5 non-Orlando Magic storylines to watch during the 2023 season

5 non-Orlando Magic storylines to watch

The Chicago Bulls’ pick

Orlando Magic fans should not just be watching their own team this year. They have a vested interest in the Chicago Bulls this year.

The Magic are set to receive the Bulls’ pick in this year’s draft if it falls out of the top four as part of the Nikola Vucevic trade from March 2021. Orlando has a lot of reasons to make sure Chicago struggles this year — although not too much.

The Bulls seemed to enter the season with some turmoil.

Lonzo Ball was still recovering from the injury that knocked him out for most of the season last year. Zach LaVine sat out Wednesday’s opener with a knee injury. The Bulls are definitely a team that could fall off if DeMar DeRozan falls back to earth from last year and if they still cannot fit in Nikola Vucevic.

Do not tell the Bulls that though. They worked the Miami Heat in their opener, winning 116-108 in a game that was probably not even really that close.

DeMar DeRozan scored 37 points with nine assists and Nikola Vucevic had 15 points and 17 rebounds for a very balanced Bulls team that was able to dice up the Heat’s defense.

It is just one game, but the Bulls may not be as middling as everyone thought. That is the nature of one-game samples. Who knows what is real right now?

But the Bulls are almost certainly a team thinking about making the Playoffs. They almost have to because that draft pick may not belong to them. Even missing the Playoffs and ending up in the Play-In Tournament would give the Magic a second potential Lottery pick.

So the Magic will have their focus on their scores a ton. But they will also have at least half an eye to see how the Bulls are doing. An extra pick in this draft is definitely something that is pretty valuable.