2017–18 NBA Preview: Orlando Magic
It’s time for a quick thought exercise. What is the first thing that comes to mind when someone asks you what gives you that “magic feeling?” Was it the Orlando Magic? Perhaps, the face of Frank Vogel filled your vision. Likely, it wasn’t basketball related. Well, whatever it was for you, I can tell you for certain that I am not feeling the Magic in 2017.
Orlando has been rummaging around in basketball’s basement since the end of the Stan Van Gundy era. Time moves at an accelerated pace in sports. A single season isn’t a full calendar year and so much is compressed into it with finality and resolution. It’s an intense, suspenseful, and very enjoyable process to observe and immerse yourself in. Unfortunately, when those intense experiences manifest as failure, the excruciation is magnified. It’s only been a handful of years since the Magic were at the top of the Eastern Conference, yet they were immediately and (seemingly) permanently eclipsed by their Floridian neighbors, the Miami Heat.
They’ve been a truly bad team for five years running. The problem compounds further when you see the drafting, the trades, the coaching changes and the general position of the franchise entering the 2017–18 season.
Still with me? Here’s another thought exercise: Is Aaron Gordon a small forward?
No.
No he isn’t.
He’s not.
Not at all.
Please, someone that works for Orlando has to understand this. Playing him out of position hurts the whole team and does potentially irreversible damage to his career.
Gordon has played in the NBA for three years now. He’s never broken 30 percent from 3-point range. He’s a power forward who entered the league with potential to grow into a Blake Griffin role. Instead, he’s pushed out to the wing against smaller, faster players. He’s also forced to shoot the ball from well outside his range often.
Vogel, as a coach, has always had problems on the offensive end of the floor. He was credited as making up for that much the same way as Tom Thibodeau did with the Chicago Bulls — consistently top 10 defenses. When the Indiana Pacers parted with Vogel, it seemed like a bad move. It might have been. One thing that Larry Bird said, and I wish I could find the source right now, was that they believed the defense could remain good because it was attributed not to Vogel, but to one of his assistant coaches. Kind of a huge dig at Vogel, but also great praise for his associates and a vote of confidence in Pacer basketball.
Short version of the story: Orlando wasn’t good on either side of the ball and with Gordon being played out of position often, it was a bad look for organization and coach.
Despite my general tone of negativity, there are some players to be excited about on this Magic squad. They just drafted Jonathan Isaac with the №6 pick in the draft. I’m not sure if they were thinking he was the best player available or if they were excited to draft a backup for Gordon at the four. Whatever their process was, they grabbed a player that should be pretty good, even if it eventually creates a bit of a traffic jam at power forward. That’s a long time from now.
Orlando still has Evan Fournier, Bismack Biyombo, and Nikola Vucevic. All three players offer something that can be classified as upside and provide strength at guard and center. Terrence Ross came over from the Toronto Raptors last season and started immediately for the Magic. He’s a great wing option and might be enough to keep Gordon at power forward.
Elfrid Payton had a good season in 2016–17. He showed out against the Chicago Bulls, and generally had a great season. He put up his best 2-point and free throw shooting of his career, career high in scoring numbers, and kept his assists at 6.5 per game. In all, he’s developing all areas of his game as he enters his fourth season in the NBA. He took a hit in 3-point shooting last year, but if he continues to progress in all other facets of the game, you’ll take it.
I’d like to put something right here that is positive about Mario Hezonja, but he’s very bad and I would like the record to show that he has been a complete disappointment since coming to the United States. He’s been anything but good and he regressed is basically every category. That’s a bad indication of what he’s going to look like this season.
I was deeply saddened that the San Antonio Spurs didn’t retain the services of Jonathon Simmons. San Antonio’s loss is Orlando’s gain. Simmons is a great story. He’s either a made-good baller that used his skill to get himself from D-League tryout to Gregg Popovich system rotation cog to his change-your-life-kind-of-money contract with the Magic this summer. He’s a highlight dunker and he should fit in nicely as a second unit guy that will give maximum effort on both ends of the floor and help to keep something about Orlando viral this season every time he rains down a dunk more absurd that the one before.
A small step back for Orlando last season, but this season it looks like they should take two steps forward with another season of Vogel in charge with the core of last season’s roster intact. Their over-under in 30.5 wins this season, and I’d take them with a slim over. I’d say yes to 31 wins, maybe 32. I have no confidence beyond that and wouldn’t be surprised if they hovered right around that 30-win mark in either direction.
For the sake of Chris Barnewall, I feel that it is only fitting that I conclude the Magic season preview with a simple rating: Party Parrots. On a scale of zero Party Parrots to five Party Parrots, I suspect we see precisely one Party Parrot this season.
