Friday afternoon, a day removed from the NBA trade deadline, the Orlando Magic and general manager Rob Hennigan decided the team’s future would be best without forward Glen Davis. The Magic and Davis agreed to a buyout that will enable the 28-year-old big man, affectionately known as “Big Baby,” to pursue another team via free agency once he clears waivers. After the buyout had been formalized, Davis took to Twitter to thank the Magic and its fans for his time in Orlando.
Every kid playing basketball dreams of making the NBA one day, but some don’t know what to expect once they reach that level. For rookies Victor Oladipo and Michael Carter-Williams, it’s meant position switches, quickly being a team’s top option, dealing with the stress and rigors of a long season and being in situations they had never encountered or even envisioned before. Both 2013 lottery picks played in New York City arenas this week and spoke with SheridanHoops about their experiences
Since training camp opened, there have been five significant trades involving 10 teams, 19 players and seven draft picks. The big winners have been a team that got rid of the highest scorer among the traded players and a team that acquired a player who has yet to play. The big loser has been a team that swears by analytics. Another way to look at it is like this: The biggest trades thus far have been the ones that haven’t been made
When Victor Oladipo was taken second overall in the 2013 draft by the Orlando Magic, everyone assumed he would play shooting guard in the NBA. His 6-4 frame and 214 pounds projected perfectly for the NBA’s new wave of shooting guards. However, over the summer, the Magic made it clear they would experiment with Oladipo by slotting him into a dynamic combo guard role. As a result, Oladipo has been featured more at the point than at any time in his basketball life.
After jettisoning Dwight Howard in August 2012, the Orlando Magic fully embraced a rebuilding plan, starting over with two young prospects in Nikola Vucevic and Moe Harkless and a veteran contributor in Arron Afflalo. After a surprisingly strong 12-13 start which had some folks around the NBA wondering if they could make the playoffs, the Magic floundered to the finish, losing 49 of their final 57 games. Along the way, they lost Glen Davis to two injuries – one which would
After Friday’s dispiriting home loss to the Washington Wizards, Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni could not take it any longer. D’Antoni went on a wide-ranging rant against his team, targeting its lack of commitment and effort on both sides of the ball. He said the Lakers were “messing with the basketball gods” and called their championship aspirations “laughable.” Although D’Antoni mentioned no one by name, very few wearing the forum blue and gold appeared exempt. [Read more…]
David Stern is disingenuous. How’s that for one of those million-dollar words that the NBA commissioner loves to use when talking to the hoi polloi about basketball? In slapping the San Antonio Spurs with a $250,000 fine for resting their trio of stars in a nationally televised game, Stern said in his customary, quite lawyerly fashion, “The result here is dictated by the totality of the facts in this case.” [Read more…]
The return of NBA games that count also brought the return of The Bernucca List, which made its 2012-13 debut last week. It took just under three hours before reader Brian delivered the correct answer, which was “Players who were waived after being acquired in trades this offseason.” Five of the players on the list were waived by Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey, who added to the list following the James Harden trade by waiving five more players – Jon Brockman, Gary