Orlando Magic: What the 2018-19 lineups could look like
By Chris Murch
Offense
- PG: Jerian Grant
- SG: Evan Fournier
- SF: Jonathan Isaac
- PF: Aaron Gordon
- C: Nikola Vucevic
The common theme of the upcoming Orlando Magic season will be: Can this team score at all? They have done everything in their power to make defense their No. 1 priority this offseason but haven’t really put any emphasis on offense.
This showed by not acquiring a scoring point guard, and by drafting guys like Mohamed Bamba and Justin Jackson, who aren’t known to be bucket-getters. This has also shown in the fact that the Magic haven’t had a 20 points per game scorer since Dwight Howard left.
Based on their offseason moves, it’s hard to anticipate an uptick in scoring this season, except for bench scoring. It looks as though developing this young talent is goal No. 1. I wrote about how Jonathan Isaac can become a go-to scorer in Orlando, and if Aaron Gordon can develop into the star the Magic think he is this season, maybe he can be their first nightly 20-point scorer since 2012.
This lineup incorporates all of the best scorers on the Magic roster. You have current and former Magic leading scorers in Nikola Vucevic and Fournier, Isaac, Gordon and new point guard Jerian Grant.
Having Grant on here is a hot take, but he is ready to take the next step. While he will back up D.J. Augustin, he’ll have a lot of opportunity to show he’s improved. There should be a lot of shared time between the two this season. Grant should be able to finally show some of the offensive ability he flashed at Notre Dame, as well as last season when he averaged 8.4 points in only 22.8 minutes per game.
Grant is also a deft passer who averaged 4.6 assists and only 1.2 turnovers a game last season. He had five games in which he reached double-digit assists as well.