Gilbert Arenas is the most entertaining person to follow on Twitter.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
The Direction of the Franchise
Everybody's got plans... until they get hit.
-Mike Tyson
When Stan Van Gundy joined the Orlando Magic in June of 2007 he devised a plan to build around Dwight Howard. This plan revolved around ball movement, defense, and three point shooting. His philosophy was that the three point shooters would spread the defense and exploit double teams. If the defense wanted to double Dwight, the ball movement of the Magic would punish the opposition by hitting open threes. If teams refused to double team Dwight, he would punish them in the paint.
During the summer of 2007 free agency period (along with early season trades), the Magic added Rashard Lewis, Mo Evans, Brian Cook, and Marcin Gortat. Shooting Guard Keith Bogans also became a prominent part of the rotation. The Magic played a “small” lineup of Dwight at center, Lewis at power forward, Hedo at small forward, either Evans or Bogans at shooting guard, and Nelson at point. The success was immediately apparent as the team exploded, winning 14 of their first 17 games to start the season. Their final record was 52-30, good enough for first place in the southeast division and a short trip into the second round.
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