Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images

If there is one thing we know about Stan Van Gundy, it’s that he’s a pretty quiet guy, reticent to speak his mind to the media, and wholly above speaking publicly in any way that might ruffle fans’ or players’ feathers. That’s why we can be certain that earlier this week, when he made the following comments, Stan had no sort of ulterior motive or objective in mind:

“There’s no matchup for [Dwight Howard] that creates the excitement,” Van Gundy said. “If you got back to when the centers were king, you have Chamberlain-Russell and people say ‘Wow, that’s a match-up you look forward to.’ Now people look forward to Chris Paul against Derrick Rose.”

What Stan was saying, subtext aside, is that the lack of a nemesis is keeping Dwight Howard’s hype factor down. Well, is he right? There are a couple of different ways to approach this. First, let’s look at a crude measure of the league marquee, the 2011 All-Star rosters. Yao Ming aside, there are only three players who were listed either as centers or forward/centers. One of them was Kevin Love. Another was Al Horford. The third was Pau Gasol, who could be seen as a bona fide A-list big man, but I’m not sure that most people think of his battles in the same way they do LeBron/Kobe or Rose/Paul. The other big man on the list who might qualify is Kevin Garnett, and the popular narrative about the Celtics has been that Kendrick Perkins did the heavy lifting when it came to guarding D12. So, on the face of it, taking as limited a sample as I guess you could, it seems like Stan is right: there are currently no direct match-ups for Dwight that seem worthy of the hype that wing or point guard matchups might garner.

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I gathered writers, the best of the best in the blogosphere, to participate in a roundtable discussion and answer some of the most pertinent questions concerning the Orlando Magic as the 2011 NBA Playoffs are set to begin.

So, without further ado, here are the participants:

Zach Lowe, The Point Forward
Beckley Mason, HoopSpeak

Each individual provided a quick breakdown of the series between the Magic and the Atlanta Hawks, his opinion on the player that is the x-factor for Orlando in the postseason, and more.

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If the Orlando Magic make it past the Atlanta Hawks in the first round, is facing off against the Chicago Bulls (as opposed to the Miami Heat or Boston Celtics) the best chance for them to return to the Eastern Conference Finals for a third consecutive year?

Zach Lowe: No. I don’t see facing the Bulls as any more advantageous to Orlando than facing Boston or Miami. Conventional wisdom has it that the Magic have problems with Boston, but much of that conventional wisdom was based on the presence of Kendrick Perkins and overlooks how competitive games between the two have been. Bottom line: Boston, Miami and Chicago are all excellent teams, and the Magic will have a tough time beating any of them–just as each of those three will have to work to beat Orlando.

Beckley Mason: It’s a better match-up than Miami because LeBron just kills them, but I don’t think the Celtics, as they are playing now, would be worse than the Bulls. I think the idea that Boston could single-cover Dwight [Howard] with Shaq is fairly laughable, but at least he might draw Howard into some fouls. The Bulls on the other hand won’t isolate Noah, and so Howard would seem less susceptible to picking up cheapies against Chicago. In any event, to get past any of the top teams in the East, the Magic wings are going to have to shoot the lights out.

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• Zach McCann of the Orlando Sentinel: “The Orlando Magic received some good news and bad news today at shootaround. The bad news is that Gilbert Arenas likely won’t play tonight because he’s sick. He woke up with the chills and a fever, and he felt so bad he couldn’t even drive himself to the doctor. There’s some good news, though. One, Arenas will miss tonight’s game because of sickness and not because of his knee — that’s, strangely, a good sign in itself. Two, Chris Duhon’s thumb injury may not be as serious as originally thought. Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said Duhon’s MRI results came back negative and he could return before the end of the regular season. And three, Quentin Richardson will play tonight after missing the last three games with back spasms. But tonight the Magic will be without a true backup point guard, leaving Hedo Turkoglu to employ the 10-12 minutes when Jameer Nelson isn’t on the floor. “
• Head coach Stan Van Gundy is proud of his players.
• Gilbert Arenas is out for tonight’s game with the flu.
• Josh Cohen of OrlandoMagic.com: “I think just about every Magic fan hopes the Chicago Bulls secure the No. 1 seed, which would then set up a likely Orlando-Chicago series in the second round. I talked briefly about this on a recent webcast here on OrlandoMagic.com, but to restate my thoughts I think the Bulls’ lack of postseason experience and the fact that compared to the Celtics and Heat, Chicago just simply don’t have as much talent are two primary reasons why it would be most beneficial for the Magic to clash with the Bulls. I recognize how extraordinary Derrick Rose has been this season and I think the signing of Carlos Boozer – in spite of him dealing with injuries throughout the year – was one of the more intelligent acquisitions this past summer. I also think Chicago’s front office made an astute decision to withstand temptations to trade Joakim Noah in a Carmelo Anthony proposed deal. But ultimately when you examine the rosters and analyze the assortment of facts, the Bulls don’t seem to have the makeup of a club that would advance far into the playoffs. They have a first year head coach, they lack supreme quality at the shooting guard position and they don’t have enough size to contend with Dwight Howard for an entire seven game series.”
• Royce Young of CBSSports.com notes that the Orlando Magic’s matchup with the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the 2011 NBA Playoffs is set in stone.
• Is there an upset winner for Defensive Player of the Year?
• Dennis Scott, a former Magic player, was a pretty terrible rapper.

Photo by Flickr/mcdonaldsallamericangames

In Part I, we discussed the idea of teams drafting winners. Part II looked at the teams who drafted winners, and how the players performed in the NBA.

Part III will explore two different one-and-done scenarios, and the NCAA Tournament history of players on top NBA teams. We will also see the “good ol’ days” are aptly named.

One-and-done and one-and-done
Before the NBA outlawed entering the draft right after high school, many players made the leap from prep-to-pro. The only March Madness footage you’ll see of Dwight Howard and LeBron James is during their McDonald’s commercial. We won’t hear highlights of Gus Johnson screaming “rise and fire!” before Kobe Bryant nailed a game winner. It’s sad these players were never part of March Madness. Fortunately, the restrictions on draft eligibility have led some NBA stars to the Big Dance.

The NBA’s leading scorer, Kevin Durant, steered Texas to the tournament in 2007, but that was about it.  The Longhorns beat New Mexico State in round one, and lost their next game. In the 2008 Final Four, Derrick Rose and Memphis toppled the UCLA Bruins, who featured Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook.  Rose came close to a title, but his team lost a late lead two days later in the championship game. Highlight machine Blake Griffin reached the Elite Eight in his final collegiate season before falling to North Carolina.

Other NBA greats went to college before the restrictions were in place, but they didn’t cut down the nets either. Dwyane Wade led the Marquette Golden Eagles to the 2003 Final Four, but was knocked out by Kansas. Tim Duncan reached the Elite Eight at Wake Forest, but Chris Paul never made it past the Sweet 16 as a Demon Deacon. Shaquille O’Neal, one of the most intimidating players of all time, met kryptonite in three straight NCAA Tournaments and never advanced past the second round.

Failing to stand on stage with Jim Nantz wasn’t the end of the world for these guys. Tim Duncan and Shaquille O’Neal both boast four NBA rings and will be remembered as two of the best players ever. Dwyane Wade won a ring with Miami, and Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose are positioning themselves for some jewelry.

The basic structure of the tournament is the simplest explanation for these all-time greats never winning an NCAA championship. The one-and-done format essentially caters to underdogs, as the randomness of single elimination allows many inferior teams to advance. Sustaining tremendous performance throughout a series is much more difficult and is a major reason the best NBA teams usually meet in June.

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Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images

Part I of this mini-series looked at the draft position of players who have recently appeared in the NCAA National Finals. Today, we will look at the teams who pursued these players, and how these players performed in the NBA. Tomorrow, Part III will explore two different one-and-done scenarios, and the NCAA Tournament history of players on top NBA teams. We will also see the “good ol’ days” are aptly named.

Winnersville, U.S.A.
Say what you want about the Minnesota Timberwolves, but they are a bunch of winners (at least on draft night). Since 2005, four of Minnesota’s eleven first round picks have played on NCAA Championship teams. They also picked champions in the second round, netting Mario Chalmers and Chris Richard. These players have not helped Minnesota become a #winning team so far. Actually, Wayne Ellington is the only player among the six still with the Wolves. Two different luminaries, Kevin McHale and David Kahn, have made draft picks for the team during this time.

Ironically, Jerry Sloan and the Utah Jazz welcomed three members of the runner-up 2005 Illinois team to town. They used the third overall pick of the 2005 draft on Deron Williams, and he eventually assisted Sloan’s exit from Salt Lake City. They drafted Dee Brown in the second round of 2006, and Roger Powell signed with the Jazz after his Illinois career.

The Bulls ended up with three members of the 2001 Duke team at various stages of their careers. They drafted Jay Williams second overall in 2002. Two years later, they used a second round pick on Chris Duhon. In the summer of 2010, their decision was signing Carlos Boozer to a five year contract. In total, the Bulls have had eight players from the last eleven champions wear their jersey (Williams, Duhon, Boozer, Joakim Noah, Hakim Warrick, Lonny Baxter, Chris Richard, Ben Gordon).

Five teams (Dallas, San Antonio, Boston, Sacramento, Phoenix) haven’t selected a player who appeared in the National Finals since the turn of the century. It is worth pointing out some of these teams are major players in basketball analytics.

The dichotomy between the Timberwolves draft results and some of the analytical squads’ results leads to an obvious question: do the more analytical teams ignore winners, while teams like Minnesota think winners will bring them out of the basement?

We at least know the Mavericks philosophy. I e-mailed Mavericks owner Mark Cuban yesterday and asked him why his team hasn’t drafted a player from the National Finals since he took over. He just chalked it up to happenstance. He went on to say it is “not intentional at all. We don’t care who they play for.”

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Photo by Fernando Medina

If I pay a whole lot of attention to what’s been said and written recently, joining the MBN community right now is sort of like moving into a mansion that was just built on an active fault line. That is, the features are fantastic–there’s an MVP candidate playing out of his mind, a perennial fifty-win team still coached by one of the league’s best, nightly entertaining performances by Gilbert and the Stretch Fours–but everybody is treading lightly, anxious about the disaster that might be on its way. Everything happening right now is in the shadow of Dwight’s free agency, the latest addition to a litany of plagues that will descend upon us all and end the world in 2012. The sky will rain blood, locusts will descend upon fields, and ESPN will run constant speculative pieces punning on Superman. Every time Gilbert bricks a pull-up or Otis Smith says something short-sighted, the summer of 2012 looms as the unspoken consequence, that time when the franchise will be called upon to pay the price for its mistakes or reap its successes. And it’s still fifteen months away.

Last week’s trade deadline, of course, is a huge reason for the anxiety. As the story goes, this is the time of year where Dwight gets to watch other A-list talents shape their own futures while he’s wondering aloud whether he should be tweeting about his teammates’ hustle. For the most part, free agency for the past year has been an arms race in the East, and the thinking is that Howard must look around and see Carlos Boozer getting open looks from Derrick Rose drives, or hear that Amar’e loves New York’s “1, 1A punch,” all while wondering if there is going to be anybody left to help form his own Justice League in Orlando. To a large extent, this is totally understandable. Gone are the diluted early 00s where Allen Iverson could drag a team to the Finals. Ours is an era flush with real talent, where great teams have multiple weapons and more than one A-list player. Eddy demonstrated this just a few days ago here at MBN, illustrating the extent to which the rest of the East elite has real star production at multiple and complementary positions. Of course, it can’t be said that the Magic can match their competition in marquee names, and it seems like management may be losing its grip on ever changing that.

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Photo by Fernando Medina

In case you haven’t seen, read, or heard, Carmelo Anthony has been traded to the New York Knicks and will be teaming up with Amar’e Stoudemire to form a dynamic duo that will surely make noise in the Eastern Conference. No, the Knicks won’t be contenders in the East — not yet — due to a lack of depth and defense, but they’ll be a pesky out in the 2011 NBA Playoffs without a doubt.

What does any of this have to do with the Orlando Magic?

Let’s get to that in a second.

One of the primary motivations for New York to acquire Anthony in a trade was to provide Stoudemire with a teammate that could help carry the load.

If it hasn’t become clear already, to win a championship in the NBA requires multiple stars to lead the way for their respective teams. It’s how the Boston Celtics won in 2008 with Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Paul Pierce. It’s how the Los Angeles Lakers won in 2009 and 2010 with Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. It’s why LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh teamed up to play for the Miami Heat. It’s why Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah, and Derrick Rose teamed up to play for the Chicago Bulls. With Anthony and Stoudemire, the Knicks are working towards that model of winning. In fact, the Eastern Conference is so loaded with stars and superstars, the Magic are quickly becoming the exception to the rule.

While their rivals trot out multiple great-to-elite players on a nightly basis, Orlando is buoyed by their lone ranger — Dwight Howard.

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The Orlando Magic have been going through a rough patch lately, making it harder for the mainstream media and blogosphere to consider them an elite team and a championship contender right now. That being said, if there’s been a bright spot amidst the darkness for the Magic, it’s been Dwight Howard.

Mental gaffes against the Memphis Grizzlies aside, Howard has been playing like a man possessed lately. Howard toyed around the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday, putting up 20 points, 20 rebounds, and two blocks in roughly 26 minutes of playing time. But the game that stands out for Howard was his performance on Friday.

On that night, Howard put on a clinic against the Chicago Bulls — also known as the best defensive team in the NBA, given that they rank first in defensive efficiency. No matter who the Bulls assigned to Howard, whether it was Kurt Thomas, Carlos Boozer, or Omer Asik, there was little that could be done to slow down the big fella.

For the most part, head coach Tom Thibodeau made the decision to play Howard straight up, given that’s the strategy he elected to use as the assistant coach of the Boston Celtics last year in the 2010 NBA Eastern Conference Finals when they won the series in 6 games.

Let Howard get his, then stop the perimeter attack for Orlando.

Granted, the strategy worked — Chicago lost the battle but won the war — but not before Howard unleashed his fury. For those that want to make the argument that Howard is on the shortlist to win the Most Valuable Player award, this is the game to watch.

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

BOX SCORE

In a revealing game that may have put the nail on the coffin for a team considered by many as part of the elite in the NBA, the Chicago Bulls were able to defeat the Orlando Magic by the score of 99-90. The Bulls were led by a three-pronged attack, as Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, and Carlos Boozer took turns dominating the game and befuddling the Magic defense in the process. Rose was spectacular, finishing with 22 points, 12 assists, and six rebounds. It wasn’t the most efficient outing for Rose but he proved that he’s deserving of being the All-Star starting point guard for the Eastern Conference. Deng was a force, putting up 26 points, eight rebounds, and two steals — he gave Hedo Turkoglu fits defensively, too. Boozer contributed with 16 points, 16 rebounds, and four assists. As for Orlando, it was the Dwight Howard show. Howard played one of the best games in his illustrious career in the league, dominating to the tune of 40 points, 15 rebounds, four steals, and three blocks. Only in Game 6 of the 2009 NBA Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers was Howard better. Howard was transcendent at the United Center, yet it didn’t matter because a lack of support from his teammates wasted his herculean performance. Cavaliers fans can relate to that last sentence, which is scary in the grand scheme of things when talks of Howard possibly leaving the Magic in 2012 grow louder by the day. Unfortunately for Orlando, their loss proved something that will — undoubtedly — discourage Magic fans.

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• Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel: “As much as [Otis] Smith likes Arenas — and their relationship is akin to that of a father and son — I don’t think Arenas fits for the [Orlando] Magic. Forget all the controversy that surrounds Arenas. Smith knows Arenas well and wouldn’t consider that a roadblock. Instead, Arenas has a recent injury history that can’t be ignored. Even worse, he has a massive contract and will earn $62 million more in the three seasons after this one. One of those concerns could be overlooked if the other problem didn’t exist. But the two taken together? That’s why I don’t think the Magic would trade for Arenas.”
• Should the Orlando Magic try to acquire Tayshaun Prince in a trade?
• John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com talks about Mickael Pietrus‘ positive impact on the Magic: “Early in the season, Orlando Magic small forward Mickael Pietrus was in a danger zone of sorts. He was not only playing just 14 minutes a night, but he wasn’t playing especially well and he had just gotten pushed out of the rotation. He exchanged heated words with Magic coach Stan Van Gundy along the sideline, was benched for two games and quietly wondered if his future was still in Orlando even though he had previously enjoyed two of the best years of his NBA career with the Magic. Knowing full well that his season could likely head one of two ways – sulk and play himself out of Orlando or stay focused and get back in the good graces of the team – Pietrus poured himself back into his work. The straying, after all, was surprising because Pietrus had been one of Orlando’s best players in the preseason and seemed poised for a big season. Pietrus doesn’t always fit the NBA mold with his happy-go-lucky nature and his carefree attitude. The Guadeloupe native has an free-flowing island sense about him and never is there a sense of entitlement. He openly talks about his love for Orlando and his blessings to be playing in the NBA, and he said he owed it to his teammates and his supporters to play his way back onto the floor.”
• Brandon Bass is shooting the lights out of the basketball.
• Bryan Crawford of SLAM ONLINE witnessed Orlando’s domination of the Chicago Bulls.
• Dwight Howard is a fun person to be around.
• Howard is happy about the Magic’s win against the Bulls: “We got us a really good win Tuesday night against Detroit and then an even better one last night in Chicago. We were facing a Bulls team that hadn´t played since Saturday while we were on a back-to-back. Chicago was getting Booze back and D-Rose is steady blowing up. We played defense like a championship team and we moved the ball on offense. When we put it all together and ball like we did last night, I think we show people and even ourselves how good we can be as a team.”
• Gilbert Arenas isn’t expected to be traded by the Washington Wizards. Not yet, at least.