Orlando Magic Daily Mailbag Volume 23: Draft to the Future!

From Michael Bowers, via e-mail

"Fultz, Ball and Jackson will be gone. Looking more and more likely Fox will be too. That means we’re stuck with the 2nd tier of Tatum, Isaac, Smith, Monk. Please convince me this isn’t depressing. Please make a case that we won’t just draft another mediocre player that is either out of the league or becomes a decent bench option in 5 years. That seems to be our MO."

I can sense the panic there. And yes Markelle Fultz and Lonzo Ball seem like surefire stars. But that next tier is very good too!

De’Aaron Fox, Josh Jackson, Jayson Tatum and Dennis Smith all have star potential. Jonathan Isaac is full of potential. Malik Monk is a sharpshooter. There is more than six good — dare I say, very good — players in this Draft.

This is not the 2013 Draft where the Magic, at the second pick, were knowingly taking a player that was pretty fully formed in Victor Oladipo. If Oladipo became a star, that would have been a bonus. Everyone saw him as a solid role player on defense at a minimum. That is what he is. Only his draft position — and the Magic’s poor roster building — force fitted him into “star.”

This is not the 2014 Draft where the Magic at four were one pick shy of the star range and had to take a home run swing on a raw forward hoping he could become a star with few other palatable options for a star-hungry team. The jury is still out on Aaron Gordon, but deliberations are nearly over.

This is not the 2015 Draft where, again, the Magic were one pick shy of a star and had to select from several potential role players and high upside risks. They went with their need and took Mario Hezonja, the best shooter in the Draft at the time. That was a swing and a miss.

Any of the seven or eight players I mentioned above would have been taken second in 2013, or fourth in 2014 or fifth in 2015. These are the kind of players the Magic were hoping for the last five years and never really got the chance to pick.

These are potential stars.

So missing out on Fultz and Ball — or even Tatum, Fox or Jackson — hurts. Those players seem to have a better track at becoming star players.

But Smith is a really good scorer. He can get into the lane and create for others. Everything feels like it will translate. And he should only get better as he recovers from an ACL injury he suffered his senior year.

Monk is a flamethrowing shooter. Everyone remembers how quickly he can light up a scoreboard.

And Jonathan Isaac has a lot of the physical tools necessary to take the next step. It is just about putting them all together.

All these players have risks — every player in the Draft has a risk. And the risk is greater at six than at one or two. But the Magic will get a good player at six. I am sure of that.