Orlando Magic’s three positives from first nine games

The Orlando Magic are already nine games through their regular season schedule, and there is plenty to discuss.

They sit at 2-7 and look like an organization that is once again going to be near the bottom of the standings in the Eastern Conference when the season is finished.

We know that is not the whole story though, as there is far more optimism around this group than in years gone by, even with the losing record. Talk of competing for a play-in spot, which was mooted during the offseason, already seems wide of the mark (yet still not impossible).

But it is still the early days. There has actually been quite a bit to like about this young roster.

So much so in fact, that fans of the Orlando Magic can already look to three real positives from the nine games they have played.

Head coach Jamahl Mosley is doing his best to create a culture with the group, and it was on full display in Thursday night’s win against the Golden State Warriors. Somehow the Warriors haven’t won at Amway Center since Kevin Durant left, and this loss dropped them to 0-5. Jalen Suggs got the plaudits down the stretch, but it was a team-wide effort to show the fightback necessary to win.

That is just one of a number of intriguing subplots developing, and with more losing sure to come their way, let us take this opportunity before the seven-game home stand really kicks off to take stock of some of the positives around the Magic at this time.

3 positives from Orlando Magic’s first nine games

3. Defense is their identity, but it is not everything.

Previous head coach Steve Clifford put high defensive play above all else, and in doing so he got the most out of a limited roster.

Two postseason appearances followed, built on the foundation of Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier. Clifford got results, but it hardly captured the imagination.

This version of the Magic is nowhere close to being the competent defensive outfit from before, but it will ultimately become their identity. Already this season we have seen Suggs put in some serious shifts on that end, with Cole Anthony doing the same before suffering an oblique injury. Markelle Fultz is an above-average defender for his position, and we have not even seen all he can do yet.

Kevon Harris has been nothing short of a revelation with his defensive intensity. And Bol Bol is a player we will return to later.

Yet the Magic rank below average in defensive rating (19th at 112.9 points allowed per 100 possessions). A small sample size, but last season they finished the year also in 19th, with a rating of 112.1. So they are on pace to be near where they were before.

The key difference though, and this is the positive, is that it is no longer all they have got.

In Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, the Magic have two legitimate NBA weapons. We could have posted three slides on Banchero here alone, such is the positive impact he has already had on the franchise. He is averaging a ridiculous 21.8 points per night with a veteran’s game.

Unsurprisingly this leads the team (and all rookies), with Wagner second at 16.1 points per night.

The offensive pillars are now in place, and are only going to get better. While defensively the group is young and willing but is just making a lot of mistakes and missing rotations.

That is acceptable for now, but the balance of defensive identity with real offensive weapons on a young team has been such a positive to take from the early goings of this campaign.

3 positives from Orlando Magic’s first nine games

2. Bol Bol

Be honest, you did not see this coming did you?

When Bol Bol made his way to the Orlando Magic at last year’s trade deadline and signed a fresh contract this summer, he arrived as a player who was injured and who had never done much of anything during his tenure with the Denver Nuggets.

Oh, how the Nuggets would love to have him back to round out their rotation now.

It is not that Bol has been a world-beater. But when you consider the Magic bought into him when his stock was so low, what he is doing on the court is nothing short of remarkable. With career averages of 3.8 points and 2.1 rebounds per game in 8.4 minutes per game in three years with the Nuggets, Bol has obliterated those numbers already.

He has started four of the Magic’s games, and is a legitimate presence in the paint. He is still skinny, but moves with a quickness on both ends that constantly throws opponents off.

So far he is averaging 10.3 points and 7.2 rebounds in 21.3 minutes per night. His 2.6 blocks per game are tied for the second most in the entire league.

The best part about this from the organization’s perspective is how overnight they found a player who is everything they wanted Mo Bamba to be. Bol is a career 36.2-percent 3-point shooter which is extremely misleading. But he is still averaging an attempt per night so far this season. A long stretch five is what Bamba promised, and what Bol is now delivering.

At this early stage, Bol actually leads the entire league in two-point field goal percentage (72.9 percent) as well. This has been an absolute success story and a positive for the Magic to find that sort of production on the scrap heap.

Better still it ensures Wendell Carter does not get run into the ground each night and gives their rotation another element.

3 positives from Orlando Magic’s first nine games

1. Could Victor Wembanyama be on the cards?

If you asked any Orlando Magic fan if they would like generational talent Victor Wembanyama, all of them would rightly say yes. But the thinking was the Magic were too good to be among the worst teams in the league, and thus secure one of the three joint-worst odds to nab the Frenchman with the first pick in next year’s NBA Draft.

As already mentioned, the Magic are about to play their next six games at home, and the standings will even themselves out during the season. The Magic might never get to the play-in, but injuries and other teams just being plain worse than them mean that they will struggle to stick to the bottom. And yet . . .

https://twitter.com/LucaLockheart/status/1588638197172797440

This 2-7 start for the Magic is probably worse than you expected. It puts the Orlando Magic dead last, alongside the Detroit Pistons, in the Eastern Conference. Out West, the three worst franchises were sure to be the Utah Jazz (6-3, third), San Antonio Spurs (5-3, fourth) and Oklahoma City Thunder (4-4, tenth).

They are all doing better than the Magic right now, and unless they make changes to their rosters look like they are going to continue to be competitive. This is an unexpected and encouraging early sign in the fast-becoming real quest for Wembanyama.

We have maybe never seen a talent this good, and yet nobody is setting their stall out early to try and tank shamelessly for him.

Magic fans are sick of losing, and they have two players in Banchero and Wagner who will ensure that the losses will become less frequent. This is going to start happening soon, and the front office has done a nice job with the reclamation project that is Bol. Their draft history is not perfect, but Wagner was a win and Suggs is steadily improving.

But those same Magic fans will have no problem sitting through another 25-57 season if it means they get the number one pick.

The future is bright regardless, and even when they are losing this young group is fun to watch and root for. Offensively they are more entertaining than they have been in years thanks to Banchero. This is the biggest hidden positive that we never saw coming.