- Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: “Parsing a general manager’s words to find hidden meaning can be a dangerous undertaking, but in this case, I think the point is obvious. Whether the team decides to “amnesty” Gilbert Arenas or Hedo Turkoglu could hinge on what Dwight Howard tells the organization about his long-term plans. Don’t misunderstand me: I’m not saying Howard will offer any suggestions about what the team should do with amnesty. Not at all. Instead, if the Magic decide they have no other choice but to trade Howard — and, again, they want to keep him for years to come — the team would be well-served to include either Arenas or Turkoglu in the deal. Then the Magic eventually would be able to use the amnesty provision on the player whom they didn’t trade away. That’s one reason why it would make no sense for Smith and the team’s ownership to commit publicly or privately to a specific amnesty move right now.”
- Mark Price has been added to the coaching staff for the Orlando Magic.
- John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com: “Facing the prospects of a rushed training camp, a truncated preseason and a frantic 66-game schedule, some NBA teams are already concerned about the hectic pace of the season ahead. To some extent, the Orlando Magic are not one of those teams. Because the Magic already have 10 players under contract – six of which have played multiple seasons together – they feel that they have a chance to get off to a fast start because of their roster familiarity.”
- Josh Cohen of OrlandoMagic.com examines the roster architecture of the top Eastern Conference teams.
- Evan Dunlap of Orlando Pinstriped Post: ”Free-throw shooting remains the All-Star center’s most glaring offensive shortcoming, as he’s shot between 58.6 percent and 59.6 percent from the stripe in each of his last six seasons. Price will work with Howard, but not exclusively, and he’s not merely a free-throw coach. As Josh Robbins of the Sentinel reports, Orlando expects Price to help its shooters improve “coming off of screens, shooting on-balance and developing a quicker release.’ ”
- The Chicago Bulls are a darkhorse to acquire Dwight Howard in a trade.
- Matt Moore of CBSSports.com reacts to Matt Barnes’ comments concerning Howard’s future: “The bigger problem is this continues a pattern. It’s easy to pass this off, to say this is just one role player saying Howard wants to come to L.A. and there’s more to it. But we keep seeing the same things, whether it’s talk of LeBron wanting to play with Wade, or Chris Paul toasting to playing in New York, there are rumors and whispers and small elements that seem to light the way for a small market star headed to a bigger one, and then it happens. And then everyone acts surprised.”
- Andrew Bynum is in the center of the Howard (and Chris Paul) rumors.
- More speculation on Howard.
- Are the Los Angeles Clippers willing to think big and make a go after Howard?