Jeff Van Gundy: Orlando Magic Has Too Many Clowns, Needs to Improve Chemistry

Whenever former coach and current analyst Jeff Van Gundy talks about the Orlando Magic, we pay extra close attention. Van Gundy’s brother is Stan Van Gundy who is the head coach at Orlando. Not only does Jeff speak honestly when providing analysis, but we figure his words reflect the thoughts of his brother when he talks about the Magic. As Orlando was getting ready to make its second round pick Thursday night at the draft, Jeff Van Gundy provided the following analysis of the team:

“They’ve gotten older, Rashard Lewis got older,” Van Gundy said. “Turkoglu in his second turn back did not play real well. They’ve had some injuries and some turnover. They’ve just have a lot of age creep in. I just think they have to get their chemistry right again. Clowns kill chemistry and they’ve got to get serious minded professionals who come ready to play every single night.”

It was the last part of his remarks that caught my attention. He’s saying that chemistry is a problem with the Magic that needs to be fixed. When he talks about clowns on the team, there’s only one person that comes to mind: Gilbert Arenas. Arenas is the same guy who talked about faking an injury to avoid being booed, and who recently live-tweeted a blind date gone wrong. Gilbert tried to change his persona and become all business last year but now he’s back to being a joker.

Now Van Gundy could be talking about newcomers like Jason or Quentin Richardson with his remark, but I’m pretty sure Arenas is in the group too. He got traded to Orlando mid-season and has a reputation as a clown. I’m guessing that Dwight Howard’s plea to have Gilbert play more won’t come to fruition after hearing this.