Last season, the Magic surrendered season-high scoring totals to not a few shooting guards. They signed Mickael Pietrus last month to fortify their weakest overall position last season and, more importantly, to give them the lock-down defensive presence they lacked last season.

Based on the Magic's schedule, they'll know fairly quickly if they made a wise investment.

Here are the players we presume Pietrus will be asked to guard in the first ten games of the season: Joe Johnson of Atlanta; O.J. Mayo of Memphis; Kevin Martin of Sacramento; Derrick Rose of Chicago; Andre "Don't Call Me Iggy" Iguodala of Philadelphia; Gilbert Arenas of Washington; Brandon Roy and Jerryd Bayless of Portland; Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City; Josh Howard of Dallas; and Jason Richardson, a former teammate of Pietrus' in Golden State, of Charlotte.

Potential All-Stars, or at least All-Rookie team selections, await Pietrus in each of the Magic's first ten games. Bearing that fact in mind, how do you think Pietrus will fare defensively in those games?

The Orlando Magic will introduce their new uniforms on September 23rd, if you believe this teaser image posted on the team's official online store:

Is that when the team will reveal the new uniforms? Is that when they go on-sale? Both? Neither? The image doesn't tell us much, other than to circle September 23rd on our calendars... because something will happen. Hooray! Nebulousness!

Don't read at all into the fact that Dwight Howard is "blacked out" in the teaser image. As we saw in the Getty Images rookie photo leak two weeks ago, the Magic's new uniforms are blue, not black. League rules dictate that teams must wait two years to introduce an alternate uniform after a uniform change, which means the soonest we'll see the team in black is 2010. Bummer, I know.

Speaking of bummers and Dwight Howard, he did not fare so well against Greece yesterday. Hampered by foul trouble, he played just 12 minutes and watched his backup, Chris Bosh, steal the spotlight yet again with a game-high-tying 18 points. I'm not worried, though. Bosh's finesse and keen defensive instincts make him a better fit for international competition than Dwight, which is fine. Dwight could average 0 points and 5 fouls per game and I wouldn't care as long as the United States won the gold medal. I just hate to see Dwight's confidence shaken. And he is playing with that sullen look Magic fans have come to fear. I hope he regains his focus, and soon. Spain, the next-most talented team in the tournament, awaits this Saturday at 8 AM. He'll have the chance to pay Pau Gasol back for all the flopping he did in February.

... make it the latest installment in CelticsBlog's "Runnin' Fives" series, which focuses on the Magic. "Runnin' Fives" aims "to put together the best possible standard five-man line-up (two guards, two forwards, one center, with some room for finagling if need be) for each team based on the performance of the players while with said team." Steve Weinman asked me for my input, which makes me the fourth-most notable contributor to the post. Magic Senior Vice President Pat Williams (!) and Orlando Sentinel beat reporter Brian Schmitz also weighed-in. At least one of the omissions will shock you; it sure as Hell did me.

If you have a chance, make sure to watch United States play Greece in Olympic action. The game starts at 8 AM (on USA Network, if I'm reading this [rassafrassin'] guide correctly), so you might have a few more minutes to nurse that bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats before turning the tube on. Dwight Howard has played solidly, albeit unspectacularly, in the States' first two games, both blowouts. We need to see if he can come up big against a formidable opponent. One of those 20-point, 15-rebound, 5-block games would go a long way toward bolstering Howard's reputation and, much more importantly, securing a victory for the United States.

The stars align to pit Dwight Howard against two of his biggest weaknesses: the Detroit Pistions and free throw shooting, not necessarily in that order.

File photo by Paul Sancya, the Associated Press

Sportswriters wore out the Dwight Howard/Superman puns several months ago, but that won't stop me from making the obvious assertion that the big fella's Kryptonite is his lack of shooting touch, especially at the foul line. Over his four-year career, Dwight has shot 60.3% from the stripe, a number buoyed by his (relatively) stellar rookie campaign, during which he connected on 67.1% of his freebies.

Is there any hope for Dwight? Can the Magic ever hope to turn him into a reliable free throw shooter? We tackle these questions and pose a few more after the jump. Stick with us.

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Dwight Howard, seen here watching the United States' Women's Basketball team compete against the Czech Republic, seems to have lost some popularity among NBA observers.

Photo by Mark Dadswell, Getty Images

I get the impression that some people have soured on Dwight Howard.

Perhaps not as a player -- he's coming off his best professional season, one in which he lead the league in rebounding and his team in scoring; earned First-Team All-NBA honors; and propelled the Magic to their first second-round playoff appearance in a dozen years -- but maybe as a personality.

I like keep up with stuff in the blogosphere. I like to think I have a decent handle on what non-Magic fans think about Orlando's players, and especially Howard. And in my year-plus of covering the Magic extensively, I haven't read more than one or two posts from people saying deriding Howard's personality, or at least questioning it.

In the last four days, I've read three.

• Wednesday night, Evil Ted predicted the Redeem Team would win bronze, saying Howard makes the team "look like a bunch of retards," although he later backed off that statement when he realized the video he posted to support his point came from 2006.

• Yesterday, Kyle from Forum Blue and Gold broke down Team U.S.A., player-by-player. Of Howard, he wrote,

  In terms of what Howard is doing, I love it and think he is great. A bigger concern right now for Howard is that he appears to be in Coach K's dog house. Coach K doesn't like how Howard has gotten chippy with the other players and Howard's tendency to gloat after good plays (he did this a lot during the five exhibition games, more than any of the other players, which was frankly shocking to me as I thought Howard was the nice, humble Christian). This bugs me too as the days of US dominance are over. Lets hold off on the showboating and rim hanging until we actually win an international tournament that matters. Hasn't happened in six years.

• Also yesterday, a minor quibble from Natalie of Need4Sheed, who posted a video of Team U.S.A. entering the arena during the opening ceremonies. She writes, "Are Carlos Boozer and Dwight Howard too cool to wear the official USA sanctioned Ralph Lauren head wear during their ceremonial walk? Everyone else seemed to be just fine with it. What's the deal?"

Dwight got off to a great start in Team U.S.A.'s first game in round-robin play this morning (boxscore | New York Times recap), going 4-for-4 from the field, all on dunks; I didn't tape the game, so I can't verify this assertion, but I don't recall him celebrating or goofing off after any play. About the only negative body language from Howard occurred after 6'09" guard Sun Yue rejected one of his layups. Dwight sagged his shoulders a bit and played below-average for the rest of the game, which shouldn't surprise Magic fans, who are used to Dwight losing focus when flustered. Disconcerting, to be sure, but not out of the ordinary.

Have you all noticed a change in Dwight's attitude? Should we be worried about it heading into next season, in the first year his maximum-level contract extension?

UPDATE: I'm a bit late to the party, but I feel like I should mention that Natalie from Need4Sheed clarified what she meant with her original post. From the comments of this entry:

I really wasn’t upset at Dwight or Bozzer for that matter, be it that they were ugly or it was too hot everyone else didn’t seem to have a problem with them. I just though it may have been a bit disrespectful. Can’t say that I have soured on Dwight, he’s still one of my favorite players.

Yeah, looks like I reached when I originally wrote this post. 3QC commenter magic fanatic might have said it best: "All this means to me is that he is officially a superstar."