The Orlando Magic making the trade for Desmond Bane just took a huge bet on Jalen Suggs being the long-term point guard of this team. Up to this point in his career, Suggs has largely rotated his time between the one and the two. This past year, before going down with a season-ending injury, he primarily played point guard, but the Magic only have a 35-game sample size of what that looks like.
Cole Anthony got shipped out in the Bane trade, and the Magic waived Cory Joseph as part of the fallout from the move. Suggs is their guy at the point guard spot now, and they need him to take major strides.
As much as this trade will be a bet on Bane fitting in with their current core, it’s also a huge gamble on Suggs.
Can Jalen Suggs play point guard?
Though he only appeared in 35 games this season, Suggs spent 91% of his time on the court as the point guard. However, his assist numbers don’t necessarily reflect that.
Suggs averaged 3.7 assists per game, which was the second-highest mark of his career after the 4.4 he averaged during his rookie year, but his turnover numbers jumped back up, too. He coughed the ball up 2.9 times per game last year.
On top of that, Suggs’ shooting numbers took a huge dip last season. He shot 41.0% from the field and 31.4% from behind the three-point line, both of which were way down from his third NBA season the year prior.
Part of his drop-offs in stats was due to the fact that the Magic were very injured for a lot of the year. Suggs spent a ton of time playing without Paolo Banchero or Franz Wagner on the court, making him the primary assignment for defenses.
Why Jalen Suggs can work as point guard?
Though Suggs will almost certainly act as the Magic’s point guard next season, he probably won’t be the team’s primary facilitator.
Banchero and Wagner are both very ball-dominant players capable of setting their teammates up. Traditional NBA roles would place Suggs at the head of the table when it comes to playmaking, but today’s NBA can be much different.
Since Banchero and Wagner are the two best players on the Magic at breaking down the defense, they end up defaulting to the role of facilitator more often than not. Suggs will be the point guard, but he almost certainly won’t average the most assists on the team.
Still, the Magic trading for Bane just proved that they are trusting Suggs as the point guard of the organization moving forward.