Orlando Magic Lineups: Versatility is a Good Problem
By Seth Arora
The New-Look Bench
Even though the second unit eventually solidified into one of the Orlando Magic’s best assets as 2019 wore on, team management felt upgrades were necessary and inevitable.
Jeff Weltman signed perennial Western Conference starter Al-Farouq Aminu as a free agent. But the improved health of last season’s trade deadline acquisition Markelle Fultz and 2018 sixth overall draft pick Mohamed Bamba create a good headache for the coaching staff.
Training camp plus six preseason games are inadequate to properly inform Steve Clifford on which combinations of these players plus the incumbents offer him the best chance at winning each night.
Do Makrelle Fultz, Al-Farouq Aminu and Mohamed Bamba simply replace Michael Carter-Williams, Wesley Iwundu and Khem Birch, respectively?
Carter-Williams, while very good at being a high-energy, maximum-effort-if-not-a-bit-unhinged player, struggled to score from anywhere on the court.
And Fultz showed his ability to get to the paint often in the preseason as well as his willingness to defend hard. He, too, struggled with his shot, but the Magic appear willing to bet that the rust may very well wear off from his injury recovery enough for his shot to be respectable, and the rest of his game offers a much higher upside than other options on the roster.
Fultz also offers the Magic potential to improve their scoring efficiency in drives.
The team got nearly the least out of its drives in the league points-wise in 2019. Having a playmaker like Fultz should improve this number, and improvements from other hopeful ballhandlers, like Evan Fournier and Aaron Gordon, would only boost this team’s confidence when it takes the ball into the teeth of the defense.
Iwundu, for his selflessness, effort and defensive ability, did not start 255 games for a Portland Trail Blazers team in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race every season. Al-Farouq Aminu did.
Orlando Magic
Aminu’s size, experience, and shooting ability, despite the down three-point shooting year, may prove more valuable to the team at this stage than the skills that Iwundu brings.
Birch is a lot like Carter-Williams in that he knows what he does and does it well. Birch’s energetic heart-and-hustle play was infectious last season.
But even if Bamba cannot bring the same frenetic style to the court, he presents a player with a higher ceiling and more potential. On pick-and-rolls, Bamba can crash to the rim (although maybe not as well as Birch) or step back to take open threes with his huge frame.
But players do not play basketball in a vacuum. Carter-Williams and Birch had clear chemistry when they shared the court, and that is not so easy to replicate. It is refreshing, then, that Fultz and Bamba have begun the groundwork on that task.
What all this means for how the rotation will look is unknowable at this juncture.
Clifford will and should let the roster evaluation bleed over into the regular season and before the Orlando Magic face the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Amway Center on Wednesday.
It is unclear who will come off the bench, when and with whom.