Orlando has been a mess for the past couple weeks. Their offense has come apart at the seams — they scored 56 against Boston last week, just 69 against Philadelphia Monday, blew a 27 point lead in another Boston game and got blown out by the Hornets last week. They are struggling. Mightily. This is an inside-out offense based on timing and precision, and the Magic have lost both.
But don’t expect Magic GM Otis Smith to hit the panic button, however. Especially if you are thinking about a Dwight Howard trade.
Here is what Smith told the Orlando Sentinel.
Of course, last season the Magic suffered a string of losses (five of six) so they changed their plans and brought in Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu, shipping out Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat and Rashard Lewis. Looking back on that move, maybe making no move is the smarter call.
Plus, you can rationalize that Jameer Nelson and Jason Richardson are out injured right now.
The bigger problem is leadership — someone needs to step up and hold people accountable in the locker room. But can Howard, with one foot out the door and flirting with other cities, really be that guy? Teammates seemed to have tuned his rants out. Someone else will need to fill that role.
Don’t expect a sudden Dwight Howard trade move either. The scenarios are out there, but as we have been saying the feeling around the league is the Magic are not going to trade him this season, but if they do it will be after the All-Star break the last weekend of February.
