Orlando Magic: 2017 NBA Draft Grades
Jonathan Isaac headlines a night where Orlando made a few curious trades with their later draft picks.
Jonathan Isaac (6th overall) / Forward / Florida State University
12ppg/7.8rpg/1.2apg/1.2spg/1.5bpg/1.5TO
Grade: B
After the top of the draft more or less went as expected, Orlando’s best options at 6th were Isaac and Dennis Smith Jr., and they decided to go with the high-upside freshman forward from Florida State. Isaac has plenty of upside, but the big questions surround his fit on a roster with another very similar player in Aaron Gordon.
If he fulfills his potential, Isaac could be a dominating force on defense and a versatile weapon on offense, defending multiple positions while taking opponents off the bounce and spotting up on the other end. His ability to protect the rim and switch on defense makes him a perfect fit for the modern NBA.
The problems arise if he doesn’t develop enough shooting to play alongside Gordon. Based on last season, Gordon is clearly best suited to a role as a small-ball power forward, but that might be Isaac’s best position as well. It’s hard to imagine a world where those players coexist if neither is a reliable threat from long range, unless Isaac somehow swings minutes as a center. That would require significant bulking up, however, given Isaac’s narrow 210-pound frame.
Still, Isaac is one of the players in this draft that could turn into something special, and special players are what the Magic need. I might have preferred they take DSJ here, but Isaac was probably the highest-upside player available.
Wesley Iwundu (33rd overall) / Shooting Guard / Kansas State University
After moving the 25th and 35rd picks for future assets, Orlando took one more rookie, the senior guard from Kansas St. Orlando is banking on Iwundu as a late bloomer who showed significant growth between his junior and senior years, adding a decent 3-point shot to his game and demonstrating solid physical tools.
Iwundu is unlikely to be a dominant player in the NBA and has showed a tendency to play somewhat passively and inconsistently, and his shooting is still something of a question mark, but Iwundu is still an all-around solid player. He’s a good rebounder for his position and was able to defend multiple positions at the college level.
Like many players drafted in that area, Iwundu’s NBA success will ultimately come down to whether he can develop one or two skills which can set him apart from the crowd. For him, that will likely be his shooting, a skill the Magic could desperately use from any position. If he’s a consistent threat from long range, he’ll be able to find a place in the league.
TRADES
Orlando send the 25th pick to Philadelphia for OKC’s 2020 1st round pick and a 2020 2nd round pick.
Orlando sends the 35th pick to Memphis for Brooklyn’s 2018 2nd round pick.
The premise behind these trades is easy enough to understand: As President Jeff Weltman confirmed afterwards, Orlando had little interest in drafting four rookies this year, and decided to roll those trades forward into future assets.
The problem lies in the execution, especially with that 25th pick. The first round draft pick they’ll receive in 2020 has a series of complicated protections and conditions which significantly lower its value. Long story short, the best they can get is the 21st pick in the 2020 draft, and at worst it could turn into multiple second round picks.
This seems like incredibly low value for a pick being made in 2017. There’s a very good chance that the picks they’ll get are worse than 25th in position, never mind that they’re being made three years from now. Weltman was unwilling to speak about the exact nature of these protections, so we can only speculate for now, but it seems like Orlando was so desperate to not draft a player they took a bad deal just to push that pick forward.
The 35th pick is more defensible, albeit still a low-value transaction. Brooklyn will probably still be among the worst teams in the league, but even if they show some improvement that pick should still be in the 30s. In other words, you could think about it as moving the 35th pick forward to a similar pick next year. It’s not an equal-value deal, but it’s more defensible than the other trade.
