Orlando Magic: Jonathon Simmons helping just by being on this team

For the longest time supporting the Orlando Magic was pretty bleak, and then a trier called Jonathon Simmons came along and changed everything.

When I was in school, nobody could understand why I liked basketball so much. In particular the Orlando Magic.

Sure people knew who the Lakers and Celtics and Bulls were, but that was because one-word names like Kobe, Bird and Jordan carried weight worldwide.

It didn’t matter though, the Magic were fun and enjoyable to watch and had a guy called Dwight Howard dunking the league into oblivion nightly. They also had a neat supporting cast featuring players like Vince Carter, Jameer Nelson, Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu.

They were good, but never quite good enough to win it all, reaching the NBA Finals only once with that group, losing to the aforementioned Kobe.

Around about the time I left college though, the Magic became bad. Really, really bad. The smiling beast Howard left for greener pastures, and it all kind of fell apart.

In my adult working life, the Magic have won more than 30 games only once. They’ve also employed some awful players, and Jeff Green too.

Following them is tough viewing a lot of the time, especially when it seems like every other team is having so much fun out there.

Even the bad organizations, the Philadelphias and Los Angeles of the world, they managed to be terrible for half the time and draft much more desirable assets.

Nothing has changed in that regard, yet the optimist that exists deep within me, and which has been battered many times by the pessimist on the surface, thought this season might be different.

I dared to dream that maybe the team could win around 35 games and flirt with a playoff berth beyond November. An unthinkable prospect for half a decade.

More from Hoops Habit

• 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
• Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
• Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
• Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
• NBA Trades: The Lakers bolster their frontcourt in this deal with the Pacers

Already it has been better, and there are two simple words that accurately describe why that is. Four if you’re feeling particularly juiced up. Jonathon ‘My Man’ Simmons.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Why would somebody get that excited about a player who has career averages so far of 6.2 points and 1.9 rebounds?

A player who is also a career 32 percent 3-point shooter, and who doesn’t even look like he’ll start for the team anytime soon (as was the case in their home opener win vs the Miami Heat).

Well, because to watch Simmons is to see a guy give everything to the cause all the time, which makes anytime he is on the court much more interesting for fans.

Take it from somebody who used to routinely stay up until four in the morning or wake up early at weekends to watch Luke Ridnour and Ben Gordon play backcourt minutes for this team.

You need to watch Simmons with your own eyes to appreciate what he is already doing for this team.

It started in the preseason, when he was putting in the kind of effort that would make you worry he might injury himself doing things like this.

That balls to the wall style, which was evident last season with the San Antonio Spurs but also kind of suppressed in their fabulous team-first style, has been unleashed.

It has included, but is not defined to, barking at rookie Jonathan Isaac, defending like a larger Patrick Beverley and running up and down the court like John Wall with rockets on.

The well-documented fact that he went from $150 tryout to making an impact in this league only adds mystique to the career arc of Simmons. I already can’t wait for the movie to come out.

He truly has been a joy to watch, and that style of play has even shown up in his box score as well. Simmons put up 14 assists in his final two preseason outings.

In Wednesday’s win over the Heat, he scored 12 points, almost double his career average so far. He also had four personal fouls but you know what? I liked that he was being aggressive and driving this team on. When they let a 17 point lead slip down to just two, Simmons was key in the Magic pulling away for the win again.

Something that absolutely would not have happened during the last five seasons. So while there’s still a lack of talent on the roster, nobody can doubt the work rate of Simmons.

That has become infectious too, with Jonathan Isaac making hustle plays in his young career with the team.

This was something we haven’t really seen former rookies like Elfrid Payton, Aaron Gordon and Victor Oladipo make in the past.

Now, I’m not saying Simmons is solely the reason for others buying into being defensive terrors, but I am going to absolutely give him all the credit for this to reinforce my point.

Put simply, Jonathon Simmons is not only my new favorite Orlando Magic player, he’s making me fall in love with the team all over again. Not in the kind of Eastern elite, heading to the conference finals all with a goofy smile plastered on our best player’s face kind of way.

But more of an ugly, us against the world, we’ll try and take you down to our tough, 3-point lite way of playing the game kind of way.

Next: Ranking NBA teams by tiers for the 2017-18 season

I’ve never been happier to support this group of misfits, and I’ve got Jonathon Simmons to thank for that.