Jent has made some intersting changes. Although it annoyed me at first, I actually think it might work. The article is here: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/bask...?coll=orl-magic But to cut a long story short he is now using the policy of only 3 garanteed starters, Stevie at PG, Hill at SF and Dwight at PF. Stevenson will be the starting SG against seatle and Cato at C, but both these positions will vary game to game. Now as bad as it sounds, it does leave one thing, a spark off the bench. Now Cato and Battie, both battling for a starting position should cause some step up in play for both the players, but now we have Hedo and Jameer, both capable players to give us something off the bench. Something we have missed recently. However I do think we are better with Jameer at PG, and only need to find a way of making things work really. But as I say, it does give us 2 quality players off the bench, rather than just 1. Stevie, Hill and Dwight look like they will be our main scorers by the sounds of it, Stevie and Grant bouth 20ppg but Dwight i think will join those ranks now. With Jameer and Hedo coming off the bench to score, it might well provide a better all round performance. Hopefully Stevenson will get his rear in gear and ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING NOW. Potentially clever moves trying to get the best out of the roster (stevenson might play better being a starter, Cato and Battie will play harder for that #5 spot, and Jameer and Hedo both accept bench duties, but both now can be utalised fully if Jent recognises both their abilities.
Francis back to PG and Jameer off the bench sounds very stupid to me. D12 will never become a main scorer with Francis at the 1 and we're going back to Francis with all his TO and his domination of the ball. Also I don't like Stevenson as a starter. He had nearly no playing time this year and then suddenly become a starter? He has hardly any defense from what I can remember from last season and we don't need another scorer in the Starting 5. The timing of the coaching change has been ridiculous but this many changes in just one day is even worse and may cost us some more games, the first we already lost against Seattle.
I agree, benching Jameer when he's getting really good is just too bad... but it's good for the whole team. Only 3 players have a secure starting job, so maybe some of the other guys will actually want to earn minutes. especially deshawn. he's being given a chance, he has to deliver.
Deshawn has good defense, he hustles like crazy and makes a bunch of big plays(deflections) and stuff that doesn't show up in the boxscore. His offense is what is iffy. He struggles with his shot. The thing I like about this is that there isn't a SG who will command the ball, which will free up more shots for Dwight.
@Gators I thought that was Bogans last year, the one who played good defense and hustled like crazy, and DeShawn was the one who only could score, basically a one dimensional player. But having Francis, well not at the moment, at PG won't get Dwight more shots. Only with Nelson at PG and Francis at SG or out will give Dwight more shots. Anyway, we won the first game under Coach Jent and with Francis out, and Dwight got some more shots but couldn't get it done. DeShawn played not bad and got the most shots, kind of strange, a few games ago he saw almost no minutes at all and suddenly he's become one of our main scorers. I like this rotation and would like to see how well they do without Francis for a while.
[quote name='Coranor']Francis back to PG and Jameer off the bench sounds very stupid to me. D12 will never become a main scorer with Francis at the 1 and we're going back to Francis with all his TO and his domination of the ball. QUOTE] well said...Francis wnt really make a good pg b/c of his selfishness...
Jent really knows how to coach so far and the rotation is pretty nice. I like that he made sure Nelson came off the bench that provides another bench player who can get 10-12 points along w/ Hedo. With Stevio at point Hill will get the ball more and will pass it to dwight and Kato. Calvin has been playing great on defense and offense he really wants to win. Also Augmen and Hunter is a great idea give them the chance to show what they can do and Stevenson is playing great we just need DC back or in the offseason get another Pg or Sg to back Stevio and DeShawn. I like how he hasnt played PG much as he has no good defense and is struggling on offense. Kusun make bad plays but gets good offensive rebounds. Hope we win more games.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> well said...Francis wnt really make a good pg b/c of his selfishness...</div>I haven't been watching as many Magic games I'd like to, but stats say otherwise. Francis averages 7 assists a game, the highest of his career and actually has been getting more assists than Nelson even after he got moved to shooting guard. It's funny how no one criticized Francis when he was leading the Magic to a dream start, but everyone pounds on him once the team as a whole slips, caused undeniably by Weisbrod.
Yes we had a dream start, yes Francis, Mobley and Cato played very well during the first 19 games, Francis saved us a couple of times and I think all of them had something to prove but soon it was over. And not because of the GM, Davis said once something like this: okay it took the other teams a while to get used to our style but in the end they found something against it. Did he change anything about it, no. Weisbrod at least tried to do something about it. Francis has a lof of assists, that's true, but he also made some very questionable shots. And with Mobley next to him, it was almost always like me first, friends (Mobley) second and team third. This changed a little after the Mobley trade but with Nelson at PG and Francis at SG there was even a lot more ball movement than there was ever before. Something that doesn't come up in the stats.
francis is good, but he turns the ball over a lot. w/ nelson on the point, francis can make use of his scoring skills, plus less turnovers for him cause he isn't holding the ball too much. the magic won against portland. deshawn was great, scoring 16 pts. grant hill led us with 23. jameer played great, too. i hope we get some more wins
End of the day - Steve has pld at PG for most of his time in bball so obviously, as a 6yr vet he is gonna be good at getting the ball around. After all he is one of the only players to average 20pts 6 rebs and 6 assists in his 5 seasons... But end of the day we all know, as I had been saying for a good while, that Jameer is a great PG, who will improve. He just doesnt have the NBA experience being a rookie - as Howard, but the more he gets at home the more he will get assists. And its not as if he isnt a good passer, he is distrubuting the ball excellently, just he isnt the final passer every time. I have 2 feelings on Jent's decision 1 - That it is a nice idea - What we were lacking was a solid #6 and #7 off the bench once DC went IL, Hedo was mixing in 1st team and then bench, so he seems more like a starter sometimes, but is good spark off teh bench, with jameer giving 25 mins off the bench we have alot of "spark" so to speak However Jameer and Stevie we combining for alot of pts, assists and rebounds, aswell as a good few steals, so I dont think that stevenson is a better SG than francis or a better player than jameer.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting magicdamo23:</div><div class="quote_post">End of the day - Steve has pld at PG for most of his time in bball so obviously, as a 6yr vet he is gonna be good at getting the ball around. After all he is one of the only players to average 20pts 6 rebs and 6 assists in his 5 seasons... But end of the day we all know, as I had been saying for a good while, that Jameer is a great PG, who will improve. He just doesnt have the NBA experience being a rookie - as Howard, but the more he gets at home the more he will get assists. And its not as if he isnt a good passer, he is distrubuting the ball excellently, just he isnt the final passer every time. I have 2 feelings on Jent's decision 1 - That it is a nice idea - What we were lacking was a solid #6 and #7 off the bench once DC went IL, Hedo was mixing in 1st team and then bench, so he seems more like a starter sometimes, but is good spark off teh bench, with jameer giving 25 mins off the bench we have alot of "spark" so to speak However Jameer and Stevie we combining for alot of pts, assists and rebounds, aswell as a good few steals, so I dont think that stevenson is a better SG than francis or a better player than jameer.</div> I don't think anyone is saying that(the bold). The reason why we were on the slide is because once our first team got out of the game, the other team would go on a run, so adding Jameer to the 2nd team will make us less likely to give up a run. Stevenson will help our first team a lot because he doesn't demand a lot of shots(although he did get 19 last game, so my point might not be valid anymore)(which means more touches for Dwight) and he makes a lot of big hustle plays. He will give us a little size rather than our really small lineup of Jameer and Francis and will limit the amount of matchup problems. I really wanted him to get some time earlier during the year, since he played pretty good for us last year. He could be an effective starter. Yes Jameer has been playing great in the starting lineup, but him playing great hasn't equaled wins, which the main goal is.
I was trying to give 2 sides of the view - I am sure the coach has a very good reason for it. I dont overly agree with it for the bold reason, I think that Jameer should be our PG (and we BETTER NOT TRADE HIM, although looks like we will :/). Well the decision atm is made for Jent as Francis could be out as long as 11 games (or more if the NBA are idiots)
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Francis could be out as long as 11 games (or more if the NBA are idiots)</div> It's just three games.
Yup posted it just b4 it got posted about the ban. 3 Games is good. I think we can dispose (touch wood) with the bobcats without him aslong as we do what we are currently doing against them now - And thats a really wierd line lol
