The Orlando Magic are not getting talked up much as one of the best up-and-coming teams. They have a lot of intriguing young talent poised to grow.
The Orlando Magic spent most of last season overlooked. The whole league seemed to be looking past the Magic. When their rush finally came and they snuck into the playoffs, it was too late to introduce Orlando to everyone.
The Magic’s first real introduction to the NBA world seemed to come in the playoffs with D.J. Augustin hitting the game-winning 3-pointer.
The Toronto Raptors, of course, dominated the rest of that series. Except for a third-quarter run in Game 4 where Aaron Gordon was the talk of the league, the Magic bowed out with something of a whimper. The team did not put its best foot forward.
The going prediction for Orlando is that the team will once again be in the playoff fight. The Magic expect themselves to make the playoffs and there are now external expectations even from the national media for the team to make it.
That is a positive step for a young team.
And this is a young team. A team that had one of the youngest rosters and starting lineups of any team to make the playoffs.
Yet this is not a team considered among the best young teams in the league. It is not considered an up-and-coming team at all. The brief mentions some might have of the team getting home-court advantage or taking another big step in is relatively quiet.
The general consensus is that this team brought back the same pieces and so are likely to have pretty much the same season.
That might be a safe bet because development is often hard to predict. But there is a wide range for this team to grow. Simply “just” making the playoffs or being in the competition for one of those lower seeds seems more like the team’s floor rather than a hard-to-decipher ceiling.
Zach Kram of The Ringer studied the projected CARMELO ratings of every team’s group of players 25 years old or younger and had the Magic’s group ranked 11th overall and fifth in the Eastern Conference. There is some promise within them but a lot of uncertainty.
But there is always a question whenever there are young players involved. Potential is not always realized. Yet, the Magic have already accomplished something with an incredibly young group.
Unlike other teams that seem to be just at the start of their journeys, the Magic are not thought of as one of the best young group of players in the league. There are no wistful pieces pondering their potential.
And that should change. Because the Magic indeed have one of the best young cores in the league. Or potentially one of the best young cores. While there may not be the championship-level ceiling, Orlando can feel it is in a good position.
Most immediately, a good position to continue growing.
Playoff Experience
A lot can be written about playoff experience. Some of it is probably convenient narrative and some of it probably is true. Some of it is probably false.
The power of actually making the postseason and getting playoff experience is a bit nebulous. It is no guarantee a team will copy that success or keep growing. Just look at the wild swings Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s Milwaukee Bucks teams took before last year’s breakthrough.
That burst into real contention is often sudden and not always the steady march to progress. It sometimes does need a little push — the right coach or trade, for instance.
Still, there is at least a little something to young players actually having winning experience. At least in terms of reputation.
The Magic are no longer a team of pure potential. They are no longer a team that could develop into something. This Magic team is something. They won their division and made the playoffs last year. And that has to count for something.
Yes, the Magic still ran a lot of their offense through Nikola Vucevic (still just 29 years old). But the team relied heavily on Aaron Gordon as their second-leading scorer with 16.0 points per game.
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The team’s turnaround was caused at least in part by Jonathan Isaac‘s newfound consistency. His emergence was a necessary step forward for the franchise and for Jonathan Isaac.
It is assumed both the 23-year-old Gordon and the 21-year-old Isaac will continue to improve. Both did some nice things during their first playoff appearance. But obviously, they still have work to do and improvement to make.
They are obviously not the entirety of the team’s young core. The two biggest unknowns are sitting on the bench.
But even looking at The Ringer’s list, they have an unproven Atlanta Hawks group ahead of the Orlando Magic. Even the Phoenix Suns, granted a team with a potential star in Devin Booker and a top overall pick in Deandre Ayton, are ahead of them.
Both those teams have nice young cores. And admittedly, the CARMELO projection system The Ringer relies on is a flawed metric. But there is something to present value too.
The Magic’s two key young players are not just mere potential. They are already starters with the chance still to be greater.
High-Level Patience
At some point potential energy has to become kinetic energy. There is only so long a team can wait on a player.
The four years a first-round pick gets on their rookie contract is usually considered enough time to get a good sense of what a player will be. Multiple front office executives would say by the end of that rookie contract, it should be clear what a player’s growth trajectory should be.
The Orlando Magic still are waiting on two high-level players. A lot of what the Magic are building will rely on where Markelle Fultz and Mohamed Bamba end up.
Their three combined seasons so far are marked with injuries. It would be easy to be pessimistic about them. And to some extent, tempering expectations — even the outsized expectations they had when entering the league — is fair.
But what they might ultimately become is equally as unknown.
Mohamed Bamba was the No. 4 high school prospect in the country for the Class of 2017. For a long time, he was considered a potential No. 1 pick. The Magic acquiring him with the sixth overall pick was a solid get, even if they understood he was a project who would need developing.
Markelle Fultz was much the same. He was the fifth-best prospect coming out of high school in the Class of 2016. And by the time he finished his lone year with the Washington Huskies, he was the clear-cut, unanimous top overall pick.
Orlando Magic
That kind of potential does not just disappear. Especially since those players are still so young. Unproven yes, but far from the end of their development curves.
Whether Bamba or Fultz turn into something is still about getting them healthy. And health is a real concern.
Bamba’s injury — a stress fracture in his left tibia — is one that many believe he can make a full recovery from and will not recur. That is important. Orlando will let Mohamed Bamba continue to develop slowly behind Nikola Vucevic.
Fultz’s injury is a bit more complicated. There are few players in NBA history that have had thoracic outlet syndrome. And it is an injury he will have to manage carefully probably for the rest of his career.
But if both are healthy, both are still high-level players. It is rare for players of this much talent — who are already proving useful on NBA floors — to fall off the face of the earth. Neither may become the superstar the Magic need, but both can play roles in the league. Even if they do not get much better than they are now (provided they are healthy).
That is something worth talking about.
All-Star Potential
The Orlando Magic’s All-Star last year was Nikola Vucevic. For the foreseeable future, the team will continue to run its offense through him. The safest bet is that Vucevic will remain the team’s best bet to be an All-Star.
That probably is not a solution for this team long term. Yes, there is Mohamed Bamba waiting in the wings. But beyond that, Vucevic is a solid player who provides consistency. He is not someone who stirs the drink.
That was part of the problem in the playoffs. The Toronto Raptors were able to cut him off and never had to double anyone. The Magic still have a lot of holes to fill. The biggest one is that superstar piece.
Orlando can still argue that it has four players in addition to Vucevic with All-Star potential. All are under 25 years old. Aaron Gordon is the oldest at 23.
Fans seemed eager to anoint Gordon the next star after his 2018 season.
He averaged 17.6 points per game, albeit on some inconsistency and inefficiency. That year he had multiple 40-point games. But he often went off on his own too much as he explored his own offensive game.
Last year, he pulled back on the reigns and became a better playmaker while also refocusing on his defense. There were times — especially in the playoffs — when it seemed like the team was begging Gordon to do more and take on a bit more of that offensive role.
It is still hard to peg down what kind of player Aaron Gordon can be. His potential still seems pretty limitless. At best he is perhaps a souped-up Shawn Marion, who was a multi-time All-Star and ace defender for the Phoenix Suns at his peak. Or maybe he can be more.
In either case, it is expected Gordon will take a step up this season. Maybe even flirting with scoring 20 points per game while also continuing to improve as a passer. Gordon certainly also wants to take a step toward his goal of becoming an All-Defensive Team player.
Jonathan Isaac also represents a player who could take another significant step up.
It became easy to compare him and his growth to that of Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam during the playoffs. Siakam turned himself into a near-All-Star last year after spending his first few years as a defender (or in the G-League).
Isaac could follow a similar trajectory. After a confidence-building end to last year, it seems like Isaac could be in for a similar surge of growth.
Maybe not to an All-Star level, but he might have it in him. This year will tell a lot in that direction.
The same would go for Bamba and Fultz, although both might as well be playing their rookie years this coming season after missing so much time with injuries.
Coaching and Development
Perhaps some of the Orlando Magic’s problems in this battle for perception is the last six years of futility. The Magic made a lot of mistakes since trading Dwight Howard in 2012 and the stink is still there. Even one playoff appearance is not going to erase all of those bad feelings.
There is no denying that one of the big problems the Magic had was establishing a poor organizational infrastructure.
The Magic did a fine job drafting and acquiring talented players — look at the players the team picked under Rob Hennigan including Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris, Dewayne Dedmon and Maurice Harkless among plenty others. The issue was none of those players reached their full potential with the team.
That was a big thing that Jeff Weltman had to change. His main work in the first year of his tenure as president of basketball operations was about reorganizing the team behind the scenes — including its medical and training staff.
Last year, Weltman worked to establish a better coaching infrastructure. He hired coach Steve Clifford — and essentially his entire staff from the Charlotte Hornets.
Those Hornets teams struggled to get over the hump in the playoffs and the team never hit a home run with the draft, but he got a lot out of those rosters. Kemba Walker and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist improved as shooters. He squeezed a lot out of Cody Zeller and Frank Kaminsky, helping cover up some of their defensive deficiencies.
It was not a stellar roster by any means. And there are fair criticisms to make about whether they could have or should have done more. But the process was all there for them to keep getting better.
The Magic in 2019 saw a lot of players make significant improvements. Nikola Vucevic and Terrence Ross put their individual work in to put up career seasons. Orlando put them in positions to succeed and trusted them to carry a lot of the offense.
It was the work that Jonathan Isaac and Aaron Gordon did that is most encouraging. It seemed like their positive growth to support the team was best. Especially as Jonathan Isaac and Wesley Iwundu improved as 3-point shooters.
The team kept its coaching staff intact. Consistency should help all the players continue to improve and get better. That consistent messaging should help these young players get better and reach their potential.
Clifford liked to say the goal was to be better at the end of the season than they were at the beginning of the season. Orlando certainly accomplished that last year. And for the team’s young players, they did too.
The way the future looks
The going debate among NBA fans when looking at the Orlando Magic is confusion about how all the pieces fit together. Something about Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Isaac both being better suited for power forward. And there seems to be a rush to alleviate this supposed logjam.
Whether that is the case or not, the jury is still out. Both players are young enough and early enough in their development that Orlando can still win and reach some measure of success without impeding their growth. The Magic are not at a stage where they should give up on the project.
That decision point might come. But thoughts of a logjam seem a bit unfounded. Gordon and Isaac, provided they can develop as 3-point shooters, are perfect fits into a league that is increasingly becoming bigger, longer and more versatile.
Nugg Love
The hope with both is that they can get unleashed on opposing wing players, able to switch to and guard any position. The only thing holding this back from terrorizing the league is the 3-point shooting to give them space offensively.
They both need to improve to get the Magic where they want to go. But this is how the league looks. The league looks like using Gordon and Isaac to switch.
Throw in Mohamed Bamba, who has the foot speed to switch onto forwards in pick and rolls and contain players both on the perimeter and contest shots at the rim. Or throw in Markelle Fultz, a bigger guard who can guard multiple positions, and this team looks like what the modern NBA calls for.
Positions in the league are more about who players can guard. The traditional notions of what players can do to fill certain spots have changed. The interchangeability and length from those positions mean the team can make more mistakes and recover. That part is important for the team as it moves forward.
Granted, all four of these young players have to improve. But at their best, this is what the league looks like now and moving forward. Having so many players who are bigger and longer than their positional averages and can play multiple kinds of players defensively gives the Magic an advantage.
That is why there is a reason to be excited about how this team comes together. They have already had a lot of success as a proof of concept. Now they just have to keep improving to realize their potential.
But there is plenty of reason to believe the Magic have one of the more interesting and dynamic young cores in the league. One that is poised to make something happen in the very near future.