SB Nation User Blog: erivera7

Pre-Game Media Availability with Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Brown

erivera7 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:20:22 -0000

Before the Orlando Magic face off against the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight, I was able to speak briefly with Cavs head coach Mike Brown amongst the media. Here's what he had to say:

What improvements have you seen from your team from the beginning of the season to where you are now, at this post?

Well, the biggest thing is that I've simplified stuff for my group. I think in this game, the simpler you are, the better. Less is more and so I've helped in that area. I've also helped, a little bit, by having a better feel for the guys rotation-wise so because of that, it has put the guys in ease more on the floor and then on the floor, it's a daily growth with LeBron playing with Shaq, Mo [Williams] playing with Shaq and LeBron, Z coming off the bench, Andy [Varejao] coming off the bench, and it's just a learning process I think every day. The more we play, the better we will become.

Defensively, we've improved since the beginning of the season. Hopefully that will continue and like I said offensively, just the familiarity of being out there with the different combinations, we'll improve on that end of the floor.

What type of intangibles has Shaq brought to the team, aside from his play on the court?

He's a locker-room presence. He's been great for myself, he's been great for our young guys, he's been great for the team. We can learn a lot from his experiences that he can pass on to all of us, which are valuable, and he's also a funny presence, too.

But the big picture, in my opinion, is that I think Orlando in the second half of the season will...

erivera7 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:45:36 -0000

But the big picture, in my opinion, is that I think Orlando in the second half of the season will be functioning like a well-oiled machine. When you add [Vince] Carter and [Rashard] Lewis to the starting lineup, you take Matt Barnes and Brandon Bass and J.J. Redick and put them on your second unit. Naturally, the coaching staff will have an excellent nine- or 10-man rotation of experienced players. Everyone will know their role. The defense will be there.

Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel had a chance to speak with the incomparable Hubie Brown earlier today about the Orlando Magic, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and more. A must-read.

What They're Saying Before the Orlando Magic Face Off Against the Cleveland Cavaliers

erivera7 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:20:26 -0000

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Cleveland Cavaliers at mercy of diva LeBron James
Brian Schmitz comments on the threat of LeBron James leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers via free agency in the summer of 2010 and reveals sign-and-trade possibilities, assuming the Cavs wanted to receive compensation if it were to lose its superstar. Here's a scenario involving the Orlando Magic:

--- LeBron to Orlando for Vince Carter. (Sorry Vince). It's far-fetched, as the Cavs wouldn't want to turn Orlando into a title favorite from the East for the next decade. But they would receive an eight-time all-star whose contract expires after next season. The Magic would have to dump some serious salary down the line to sign James and pair him with Dwight Howard. (Here's the Rashard Lewis contract albatross at work). This could be a terrific route for James --- and Orlando --- to a title if he'll play for 89 cents. What if the Magic threw in center Marcin Gortat with Carter and. say, took on another Cavs' contract to complete a deal for LeBron? Hmmmm?
Will Cleveland Cavaliers' marriage work out?
George Diaz wonders aloud whether or not the Cavaliers' new marriage with former Magic player Shaq will work out this year.
How does Orlando Magic's Dwight Howard stack up against Shaquille O'Neal?
Josh Robbins takes a look at how Dwight Howard and Shaquille O'Neal stack up to each other during their first six years in the NBA. Click here to take a look at the comparison with the use of advanced statistics, if you'd like, at Basketball-Reference
Off-day fun: The time I ranted about Kuester
John Krolik of the excellent Cavs: The Blog explains how the loss of former assistant coach, and current Detroit Pistons head coach, John Kuester isn't the reason why the Cavs have been off to a slow start, offensively (20th in offensive efficiency, so far). Instead, it has more to do with the big fella.

The issue has been incorporating Shaq, not the loss of Kuester’s sets. The argument for Kuester would be that he was such an all-around offensive genius that he would be able to solve the issue of the lack of weak-side movement when Shaq’s on the floor, despite the fact Kuester’s offense revolved around bigs on the perimeter and drive-and-kick basketball during his Cleveland campaign.
Today at 3:00 p.m. EST, Ben and I will chat with the aforementioned John Krolik at his site to preview tonight's game between Orlando and Cleveland. If you want to drop by, ask us some questions and read along, feel free to do so. We'd be happy to have your company.
Stan Van Gundy Can Mince Words with the Best
UPDATE: Bethlehem Shoals of The Baseline takes a look at some quotes from Dwight Howard and head coach Stan Van Gundy.

The Magic are this season's underdogs. A friend said there are basically two kinds of basketball experts: Those who thinks the Magic will be in the Finals, and those who don't even mention them seriously as contenders. This is the kind of thing that can motivate a team, make them especially sensitive, or both. So far, it seems like both are taking place.

Orlando Magic News for November 10th: A Look at the Orlando Magic's Future; Vince Carter on Sesame Street

erivera7 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:22:51 -0000

More photos » by Sue Ogrocki - AP

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15 Footer – Because It’s The Day After Monday
Zach Harper of Hardwood Paroxysm previews tonight's festivities between the Orlando Magic and the Charlotte Bobcats.

It’s pretty simple for the Charlotte Bobcats – all they need to do in order to win basketball games is play their games at home and hope Gerald Wallace grabs at least 15 rebounds in the game. But that’s not a realistic thing to expect every time the Bobcats need a win, especially against a team like the Magic. In case you haven’t heard, Dwight Howard is a giant eagle in a huge human Halloween costume. GM Otis Smith saw this giant eagle in a huge human Halloween costume and signed him to circle the backboard both ends of the floor and grab whatever bounces off of the orange circle attached to the fiberglass window.
ESPN's NBA Future Power Rankings: Teams 1 to 5
Chad Ford and John Hollinger of ESPN.com reveal the Future Power Rankings, in which they decipher which teams in the NBA are headed in the right or wrong direction. Coming in at #2, behind the Portland Trail Blazers, is Orlando.

The Future Power Rankings are ESPN Insider's projection of the on-court success expected for each team during the 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons. [...]

In the front office, the Magic have several strengths -- one of the league's premier coaches in Stan Van Gundy, the committed ownership of the DeVos family and an underrated general manager in Otis Smith. That pushed Orlando to a fourth-best finish in this category.

When it comes to money, Orlando has no cap space for the foreseeable future. The Magic are willing to pay the tax, however, despite their small market, and the new arena that comes online next year should help considerably on the money front.
Will a back-to-back hurt the Magic's chances against the Cleveland Cavaliers?
Tania Ganguli wonders whether or not a back-to-back will hurt the Magic in its game against the Cleveland Cavaliers tomorrow night.
Saluting Sesame Street's Hoops Moments
Bethlehem Shoals of The Baseline takes a look at Sesame Street, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, and shares some videos where basketball was involved in the show. Here's one of Vince Carter:
UPDATE: Dwight Howard has been fined $15,000 for criticizing officials on his blog a few days ago after a loss to the Detroit Pistons, according to Ganguli.

Four Orlando Magic Players on Ballot for 2010 NBA All-Star Game

erivera7 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:03:19 -0000

More photos » by John Raoux - AP

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Via the Orlando Magic:

The Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, Rashard Lewis and Jameer Nelson were named to the 2010 NBA All-Star Ballot that was unveiled today during a special tip-off event in Dallas, the Official Host City of NBA All-Star 2010. Howard, a three-time NBA All-Star, was the 2009 leading vote-getter in the NBA All-Star Balloting program presented by T-Mobile with 3,150,181 votes, becoming the first player in balloting history to crack the 3 million-vote ceiling. Howard is joined by Carter, an eight-time NBA All-Star, Lewis, a two-time NBA All-Star and Nelson, who was an NBA All-Star for the first time in 2009.

NBA All-Star Balloting presented by T-Mobile will begin this afternoon at 12:30 p.m. ET. The 2010 NBA All-Star Game, which will air live on TNT and ESPN Radio in the U.S., and reach fans in more than 200 countries and territories in more than 40 languages, will be played at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, before an expected crowd of more than 80,000 – the largest group ever to witness a live basketball game, on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010.

Asked if the trouble [on defense] was execution or effort, [Jameer] Nelson said, "Both. Some of it...

erivera7 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:00:54 -0000

Asked if the trouble [on defense] was execution or effort, [Jameer] Nelson said, "Both. Some of it is just talking on the court. Some of it is just pushing yourself. You got to play both ends. We're making mistakes we shouldn't make, and it starts with me. Stan's not asking us to do anything we can't do. It's not like he's not asking me to do a 360 (degree) dunk."

[Dwight] Howard said that having to incorporate five new players into the system takes time and has a domino effect.

Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel

The only good highlights that came from the Magic's loss to the Thunder.

erivera7 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:36:31 -0000

The only good highlights that came from the Magic's loss to the Thunder.

Create A Caption #37 Winner

erivera7 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:31:19 -0000

More photos » by John Raoux - AP

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Well, 72 hours have passed and we have a winner in Third Quarter Collapse's thirty-seventh "create a caption" competition. The voting was close, however.

Stan and his father give the referee their opinion of the recent officiating in Magic games.

3QC member The Dark is the winner in the competition, garnering 31% of the votes. Honorable mention to the other competitors for excellent submissions.

We'll do this again soon! For those that participated, thanks. If you didn't win the contest this time around, you'll have another crack at garnering precious glory later this week, on Friday. Stay tuned.

Word Of The Day: Patience

erivera7 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:24:47 -0000

More photos » by Sue Ogrocki - AP

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patience (n.) - tolerant and even-tempered perseverance

After the Orlando Magic's disheartening loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder last night, I'm sure people are doing their best Vince Lombardi impression and asking themselves, "what the hell is going on out here?" For all the talk about how impressive the Magic's offense has been in the regular season, so far, the defense hasn't been up to snuff. Head coach Stan Van Gundy made that explicitly clear after the Thunder game.

The fact of the matter is that it's hard to judge Orlando's body of work defensively without a full complement of players available. The Magic have been shorthanded since the year began (Rashard Lewis' suspension) and the players understand that, but the problem has been exacerbated lately with injuries (Ryan Anderson, Vince Carter) and sicknesses (Matt Barnes, Mickael Pietrus). It's clear that one needs to exhibit patience because the defense is a work in progress.

What's making things difficult, aside from individuals being unavailable to play, is the fact Orlando hasn't had much practice time on the court to work out the kinks. Check the Magic schedule - the team hasn't had more than a day off between games since the regular season began. With so many new players trying to learn defensive schemes on the fly, it's been admittedly painful to watch Orlando play on that side of the floor sometimes. The important thing is that the Magic have shown flashes of good to excellent defense, varying by degree, on the court so the potential is there. It's a matter of consistency and execution.

Create A Caption #37: Round 2

erivera7 — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:34:13 -0000

More photos » by John Raoux - AP

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Round 1, completed.

Round 2, started.

After two days of submissions, these are the captions that made the cut. The submissions will be listed by number of "recs/votes" in descending order, starting with the leader.

Please vote in the poll for the caption you like the most.

Thanks.

I once saw [Hedo] Turkoglu eat a pizza this big around.

by RussL, 8 recs

RUN!!! YOU'RE GOING TO MISS THE CALL!!! UGH!!!!

by Mr. Hoss, 5 recs

Hey, remember a few weeks back when I said you guys were the best in the business and I got fined $35,000 for it? I recant my statement, sir.

by funny80sguy, 4 recs

Stan and his father give the referee their opinion of the recent officiating in Magic games.

by The Dark, 4 recs

Rules:

I'm sure everyone here is familiar with a "create a caption" competition, but in case someone here doesn't know what this type of contest is .. basically a picture is provided and you, the reader, attempt to come up with a quick sentence describing what's occurring in the photo. The line can be funny, stupid, witty, etc.

I'll be a judge but I like to have another collective voice determining the winner, that way there's a bit of a consensus among the community. What I prefer for everyone here to do is this .. if you like the caption a fellow member has come up with, "recommend" it. That will be 'your vote', in essence. If you don't know how to "recommend" a comment, go to the comment you like, click on 'actions', then click on 'rec'. You can "recommend" multiple captions/comments, if you want.

So for a quick recap ..

- Write a quick sentence describing what's occurring in the photo.

- If you like a caption/comment that's been written, "recommend" it.

- After you "recommend" a caption/comment, write something (like +1, for example) to indicate you like the sentence a 3QC member has written.

- The contest will last four days, so whichever caption/comment gets the most recommendations, wins. In case of a tie, I'll determine the winner.

- There will be two rounds in the competition. In the first round (Friday/Saturday), submissions are made and votes are tallied. At the end of the second day, the submissions that garnered four or more "recs/votes" will advance. In the final round (Sunday/Monday), votes are tallied for the eligible submissions.

- Winner will be announced Monday afternoon or evening.

- The contest is subject to change.

Let the contest begin!

Poll

Choose the author which made the best caption.

RussL

29 votes

Mr. Hoss

30 votes

funny80sguy

23 votes

The Dark

37 votes

119 votes | Poll has closed