Orlando Magic’s depth is a blessing and a challenge

The Orlando Magic have a deep team featuring several players that can be part of their playoff rotation. That will bring a challenge and a gift to them.

Someone is going to get left out of the Orlando Magic’s rotation.

This is not merely saying that someone like Amile Jefferson or Josh Magette, the Magic’s two-way signings, have little chance of seeing the floor. Or even that Melvin Frazier is not likely to get a real chance in his second season in the league.

The Magic have some intriguing deep bench guys. But they are further behind now thanks to a depth that this team has not experienced in quite some time.

There are going to be players who are not playing full minutes or even getting a chance in the rotation for parts of the year.

And one of the big jobs that coach Steve Clifford will have throughout the season is managing players’ minutes and fostering this competition.

The Magic will be able to use that competition to stay sharp throughout the year. They should be able to send out waves of lineups that can succeed and keep them competitive.

This is always the challenge for a coach. There are a lot of lineups to manage. Choice is a good thing, but it will lead to difficult decisions as the season goes on.

But it is also a strength the team has at its disposal.

Clifford said Wednesday flat-out and plainly the Magic are a more talented team in 2020 than they were in 2019. The reason is because of the guys they have added and the depth they have at their disposal and individual internal improvement.

Orlando finally has some depth it can use for any situation.

"“You can’t place a premium on depth in this league,” president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said at media day Monday. “It’s the NBA. As optimistic as all 30 teams are right now, you are going to have adversity, you are going to have losing streaks, you are going to have injuries, you are going to have bumps in the road. How you handle that can be specifically related back to your character and your depth.”"

Jeff Weltman put a premium on the character part of that equation, lauding the hard work and team-oriented attitude of Al-Farouq Aminu — the biggest addition to the team. The Magic know they probably cannot count on injury luck again this season — all six of their top players appeared in at least 76 games.

Now, the Magic seem prepared for anything and able to combat anything.

Just consider this: Orlando has six players who were starters last year for playoff teams and have 10 players who were on playoff rotations last year. The Magic’s starting lineup from last year — D.J. Augustin, Evan Fournier, Jonathan Isaac, Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic plus free-agent signee Al-Farouq Aminu.

The team has a potential Sixth Man of the year in Terrence Ross. And then filled out last year’s rotation with young swingman Wesley Iwundu, veteran guard Michael Carter-Williams and stalwart center Khem Birch. Then there are two “rookie-level” players to add to the rotation in Markelle Fultz and Mohamed Bamba ready to enter the fray too.

When it is all said and done, then, Orlando has 12 players who by all rights should be in a rotation. Considering Clifford likes to run a nine-man rotation, there will be some legitimately good players left on the sideline every night.

In training camp, this will fuel competition. If this part of the year is about using internal competition to get better, Orlando has competent lineups and players to deploy.

This team is legitimately deep. And that only fuels the optimism for this team.

"“I think we have an advantage,” Wesley Iwundu said at media day. “We brought back a lot of the guys from last year and added some really good pieces as well to be a deeper team. Looking at the East this year, it’s wide open if you ask me. We come out here to compete. We have the team to do it.”"

Wesley Iwundu will push Terrence Ross and Evan Fournier, giving them a good defensive look in practice. Khem Birch will push Mohamed Bamba and Nikola Vucevic throughout. Aminu will provide a solid defensive weight for Jonathan Isaac and Aaron Gordon to go up against.

For every key Magic player, there is a solid, rotation-level player for them to go up against. It is indeed iron sharpening iron. And the fact that there is familiarity with what is expected from them should help reduce the learning curve in the early parts of training camp.

Additionally, the team should feel comfortable when injury inevitably hits that it should be able to withstand it with enough depth to fill in the gaps. Clifford is confident in almost every player on the roster when the time calls.

As Clifford said throughout last year too, every player will play some part during the season.

This is a luxury for sure. But it is also a challenge.

Orlando Magic

First Clifford has to find the right combinations again. He will have the luxury to experiment, but he has to be careful and examine which combinations work best together. Training camp will reveal some lineups worth using.

That might include a lineup that has Isaac, Gordon and Aminu on the court at the same time to counter other teams when they go small. Depth allows this kind of versatility.

But the other challenge is keeping players in rhythm and motivated while maintaining a clear rotation.

There are a lot of players who will push for playing time and not everyone will get it.

As Clifford said at media day, it is difficult to run a rotation of more than nine players and get everyone in rhythm.

For instance, Clifford told Josh Robbins of The Athletic before training camp that his plan was to return Bamba to the rotation, sending Birch out of the regular rotation. He already discussed this with Birch before the season began. But if Bamba struggles again, Clifford will have to decide when to make that switch.

There is potential stress if Clifford does not pull the right levers.

It will take everyone sacrificing, pitching in and buying into their roles to remain satisfied. Especially when the team is struggling.

Orlando will have talented players sitting on its bench. Everyone will have to continue to put in their work and impress enough to get back into the rotation when the time comes. Players will be learning from and competing against each other.

This will be a challenge as Clifford tries to craft his team’s rotation throughout the season. He will have to judge who the hot hand might be and which matchups will benefit the team overall. All while not disrupting everyone’s rhythm.

The important thing and the advantage for the Magic is that it seems they have a lot of good options. Even if some of those options remain unused for a time throughout the season.