Orlando Magic’s bench is exciting with massive upside if they regain health

If fully intact, the Orlando Magic will have one of the more intriguing and exciting bench units in the NBA, but health is a big if.

Throughout the entirety of the 2018-19 NBA season, the Orlando Magic boasted one of the league’s most productive bench players in Terrence Ross, but as a group ranked 18th in the NBA in bench scoring.

Terrence Ross, who shot his way to a new deal with the Magic, had to carry the second unit for large stretches due to the lack of shot creators and natural scorers that joined him coming off the bench.

The rotating cast of role players that came off the bench for Orlando are mostly back with the addition of Al-Farouq Aminu being their lone signing. But the main factors for this bench taking the next step is the health of Mohamed Bamba and Markelle Fultz.

And that presents a lot of promise and a lot of risk for the Magic. But this group has the potential to be a lot of fun. Suddenly Orlando has a little bit of depth to play with.

That does not mean there are not questions present.

The Markelle Fultz health saga has been at the forefront of NBA enigmas since the Washington Huskies prospect was drafted first overall in 2017. Yet Orlando has been as clear as possible with his status. There is no set timetable, he will not be rushed back and he is working extremely hard to get back to health.

That is all you can ask for with this much uncertainty around a nerve injury, and a return to the court to make his Orlando debut hopefully happens sooner rather than later.

Outside of Markelle Fultz, Mohamed Bamba is returning from a stress fracture to his left tibia and played well in his one Summer League game before sitting out the remainder of the Vegas slate. Bamba should be a full-go when training camp begins in a couple months.

A lineup of Markelle Fultz, Terrence Ross, Al-Farouq Aminu and Mohamed Bamba is a strong defensive foundation. Ross is probably the least talented defender of the bunch, but is long and athletic enough to hold his own.

Preserving his energy as much as possible given his offensive load is best anyway, so having him guard the worst scorer, or smallest threat, is great for him, which the rest of the rotation allows him.

Bamba struggled as a rookie, but bigs take the longest to adapt to the NBA of any defensive position given how many reads and calls they have to make on every possession.

His upside on that side of the ball is ridiculous, and another year of learning when to hedge screens, when to switch, when to stay back and when to make every call all while protecting to the rim will help him and the team as a whole.

Fultz himself has the size and quickness to be a strong defender, and has solid defensive ratings in the 33 games he played for the Philadelphia 76ers. Aminu has made his career being a versatile defender and can guard virtually every position.

The three wings can all switch on the perimeter and with Bamba lurking in the paint forms a pretty potent defensive unit, especially when factoring in this is the bench.

Scoring points will be the challenge for this unit, but Ross carried this team last year and did not have a creator and slasher like Fultz to partner him with.

For all of the talk about Fultz’s shooting stroke, or lack thereof, he is still a threat attacking the rim. He averaged 5.4 points in the paint per game last season, and that is with defenses sagging off him in lineups where the 76ers did not surround him with much shooting.

Fultz is also capable of grabbing a rebound and threatening a defense with transition opportunities, an area the Magic lacked last season.

Orlando lacks in that area as well, but having somebody who can attack the open spaces created by Ross attracting so much of the defense’s attention is something the Magic couldn’t rely on last season.

A Fultz-Bamba pick-and-roll partnership has potential to work with Ross spotting-up or moving off the ball to find space and Bamba’s ability to pop to the 3-point line and spread the floor on the perimeter.

Opponents would sag off any screen with Fultz and Bamba, but Fultz’s change of direction is good enough to keep defenses on edge. Fultz was in the 71.4 percentile of pick-and-roll ball handlers in the NBA while shooting 50 percent on field goal attempts.

Aminu is not a sharpshooter, but he started and played heavy minutes for a Portland Trail Blazers team that has been a consistent playoff team. His ability to rebound and make hustle plays make up for any lacking of offensive prowess.

The beauty of NBA rotations is you mix and match starters with bench players, and with one of the members of the starting backcourt pairing with the core of the bench, this could be an awesome unit.

Throw in D.J. Augustin and Evan Fournier as another shooting and ball-handling threat and this lineup could theoretically close games. You have defensive talent, shot creation and veterans who have made clutch shots in their careers.

Outside of the core four, Michael Carter-Williams, Khem Birch and Wesley Iwundu are high-energy players who know their roles and will certainly get some minutes if Fultz is not healthy and even more if Fultz comes back well into the season.

As a whole, this Magic bench has upside, intrigue and is an athletic group of players who fit each other on the court.

If — and it’s a massive if — Fultz can be relatively healthy and Bamba continues to get back to full speed, the Magic will have a team that is deep and fun with win-now and developmental pieces that fits into what the organization is trying to build.