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.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

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.


Photo from fOTOGLIF

- SPORTZ ASSASSIN notices that three Week 17 blowouts will become first round playoff rematches next weekend.

- RASHARD LEWIS reminisces on his blog about jumping straight from high school to the NBA. I posed a question to him (about how his hometown Rockets passed on him three times), but he has yet to answer. Sigh.

- THE SPORTS GURU lists a few NFL players that would benefit from a position change.

- In honor of his (unsurprising) ousting, SPORTSbyBROOKS has the many faces of Jim Zorn.

Per the Orlando Sentinel…

Controversy brewed during the Orlando Magic’s 120-111 loss to the Utah Jazz on Thursday night when power forward Rashard Lewis said he declined to go back in the game during the second quarter.

Coach Stan Van Gundy was upset and said he had never had a player overrule him.

“(Lewis) didn’t want to go back in. I wanted to put him back in with six minutes to go in the second quarter and he didn’t want to go back in,” Van Gundy said after the Magic (17-5) had their six-game winning streak broken. “He said it was because he had two fouls, and so if you have a guy who doesn’t want to play, I’m not going to get in an argument and put him back in if he doesn’t want to play at that time.

He said, `I’m going to back in and be out in three or four minutes and Ryan (Andersonn) is playing good.’

“I didn’t have time to get into it. It’s rare and I’ve never had that in the first half of a game. I was a little baffled by it.”

Lewis confirmed the story, but said that he wasn’t being defiant. He already had two fouls and he thought that his replacement, Ryan Anderson, was playing really well.

However…

But Lewis surely sounded defiant during a rambling stream of consciousness, saying Van Gundy sort of pointed the finger at him as the Magic’s 18-point lead shrank in the period.

“(Van Gundy) wasn’t pissed at the time,” said Lewis of declining to report in at Van Gundy’s request. “But he was pissed when they started making a run. You got to point the finger at something if that’s what you got to point it at. Hey, I don’t give a damn.”

Van Gundy agreed that Lewis wasn’t being defiant and even said he probably thought he was being “unselfish.” But the coach was not pleased and said he wasn’t going to send someone back in a game “that wasn’t in the right frame of mind.”

Lewis said he didn’t feel that he and Van Gundy are at odds.

“I didn’t really get it. Frustrated or whatever … To be honest, I think he thought he was being unselfish,” Van Gundy said. “Ryan was playing well. But to me, Ryan had played enough minutes at that point, 12 to 13 straight and that’s enough because a guy is going to run out of gas.”

This just goes to show you how the relationship between player and coach in the NBA is so much different than in any other level in basketball. If I would have pulled this when I played for Bo Ryan, he would have had a heart attack. I might as well start decorating his dog house, because that’s where I’d be living for the next few months.

Lewis was being unselfish, but by not listening to Van Gundy, he showed a general lack of respect for his coach’s decision. He had his team’s best interests at heart, and that’s commendable, but when your coach tells you to go in the game, you go in the game.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

“First and foremost I take full responsibility for the situation and accept the corresponding penalty,” Lewis said in a statement released by the league. “Toward the end of the season I took an over-the-counter supplement which at the time I did not realize included a substance banned by the NBA.

“I apologize to Magic fans, my teammates and this organization for not doing the research that should come with good judgment.”

Athletes need to stop taking over the counter supplements. It never ends well.

All due respect to Denver’s Mark Warkentien, who won the 2009 NBA Executive of the Year Award, but Orlando GM Otis Smith deserves the honor. This is the problem with how the league hands out these awards at the end of the regular season — there’s no way to take the playoffs into account. Granted, it’s a regular season award, but in that case, wouldn’t Danny Ferry deserve it for pulling the trigger on the Mo Williams trade, which led to an All-Star nod for the guard and a 66-win season? Mitch Kupchak also deserves mention for his theft of Pau Gasol (now a year and a half old) along with mining Trevor Ariza and Shannon Brown from other team’s benches.

Of course, Warkentien pulled arguably the best in-season move by sending Allen Iverson to Detroit for Chauncey Billups, which gave the Nuggets the toughness and defensive intensity to go from a Western Conference also-ran to a legitimate contender. I didn’t like his decision to give away Marcus Camby last summer in a salary dump, but in his defense, his signing of Chris Andersen offset that loss. Still, it would have been nice to have Camby on the roster against the Lakers, but there probably wouldn’t have been enough minutes for three centers. Warkentien rolled the dice that Nene was ready to explode and that Andersen could bring energy, rebounding and shotblocking off the bench, and it worked out, for the most part. Warkentien also signed Dahntay Jones, who eventually turned into (sort of) a starter for George Karl, and re-signed J.R. Smith.

Now let’s take a look at the job Otis Smith has done (from HoopsHype):

June 7 2007
Released head coach Billy Donovan and named Stan Van Gundy head coach.

February 19 2009
Traded forward Brian Cook to the Houston Rockets for guard Rafer Alston. Traded center Adonal Foyle and guard Mike Wilks to the Memphis Grizzlies.

So, in the last two years, Smith has 1) locked up his two cornerstones (Howard and Nelson) to long term contracts, 2) traded for the versatile Lewis, who wreaked havoc in the Cleveland series, 3) found two starter-quality perimeter players in the draft (Lee) and free agency (Pietrus), 4) found a couple of hard-nosed rotation guys in the draft (Gortat) and free agency (Johnson), 5) pulled off a deal for Rafer Alston when Nelson went down, and 6) found a guy to coach them all up (SVG) after Billy Donovan left the franchise at the altar.

Smith might be a victim of his own reputation. Prior to Lee, he didn’t do well in the draft (Fran Vasquez and Travis Diener in 2005; J.J. Redick and James Augustine in 2006; Reyshawn Terry in 2007), fell for Darko Milicic’s potential in 2006, and traded away Trevor Ariza in 2007.

Bill Simmons writes:

Did Otis Smith plan on this? When he overpaid Lewis, was he thinking, “I need to find a shooter to spread the floor for Dwight?” Was he thinking, “I am going to revolutionize basketball and I need Lewis to help me do it?” Or was he just like a drunk guy at an auction throwing out some insane dollars to make sure he won? I am leaning toward the third scenario, and here’s why: Smith basically gave away Trevor Ariza for Brian Cook and Mo Evans last year. Does Cook make any sense for this ’09 Magic team? Of course not. Does Ariza? Of course. That’s what makes me think Smith stumbled into it. Revolutionary basketball geniuses don’t throw cap space away or give up building blocks for no reason.

I think I’ve written this about fifty times over the past three weeks, but the Magic are built in the same mold as the Hakeem Olajuwon-era Houston Rockets in that they have a dominant big man (who is good enough to command a double team) and have surrounded him with a bunch of shooters. Where the Magic lineup differs from those Houston teams is at power forward, where Lewis’ sharpshooting has replaced Otis Thorpe’s strength and rebounding. The Rockets surrounded Olajuwon with three shooters, while the Magic have gone one step further and have surrounded Howard with four.

Orlando can get away with this because the league is getting smaller. True centers are a rare breed, and power forwards are going from 6’10″ or 6’11″ rebounding/post-up beasts to 6’8″ or 6’9″ versatile forwards with a face-up game. Simmons says this is a result of expansion (and a dilution of the overall talent), but it has more to do with the infusion of international players (who prefer to face up) and a tightening of the amount of contact that defenders can lay on the dribbler. In short, the power forward has become a perimeter player, and other than Dirk Nowitzki, Lewis is about as good of a perimeter power forward as there is in the NBA. (Kevin Garnett, David West, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Antawn Jamison and LaMarcus Aldridge are all power forwards with face-up games, but none of them stretch a defense quite like Nowitzki and Lewis can.)

In all honesty, I still think Smith overpaid for Lewis. I don’t know that there was another team in the running, but at that price tag ($110 million), I doubt it. Lewis should be getting $11-$13 million a season, not the $16-$21 million he’ll be making over the next five years. Still, you can’t argue with the results. The Magic are in the Finals and Lewis is a big reason why.

As for Ariza, which is Simmons’ trump card, let’s not forget — the guy couldn’t shoot a lick when he was in Orlando. He developed his long ball in L.A. and that is one reason why he’s flourishing there. Smith knew he needed shooters at every position other than center, so he wanted a swingman who could play some defense, get to the rim, and be a threat from long range. Ariza was capable in the first two areas, but while in Orlando he showed no signs of becoming a decent three point shooter. Smith went out and signed Pietrus, who was able to (sort of) cover LeBron one-on-one and nail 47% of his threes in the series (and 35% on the year). He’s also athletic enough to get to the rim when he’s crowded on the perimeter. Pietrus is what Smith wanted Ariza to be.

Besides, Simmons should take it easy on Smith. Remember when his favorite GM, Danny Ainge, passed on Brandon Roy in the ’06 Draft so he could acquire Sebastian Telfair from the Blazers? They can’t all be beauties. Ainge went on to win this award in the 2007-08 season. And Cook…on the surface, he didn’t look to be as bad of a fit as he turned out to be. He has size and can shoot it, so Smith might have seen a potential Lewis, Jr. on the horizon. Besides, he turned Cook into Alston after Nelson went down, which was key in getting the Magic to the Finals.

So, even though he didn’t have a splashy move like Iverson-for-Billups, Smith deserves this honor, at least in my book.