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Don't let the open arms confuse you. If you say something David Stern doesn't like, he'll fine you. No, there's no truth to the rumor that The Beatles wrote "Back In The USSR" about him. (Source: Yardbarker.com)

First off, please, please, please don’t confuse me for a whiney Boston Celtics fan. I actually was excited for them two years ago when they got Kevin Garnett because I felt like KG and Paul Pierce were two guys who deserved a shot and I wanted to see what they could do. Then they both, particularly KG, turned into jerks. So now I’m staunchly anti-Celts. I hope they lose this series, and I’m psyched that the Magic won last night. But Orlando shouldn’t have been helped out so egregiously by the refs.

No, I’m not a conspiracy nut either who thinks the “League” told the refs to extend the series. I just think that the refs and the NBA honchos have let the power go to their heads. It’s insane how afraid the league is of dissention. For those who didn’t watch last night’s game, Kendrick Perkins, the one guy in the league who can do a decent job defending Dwight Howard solo, got two technicals and was tossed. The first happened when he was helping Paul Pierce up, but their grip slipped so his arm went back a bit into Orlando’s backup center Marcin Gortat. Gortat responded, slapping the ball away, and they got hit by double technicals. I understand that one. At the time, particularly from certain angles, it looked like Perk just maliciously elbowed Gortat on purpose. But upon video review, you can see it was more of an accident.

To read the rest of this, go to my original post on the main FanSided page.

"What more can I do?" wonders Stan Van Gundy. Glad you asked... (source: Yardbarker.com)

After the Orlando Magic’s loss last night to the Boston Celtics, they’re down a seemingly insurmountable 0-2 and going into enemy territory to play the next two games. The good news? Both losses were close down the stretch. Stan Van Gundy is one of the best coaches in the game, and already he tweaked his line-up a bit after the first game. Seeing how well J.J. Redick performed in the opening stanza, Stan gave him even more run in the second verse, playing him 34 minutes. Yeah, yeah, JJ made the double bone-headed move at the end of the game where he didn’t call timeout as soon as he caught it, and then when he started dribbling he stopped before he crossed mid-court. That said, Redick was again outstanding, and one could equally fault Vince Carter’s free-throw misses or say that the Magic shouldn’t have let themselves get to the point where they needed a last-second save anyway.

Anyway, moving on, what other tweaks can the Magic make? Here are three:

For the rest of my post on the main FanSided page, check out the page here.

Anywho, the Knicks have been in lots of talks as of late so if you don’t mind I’ll catch you up on some things.

The Knicks are very high on foreign post players this offseason as the Knicks are looking to acquire Darko Millic for Q-Rich and also looking at Martin Gortat.

I like the Gortat move because of how week our frontcourt is, but the Millic swap is virtually useless and really shows how much Richardson has fallen out favor in this system. I’ll really miss Q-Rich if he’s traded, but not quite on the level of Crawford. Both are great players on the court and off and I’ll miss Q-Rich’s upbeat attitude and electricity he brings to the table.

And in other Wizardly Walsh’s daily happenings (lame nickname right?) Stephen Curry may not be the guy for us in the fall. He’s slowly dropping in stock and may not even be chosen if he’s there. It’s clear we’re looking for a PG in the first round and if Walsh can pull off a move that gives us the 2nd or 3rd pick he’ll have sold me forever. Rubio is a fantastic PG and has all the tools to be one of the best in the league. He is much more physical and built then Stephen Curry, but Curry has the edge in the shot department. Shots can be molded overtime but the skills Rubio has in the PG slot are unable to be taught at this stage in a player’s game.

Getting the #2 pick would probably require Chandlers departure along with our pick and possibly David Lee or Nate Robinson in a sign/trade situation.

Jennings has also impressed a lot and high on Walsh’s board. I’d welcome Jennings just as much as Rubio just because of how much Jennings wants to prove himself. He thinks he’s the best available and wants to prove it on the court. Jennings already has experience like Rubio overseas and has a better jumpshot. Jennings would also be a great fit here and would obviously be welcome to D’Antoni’s system.

With all of that said I guess we can assume the next few days are going to be very interesting.