Orlando Magic: 3 reasons the Nuggets wouldn’t have swept them in 2009

1. The Magic had more ways of winning

This might sound like we’re oversimplifying things, and we’ve already mentioned it, but the Magic had Howard in his prime. Not only that, and it is easy to forget given where basketball is at now, but in 2009 if you had a dominant center you were halfway to being an elite team. The Magic had the dominant center.

Freakish athletic ability and being able to seemingly outmuscle anybody in the paint meant that throwing the ball into Howard panicked opponents straight away. We know now that his offensive game would never improve beyond some basic moves and that it took him a long time to adapt with where the league went and post touches, but back then this was how you played to win.

This kept Howard happy and engaged, and the Magic dominant. A lesser talked about aspect then, but which we all realize now, was how the Magic were leaning into 3-point shooting in a way that we hadn’t seen before. Like the “Seven Seconds Or Less” Phoenix Suns before them, they were playing in a way that we hadn’t really seen before.

Guys like Lewis and Turkoglu were meant to get into the paint, while also be comfortable with midrange jumpers. While they certainly didn’t mind taking those kinds of shots, both were equally comfortable from beyond the 3-point line. So too were Nelson and Lee. Redick seemingly only knew how to play from that far away from the basket.

This meant that if Howard was having an off night or trouble with an opponent, which did not happen often (Howard finishing fourth in MVP voting that year, Anthony did not make the top 12. Billups did, however, finishing sixth), that they had other ways of hurting you. They attempted 26.2 shots from deep that year, second in the league.

Who sat in third? The Brooklyn Nets (then in New Jersey), with a massive drop off to 21.2 (amazingly the New York Knicks ranked first, at 27.9). So not only did the Magic have the best big man in the game at a time when it still really mattered, they also were nearly as good as it got from 3-point range too. There’s no way you’re sweeping that.