The NBA Draft is coming into focus more and more.
Or at least it has probably been in focus for the actual people making the picks. They have been sitting with the prospects for the entire season. And all those t’s and i’s got crossed and dotted as needed.
For us NBA writers, we play catch-up. We spend so much time watching the NBA and its games, we do not always get to the draft prospects until the season ends — whether that is in-season or after the season actually ends.
That catch-up period is ending as we review the prospects and dig a bit deeper into the tape. These prospects and what the Magic want and need from this draft are a bit clearer and known at least to us as we have thought much harder about the offseason.
So what do the Magic need? Where does talent fit into this equation?
These are the things we constantly think about now as the Draft creeps ever closer — just two weeks away now!
With the NBA Draft two weeks away, we look to clarify the Orlando Magic’s goals as we rank our big board for the team.
Now is the time to start clarifying goals and clarifying what the Magic want to get out of this draft. For a team that is perhaps eager to make its playoff push next year, understanding how this draft fits into the larger team-building project could be key to accomplishing that goal.
Of course, Orlando is also still a rebuilding project. They are probably still too young and too raw to ignore talent when it comes across their path.
That is why an exercise like this — putting together a big board — is so vital. It has a way of clarifying what we value — or at least in this case what I value — in this draft class.
The Magic’s needs are still many. They need depth (a fancy way of saying more talent), shooting, backup bigs and versatile forwards. We can point to the things the team could use to complete its roster. it is whether the team can find that in this draft.
Prospects are still crisscrossing the country and making appearances in front of their prospective teams. How much to value those workouts or who works out where is of course up for debate — the Magic did not even formally interview Paolo Banchero until a week before the Draft last year.
The Magic are absolutely casting a very wide net this time around. You have to when you have two picks in the top-11. And there are indeed a million different directions the Magic could end up going this year.
So then it is time to update our big board with this in mind. We are going to spend this board evaluating and ranking the draft prospects based on the Magic’s needs and their goals.