Orlando Magic Daily Mock Draft 2.3: Resetting the balance
2023 Orlando Magic Daily Mock Draft 2.3
The Orlando Magic’s Pick
player. 38. . SF. Orlando Magic. Cam Whitmore. 6
What the Orlando Magic should do is really that battle between picking a player with upside and maybe some fit questions or settling for fit at the expense of talent.
That might be a poor framing of the debate with the Magic.
Instead, it perhaps should be about using this draft as a last chance to add high-end talent to the roster before they start competing. Or to use this draft pick as the home run swing while taking a safer pick that fits a need with the No. 11 pick.
At this point with how the draft shakes out, it would seem this is the likely path the team takes rather than taking a bigger swing at No. 11. There are players who could be dynamic scorers and add to the team.
And this is where the biggest change in this mock draft takes place. I passed on Ausar Thompson the first time around in favor of Taylor Hendricks, recognizing Hendricks gives the team some shooting and rim protection with defensive versatility. But Hendricks is a limited player in some respects. He does not project to be a star.
The reality is the Magic probably should be seeking out a player with star potential. They do not need that player to be a star, but they should be thinking about a player who can do more than fill out a narrow role.
Ausar Thompson is the ultimate home run swing for the Magic if he drops to six.
He is still an unknown bundle of potential who can play a role at the very least a defender and slasher with the talent and athleticism to become something greater and slot in comfortably at shooting guard. He has that wingspan the Magic like too — 6-foot-5.75 without shoes with a 7-foot wingspan.
He is gone in this mock draft scenario. And so really the only guy left to take that fits that criteria is Cam Whitmore.
Do not make that sound like the Magic are “settling” for Whitmore. Whitmore had a weird up-and-down season as he dealt with a wrist injury for a good chunk of it. His shooting percentages suffered for it.
But he is a big guy — 6-foot-5.75 with a 6-foot-8.5 wingspan and coming in at 235 pounds. He knows how to use his physicality to pinball around the paint. On top of this he has really good athleticism for a player of his size — his 40.5-inch max vertical leap was the fourth-best in the Combine’s measurements.
Whitmore was on the ball a lot and was dealing with a wrist injury throughout the season. So his shooting numbers do not look great — 34.3 percent from deep and just 70.3 percent from foul line. But he was an effective spot-up shooter — 1.11 points per possession on spot-up opportunities — when he did get the opportunity.
However, Whitmore was not much of a generator of scoring opportunities for others despite his driving ability. He had a 6.4 percent assist rate and averaged only 0.7 assists per game.
There are a lot of questions Whitmore will need to answer. And fitting him in with a different environment may help answer some of those questions. Especially where he is not a star.
His upside though is greater than anyone else in the draft. And if the goal is to get someone who can play a role with some upside to grow, Whitmore is probably the option.