1.Jameer needs to become more of a point guard, dont use favoritism on the offensive end, dont overplay or close out too far on defense. Push the ball. No vince is no benz, but the honda civic can still run. mp can run and qrich will run. jj runs already. Jason kid ran wit the nets and they were not that fast. On the other had, we have some of the quicker bigs. Running and gunning is this teams born identity. not half count dump to dwight and trust him to make the decision. hes no vlade divac or chris webber of passing. All guards and forwards should stop over playing their men because they have the best eraser in the game. you can still run and shoot 3s ie phoenix. incorparate 15 island. vince will be able to operate by him self with one on one coverage while still having options open. this play, same that kobe runs, will take care of some halfcourt problems. Add these tips to the pedigree and success will be abundant. Accept your role. dwight 1 vince 2 jameer3 rashard 4. all important but def. order of role

I have said this before, losing Turk was a mistake, but I do not think a complete redo of the Magic is necessary, just add a real point guard, similar to Rondo or Nash, and and maybe some people with athletic skills. After watching the Celtics and New York last night, wow what a great game, I have never seen the Magic play with that intensity.
Dam I have kinda contradicted myself, I guess we do need some players with the desire to win at all cost.
The Magic outside of Howard, are soft, but good players, maybe they need some leadership, or living near the Kingdom of the Mouse has soften them.
I can see Howard bolting to say the HEAT, he has enough money, and deals, he could go just to win a championship, WOW a team the heat would be then.

There are already Knicks fans talking about getting their mits on Dwight after next season. They point out that he is unhappy with the team they built around him in Orlando. It’s kind of sickening to listen to but they are kind of correct. Orlando needs help. We just aren’t athletic enough. I think we really need to play our younger guys more and quit relying on Vince and Rashard. Let them come of the bench for awhile and get our young guns going. Howard needs energetic guys playing with him. We don’t need a trade. We have a ton of talent already so let’s be more creative with our lineup changes!

No offense to Otis Smith, but he’s proven himself unable to put together a championship caliber team over the last few years.The Vince Carter trade has been a disaster and has caused this team to regress, I don’t even know what he was thinking giving Rashard that kind of contract( Lewis makes more money than Wade and Lebron). Then you tack on pointless trades this season like getting rid of Matt Barnes, who plays good defense, and instead picking up Chris Duhon(never even knew this guy existed) and Quentin Richardson. You don’t win championships with soft players and unfortunately that is what this team is, a bunch of finesse shooters who don’t play hard defense and rely too much on jump shots.

well dont you just sound like the Orlando Magic Spirit killer its not even the second half of the season yet DO ME A FAVOR NEVER WRITE ANYTHING ELSE ABOUT THE ORLANDO MAGIC AGIAN IF THATS HOW YOU FEEL

Also, Stan sucks as developing talent. Last year we barely used Bass. Now this year we aren’t using Ryan Anderson at all. These are young energetic guys and we could be developing them but we are not. It’s real frustrating as a fan to watch this garbage.

why does otis smith still have a job, he looks high all the time and is killing our team do you notice we have gotten worse every year since the finals, does the owner not hear what the fans have to say !!! if howard leaves you better beleive the arena will close up 4ever

If Dwight ends up leaving you may as well move this team.

They need to watch the Rocky series during the film sessions for motivation. All jokes aside,

The MAGIC NEED to RUN and gun. Why not try it? what do they have to lose?

They have the players to do so. Offensively, the magic are too good to let all the fastbreak opportunities and easy buckets go to waste by lolly gagging and bringing the ball up slow. If there were anyway this team could get anyone of these point guards:

Jason Kidd, Devin Harris, Leandro Barbosa, point guards who can push in transition if jameer cant push.

Spacing and push. It may sound too simple but i think it would really make a difference because its harder to defend in transition.

Speed up the pace a bit. They are dead-last in fastbreak points.
There is nothing wrong with running half court sets for VC and Dwight and occasionally rashard, but outside of them, noone else should be go-to.

Brandon bass is no go-to. but he runs, same with gortat. Our bigs can run. Force the wings to run and finsh strong at the rim with reckless abandon, teams would fear orlando more. Or even fast breaks, all shooters get out on the break and spot up.

Its hard to close out on tall shooters. With this style teams can be picked apart. Orlando would be a phoenix suns with defense.There should be nothing but running going on in practice. Get the ball, and go. J-will used to be able to push the ball, not sure if he still can. Duhon is a half court point guard. No help there.

Trust, if a team has its mind set on running, the rest of the players on the team will have no choice but to run. You can say its forcefully contagious.

The point guard is at the command controls. If your point guard is not doing well, you can get lucky, but there’s going to be no proper flow if the facilitator is not facilitating.

So if we have Bass, Howard,Gortat ,Lewis, and Anderson running the floor finishing under control at the rim and with authority, teams will respect them.

Lewis and Anderson can spot up on the fastbreaks also, depending on the situation, along with Carter, MP, and QR being able to fill the lanes or spot up and then having the luxury of having a scoring point guard at the controls that is not scared to finish, its a win win. No ones left out, equal opportunities. You get open and run, you get the ball.
Case Closed.

The glaring problems are fundamentals and fundamentals go to the coach! Time and time again, we get beat off of high screen and roll, so why don’t we play more zone, when PIP gets high? Only SVG knows! Why we are not running and gunning anymore like Phoenix used to do? Only SVG knows! Why we do the lame @ssed pass into Dwight with no cutters to the basket? Only SVG knows! Why we do not have a free throw/ shooting coach work with Dwight over his form and make everyone a gym-rat @ 2000 made shots per day for the wings and bigs….only SVG knows! Our fundamentals suck! Our back-ups are more focused on playing Stan’s defense than making smart plays and that is unacceptable! It IS fundamentals that we are lacking! When Dwight goes to shoot, most everyone starts heading the other way. We are missing a ton of easy free throws exposing another vulnerability that if we attack and get the foul, we will actually lose points. FUNDAMENTALS!!! If Rashard can’t hit a three, cut him to the basket!! We are entirely too reliant on the 3 ball instead of attacking and attacking some more! Memo to the Magic….the league does not have a bunch of shot blocking big men, so getting to the hoop (as Lebron and D-Wade have figured out) is easier than presumed! WTFU STAN, OTIS, AND COACHING STAFF!!

Keith J. Thank you Thank you Thank you. Finally someone who speaks basketball 101 and not a bunch of emotional hyperbole. I’ve been saying this for the last 2 days. It is on Van Gundy. The lack of a creative offense is killing the Magic. Dwight has become a black hole. Fake pick and rolls. The cutters just run through the paint and head out to the 3 point line. Dwight only looks to score now that he’s done what everyone wanted and picked up some offensive moves. It’s on Van Gundy to run empliment new sets to the offense. It’s not the personel. They need a coach that has a deeper playbook.

All 3 ,Db, Boonie and Keith j should apply for the coaching job lol. Stan should head over to OS and do some reading.

What a shame. If we would of just let Turk and gortat go we could of gone after stoudamire, James, bosh, or even Wade over the summer. Say what you want about these players, but they are all huge upgrades to vince and anyone but Dwight. Such a shame that rashard is currently the second highest paid player in the NBA.

1] Players 2] Playmaking 3] Coaching 4] Management

Players…Vince Carter is not what was hoped for. Why extend the agony? Lewis and Carter are dead weight anchors around the neck of the magic. Redick should start, and Bass/Anderson should get Lewis’ time.

Playmaking…Last in league (I believe) in fast break points. Predictable offensive sets. As soon as the bigs make a move to the basket, defenders leave the perimeter guys wide open, but the bigs fail to pass the ball to the open perimeter players. Nearly every perimeter shot the Magic take is defended closely. The opponent always seems to get more open shots than the Magic. There are no slashers going to the basket. There is no offensive rebounding. The offensive sets are BORING and predicatable. Jameer fails to get the ball to open men at the perimeter. When Jameer drives to the basket, he rarely dishes it for any easy layup or dunk to a big.

Coaching … See playmaking above. Van Gundy pulled a low-class stunt when he yanked Anderson out of the game after just two minutes after he started a few weeks ago and made a couple turnovers–the other players ended up making about 24 turnovers that game. Anderson is a better perimeter shooter than Lewis and he goes for offensive rebounds wheras Lewis is HORRIBLE on defense. Bass and Anderson should get the majority of Lewis’ time. Van Gundy shoudl yank Lewis out of the game when he fails to defend if he is going to yank Anderson out like he did.

Management … Re Otis Smith, what more needs to be said about Lewis, his contract, and his regressing play? Vince Carter has not helped the Magic improve. It should be clear that the Magic need a power forward who can defend and score and support Dwight. If we are stuck with what we got, then for Gods sake, stop this boring offense and get the players to start going to the basket and making something happen on fast breaks. All the NBA teams know how to defend the one-play Magic of dumping the ball to Dwight. Dwight should be averaging 30 points a game if the offense were more diversified and creative.

GREAT COLUMN. THIS IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR. I HAVE BEEN WATCHING THE MAGIC MANY YEARS (SINCE 1989) AND YOU ARE RIGHT ON. CONGRATULATIONS FOR BEING THE SENTIENEL COLUMNIST WITH THE GUTS AND INTEGRITY TO TELLTHE TRUTH!!!!!!

When this team was 15-5 nobody complained. Sick team later plus rough stretch of bad play which happens to every team later, everyone thinks this team sucks and cannot play basketball. Goodness!!!!! Give thetm time….they will gel. Stan needs to settle on a regular rotation and stick with it. Lay off Vince…..dude is shooting 47% from the field and has just had a couple bad games…all of a sudden the jury is out on the dude. Even in a game where he shoots 6-9, everyone forgets Jameer shot 1-14 and Rashad 2-9. Bottomline…..the team needs to collectively play at their best….they will win. Goooo Orlando

i say send carter to golden state for biedriens and ellis and u trade nelson gortat and first rounder to philly for iggy team will run more and be set on defense c-howard pf-bass sf-lewis sg-iggy pg-ellis

The year the Magic got to the Finals – was pure luck! Once you get “good”, teams will adjust to you. Other teams have adjusted and improved. Not signing Turk was a good move. He just doesn’t have the physical fitness to stay in top form. Look at him now? The problem with the Magic is the PG position and the Dwight first offence. Let Vince run the offence more. When the Magic were 4 players short and the team was run through VC, the Magic offence looked much “easier”.

Absolutely correct, Greg. I have no problem with the Media posing questions and making issues out of non issues, but I am sure glad most of these posters are not the GM of the Magic. To all of the insane posters demanding a new coach or a trade or to the loser Knicks fans (where have you been the past few years anyway?): If you can’t go a a day or two without updating your Facebook status, then you probably don’t have the patience for a West coast road trip and your opinion just pure emotion.

The Magic have obviously taken a big step back this season. Terrible contracts and trades across the board. The Magic simply do not have the talent or chemistry to compete with the Celtics, Heat, Lakers, etc. This is on Otis…not SVG. Better perform some type of miracle acquisition or wave goodbye to Dwight.

Hey fellas, it ain’t the end of the world lol, the team has a solid championship foundation as long as we keep D Howard (and he keeps developing, bad boy is starting to look like a cross between P Ewing and Hakeem the Dream, keep it up young buck). But just as important, and I know many disagree, but Jameer is the other integral part of that foundation too, he’s no laugh at pg and he’s finally developing his passing game to what’s acceptable out of your point man, if he keeps developing his game, we don’t need CP3, we got our own all-star PG. I only wish he would get it in his head to push the ball from time to time, if anything as athletic as D Howard and Bass are, he’s got plenty of easy assists just between them three and maybe still VC. Maybe Van Gundy really needs to stress this to the team, because we are still very young at the core and have players that can run. ANyways, so it seems like with Bass moving to the starting 5, we finally have a PF. SO back to my real point, the problem is at our wing positions. Now I really like both VC and Rashard but they just ain’t cutting the mustard at this point in the season. I wouldn’t say to just can both of them, cuz that’s not necessary, maybe just move one and bring in a person that can compliment the team and the other wing spot better. It seems like Vince and Rashard just don’t have a feel for each others game. Bringing in someone with a potent offensive mentality will give the team what we need and hopefully the other wing will kick their game up too. I’m thinkin of Arenas, but his game has always been volume shooting, Monta Ellis can fill it up, but he’s a frail 6′3. Cory Maggette could help us with defense and atleast have a wing getting to the line, but he’s getting old lol. Iguodala could help with some offense and defense but his outside hot is skeptical. Then OJ Mayo, who Memphis has coming off the bench, this buddy is a ball player who’s not being coached well or given a chance, he would look nasty in the Magic colors lol. Now, believe me I want Melo as much as the next guy but I think he has his eyes fixated on the glitz and glamour of New York. But people need to look at another guy on the Nuggets team that might be Orlando’s needed piece…. JR Smith to me may be our best bet. He’s young, has a potent offensive game, has been developing an all-around game (under the tutelage of Billups), and is finally maturing mentally. Watched him a few years ago in the playoffs and when he plays a playmakers game (instead of his current microwave role off the bench) he is a ball player. He’s big enough and athletic enough to play defense on any 2 or 3. He just needs to have it coached into his mind to discipline his game a little bit and he got a hidden gem. So what up Otis, make the move lol. Somthin’s gotta shake, go ahead and bake that cake…

EndOfTheWorld, can you give us the condensed version of that wall of words you posted?

Hahaha, well my friends, basically my point is get JR Smith to Orlando. The pieces we have are not throw away. They are underperforming, that’s true, but we just need to add in an explosive scorer and other playmaker that can be a starter with the height and athletecism to play guys like a Lebron, Wade, or Pierce…. That’s why I’m liking JR Smith, Maybe OJ Mayo or even Monta Ellis or Iguodala could help to a lesser extent.

Arenas to Orlando is all but done. We will see tomorrow if it has actually been completed.

Hopefully Lewis is in the deal or it is financial ruin for this team.

magic biggest problem is there just not athletic enough. all teams are running are shooters off the 3 line and they cant make plays off the dribble. we are the worst passing team ive ever seen from a contender. how many times is dwight wide open 2 feet from the basket and we cant get the ball to him. Thats why he aint leading the league in dunks. And im tired of hearing how much lewis makes, it aint goin to change, we needed better players when van gundy got here and we had to match seattles offer. at the time he was the best available option. and stop saying lewis at the 3 he cant gaurd durant pierce jame etc… i want stephen jackson and gerald wallace fills all voids on the magic team make it happen