CBS Sports ranks Orlando Magic starting lineup
CBS Sports ranked the starting lineups across the NBA and are not too high on the Orlando Magic’s starting five. They will have to prove everyone wrong.
The Orlando Magic have spent much of the last four years near the bottom of the standings. They are an afterthought nationally. Nothing more than an up-and-coming team.
That is not where they want to be obviously. The Magic were hoping for steady progression and to improve slowly, letting their core grow slowly and emerge on its own. That really did not happen for Orlando this year. No one really emerged and, while the Magic improved, it was hard to say exactly where the Magic’s starting lineup was going.
Orlando’s offseason was spent largely remaking the majority of the team’s roster in a fundamental way. Core players have been sent out in the past year and new, veteran, players brought in. The Magic were trying to take a step up in a very real way.
The starting lineup for the Orlando Magic for the 2017 season is still something that has been up for debate. No matter the iteration though, the Magic starting lineup has a lot of question marks about it. That will mean predictions for the team’s finish will run the gamut — depending on whether an observer believes in the roster or not. It is all up for debate.
The projected lineup of Elfrid Payton, Evan Fournier, Aaron Gordon, Serge Ibaka and Nikola Vucevic is intriguing if not still a little bit flawed. No one is quite sure what to make of it. And considering starters, no matter how deep a team is play the majority of minutes, this becomes an important issue.
And it is still tough to sell everyone on what this Magic team is going to be. And people who stick their neck out on predictions want certainty over everything.
That is one possible explanation why CBS Sports ranks the Magic’s starting lineup 25th in the league.
"Frank Vogel says he’ll use Gordon like he used Paul George, and this seems risky. If it works (and Payton’s jump shot improves), then this ranking could be far too low. If it doesn’t, then the front office might need to make a move or two to balance the roster. Could Vucevic’s days in Orlando be numbered?"
Magic fans will certainly be frustrated by that ranking. It is all about certainty though.
No one knows whether Aaron Gordon will take a step up and be able to play small forward after largely playing power forward throughout his career.
Similarly no one is certain whether the Serge Ibaka pairing with Nikola Vucevic will score enough. Let alone whether Elfrid Payton can at least return to what he did his rookie year all while winning at a greater clip.
Questions create uncertainty and doubt. That is where this ranking comes from.
The Magic, for their part, are going to be relying more heavily on their depth to win games. They went out and doubled down on rim protecting by signing Bismack Biyombo and bolstered their bench with several veteran players like Jeff Green and D.J. Augustin. They should be able to contribute to the team in some meaningful way.
Isolating the starters alone though, the questions are very real and certainly hold the Magic back, even just a little bit, in preseason prognostications. Plenty of people can argue the Magic are more settled than some of the teams around them, but then again the New Orleans Pelicans have Anthony Davis and the Milwaukee Bucks have Internet darling Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Next: Bismack Biyombo hopes to recapture the magic of his playoff run
The Magic will have to establish themselves and make good on their potential to silence doubters early in the season.