{"id":1723,"date":"2007-10-28T14:48:32","date_gmt":"2007-10-28T19:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/orlando-magic\/"},"modified":"2007-10-28T14:48:32","modified_gmt":"2007-10-28T19:48:32","slug":"orlando-magic","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/orlando-magic","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record<\/strong>
\n44-38 (Tom), 50-32 (Gil)<\/p>\n

Last Year’s Record<\/strong>
\n40-42<\/p>\n

Gil’s Commentary<\/strong>
\nOrlando made the biggest free-agent splash in the off-season, if you consider wildly overpaying for a limited player to be a big splash. The Magic brought in Rashard Lewis, who will — like Jason Richardson in Charlotte — post selfishly good numbers. He might even help the team get some more wins, since they sure could use some scoring punch. But I think the signing of Stan Van Gundy as coach will help this team a lot more, since they can really<\/em> use some sorta defense.<\/p>\n

The Lewis signing showed that Orlando GM Otis Smith doesn’t exactly know the rules of his job, since he ended up offering a needless extra year and waiving one of his trade assets. That asset was Darko Milicic, who was selected between LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony and is now on his third team. Of course, Darko’s the only one of the three to have a championship ring, so hey.<\/p>\n

Dwight Howard got robbed in the slam-dunk contest last year and, while he still doesn’t play much one-on-one defense and has few offensive skills, he’s a rebounding beast who will benefit from having a designated scorer on the court in Lewis. I bet they take the Southeast title, for what it’s worth, and Stan Van Gundy laughs as Miami struggles to clinch a playoff spot.<\/p>\n

Rejoinder From Tom<\/strong>
\nSeventy-five years from now, the double-brother Van Gundy coaching success era will baffle sport historians, driving much of sports talk radio not devoted to effective fighting methods against roaming bands of cannibalistic vampires.<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Comics Connection<\/strong>
\nOrlando’s best comic shop is called “A Comic Shop.”<\/p>\n

Gratuitous Pharma Connection<\/strong>
\nOrlando hosted last year’s International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineering annual meeting.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/strong>
\nAdonal Foyle and Bo Outlaw will have contests to see who can miss the most free throws. –GR<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Predicted Record 44-38 (Tom), 50-32 (Gil) Last Year’s Record 40-42 Gil’s Commentary Orlando made the biggest free-agent splash in the off-season, if you consider wildly overpaying for a limited player to be a big splash. The Magic brought in Rashard Lewis, who will — like Jason Richardson in Charlotte — post selfishly good numbers. He … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Orlando Magic”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1713,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"nba0708index.php","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1723","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P4C7K-rN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1726,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/minnesota-timberwolves","url_meta":{"origin":1723,"position":0},"title":"Minnesota Timberwolves","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 18-64 (Tom), 20-62 (Gil) Last Year's Record 32-50 Tom's Commentary Sebastian Telfair's odyssey as kind of a strange mini-me to Stephon Marbury takes him to the land of Garrison Keillor, Marbury's first pro stomping grounds. The Timberwolves are actually Al Jefferson's team, which is interesting in that Jefferson\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1181,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007","url_meta":{"origin":1723,"position":1},"title":"NBA Preview 2006-2007","author":"Gil","date":"November 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm the Juggernaut, bitch! ATLANTIC Boston Celtics by Tom Spurgeon New Jersey Nets by Gil Roth New York Knicks by Gil Roth Philadelphia 76ers by Adam Taxin Toronto Raptors by Sam Richezza CENTRAL Chicago Bulls by Tom Spurgeon Cleveland Cavaliers by Tom Spurgeon Detroit Pistons by Tom Spurgeon Indiana Pacers\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-preview-2006-2007#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1713,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview","url_meta":{"origin":1723,"position":2},"title":"NBA 2007-08 Preview","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It's time for the race (well, marathon) to see who will keep the Spurs from repeating THIS time! Which is to say, \"The new NBA season is upon us!\" Sure, the league's been pummeled lately, what with the referee-gambling scandal, the Knicks' ugly sexual harassment suit, and the uncompetitive finals.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1744,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/milwaukee-bucks","url_meta":{"origin":1723,"position":3},"title":"Milwaukee Bucks","author":"Gil","date":"October 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 44-38 (Tom), 40-42 (Gil) Last Year's Record 28-54 Gil's Commentary Looking over last year's writeup, it seemed like they had some talented pieces, and were looking to move up in the Central. Instead, they came in dead last. I'm gonna say that injuries wreaked havoc with the Bucks'\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1739,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/chicago-bulls","url_meta":{"origin":1723,"position":4},"title":"Chicago Bulls","author":"Gil","date":"October 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 54-28 (Tom), 58-24 (Gil) Last Year's Record 49-33 Gil's Commentary Everybody thinks they're going to trade for Kobe Bryant and pair him up with Luol Deng to form a Jordan-Pippen combo. I like Deng's game, but he's no Scottie. If they don't go through with a trade, then\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1717,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/nba-2007-08-preview\/ny-knicks","url_meta":{"origin":1723,"position":5},"title":"NY Knicks","author":"Gil","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Predicted Record 43-39 (Harrison), 30-52 (Tom), 37-45 (Gil) Last Year's Record 33-49 Harrison Turkheimer's Commentary After signing DePaul's Wilson Chandler, it seems as if the Knicks may start to have the pieces to the puzzle that Isiah wants. The Knicks also are taking a gamble on Syracuse's Demetris Nichols [Harrison\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1723\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}