Orlando Magic Daily Mailbag Volume 36: A new outlook on the future

A new season has brought new expectations and new challenges for the Orlando Magic. (Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images)
A new season has brought new expectations and new challenges for the Orlando Magic. (Photo by Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Terrence Ross, Orlando Magic, Washington Wizards
The Orlando Magic are eager to get things going in the 2020 season. (Photo by Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images) /

The Rotation

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Coach Steve Clifford has been pretty firm that he is going to go with a nine-man rotation this season. He has broken that some early in the season as he starts to ramp players’ minutes back to regular levels.

Michael Carter-Williams has been really good individually. His defensive energy has helped turn around some lethargic play. It is really easy to see why Steve Clifford has turned to Michael Carter-Williams in this early part of the season.

But eventually Carter-Williams will fall out of the rotation and everything will settle in. The lineups Steve Clifford has put Michael Carter-Williams in playing alongside Markelle Fultz are not going to work long term — the duo is -29.2 points per 100 possessions in 25 minutes together this season.

So the Magic’s rotation is going to settle in on these nine players — D.J. Augustin, Evan Fournier, Aaron Gordon, Jonathan Isaac, Nikola Vucevic, Markelle Fultz, Terrence Ross, Al-Farouq Aminu and Mohamed Bamba. There is always the chance Khem Birch jumps into the rotation over Mohamed Bamba.

But those are the core nine guys the Magic will play throughout the season when healthy. The team has a ton of health.

The real trick for Clifford is figuring out how to balance the rotation and break the lineups, splitting bench players with starters. The team is probably not going to be able to survive long without at least one starter in the lineup.

Right now, Jonathan Isaac is the last starter out of the lineup. He runs for a few minutes with the bench players including Markelle Fultz and Terrence Ross. The team has to make sure it balances its offensive players through several lineups to make the whole project work.

That is the part that is still a work in progress.

Clifford likes to play Gordon a lot with the second unit. That is what he did to a lot of success last year. That appears to be the plan again. The Magic will go with Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier a lot with those second units.

The Magic’s rotation is all about finding balance. The team should feel fairly confident it can run lineups that will be strong defensively with almost whoever is in. Playing Carter-Williams as much as the team has is showing that focus on defense.

But the Magic cannot go full second-unit. At least not while Ross is struggling like he is. The team is going to need to find a better balance to create offense more consistently.

This is the struggle in general though.