Orlando Magic Training Camp Battles
Forward Rotation
The Orlando Magic starting lineup is still a bit up in the air. It is not entirely clear or certain who will start when the team is fully healthy.
Jonathan Isaac is probably the only surefire starter if he is ready to go on opening night. Gary Harris is probably a fairly safe bet to start too just so the team has a veteran.
Otherwise, every potential starter has some question mark about them.
Jalen Suggs will start eventually if he is as good as everyone thinks he can be. But that does not necessarily mean he starts from opening night. Suggs is going to get his chance though and he will probably take one of the spots.
So too will Wendell Carter. At this point, he is the Magic’s most consistent option at center. Markelle Fultz is still recovering from injury. But he too could slot in as a starter alongside Suggs when all is said and done.
The biggest mystery is how the Magic will treat their small forward spot and their forward rotation overall. While the Magic have three potentially strong options at power forward in Jonathan Isaac, Chuma Okeke and Franz Wagner. They even have solid shooting guard options who can slide up in Gary Harris, Terrence Ross and perhaps even R.J. Hampton.
But there is no clear small forward option. Someone is going to be an unnatural fit perhaps — whether they be too small to handle the bigger 3s in the league or perhaps too immobile to hand the quicker forwards.
Orlando has to figure out its forward rotation. And the direction the team goes at that spot will get figured out in camp.
A lot of those answers might be determined by who the Magic decide to start at shooting guard. If they start Jalen Suggs at shooting guard alongside Cole Anthony or Markelle Fultz, that probably slides Gary Harris to small forward. But if they start Suggs alongside Harris in the backcourt, that opens up the option of starting Okeke or Wagner at small forward.
Isaac’s availability might also play a role in deciding where the starting lineup goes and what the forward rotation becomes. Okeke and Wagner can split power forward minutes in that case.
But this rotation is still a complete mystery and Jamahl Mosley is going to have to use training camp to map out how he wants to deploy these players or have some idea of who will rise to the top and who his best option at small forward is on a night-to-night basis. There needs to be some consistency with the lineups at that point.
Small forward is a real trouble spot for the Magic. And camp is going to sort out the rotation a ton.