5 big takeaways from the Orlando Magic’s preseason

Orlando Magic: 5 takeaways from the preseason

Mohamed Bamba unleashed

The Orlando Magic took Mohamed Bamba with the sixth pick in the 2018 Draft.

The team was in a very different place then. The new front office was still settling in and starting to make its imprint on the team. The growing obsession with length made the 7-foot center an easy pick for the team, especially considering center Nikola Vucevic was set for free agency. Nobody was sure if the Magic were going to re-sign him.

The raw Bamba seemed set to understudy for a year and then usher in a new link in the chain of Magic starting centers.

But that did not quite happen. Things changed fairly quickly for Bamba and the Magic.

Vucevic became an All-Star, the team made an improbable 22-9 run to make the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons and Bamba went out just as the team picked up speed with a fracture in his leg. Bamba was a rookie struggling through the league and the Magic ran low on patience to watch him grow.

He struggled then to return from that injury. Just as he seemed to be gaining confidence and getting comfortable, the season stopped because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then Bamba got COVID and become a long hauler (maybe not clinically) and struggled to rebuild his conditioning to contribute.

Three years into his career, Bamba was still all potential and little proven on the court. And the Magic were sort of running out of time. Clearing the decks and going with a rebuild — in addition to hiring a new coach — gave Bamba a restart.

So too did getting a healthy summer to improve and work on his skills. And the results have been extremely promising for the young center. Bamba has quickly become a really intriguing player.

In the preseason, Bamba averaged 11.5 points per game, 7.0 rebounds per game and 3.8 blocks per game. He shot 54.5-percent from the floor and 41.7-percent from three (a 62.1-percent effective field goal percentage). And he did this all in 20.7 minutes per game and while playing significant minutes alongside Wendell Carter.

Bamba has always put up good numbers when he has gotten the time to play on the court. That has never really been a question about him.

But Bamba was also making plays like this one:

No one has benefited more from the coaching change and this new attitude defensively than Bamba. He is playing a whole lot freer and aggressively. His confidence is through the roof.

Bamba’s play does not seem like the typical heavy-minute stat stuffing. It feels like this is something that is a bit more permanent from him and something he can build on.

Mohamed Bamba’s strong play, alongside a really excellent preseason from Wendell Carter (a team-high 12.5 points per game and 8.8 rebounds per game with a 71.4-percent effective field goal percentage that included an expansion of his outside shooting), has pushed the Magic to experiment with playing the two together.

That may have happened anyway. But Bamba’s really strong play has forced the Magic to make some difficult choices to squeeze Bamba more in the rotation. He earned that and finally looks like the player the team drafted.