New Season, Fresh Start!

And all that jazz.
A new season is nearly upon us and so I have decided to revive the old Orlando Magic blog (after cleaning some things up, etc.) and start fresh (close enough.)
Right now I am watching the Orlando Magic take on the "China All Stars"- you gotta love DVR and having NBA TV. This brought to mind a few thoughts:

1. Does a 7 foot tall man with the name, "Wang" get made fun of much in an American locker room?
2. A Chinese locker room?
3. How is it that Wang Zhizhi is better than Yi Jianlan and gives Yao a run for his money with the Chinese National team, yet could not cut it in the NBA?
4. How can a player be as inconsistent as Hedo Turkoglu?

Now don' t get me wrong- I love Hedo. There are few players in the NBA whose name opens the door to more puns than Hedo Turkoglu's, and to an English nerd such as myself that is just plain fantastic. The problem is, the guy kind of reminds me of a crazy ex-girlfriend: up one day, down the next, mysterious illnesses, never quite living up to your hopes and expectations. I think even once knew a girl who claimed to have Turkoflu (which Healtho claims he is no longer stricken with.) The guy will go off one night, shoot 10-15, and then the next night hit 2-6. It is remarkably rare for him to put together two solid games in a row. It is such a tease to see the guy shoot the lights out one night, and bomb the next.
The reason I bring all this up is I have been watching him closely. I really think either Hedo or JJ Reddick needs to be a consistent third option this season for the Magic to be anything more than an average team. Sure, Rashard is supposedly a reliable scoring option, and Dwight seems to have added some jump shooting to his repertoire ( do you think JJ gave him a free copy of his instructional video? ), but there are going to be plenty of nights where Dwight gets himself in foul trouble being over-eager on defense, and/or Rashard's shot just is not falling. I don't even think Tim Donaghy (or MJ for that matter) would take odds on Turkofluke's shot falling on those nights when needed most. (by the way, I just watched Hedo miss two free throws, his new name is Hedo Chokeoglu. Or maybe Freethrow Chokeoglu if you're really reaching.)
I relent. I actually have a real soft spot for Hedo, he is one of my favorite players. I constantly read other people saying that he should be trade-bait to pull in a legit power forward or shooting guard to augment the Magic's perceived weakness at each of these positions, but I am content with a potential starting lineup of Dwight at center, Rashard and Hedo at the forward positions, Jameer at point, and JJ/ Ariza/ Bogans at guard, at least at this point. JJ and Ariza are both young prospects who still have the potential to breakout.
This actually reminds me of another thing about Hedo: people say the guy cannot defend. I don't buy into that. I have watched him defend some pretty impressive players one on one and hold his own.
I suppose only the start of the regular season will tell, but at this point I like Hedo as a third option for this team- if he can pull it together. If not, I say we sign Wang Zhizhi so I have a different person's name to make fun of. Actually. . . that isn't a bad idea. Could he be a worse option off the bench than James Augustine (guy looks serious nervous when he gets on the floor- like Anthony Avent nervous) and Marcin Gortat?