2023 Orlando Magic Daily Mock Draft 1.5
The Draft Begins
Mock Draft 1.0 Pick: Ausar Thompson
I can’t get behind the twins. We don’t need another athletic guard that can’t shoot. I think Cam Whitmore is gonna really surprise people. Villanovas play style didn’t allow him to show his full game
— Sausalito (@WFKeano) May 3, 2023
The top three in this draft are pretty well set. The real challenge for a lot of people as they begin to assess this draft class comes with the fourth pick and what the team there might do.
That goes especially for the Orlando Magic. Because after that top three, you run into players who are extremely talented, but also extremely flawed.
The Thompson twins — Amen Thompson and Ausar Thompson — are going to be a flash point for how teams evaluate potential and talent over current ability. And how much they trust what they saw in Overtime Elite. Nobody is quite sure what to make of it.
Amen Thompson won our community poll fairly easily. I have Ausar Thompson rated ahead of Amen Thompson on my Magic big board because Ausar is a better shooter at this point, although not as elite athletically. He is still pretty good, that should not be viewed as a knock on him.
But I got a lot of comments like the one above where readers were a little gunshy about taking both Thompson twins. Neither are great shooters and get by on their athleticism. That kind of player should only raise more questions considering the league they played in did not exactly test their flaws (Ausar was the MVP of the league for his shooting, so that is something?).
What also came up at this juncture is that readers felt limited by the few options I could provide on Twitter’s poll function. For that, I apologize. We got votes at this point for Jarace Walker, Taylor Hendricks and Anthony Black.
That speaks to how deep this draft can be and how unenthused some might be about what these players can become.
Mock Draft 1.0 Pick: Cam Whitmore
The #Magic cannot pick fifth, so a flash vote for our community mock draft. Be honest guys, who would the Blazers pick? Quick vote here so we can get to the #Magic’s actual pick:
— Orlando Magic Daily (@OMagicDaily) May 3, 2023
With the way the NBA Draft Lottery works, the Orlando Magic cannot land the fifth pick. So did our voters game the system to make sure the players they want the Magic to have are still available?
Not quite. You can tell this is still a close vote of a lot of different players.
The voters ultimately went with Jarace Walker with a narrow victory. Walker is an undersized big but is incredibly smart as a basketball player. He is able to make plays off the dribble and find guys off the bounce while finishing around the rim.
He may not quite fit everything the Magic need because he is not a great shooter. But he is going to slot in really well with an experienced team. The Portland Trail Blazers are indeed a good landing spot for him.