Monday night’s big-time comeback victory for the Orlando Magic over the Philadelphia 76ers showed all that is good and bad about the team in four quarters.
The Magic were sloppy and sluggish for large portions of the game but were able to come all the way back against a 76ers side that failed to execute properly en route to a 119-109 win.
With the organization now one game into an important four-game road trip, every win is crucial in the quest for the play-in tournament.
Looking at it from another angle, however, and results like this one can paper over the cracks that are the maddening inconsistencies of this group.
One such Orlando Magic player going through his own personal slump at the moment is Bol Bol, and although he has regressed, there is no need to really worry just yet.
It was not so long ago we were waxing lyrical about Bol Bol’s unicorn abilities. Calling him “Wembanyama-lite” was kind of tongue in cheek, but he was demonstrating a newfound offensive ability that rightly had Magic fans excited.
This season, he has career highs in minutes per game at 24.4 (double his previous high of 12.4 in his rookie season), points (11.0, previous high 5.7 points again from his rookie season) and rebounds (6.6), as well as an impressive 1.5 blocks per night.
BOL BOL BLOCK ➡️ COLE ANTHONY OOP 🤯 pic.twitter.com/tdlgQX5qRc
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 24, 2023
He has shot a passable 34.7 percent from 3-point range on 1.6 attempts per game, and there is no player in the league who can block his shot once he gets it up from outside the 3-point arc.
All of the above sounds good, so what is the problem then?
Well, in the comeback win over the 76ers, Bol managed only 10 minutes of action on the court. That is a worry for him, and a serious comedown from what he has managed this season.
He was held scoreless and only took two attempts all night. Contrast this with the rest of the season, where he has averaged roughly eight shots per contest.
It may be that the 76ers game was an anomaly, as he averaged 23 and 20 minutes respectively in the two games that preceded it. The only issue is the Magic lost both of those games. To make matter worse in the two games before that again, he played 15 and 17 minutes.
The Magic won both of those contests. We know this is not as simple as saying Bol is a detriment to winning. There is more happening here than that.
But facts are facts, and in the month of January, Bol averaged only 7.1 points in 17.4 minutes of action per game. He also did not make a single 3-pointer in the month, having attempted eight of them.
Contrast this to only two months ago, when Bol averaged more than 30 minutes of action per night in November and looked like he could have a real say in the franchise’s immediate future.
On a nightly basis, Bol is at best a trying player in a large body on the defensive end and at worst, a complete liability. This had already been established, so what else has happened to account for the continued drop-off in Bol’s time on the court?
The answer is simple, and is that the organization finally have a near fully healthy rotation. Center Wendell Carter missed some time earlier in the campaign, but he is back now and is the team’s starting big.
Bol did play in some starting lineups alongside Carter, and has started 32 games this season. But that jumbo starting group was getting exposed more and more by opponents, who are no longer getting caught out by the surprise that is the Magic.
https://twitter.com/NBA/status/1619512938410446848
Of more concern to Bol and his personal development is Jonathan Isaac’s return. He also managed 10 minutes on the court versus the 76ers, and is already a much more fully-formed defensive player than Bol. Soon the Magic are likely to ramp up Isaac’s minutes, further cutting into Bol’s playing time.
Really Isaac is just a better, more controlled and well-rounded player than Bol, even after missing so much time through injury. On top of this, Bol also has to contend with Moe Wagner and even Mo Bamba competing for his minutes as well.
But really it is Isaac who represents the biggest threat to the niche Bol has created for himself on this Magic roster. One that is already under attack and which has seen him moved more to the fringes of the rotation in January.
All is not lost, however, as Bol represents a matchup conundrum for plenty of opponents, and his offensive game is difficult to game-plan. The Magic always seem to have players out injured, so the next opportunity for Bol could be just around the corner.
We do not need to panic about Bol’s future with the Magic just yet, but these developments for him are not ideal.
Could you make the argument that the franchise should trade him before this deadline, and cash in on a player they got for nothing while he has some actual value in the league?
It would seem short-sighted, and this lull for Bol was always going to happen when the Magic got healthy. It is how he responds next that will define his time with the organization.