Orlando Magic Player Comparisons: What’s in store for the sophomores

Orlando Magic Player Comparisons

Cole Anthony

FiveThirtyEight: Jonny Flynn, Emmanuel Mudiay, Mike Conley
Kevin O’Connor, The Ringer: Kemba Walker, Patty Mills, Austin Rivers
NBADraft.Net: Mo Williams

Cole Anthony has always been one of the most difficult players to evaluate and figure out where his ceiling might end up being.

Anthony came up through high school as one of the top players in the country, seemingly destined for stardom. But he struggled with a knee injury in college and played with a North Carolina team that forced him to carry them offensively throughout.

Anthony dropped in the Draft and the Magic were more than happy to scoop him up. But they always wanted him to grow slowly and come off the bench. Injury forced him into the starting lineup far sooner than they wanted.

Anthony still performed more than admirably. He averaged 12.9 points per game with a 44.9-percent effective field goal percentage. Like all rookies, he had his ups and is downs — and his own injury slowed his progression through the season.

Orlando Magic

His big moments obviously came with his late-game exploits. Anthony’s surprise game-winning shot against the Minnesota Timberwolves was a preview of his personality and bravado. He had bigger moments in the game-winner against the Memphis Grizzlies and his big late-game finish to topple the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Those moments stay with a young player. And they point to something different about him.

There is still a ton of mystery with Anthony though. Last year, was not the way the Magic want to develop and grow him. They have Markelle Fultz waiting to come back from injury. And now they have Jalen Suggs, who took over the point guard role during their time together in Summer League.

One of the big things Orlando will have to figure out this season is just what Anthony’s role is and should be. And that is still really tough.

The thing that everyone has learned about Anthony is that he has a scorer’s instinct. So it is no wonder his draft comparisons were to scoring guards like Mo Williams or Austin Rivers. That feels like a good baseline and a good player for Anthony to model himself after.

Whether Anthony can get to that level is the bigger question. Nobody seems to know where his limits are.

And his struggles at Summer League — 7.5 points per game and shot 28.9-percent from the floor — did not help matters very much.

Anthony showed enough last season to prove he can make it in the NBA. But the lack of progression in the Summer League atmosphere tempers some of the excitement they might otherwise have.

The FiveThirtyEight model is even more bullish.

They compared him to Jonny Flynn, a scoring guard who struggled to adjust from college to the NBA (and injuries eventually derailed his career). Emmanuel Mudiay was a high-profile high school prospect who never translated.

The Mike Conley comparison is a nice breath of hope. But Anthony and Conley have very different playstyles. Conley is a greater playmaker than Anthony.

The realization is that Anthony got his feet wet in his rookie year. He played well for the role the Magic asked of him. But there is a lot of questions about where he goes next. And those are not answers anyone seems to have.

Anthony is certainly better than some of the players suggested here. He has a higher ceiling if he can reach it. But it is also clear there are some limitations that presented themselves in his rookie year that he either has to learn to play with or overcome.