This has to be music to Magic fans’ ears. Per the Orlando Sentinel…

Some help might come from former Houston Rockets all-star Hakeem Olajuwon, who spoke with Howard during the Eastern Conference finals. Olajuwon has made himself available to NBA players in recent years; he even spent some time last summer working with Kobe Bryant to help Bryant to develop his low-post game.

“In the next couple of weeks, we will see each other,” Howard said of Olajuwon. “I just can’t wait to go up there. He’s a great guy. He had a lot of great things to say. I’m just looking forward to having the chance to work with him.”

Howard has improved his post game since he’s entered the league. Since he entered straight out of high school, and has been in the NBA for six years, it may seem like he hasn’t progressed all that much. But if you remember Shaq when he was 24, he didn’t have a polished post game either. The difference between the two players is that Shaq was about 40-50 lbs. heavier at the same age so he had that much more power.

Howard can shoot a hook with either hand, and he hit a few nice ones against the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Let’s not forget that Kendrick Perkins is a very solid post defender and did a nice job of keeping Howard out of the paint when he started his post up, pushing him out of his comfort zone for those jump hooks.

Olajuwon’s patented move was a baseline fadeaway that was essentially unblockable. Then when the defender would start to cheat up to try to contest it, he’d go up and under. Howard’s footwork is okay, but he’s awfully stiff when he makes his moves. Olajwuon was a far smoother athlete, which had everything to do with his background playing soccer growing up in Nigeria.

Howard needs to continue to work on his footwork, extend the range of his jump hook by 2-3 feet and develop a turnaround jumper over his right shoulder. That’s something that Shaq developed over the first half of his career which turned into a great weapon when the defender was bodying him up trying to keep him out of the lane.

I don’t think Howard is ever going to perfect the 15′ bank shot like Tim Duncan or develop an arsenal of moves like Pau Gasol, but he can build on what he’s already done and can certainly learn a few things from Olajuwon. If I were Howard, I’d book “The Dream” for the next few summers.

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While it takes more than one player to lose a series, this season was about Vince Carter, and the Magic’s decision to trade for him last summer in lieu of re-signing Hedo Turkoglu. Here’s what I wrote about the move in mid-July:

Let’s see, your team just lost in the Finals — losing two games in overtime — and your main ballhandler is a free agent. What do you do? It’s tough to create the kind of chemistry that gets a team to the Finals, so you re-sign him, right? Not the Orlando Magic, who balked at Hedo Turkoglu’s $10 million-per-season asking price and instead pulled the trigger on a trade for Vince Carter. So essentially they gave up their most consistent player (Turkoglu) and a budding star (Courtney Lee) for the 32-year-old Carter. A healthy Jameer Nelson (along with a savvy mid-level signing) may have been enough to put this Magic team over the top, but now we’ll never know.

Turkoglu has had his problems in Toronto, but on a per minute and per shot basis, he was just about as productive as he was in Orlando. We’ll never know if the Magic would have beaten the Celtics if they had kept their Finals core intact, but one thing is for sure — the Vince Carter move was a bust. Against Boston, he averaged 14-4-2, shot 37% from the field and just 21% from long range. The question remains: Does Vince Carter have what it takes to win an NBA Championship?

If the Magic have learned their lesson, they’ll try to move Carter this summer. He has one more year on his contract (at the tune of $17.5 million) and another year that is a team option. So he essentially has an expiring deal, which could be valuable to a team trying to get out of another big contract. Three trade partners spring to mind…

Perhaps Golden State would be willing to take on Carter’s contract for a year to get out of the four years remaining on Monta Ellis’ (26-4-5, 45% shooting) deal, which would allow the Warriors to fully commit to rebuilding around Stephen Curry. Along with Jameer Nelson, Ellis would give the Magic the league’s smallest backcourt, so that may not be a very good idea.

The 76ers would almost certainly be willing to trade Elton Brand (13-6, 48% shooting), though that would force Rashard Lewis to the three. (Andre Iguodala is another possibility, but the Sixers would want something else in return, like Marcin Gortat.)

Finally, the Wizards would love to unload Gilbert Arenas (23-4-7, 41% shooting), and Carter would take some of the scoring pressure off of rookie John Wall. The move would also create a ton of cap space (for the Wizards) in the summer of 2011 for a possible run at Carmelo Anthony. Arenas would represent another roll of the dice for Orlando, but if he can get back to All-Star form, he could give the Magic the playmaker on the perimeter that they had hoped to find in Carter.

I’m not sure if any of those options sound good to Magic fans, but this is where the team is at with regard to Carter. Given his inability to win in the postseason, no one will want him at his current salary, so the possible trade partners are limited to teams looking to dump a bad contract of their own.

Or the Magic could elect to hold onto Vinsanity and tweak the roster around the edges, hoping that this core has better luck next season. Clearly, that hasn’t been Otis Smith’s style, so I’d expect a big change or two as Orlando tries to find the right players to surround Dwight Howard.

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Man, between the Suns’ tying up the Lakers in the West and the Magic’s two-game winning streak in the East, the playoffs just got a whole lot more interesting.

A series of injuries to the Celtics’ bigs along with some timely buckets from Rashard Lewis (9 points in the fourth quarter) and Jameer Nelson (24-5-5) led to a decisive 113-92 win for the Magic in Game 5.

Dwight Howard posted 21-10 while J.J. Redick continued his fine play off the bench, scoring 14 points and hitting 2-of-3 threes.

Now the pressure shifts back to the Celtics, who need to close out the Magic in Game 6 or else they’ll have to try to avoid being the first team to lose a series after leading 3-0 by winning Game 7 on the Magic’s home floor.

Jeff Van Gundy didn’t think that the C’s would feel pressured since they have so much experience, but he shouldn’t underestimate the “making bad history” aspect of this scenario. No team wants to be the first in league history to suffer a collapse of this magnitude, and given the collapse of the Boston Bruins, it will definitely be on the C’s collective psyche.

Complicating matters, the Celtics will be a little unsure of the availability of certain players for Game 6. Kendrick Perkins faces suspension unless one of his technicals is rescinded (which is likely to happen) and Glen Davis may not be able to play due to a concussion he suffered in Game 5. Rasheed Wallace also left Game 5 with back spasms, so the C’s could be very thin on the front line.

If they expect to close out the series, the Celtics need better play from Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, who combined to shoot 8-for-25 from the field for just 19 points in Game 5.

Celtics 95, Magic 92

Well, we can pretty much stick a fork in the Magic. When a team loses the first two games of the series at home, they aren’t coming back. They’re just not. It doesn’t happen. Well, maybe it’s happened once or twice, I don’t know. (Update: Teams that win the first two games on the road have won the series 22 of 25 times, per John Hollinger.) It would take a miracle…or maybe an injury.

So barring that, the Magic have to be left wondering what happened. They cruised through the first two rounds of the playoffs, winning eight straight games, and ran into a brick wall in the form of the Boston Celtics. The difference in this series is that the C’s are simply a lot better than the Bobcats and Hawks. In fact, I think you could combine the rosters for the Bobcats and Hawks and Boston would still beat them in a seven-game series. That’s how good the Celtics are playing now.

Ray Allen lit it up in Game 1, but was quiet in Game 2. Paul Pierce picked up the slack, posting 28-5-5. Kevin Garnett (10-9) struggled shooting the ball once again, but there was Rajon Rondo with a timely 25-5-8. Quick — name five point guards that are better than Rondo right now. I bet you can’t.

Dwight Howard (30-8) played a lot better in Game 2, and even hit his free throws (12-of-17), but the rest of the Magic shot just 19-of-58 (33%) from the field for 62 points. Jameer Nelson (4-of-12), Vince Carter (5-of-15) and Rashard Lewis (2-of-6), who combined to make $42 million this season, shot a collective 11-of-33 from the field. At home.

I’ll wait until the Magic actually lose the series before I write their offseason piece, but at this point the entire region of Central Florida has to be regretting that Vince Carter move. In the final period, Carter went 2-of-5, turned the ball over once, and missed back-to-back free throws with 0:32 to play that would have cut Boston’s lead to one. Luckily for Otis Smith, Hedo Turkoglu’s play fell off a cliff in Toronto, so it’s not like Smith’s detractors can point to Turk as a no-brainer re-signing.

As for Boston, what has spearheaded this rejuvenation? To me, it’s a combination of several factors: 1) Rondo is now a Top 5 point guard, so it’s the Big 4 instead of the Big 3, and at least two are showing up every night, 2) Garnett’s knee looks a lot better, 3) they’re playing arguably the best defense in the league, and 4) someone on the bench — Tony Allen, Rasheed Wallace or Glen Davis — seems to show up every game with an unexpected 8-15 points.

The Celtics are also made up of consummate professionals, so even though they have their ring, they’re going out every night and laying it on the line.

With the way both teams are playing, there’s a good chance we’re going to see a matchup of the last two Finals winners (Lakers, Celtics) and a rematch of the 2008 Finals.


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Earlier in the postseason, Stan Van Gundy complained about how the NBA playoffs drag out, especially compared to the regular season, where teams usually play with no more than two days of rest. The Magic wrapped up their second round series against the Hawks almost a week ago, and they showed serious signs of rust in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

But championship-caliber teams should be able to overcome a rusty start and begin to exert their will in the second quarter. That can be tough to do when you’re playing one of the top defenses in the league, like the Celtics. The Magic mustered just 14 points in the first quarter and 32 points in the first half and looked absolutely dreadful against a Boston team that is on a nice roll coming off its win over the Cavs.

In the first quarter, the Magic shot just 4-for-20 and turned the ball over four times, and the second period wasn’t much better. Dwight Howard finished with 13-12 and five blocks, but he shot just 3-of-10 from the field and 7-of-12 from the free throw line, and turned the ball over seven times. Making matters worse, he had several opportunities for “and 1″ plays but failed to convert, and then missed his free throws. He’s going to have to play a lot better if the Magic are going to advance. All of the post moves are there, but he’s very mechanical in the way he gets his shot off. He has very little touch even though it looks like he can shoot a jump hook with either hand.

Looking at the box score, it would appear that Vince Carter (23 points, 9-of-18 from the field) played well, but here’s a great example of why I don’t like his game. Late in the third quarter, with his team down 18, Carter kept fighting on the offensive glass and made a putback. Great, good job, Vince. But then he made a bunch of faces and puffed his chest out as he ran down the court — keep in mind the Magic are down 16 now — and missed his defensive assignment. He was supposed to be guarding Paul Pierce, but Rashard Lewis had to get Carter’s attention to get him on Pierce. As that was happening, Rasheed Wallace (Lewis’s man) cut to the hole and the Magic had to foul to save the layup. Just like that, Orlando is down 18 again.

The Celtics made a lot of big shots in the second half, but took their foot off the gas a little bit, which allowed the Magic to make a run (25-13 over the last 8:41). This was sparked in part by fine play by J.J. Redick, who along with Mickael Pietrus, may be a better option than the gimpy Matt Barnes. Redick is a smart player who covers Ray Allen pretty well and everyone knows he’s an outstanding shooter. He should get more minutes.

Ray Allen (25-7-3) and Paul Pierce (22-9-5) led the Celtics, but the Magic can find some solace in the fact that even though they played horribly for three-quarters of the game, they still had a shot to win at the end.

Game 2 is on Tuesday night at 8:30 PM ET. It’s a must-win for the Magic.

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He should know — ba dum bump!

But let’s get serious: Scottie Pippen took a break from hosting cheerleading contests in China to tell the Orlando Sentinel the following…

“He’s a very special player but I don’t think he’s going to win a championship until he gets another superstar to play alongside of him,” Pippen said recently while visiting Orlando. “A guy that’s very consistent and has that drive, that’s what it’s going to take. I don’t think that he can carry a team to a championship.”

“He’s not that great of a scorer, he’s not a good shooter and he’s not a good foul shooter. So in the latter parts of the game, as big as he is and as much athleticism as he has, that becomes very small when the game gets into crunch time. He’s not the type of player that can dominate a game in the fourth quarter.”

Pippen is entitled to his opinion, but let’s not forget that Dwight Howard led the Magic to a Finals appearance (beating a very good Cavs team along the way) at the age of 23. Orlando lost 4-1, but Game 2 went into overtime (after Courtney Lee just missed a layup that would have won the game), so with a little luck, the Magic would have headed home with the series tied, 1-1.

Howard is just 24 now, and while his post game is certainly not polished, it is improving. He has developed a baby hook with both hands to go along with his signature power game. And let’s not forget that both Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal didn’t win an NBA title until the age of 27, so it took both players a few years to figure things out.

Howard should be able to develop a lot in three years, regardless of Pippen’s opinion on the current state of his game. These days, it takes two superstars (or one superstar and two stars) to win a title: Kobe/Gasol, Boston’s Big Three, Duncan/Parker/Ginobili, Wade/Shaq, Shaq/Kobe, Jordan/Pippen, Olajuwon/Drexler. The only recent champions not listed there are the ’04 Pistons (superior chemistry and balance) and the ’94 Rockets (dominant big man surrounded by shooters).

Would another superstar help? Sure. Is it an absolute necessity? History has proven that it isn’t, assuming Howard continues to develop.

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Yes, at least according to Peter Keating, who wrote a piece entitled “Why Dwight Howard is overrated,” which outlines the recent research presented by John Huizinga and Charles “Sandy” Weil at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

Insider subscription required, so I’ll be brief in my excerpt…

Over the entire stretch of data that Huizinga and Weil examined, Tim Duncan didn’t goaltend once, while 24 percent of Dwight Howard’s blocks resulted in free points for the other team.

The data yields all kinds of instructive contrasts, most clearly between Duncan and Howard (hence the name of Huizinga and Weil’s paper). In 2008, Howard had 232 blocked shots, but he either saved or created just 124 points; Duncan had 149 blocks, but generated 167 points. On a points-per-block basis, Duncan has four of the top 10 seasons, according to Huizinga and Weil. Howard has three of the bottom 10.

If anything, Howard should look at this report and draw two conclusions: 1) he needs to stop goaltending, and 2) he needs to try to direct his blocks better. Either block it to himself or to a teammate to start a fast break opportunity. He often tosses the ball out of bounds, which only serves to give possession back to the other team.

On the final Laker possession in Sunday’s tilt in Orlando, Howard picked up Kobe off of a screen and roll and forced him into a very tough fadeaway jumper. His defense on that play was excellent and I think he is a very good defender. Could he be better? This research says he can.


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LeBron James posted 33 points, nine rebounds and six assists, and Antawn Jamison bounced back from a dreadful Cav debut with a nice 19-point, eight-rebound effort, but the Magic supporting cast came up big in the fourth quarter to give Orlando a 101-95 win.

Jameer Nelson (18-4-5) and Vince Carter (11-1-3) hit several big shots in the final period, and Rashard Lewis (15-4-2) hit a corner three that sealed the win for the Magic. Dwight Howard (22-16, 4 blks) did his usual damage early on, but Orlando went away from him in the fourth quarter, using a series of Nelson-Carter pick-and-rolls to free Carter up on the block.

Shaq (20-5, 2 blks) had a nice game and was seemingly energized by his feud with Howard about who deserves to have the nickname “Superman.” But with both big men such poor foul shooters, neither team threw the ball inside much in the fourth quarter.

Jamison proved his worth with a nine-point spurt to start the third quarter that gave the Cavs the lead. He’s going to be fine in Cleveland’s offense once he gets comfortable. He’s a tough cover for most power forwards, but as Jeff Van Gundy noted, he’s not nearly as tough to defend when he’s playing small forward. (The same goes for Rashard Lewis, who is far more productive at PF.)

LeBron, coming off of back-to-back losses, seemed especially grumpy today, and was complaining just about every time he took the ball to the hoop and didn’t get the call. I think he has entered what I call the “Kobe Zone,” the convergence of talent and ego where a player thinks he can’t be stopped without a foul, so every failed drive to the basket finishes with some signal to the officials that they missed the call. LeBron took the ball into Dwight Howard twice — once in the first half and once in the fourth quarter — and both times he lit into the refs. On the first play, Howard was planted in the middle of the lane and LeBron clipped him as he went by, and it was a good no-call. The fourth quarter no-call consisted of LeBron taking it directly into Howard’s body and raised arms as Howard retreated towards the basket. The ball got knocked out of bounds and LeBron made his sour pickle face and screamed at the refs.

But if the Cavs want an answer for what went wrong today, they need to look at their backcourt. Mo Williams (1-9), Anthony Parker (1-4) and Delonte West (2-9) combined to go 4-22 (18%) from the field, and that’s not going to get it done.

As part of his annual trade value column, Simmons ranks the top 40 players in terms of total value. Here’s his take on Dwight Howard:

2. Dwight Howard
Fact: Howard has played every game this season.

Fact: A whopping 75 players have attempted more field goals than he has, including Jason Thompson, John Salmons, Danilo Gallinari, Luis Scola, Carl Landry, Raymond Felton, Andrew Bynum, Jamal Crawford and Kenyon Martin.

Fact: He’s 109th in the league in field goal attempts per game, tied with Ryan Gomes at 9.6. Ryan Gomes!

Fact: Teammates Vince Carter (14.9), Rashard Lewis (11.9) and Jameer Nelson (10.3) all average more field goals attempts than he does.

Fact: He leads the league in free throw attempts (10.4 per game), so realistically, that means Howard is getting about 14-15 scoring touches per game. Not even four a quarter.

My take: He’s too nice of a guy. It’s both the best and worst thing about him. If you ever played basketball, you know there’s one rule with big guys: Make sure they touch the ball enough. If they don’t get enough touches, they get cranky. They stop running the floor. They stop setting good picks. They stop crashing the boards. Big guys are like women — they need affection, they need to be stroked every so often, and if you ignore them, they start to resent you.

In Howard’s case, nobody in Orlando has to worry about keeping him happy. He’s always happy! He’s a good soldier. In a roundabout way, he’s avoiding the responsibility of carrying an offense every night. This is easier. He gets to run around, jump over guys, ram some dunks home, block some shots, flex his muscles, smile to the crowd and concentrate on his strengths. Of course, he will never, ever, ever get better this way, and if you look closely at his stats these past three years, he is what he is: 18-19 points, 13-14 rebounds, 3 blocks, 60 percent shooting. Alpha dog pedigree, sidekick mindset. Too bad.

As a point of reference, let’s look at Shaquille O’Neal, who is/was similar in playing style (power post-up game) and handicap (FT shooting). In 10 consecutive seasons from 1993 to 2003, O’Neal never averaged fewer than 18.1 field goal attempts or 9.5 free throw attempts. Over that span, his usage percentage — the percentage of his team’s possessions that the player used while on the floor — vacillated between 31 and 32 percent.

Conversely, Howard has never attempted more than 12.4 shots in a season, and his usage percentage peaked at 26.1% last season. In short, Howard isn’t getting nearly enough touches, and Simmons’ theory about how his innate happiness is limiting his touches is completely valid.

It’s partly up to Stan Van Gundy to fix this. Howard has by far the highest effective FG% on the team (60.1%), so he should be the Magic’s #1 offensive option. Period. Van Gundy has some control over this.

When Howard was asked about his “feud” with Shaq over the “Superman” moniker, he said that he was just trying to get where Shaq is at in his career. If he truly wants to have a comparable career, he has to demand the ball. When Shaq wasn’t getting his touches, he let Kobe know. Howard has to do the same with Nelson, Carter and Lewis.

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- SPORTSbyBROOKS gives us one more reason to hate Sasha Vujacic. (Hint: He’s dating the girl in the picture.) They also have a strange story about Dwight Howard, as told by porn star Mary Carey.

- RED’S ARMY says that people should forget about LeBron James joining Kobe in Los Angeles. Are there actually those who think this might happen?

- PRO FOOTBALL TALK reports that the 7-1 Minnesota Vikings face potential blackouts after this week’s bye. Seriously. That’s pathetic.

- LARRY BROWN SPORTS wonders if the sign that the Chiefs posted is aimed at a certain running back with the initials “LJ.”