Washington Wizards: Where they stand in the Southeast Division, Part 2

As the regular season approaches the Washington Wizards are able to assess the competition within their division. Today we will see where they stand against the Orlando Magic.

The Washington Wizards are unquestionably the strongest team the Southeast Division. In case you missed Part 1 of where the Wizards sit in their division, you can find it here.

In Part 2 of this series of breaking down where the Wizards stand in their division, we now assess how they match up with the Orlando Magic.

After merely batting an eye at the vastly different levels of talent between the two rosters, it’s easy to see the Wizards come out on top. While they were without a draft pick this year, the Magic nabbed Jonathan Issac as the sixth overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. He shows some promise has plenty of potential and upside as a flex-4.

However, that is where the optimism begins to run dry for a team who has won 30 or more games in a season just once over the past five years. The Magic do have some talent in Elfrid Payton, who continues to show promise, as well as Nikola Vucevic and Evan Fournier. With that being their most promising core, they will have to play well above expectations to give the Wizards a run for their money.

Last year, the Wizards split their series of games against Orlando and they were all close contests. John Wall was inactive for the first meeting, but came out unstoppable with a career-high 52 points despite losing while they faced struggles early in the season. The Wizards were just 7-13 at the time while the Magic were 10-12. We now know how both teams finished the season much different than they had started.

How they match up

This season watching John Wall match up against Payton will be entertaining at the very least. Without a doubt Payton will have his work cut out for him as Wall has set out to prove he is a top-three point guard in the league and one of the best on the court on any given night. Payton is proving to be a solid role player, but needs all-around improvement with a slash line of .471/.274/.692.

On the wing, Bradley Beal and Otto Porter Jr. will give opponents headaches for years to come as they are as exceptional of second and third scoring options you could ask for. They will likely match up against Evan Fournier and Aaron Gordon.

Fournier is coming off a season in which he set career highs in points, assists and rebounds with 17.2 points per game, 3.0 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game. He brings versatility to the floor, splitting time over his career playing 62 percent of the time at the two and 35 percent of the time at the 3. His biggest downside is his field goal percentage much below the league average with 43.9 percent and poor defense.

Aaron Gordon is also coming off a personal best year in several departments but is performing much under his initial value as the 10th overall pick during the 2014 NBA Draft. Over his three years in the NBA, he is shooting 46 percent from the field and an atrocious 28.9 percent making just 0.6 of his 2.2 attempts per game. As their stretch-4, he has split time between small and power forward 49 percent of the time, but does not offer much on offense or defense.

Big men and final thoughts

Markieff Morris and Marcin Gortat lead the frontcourt for the Washington Wizards and will look to do so with an iron fist this season. Both players are coming off of career years and although Gortat may not have much left in the tank, Morris is playing now for a big contract in his prime. They will be facing off with Nikola Vucevic and most likely Aaron Gordon depending on the rotation.

Nikola Vucevic has only two years left on his four-year extension remaining with the Orlando Magic. While he is able to hit the occasional shot from the perimeter, he declined in many areas last season. With a slash line of .468/.307/.669 it is hard to argue he excels in any area.

That is until you see how capable of a defender he is with a Defensive Box Plus/Minus of 2.3 during 2016-17. If he can continue to prove useful on defense and do well with the basic fundamentals like hitting free throws, he can become a decent all-around big man.

When it is all said and done, the Washington Wizards will likely take the season series 3-1 and that’s with some leadway of John Wall and company having an off night.

Next: Complete 2017 NBA offseason grades for all 30 teams

The Washington Wizards should be able to add some easy wins throughout the season from their rivals within the weakened Southeast Division.