Orlando Magic Daily 2023 NBA Draft Big Board 2.0
Tier 1: The Best of the Best
There are some players who you need to find a fit within your team and your system. And there are some players you fit your team around.
Paolo Banchero certainly falls into the latter category. That is ultimately why they took him in that hotly debated draft. He is someone the team can orbit around. It does not matter who else is on the team. You have time to find those pieces.
Victor Wembanyama is probably the only player in this draft who fits that category. There are just not many players at his size — 7-foot-3, in case you did not know — who move as fluidly as he can both on the interior and on the perimeter.
Wembanyama is that dude. And there is not much he cannot do that does not feel unique to a player of his size.
Like with Banchero, do not overthink this.
After Victor Wembanyama? That is where this draft gets interesting. There is definitely a clear group of three at the top. And there is plenty of debate about who will go second. That might come down to what the team that lands in second needs.
And that is why I still have Scoot Henderson second on my board.
Henderson is a dynamic athlete who is able to get to the basket and set up his own shot off the dribble. His 3-point shooting and outside shooting could still use some work — he made only 27.5 percent of his 3-pointers for G-League Ignite while shooting 76.4 percent from the foul line.
But he was still a solid scorer at 16.5 points per game and 6.5 assists per game.
The Magic need a boost at guard. And Henderson can play both on and off the ball. But he might ultimately take over as the point guard for the team in the long term. That fits better than trying to fit him in with the Magic’s two big forwards.
If Orlando takes a big swing on a potential star in this draft, it would likely come at the guard position with him or one of the Thompson twins.
Still, for a lot of teams, Brandon Miller is going to be pretty high on their draft boards. He might be second on most other big boards over Scoot Henderson.
Miller is an impressive forward who is fluid and can do all the things modern forwards have to do in the league. And even a team like the Orlando Magic might consider taking the 6-foot-9 forward.
His greatest attribute over Henderson is his shooting. He made 38.4 percent of his 3-pointers and 85.9 percent of his free throws. That should allow him to step onto an NBA floor and contribute.
But if the Magic land in a spot where they could take Miller, they will have to ask themselves whether he projects to be better than Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero. The team can probably live with that question for a year — Wagner did play some 2-guard early in the season to some success — but it would certainly impede everyone’s development to be too loaded with key players at the same position.
That does not mean the Magic should avoid the question. If Miller is the best player on the board, it is often better to draft talent and ask questions later. But that is a big question to ask. And Henderson is a talented player himself.