3 Questions, 6 People, 18 Orlando Magic Answers

By The Crew



Epe4ooSW4AAcGFp.jpg

It’s Pre-Season in the NBA after a super quick training camp and a fast-approaching regular-season start to the 2020/21 NBA season. We wanted to have some fun, so we asked 3 simple questions to a group of our content producers Let's not mess around with a long into and just dive into it.

Luke Smith

What Magic player are you most looking forward to this season and why?
Cole Anthony – I don’t wanna be too much of a homer, but I think there’s a genuine chance we may have gotten the steal of the draft with this kid. In two pre-season games he’s already shown me a level of comfort (or at least willingness to explore) in regards to his offence that we simply don’t have our guards who are usually relied upon the most in that sense. There’s gonna be some warts for sure, there’s gonna be struggles with shot selection and moments where our limited spacing negates what he can bring with his speed/shiftiness. But my thing is, there is just the straight up potential for something we haven’t had in a while when it comes to our attack. When he hit that jumper after folding Brandon Goodwin to the floor. Honestly, when was the last time the Magic had a guy like that? Let alone a guy like that who still has room to improve and grow? Exciting times.

What would make this season for the Magic a success in your opinion?
I think there’s just a few key decisions this year that need to be handled well from a franchise standpoint. We’re not a top 6 team, and we’re probably too good to completely bottom out (and it seems pretty fair to continue with the assumption the front office just won’t do that), so let’s just approach it like this – We’re a play in team who probably needs to move Evan at the deadline no matter where we’re at. If Cole is killing it in minutes next to ‘Kelle, start him after you trade Evan (make sure his value is as high as possible). If the best we can get at the deadline we can get for Evan is two seconds from a contender? Fine, that might have to be it, but don’t let him walk.

From there, at the end of the season – if we have gotten something (There’s gonna be a lot of contention from fans around what we can get, but there’s also the reality of what happens on the phone conversations we’re not privy to) for Evan, we have managed to have good developmental seasons from Cole, Fultz and Chuma and we’ve been able to remain in the national spotlight somewhat by being in a play-in game, then there’s a few boxes ticked there for fans and organization alike.

However, if we’re about halfway through the season and we’re getting ravaged by injuries and it just ain’t coming together – I need us to tank. Cade/Evan Mobley szn let’s goooo.

What is one prediction or hot take you have about the upcoming season?
That it might be slower going with Chuma than some of us thought/hoped. I know this isn’t like a wild hot take cause now we do have some footage (It’s also not an overreaction), but there’s a confluence of things here – the amount of time off, the nerves he talked about, how he just looks nervous on the court, and the handle and general feel looking a bit less than I thought. It’s ok – I’m not saying he’s gonna be horrible and we’ve gotta wait it out for a whole season. It’s just I think the collective feeling for Magic fans is that we’ve hoped he might become the floor spacing forward that Isaac needs and like some other guys who’ve come in after missing their first year, they’d look like they’d benefited from being around the organization. Chuma, however, with the fact he didn’t sign his rookie contract, it meant there were some limitations on his actual involvement with the top team, and was around Lakeland a lot more. Chuma hopefully will become the forward that can be paired next to Isaac (floor spacing, able to attack a closeout etc), not what Aaron Gordon thinks he is and thinks he needs to be next to Jonathan Isaac. All I’m saying is, I’m ready for it to maybe look a little rough or at least coming along slowly at times.

Jonathan Alicea

What Magic player are you most looking forward to this season and why?
My heart tells me it’s Vooch. I love watching the guy play. But in truth, I’m looking forward to seeing Cole Anthony. His ceiling is up for debate, but there’s no questioning that the last time the Magic drafted a guard of this caliber was Jameer Nelson in 2004.

What would make this season for the Magic a success in your opinion?
There are two measures of success. 1. Making the playoffs. 2. Seeing (hopefully) further development for Fultz and Bamba, and of course, seeing what Okeke and Anthony have.

What is one prediction or hot take you have about the upcoming season?
My hot takes; Evan Fournier is good at basketball. Nikola Vucevic is also good at basketball. My biggest hot take however is simple: Aaron Gordon will make his All Star push this year.

Kenneth Chang

What Magic player are you most looking forward to this season and why?

Markelle Fultz: With D.J. Augustin no longer on the roster, Fultz now has the keys to fully run the offense without looking over his shoulder. The hope here is that during this short offseason, Magic head coach Steve Clifford designed a big chunk of the offense to run through Fultz due to the success he had during the second half of last season. With renewed confidence and having the trust from his coaches and teammates, I expect Fultz to begin to resemble the player that was picked #1 overall in 2017. 

What would make this season for the Magic a success in your opinion?

The continued development of Markelle Fultz along with positive contributions from the rookie’s Cole Anthony and Chuma Okeke. We need health from the young guys and that includes Mo Bamba. Win/Loss record is not a deal-breaker for me in this shortened season. They are already out with one of its top players in Jonathan Isaac for the entire 20/21 campaign. Therefore, this should be a development year. 

What is one prediction or hot take you have about the upcoming season?

Cole Anthony will make an all-rookie team and be a candidate for rookie of the year as he will see his minutes increase alongside Markelle Fultz. 

RAMIN BAIAT

What Magic player are you most looking forward to this season and why?

The boring, but probably the best answer to this question is Nikola Vucevic. In the bubble, we saw Vucevic 3 point attempts go up to 8.8 per game and the results were noticeable. Not only did we add our second-best offensive action to the game - the Markelle/Vuc pick and pop, only behind Vucevic playmaking out of the post - but we also cleared the lane for other players to score on an opened up paint. Vucevic converting his pick and pop, and really all his 3s will be huge to regaining our '18 spacing while becoming more dynamic. Defensensivly will he more stretched. AG will have room to get his early post touches that he needs to catch his rhythm. Cole and Evan will be able to play-make better and be the recipient of more open looks more frequently. However probably most important, in the pick and role specifically, teams will have to decide if they want to make sure to take away the hoop from Markelle drives, or the 3 from Vucevic. This is how we set Markelle loose. A lot comes down to Vucevic 3 point progression. My hope is he takes a lot early and often and by mid-season, we start reaping the benefits.

What would make this season for the Magic a success in your opinion?

This might sound like an obvious answer but to me a successful year would just the guys playing well. I'm not really concerned with making the playoffs or not, but if the youth play well we have more to build with. If the vets play well, we know either the pieces are beginning to fit and/or we have more valuable trade chips. If we go out swinging in the Play-Offs, I won’t really care to be honest. This draft class coming up is nice. I mostly just wanna see the guys play well. In a sense, I’m very happy the competition for the 8th seed became much harder as of late.

What is one prediction or hot take you have about the upcoming season?

My hot take is Vucevic will be a top 30 player. My cold take is, all the youngsters will take a reasonable sized step forward, including Mo. We saw him start to learn to use his ridiculous length well (led the league in blk%) and we saw the 3 ball at 34.6% while continuing his in between growth. Still, a ways to go but progress was clearly there.

Wyatt Nebergall

What Magic player are you most looking forward to this season and why?
#1a Cole, #1b Okeke, plain and simple rookies carry a ton of “what if” and potential that is always fun and does not need to be explained.

However, for me, AG is THE guy I still feel can take things to a new level. I believe the game has slowed down for AG and this season we ACTUALLY may find him in a good offensive rhythm.

What would make this season for the Magic a success in your opinion?

Wins.

What is one prediction or hot take you have about the upcoming season?

Cole Anthony and Chuma Okeke will both draw media attention in the second half of the season for ROY candidates due to their success in the second unit. This will kick-start a constant comparison of Chuma and Cole amongst fans and media that will lead to conflict in 2023/24 season.

XAVIER GREEN

What Magic player are you most looking forward to this season and why?

I am looking forward to watching Cole Anthony this season. I guess it is mostly due to us finally having a young, exciting perimeter prospect again that’s not massively flawed (Fultz has..issues) it also helps that he projects to be an elite shooter at the next level. I bought a bunch of Anthony stock as he was my number 2 prospect in the class.

What would make this season for the Magic a success in your opinion?

What would make this season for the Magic a success in your opinion? A success for the Magic this offseason would be Fultz, Bamba, Okeke, and Anthony making meaningful strides during the regular season. I don’t necessarily care about the W/L column, as long as our young core grows and is prepared to have a really nice season next year with Isaac fully healthy. Getting assets for a guy like Fournier and AG pumping his trade value with Isaac’s absence would also be nice.

What is one prediction or hot take you have about the upcoming season?

What is one prediction or hot take you have about the upcoming season? Markelle Fultz will be a MIP candidate.

There you have it. Three questions. Six different people. A lot of different answers.

If you enjoyed this article please share it with a friend and continue to support The Close Up Magic and our team if you can. Please feel free to let us know your feedback

Stephen Cameron