Were there enough highlights from the first week of the NBA season for you? James Harden’s surreal first two games. The Knicks’ phenomenal ball movement. LeBron James’ assist to Ray Allen for a game-winning four-point play over Denver (Pat Riley had to be grinning away). Along with the other top stories of the week, the Dwight-less and rebuilding Orlando Magic skated through their first two games of the 2012-13 season against the Nuggets and Suns, respectively, in large part to the play of
Happy Halloween everyone. As the NBA has its second night of games, opening night for most teams—including the practically rebuilt Houston Rockets, the rest of America embarks on the age-old tradition of wearing costumes and stockpiling candy. Hopefully your costume—if you’re wearing one—is up to snuff. In a retrospective tweet, Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin seems to think that he had the best costume as a kid.
Orlando Magic guard J.J. Redick is the champion. The photo he posted on Instagram and then tweeted earlier today from the Magic practice facility confirms it.
When we wrote last month that the Western Conference playoff picture would be filled in by the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves, it was assumed that both teams would have their alpha dogs at power forward. Now that Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Love are both out until at least December, that picture could be changing. Nowitzki and Love both are top-10 players whose presence instantly legitimizes their teams as playoff-worthy, regardless of the other 14 players sharing a locker room and airplane with them.
In today’s column I am going to take a look at how some of the most interesting camp battles are turning out. It is very early but it’s worth looking at the impressions of people who are watching teams closely, in order to get a sense of who is gaining and who might be losing ground. If you have an early draft (and I’ve already had one and have another coming up on Friday) then it’s well worth passing on
This was the 2,000th Tweet posted by Brian, a friend and a fixture in the Orlando media scene: It’s hilarious how people still fall for Shaq’s Don Rickles’ act: His target, media, fans. He said long ago, “It’s all entertainment.” — Brian K. Schmitz (@MagicInsider) October 5, 2012 That tweet has nothing to do with Stan Van Gundy, who may have been shown the door by ESPN after they were close to making a deal to bring him in as a studio analyst,
Southeast Division Fantasy Preview Part II In Part 1, we covered the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks. In Part II, we look at the Orlando Magic, Washington Wizards and Charlotte Bobcats. Orlando Magic “Incompetence is the world’s greatest cloak for corruption.” I heard this quote on a local radio talk show discussing the referee situation in the NFL. I wish I knew the guest so I could properly credit him. It stuck with me as a perfect explanation for what may be going
There are three NBA teams with new coaches for the start of the 2012-13 season, and no one is expecting any of them to work miracles. In fact, ownership and management appear to be expecting just the opposite. The Charlotte Bobcats and Orlando Magic both are undergoing massive rebuilding projects and don’t seem overly concerned with winning. Both teams have hired inexperienced coaches with strong backgrounds in player development, which means they also have strong backgrounds in patience. It remains to be
