Welcome to the part of my website created to give fans a behind the scenes look at life as a professional basketball player. This page will be constantly updated to reflect my thoughts on the coach, practice, the team, and of course the game itself.

Final 2007-08 Thoughts

Hi everyone,

I apologize for not writing sooner, but after our season had ended, I began packing my things and returned home.

I absolutely love the Bay Area. I think when you've been living in the same place for more than 10 years, it's always going to be hard to move somewhere else and start over. But I love the Bay, I love the people and I love the culture. So, being back home is a lot of fun. I really enjoyed living in Orlando this past season, but coming home always feels good.

As you well know, we had a great season. We won 52 games, we were a No. 3 seed in the playoffs, we won a first-round series and then we fell in the Eastern Conference semifinals. I thought this season showed a few things. We're a very talented team that has a lot of upward trajectory. And that's a wonderful thing. Another thing this season showed is that we are also a very young team that has made a lot of mistakes. And I thought our Eastern Conference playoff series with the Detroit Pistons was endemic of that. There were games where we could have won, but we wound up with a lot of turnovers. You can't make those kinds of mistakes when you're that deep in the playoffs. The season spoke of the potential of this team and it spoke for the youth of this team.

I thought in the Detroit series, we didn't have a big enough rotation. We were able to expose Detroit's weaknesses by running. But you can't take advantage of those weaknesses if you're playing just six guys running all game. It's just hard to do that.

So, when I look at this season, I see it as a season that was very successful.

After making the playoffs two straight seasons, I really feel that the Orlando Magic can go farther into the playoffs. We have what it takes to compete with everyone in the Eastern Conference. But everyone has to work on their game during the offseason and be able to come back with the same focus we had to start this past season. We have to win on the road and we have to be a better home team. Coming into the playoffs as the No. 3 seed, we have to shoot for a No. 2 or No. 1 so we can maintain homecourt advantage. Despite what critics might say, homecourt advantage has proven to be a very effective thing to have. Boston couldn't win any games on the road. But having homecourt advantage certainly helped them a lot. So, there's nothing trivial about homecourt advantage.

So, look for us to come back in a big way next season. We made big strides this season and we're looking to go even further next season.

Until then, have a wonderful summer and stay in touch through my website. Just because our season is over doesn't mean I won't be busy. I'll continue to be active within the community in the Bay Area and I hope you will come up to me and say hi if you see me.

- Adonal