Posts Tagged ‘Jacque Vaughn’

Will Free Throws Finally Free Dwight?

March 13, 2013  ·  1:42PM

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HANG TIME, Texas — It’s often been said that living well is the best revenge.

So there was Dwight Howard looking like a cross between a Kardashian and a member of the British royal family in rolling to 39 points and 16 rebounds during his boo-filled return to Orlando.

What’s more, he appeared loose, unagitated and as happy as Henry VIII at a smorgasbord when the Magic sent him to the line for an all-you-can-eat menu of 39 free throws, from which he 16 of 20 in the second half.

Which leaves us to wonder if it will now, finally, ever click to the mercurial big man that all he has to do is to shut up and play?

There is no reason for Magic coach Jacque Vaughn to apologize for the strategy, for Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni to complain or for NBA commissioner David Stern to again ponder a rule change.

Like so much else with Howard’s perpetually conflicted life and career, the problem has always been of his own creation. He is the one with the career .577 free-throw percentage and for all the talk about work in the weight room or getting one-on-one tutoring from Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon, has been solidly consistent with his horrid stroke, rarely deviating far from the mean.

If you’re an opposing coach, why wouldn’t you exploit that hole in an All-Star’s game? It’s no different than giving a poor shooter open jumper after open jumper until he learns to knock it down.

If you’re Howard’s coach, why wouldn’t you practically salivate at the thought of your center getting 20 free throws in a half if he can step up and make 80 percent of them?

Howard could have stomped and fumed and moped and blamed his plight on someone else, the way he has with most events of the past two seasons. From former coach Stan Van Gundy to Magic management to Kobe Bryant’s prodding to D’Antoni’s offense to Pau Gasol to unrealistic fan expectations to the media, he’s been a self-made tempest in his own teapot. Just last week he disparaged his old Orlando teammates and then complained at everyone’s reaction to what he said.

It would have been straight in line with the persecuted image that Howard has constructed for himself to flap his arms, howl at the moon and hang his head each time the Magic committed another foul and sent him back to the line.

Instead Howard just shut up and played and enjoyed a night in the kind of career and life of which most people only dream.

He should try it more often.

Top 8 free throw attempts in a single game

Dwight Howard (Lakers): 39 FTA
Date: March 12, 2013

Dwight Howard (Magic): 39 FTA
Date: Jan. 12, 2012

Shaquille O’Neal (Lakers): 31 FTA
Date: Nov. 19, 1999

LeBron James (Cavs): 28 FTA
Date: March 12, 2006

Shaquille O’Neal (Heat): 28 FTA
Date: Jan. 14, 2005

Shaquille O’Neal (Lakers): 28 FTA
Date: Mar. 14, 2002

Karl Malone (Jazz): 28 FTA
Date: Jan. 8, 1996

Willie Burton (Sixers): 28 FTA
Date: Dec. 13, 1994

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Magic’s Redick Focusing On Right Now, Not Past Or Future Roads

November 6, 2012  ·  6:33PM


CHICAGO — Dwelling on the road not taken doesn’t get you where you want to go today. Neither does fretting about a crossroads yet to come.

Magic guard J.J. Redick is a self-professed planner. In fact he and his wife Chelsea both are that way – methodical, plotting their next move, reviewing their tracks. But they saw last season in Orlando with the Dwight Howard & Ringling Bros. Circus what can happen to one’s best-laid plans. So they swore it off a little.

“My wife and I spent the summer in New York City and when we got back to Orlando in September, we had a discussion,” Redick said after the Magic’s shootaround sessions Tuesday morning at United Center. “We really are focused on making the most out of every day.”

That means not obsessing over speculation that, after six full seasons in Orlando, Redick, 28, might be down to his final few months. He is something of a luxury for a rebuilding team such as the Magic, with both a $6.2 million salary on an expiring contract and skills as a shooter off the bench that might make him attractive in trade by the league’s February deadline. (more…)

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Van Gundy: Howard Trade Mishandled

August 16, 2012  ·  6:43AM

From NBA.com staff reports

Practically from the start of the public unraveling of the Dwight Howard era in Orlando, Stan Van Gundy didn’t pull many punches about his view on the deterioration between the Magic’s former All-Star big man and the powers that be (including himself). Perhaps no interview summed up Van Gundy’s honest view on the situation than his awkward-yet-telling pre-practice interview in April where he revealed that reports of Howard wanting him fired were true (which were then followed by Howard awkwardly sidling up to and being chummy with Van Gundy … and then having to deny Van Gundy’s statements to the media).

Van Gundy was fired shortly after the Magic’s first-round playoff ouster to the Pacers (as was former GM Otis Smith) as the team began what would become Phase I of its lengthy rebuilding plan. All that aside, it’s not entirely surprising that Van Gundy didn’t hold back when talking to 790 The Ticket in Miami with Jonathan Zaslow and Hoch about the end of the Howard era, the opt-in saga with Dwight and more:

How do you feel about the fallout from everything that has happened in Orlando? Are you frustrated? Relieved?

“Well I’d like to have a job. That’d be nice. That’s not a great feeling. We just got caught up in a bad situation and our organization didn’t handle it very well. Because of that I would say we probably deserve a lot of what happened as an organization and certainly not the other players. I thought those guys…I felt badly for them, a group that worked hard and was very professional all year long and didn’t deserve everything that happened, but from our organization especially the people at the very top it just wasn’t handled very well, so you get what you deserve.”

Did you go home and say I can’t believe how bizarre this is being played out with Dwight Howard?

“No. Not really. Look there’s always something going on in the NBA. I think when you are in the season you are just sort of dealing with things day-to-day and the next practice and the next game and everything else, so no there is always issues. That was our issue this year and we dealt with it. Quite honestly we were dealing with it very well with everything that was going on until Dwight Howard went out and obviously we lost our best player. We were playing very well. We had the 3rd best record in the East and the 5th best record in the league and we’re playing well. Then when he [Dwight Howard] went down quite honestly we struggled. He was sort of our guy and we didn’t play as well after that, but I thought we were still pretty competitive in everything else. It wasn’t as bad inside our team and inside the locker room as it was out in the media.”

(more…)

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Magic Want To Be The Spurs

August 2, 2012  ·  1:02PM

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – The NBA is a copy-cat league. When a team has success, other teams look to poach their personnel and copy their methods.

Since winning their first championship 15 years ago, the Spurs have had countless coaches and executives hired by the 29 other teams. The latest hires that spent time in San Antonio are Rob Hennigan and Jacque Vaughn, the new general manager and coach, respectively, of the Orlando Magic.

Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel writes that emulating the Spurs is exactly the Magic’s plan…

Again, the details of the Magic’s long-term strategy remain unclear.

The franchise could speed up a rebuilding process by paring payroll and by signing a marquee free agent who would embrace a team-first philosophy.

Because of Florida’s warm weather and lack of a state income tax, the Magic have succeeded in landing free agents before — and they almost succeeded in prying Duncan out of San Antonio as a free agent in 2000.

In the meantime, the Magic will stress player development. (more…)

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Vaughn Hire Signals Full Magic Rebuild

July 28, 2012  ·  11:44AM





HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – More than two months after firing Stan Van Gundy, the Orlando Magic finally have a replacement. Jacque Vaughn is young (37), inexperienced and comes without Shaquille O’Neal’s approval, but he’s awfully bright and personable, and he’s spent five years (three as a player and two as an assistant) learning from Gregg Popovich.

Dwight Howard‘s situation is still far from resolved, but at least we know who will or won’t be coaching Howard in Orlando next season. Joshua Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel had the first report…

The Orlando Magic have hired Jacque Vaughn as their new head coach.

A team official said the Magic will hold a press conference Monday afternoon to introduce Vaughn, a former NBA point guard who spent the past two seasons as a San Antonio Spurs assistant coach.

Vaughn will take over a team that is expected to trade superstar Dwight Howard, go into rebuilding mode and begin to emphasize developing young players.

Shortly after Robbins’ report hit the interweb, the Magic made it official.

While Vaughn comes with little experience, he has the right personality to mentor a young core. But while the Magic do have a few young players with promise, the problem is that they also have a bunch of high-priced veterans in the way of a true reconstruction.

So as the Dwightmare drags on, it becomes more clear that the Magic need to unload as many of those veterans in a Howard deal, while also continuing to build their young core. They need to look three or four years ahead, when they’ll have a young group that’s ready to blossom, or the assets necessary to get another star or two.

At least the Magic are moving forward in some form. Now, we just need the Portland Trail Blazers to figure out who their coach is.

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Is Orlando Still An Option For Dwight?

July 24, 2012  ·  12:03PM



HANG TIME, Texas – Log me onto StubHub. Get me a ticket.

I want a front row seat at the Amway Center when Dwight Howard has to pull on that Magic jersey and take the floor in front of all those fans in Orlando that he’s left twisting in the wind for the past seven-plus months.

Give the Magic front office credit. No matter how many times they’ve been slapped in the face by their All-Star center, they keep going back for more.
Now, according to Alex Kennedy of Hoopsworld, general manager Rob Hennigan is going to make a coast-to-coast effort to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

In recent days, the Magic have shifted their attention away from the ongoing trade talks and focused on persuading Howard to remain in Orlando. Hennigan and his staff will travel to Los Angeles later this week to meet face-to-face with Howard and deliver a presentation designed to persuade Howard to return to the Magic. Hennigan is determined to fix the strained relationship between the player and the organization, and he’s hopeful that Howard will resume his career in Orlando.

Hennigan asked Howard to drop his trade demand during a phone conversation two weeks ago, but the six-time All-Star reiterated his desire to be traded. Now, however, Howard has agreed to meet with the Magic and sources within the organization are optimistic that they can change his stance with this pitch.

It’s no secret that Howard has wanted to join the Brooklyn Nets for quite some time. Now, with the Nets out of the picture for at least six months, the Magic are hoping that Howard is open to a return rather than settling on another destination like Los Angeles, which Howard seemed hesitant to commit to until recently. Howard doesn’t have many options, which is one reason Orlando is hopeful he’ll be willing to return. (more…)

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