5 Unanswered questions from the 2017-18 Orlando Magic season

How good was Jonathan Isaac really?

The Orlando Magic are still pinning a lot of their hope on rookie Jonathan Isaac. He is the most promising player on the roster and the one with fully unrealized potential.

He would admit how far he still has to go and grow as a player. Despite how good he looked when he did play, he knows he was playing mostly on instinct. And next year may be another year of playing on instinct. He simply did not play enough this year to make any full conclusions.

Isaac played in only 27 games this year thanks to a sprained ankle and bruised foot. Every time it looked like Isaac was about to get a rhythm, an injury seemed to set him back. He finished averaging just 5.4 points per game and shooting 37.9 percent from the floor.

Of course, Isaac’s big impact came more on the defensive end rather than the offensive end. With Isaac on the floor, the Magic had a 101.1 defensive rating. That is the best mark on the team. Those kinds of individual defensive numbers can be hard to separate from the whole team. But it was clear Isaac made an impact by his presence alone.

The eye test is all anyone needed. He was just active and able to recover and get deflections.

It was encouraging, but Isaac still did not compare well to other players in this strong rookie class. It was not merely about his lack of playing time and time on the court. He still has a long way to go offensively. He should get penciled in as a starter next year, but that is mostly based on his projected growth heading into next year.

No one is quite sure what kind of player he will develop into yet. That was not something the team was going to learn with all the injuries he faced this season. Orlando may have a better idea of who he is by Summer League in July.

But questions still remain. And Isaac is still a huge project.