Orlando Magic: 3 players facing most pressure in 2019-20

The games may not have started yet but already it is clear several Orlando Magic players will be under increased pressure in the 2019-20 season.

Now that the feel-good factor surrounding the Orlando Magic and their run to the postseason has worn off, it is time to look towards next season and trying to go one better again.

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The summer was spent doing this, with their core group of players brought back to have another go at cracking the playoffs.

No two players will be judged the same in the pursuit of this goal, as contracts and what stage they are at in their careers will play a part in how much fans and the organization alike expect of them.

This is why somebody like Evan Fournier may end up actually having an easier ride of it this coming season.

With two years remaining on his current deal and the type of game that has failed to win a lot of fans over, he has become an afterthought in a rebuild that has gained momentum over the last 12 months.

To get anything out of him by way of consistency and scoring would be a bonus, which is why you won’t find him on the following list of players under the most pressure.

The same cannot be said for some of the young guys on the roster, who are going to need to show sooner rather than later that they were worth the franchise investing time in.

With the Magic largely locked into this group of players for the foreseeable future, major growth from within is what is needed to take them to the next level.

The additions of solid veterans such as Al-Farouq Aminu a welcome sight, but not what will push the needle in a more open Eastern Conference. Here are the three individuals facing the most pressure as we look towards 2019-20.

3. Jonathan Isaac

It is a little unfair to see Jonathan Isaac make this list, but that is more out of circumstance than anything else. Entering his third season as a pro, he finds himself a part of a young core but with the brightest future currently of any of these players on the roster.

Mohamed Bamba is coming off a rookie season that was cut short by a broken leg (he appeared in only 47 games, averaging 16.3 minutes per contest), while Aaron Gordon, still only 23 himself, appears to have settled into the role of best two-way player the Orlando Magic have.

There is nothing wrong with this and it is great to have a guy like Gordon, their best player in the playoffs against the Toronto Raptors, he just likely won’t be the best player on a championship team.

Isaac may not prove to be that either, but right now there is still a lot of potential to get excited about, and in the second half of last season he started putting it together.

In the month of February he averaged 13.7 points in just over 29 minutes of action. For the season as a whole those numbers were a less impressive 9.6 points in 26.6 minutes. His 3-point shooting (32.2 percent) needs to improve, and was actually a regression on his rookie season (34.8 percent).

He was also a factor in the Magic having the eighth-best defensive rating in the league during the regular season (107.6, with that number improving slightly to 107.3 when Isaac was on the court).

Fully healthy after a rocky rookie season himself (he played in 75 games, starting 64), Isaac looked like the player most likely to make a jump next.

We’ve have already mentioned how important it is for the Magic to grow from within, and as of now much of that responsibility is on Isaac’s shoulders.

It is still too early to ask this of Bamba (who could struggle for consistent minutes with Nikola Vucevic and Khem Birch both re-signed) and Gordon’s continued improvements on both ends are being relied upon enough as it is.

We need to see growth from Isaac, and it will be a worry if that does not come.

2. Markelle Fultz

Point guard Markelle Fultz is clearly the biggest enigma on the roster and will continue to be until he plays in a competitive game for the Orlando Magic.

The team’s postseason experience and improved play without Fultz was great for both organization and player last season, as it deflected the attention away from him.

That would have continued, but footage of Fultz shooting and dunking has been seen several times on social media this summer, prompting the former first overall pick’s name to come back into focus.

The pressure Fultz is under is unique to him however, as the Magic have demonstrated they can be good without him.

They also did not give up a lot to acquire him from the Philadelphia 76ers before the trade deadline either, so there is no pressure in that regard either. Instead he offers Magic fans a glimpse of the best possible version of their future.

This is a dangerous feeling to have for a franchise that has had its fair share of bad luck and a mostly forgettable decade.

So while Isaac’s growth will take the team to the next level, should Fultz come back and look like the player we saw in college, he has the potential to help the organization skip a couple of steps on the road back to contention.

People don’t expect this to happen, but the fact that he looks comfortable on a basketball court again has made it seem more possible.

An interesting undertone bubbling under the surface to the increased pressure facing Fultz is the Magic’s lack of depth at the point guard position.

This was an even bigger problem last season, but a career year from D.J. Augustin and the late season injection of defensive play from Michael Carter-Williams masked that. Even Isaiah Briscoe had his moment, which tells you where the team were at in terms of guard depth.

Augustin will be 32 in November, and is undersized even for a guard. The list of players who have aged well at that position is not long. He is unlikely to be as good again as he was last year.

Similarly there’s a reason Carter-Williams has bounced around the league and his inability to shoot consistently will grate on Magic fans over the course of 82 games.

Add to that the fact the fans are in dire need of a young player with superstar potential to get them excited again (unless Isaac or Bamba can really step up) and it is clear all eyes will be on Fultz once he returns. No pressure then.

1. Nikola Vucevic

Fresh off of signing a four year, $100 million contract to return to the Orlando Magic, there is no question that Vucevic faces the most pressure heading into next season.

After a career year in which he was named an All-Star for the first time as he entered his prime, the hope is that Vucevic will give the Magic a few more seasons like the one he just completed.

He averaged a double-double for the fifth time in seven years in Orlando, but unlike in previous seasons, these were not empty numbers that ended with the organization returning to the lottery.

Granted Vucevic had much more help in the form of Gordon, Isaac and Terrence Ross, but he also became a top five center in the NBA.

His fantastic offensive skillset continuing to expand away from the rim as well.

Vucevic is now under the most pressure though, because opponents will key in on him even more than they did last season, and with his new contract he will be expected to take the Magic back to where they where last time out at the very least.

That is the hard part for “Vooch”, whose contract is front loaded so as to make him potentially easier to move down the line. Now that a standard has been set with this group, simply getting back to that point won’t appease everybody.

Even though the aforementioned growth of the younger players is what will take them further, failure of everybody else to step up will result on Vucevic getting the blame.

That is just the way it is for a franchise’s best player, and one who not everybody wanted to see brought back. As brilliant as Vucevic was last time out, committing to a big man (of which there are plenty in the league today) who was in a contract year could be dangerous.

He may be creeping into all-time lists in Orlando, but with Bamba the big of the future, bringing him back was not without question.

Even more so as the money given suggests that Vucevic had other offers, although it is not known if that was the case. To add to this expectation, there is no escaping the fact that he had a poor showing in the playoffs against the Raptors as well (11.2 points and eight rebounds per game).

The Raptors went on to become champions, but Vucevic was really poor at a time when he was needed most. He needs to bounce back even better in 2019-20, especially if they make the playoffs.