Orlando Magic: Top 3 performers of the 2020-21 season
By Luke Duffy
Orlando Magic top performer No. 3: Chuma Okeke
Chuma Okeke rightly makes this list and more than anybody else on the Magic roster during the regular season was the beneficiary of timing and circumstance. The injury to Fultz deflated the organization early, and Okeke certainly didn’t step into the void created right away.
In what was technically his rookie year after missing all of last season with an ACL tear, he really began to warm up after Christmas. Just before the roster saw a massive overhaul with Nikola Vucevic, Evan Fournier and Aaron Gordon leaving, Okeke was beginning to come into his own. He was an excellent complimentary piece to these veteran players.
Then the Magic decided to go into another rebuild and all of a sudden Okeke’s game was being highlighted on another level, and fans were happy with what they saw from him. 7.8 points and four rebounds a game on a shade over 34 percent shooting from deep do not jump off the page. But to look at these numbers alone was to not watch what Okeke was doing on the court.
Offensively there is a smoothness to his game that ironically already kind of looks like what fans wanted to see from Gordon years ago and which never really happened. He is a big body but is not clumsy or clunky with the ball. Defensively he is already a diligent sort in trying to stay in front of his man as well, and the two-way potential as part of this young group is exciting.
Despite how it ended between the Magic and Gordon, it would be unfair to say Okeke came along and made everybody forget about him overnight. Only in some ways it kind of was like that. When the losses began to pile up and it was clear the franchise was lottery-bound once more, watching the continued and steady development of Okeke became one of the few bright spots late in the year.