Noah Penda has the Orlando Magic's DNA

Noah Penda has had a meteoric rise in draft circles, it seems.

The 20-year-old forward graduated from France's second division to the first this year, playing for Le Mans Sarthe last year. He had plenty of moments where he showed the flashes of talent that would maek him one of the most coveted players in the second round of the draft.

Perhaps his biggest moment though came last summer playing at the U20 Eurobasket for France.

In the quarterfinals of the tournament, with France down one and less than five seconds to go, Penda put all the talent and potential together for one glorious moment. He stopped, got his man to fly by him, ducked under the defender and hoisted a three.

Hardly his expertise, this one was true. It was good to win the game.

This mystery man was no longer a mystery. He had sent France to the semifinals on the way to winning the tournament. Penda made a name for himself as a member of the tournament's All-Star team.

Penda showed exactly what he could do and the kind of player he can become.

"Honestly, I'm a very versatile player," Penda said after the NBA Draft on Thursday. "A lot of energy. Everything starts on defense. I've been a pro for three years now in France. So I think I'm just ready to be on an NBA court just by the fact I play defense and multiple positions. I don't [make] a lot of mistakes on offense. But I think things are going to evolve. I'm going to be able to do a lot more with the way Americans work. I'm just really excited to get started."

The Orlando Magic saw plenty of him.

President of basketball operations Jeff Weltman said the team flagged him as someone to monitor on their first trip to Europe this fall. Penda was clearly on the radar after his big summer in the FIBA U20 Eurobasket, where he hit that game-winning shot and averaged 11.7 points, 8.6 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.

He had a solid, but hardly spectacular season for Le Mans Sarthe in France's first division after moving up from the second division this season. He averaged 10.2 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game in 26.9 minutes per game.

Penda was never going to be drafted for what he can produce now. He was always an upside play.

And he always had the profile of the kind of player the Magic like -- big, versatile, long and eager to play defense and play hard. It was no wonder they locked onto him and traded four second-round picks -- their two in the 2025 Draft and a 2026 and 2027 second-round pick -- to move up to No. 32 to take Penda.

In essence, the Magic traded up to get someone they felt matched their DNA. They traded up to get a Magic player.

"You know how important the person is to us," Weltman said after the draft. "We kind of felt he's got Magic DNA. He is a very well-rounded player with an exceptionally high IQ. He's a very smart player on both ends of the court. His statistical numbers with steals, deflections, blocks are at a very high level, and he is able to cover multiple positions. I think fans will see him as a unique player."

Penda has all the elements of the Magic's DNA

The Orlando Magic were, of course, enamored with Noah Penda's size. He measured at 6-foot-7.25 with a 6-foot-11.5 wingspan at the NBA Draft Combine. It is not merely that he is long, he is big too, weighing in at 241.8 pounds at the Combine, too.

Penda carries that weight well. He can muscle up bigger players and has at least shown hints he can switch onto the perimeter and handle guards. The Magic certainly value that versatility. And Penda rates as one of the best defensive wings in the Draft.

For a Magic team that always seems to focus its draft efforts on these measurable skills, Penda checks the boxes. His willingness and eagerness to defend make him as good a cultural fit as any for a Magic team that values defense and has made that the team's identity.

Jeff Weltman said the Magic identified Noah Penda as a target at 25, just as the team believed first-round pick Jase Richardson was a likely target at 16 before they traded that pick. That could have made the Magic more amenable to moving the Earth to get him. They saw him as a first-round talent.

Penda is not without his flaws. He is still incredibly raw. While he hit that high-pressure 3-pointer, he is not a consistent shooter yet, making only 30.4 percent of his threes and 69.3 percent of his free throws last year.

The Magic have a type and that type includes drafting players with physical attributes they like who struggle to shoot from the perimeter. At least initially, Penda would only be asked to inject energy into games off the bench. Orlando will put him on the roster, but he likely would not be a rotation player for a team pondering a championship run.

But Penda is a Magic player through and through. That much is clear from any cursory look at his game. He is a big player who uses his weight, strength and wingspan to full effect, especially on defense.

Weltman sees him as someone who can do a bit of everything. The question will be whether he can get there.

But like all players the Magic like to draft, he is willing to work his way there.

"I think it helped me in a way where I have always been the youngest player on the team. I know what it takes to get on the court and stay on the court," Penda said after the draft. "I know what the Orlando Magic are going to ask me first to get on the court."

Penda will have to earn that spot on the floor. But the thing he has going for him is that he seems to relish and accomplish all the things the Magic look from their players. The rest of his skills, particularly on offense, will need to round into form.

But the Magic again aggressively found their guy. They found someone who seemed destined to play for this team.