Orlando Magic: This Could Be Fun

The Orlando Magic have a new look and feel to them that could make them darkhorses to make the playoffs once more.

While many people weren’t happy with the Orlando Magic sending forward Tobias Harris to the Detroit Pistons before the trade deadline, there was no doubt something needed to be done to move this team forward.

While it’s too early to tell if bringing in Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova for Harris and Channing Frye was the answer, already it looks like a couple of things have become clear about what we can expect from the Magic for the rest of the season.

Is it too late for a serious playoff push? They’re currently 3.5 games behind the eighth-place Chicago Bulls in the more competitive Eastern Conference, but time is not on their side with less than 30 games to go in the regular season. However, with two new players in the rotation, a short-term jolt was kind of inevitable.

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That’s exactly what they got in an overtime win over the Dallas Mavericks on Friday, but bigger picture, could it lead to the return of a more enjoyable brand of basketball that we saw earlier in the season?

The Magic began the year with only the more hardcore fans claiming they could seriously make the playoffs, and that they’d be an entertaining watch on League Pass most nights. That vision for the team came to be, as with a new head coach in Scott Skiles, a rejuvenated Evan Fournier and the luxury of modest expectations, this team was competitive every night.

They’d win some games, and lose even more, although their record was better than .500 there for a little while. They were playing with a certain freedom though, and it included lots of smiles on faces most nights. Around the turn of the year that faded badly, and the team went a horrible 2-12 in January.

Something had to be done, and while it may have been a mistake to let Harris go for a rotation guy (Ilyasova) and somebody with a serious injury in their recent history (Jennings) against the Mavericks the other night, the looseness to their play had returned. After starting hot as well (they led 31-13 after one quarter) they eventually got pegged back, but won the game in overtime.

This was important for a couple of reasons as the team didn’t throw in the towel  when they went behind as they have done this year when Chandler Parsons got hot and threatened to take the game away from them. Winning that game also puts them at 2-5 in overtime games this season too.

Returning to that looseness, that freedom, it’s arguably the most important weapon they have as this season comes to a close.

It would be silly to compare the Magic to the Golden State Warriors, but when you watch the Warriors play, everything about how they approach the game on both ends of the court is so fluid. It’s not quite an equal opportunity offense, but everybody gets touches and everybody is happy.

Compare that to a team like the Houston Rockets where James Harden gets the ball and clears out one side of the floor to go one on one with his man.

There’s a reason the Rockets are where they are and the Warriors are chasing history, and their approaches to the game have something to do with that. So to see the Magic return to playing with more freedom and expression with their two new players was great for the medium term future of this team.

Jennings was taking and making difficult shots (18 points and 4-of-9 from three point range) while Ilyasova was finding cutters with some nice passing out of the post. Fournier had his mercurial streak back as well, playing a team-high 42 minutes.

It also led to the likes of Victor Oladipo and Aaron Gordon getting easier looks, and much of the game their offense was entertaining to watch.

We sometimes forget in a league full of athletic freaks that Orlando truly possesses some of the more physically gifted players in the NBA. Through January and the start of this month, it had looked like the shackles had been thrown on them, either as a result of things going stale or losing night after night once again. Truthfully it was probably a combination of both.

That enthusiasm appears to have returned for now, and it’s important it remains for the rest of this season and beyond. The fact Jennings spent four years with Skiles in Milwaukee is another key factor here. Some players and coaches just click, to the point where both become better at their jobs while around the other.

Jennings came in and knew many of the plays, leading to what already looks like a seamless transition.

He also came off the bench, playing in 24 minutes of the game. The Magic’s starting point guard, Elfrid Payton, played 28 minutes, but the near equal breakdown really seemed to work. Both are different players, and while Payton’s passing and defending is valuable to this team, the ability of Jennings to create his own shot was evident early on here.

Too many nights the Magic have waited for somebody to make something happen offensively, and to the credit of the departed Harris, on some nights he was that guy. Jennings is truly comfortable in that role though, and his ability to take the reigns as a veteran on this team cannot be overstated.

The Harris trade may in time come back to haunt the Orlando Magic in a big way. He’s a young, ever-improving talent who looked good in his debut with the Detroit Pistons.

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Management decided he was the odd guy out though, and in the infancy stages of their new look team, things are looking good. The positive approach and feel good factor has once again returned to a team that sorely needed it. You might be surprised how long it hangs around this group too.