight the ball. Dwight should put up about 15-20 shots a game and get about 10 FT attempts. Big Z couldn't do a damn thing against him in the first qtr tonight.... He was unstoppable.

SVG: youre the coach but dont forget dwight isnt going anywhere.... youll be axed before you know it if dwight has problems.. just ask brian hill or penny hardaway.

[jamlando]

True, Dwight needs to play harder but he should hold those buster PGs accountable for letting that stiff Larry Hughes go off for 40.

[maginno]

I don't care if Stan challenges Dwight and even sits him. His call. HUGE Stan fan here but answering reporters with those quotes and airing even what he did is just stupid. Problems between a coach and player should be speculation by fans and media. I fear Stan's ego may be getting the best of him. I don't know very many super stars that don't want to score anyway. Whats so unusual?

[mattyBoi]

Hes making it public it make dwight accountable.

But there definetly needs to be a compromise from both sides.

Dwight needs to hustle, rebound, do dirty work...And stan needs to make sure he gets the ball.

Otis already said its dwights team and what dwight says...goes.

[lovehoops01]

True, Dwight needs to play harder but he should hold those buster PGs accountable for letting that stiff Larry Hughes go off for 40.

Yes, he should, but it's tough to do when he didn't have a good night himself.

By the way, in case you guys didn't notice, the Cavs mixed up their lineup tonight to go bigger against the Magic. Instead of playing LeBron at the 3 and Larry Hughes at the 2, they moved LeBron to the 2 and Hughes to the 1. They had played Eric Snow and Damon Jones at the 1 the night before. They were taller at every position than the Magic, including center, and it didn't matter who was playing point. The Magic are good offensively, but this happens to them a lot of times, and it's really something that Otis needs to address at most every position.

It is kind of curious, though, what happens on defense. A lot of times, it didn't end up being Jameer or Carlos who was on Hughes -- a lot of times they ended up one-on-one on the power forward somehow, and someone else was on Hughes. This happens a lot. I can't figure out how their defense gets turned around like that all the time.

[Shishnizzle]

Howard could easily add 10 more points to his scoring line just by going after offensive rebounds.

[whocares]

1. dwight needs to grow mentally.
2. he wants to have better (hyperbole, of course) stats than those of wilt.
3. he should rather concentrate on becoming a better winner than russell.
4. he is getting all the accolades he needs.
5. he is the starting center of the all-star team.
6. he is the center of the team usa.
7. there is a franchise built around him.
8. forget about the statistics for a while and concentrate on winning.
9. stats will come along the way.

[dmac812]

1. dwight needs to grow mentally.
2. he wants to have better (hyperbole, of course) stats than those of wilt.
3. he should rather concentrate on becoming a better winner than russell.
4. he is getting all the accolades he needs.
5. he is the starting center of the all-star team.
6. he is the center of the team usa.
7. there is a franchise built around him.
8. forget about the statistics for a while and concentrate on winning.
9. stats will come along the way.

very well said. i think we all forget sometimes that this kid is only 22 years old. i believe dwight will learn from these last couple games and especially from what stan said tonight in the press conference. the numbers prove everything. when dwight is not dominating the boards and the defensive end we are much more likely to lose the game. he needed this reality check. but at the same time it is very important to acknowledge that dwight is frustrated from not getting touches and being the defensive workhorse. he needs more help rebounding and another tough defender on the block. otis needs to get something done!

[MagicStarwipe]

The point is we have less chance of winning if the ball doesn't go through Dwight. As a team, we have less chance of winning. For now and most importantly, for the future. That's just the bottom line.

[MagicFan32]

No star big man plays as well defensively when he doesn't touch the ball, you can go all the way down the line, Shaq being a prime example. Stan needs to get these guys to understand that getting it inside to Dwight more will make the game easier for them.

Stan has a point but you can't expect one guy to do all the rebounding and defending for you, and that is EXACTLY what is going on. Dwight can do better in terms of consistancy defensively but he can't do it all himself either.

Also remember the Laker game and all the cheap fouls? Same BS tonight, especially in the second half if you are worried about getting into foul trouble you won't be as aggressive defensively.

We've seen Dwight for 4 years now, come on guys he's clearly not lazy but it takes alot of energy to defend the basket every possession because none of your teammates can keep a traffic cone in front of them.

[zuppafly]

Dwight needs to grow up, to realize that offensive stats don't exactly mean more wins and he needs to learn how to handle the ball, how not to make a bazillion turnovers and finally how to shoot FTs so the team can actually start looking for him on crunch time.

I'd laugh to see the same people here asking Dwight to get touches on the 4th quarter watching this team looking for only to see him getting hacked and shooting 60% from the line and making us lose games.

I'm all on SvG side.

[MJallday59]

You guys are funny...

Dwight needs to grow up??? Are you serious? He's posssibly one of the most mature guys in the entire league! He stays out of trouble..you won't catch him at the club at 3am or having groupies follow him.. and now you guys proceed to slam him because he wants more touches?? This has been Orlando's problem in the past..They tell our "guy" that he's the cornerstone of the offense/defense and franchise. They tell him that we'll bring in shooters to compliment you/ we'll get you the ball more etc. So now that you gave the promises and D12 wants to cash in..Stan Van Gundy says no..you need to be patient. What in the????? Maurice Evans should never...I mean ever have HALF the shots that D12 takes...samE goes for Jameer Nelson.. and if you look at the box score...they took more. He's your big man!!! Give him the ball! To make matters worse, you take him out of the game at a crucial point and let Lebron continue to torch the inside. Granted Dwight wasn't a big defensive monster like normal but...he's still Dwight Howard. The best blocking big man in the league...Even at his worst night..he's better than Shard. If this doesn't wake up Otis from his sleeping chamber then..i don't know what will.....Reggie Evans and Andre Miller are begging to leave philly...but knowing Otis, he'll probably keep telling himseld..." I like our team"...

[maginno]

The point is we have less chance of winning if the ball doesn't go through Dwight.

Which is self evident and what everyone else is forgetting. How many times have we heard in the last year that we needed to get players that could shoot from the outside to compliment Dwight on the inside? 100? 300? even more?

We said over and over that that was our system So the big fella isn't saying or wanting anything we didn't tell him over and over was right for "our system". Getting outside shooters and "spreading the floor" is EXACTLY because we wanted to run the offense through him. Seems hypocritical to me after months of saying this to tell him he doesn't need the ball.

Incidentally the coach can use playing time as a way of holding players accountable. Unless you've lost control doing it in the media isn't a smooth move. Both of them are saying that its between them and that s the way Stan should have handled it.

[TooNice00]

i am confused on how people actually think dwight shouldn't get more touches. if the ball doesn't run through dwight on offense more (like an average of 14 or 15 shots, not every play you people agreeing with SVG) this team will never go anywhere. everyone else on offense is too streaky. and its not even to prepare dwight for the future because he is ready right now to be more of a focus on offense.

and i'd rather lose games by dwights FT shooting then looking back at the game and realize we lost because we never gave the ball to dwight after he dominated the 1st quarter.

[magicfan4life05]

i will get flamed till the end of time for bringing this notion up, but at what point can you say d12 has an attitude/ego, he had problems with b.hill and now svg about the same issues...


he's been told his D and rebounding affect the game more than his offense and we are generally successful when he is dominant in those categories but he doesnt see it...

[MagicFan149]

svg did the right thing in my mind .... but dwight also has a point i saw at least 5-6 times last night where he would seal off his man right in front of the rim jameer would look at him then rotate the ball back to the top of the key area for a much tougher angle to get the ball to dwight.... i understand since jameer has came back his scoring and asist numbers are up but he still has the inablity to make a post entry pass... it seems simple but not for half the guys on the team.

[theTHIEF]

the sky is falling...

[mhectorgato]

this conflict really magnifies our need for another rebounding big.

Bingo!

Not sure how the team would be doing now, but if Tony didn't have his arm ripped out of the socket by Dwight then we'd have a 4 who could rebound and box out, better than Ra$hard, as well as take over defense on the 5.

I'm confident that Stan and Dwight - and the rest of the coaching staff and players - can work this out.

This is still relatively new for SVG and the players. They are still learning each other.

When SVG was the coach in Miami, he was the assistant there for a while so there was a familiarity between him and the players.

[Optimus_Steel]

Im glad that Dwight was called out. Quite frankly he needed to be called out. He has been playing lazy for a while now, not just last night. I know i have called him out, so has Thief and others on here so its been happening for a while. Dwight is the leader of this team and he has to lead by example and he hasent been. I think Stan did the right thing, Stan needed to put his foot down.