Allstar weekend is nearly upon us, and Vince Carter’s impact is yet to be felt on the Magic. They haven’t done too poorly this season – managing a record of 33-17, good for first in their division, and third in the conference. And to be honest it’s not like anyone expected them to do much better. The problem however, lies within where their production is coming from. Their biggest acquisition of the offseason – Vince Carter, is averaging just 15.6 points a game on 38.2% shooting, both of which are career lows. That was certainly not expected. Despite coming off a mediocre season at 33 years of age, most people thought that the inside presence of Dwight Howard would help open up more aspects of his game, particularly with getting better shots. Too bad for Magic fans, that’s not the case. The hometown “hero” has suffered from being a second fiddle for the first time in his career. He’s still taking tough shots because the Magic do not run advanced plays for him. Or maybe he just chooses not to follow them. Whatever the case, his shot selection needs improvement. Stan Van Gundy needs to let Vince know that they need him to start making plays. If the Magic expect to go back to the Finals this year, then they’re going to need Carter to step up. Otherwise, it’ll just be another wasted season.

The Magic are the deepest team in the league right now. They got so many guys who can shoot around Dwight Howard and Vince Carter. Ryan Anderson has done a great job filling in for the suspended Rashard Lewis scoring 17.3ppg and shooting 55% from three.

The News today is Jameer Nelson is gonna miss a month or two, the Magic just got Rashard back. The Magic havent really got a chance to see what their team can do yet with guys being in and out of the lineup, with Nelson out for a while, maybe they take a look at Iverson.

The Magic made some upgrades to the team that represented the east in the finals last season adding Vince Carter and Brandon Bass. This will be a big season for Vince Carter and his legacy, no more excuses for Vince, he has to show us what hes made of this season. The Magic also acquired Ryan Anderson in the trade with the Nets, he can play both forward positions and can space the floor and should fit perfectly in the offense they run in Orlando. The Magic can play big and small and have a much deeper bench going into this season then they did while their run to the finals.

Key Additions: Vince Carter, Brandon Bass, Ryan Anderson, Matt Barnes, Jason Williams

Key Subtractions: Hedo Turkoglu, Rafer Alston, Courtney Lee, Tony Battie

Projected Starting Lineup: Jameer Nelson/ Vince Carter/ Mickael Pietrus/ Rashard Lewis/ Dwight Howard

Key Reserves: Marcin Gortat, Brandon Bass, Matt Barnes, Jason Williams, Ryan Anderson, Anthony Johnson

-Bennice

It’s been quite the eventful off-season for the Orlando Magic. After being defeated by the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals, that’s when it all began to happen. On draft night, the Orlando Magic acquired Vince Carter from the New Jersey Nets. Whether they intended for him to be Turkoglu’s replacement or just another weapon in their arsenal was unknown at the time, but when it became clear that Turkoglu was not returning to the Magic it all became clear. At first, it appeared as if Hedo was headed far West to Portland to join the Blazers, in fact, he even verbally committed but pulled out of his committment to join the Raptors instead. Eventually, a four-way trade happened and atleast the Magic received an $8 Million trade exception for Hedo. Although Carter is good, Hedo’s size made him a tough guard and the Magic will miss that.

It also appeared as if Marcin Gortat was on his way to the Dallas Mavericks, but yesterday the Orlando Magic matched his offer and he is returning to Orlando. According to Gortat’s agent, Gortat was looking forward to playing with the Mavericks and he is very disappointed about his return to Orlando. Either way, his role of a back-up did earn him a nice contract and perhaps a sign-and-trade will be discussed and maybe Gortat will get his wishes of playing in Dallas after all.

Hedo Turkoglu has plans to opt-out, but it’s only to get himself a long-term contract with the Magic. No worries right? Well, almost. There are teams who could swoop in and offer Hedo and nice, lucrative contract but those teams aren’t necessarily in the same position as the Orlando Magic are in right now. The incentives of winning are there for Hedo to return, but NBA free agency can be unpredictable and you never know what a player is actually thinking until the final decisions are made and the player is under contract with you long term.

Turkoglu has been an important piece to the success of the Orlando Magic and losing him could be devastating to their franchise. There is no doubt that they’ll do whatever is necessary to get him back, assuming he he opts out. Even if it doesn’t opt out at the end of the season, there then is the possibility that he might want to test the free agency market during 2010 season and with teams clearing cap to make room for the highly anticipated off-season, the Magic could have a greater chance to lose their all-star forward.

By: Dustin Chapman

Transactions

• Selected Courtney Lee 22nd overall.

Coming into the draft, Lee was pegged by many as a virtual lock to go 22 to Orlando, and Otis Smith got his wish. Lee is an NBA-ready guy that can come in and give the Magic a lift on both ends right away, and at pick #22, what more can you ask for?

Grade: B

Tim Povtak of the Orlando Sentinel reports that Magic center Adonal Foyle is expected to opt out of his contract this month, making him an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

The urgency this summer to secure more help in the frontcourt will intensify this week when Orlando Magic backup center Adonal Foyle opts out of his contract to become an unrestricted free agent.

Foyle, 33, is expected to exercise his option, leaving behind the $1.26 million that the Magic would have paid him next season under the original two-year contract he signed on Aug. 24, 2007.

His opt-out and probable departure — which is a surprise — would add to the Magic’s summertime list of things to accomplish and further emphasize the need to strengthen their defense and rebounding around star center Dwight Howard.

Foyle, who did not return phone messages left for him at his home in California, must notify the Magic by June 15.

“I can only speculate at this point, but I would anticipate him opting out now,” Magic General Manager Otis Smith said. “He’s playing behind the best [Howard], and he may want to see what other opportunities are out there.”

Povtak also mentions the rest of Orlando’s expired contracts:

Guard Keith Bogans, who also has an opt-out clause in his contract, is not expected to exercise his option. Bogans, who served as the backup shooting guard, will be paid $2.9 million next season.

Guards Maurice Evans, Keyon Dooling and Carlos Arroyo will become unrestricted free agents on July 1, along with forward Pat Garrity. Little-used power forward James Augustine will become a restricted free agent.

Back to Foyle: You’d think that a player of his caliber (see: aging, knocking on the door of towel boy) would play it safe and collect all of the guaranteed dollars he can before teams decide that he’s nothing more or less than excess size at the end of the bench for insurance purposes. Which, by the way, Stan Van Gundy realized in the second half of this past season.

Should Foyle go elsewhere (or back home, depending on how skilled his agent may be), Magic fans should not worry about Orlando’s frontcourt depth next season. Tony Battie, who missed the entire 2007-2008 season with a torn left rotator cuff, is set to hit the hardwood once again. In addition, the Magic own the rights to the 22nd overall pick in this month’s draft, in which they’ll be able to add extra help up front.

Should Orlando’s bigs manage to keep healthy in 2008-2009, the Magic should be much better served at the four and five spots than they have been over the past couple of years.

.

Posted By: Dustin Chapman

Magic sharpshooting guard J.J. Redick has openly discussed his displeasure with his role this past season, but according to Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel, he may have finally had the last straw. The ACC legend has recently voiced his virtual ultimatum, asking for either more playing time next season or a trade.

“I want to play. There were a lot of things that were said last summer and in the preseason, you know, and I thought I was going to play. It didn’t happen,” Redick said.

“I’m certainly not going to sit there and hear the same stuff and think I’m going to get the same results. I’m going to put some of this on myself to get better, but there’s got to be an opportunity for me to get on the court.”

Should Orlando refuse to part ways and/or fail to find a viable suitor via trade, playing time may very well open up in 2008-2009. The contracts of guards Carlos Arroyo, Keyon Dooling, and Mo Evans have all expired, leaving uncertainty as to who will be back next season.

As for Redick, he’ll talk with Smith this week and the meeting might determine if he stays or not. “The thing I want to discuss is my future here and kind of what their plan is. As I said all along, I want to play here . . . but I want to play,” Redick said. “I can’t predict the future. I honestly think when training camp starts, I’ll be here — that’s my gut feeling — but I don’t know.”

Smith that Redick “could easily go from the third guy to the first guy because other guys opt out as free agents. I do think he’s a pretty good guard. He’s a backup 2 [shooting guard].”

Posted By: Dustin Chapman

It’s a great feeling for the Magic, being in the second round of the playoffs for the first time since Shaq was there. So many years without a second round entry, and everyone was beginning to wonder when it would happen. Finally this year, with the addition’s of Stan Van Gundy to implement a new scheme, and Rashard Lewis to open up driving lanes for the team are we going into the second round of the playoffs. The first round was great, and made for alot of entertaining basketball, especially with how we disposed of the Raptors in the first round.

Now however, we have a mountain to climb, in the shape of the Detroit Pistons. This was the same team to have swept us in last year’s playoffs. They play well together, play good defense, and have alot of talented players. I expect this to be a hard series for us. Let’s break down some of the matchups we will be seeing.

First at the point we are going to be having mostly a duo of Nelson/Dooling against Billups and Stuckey. This is going to be a rough matchup for us, as we have the hardest time’s guarding point guards with Nelson in. He is the worst defensive starting point guard in the league, and probably worse off defensively than 3/4’s of the backup point guards in the league. Dooling is good defensively, but he is just outmatched by the size and strength of Billups who can bully his way around the court against smaller guards. Then having the quick and agile Stuckey coming in off the bench is really a switch up, and it throws our guys off completely. The point guard position is an area I expect us to get dominated in for the entire series, I’m not expecting to much out of us there.

At the 2, the matchup is Evans/Bogans vs Hamilton/Afflalo. Another area we are outclassed in. Pretty much the whole backcourt of our’s is outclassed by the Pistons backcourt. Bogans and Evans are helpful, don’t get me wrong, but they are collectively or seperatly not as good as Hamilton by himself. When you add in rookie Afflalo they really have us there.

At the swingman position, it comes to Prince and Hermann against Turkoglu/Lewis/Bogans and it’s an area I think we win. Prince is good defensively, but even when their playing is down, I think both Turkoglu and Lewis provide better scoring than Prince. I don’t think they are able to continuely stop one or the other. The big thing I want to see here though, is more of Turk getting into the lane and to the basket, so he can get his playmaking going. When he is hitting it heavy on the playmaking we do good, so we need him there. I think we win at the 3.

I think the 4 spot is a wash, with Rasheed Wallace and Lewis. Rasheed can post up, Lewis can move around and make it difficult for Rasheed to guard him. Having Wallace move around is key, and I like the matchup offensively. Unfortunately, defensively Lewis can get dominated by Rasheed in the post. We can’t move Howard onto him, because then Howard gets caught up in guarding the pick and roll or pick and pop, and Rasheed gets loose. His ability to hit from outside as well as inside really is special.

Finally we have the big’s, Dwight and Gortat vs Maxiell and Mcdyess. Sure both Maxiell and Mcdyess are better than the untested and unproven Gortat, who didn’t even start getting playing time until the playoffs. Dwight Howard is more powerful, more impactful, a better rebounder, and enough to cancel out both Maxiell and Mcdyess and let me pronounce this to be Orlando’s matchup to win.

Overall, I’m really excited for the rest of this series. Game 1, to me, was not a giant example of how this game is going to go. I think Van Gundy will make the right adjustments and we will be ready to go tonight. A few things we need to be ready to go though:

1. More touch’s inside for Dwight. He has got to throw his weight and size around, and get inside. For us to get him the ball, he has to be posted up alot when they are ready to pass. At the same time, we have to get the ball to Dwight when he is posted up. There was a couple time’s where he had the mismatch with Prince or Hamilton somehow on him, and yet we still failed to get the ball to him in that situation. Those are easy points, and we need to be more aware of when Howard is posted up and who he has on him when posted up.

2. Turk to step up and start driving more, so that he can start setting up his playmaking. His ablity to get to the rim off the dribble will really open things up, and he needs to start getting there. Dwight and him need to hit that high screen and roll more with each other, because that is what opens our three point shooting. Our three point shooting is vital, and it is often set up off of Turkoglu’s playmaking ability.

3. Speaking of three point shooting, we have to get open and hit those shots. When we are open, we can’t afford to miss shot’s we have been hitting all season long. We need to get open more, which like above, can be helped by Turkoglu getting more going towards the basket. It can also be helped by Dwight being a beast downlow and forcing double teams. Getting him going is the central part of our three point shooting, which leads our team.

One thing I would really love to see tonight though, is a lineup on the floor for the last 5 minutes of the 2nd quarter of Turkoglu,Evans,Bogans,Lewis and Dwight Howard. The four wing players can all shoot, it forces Turkoglu to use his playmaking, and it also gives us a bigger body to try to use on Billups while keeping a bigger body on Hamilton. They both are above average defensively, so it keeps up the strong defense on the perimeter and gives us two smart defensive players along with Dwight downlow. It’s just something I think would be worth trying for a bit, and if it doesn’t work, you have a whole second half to erase what happened.

Overall, I think this is a series we can win if we can get the three important things going. Unfortunately I don’t see us doing it consistently enough to win this series, and we go down in 6 this round, 5 if we are really unlucky.

Hi!

we were at verizon center november 3. we were maybe just 2 people who is a fan of Hedoat verizon center . We are from Turkey,too. me and my friends were really want to see him at that day,but unfortunately we couldnt. But it is ok, we watched him and were proud of him. it was nice ti be there…we love you Hido…..