The Orlando Magic are waiting in limbo it feels right now.
They need a new coach and they are seeking a foundation for the rebuild. And none of that is really determined until the Magic have their draft pick in hand.
Everyone has the percentages memorized by now: the team has a 14.0-percent chance of winning the NBA Draft Lottery and a 52.1-percent of landing in the top four. The team also has a 79.7-percent chance of landing the Chicago Bulls’ pick, it conveys if it is outside the top four, and a 70.7-percent chance of that pick landing at pick eight or nine.
Those odds suggest the Magic have a coin flip’s chance of landing in the top four and a fairly good chance of getting a second top-10 pick in this year’s draft.
But who that pick will be and who will be available to the Magic is completely up in the air at the moment.
The Orlando Magic are refining their draft board and list as they prepare for the NBA Draft Combine and the NBA Draft Lottery. So are we in an update of our Big Board from March.
At this point, and concurrently with the team’s coaching search, the team is refining its draft list. It is checking in on players they are actually interested in and sorting the players into tiers to figure out who they would pick where and who they actually value.
Much of the Magic’s draft work is close to done. They undoubtedly have extensive scouting reports from film review. The last step will be to get them in person and test them out in individual workouts and interviews. But that is only a small piece of the puzzle.
The bigger piece is the work that is already done. And sorting out who goes where.
We did a Big Board, a ranking of the prospects as the Magic might prefer them, back in March when it was clear the season was heading south. This was also before the Magic completely changed their outlook with the trade deadline deals.
Much of the analysis then has changed now. The Magic’s needs have completely changed. They need everything. And they will be looking at this Draft as adding a central piece to their puzzle — along with a healthy Jonathan Isaac. Anyone else is still a bit of a mystery.
So we put together our big board and look at who the Magic are going to be focusing on for this draft.