Orlando Magic: 3 reasons Jalen Suggs will win Rookie of the Year
By Luke Duffy
Reasons Jalen Suggs can win Rookie of the Year: 3. The timing
Suggs arrives in Orlando as the fifth pick in one of the better draft classes in recent memory. He was expected to be taken by the Toronto Raptors, but once they selected Scottie Barnes, the path was clear for the Magic to swoop in. If you look at the picks before Suggs, it is clear that any one of them could emerge as the Rookie of the Year.
Cade Cunningham will start as the favorite, but these awards aren’t given out before the season begins. In the past, Damian Lillard beat out Anthony Davis (who suffered some injuries), while Ja Morant won it over Zion Williamson (granted, also injury related). We don’t wish injury on any player, and Suggs would need that to happen a lot to have a chance.
But there’s also the possibility that he is just that good, and that explosive a player, that his talents will be too hard to ignore. Especially if the Magic even modestly overachieve on everybody’s expectations of them. It will be harder to do this given that Orlando is a smaller market, but this is an area where Suggs thrives.
Like teammate Cole Anthony, it is clear Suggs has a real chip on his shoulder. It was evident in college, and it was even there for all to see during Summer League as well. You get the feeling that he truly feels slighted at not being selected first overall. The fact the Raptors passed on him at fourth, and then leaked some “anxiety issues“, which was poor form on their part, only adds to all of this.
Suggs will be out to prove that organization wrong, and if anything the anxiety storyline could feed into a wider narrative that could be created over the course of the season. A talented player is overlooked by four teams, goes to a small market and reignites a struggling franchise, all while dealing with anxiety. The NBA thrives off of storytelling, and the story of Suggs is ready-made.