Orlando Magic: Giving Seth Curry A Chance

The Orlando Magic have recently announced the players they will be bringing to training camp when it begins next month. Among them is the likes of Peyton Siva, the former Detroit Piston who is expected to be waived and assigned to the D-League to continue to grow. One other name included is Seth Curry, brother of NBA star Stephen Curry. Now, the Magic have flirted with him before, having had him on their Summer League roster in Orlando earlier in the summer.

He’s been given another chance to impress, but does he have any hope of sticking with this team? If so, what can he being to the Magic?

October 24, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors shooting guard Seth Curry (3) dribbles the basketball during the fourth quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers at Oracle Arena. The Trail Blazers defeated the Warriors 90-74. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports /

We’ll begin with the bad news for Curry. As of this moment, Orlando have 14 guaranteed contracts going into the new season. If you didn’t know, an NBA roster can only have 15 players, so already Curry is facing an uphill battle. Add to that the fact Dewayne Dedmon is still knocking around, although he is not guaranteed, and that makes it even harder for the shooting guard to believe he can make the cut.

What’s more, Dedmon has played with the Magic before, and so knows what sets they like to run, as well as being acclimatized with the group. This stuff matters.

What Curry can do, however, is score. He’s not in the same league as his brother, but that’s because few people are in the world. At 6’2″, Seth is relatively undersized for a shooting guard, and he certainly won’t be getting brought on board because of his abilities on the defensive end.

In fact, should he ever play for this team he would be a liability on this end of the court. This doesn’t necessarily matter though, and we’ll get to why in a minute.

As a senior at Duke, Curry averaged 16 points per game. A closer look at his numbers reveals that one quarter of all of his points came from spot up jumpers in various spots on the court. If there is one thing this Magic team desperately needs, it is some more offense.

Last season’s scoring leader, Arron Afflalo with 18.2 a game, has moved on to Denver, and that is a big hole for a team that ranked 26th offensively in the league last year. Curry couldn’t plug that alone, but he’d certainly help.

Curry also played one game for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Memphis Grizzlies last season. In that tiny sample size, he averaged three points in nine minutes while playing with the Cavs. This tells us little, except that Curry can and has played in an NBA matchup against NBA players. A small positive for him.

Why his defense isn’t necessarily an issue is because in Victor Oladipo and to a lesser extend Willie Green, this team has two shooting guards who are either brilliant (Oladipo) or at least capable (Green) of defending the opposition. So bringing Curry off the bench might harm the team defensively, but in a lineup including a Kyle O’Quinn and a Tobias Harris, they can mask some of his defensive shortcomings.

Again, Orlando’s woeful offensive play last year can’t be highlighted enough. Other than Afflalo, Jameer Nelson occasionally chipped in with big numbers, but he is gone now as well. Curry was a 41 percent 3-point shooter his senior year, and this is a team that could do with more long range bombers. Oladipo has not yet developed it into his game, and the Magic really only have big man Channing Frye who can spread the floor consistently.

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On top of the aforementioned two games played in the league, Curry also hung onto a preseason spot with the Golden State Warriors last season, before being cut before the campaign proper began. If anything though, that stint exposed the various flaws he did have, but it would have been a positive for him as well. This guy can be a contributing NBA player, perhaps not a starter, but a guy who can play 20 minutes and get you eight to 10 points on a good night.

The Magic would love to have this, as it would keep the scoreboard ticking over when the likes of Frye and Oladipo head to the bench.

Sadly though, it looks like training camp may be as far as he gets with the Magic, but he is an intriguing one to keep your eye on. If he is cut, a high probability, he’ll stick around the league, probably earning ten day contracts initially before hopefully locking down something more concrete. While offensively he doesn’t get to the basket all that often and doesn’t have an expansive arsenal, he knows how to shoot sweetly and score. Not every team needs a specialist shooter like that, although the Cleveland Cavaliers might, but Orlando desperately needs to generate offense from as many different players as possible.

It would be nice to see him suit up for the team, especially as he has toiled away in the D-League for a little while now and has been an All-Star at that level. Summer League roster spots with the Magic and Phoenix Suns only add to his resume. For Curry though, it just seems that he is not in the right place at the right time. Although Orlando seems somewhat keen to repeatedly come back and see him play, their current roster situation means they probably can’t do anything about it long term. Shame, because he would be a cheap option who would get baskets for this team.

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