Two years ago, Jameer Nelson was coming off by far the best season of his career (16.7 PPG, 50% from the field, 45% from deep, All-Star berth) and the Orlando Magic had advanced all the way to the NBA Finals. Now the team is moving in the wrong direction, going from the Eastern Conference Finals (2010) to the first round (2011).  Read Nelson’s thoughts on this after the jump.
As the Magic floor general nears 30 years old (birthday is in February), and withDwight Howard‘s future up in the air, a likely shortened season also figures to be the most important of Nelson’s career.
Dime:Â You guys made a run to the Finals two years ago, but now the last couple of years you guys have slipped a little bit. Is there any explanation for that?
JN: Well the year after that we lost to the Celtics in the conference finals. They were a better team. The better team won. Last season, I don’t think we gave ourselves enough time and chances to gel. We made an in-season trade which was major. Any time you do that, it’s tough because you got new guys coming in for a new team, but you don’t really understand the aspect of coming to a new city. Everything is new for those guys. We kinda started all over and basically had to go back to training camp in the middle of the season.
There was a stretch we were playing for about two weeks without plays. People don’t know that outside of us.
Dime: You see it with a lot of teams… right now you might have the Bulls and the Thunder and the Grizzlies, people assume in three years they’re gonna be so much better than they are right now. But is it really hard to keep improving every year as a team?
JN: Well, it’s hard… it’s harder to go from being a good team to a great team. It’s easier going from being a bad team to a good team because you have so much more room to improve. You look at Jason and his team this year, they were always a good team. They didn’t get over that hump. They couldn’t get over that hump, but they figured out a way to get over that hump to win a championship and that’s what veteran teams do. They figure out ways to go from being a good team to a great team. We’re still a good team. We had an early exit this year but we’re still a good team. We still have a lot of pieces that work for us.
Dime: Is there anything specifically you guys need or is it something else? You guys have the talent…
JN: We just have to all buy in and believe in one another, and that’s from the best guy to the last guy on the bench. We have to instill confidence in one another and just wanna run through a wall for each other. If we can accomplish that goal right there, I think guys will play a lot harder. Guys do there job of just being who they are as a player and everything will click better.
Full Interview HERE
