Orlando Quietly Dominating in Preseason

[nba is the worst]

Preseason is meaningless, but the magic are showing some serious intensity so far - their victory margin is + 24.2 according to ESPN - but unless they trade Wince (which could easily happen with his huge expiring contract) before the deadline, and Dwight gains some mental toughness, they won't get past the celtics.

[BballTim]

Preseason is meaningless, but the magic are showing some serious intensity so far - their victory margin is + 24.2 according to ESPN - but unless they trade Wince (which could easily happen with his huge expiring contract) before the deadline, and Dwight gains some mental toughness, they won't get past the celtics.

  Without double-checking, I think their starters are logging more minutes than most team's.

[cornbreadsmart]

     Orlando has no shot as long as Vince Carter is there. Rashard Lewis will continue to play below his potential as long as Vince is around. I can't believe Orlando does not recognize this and work to get Carter out of town.   

[ManUp]

They're aren't going anywhere until they find a star guy who can carry a chunk of the offensive load in the play-offs. Ball movement is great, but when Dwight isn't being double teamed they become very easy to defend. They need another guy who demands a double team or serious defensive attention. Vince hasn't been up for that type of role in a long time, and Lewis isn't that level of player.

[j804]

Weren't they "dominating" the preseason last year as well?

[nba is the worst]

Preseason is meaningless, but the magic are showing some serious intensity so far - their victory margin is + 24.2 according to ESPN - but unless they trade Wince (which could easily happen with his huge expiring contract) before the deadline, and Dwight gains some mental toughness, they won't get past the celtics.

  Without double-checking, I think their starters are logging more minutes than most team's.

Well, why let facts get in the way of what you "think"?

The Magic have been relatively healthy compared to the Celtics, Heat, Lakers, Cavs, and Blazers - but in Thursday's game vs the Bobcats they didn't play three starters at all, and QRich and Nelson had very limited minutes:

"Stan Van Gundy tells fans he’s sorry he didn’t play starters
Kurt Helin
Oct 15, 2010, 1:34 AM EDT
 Preseason games see some odd lineups, rested stars and big minutes for guys who will spend the season in the D-League. In short, don’t confuse preseason with NBA basketball as you know it.

But the tickets aren’t any cheaper for fans. The beer is not less expensive. The parking still sets you back. At those prices, you still deserve a show.

Thursday night in Orlando fans didn’t get much of one — and not just because the Bobcats were in town. The Magic sat every starter. No Dwight Howard, no Jameer Nelson, no Vince Carter, no Rashard Lewis. People were upset. Okay, nobody was too angry about missing out on Lewis, but that’s not the point, the show took a night off.

And Stan Van Gundy is sorry.

The Magic coach took the unprecedented step of calling back the Orlando Sentinel’s Magic blogger Brian Schmitz well after the game ended asking him to pass along word to the fans he was sorry.

“I want to say I’m sorry and I was wrong. I thought I reasoned it through, but I can’t justify it. If it was the first game that somebody came out to see, you bring your kids…. I’d be upset, too.

“I won’t do it again.”

Van Gundy had every right to see his backups play and see how they would do — it’s preseason."

My point was that starters' minutes in the preseason are meaningless and vary greatly from team to team, depending on their priorities, but since you brought it up:

Magic starters avg. minutes:
Gm 1 24.2, high 27
Gm 2 22, high 27
Gm 3 23.8, high 26
Gm 4 21, high 24
Gm 5 28.25, high 32

Lots of teams played their starters about the same or higher avg minutes in their 1st game, for example:
Heat (not counting injured Wade), 24.25
Kings 28
Blazers 25.6
Bobcats 22.4
Wizards 29
Nets 26

And the Celtics, who have so much depth and have played their starters less than almost every team, and have limited the O'Neals and KG's time, played 29.6 vs the Knicks in their 1st meeting...

[Phil125]

Orlando is the same flawed team it was last year just a year older.  Not worried about them at all.

[BballTim]

Preseason is meaningless, but the magic are showing some serious intensity so far - their victory margin is + 24.2 according to ESPN - but unless they trade Wince (which could easily happen with his huge expiring contract) before the deadline, and Dwight gains some mental toughness, they won't get past the celtics.

  Without double-checking, I think their starters are logging more minutes than most team's.

Well, why let facts get in the way of what you "think"?

  I don't see the need to get so snotty. We're talking about preseason games and I made a general observation based on my remembrance of the few box scores I've bothered to look at, and I didn't even attempt to claim it was a fact.

My point was that starters' minutes in the preseason are meaningless and vary greatly from team to team, depending on their priorities, but since you brought it up:

Magic starters avg. minutes:
Gm 1 24.2, high 27
Gm 2 22, high 27
Gm 3 23.8, high 26
Gm 4 21, high 24
Gm 5 28.25, high 32

Lots of teams played their starters about the same or higher avg minutes in their 1st game, for example:
Heat (not counting injured Wade), 24.25
Kings 28
Blazers 25.6
Bobcats 22.4
Wizards 29
Nets 26

  Sorry, Charlie. Chastising me for making claims without having facts looks pretty ridiculous when you don't have any, well, facts. You need to be able to show that the starters on at least half of the teams in the league average as many or more minutes as the Magic starters to claim with any credibility that my observation was false. Otherwise, save your snappy comebacks for times that you can back them up.

And the Celtics, who have so much depth and have played their starters less than almost every team, and have limited the O'Neals and KG's time, played 29.6 vs the Knicks in their 1st meeting...

  The Magic have no depth? Maybe that's (allegedly) why the Magic starters (allegedly) play so much.

[pearljammer10]

I do think Howard is going to have a pretty dominate year. I like him and hope he becomes the next great center. Id like to see him get a ring or two, when the Celtics are in a rebuilding stage of course. But I hope his mentoring from Hakeem pays off and he becomes a great player on both sides of the floor. There are some guys that just have something where you wanna root for them. Howard and Durant are two of those guys for me.

[Drucci]

Orlando didn't improve since last year, you could even make the point that they got worse... so yeah, I'm not afraid of the Magic. Until Dwight develops an offensive game which doesn't rely solely on speed and athleticism, Orlando won't go anywhere in the playoffs (except against Miami maybe since Howard will have his physical strengths against Ilgauskas & cie). And even if they do, Carter and Lewis will still be nowhere to be found when the games matter.