3 players pushing for more minutes with the Orlando Magic

The Orlando Magic enjoyed a sweet victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday. The win took them to 3-9 and gave them a much-needed second win during a seven-game homestand that was supposed to help their push for the play-in tournament.

Instead, they languish near the bottom of the Eastern Conference, with wins over the Dallas Mavericks and Golden State Warriors surrounded by more puzzling losses to the Houston Rockets and Sacramento Kings.

The identity of this group is coming, it is just taking a while to get to the destination.

In among all of these early struggles for the Orlando Magic is a still uneven roster, but there are three players right now who are pushing for more minutes.

Injuries to key players like Markelle Fultz and Cole Anthony have contributed to the lopsided nature of the rotations. It is hard to see what the Magic can be at full strength when most of their backcourt depth is on the shelf.

That being said, this has been an excellent opportunity for Jalen Suggs to begin to find himself, and he has responded well.

The return of Jonathan Isaac looks over the group too. How will he slot into the group on the court after more than two seasons injured? Will his introduction mean precious minutes have to be taken away from the solid Wendell Carter or from Bol Bol, who has been the surprise package of the season so far, perhaps across the entire NBA?

Questions for another day. But let’s examine the three guys knocking on the door right now to try and force their way into the bigger picture of head coach Jamahl Mosley. Figuring this conundrum out will go a long way to deciding whether his second season with the Magic was a success.

3. R.J Hampton (15.7 minutes per game)

We start with R.J. Hampton because he still seems to be on the periphery of the rotation.

Despite the aforementioned guard injuries, Hampton is yet to start a single game this season. Even worse, he has received a couple of DNP-CDs throughout that period. This is despite having a tangible contribution in that win over the Golden State Warriors and to show general improvement from his wild season last year.

Hampton had 15 points and went 3-for-5 from deep in the comeback victory. Yet two games later he didn’t see the court at all in the loss to the Houston Rockets.

This would seem to suggest Mosley does not trust him to be a factor every game. He is instead choosing when to lean into him more heavily depending on the matchup.

Hampton is a below-average defender, and players like Jalen Green and Eric Gordon of the Rockets would have targeted him repeatedly. That being said the Warriors are not small, but that was a game that called for as much offensive firepower as possible against a team that is struggling to find its feet as defending champions this season.

Hampton is only 21 years old, and it would be unfair to say Mosley has given up on him altogether. He still gets his minutes, he would just like more.

There also does not always appear to be rhyme or reason for Hampton’s appearance, but that is a roster-wide problem Mosley is trying to iron out as the season progresses.

Hampton’s path to more minutes may ironically only come when the Magic get some guards back.

Next to Markelle Fultz or Cole Anthony, the Magic can hide some of Hampton’s deficiencies. That is also true of playing next to Suggs. But Mosley has instead been addressing the frontcourt overload by starting Wendell Carter and Bol Bol together half of the time.

Time is not up for Hampton in Orlando. And more chances are going to present themselves for him.

2. Mo Bamba (14.3 minutes per game)

Mo Bamba’s inclusion here is an unexpectedly good thing and has likely given Jamahl Mosley a good headache he did not expect to have.

Many expected Bamba to leave Orlando during the offseason and were puzzled to see him sign a two-year, $20.6 million deal to return. Bamba had been given plenty of chances and failed to take advantage of any of them.

Even now he is seen as the third big behind Wendell Carter and Bol Bol. But Mo Bamba has not taken that lying down. If anything Bol’s arrival, and his subsequent ability to contribute right away in ways that the Magic never saw coming, has lit a fire under Bamba.

Too often in the past, he used to enter games and look passive and uninterested.

He is hardly ripping down boards with intensity and screaming at every made 3-pointer now. But his impact is being felt a lot more.

Bamba now has an influence on how the Magic are managing a game when he checks in, which is strange to say with his numbers down across the board from last season.

Obviously the team is still losing winnable games so his influence has not reached inescapable levels. But to be here with Bamba is a development few probably ever saw coming.

He is slotting into his role off the bench more comfortably and is not trying to do it all when he enters. So his personal numbers are down, and yet he does not feel like a disaster consequence on the court like he did in previous seasons.

Bol and Bamba’s skill sets have a lot of similarities. They make opponents think twice about entering the paint and are capable of recovering well to block all manner of shots. And they are bigs who can extend out to the 3-point line, stretching the defense out.

Now in his fifth season at 24, it is nice to see this development. If nothing else, it does Bamba’s trade value no harm to prove he belongs on an NBA court.

1. Chuma Okeke (19.2 minutes per night)

Forward Chuma Okeke is caught in the no man’s land between the crowded frontcourt Mo Bamba is trying to force his way into and the bare backcourt R.J. Hampton still cannot manage to get minutes as part of.

This can be viewed as a negative as he gets lost in the shuffle. But there is a positive spin Okeke can use in his quest for more minutes too.

Put simply, Okeke can do a lot of things that many others on the roster cannot. He is a good defender, he has size and bulk and he is shooting a carer-high 35.3 percent from deep so far this season. Hardly an amazing number given he is taking fewer than three attempts a night. But it is a solid foundation to build from.

Having consistency from 3-point range and being a good defender means the “3-and-D” role is there for Okeke if he wants it.

Even if this ultimately means becoming the team’s sixth man in the future, it is still a viable path to being a real contributor to the Magic. It also explains why, of the three players mentioned here, Okeke is currently receiving the most minutes.

With Paolo Banchero missing Wednesday’s game, the Magic turned to Chuma Okeke to start and defend Luka Doncic. That is a level of trust that none of the other players listed here have seemingly earned. Okeke was a key part to the gameplan to win that game.

But perhaps more worryingly, Okeke has averaged 24.5 minutes per night throughout his career so far. To see that number dip by more than five minutes in year three, and at a time when he should in theory be taking a step forward, is something to keep an eye on.

It also speaks to the underrated depth beginning to congregate on the Magic’s roster, with the likes of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner commanding a lot of the minutes.

But only seeing the court slightly more than Caleb Houstan (17.3 minutes per game), shows Chuma Okeke is slipping further away from being solidified in the second unit.

A single start is all he has to show for this season so far, having started 40 of a possible 115 games in his first two years in the league.

There is hope for Okeke yet, but he needs to make himself a bigger part of Jamahl Mosley’s plans. He has the potential and the skillset to do that as the season progresses.