NBA Season Coming Soon...Time For NBA.Com To Actually Write Stuff

The NBA season is a little over a month away, and now that the hype surrounding the beginning of the NFL season has died a bit, writers are starting to slowly and quietly turn their attention to basketball.

To hop off topic for a second, I have to briefly talk about the fact that the NFL has COMPLETELY taken the "America's pasttime" title from baseball. These days it is actually a bit hard to find a person who lists baseball as their favorite sport, and if you do find someone they will inevitably be a Yankees or Red Sox fan (or another one of the 5 teams who actually have the money to compete), and thus they are insufferable. As a Marlins fan, I have enjoyed watching my team win two world series in my lifetime, but also maintain my dignity and overly manly demeanor. I can chop trees down with my mind and once tied Chuck Norris in ping pong.

Anyhoo, getting back on topic...NBA hype is one of the best parts of the fall. As soon as you start seeing orange jack-o-lanterns, you can count on seeing similarly-shaped orange basketballs. Once you see the leaves changing, you know you will soon hear Bill Walton's bizarre goofy voice yelling "Throw it DOWN, big man!" and hawking NBA league pass with the horrifically bad actor Richard Jefferson (Stephon Marbury might be the best actor in the NBA simply because he is legally insane. Sorry to break it to you, Ray Allen).

One such example of the public mindset slowwwwwly starting to look at the NBA is that NBA.com has published previews of all of their NBA teams, including their look at the Orlando Magic. The article says a lot of stuff we already know, but have some input into the team's most interesting camp battle:

The team will also look for big things this year from Trevor Ariza and J.J.
Redick, who will rotate at the shooting guard position...

Trevor Ariza and J.J. Redick should see a boost in minutes this year and
will likely rotate as the starter at shooting guard. Ariza and Redick will be
fighting for about 40 minutes between the two of them at the position, with the
starter seeing about 20-25 minutes and the backup getting about 15-20 as well.
Ariza can play some forward due to his size, so he should find some extra
minutes there when the team wants to go small and run.

The article goes on to state that they see Ariza as the starting shooting guard over Redick, and Battie ultimately starting at PF over Hedo Turkoglu. As I've written in the past, these are my picks at the position so good to see things leaning in that direction.

NBA.com also had interviews with all of the Magic players, including Torrell Martin, Kevin Kruger, and Bo Outlaw, about their offseasons. Since it was NBA.com, they were largely the typical fluff questions like "Did you go on vacation?" and "Do you like your new coach?", but some people had interesting things to say:

Q: What did you do for your off-season workouts?
Trevor Ariza: "Shooting, shooting, and more shooting."

Q: How is the hand?
JJ Redick: "The hand is good. I am still doing rehab and getting it ready
for camp, but I'm resting it now so I will be ready come training camp."

Q: What did you do for your off-season workouts?
Tony Battie: "I did a lot. I changed my diet and slimmed down a little bit.
I lost some weight and did a lot of conditioning. I did abdominal workouts and
some core training. I worked hard this summer because I want to prolong my
career. Keeping my knees and legs strong is going to play a big role in
that."

So come this season, we should expect a healthy Redick, a more lean Battie, and Ariza to have a better jump shot to complement his athleticism. Not bad.

I'll be sure to post more news as it comes in, and hopefully we get some more team previews. With every preview and interview there is something learned, and for now there aren't any red flags going up.

I leave you with this: Is this really the best photo NBA.com could get of James Augustine? My guess is yes.