Orlando Magic Summer League: 3 up, 3 down from Magic’s Vegas run

Orlando Magic Summer League: 3 up, 3 down

3 Down: Jeremiah Tilmon

Noting Jeremiah Tilmon here is not to say that he has played poorly. He has actually played decently well, averaging 3.3 points per game and 1.0 rebounds per game in 9.0 minutes per game.

Tilmon has not gotten a ton of time, but when he has, he has eaten up space well and defended the rim.

The Orlando Magic switched a lot and left Tilmon guarding the perimeter on a number of occasions. He has held his own and was able to slow his defender down enough to let the rest of the defense catch up.

But that is the bigger point here. Tilmon has looked like a hulking dinosaur on the floor.

Teams just scheme around his presence by getting him into space and testing him defensively. Again, he did not fail there, but the way the Magic are trying to play defensively continually put him in uncomfortable and often poor defensive spots.

In a regular season game, there is probably no way the team could play him.

If there is one thing that became abundantly clear from the way the Magic were playing, the age of the paint-bound, bruising center is coming to an end. At the very least, it is not the way the Magic want to be playing.

They are going to ask their centers to switch onto the perimeter and guard in space. they are going to ask them not only to defend the paint but step out on the perimeter to muck up offensive sets. That is the way the league appears to be headed.

It is not Jeremiah Tilmon’s fault. He did his best with the time he was given and all the Magic asked for him. Players of his type are just increasingly hard to play in this league.

And the biggest thing that was clear from the Magic’s Summer League run was that they are embracing all the modern trends.