The one silver lining: Orlando Magic’s young players are growing
The Orlando Magic have not had a lot of bright spots in the season of late. If there is one thing that seems nice, several young players have improved.
This has been a no-good, terrible, awful and disheartening season for the Orlando Magic.
At the midpoint of the year, Orlando is not competing for the Playoffs as many hoped — and it looked like the team might at the quarter mark — and is instead at the very bottom of the standings. The Magic are the second-worst team in the league and everyone is thinking about the Draft, it seems. The dreaded “t” word has already come out a few times.
There may be dissertations written about what “tanking” looks like for this Magic team and how the team moves forward. what kind of players do they emphasize and how does Orlando build for the future? That is the purpose for the rest of the season — starting with February’s trade deadline.
There are a lot of young veterans that it feels like the Magic are going to look to move on from in one form or another. And precious few young players who are going to be part of the team’s future.
There are not a lot of silver linings to this first half of the season. And it seems like everyone is just waiting for the trade deadline to shake things up. The team’s whole future — players and coaches — seem up in the air.
There is one thing that we might hold onto as a silver lining. There is plenty of indication the Magic’s young players, the few the team want to focus on, are improving. And that might suggest the team’s player development program and the player’s own desire to improve.
"“I think our three younger guys — Evan [Fournier], Mario [Hezonja] and Aaron [Gordon] — have all improved still from where they were last year,” coach Frank Vogel said before the team’s game against the Houston Rockets last week. “I thought they took strides last year. They are all shooting the ball better from the perimeter. It looks like the game is slowing down. There are times with a young player where the game is too fast to them. That’s catching up to them. They look more comfortable. Each individual has differences in the way they grow.”"
If there is a silver lining it might be in those three players indeed. Although their long-term futures of the team are all at different states.
After struggling last year with his shot, Evan Fournier has indeed bounced back. He is averaging a career-best 17.7 points per game entering Wednesday’s game and shooting a 53.7 percent effective field goal percentage. He posted only a 50.8 percent effective field goal percentage last year. His 3-point shooting is up to 39.5 percent after dipping to 35.6 percent last year.
Fournier struggled a ton last year as he took on more on-ball responsibilities and struggled with the team’s lack of space. Seeing him returning to some efficiency was key to the Magic’s quick start. And his struggles since returning from an ankle injury is a big reason why the Magic are struggling today.
Orlando Magic
No player has likely improved more than Hezonja. Partly because he is getting more minutes, but mostly because he has clearly earned those minutes with more consistent play, no player has seen the game slow down more than Hezonja.
He is averaging just 6.6 points per game, but he is shooting a 53.1 percent effective field goal percentage and 33.7 percent from beyond the arc. In his last 15 games, though, Hezonja is averaging 11.3 points per game and 34.4 percent shooting from beyond the arc.
His confidence though is growing and it is clear Hezonja is a different player. He is no longer a barely playable player, but a player the team has rightfully relied on in the rotation. It has raised legitimate questions as to why the team declined his team option.
The growth from Aaron Gordon is the most obvious. He has taken his game to another level, averaging 19.2 points per game while shooting 38.0 percent from beyond the arc and a 55.7 percent effective field goal percentage. All of those are career highs. Only eight players are posting similar numbers, according to Basketball-Reference.
Gordon has turned himself into a borderline All-Star player in the summer. And Vogel has changed his offense to recognize these improvements.
He has had to do that with how other young players have improved too.
"“I wasn’t drawing up pin-down shots for Aaron Gordon last year,” Vogel said. “He has improved and added that to his game. Now we’re using that to help the team. Our defense gets better when Elfrid Payton is better on the defensive end. Mario just playing mistake-free for longer stretches helps us use his talent there.”"
Of course, the pieces have not fit together perfectly. It is easy to point to individual player improvements — the unmentioned ones is Nikola Vucevic‘s uptick in his defensive intensity and his improved defensive numbers since Vogel took over overall or Elfrid Payton’s more improved offensive efficiency. But it is much harder to get all those pieces to fit together.
That has always been part of the problem.
And Fournier seems to be at the center of several trade rumors ahead of the trade deadline. Hezonja is not likely to return to the team. Their improvements might be moot for the team moving forward.
Only Gordon seems to have a future with this team.
So maybe the silver lining is that Gordon has improved. Maybe the coaching staff and the Magic’s development team deserves some credit for fostering that growth.
If that is what a tanking team is supposed to do — improve young players — then maybe the Magic are doing that. Unfortunately, several of the Magic’s “young” players should be well beyond this phase and should be competing for a Playoff team.
Next: Orlando Magic not tough enough
Always a dark cloud next to the silver lining with the Magic.