3QC is J.J.'s website. I just write on it.
File photo by Thearon Henderson, Getty Images

Remember when I linked to Mavs Moneyball's comprehensive rundown of the Jason Kidd trade? Well, I'm trying my hand at similarly covering J.J. Redick's season. 3QC user Brutalfacts wrote in this comment that he's "sick and tired of JJ, JJ talk, JJ speculation, discussion of JJ's future, JJ's whining about his 'role' and at this point just about everything JJ related." Sorry, Brutalfacts.

Note that some of the links in the 3QC stories below may have rotted. John Denton's forum automatically deletes threads after a certain amount of time has elapsed; ditto with the Orlando Sentinel's stories.

And without further ado...

• 9 July 2007: In his first-ever Summer League game, J.J. Redick scores 30 points on 7-of-18 shooting.
• 23 Oct 2007: The Magic pick up the third- and fourth-year options on Redick's contract.
• 28 Nov 2007 - 2 Dec 2007 - Over a three-game stretch during which the Magic go 2-1, Redick scores 27 points (10-of-15 FGs) in 41 minutes:
  • 28 Nov: Orlando Magic 110, Seattle SuperSonics 94
  • 30 Nov: Phoenix Suns 110, Orlando Magic 106
  • 3 Dec: Orlando Magic 104, Los Angeles Lakers 97
• 5 Jan 2008 - John Denton thinks Golden State Warriors may be interested in trading for J.J. and either Carlos Arroyo or Keyon Dooling.
• 9 Jan 2008 - Magic General Manager Otis Smith tells the Orlando Sentinel he's gotten some calls inquiring about the availability Redick in possible trades.
• 29 Jan 2008 - Smith says he won't trade J.J.
• 7 Feb 2008 - Denton gets a rare glimpse into Magic practice and reports that J.J. Redick was incredible, scoring 14 of his team's 16 points during one scrimmage.
• 29 Feb 2008 - Tim Povtak reports Redick will go back to the end of the bench, despite playing 16 minutes in a loss at Philadelphia.
• 4 Mar 2008 - Povtak reports J.J. may get to play 'significant minutes' in that night's game against the Raptors due to injuries to Keyon Dooling and Keith Bogans.
• 4 Mar 2008 - After the Magic's 102-87 victory over the Raptors, Redick, who did not play, tells Jon Hirozawa of Central Florida News 13 that he doesn't expect to be in Orlando very long.
• 5 Mar 2008 - Redick writes on his blog that he won't answer any more questions about playing time.

So, what do you guys think about J.J.? Does he deserve a spot in the rotation? Does he have a future with this team? Did Otis Smith make a mistake in drafting him? Make yourself heard in the comments.

Who needs Jerry West when you have Keyon Dooling? The Magic's backup point guard candidly imitates The Logo in the Magic's 112-93 win over the Kings on Sunday.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

• How about Keyon Dooling? That pose above uncannily resembles the NBA's logo.
• John Denton and Brian Schmitz each have stories about Rashard Lewis' unselfishness; he's perfectly happy deferring to Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu, and he's not concerned with his 18.2 scoring average, which is his lowest in four seasons. You gotta like his attitude. However, he can sometimes defer too often, passing the ball late in the shot clock when he should be the one shooting.
• Yesterday, Schmitz reported on his blog that the Magic will probably extend Otis Smith's contract for another two seasons beyond this one. David Whitley thinks that'd be a good move, and I tend to agree. As much as we Magic fans love to rip on Otis for not takings risks, he's done a decent job of assembling this team. Plus, there's no reason to fire him or let him go. This organization needs stability, and Otis provides that.
• Great news from Tim Povtak's NBA Confidential today, the focus of which is Ron Artest. But the meat of the story is in this excerpt:

  Magic General Manager Otis Smith, who understands the importance of perception in a small market like Orlando, has been gently chiding point guard Jameer Nelson about his scraggly beard, so don't be surprised to see it disappear soon [....] Smith just told his own son, Otis, Jr., that both the allowance and the car keys would disappear until he found a razor.

  I have no problem with players growing facial hair -- Hell, I emailed Basketbawful last week to nominate Shaq for Worst of the Night for shaving off his mustache -- but Jameer needs to trim his beard. It's a bit scraggly, as this Fernando Medina photograph shows.

• Just a reminder: the latest installment of the Blogger MVP/Rookie of the Year rankings is up at CelticsBlog. Dwight Howard placed 5th, one spot behind Kobe Bryant (who received my first-place vote) and one spot ahead of Steve Nash (who did not appear on my ballot). Thanks to Tom for being so diligent in putting it all together.
• I can't think of any way to relate this video to the Magic, so I won't even try. But head on over to Basketbawful to watch Knicks forward Zach Randolph... well, I don't know how to describe it. But yeah, Basketbawful called it "the worst possession [he's] ever seen," and it's hard to disagree. Even Steve Francis was more prudent with his shot-selection.

Don't forget to check out the game thread for tonight's contest against the Jason Kidd-less Nets.

	vs.
25-31		36-22
IZOD Center
7:30 PM
Sun Sports
Probable starters:
Marcus Williams	PG	Jameer Nelson
Vince Carter	SG	Maurice Evans
R. Jefferson	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Nenad Krstic	PF	Rashard Lewis
Josh Boone	C	Dwight Howard

The Nets made headlines earlier this month when they agreed to ship All-Star point guard Jason Kidd to Dallas for Devin Harris and other players. Kidd's last game as a Net was February 12th versus Minnesota. In the four games since then, the Nets are 2-2, in large part due to the resurgence of Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson. The Nets' franchise players have combined to score 191 of New Jersey's 406 points in that time span, a staggering 47%. Once Harris returns from injury -- he hasn't played in nearly a month due to an ankle injury -- the Nets figure to be in fairly good shape for the remainder of this season and into the next.

Conversely, we haven't shaken up our roster much since trading for Maurice Evans and Brian Cook in November. We're 3-1 since the All-Star break and boast the most efficient offense in the Eastern Conference. Unfortunately, our defense has regressed to a remarkable degree, and we're in jeopardy of losing our third-overall seed in the Conference.

New Jersey has started oft-injured power forward Nenad Krstic in each of its last seven games, but he hasn't fared well; he reached double-figure scoring just once in those games. Tonight, he may come off the bench, as he's a poor match for Rashard Lewis; Krstic has neither the skill nor the speed to defend Lewis on the perimeter, and Nets coach Lawrence Frank may opt to start Bostjan Nachbar instead, as he did in the first meeting between these two teams, which took place in mid-November. However, for the purposes of this preview, I'll assume that Krstic will indeed start.

Tipoff's at 7:30. Be sure to tune-in, if for nothing else to see Darrell Armstrong play. The second-oldest player in the league, and arguably the most beloved player in Magic history, will back up Marcus Williams at point guard tonight. Recall that Flash destroyed us in early January, leading a fourth-quarter rally to push the Nets to victory over us at the Amway Arena for one of our most embarrassing losses of the season. Let's hope that performance was a fluke.

And don't forget to check out the latest installment of the Blogger MVP/Rookie of the Year rankings, this time hosted by Tom at CelticsBlog.

The 2008 NBA trading deadline is Thursday, February 21st, at 3 PM EST. 3QC is keeping tabs on the Magic's involvement.

• Gary Washburn of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer joined the Magic/SuperSonics trade rumor discussion extravaganza by writing this piece, entitled "Thomas' Future Uncertain Now," in which he writes, "And at All-Star Weekend in New Orleans, there appeared to be interest in [Kurt] Thomas by a few teams, including the Orlando Magic, which is in need of a power forward."

  Washburn mentions Carlos Arroyo, Keyon Dooling, and Pat Garrity, saying a combination of two of those three players could be used to pry Thomas from Seattle. (Hat-tip: poster TheFalcon at MagicMadness)

  My original Magic/SuperSonics proposal involved Arroyo, James Augustine, Keith Bogans, and J.J. Redick for Thomas and Delonte West. I'd like to revise that trade: Arroyo, Augustine, and Bogans for Thomas. It doesn't appear as though Smith wants to trade Redick, and there's no real reason for us to want West when we already have one undersized combo-guard, Keyon Dooling.

• Meanwhile, Will Brinson at FanHouse discusses a Thomas-to-the-Magic swap as part of FanHouse's Trade Machinations series. He concludes:

  Will it happen? Yes. Yes it will. The only hold up here -- I would imagine -- is whether the Sonics and Magic want to consider anything that might involve either J.J. Redick or Chris Wilcox. Well, that and the full compensation for the swap: draft picks, etc.

• Brian Schmitz cautions the Magic not to include Dooling in any trade before the deadline... unless it yields Udonis Haslem. I agree with Schmitz for the most part. Keyon has indeed been our best, most consistent bench scorer. We need him more than we need Arroyo, who is actually fairly similar to Jameer Nelson. If we can only re-sign one guard with an expiring contract this summer -- Arroyo, Keith Bogans (if he opts-out), Dooling, and Maurice Evans are the players whose contracts will be up for renewal -- Dooling has to be the pick. He may not run the offense well, but he gets to the basket and converts. I'd hate to see him go, even in a deal for Haslem.
  • For what it's worth, Heat scribe Ira Winderman thinks Haslem would be a great fit in Orlando, "a utilitarian power forward to handle the dirty work." He doesn't suggest any potential deals, however.
• Interesting discussion thread over at John Denton's forum, in which readers debate the merits of rooting against the Magic tonight and tomorrow night in hopes that successive losses to Detroit and Toronto would force Otis Smith to make a trade. I'm opposed to rooting for my team to fail for any reason, but especially when there's no guarantee of a reward. For instance, when a cellar-dwelling team tanks its season, there's a tangible increase in the odds of it winning the draft lottery, and thus improving its fortunes. In this situation, it's not a given that back-to-back losses before the trading deadline will make Otis get on the phone and make a deal.
• UPDATE: From this diary entry I posted at Sactown Royalty:

  Poster "BriceC0815" at John Denton's Magic board posted a link to this page at another board (PG-13 for language), which details some Magic/Kings trade rumors.

  • Brad Miller and Francisco Garcia for Carlos Arroyo, Keith Bogans, and Pat Garrity. (Trade Machine)
  • Kenny Thomas and Garcia for Arroyo, Bogans, and Garrity. (Trade Machine)

  Very interesting, but I don't see why Sacramento would make the Miller deal. Sure, it'd free-up some salary, but I doubt [Kings GM] Geoff Petrie would make any trade in which he gives up the two best players in it. The Thomas deal makes more sense for Sacramento, but even Otis Smith has to realize that Kenny Thomas is no-good...

  ...right?

  [....]

  • UPDATED AGAIN: John Denton, as usual, is on the case. He checked with Otis on the validity of the rumor, and Otis told him there was no chance the Magic would take on Miller and his large salary. Denton added that his sources within the Magic organization indicated Orlando will not make a trade with Miami anytime soon.

Speaking of trades: the Jason Kidd-to-the-Mavericks deal is done, and Mavs Moneyball has this indispensable timeline of events leading up to its completion. Kudos to Wes for keeping tabs on the situation.

	vs.
39-13		33-21
The Palace of Auburn Hills
7:30 PM
Sun Sports HD
Probable starters:
Chauncey Billups	PG	Jameer Nelson
Richard Hamilton	SG	Maurice Evans
Tayshaun Prince	SF	Hedo Turkoglu
Antonio McDyess	PF	Rashard Lewis
Rasheed Wallace	C	Dwight Howard

The Pistons enter tonight's matchup with the Magic having won 10 straight games, yet nobody seems to want to talk about them. That's fine with Chauncey Billups. From the Denver Post:

"Nobody knows we're winning," Pistons guard Chauncey Billups said. "All people know is that Pau Gasol went to Los Angeles, Shaq (O'Neal) went to Phoenix and Jason Kidd is supposed to be on his way to Dallas."

[....]

But Billups, a Denver native, said he likes being the "hunter." He doesn't mind being under the radar in February, as long as he's still lacing his sneakers in June.

"Guys are making big-name trades, but to win a championship, you've got to be a cohesive unit," he said. "You can't have all all-stars. Some guys have to sacrifice some things and you have to be a little lucky, as well. Teams are making some great moves, but you still need time."

(Hat-tip: Detroit Bad Boys)

The Magic always have trouble with the Pistons, largely due to Billups' dominance over our point guards. Billups isn't big by NBA standards, but he's large enough (6'3", 201 pounds) to give Jameer Nelson (5'10", 180 pounds) fits, as Need4Sheed illustrated in this post. But he's not the only Piston who poses matchup problems for us. In the Magic's last visit to the Palace of Auburn Hills, a 101-93 defeat, Hedo Turkoglu let Rasheed Wallace abuse him for 13 points in the first quarter alone. The Pistons lead by 21 points at the end of that period and playing the remaining 36 minutes was a formality. Stan Van Gundy is going to have to adjust his defense before tonight's game if he hopes to leave the Palace a happy man.

For some good mojo, here's video of Rashard Lewis' game-winner against the Pistons from earlier this year:

Tipoff's at 7:30 PM on Sun Sports HD. Tonight is the first part of a road back-to-back against the Pistons and the Raptors, teams we went a combined 0-12 against last season. Let's see if we can't get the stretch run off to a good start against the most formidable team in the Eastern Conference, the one I most fear heading into the playoffs.

Go Magic!

UPDATE: Pistons Nation has its preview up, featuring a pretty cool photo manipulation of Dwight Howard's greatest enemy: Sheedonite! PN thinks the Pistons should be concerned with Hedo Turkoglu, especially on the pick-and-roll in the fourth quarter. Considering the damage Turk's done in the fourth quarters of games this year, I'd say PN is pretty spot-on.

Dwight Howard hauls in a rebound as Marcus Camby looks on in the Orlando Magic's 109-98 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night. Howard regained the league's lead in rebounds per game with his 24-rebound performance.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

Okay, I'm taking my All-Star break early. Enjoy these other takes on last night's 109-98 Magic win over the Nuggets, as well as a few other odds-and-ends. See you on the other side of Sunday.

• Basketbawful included Maurice Evans in his Worst of the Night feature:

  Maurice Evans: If there's a wink link in the Magic's daisy chain, it's their backcourt. And that weakness was on display last night, as Evans scored 2 points on 1-for-8 shooting. You know, starting 2-guards are supposed to score. That's what they do. But Evans is averaging 7.6 PPG. And it's not like he's much of a playmaker, either (1.1. APG).

  And yet I still think the Magic would be wise to re-sign "Mogans" to a short-term deal this summer. Despite last night's egg, he's played well as a starter overall, and his defense is still above-average.

• Basketbawful, writing this time at Deadspin, has the following to say about Dwight Howard's monster performance. Superbad references abound:

  Okay, calm down. Calm down, she likes you. She wants to [perform fellatio]. That's a good thing. It's the best. I'm guessing a lot of people will want to [perform fellatio on Dwight Howard] after he sunk the Denver Nuggets' battleship with 23 points and 24 rebounds, and that includes his coach, Stan Van Gundy, who called Howard out for a lack of effort after the Magic lost to Cleveland on Monday. During the postgame press conference, Van Gundy said, "We've seen games like this out of him before. It's not like Stan Van Gundy's a motivational genius and got Dwight to play." Hm. Maybe, maybe not. But Matt McHale wonders why Van Gundy speaks in the third person. Matt McHale thinks that's weird, but then, what does Matt McHale know? (I'll tell you: He knows that the Magic won 109-98.)

• Brian Schmitz says in his game recap Dwight's teammates want him to wear a Superman cape in the dunk contest this weekend.
• Lost in the commotion over Dwight's stellar night are the great second-half performances of Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu. Sweet Lew had arguably his best game in Magic white-and-blue, scoring 14 of his 25 points in the decisive third-quarter; he also added 7 rebounds. Turk, meanwhile, recovered from foul trouble to score 12 points in the fourth to put the Nuggets away for good.
• Also don't forget to note Jameer Nelson's poor game: 6-of-15 shooting for 13 points. Yuck. Still, can I legitimately complain when we managed to beat one of the league's better teams despite our starting backcourt going 7-of-23 for 15 points?
• After last week's loss to the Lakers, I wrote that Pau Gasol got away with some flops. Hardwood Paroxysm has video evidence that Gasol is, indeed, a flopper.
• More from Schmitz, who wonders if Carlos Arroyo and J.J. Redick are on the trading block. I don't think Redick will have to be included in every possible trade scenario, but he almost certainly will have to go if the other team is willing to take on Pat Garrity.
• Kurt Thomas, a potential Magic trade target, figures to see his playing time decline in Seattle during the second half of the season, as the Sonics want to play the kids a little more. From the Seattle Times (via SuperSonicSoul):

  Coach P.J. Carlesimo intends to use the second half of the season to evaluate players such as C Robert Swift, C Johan Petro, G Luke Ridnour, swingman Delonte West and Gelebale at the expense of others, including starters.

  Might be time to make that phone call, Otis.

Enjoy your weekend, the All-Star festivities, and Valentine's Day. For those of you who are interested in the Nets potentially trading Jason Kidd to Dallas, check out Mavs Moneyball. Wes Cox was not too happy with the deal when it was announced.

The Cavaliers' Larry Hughes scores an easy 2 of his season-high 40 points in Cleveland's 118-111 victory over the Orlando Magic on Monday.
Photo by Fernando Medina, NBAE/Getty Images

This loss (boxscore | GameFlow) might be the most disappointing one of the season. The Cavaliers were playing their fourth game in five nights, the second game of a home-and-road back-to-back. They didn't arrive in Orlando until 1:30 PM yesterday. Meanwhile, the Magic had two days off and were playing just their fourth game in seven days. Additionally, the Cavaliers were without the services of rotation players Daniel Gibson, Sasha Pavlovic, and Anderson Varejao. How the Hell did they manage to beat us?

We let them. It's that simple. We had just a three-point halftime lead, and I was never comfortable with it. Our third quarter was one of the worst of the season, as Cleveland scored 34 points on 62% shooting. Larry Hughes scored 23 points (on 6-of-7 shooting!) in the period, one short of the Magic franchise record of points scored by an individual opponent in a quarter. Keyon Dooling, the Magic's best on-ball defender and the player most capable of shutting down Hughes, missed the game with a sprained mid-foot. Dooling would have certainly been able to keep Hughes in check, but Larry Hughes is still Larry Hughes. There's no reason why he should be the one guy to beat your team. Look at the picture I used at the top of this entry. There are literally no Magic players in the picture as he lays the ball in. It's disgusting and embarrassing.

There's also the matter of Dwight Howard being dissatisfied with his role on the team. Reportedly, Howard's breather in the middle of the fourth quarter was to make an example of him. He and Stan Van Gundy had a "conflict," and apparently Van Gundy wants Dwight to focus more on his rebounding and shot-blocking. From John Denton:

"He had 23 15-plus rebounds in the first 41 games and he has one in the past 12 games. He didn't even have a double-figure rebounding game (on Monday). It's a matter of focus and his focus is on the offensive end and he gets discouraged when he doesn't get the ball. I don't think, I know, that the numbers prove that what we need him to focus on to win is defense and rebounding. But that's not what he wants to do right now, so we have a little bit of a conflict."

Both Dwight and Stan have legitimate beefs. Dwight is an All-Star for a reason: he's a damn good player. He leads the team in scoring despite being the third option on offense, and he hardly saw the ball last night after the first half. In periods one and two, Howard shot a combined 6-of-9 for 13 points. In periods three and four, he shot a combined 0-of-2 for 3 points. He has every right to be ticked, especially when everyone else in the starting lineup attempts at least one more shot than he does, as was the case last night. At the same time, it shouldn't take more touches to make Dwight happy; he should be trying hard on defense whether he shoots 25 times or 2 times.

The loss makes us 1-3 on our 5-game homestand going into the All-Star break. Clearly, we have work to do. A few days ago, Stan told the Orlando Sentinel he wanted his team to think of the homestand, as well as the two road games immediately after it, as "a playoff series." If the team's poor play of late is indicative of how it will play in the postseason, there's no question we'll be hitting the golf links sooner rather than later.

For what it's worth, Hedo Turkoglu (25 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) was the only one of our guys to play well tonight. Jameer Nelson scored 22 on 7-of-14 shooting, and got to the foul line 10 times, but he also committed 5 turnovers.

In light of last night's defeat, I'm considering changing this site's URL to www.heyorlandomagicpleasestoplettingcrappyplayerslikelarryhughestakesomanyeasyshots.com.

Speaking of funny URLs, the guys at Hey, Larry Hughes! Please Stop Taking So Many Bad Shots! have written an open letter to Rod Thorn of the New Jersey Nets, imploring him to trade Jason Kidd to Cleveland for Hughes:

The future’s name is Laura Larry Hughes. Larry is 40-point-scorer. He’s a slasher. He even has tattoos - very cool tattoos of tough things that give him street-cred. And 3 years ago, when he played for the Wizards, Larry had a lot of steals. THOUSANDS OF STEALS. More steals than any player every recorded in the history of the NBA. You like steals, don’t you Rod?

Well, there is something to be said for wanting to sell high...

Our next game is Wednesday night against Denver. Without Keyon Dooling to check Allen Iverson, it's going to be a long night. Remember when the Answer hung 60 on us in 2005? It might get a lot worse than that on Wednesday. Be prepared.

	vs.
31-19		20-28
Amway Arena
7:00 PM
Sun Sports HD
Probable starters:
Carlos Arroyo	PG	Jason Kidd
Maurice Evans	SG	Vince Carter
Hedo Turkoglu	SF	R. Jefferson
Rashard Lewis	PF	Sean Williams
Dwight Howard	C	Josh Boone

I feel like Willem Dafoe's mirrored reflection in Spider-Man 2: "AVENGE ME!" That early-January loss to the Nets was tough to swallow, so the Magic really need to give them what-for in this matchup tonight. New Jersey is 20-28 and 2-8 in its last 10, yet has a half-game lead on the Bulls for the East's final playoff spot. In the East, winning 42% of your games is good enough.

The Nets let their opponents get to the foul line more than just about any other team, so everyone needs to drive the ball to the basket tonight. Be aggressive, guys.

Jameer Nelson Watch: Stan Van Gundy told John Denton he doesn't feel obligated to play Nelson just because Nelson signed a fat contract extension in the offseason.

Yeah, Turkoglu got robbed. When I made my selections, I didn't choose Hedo because other guys where having better seasons. But never in my wildest freaking dreams did I imagine Hedo Turkoglu would get screwed out of an All-Star roster-spot by Joe Johnson. In that regard, Turkoglu is more deserving than Johnson, and I'm pretty cheesed-off. Ultimately, Turk's omission comes down to two factors:

1. He hasn't ever played this well
2. He doesn't score over 20 points per game

Below, you can see the statistical comparison between the two players. Note that points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, and turnovers are based on per-36-minute production to give a better idea of how each player would fare given the same amount of playing time. Also note Turkoglu's huge advantage in nearly every shooting statistic.

Johnson		Turkoglu
18.7	Points	18.4
3.9	Rebounds	5.8
4.7	Assists	4.0
0.7	Steals	1.0
0.1	Blocks	0.4
2.3	Turnovers	2.7
6.4	Points per 4th Quarter	6.0
.407	FG%	.438
.350	3FG%	.371
.851	FT%	.835
.458	eFG%	.505
.514	TS%	.562
16.0	PER	17.2
18-24	Team Record	29-18
3	Division Rank	1
7	Conference Rank	3

Other Expressions of Outrage

• Henry Abbott at TrueHoop:

  Hedo Turkoglu
  In what was supposed to be the season he became redundant (thanks to the arrival of Rashard Lewis), Turkoglu instead became resplendent. He freaks out defenses by being a tremedous shooter and slashing with grace. But most importantly, he is the best Magic player at getting the ball to Dwight Howard in a position where he can use it. He's also a go-to guy in the clutch. I'd take him over Hamilton, Kidd, gimpy Wade, and right there with Jamison and Johnson.

• Charles Barkley (transcribed by John Denton of Florida Today):

  TNT analyst Charles Barkley picked Turkoglu to make the team and said the Magic's forward was the player he felt most deserved an all-star nod.

  "Hedo Turkoglu is having a fantastic season and deserves to make the team," Barkley said. "I'm disappointed that Turkoglu didn't make the team. He's made a lot of game-winners. The biggest slight is Hedo Turkoglu."

• Brett Edwards at Fanhouse:

  As far as snubs go, Hedo Turkoglu strikes me as the one who's playing the best this season that was left off the team. Ray Allen is solid, and is one of the big three on the team with the best record in the league, but he's definitely been the weakest of the trio this year.

• UPDATED - David Friedman of 20 Second Timeout, although he's not quite outraged:

  I guess Bosh is being considered as the team's back up center. I am surprised that Johnson made the team not only because this violates the rules [of not choosing a center] but because of the mediocre record of his team. If the coaches were not going to choose a true center then Hedo Turkoglu should have gotten the nod.

As bad as Turk's omission from the team was, Jose Calderon's was worse. I've about had it with stats for tonight, but let me say the following: Calderon outdoes Jason Kidd in essentially every category other than rebounding, and is dead-even with him in assists, when adjusted per 36 minutes. He also turns the ball over less frequently. And he does all this for a much-better team; the Raptors are 25-20 whereas the Nets are 19-26. It's absurd that Calderon isn't starting, let alone that he's not even in the damn game.

Regarding the Western team... Chris Kaman. Ouch. Third in the league in rebounding and in blocked shots, but he plays for the Clippers, which is basically an automatic disqualification from consideration.

The Eastern coaches owe Turk an apology. Damn. I was really looking forward to adding this jersey to my collection:

Check out the NBA.com store for all your All-Star gear, including customized jerseys and t-shirts.

Flurry of activity today, most of it involving Turk.  

• Adam Hoff of Section F Sports believes the Magic are "doomed" because Dwight Howard doesn't get enough touches. Hoff does not mince words, calling the Magic's lack of a single good passer "a travesty." (Hat-tip: TrueHoop's Monday Bullets)

  [W]atching them play is just extremely frustrating. That is because they have this monster of a lowpost player yet he gets the ball once every 15 possessions or so. Now, I understand that Howard still delivers exceptional value even when he's not getting post feeds, because he dominates the boards, protects the rim, and draws defenders into the paint. That said, the fact remains that he's Orlando's best player. He should be getting the ball! There was a stretch in the fourth quarter in which Howard went nearly five minutes without receiving a pass (he did snare three offensive rebounds). When they finally did throw it to him, he absorbed a double team, spun baseline, and dunked over two help defenders. "Effortless" doesn't even begin to describe the move. Yet the Magic went right back to not passing to him again [....] I've never seen a team with such a poor understanding of its own strengths and weaknesses."

  • Oddly enough, a peek at Dwight's game log shows the Magic are 5-7 when he shoot 15 times or more, and 12-1 when he shoots 10 times or fewer. I suppose the latter fact is skewed by playing relatively limited minutes due to blowouts, but it seems to contradict Hoff's assertion that Dwight needs more shots.
• Hedo Turkoglu was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week. Congratulations, Hedo!
• Brian Schmitz doesn't take kindly to people flooding his inbox with Jason Kidd trade proposals. Writes Schmitz, "Are the Magic really better off trying to land Kidd? Sounds like amateur GMs playing fantasy basketball. The Nets might be able to do better elsewhere." I'm not eager for the Magic to acquire Kidd -- he's the least-deserving All-Star this year, he's old, and he's overpaid -- but after reading Hoff's comments above, I agree the team should look into getting a better distributor.
• Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who will coach the Eastern Conference All-Stars this year, told Schmitz he voted for Turkoglu to be an All-Star reserve. I'll be surprised if Turk makes it, though. There are plenty of other deserving forwards in the East.
• Round 5 of the Blogger Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year poll is up. Jeremy from Pickaxe and Roll is hosting it this time. Check it out. Unsurprisingly, Dwight Howard's stock is dropping -- he's 4th, and I voted him 8th. I have the rather dubious distinction of being the only person who voted Kevin Durant lower than second.
• It appears as though Chris Webber is going to sign with the Golden State Warriors. The Magic are going to have to look elsewhere if they want an upgrade at power forward, although that's probably not a concern right now.