Coming To Terms in Orlando: Warming Up to The Vince Carter Trade

(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Ok, Ok, so I’m slowly starting to warm up to the Vince Carter trade. Although there has been several articles written bashing, trashing, and smashing the move, I’m beginning to see the silver lining in all of this.

While I do agree that Carter is a bit too much on the 30ish side for my liking and though I wish the team could've held on to Courtney Lee, I’m beginning to see the pros instead of the cons of this deal.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but seeing coach Stan Van Gundy and Orlando’s once prolific offense grinded to an anemic halt by the more athletic Lakers made me sick. Watching the pick-and-roll ran over and over again until I got tired of seeing the Lakers defend it better each time it was ran was tough to process.

Los Angeles reduced the once effective staple of the Magic’s offense into a useless ineffective gimmick. By the time game five rolled around, Orlando’s quality of shots out of the pick-and-roll had gone from good to simply “Stan would you please stop running this (expletive)!”

But that was the sickening part about it. Orlando couldn’t stop running that expletive because no one else on the roster was qualified to get his own shot off.

When Van Gundy became the head coach of the Magic a couple of years ago, he worked up a concoction that could best utilize his player’s abilities.

Quite genius on his part, but also quite redundant and quite easy to defend by top notch defensive teams with the right personnel.

For the last two seasons, Van Gundy has scoured his roster from head to toe. He's looked around his list of guys and still hasn't been able to find a single penetrator anywhere in sight.

Not Jameer Nelson, not Hedo Turkoglu, not Lee, not Mickael Pietrus, not Keith Bogans, not J.J. Reddick, not Trevor Ariza(yes, that Trevor Ariza), not Maurice Evans, and definitely not Rashard Lewis, thus, Van Gundy’s version of the Magic pick-and-roll base offense has been installed and ran to the max down in Orlando.

Don’t get me wrong, Nelson, when healthy, is an All-Star caliber point guard with the quickness and mindset to get to the cup.

But hovering around the 6-foot inch line means more times than not, it’s difficult for him to get his shot off against bigger opponents.

Turkoglu, the 6-foot-10 Turkish Michael Jordan, was the closest thing that Van Gundy had to a big guard so he drew up the offense to feature the silky shooting small forward as his centerpiece.

A three-point sniper equipped with a lot of craftiness, Turkoglu embraced his new role well and the Magic rode their gimmicky offense all the way to the NBA Finals last year.

For everything Turkoglu was to Orlando, he was not the guy who could free himself from defenders without the aid of the pick-and-roll—it was never more evident than in last June’s championship series.

The rest of the guys were mainly just spot up shooters who offered little to nothing in terms of penetration.

Introducing Carter, the former one man highlight reel brought in last week to possibly replace Turkoglu as Orlando's go-to-guy.

At 32, Carter can still play—and at a pretty high level if need be. Though critics suggest he’s lost much of his athleticism, let's be honest here, whatever athleticism Carter has left is still more than what Turkoglu has possessed at any point-in-time in his underrated career.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?