The Orlando Magic are exciting right now merely for the fact that the team is a blank slate.
They have a bunch of young players who will be growing and learning together without the pressure of winning — this season, at least. They have a clear cap sheet and the ability to spend and use their cap space to build future assets and set themselves up for whenever they are trying to win.
The team is not capitulating this season, even if everyone seems to believe the Magic will be one of the worst teams in the league. The team still has goals to achieve.
The biggest one is to see growth from individual players and to see the team’s rebuild begin to take shape. They want to see the contours of the kind of team they will be as they begin the climb up the standings.
The key to the whole thing will be the players on their rookie contracts making the future. But the team also has two players just entering their rookie extensions who might as well still be rookies.
The team is relying on young veterans like Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz coming back from injury to help provide a strong base.
The team will still need to see a lot from the five players still on their rookie contracts. But a lot of the Magic’s immediate future — both on the court and in their cap sheet — is tied to where Isaac and Fultz go next.
At the end of the day, the Magic’s needs are still the same. They need a star.
Players typically know who they are by the end of their rookie contracts. But for Orlando Magic players Jonathan Isaac and Markelle Fultz, their lack of playing time still leaves plenty unknown.
For now, the best thing Orlando can do is hope to see players reach their potential. Figuring that out is still an inexact science.
What we do have is we have player projections based on stats like win shares or WARP. For now, that at least gives us a window into who players might be.
With so many young players, it might be helpful to take a peek at what these projections say about these players and who they might become. Then the team can begin shaping its roster.
As former general manager Rob Hennigan once said, players are typically who they are by the time they reach the end of their rookie contracts. Even with how young players are entering the league, they are usually pretty set to who they are by the time they reach the fifth year.
Certainly, the expectations increase for those players after they get properly valued with a fresh contract. Rookies are just on dirt cheap deals so the potential always seems pretty limitless.
The Orlando Magic are in a strange position though. They have two players who are entering their rookie extensions without much history behind them.
Markelle Fultz missed his first two seasons as he dealt with thoracic outlet syndrome, played one solid season in 2020 and then suffered a torn ACL eight games into the 2021 season.
Jonathan Isaac missed the majority of his first season with a sprained ankle. He was a strong starter in the 2019 season. Then he had a Defensive Player of the Year-caliber season in 2020 before a knee injury knocked him out the last half of the season and then a torn ACL ended his season in the bubble.
Isaac missed the entire 2021 season recovering from that injury.
Those two players have roughly 2.5 years total of playing under their belt. So it is worth considering who Basketball-Reference and FiveThirtyEight say these players resemble.