This Cavs/Magic series has shown me...

[indeedproceed]

Certainly makes you even more proud of Cs effort against the Magic.   Injured team took this team to 7 games.   

To be fair to the Cavs, though, I really think we saw a different Magic team in Round 2 of the playoffs than the Cavs saw in the ECF.  You can't tell me that the Magic played as well or as hard against the Celtics as they did against the Cavs.

That's what drives me nuts. If we would've taken game 1, who is to say we couldn't have taken CLE? If you would've asked me to bet money on the EC champs, and how many games the series would've taken, I would've said CLE, and 4-5.

So either Cleveland just didn't play up to their abilities, or the Magic became world beaters after their series against us.

Either way its frustrating. Kinda makes you think that with a healthy Garnett we could've beaten either team. I don't think 5% of NBA fans thought that a month ago.

[nickagneta]

I think when people look back at this playoff season and Dwight Howard gets turned into the second coming of Shaq, people should consider what Kendrick Perkins did to Dwight Howard.

Against Philly and Cleveland, Howard averaged 24 PPG  while shooting 68% and 25.8 PPG while shooting 65%, respectively. Against Boston and Perk, Howard averaged only 16.4 PPG while shooting 56%. Against Dalambert Howard gave up 5.8 PPG and 7.8 RPG. Against Ilgauskas, Howard gave up 10 PPG and 9.3 RPG. Against Perk, Howard gave up 10.5 PPG and 12 RPG.

The only player that has given Howard any competition in these playffs whatsoever has been Perk. If Perk comes back next year and plays close to double-double ball, he could be second team All-NBA Defense and an Eastern Conference All-Star. His defense against other centers and his growing offensive game make him a very valuable commodity and rare in the league.

[CoachBo]

Celtic fan tends to hyperbolize youth to death.

Not sure you can do that, though, with Perkins. As Nick points out, he neutralized Howard for much of the Magic series and his offensive game is developing.

I suspect Perkins is the role model for the kind of growth I'd like to see out of Rondo.

[GeoDim]

Certainly makes you even more proud of Cs effort against the Magic.   Injured team took this team to 7 games.   

To be fair to the Cavs, though, I really think we saw a different Magic team in Round 2 of the playoffs than the Cavs saw in the ECF.  You can't tell me that the Magic played as well or as hard against the Celtics as they did against the Cavs.

No, the Cavs saw the same team that we did.

The Cavs had no answer whatsoever for Dwight in the post.  Whenever Dwight had the ball in the paint, the Cavs defense would collapse, because Varejao can't take him one-on-one.  This opened up the perimeter, which was killed the Cavs this series.

I'm not going to overstate Perk's effect on the game.  He didn't shut down Howard, but he definitely contained him.  Howard certainly didn't look like an All-Star.  In fact, his post moves looked atrocious, up against Perk's money hook shot.  Because we had someone that could take Howard one-on-one, their shooters weren't able to go off on us like they did against Cleveland.

It was the same team, but Cleveland's inability to match up defensively is what dictated the series.

[bopna]

It was not our defense that brought us down against the Magic, we all knew they were difficult to contain from the perimeter and at one point they will explode and explode they did in Game 7....It was basically our offense that did us in and the 6 game dissappearance of one allstar named Allen that is the reason we lost to the Magic...Howard was obviously contained to a certain degree by Perk....having said that, we probably would have lost to the Cavs in the ECF anyways.

[paintitgreen]

It has shown me that Orlando is the new template for success in the league, and Danny Ainge is going to think long and hard about what he needs to do this off-season to both beat and emulate them.  Big guys who can play 3 ball are going to get a premium in this coming off-season market.  Sure wish we could get Posey back in a trade.

I also think Orlando is going to beat the Lakers in 5 or 6 games.  No one talks about Orlando's defense, but it is excellent. 

I don't know that they're the "new template." Some teams might try to mimic them but how? They have the best pure center in the league by far, in part because there are not a ton of pure centers left in the NBA, and not a lot in the pipeline, so how can you try to mimic that style? Nobody can emulate Orlando without a dominant center, and there are really no other ones. Also, they have a unique forward combo that very few if any teams could match. The shooting is only part of it. Those are two very tall small forwards who can shoot and drive. Name me a handful of other 6'9" - 6'11" guys that can do that. (Posey isn't one of those guys - he does not have the offensive game, he's a great sixth man because of his ability to defend, not his offensive ability). What's more, they have defensive limitations that you can make up for only by having a dominant interior defender. You can tip your hat to Orlando, but that personnel isn't easy to come by so it would be exceptionally difficult to emulate.

And beyond the difficulty, why should we even try to emulate it? Had Garnett been healthy, even if Jameer Nelson was there for Orlando, we'd have beat that team in 5 in the Semifinals. We won 3 of the first 5 anyway, and the difference in the series was that we could not stop Lewis, a problem Garnett would have easily solved. Why would we want to change up our entire roster and system to emulate a team that we would have handled with relative ease if we'd been healthy?

Orlando isn't just a tough style matchup to a lot of teams, they're a very talented group. The truth is, Cleveland blinded all of us by beating up on a lot of bad teams, but they only went 3-6 against the Lakers, Celtics and Magic in the regular season, with all three wins coming at home, and one of them against the Celtics without Garnett after the Celtics had absolutely nothing to play for (2nd seed clinched) and Cleveland had a little to play for (home record, home court throughout, even though they only needed one win in three games to get it). Orlando was just a much more talented team (which is why they went 6-3 against the other top teams) and I thought all year Van Gundy was a better coach than Brown. After Lebron, Orlando had at least the next three best players on the court whenever Howard, Lewis and Turkoglu were out there, and honestly, Lee seemed better than anybody else on Cleveland too. I picked Cleveland, too, but I'm not really surprised by this result. The fact is, those 4 were the best teams all year long, beginning to end. It shouldn't be too surprising that the teams that went 6-3 and 4-2 against the other 3 are in the Finals while the teams that went 3-6 and 4-6 against the other 3 are at home. THey did that against all the good teams because they have superior talent.

Until Mo Williams started being by Lebron's side, he wasn't anywhere near an All Star. Both he and Delonte are really more suited to the "first guard off the bench role" - guys who can spot minutes at the 1 or 2 and often finish games for you, but they're not really big enough to be consistent options at the 2 and neither is really a point. One could start because Lebron takes the pressure off the point, but a bigger 2 who can defend and shoot would work much better. As for the front court, Cleveland's big men hustle, defend and rebound, but are not that skilled, except Ilgauskas, who is just done at this point. Cleveland didn't have the talent; their camaraderie and Lebron's greatness overshadowed that against weaker teams but not against better ones. As when Orlando ultimately sent our depleted and injured team packing, the Magic won it because they just had a better team, regardless of style but like I said before, that talent is exceedingly difficult to duplicate.

Now, we could use better shooters and we're desperately missing a guy who can bridge the 3 and 4 spots off the bench, that is true. And by the way, I think we could get Posey in a trade relatively easily; New Orleans is desperate to dump salary, I wouldn't be surprised if they took a TA and Scal for Posey deal. Plus, if we could get another big man who can actually play center minutes and New Orleans wanted Davis for more money than we want to give him, we could probably work a sign and trade to send Davis, Scalabrine and Tony Allen to New Orleans for Posey and Julian Wright, who is a guy who could develop nicely into what Posey was for us last season after Posey's wheels give out in a couple years. New Orleans sheds that tough long term contract of Posey for some expiring deals and throws in Wright (a lottery pick two years ago who has that long but fairly muscular build and defensive ability to spot minutes at the 3 and 4). We'd still need to go get a backup center, but our front court would be well set in that situation. 

Now, in the backcourt, that's where we could try to emulate Orlando to a certain degree, and that's why I'd be ecstatic to get rid of Tony Allen, because he can't shoot at all. I'd spend a lot of time on JR Giddens and Bill Walker this summer to decide whether they're in our long term plans and if so, start getting them in games to get confidence up. Giddens should spend his summer trying to become a Courtney Lee type who can play lockdown D on 2s and get himself open for catch and shoot situations. Walker could try to emulate Pietrus/Posey, building up strength to play bigger 3s and just taking open shots so he hits them when it counts. House has one more year of coming off the bench in him, if we could get a true big man off the bench plus have a Posey type to be the top two guys off the bench, House becomes more effective as an 8th man rather than a 6th man which was what he was forced to be down the stretch, and which is frankly too big a task for him. I'd love to pick up Darren Collison in the draft - he can play defense and shoot and run the point off the bench.

It's interesting, I think our point guard need is less than it was last year or even this year - of our starters, I'd rather see Rondo get the most minutes, and try to beef up our subs at the 2,3,4 and 5 so that ALlen, Pierce and Garnett are rested come playoff time. That killed us as much as anything else.

[cordobes]

So either Cleveland just didn't play up to their abilities, or the Magic became world beaters after their series against us.

The Magic were always criminally underrated in this blog - I still remember dozens of posts assuring they weren't a contender, that their defense was atrocious, that they were overdependent on the 3pt shot, etc.. They had a subpar series against us, but we were a tad lucky to get it to seven - they probably outplayed us in 6 games and were clearly the better team.

Then, they matchup really well versus the Cavs, whose role-players shrunk from the pressure.

[housecall]

The Magic's confidence took a giant leap after defeating the Celtics...they started to believe in themselves more.Also D.Howard grew up some in these playoffs.   

[Jon]

What the Cleveland/Orlando series showed me is that the Celtics (when healthy) are still the best team in the East.  (And probably in the NBA.)

Now they just need to stay healthy next year. 

[snively]

The Magic depend on match-ups more than any team in the league.  Their success against elite teams correlates with their ability to exploit mismatches at the 4 and 5 positions.

Few teams have a starting frontcourt that can contain Howard and stretch to the perimeter to guard Lewis or Turkoglu.  Since Lewis is surprisingly (to me at least) competent defensively, and Howard is pretty versatile defensively, teams with defensively outmatched frontcourts often have a hard time pursuing their match-up advantage on offense.  Thus teams that don't match-up initially have to go to their bench to try and address the problems, which usually downgrades the potency of their team and disrupts their gameplan.  Or they stay with their regular line-up and maybe try to compensate with double teams which opens the door for the Magic's 3-pt barrage.  

The teams that gave the Magic the most problems, in my very humble and wild-conjecture-laden opinion, were teams that matched up well at the 4/5 spots, like Boston with KG, Detroit (Dice and Sheed) and Houston (Yao and Scola, with the options of Battier and Artest).  Orlando went 0-7 against these teams.  Only after KG went down did Orlando have success against Boston (I agree with the notion that Boston was pretty lucky to push it to 7.  That was pretty much just a lot of good bounces and gritty play for the Cs).  After the giddy, showboating Cavs came down to earth in the 2nd half of game one, the Magic started punishing them with Howard.  The double teaming ensued and the Magic shooters started to heat up.

I think the Lakers will go down for similar reasons.  Unless Pao can really punish Lewis on the block (and the Lakers are patient enough to work the offense through him), and Bynum can play foul-free defense on Howard, the Magic could be on their way to a title.  If the Lakers have to cave and play Odom and Pau together for most of the series, I think the Magic will win in 6.