3 Orlando Magic players ready for a bigger role

3 Orlando Magic players ready for a bigger role

3. Chuma Okeke

We start with Chuma Okeke, even though he is currently out injured. The fact he is unavailable is only highlighting his potential importance to this group, and why he should be given more minutes as soon as his body is able to handle the load.

Okeke is averaging the 11th most minutes per game on this roster (21.8), despite the fact he does some things that few others on the roster are capable of. He is a wing defender with the body type and skill set that most contenders would love to have.

He is not exactly Jaylen Brown though. Offensively his 5.4 points per night on 30-percent shooting from deep are not moving the needle. In the last eight games (the amount Okeke has missed), the Magic’s defensive rating of 117.2 (25th in the league) has matched that of the rating the team had when Okeke has been out there this season (117.1).

That might not bode well for Okeke, but who do they have on this roster who is able to defend a star like Zion Williamson? Jayson Tatum? Devin Booker?

Again Okeke has a long way to go as a defender, and these players will still generally get the shots that they want.

But as we have seen before, Okeke has the body type and movement to slow these guys down in ways that nobody else can. Ideal as it may sound to have Bol Bol haunting these guys everywhere on the court, that is not sustainable for 30 minutes a night and he is needed in the paint.

Give Okeke five more minutes per game to start with, and good things can happen.