Coach Stan Van Gundy has joked about his weight from time to time, but this offseason, he decided it was time to get down to business.  You've surely seen the articles, they've blown up all over the web.

"Slightly slimmer and more physically fit, Van Gundy is exercising on the elliptical machine and lifting weights. He's also trying to eat better, he said, and is scheduled to have another checkup in two weeks to find out exactly how much weight he's lost,"  the AP reports.

While we don't know the final tally after a summer of hard work, the visual results are stunning:

What can we reasonably expect from such a dramatic change?  Vince Carter says we've already gotten a glimpse.  

"Me sitting here and just trying to praise him for his hard work in the summer won't do it justice," Carter said. "The product that you're seeing on the court is a testament to what he's really put in this summer as far as his conditioning, his strength, his knowledge of the game."

Dwight Howard added, "He finally can wear shirts without a stretchy neck hole.  You saw the tie, didn't you?"

For those wondering whether or not the more movement-restrictive clothes will have an impact on Van Gundy's demonstrative sideline antics, he put those fears to rest.

"Is it harder to flail my arms with a shirt and tie than it was with a turtleneck?  Sure.  But I dropped my body fat percentage well over three percent, and my conditioning is much improved... and while I haven't caught up to Dwight on the bench press, I'm closing in.  That more than makes up for any problems the tie will give me.  In fact, you'll see moves from me that I haven't been able to pull off since my Wisconsin days."

Magic players are really gearing up for "Vintage" Van Gundy this season, but no one is more pumped than Jameer Nelson.

"We know his current moves: the furious pound on his chair, the disgusted arm cross, and the classic flail.  But with the work he put in this summer, the sky is the limit as to how animated he can get on the bench this year.  It has the chance to truly be a special season."

Only time will tell.

How lucky are the Magic that Vince Carter exploded for 48 on national television?  He had what was surely his one and only good game of the season, right before the trade deadline!  Now is our chance to dump him off on some unsuspecting GM and get one of those great SG's that could be had in exchange for the Magic's resident parasite.  

Look at the great possibilities:

John Salmons, Chicago Bulls

Josh Howard, Dallas Mavericks

Corey Maggette, Golden State Warriors

Sasha Vujacic, Los Angeles Lakers

Tracy McGrady, The Grave

Why can't the Magic get a sharpshooter like Sasha, a slasher like Maggette, or an all-around talent like Josh Howard?  The reason was "Vince Carter is literally too bad to trade."  But after team execs watched the Hornets game, they can easily be duped into taking on the massive hole Vince Carter leaves in the starting five.  Otis Smith is a shrewd man and will clearly jump at the opportunity.  Consider this a heads up, there is now a 100% chance Vince will be sent packing his bricks and headed out of Orlando (until Summer, when he comes home and casts his voo-doo on the Magic's offseason.)

My question is, how happy are you about this?

Who would've thought?

Remember back in the summer when there was an article proposing a potential point guard controversy for the Magic?  We all laughed.  

Jameer was coming off an All-Star season with a PER of over 20 and Jason Williams (who has never been an All-Star or had a PER of 20)  had been retired.  

Thirty-eight games into the season, the comparison seems to be a wash. 

FG%    FT%      PTS/40      REB/40    AST/40      TS%             AST%           TO%         USG%        REB%  

.452      .700        12.3             2.8             7.3           57.0             36.6              9.2             15.1              4.0

.413      .818       16.8              4.0             7.1           50.3             26.6             10.6            21.9              5.7

Jason is the first line, Jameer is the second.

Jason's PER is 14.25, Jameer's is 13.85. 

Jason is by far the superior distributer, we knew that going into the season.  His assist rate is 40% higher than Jameer's while his turnover rate is lower.  What we didn't anticipate is Jameer's shooting dropping off the cliff while Jason puts up a career high 45%.  

Jason also seems to bring more energy more consistently.  

We know that Jameer is the better player, but it would impossible to tell by watching them this season.  Assuming Nelson continues to struggle, who should be playing more minutes?  SVG has been playing the hot hand, is that the best way to go?

Very surprising, I was walking into the gym to shoot around, and Otis was there talking to someone in the Athletic Dept.  It took me a second to get past the "Nah it can't be him's" before I decided that was indeed our favorite GM Otis Smith.  I went up to him when I saw he had stopped talking for a minute.  I asked him if he was still talking to Golden State about Watson and he said "Yessss, still tryin'."  I told him that the Magic could really use him and he said "We could use him A LOT more than they could.  We're gonna keep trying."  I was happy to hear that.  I asked if the Williams signing was a posturing move to try make Golden State bite on a trade, and he said that it had nothing to do with Watson and the Warriors.  Then I congratulated him profusely on the job he's done this offseason and told him good luck and keep up the good work.  He was very gracious and approachable.  Fun first day at UT.

Dwight Howard said during his webcast a couple weeks ago that he was 6'11," which is his listed height.  So I went looking at his actual measurements before the draft to see if he was exaggerating.  He's 6'11" all right, but what he fails to mention, however, is that "6'11" includes basketball sneakers and rounding up from 6'10.25"

So how tall are the rest of the Magic really??

Ryan Anderson 6'8.75"

Matt Barnes 6'6.75"

Brandon Bass 6'6.25"

Vince Carter 6'5.5"

Marcin Gortat 6'11"

Dwight Howard 6'9"

Anthony Johnson 6'2.5"

Rashard Lewis 6'8.5"

Jameer Nelson 5'11"

Mickael Pietrus 6'5.5"

J.J. Redick 6'4"

Jason Williams 6'0.25"

Redick is the only one who's listed at his exact actual height.  Shaq is a legit 7'1", in case any of you were wondering.

Most information came from DraftExpress, who has a lot of the pre-draft measurements, the rest came from scouring the web.

There's nothing better than two future hall of famers joining forces on a championship team, except when the two future hall of famers are two of the greatest dunkers of all time.  Vince has earned the title of #1 all-time, while Dwight is making the case to be the greatest power dunker of all time.  The "who's a better dunker now" question is one that is up for debate this season.  Dwight and Vince have both bragged publicly, each saying they're ahead.

Let's reminisce, shall we?

Dwight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxFnag6uQSw 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmlDqPtHV-E

Vince: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSmzkJF7Ons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0jAPQb_dNw&feature=related

Pietrus can get up too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAAjJpKACcA

Assuming the reports coming out of ESPN and Yahoo Sports are true regarding Matt Barnes, the Magic will have spent the rest of their midlevel (approximately 1.7 million) on a much needed reserve wing player.

So where does that leave C.J. Watson?  C.J. had a great season last year with a PER of 14.3 (better than Barnes' 12.6.)  He has a great step back jump shot and can score in bunches.  He is an adequate distributor and has a lot of upside at 25.  If the Barnes deal goes through as expected, the Magic will only have the minimum to offer Watson.  Reports out of San Francisco say that he has already turned down a two year, $2.3 million deal from Philadelphia because he is seeking a three year deal.  The most Orlando can offer for three years is $2.68 million (the minimum with annual 8% raises.)

Both C.J. and his agent think that he is worth more than that (which he is.)  My guess is that there has to be some sort of sign and trade worked out between the Magic and Warriors.  It would likely cost a second round pick or two, but you rarely get a player of C.J.'s caliber in the late 50's anyway.  

Assuming that both deals get done, Orlando will have the deepest team in the NBA when looking at the statistics. 

Player, (PER)

Point Guards: Jameer Nelson (20.7), C.J. Watson (14.3), Anthony Johnson (10.3)

Wings: Vince Carter (19.4), Mickael Pietrus(11.7), Matt Barnes (12.6), J.J. Redick (10.0)

Bigs: Dwight Howard (25.4), Rashard Lewis (16.8), Marcin Gortat (17.0), Brandon Bass (16.5), Ryan Anderson (13.6)

Four All-Stars and a first rate bench put them at the top of the list to win the East.