Jameer Nelson's Playmaking Skills A Major Plus For Orlando Magic

By John Raffel
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Jameer Nelson loves dishing out the basketball. Nothing has changed in his eight years as an NBA player.

Nelson is among the best playmakers in the league. Even though he plays for a struggling Orlando Magic team, he still gets the job done when it comes to dishing out the basketball, and nobody does it better than the eight-year veteran from St. Joseph’s.

Right now, he’s averaging 14.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 7.5 assists per games.

The assists stat is something Nelson is very proud of, and rightfully so. He’s averaging 35 minutes in the 47 games for the Magic in which he’s started.

In recent games, Nelson’s playmaking has been outstanding. In a 99-91 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday,  he had 10 assists while scoring 24 points. He was perhaps at his best last week in a 97-96 loss to the Miami Heat, when he scored 16 points on just 6-of-18 shooting and 3-of-11 in 3-point tries (which isn’t that good), but dished out 14 assists and had three steals (which is very good).

That said, turnovers have been a problem for Nelson. He’s averaging 2.8 per game this season compared to 2.2 per game in his career. He had six against the Heat, four against the Sixers and 13 total in the last three games.

That’s way too many. If he can cut down the turnovers and keep dishing out the ball as well as he has, the Magic, despite having a losing record and not making the playoffs, could have a fine ending to their season.

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