Five of the 10 starters in last night’s Game 4 skipped college altogether. In his pregame press conference, Stan Van Gundy says that the age-limit is a sham and blasted the NCAA.

Van Gundy was on a roll, decrying the NCAA as “the worst organization going,” and the NBA/NCAA’s one-and-done rule as “a sham,” telling the press that he doesn’t “understand how we got away with [the one-and-done] rule as a league.”

I’m not a fan of the age limit. I understand the goal — to make the NBA a more mature league and (hopefully) increase the quality of the product. But the one-and-done rule is hurting the college game, and it isn’t doing much for the NBA. High school players have a high rate of success in the NBA, so those that get drafted should be allowed to play straight out of high school. If a player doesn’t get drafted, then he should be allowed to attend college. Once he enrolls, he should have to play for a minimum of two years before making himself eligible for the draft again. Case closed.

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):

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On Wednesday, after two straight narrow defeats at the hands of the Celtics, I asked, “Why can’t the Magic finish games?” I referenced an article by John Carroll, where he said the problem was four-fold:

1. The Magic don’t fully commit at the defensive end.
2. They refuse to pound the ball inside.
3. They fall in love with the three-point shot.
4. They don’t trust their coach the way the Celtics do.

I focused on #2, and threw in a couple of other problems:

5. Poor late-game play from Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis.
6. They don’t have a guy who can consistently get to the hole.

So what was the difference in the Magic’s win in Game 6?

1. Check…they held the Celtics to just 75 points, 13 in the fourth quarter.
2. Check…Dwight Howard attempted 16 shots and 12 free throws; both are series highs.
3. No change…the Magic were just 6 of 26 for the game.
4. It’s hard to gauge how much they trust Stan Van Gundy on a game-to-game basis. They responded with good defense and a strong game plan to feed Howard the ball, so they must trust his instruction to a certain extent.

5. What about Turkoglu and Lewis? Here are their fourth quarter stats:

Lewis: 2-5 (0-1 3PT), 8 points, 3 rebounds, steal, assist
Turkoglu: 1-5 (1-3 3PT), 3 points, 2 rebounds

So Lewis and Turkoglu went a combined 3 of 10 for 11 points and five rebounds in Game 6. They shot 3 of 15 for a total of 11 points (combined) in Game 4 and Game 5. Turkoglu didn’t play particularly well, but the one shot he hit in the fourth quarter was HUGE. It came with 1:23 remaining and the Magic clinging to a three-point lead. Lewis clearly played well. He shot just 40% in the quarter, but he got to the line twice for four more points, had an assist, a steal and drew an offensive foul on Kendrick Perkins.

6. Check…Courtney Lee and Rafer Alston each had key driving layups in the fourth quarter. To win close games down the wire, you have to have a player (or two) that are effective at getting into the lane and finishing. Alston and Lee stepped up in the fourth quarter for the Magic.

On the whole, the Magic did a better job across the board, save for some very suspect three-point shooting. But can they post a repeat performance in Game 7 in front of a very hostile crowd?

Cavs head coach Mike Brown was named Coach in the Year in a near-landslide.

“Offensively, the last three years, we weren’t good mainly because of me,” Brown admitted after Game 1 against the Pistons on Saturday. “I wanted to establish an identity here, and that was on the defensive end of the floor.”

The Cavs made a huge leap offensively this season. They went from the 20th-most efficient offense to the fourth-most efficient. Part of that was due to the addition of point guard Mo Williams, but the willingness of Brown and his staff to find a new direction was critical.

Brown led all vote-getters with 55 first place votes. Rick Adelman (13) narrowly beat out Stan Van Gundy (13) in total points to finish second, while Nate McMillan (15) finished fourth. I thought Adelman did more with less, but Brown’s Cavs surprised a lot of people and sure didn’t look like a 66-win team heading into the season.

- News broke yesterday that Celtics GM Danny Ainge had a mild heart attack, but should be fine and is recovering nicely. It would be bad form to make a joke about how it was the news that Doc Rivers shut down Kevin Garnett that caused Ainge’s heart attack, so I won’t go there.

- Stan Van Gundy says that injured starters Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis may return for the Magic’s first game against Philadelphia on Sunday.

- Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody and Saint Mary’s Patty Mills plan to make themselves eligible for the NBA Draft, but neither player is going to hire an agent to allow for a return to school if they so choose. Arizona’s Nic Wise seems to be looking purely for feedback.

- Unrestricted free agent Shawn Marion is keeping his options open, and one choice is to return to the Raptors, but the Toronto press isn’t optimistic.

Stan Van Gundy criticized Shaquille O’Neal’s attempted flop against Dwight Howard Tuesday night.

O’Neal was guarding Howard with about 4 minutes left in the third quarter Tuesday night. Howard made a spin move, O’Neal fell to the court in an effort to get an offensive foul called, and the Magic center easily dunked with two hands.

Afterward, Van Gundy said he was “shocked, seriously. I was shocked and very disappointed because he knows what it’s like. You know, let’s stand up and play like men, and I think our guy did that.�

“One thing I really despise is a frontrunner,� O’Neal said before the Suns played the Heat, Shaq’s first time back in Miami since last season’s trade. “I know for a fact he’s a master of panic and when it gets time for his team to go into the postseason and do certain things, he will let them down because of his panic. I’ve been there before. I’ve played for him.�

“Flopping is playing like that your whole career,� O’Neal said. “I was trying to take a charge, trying to get a call. Yeah, it probably was a flop, but flopping is wrong. Flopping would describe his coaching.�

“I’m not going to sit around and let nobodies take shots at me,� O’Neal said. “He is a nobody to me. If he thinks he can get a little press conference and take shots at me like I’m not take one back, he has another thing coming. … I tried to take a charge. The rules say when a guy comes into your chest and you fall, it’s an offensive foul. That’s all I tried to do. I fell. I didn’t complain.�

Yahoo! Sports columnist Adrian Wojnarowski had an interesting take on why Van Gundy would choose to enter a war of words with probably the most quotable player in NBA history…

Two of the four best teams in the league square off tonight in Orlando. The Celtics come to town riding a six-game winning streak (which followed a four-game losing streak), while the Magic have won seven straight, and 16 of their last 18, which included wins over the Lakers (x 2), the Spurs (x 2) and the Hornets.

Much has been written about the Celtics, so let’s focus on the Magic. Orlando might be playing the best ball of anyone right now, and they’re really starting to remind me of the 1995 Houston Rockets squad that swept Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway and the rest of the Magic in the Finals to win their second straight title. They have a true center that commands a double-team (Hakeem Olajuwon = Dwight Howard), a slasher on the wing that can also shoot the ball (Clyde Drexler = Hedo Turkoglu), a sharpshooting power forward (Robert Horry = Rashard Lewis), an assassin of a point guard (Kenny Smith = Jameer Nelson) and his young protege (Sam Cassell = Courtney Lee). The Magic aren’t as deep as those Rockets were — remember Otis Thorpe, Vernon Maxwell and Mario Elie? — and while that may be their undoing come playoff time, it’s hard to imagine Boston or Cleveland’s bench dominating anyone.

The Magic are 5th in the league in offensive efficiency and 3rd in defensive efficiency, which is directly related to their ability to hold the opposition to 42.6% from the field. Stan Van Gundy has done a terrific job teaching the core — Howard, Nelson, Turkoglu and Lewis — how to play defense and there isn’t a coach in the league that is doing more with less, at least at the elite-team level. At this point, he’s my choice for Coach of the Year.

Tonight’s game will be a nice test for the young Magic, and their crowd. With the defending champs coming to town, there should be a playoff atmosphere at Amway Arena, with the fans rising to their feet early and often. If the crowd sits on its hands for much of the first half, the team might be in trouble come playoff time. A real home court advantage is crucial to winning in the playoffs — just ask the Celtics.

The game is scheduled for 8 PM ET on TNT.