The 2021 NBA season is about to enter the final quarter of its season. But there are still a lot of questions to answer.
For the Orlando Magic, it has been a difficult one.
The team entered the year with playoff ambitions, even with Jonathan Isaac out for the year with a torn ACL. The team had proven itself more than capable of competing in the Eastern Conference. The team thought it could hold the ship steady.
Then the injuries hit — starting with Evan Fournier’s back spasms to Markelle Fultz’s season-ending ACL injury to the cascading injuries that often left the Magic with just eight or nine players available to Aaron Gordon’s monthlong absence with a torn ACL to Cole Anthony’s rib injury and on and on and on.
The Magic came to the trade deadline facing a key decision. And they decided they had reached the end of the road.
The Orlando Magic transformed their roster this trade deadline, leaving a young group trying to improve and grow. In the final quarter of the season, the Magic will have to sort out the remains.
Orlando transformed the roster on trade deadline day a few weeks ago. They traded away All-Star center Nikola Vucevic and veteran guard Evan Fournier and forward Aaron Gordon. In return, they picked up several promising young players in Wendell Carter and R.J. Hampton along with veterans Otto Porter and Gary Harris.
It all signaled the team was fully invested in building back up through the draft and the development of young players. But it put to rest any fleeting hopes of a playoff berth. The Magic are 2-7 since the trade deadline and the team has struggled to get on the same page.
The future feels bright. But there is still work to do this season.
The Magic sit at 14th in the Eastern Conference with a 17-36 record. While the playoffs are out of reach, the team still has to answer important questions going to the summer and next season.
Who takes the lead at center?
With the trade of Nikola Vucevic and the waving of Khem Birch, the front office has made it clear that Steve Clifford will have to decide whether to play Mohamed Bamba or Wendell Carter at center.
Clifford has likely gone with Carter to be the starter because he has already had experience as a starter in Chicago. But both these players have played very well since the trade.
In the last nine games (excluding Monday’s Spurs game), Bamba has averaged 12.4 points, 5.4 rebound and 1.2 blocks per game while shooting 48-percent from three during that stretch. He has continued to play with more confidence as he continues to play more. With more time, he will be even better at using his size for positioning.
However, Carter has also been playing very well as the starter for the Magic.
In his last nine games, he has averaged, 13.4 points, 8.3 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game. Carter has shown to be a more consistent and stable option for the starting center spots as he is also less likely to make positioning mistakes.
But it seems through the eye test that Bamba may have a higher ceiling since he has the potential to be an elite shot-blocker and a good three-point shooter, especially for his position.
There are going to be many discussions surrounding the future center spot for the Magic, and both players are playing very well in the heat of competition. However, these last stretch of games will not be the deciding factor for the spot, but it will help the front office when it comes to having data for decision-making this off-season.
Which veterans will stick around?
The Orlando Magic as of right now, are extremely young. But they do not want to make the same mistake again they made during their last rebuild in trusting young players to go out and learn without some guidance.
Steve Clifford has made this clear that he does not want to throw five inexperienced players out on the floor. He feels veteran players provide some organization and help young players learn to play better together.
This has proven to be a tough task so far.
The average age of the current Magic roster is 24.2 years old, which while young, there may be a couple of veterans who may no longer be with the team to start the next season.
Terrance Ross, Michael Carter-Williams, James Ennis, Gary Harris and Otto Porter are all at least 26 years old. They are considered the veterans on the team. With Porter and Ennis set to be free agents this summer, the Magic have decisions to make on what the roster looks like moving forward.
One of the mistakes the Magic made during the Rob Hennigan rebuild was that they had no quality veterans to guide the young players. Arron Afflalo and Jameer Nelson provided good stability early on but the team handed the keys to young players very quickly.
At a certain point, the main veteran was Channing Frye, who was never the leader type. So the team was very young with no leadership, which led to bad habits and never learning how to win.
The Magic are on the verge of facing that situation once again with two more potential lottery first-round picks this summer to add to this young team.
The Magic are going to have to decide which veterans to add to this team and help provide some stability.
Ross, Harris and Carter-Williams are still going to be under contract going into next season, but the Magic have to add other veteran pieces. Whether it be free agency or even via trade, such as trading this year’s Chicago Bulls pick, the Orlando Magic need to add leadership to a team to avoid the mistake the previous regime made.
Is Steve Clifford the right coach?
The Orlando Magic are headed in a different direction than what coach Steve Clifford signed up for, so both sides have to reach an agreement on whether or not he is going to continue coaching this team.
Steve Clifford is not a perfect coach, but he is a good coach.
He took a team that missed the playoffs with the 18th best defense and with the same core made the playoffs the following year with the eighth-best defense with a 108.1 defensive rating.
The following year, with injuries with the team, kept a top-10 defense and made the playoffs once again. This season, the team slipped to 23rd, but this is due to even more injuries and trading away most of the key players.
Steve Clifford will continue to promote defense and the right way to play. The approach of no moral victories is different from previous coaches and is the right way to build a winning culture. But he will need help on the roster to help the young core translate those philosophies onto the court.
Clifford is a foundation-building coach and despite some perception that he does not like young players, it is simply his demands for the team to win and build the right way. Clifford has gotten a lot out of his teams and has played plenty of young players in positions they can succeed.
The Magic should keep Clifford moving forward.
Will the Magic stay competitive?
It was clear that after the trade, the Orlando Magic were likely not going to make the playoffs, but the question is still how is the team going to compete. The Magic have a 2-8 record with five double-digit losses, which includes a 23-, 37- and 46-point loss.
There has always been an argument about the best way to develop young talent. Whether it be playing a lot of minutes or playing meaningful games, it is clear that losing this badly is not developing anyone.
The Magic are falling behind early and are having a hard time even keeping the games close. This creates bad habits. It is going to be hard to break these habits.
The Magic have to find a way to keep games close and play meaningful minutes within games since the season is lost at this point. Orlando may know it is not likely to win many games and that some blowout losses are possible, but the team needs some level or organization and competitiveness to properly evaluate these young players and figure out how to grow and build.
Garbage time minutes do not teach coaches or players anything.
The Orlando Magic play the Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, and Huston Rockets in their next three games. All of these teams having losing records, as the Bulls have the best record of that group with a 22-31 record. These next stretch of games are important for this team to create opportunities to win and give their young players a chance to play meaningful minutes.
Orlando is going has to find a way to keep these games close.
Steve Clifford stated recently that no one is getting better in blowout losses. The Magic have to take advantage of these stretches of games to give their young players chances to play in close games, or it is going to be a long end to the season.
Which young players are going to shine?
The Orlando Magic have young players playing major minutes, and few have had stand-out performances, but the question is who is going to be consistent enough to leave a stamp going into the offseason.
There have been players that have had career nights and have played better in their bigger roles.
Mohamed Bamba achieved his career-high with 21-points against the Milwaukee Bucks and R.J. Hampton scoring his career-high 16 points against the Denver Nuggets (matching it late against the San Antonio Spurs).
Chuma Okeke has slowed down since his outburst, but since the trade has averaged 13.1 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. He has also shown his passing ability averaging 3.4 assists.
Cole Anthony returned from his rib injury and will have the chance to take back his starting spot from Michael Carter-Williams and become the starting point guard again. But he is starting to get his legs back under him and resume the progress he left off two months ago.
There is overlapping on this team by position, and there is competition for these positions. They must become consistent to develop trust with Clifford and the front office.
The front office is likely to mold the roster for fit instead of having a lot of young raw talent. The young players have to prove that they can be part of a winning culture and be consistent in the role they are given. All of these players have shown flashes of what they can do. This team has a bright future, but the question remains of who will be a part of it.