If you are a fan of the Orlando Magic, much like in the wider world of sport, the easiest thing to do is to overreact to anything. Good or bad, it is how a number of media personalities have made their careers, by overreacting to every little thing that happens. So, despite that being the wrong way any level-headed journalist should approach the NBA, let us do just that with the Magic.
The organization wasn’t expected to be able to select a guy like Jalen Suggs in this year’s draft. No, with the fifth pick they were meant to be on the outside looking in at all the top prizes again, with players like James Bouknight and Jonathan Kuminga (who has looked good early) the kind of players available to them.
Instead, the Toronto Raptors threw a curveball in taking Scottie Barnes (which again, in the world of overreactions has looked like a good call so far), allowing the Magic to swoop in and take Suggs. Right away he was saying all of the right things and carrying himself in a manner that suggested he was happy to be in Orlando.
Then Suggs suited up for a single Summer League game and took the hype train into overdrive.
The Orlando Magic have a guy who is the real deal in Jalen Suggs, despite him only having suited up for the team once so far at Summer League.
Is one game too soon to make any sort of proclamations about anybody? Absolutely. Even more so when you consider this was an exhibition game, which first overall pick Cade Cunningham was quick to point out. But to think this way would be a failure to understand the kind of mindset and attitude Suggs is already bringing to the Magic.
More than that, in that one, single game, he showed the ability as well. 24 points. Nine rebounds. Back-to-back made shots from deep with a stroke that looks veteran in its appearance already. There was a wicked defensively play where he perfectly nullified a two-on-one break by the Golden State Warriors. He even managed a game-winning block for good measure.
The numbers themselves don’t matter. Nobody is going to remember this game come November when the Magic are on a seven-game losing streak. But it is everything else around Suggs that excites and allows fans to wonder if finally, after a near-decade of misfires in the draft in terms of finding a true superstar, that this guy is the one.
After his performance, Suggs was one of the five most trending topics in the country of America. Think about that for a second. Really think about all of the times when the Orlando Magic have been an afterthought in… pretty much everything. Even when they had a core capable of making the postseason nobody talked about them.
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It was only when Aaron Gordon was traded to the Denver Nuggets that people began to really take notice of his defensive abilities. His exit from Orlando was not clean, but fans can’t deny that he was the team’s best two-way player when he was on the roster. Nikola Vucevic was about the only player who got any love while with the Magic, and as a two-time All-Star, it still wasn’t enough.
So for Suggs to generate real excitement and get different fanbases talking was a strangely seminal moment. Thankfully for him, he has some young guys already in place who can grow with him as well. This isn’t like the previous rebuild, when the front office stumbled along with their cobbled collection of players, hoping to fall into a winning formula.
Now Suggs has a number of individuals who are only going to get better, and none are more important to the development of Suggs than Cole Anthony. Although some have already suggested that the two may not be able to play together long-term, their similarities in how they approach the game are actually what the Magic should be building their foundations upon.
Anthony came in as a rookie last season and played with a chip on his shoulder. It was something badly missing around the Magic organization for the last number of years. Suggs is the same. He is playing with a tenacity in Summer League that is actually worrying from a health standpoint and has already spoken about the fact that the teams who overlooked him will pay.
It is a controlled anger, and an apparent willingness to buy into being a Magic player completely and to have their teammate’s backs. Suggs may end up being the better player of the two, already seeing him handle the ball more would be a welcome sight. Markelle Fultz is sure to have a say in this as well. The Magic signed him to an extension before his ACL injury and his smooth game could be just the compliment to the rage of Suggs and Anthony.
But between the two of them, they are putting in place a culture and an “us against the world” mentality that will be hugely beneficial as time goes on. One game. That is all it took for the Orlando Magic to look like the real winners of the draft, and to slot the main piece into what is looking increasingly like a winning jigsaw puzzle. Alright, no more overreactions until his next game.