Orlando Magic: All aboard the Jonathan Isaac hype train

The Orlando Magic are in need of a young player to give them hope that their rebuild is progressing. Jonathan Isaac looks to be that player.

When the Orlando Magic selected Jonathan Isaac with the sixth pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, the general consensus was that they had chosen well.

Isaac began his lone season at Florida State projected well outside the lottery picture, before strong play saw him muscle his way in. Still, there were some who thought that Dennis Smith Jr. or Malik Monk would have given this team a more immediate offensive upgrade.

The thought process on Isaac appeared to be clear though. He is a long and versatile forward, capable of giving this team more lineup options than most other players. So far that thinking appears to have been vindicated, with Isaac putting in some nice preseason performances.

Yes the real games have yet to start, but ahead of the new season beginning, is it time to jump on the Isaac hype train nice and early?

For starters, it’s clear Isaac will begin life as a Magic player coming off the bench. That’s absolutely fine, and he may end up anchoring that second unit before long.

But the guy can do so much on both ends already, he may become hard to ignore before long.

Indeed head coach Frank Vogel, who knows good defending when he sees it, already thinks Isaac is NBA ready on that end.

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It’s completely unfair to compare Isaac to Kevin Durant, simply because he may end up being anything but that. But think about it this way. Isaac is the most Durant-like player this franchise has ever had. In 2017, when shooting threes and defending well beyond the paint are essential, that’s great news.

Whereas in the last few years, the team has had players who were clearly defined by their position (Elfrid Payton, Bismack Biyombo), Isaac allows the Magic to progress with the league.

Lots of players on this team still aren’t interchangeable, but Isaac looks like he can play anywhere across both forward spots and as a makeshift center too.

The team has had the fourt- best defensive rating of the preseason so far (86.7), and that is partly down to Isaac. He has played 29, 17 and 24 minutes respectively in his preseason outings so far, helping the team to two wins.

Which brings us on to the next encouraging factor regarding Isaac’s play. Yes it’s only the preseason, but try telling him that. His reaction to beating the Miami Heat in a game that was more entertaining than it had any right to be shows you his frame of mind, and it’s infectious.

If Isaac is this excited about beating the Magic’s in-state rivals in a game nobody will ever remember, imagine how much intensity he’ll bring once the real games begin.

Couple that with Jonathon Simmons, a player manic with enthusiasm and hard work on both ends, and the elite defensive team we all dreamed about begins to become a reality.

The affect of this may be that it helps Payton secure a contract extension before the season begins too. His defensive abilities appearing to mesh well with the other two.

Isaac may not be getting spoken about much offensively, but he’s on course to shoot a couple of 3-point shots per night once the regular season kicks off. So far in three preseason games, he’s averaging 2.7 3-point attempts per game, though he’s made only two of his eight looks.

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If he had been on the team last year, that would have been the eighth-most per game out of the players on the roster.

It would also be a shade less than Serge Ibaka averaged (3.8), and really not enough people are talking about how Isaac can be Ibaka 2.0 for this team.

When he joined the team, Ibaka looked content to defend when he felt like it and float around the perimeter taking shots.

Isaac has five blocks in three preseason games and looks far more interested in getting inside the paint when the opportunity arises on both ends.

He also appears to be quick enough and have the lateral movement to play as a center in some small-ball lineups. This was something the team sorely lacked last season, with both Biyombo and Nikola Vucevic more conventional big men.

It meant when teams went small against them that Biyombo was left chasing smaller players outside of the paint — something he is clearly not comfortable with.

Trotting out a unit featuring Elfrid Payton, Ross, Fournier, Aaron Gordon and Isaac would be difficult for a lot of teams to figure out, and it has the look of a team that could compete in 2017-18.

More than any of this, however, is that rooting for Isaac is simply going to be fun, so you may as well get lost in the hype surrounding him now.

The team hasn’t nailed a draft pick since 2012, with Gordon being the closest they have come. He too looks to be coming into his own, and if he can do so while Isaac is rising to prominence, the Magic may finally have a core worth building around.

There are going to be losing streaks and brutal stretches out on the road, but all of that won’t matter if Jonathan Isaac can have a solid outing in year one.

Next: 10 bold predictions for 2017-18 NBA season

He’s already influenced the team positively in a number of ways and the season hasn’t even begun yet, and if that’s not a reason to be excited like never before, then really what is?