Dwightmare vs. His Old Team
Magic Fan's shouldn't place all of the blame on Howard.
LOS ANGELES-- Today marks the full circle swing of the Dwightmare. Since the summer of 2010, fans began to chirp about the possibility of Dwight Howard leaving Orlando. Many saw the possibility of Dwight in a Brooklyn uniform, waiting just until the Nets moved to Brooklyn to make his move. Others saw him in a Laker uniform, and some even in a Rocket's uniform. Ultimately, the Magic made the move to send Dwight to the Lakers, and the rest is history. Yet, tonight should be a reminder to all Magic fans that you can't put all the blame on Dwight. An underlying cause of this whole fiasco, was the Magic's inability to cater to their superstars need. When you have a superstar, a dominant center, a consensus #1 overall pick, and you are a small market team, all the leverage goes out the window. You hire who Dwight wants as a coach, you get the stars he wants, and you do whatever it takes to keep him home. Especially when you are a team that had already lost the most dominant force in the game, Shaquille O'Neal.
The Magic first made their major blunder when they lost to the Lakers in 2009. Dwight Howard had carried the team through the East, past a injured Boston Celtics team fresh off a championship, and past the super heroics of Lebron James's Cleveland Cavaliers. They were swept by the Lakers but they had built something that year. They built a team that consisted of veterans, and players in their prime. Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, Jameer Nelson, Marcin Gortat, Rafer Alston, plenty of players that made up this team that were capable of being Championship contenders all over again the next year. Yet, they didn't keep the team intact. Hedo Turkoglu, a player who had hit consistently big moment shots, left for the Raptors. Then, Magic traded for Vince Carter as they sent off Rafer Alston and a number of other role players. Carter, to say the least, did not excel with the Magic as he was coming off his prime and beginning to slow down. At this point, the Magic were locked with contracts, and were only capable of second-round playoff runs leading up till Dwight's eventual departure.
The second mistake that the Magic had made, was to keep Stan Van Gundy the coach of the Orlando Magic. It was a highly documented belief that Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy didn't get along. Dwight complained a lot about not getting enough touches. He complained he wasn't being allowed to help out the team enough at the offensive end. Stan was a coach that liked to clog the middle with Dwight, and let him kick it out to the 3-pt shooters. The problem with this strategy is it doesn't involve your big man right away. It waits for you to spread out the court before your big man can get involved. This is a problem, because on nights when the magic didn't hit threes, Dwight struggled inside. In fact, a majority of the time Dwight had his biggest issues because he wasn't involved with the offense early. In LA, you can see that Howard gets involved right away, whether it is pick-and-rolls or Big-to-big lobs. This is how you are suppose to involve your big man. Stan Van Gundy never did this, he never tried to do this. His biggest mistake was telling the media Dwight wanted him fired. The little normalcy that the Orlando Magic had in the organization in the darkest hours of the Dwightmare was broken at the very moment, leaving all but the door wide open for Dwight Howard to leave. But, by then, it was already too late.
The last and final mistake the Magic's front office made with Dwight Howard was waiting too long to trade him. There were packages available, or at least reportedly available that had given the Magic more talent then they received from the Laker's trade. In fact, Brooklyn reportedly offered Brook Lopez, Marshon Brooks, two first round picks, and a second round pick at one point for Dwight Howard. This would have given the Magic two young promising talents in Brook Lopez and Brooks, along with more young talent through the draft. Yet, the Magic didn't bite. They were either looking for a better deal, which wasn't going to happen, or a they believed they could convince Dwight. Neither was true. Another better deal was Houston's offer of their three first round picks, and they would have taken on the contracts of Big Baby Davis, Chris Duhon and Jason Richardson. That alone would have given the Magic enough cap flexibility and young talent to move forward with rebuilding. However, that didn't happen either. You know the rest of the story, because Dwight Howard is now a Laker. And the Magic still have the bad contract of Glen Davis, and a sub-par start to the season.
Thus, when you think of the Magic fan's reaction to seeing Dwight tonight vs. their team, at 9:30 PM EST, you have to think about the complete incompetence the front office of the Magic had dealing with the situation. At the end of the day, the Magic Organization screwed up big time. But it's not unlike this organization. The same organization that had Shaq, Tracy Mcgrady, Steve Francis, Grant Hill, Penny Hardaway. Names that should have, could have, would have won titles, if the Magic's front office could've done something right. But, it's never that easy in the NBA, nor is it ever that easy in real life. The luck of the draw is sometimes the only factor when it comes to these things. The Magic have yet to draw an ace.
