Dwight Howard & Orlando Magic look for answers next season

Orlando Magic Futures

The biggest beef Dwight Howard has with the Orlando Magic is that he wants some quality talent around him next season. If you’re a Magic backer you’ve got to be hoping that Orlando management is trying to appease the big man by getting rid of the dead weight (and there’s lots of it) and bring in some guys who can actually play.

Much to his credit Howard hasn’t carried on like LeBron did before leaving Cleveland high and dry. Outside of the rumors that have Howard going to the Lakers for Andrew Bynum nobody connected with Orlando or representing Howard, have said much about the 2011-2012 season and where he’ll be playing.

All Howard has said "I'm not trying to run behind nobody like Shaq or be behind somebody else," referring to when Shaquille O'Neal left the Magic to sign with the Lakers 15 years ago. The Orlando center is on record as saying he wants a championship but he would prefer to win it in Orlando;

“I want to start my own path and I want people to follow my path and not just follow somebody else's path. I want to have my own path, and I want to start that here in Orlando. But I can't do it alone. Not only do I need the right teammates, but I need the city behind me. That's the only way it's going to get done. We can change this small city that we have — this small market that we have — and we can make it a big market”.

If the season started tomorrow

The Magic would have Dwight Howard and no real choices at power forward. Hedo Turkoglu and Quentin Richardson would be the options at small forward while Gilbert Arenas providing his heads screwed on straight and his guns are safely locked away at home, could be the shooting guard with J.J. Reddick, Jameer Nelson and rookie DeAndre Liggins are options at the point.

This is exactly Howards point. What Orlando has now didn’t work last season and won’t work in 2011-2012 or 2012-2013. He needs and wants better players around him but the Magic don’t have much to offer in return.

Let’s focus on Arenas for a moment and particularly the lucrative contract that he signed during his stay in Washington that has become an albatross in Orlando. Arenas and players like him, that group that has one good season and then become the recipients of huge contracts, are the reason there’s a lockout today through no fault of their own.

Did Wizards owner Abe Pollin put a gun to Arenas’ head and say "here take my $111 million dollars"? Off course not but Pollin continued the bad habit of signing players to staggering contracts. He got out in time selling the team to Ted Leonsis who is stuck with the contract. There are many owners like Leonsis who are stuck with big contracts they can’t move and are hamstrung to do much in terms of fixing their respective teams. Many of these claim to be losing money every year but that is partly because of bad deals like the one Ted Leonsis inherited with Arenas. If the owners are losing money it’s their fault. What they’ve basically told the players is we need protection from ourselves. But I digress, I’ll save my thoughts on the NBA lockout for another day.

Magic numbers

Orlando (52-30 SU, 35-46-1) finished second in the NBA’s Southeast Division standings six games behind the Miami Heat. As far as NBA betting goes, they went 46-36 to the ‘under’ and were 19-22 ATS at home and 16-24-1 on the road. Unless you were fading them you probably don’t have a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings for them anyway.

Don’t blame Howard. Even though he still can’t hit a free throw to save his live (59%) he did lead Orlando in every major offensive category: points (22.9), rebounds (14.1) and field goal percentage (59.3) along with steals and blocks.

NBA bettors have been reluctant so far to spend money on a team that truly doesn’t know the direction the franchise player is headed. That uncertainty is reflected on the NBA odds on our 2011-2012 NBA championship futures board:

1. Miami Heat (5/2)

2. Los Angeles Lakers (11/2)

3. Chicago Bulls (13/2)

4. Oklahoma City Thunder (7/1)

5. Dallas Mavericks 8/1)

6. Boston Celtics (8/1)

7. San Antonio Spurs (12/1)

8. Orlando Magic (20/1)

9. New York Knicks (25/1)

10. New York Knicks (30/1)