Orlando Magic: One Month In
By Luke Duffy
It’s been roughly a month since the NBA season returned, and it’s safe to say that time has flown by. In that time, the Orlando Magic have gone 6-10, and there’s been a lot to like about how they’ve played on the court.
Don’t let their record get you down too much, the Eastern Conference isn’t all the great as it is, and a couple of wins would put this team back into a playoff spot, a position they actually held before getting hammered by the Cleveland Cavaliers the other night.
With all that in mind, let’s take stock of month one, year three of the Orlando Magic rebuilding plan.
First off, this team has some decent pieces, and they are well on their way to being a playoff team once more. We’ll get to the players in a moment, but the general weakness of the division means that merely being a good team should see them into the playoffs in the bear future.
It could even be this season that they crack the club, but whether it is or not, they’re certainly on the right track. In fact, this team is two close losses against the pace setting Toronto Raptors from having an even healthier record.
If a Milwaukee Bucks team with not a ton of talent but some young players looks good enough to make the playoffs at this early stage, the Magic can feel good about their chances in the future as well.
As for the players themselves, well depth is an issue, and there’s no escaping that fact. When the better players sit, this team struggles, and that will continue. Nikola Vucevic though, is an All-Star candidate, averaging a double-double of 19.3 points and 12.2 rebounds.
In fact, his rebounding numbers are good for second in the entire league, trailing only DeMarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings. This isn’t the most offensively gifted team in the league, but the big man has taken it upon himself to shoulder the scoring burden for this team. His PER (Player Efficiency Rating) of 21.3 is hugely impressive as well.
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Elsewhere, Evan Fournier has been the surprise package for this team, his 16.5 points a huge boost in the shooting guard position. He can shoot a little erratically and when there’s better options around him, but when you’re shooting 45 percent from beyond the arc, you might as well shoot it if you feel you can make it.
The return of Victor Oladipo has been a timely boost as well, the great hope of this team averaging 13.6 points in the six games he’s started this year. Make no mistake, he’s a better all round player than the exciting rookie we saw last season, and is only really working his way into the rhythm of the long season now. I
t’s great to have him back.
The rookies the Magic drafted have been a little disappointing as a whole though, and that’s not all their fault. Devyn Marble has been used less than sparingly, 1.3 minutes a game over four games to be exact.
It’s kind of puzzling though, because although the team has much better players at the shooting guard spot like Fournier, Marble is a tenacious defender.
Sometimes you can literally see Orlando letting a lead slip away, and I’ve often wondered if having Marble on the court for these periods would make it harder for the other team to score and mount a comeback. The drawback of that though is the fact he’s not exactly a scorer himself, so it works both ways.
Elfrid Payton has been great at times, but the guy just won’t shoot. He’s played in every game so far (starting 10 of them) and looks pretty comfortable on the court. He loves teeing up his teammates for buckets, and that truly is a great trait.
If he could develop any sort of offensive game himself though, it would give the opposition trouble, making him harder to guard. You only need to look at John Wall of the Washington Wizards and adding a reliable jump shot to his game, to see how it elevated him to the next level.
Payton is doing well though, he leads all rookies with 4.9 assists per game, a full two assists more than second place (Houston’s Kostas Papanikolaou).
Forward Aaron Gordon, well, a foot fracture has ruled him out for a while, and he will be missed. He had exhibited some nice athleticism on the court, but at times he had looked out of his depth. In truth though, it’s to be expected and it’s allowed.
The hope here is that he’ll return with a better understanding of the professional game, having had some exposure to it before going down.
The red flag however, and it’s one that worries me a lot, is the upcoming road trip out West to play some very good teams.
It’s a six-game trip, with the first game against a fighting Indiana Pacers team before heading to the other side of the country to play the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Utah Jazz and Sacramento Kings. If you gave me a 2-3 run over the five games in the West, I’d take your hand off.
It’s going to be extremely tough, and my concern is that they lose all six games, as well as their next home game to the Warriors, and sit 6-17 when the come home to face the Wizards in the middle of December.
At that point, they may have mentally thrown in the towel, and they shouldn’t because they have exhibited a lot of positives on the court, including leading the league in three pointers made. The first month went well, probably better than expected by some people’s standards.
But we’re heading into a crunch period for the team, and for all the positives I’ve outlined above, we may look back on month two very differently. It could go disastrously, but I think it’s only going to be bad, with a couple of narrow wins, and the usual confidence knocking blowouts.
This much is true though: It hasn’t been dull to follow this team.