Stan Van Gundy, Orlando Magic and the NBA Championship: NBA Feature (Part-3)
Employ best scorers with Dwight Howard
Orlando Magic have the quickest and the most athletic centre in the league in the form of Dwight Howard, but for some odd reason they maintain a very slow tempo in the games.
The 6 foot 11 inch Dwight Howard is a beast on the defence and no one can match his brilliance in guarding the rim. Considering this advantage, Stan Van Gundy should employ his best scorers in the presence of Howard to trigger
the offensive attack as well. While the burden of keeping the score board ticking will be alleviated from the shoulders of the big man, Dwight will have a chance to play his natural game and try things differently.
The strategy of employing shooter alongside Dwight will also eradicate the need of adding another offensive option in the team. It is true that the likes of Jameer Nelson and Hedo Turkoglu failed to deliver on this front late last
season, but Gundy should look to give guys like Jason Richardson, J.J Reddick and Richard Quentin some more minutes.
Introduce new game-plans
Any NBA team will rely heavily on the players like Dwight Howard and it’s not hard to explain why. No matter what kind of players Orlando Magic might trade for in the future, the 25-year-old Howard will be the focal point of the
game-plan and the opposition are always expecting Dwight Howard to take up the charge.
Stan Van Gundy should come up with new game-plans at times and prepare other players from the team like Hedo Turkoglu and Gilbert Arenas to take the charge when the opposition is eyeing to double team or hound Howard.
With the attention of the opposition solely focussed on Dwight Howard, the remaining players will have a good opportunity to land easy buckets.
Tone down the sideline rant
One of the most hated attributes about Stan Van Gundy’s personalities is his penchant to make his views heard. He has infamously called the NBA officials ‘Stern and his minions’ when NBA banned Dwight Howard for one game after
the centre committed 16 technicals and has also been very vocal about Miami Heat, ever since LeBron James decided to come to the South Beach.
Unfortunately for Magic, he displays the same behaviour when on the sidelines in a game. Gundy is known for his on court outburst on the players which results in lowering the confidence and moral of the players.
Dwight Howard recently spoke about this fact and was very clear that Gundy has to change this approach if he wants his players to put up a good show.
Keeping in view, that retaining Howard next season is the number one priority of the franchise at the moment, Gundy should take it as a warning.
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