Kurt Helin, Pro Basketball Talk
"The Magic look relatively better of late, in large part because Terrence Ross at the three and Aaron Gordon at the four are far more natural fits than what was going on when they still had to shoehorn Serge Ibaka into the lineup. Along with those forwards, Elfrid Payton has looked better of late, including picking up his fifth career triple-double at the expense of the Chicago Bulls (Orlando split a home-and-home with them)."
The Orlando Magic have found something, there is no doubt about it. The team’s starting lineup of Elfrid Payton, Terrence Ross, Evan Fournierr, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic works. The statistics bear this out even though Ross has struggled to find his footing individually.
Orlando has that going for it at least. It looks like the Magic can build something.
But it is also clear the Magic are still a long way away from . . . anything. The team is 3-7 and a 40-point loss to the Charlotte Hornets (or anyone) is always concerning. Those events just should not happen.
The Magic want to build a winning culture and that is going to be tough to do. Especially considering it does still appear the Magic need to deepen their talent base and look for improvements. Ten games is still a small sample size.
At least the Magic are accomplishing one thing, they are learning what they have in this team.