Posts tagged Rashardlewis at FanHouse

One of the best things about last season was the fact that so many teams were good that you didn't expect. The bad thing was that they all played in small markets, and therefore were only on national television for about a second and a half before returning you to your regularly scheduled Lakers versus Mavericks game. Well, apparently the NBA is going to go ahead and try something different after last year's disastrous Greg Oden vs. Kevin Durant Christmas Day matchup. That game lost its luster of course due to Oden's injury and that the fact that the Sonics were worse than watching your alcoholic uncle fall off the wagon and face first into the spiked eggnog for the third year running. That left us with quite the bad taste in our mouths, but this year, we get a unique treat.

New Orleans.com has gotten a copy of the Hornets's 2008 schedule and is reporting that the Hornets will face off against the Orlando Magic next year on Christmas Day. The game is expected to be held the night of Christmas Day and most likely on TNT. I would expect the usual Lakers ratings blowout in the early game, and possibly another crack at Oden vs. Durant in the afternoon. But the nightcap, hoo boy.

Most teams these days carry on the payroll a salary cap expert -- a "capologist," if you will -- to battle through the dense swampland that is the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement. Usually this role is played by an assistant general manager or someone else affiliated with a team's basketball operations staff.

In Orlando, the role has been filled by Scott Herring, a senior vice president of basketball administration who had been with the club since before it existed. (No small feat!) Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reported Monday that the Magic have eliminated the position and Herring's job, however.

Just one more victim in Rashard Lewis's expensive reign, it seems -- why pay to tell your cap figure is screwed when you know perfectly well that your cap figure is screwed? In all seriousness, the Magic are basically capped out until 2011. Even then, with $36 million devoted to Lewis and Dwight Howard, there will be little real maneuverability. But that's when knowing the cap becomes really important -- when you have restricted means to add talent and need to add talent.

On one hand, someone in Orlando completely botched the team's cap flexibility last summer by doing things all out of order. On the other, this valuable slice of Herring's job -- obviously difficult and nuanced -- now gets handed over to the franchise's CFO. Way to go, Orlando.

[Via Matt from Blog-a-Bull.]

The Magic improved by 12 games this year to finish with 52 wins, their most since 1996 when Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway carried the team all the way to the NBA Finals. GM Otis Smith deserves a lot of credit for the turnaround, first for bidding against himself to sign Rashard Lewis and then having the foresight of knowing Tony Battie would get suffer a season-ending injury to open up playing time for the soon-to-be Most Improved Player Hedo Turkoglu. For that, he was rewarded with a three-year extension.

Am I being a little harsh? Perhaps, but Smith is obviously riding the coat-tails of Dwight Howard's ascension to superstardom. Sure, Stan Van Gundy turned out to be a nice pick to coach this team, but he's only there because Smith's first choice, Billy Donovan, flaked out. And is anyone really excited about Jameer Nelson's future? Smith gave him a five-year, $35 million contract last summer, but he couldn't even hold down a starting job for all of last year.

Wouldn't a talented young point guard like Rodney Stuckey have been a nice replacement? Well, Smith gave the Pistons Orlando's 2007 first-rounder used to select Stuckey in the Darko Milicic/Carlos Arroyo trade. Darko lasted just a year and a half before leaving town while Magic fans are counting down the days Arroyo's contract comes off the books this summer. And don't even get me started about drafting JJ Redick ...

Smith is hardly the worst GM in the league, but I'm convinced the Magic are where they are despite his efforts, not because of it.

Notes from a trip to the NBA Playoffs.

About 45 minutes before Game 5 between the Pistons and Magic tipped off Tuesday night, Rashard Lewis and I had a conversation about his team's string of bad luck, how competitive the series has been and the role Detroit's experience plays in determining the outcome. As you know by now, his hopes of extending the series were dashed, but Lewis did correctly call yet another hard-fought game.

Matt Watson: Coach [Stan Van Gundy] was talking just now about how one or two plays can kind of change the tone of an entire series. Do you kind of feel like you guys have come up on the short end of the stick a couple of times?

Rashard Lewis: Yeah, the ball hasn't been bouncing our way. We feel like we're a better team than what the series says, 3-1. Turnovers, offensive rebounds, just one point away from the series being tied 2-2. Unfortunately, it's 3-1 and hopefully we can try to get this win tonight and take it back to Orlando.

MW: When you factor in the whole plane troubles, it seems like nothing has been going your way this entire time.

RL: Yeah, nothing has been going our way. It's been a little bumpy for us, but at the same time, it's not over yet. Hopefully we can get some luck tonight and throughout the rest of this series, and maybe we can turn this around. We can't get the bad end of the stick every night.

In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Magic-Pistons Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 5 this evening.

1. That Better Be A Darn Good Guarantee: I hate guarantees. Hate them. I hate them more from slow, unspectacular sized, non-hyper-athletic point guards that have been a contributing factor to their team's need for a guarantee. So part of me kind of hopes Jameer Nelson gets served tonight, like he has all series. Which is odd, because I'd really like for the Magic to have made this into a series. I don't necessarily mind the intent behind guarantees, in fact I think confidence is an absolute necessity going into an elimination game. It's making it public that creates the issue. Because as laid back as the Pistons are about the matter, it's still another reason for them to swat the mosquito that the Magic have turned into on their trek through the playoff jungle. And every time Nelson misses a shot tonight, you can bet the Pistons faithful are going to remind him of his little blip.

2. 50/50, Win-Win: Chauncey Billups is 50/50 to play tonight. But since the Magic are about 0-2000 in things falling right for them in this series, I wouldn't bank too much on Billups taking the night off. Although, with as well as Rodney Stuckey has played in his absence, you have to wonder if the Pistons feel any urgency to get him back on the floor, especially with this series feeling so completely finalized. Billups has struggled this postseason in general, and it might do him more good to take the night off, see if the Pistons can finish up the Magic at home, and get some rest for the Conference Finals. If the Magic were to somehow pull off a mini-miracle and win tonight, it would just put them in better shape to put the foot to the throat in Game 6. It's pretty much a win-win situation for the Pistons.

Orlando suffered a crushing blow to their hopes of moving on in the playoffs with a tough Game 4 loss at home to the Pistons. Detroit is the only team to win a road game in this round of the playoffs, and did so by just a single point and without their starting point guard, Chauncey Billups. So maybe that's why Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis still feel that they have a chance to take the series, even though they find themselves in a 3-1 hole and facing a possible elimination game in Detroit.

Nelson, right after the Game 4 loss, didn't hesitate to predict that things would be different in Game 5:

"You know what, we're going to make some adjustments, and we're going to go there and win this (next) game," Nelson boldly predicted. "I'm not being arrogant or cocky or anything like that, but (Saturday) we let it slip out of our hands, let Game 2 slip out of our hands, and we're going to win this (next) game in Detroit.

Whatever you say, Jameer. Rashard Lewis isn't predicting anything at the moment, but after losing three out of four to Detroit, he somehow feels like he's playing for the better team:

We had our chance and let it slip away. For some reason, I feel we're still the better team," Magic forward Rashard Lewis said. "We just made too many mistakes at the end.

"It was our mistakes, nothing they did. They still got to beat us one more time."

I suppose you want your players to be confident, even when facing elimination and the unlikely prospect of trying to beat the Pistons three straight games, two of which would be in their building. But guaranteeing victories and saying you're on the better team at this point just sounds like these guys are out of touch with reality.

In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Pistons-Magic Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 3 this evening.

1. Hemming And Hawing About A Hammy: Will he play? Won't he? Is he okay? Is it fine? Lord, you tweak one hamstring and the whole world goes nuts. Such is the life of Chauncey Billups. Billups is doubtful for tomorrow's game, but has been improving steadily since the injury he sustained in Game 3. Chauncey is now officially the hinge on which this series rests. Without him on the floor, the Magic can create turnovers, open shots, spread the floor, and play their game. With him in, it's like the teacher's back in class. No more spitwads from Lewis, and Mr. Howard! Take that ridiculous cape off!

2. Hey, Where Did That $118 Million Guy Come From?: Rashard Lewis was not the primary focus for the Pistons coming into this series, but maybe he should have been. Lewis is hitting his groove in this series, averaging 24 points a game, including a career playoff high 33 points in Game 3. He's working it from the outside, driving the lane, getting rebounds, the whole nine yards. The Pistons probably assumed that they can accept Lewis' points as long as Turkoglu and Howard are kept down. But at some point, the Pistons need to get a clamp on him before he really gets going.

In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Pistons-Magic Eastern Conference Semifinals Game 3 this evening.

1. Where Time Stands Still: Maybe tonight we'll actually play the game for the correct amount of time, huh? I know, I know, much ado about nothing. But the impact on this game could be considerable if the Magic come out fighting mad. The Magic shot the lights out in the third quarter of Game 2 before falling back off into the void in the fourth, and still managed to keep the game close to the very end where they lost because the Pistons had a three point lead (kind-of) and the refs called a rather questionable foul on Keyon Dooling. This isn't to say the Pistons wouldn't have won anyway, I have every confidence they would have. But it doesn't change the fact that if you're on the Magic, you have to have at least a glimmer of confidence heading back to the friendly confines of the Magic Kingdom. If the Magic can use Game 3 as their proverbial rallying point, it might give them the boost they need to get past Detroit's defense which has been, well ...

2. Stingy As All Get Out: No, the Pistons aren't leading the playoff teams in opponents' field goal percentage. Philadelphia's unheralded and momentary uprising cut that thing off at the knees before the playoffs had even barely gotten started. But they're still holding teams to 41.9% shooting and only 31 makes a game. In news that will shock and amaze you, the problem with Detroit is not stopping their streaky, inconsistent offense. It's getting past the gauntlet. The Magic did a better job in Game 2 of getting out in transition like I called for, but they would be better served by working to create good quality shots instead of blindly hoping for threes to fall like manna from the heavens. Let me put it this way. Whatever Detroit decides to give you? It's probably poisoned.

Notes from a trip to the NBA Playoffs.

As Will Brinson already explained earlier this evening, the Pistons got a bit of a gift at the end of the third quarter last night as Chauncey Billups hit a three-pointer after the clocks should have expired to give the Pistons a two-point lead heading into the fourth.

During the post-game press conference, Billups explained what was going through his head. "Obviously when we took it out I knew it was five seconds, so I just tried to get it up, get it up," he said. "I saw a couple of guys converge on me [so] I threw it to [Rodney Stuckey]. I thought Stuck had to shoot it. When Stuck went up and looked and saw four seconds on the clock, that's why he didn't shoot it, he kicked it back. But I didn't see that, I was just like, I just got to hurry up and get it off. It's a tough play, man. It sucks to be on the other end of that play, you know what I'm saying? But I'll take it, man, I'll take it."

Notes from a trip to the NBA Playoffs.

When I entered Orlando's locker room before tonight's game, Rashard Lewis and J.J. Redick were watching a couple of ESPN analysts on TV talking about Game 1. The talking heads mentioned Lewis' 553 three-point attempts this year, a figure that shocked Redick.

"Did you lead the league in attempts?" asked Redick.

"No, I was somewhere in the top five," Lewis repiled.

He's selling himself short: he was second only to Jason Richardson (599). In fact, the Magic set an NBA record by making at least five threes in every regular season game this year, and then extended that streak in all five games of the first round only to make just a single shot from long distance in Game 1 against the Pistons. I asked Lewis if we can expect to see more three pointers the rest of the series, as well as whether his back-and-forth with Theo Ratliff might start another rap feud like the LeBron/Jay-Z vs. DeShawn/Soulja Boy.

Matt Watson: JJ was just talking about the number of threes that you guys usually put up. Is that something that you guys want to get back to this game?

Rashard Lewis: It's helped us have the successful season that we've had because Dwight demands so much attention down low he's going to draw double teams and we got to knock down open shots in order to open it up for him.