Preseason Takeaways

By: Jonathan Alicea

Sure, the Magic brought back almost the entire 18-19 roster this year (goodbye Timofey Mozgov, you sweet sweet prince. we hardly knew ya). The starting five, barring injury, will remain the same as last year (DJ/Fournier/AG/Isaac/Vucevic) but the bench will more or less look completely different. Steve Clifford claims he will be running a 9 man rotation, but through preseason it looked like he was toying around with a 10 man rotation. Those next five guys are Terrance Ross, Markelle Fultz (zero games with the Magic last year), Michael Carter-Williams (twelve regular-season games with the Magic last year), Mo Bamba (47 games with the Magic last year) and Al Farouq Aminu (zero games with the Magic last year). That second unit is completely unfamiliar with one another. Chemistry has yet to be established there and it was glaringly obvious during the preseason. This is a team that was only one game above .500 last year, and up until the bench shake up (Bamba injury, pushing Jerian Grant out of rotation and trading Jonathon Simmons) were a sub .500 team and looking lottery-bound yet again. Isaiah Briscoe, Wes Iwundu and Khem Birch were massively instrumental in the team’s playoff push post All-Star break and now those three guys are either out of the rotation or out of the league entirely (Dear, Isaiah Briscoe…WHERE ARE YEEWWWWW *Tom Delonge voice*). The hope is that Fultz, Bamba, and Aminu can figure things out on the fly because the margin for error is slim.

Optimism. That, My Friends, Is Contagious. And So Are Turnovers.

There isn’t a person involved with the Magic that believes the team WON’T make the playoffs again this year. Jeff Weltman? Playoffs. Steve Clifford? Playoffs. The players? Playoffs. Make no mistake about it, its playoffs or bust this year. However, as optimistic as everyone is, there is some trepidation. The general consensus is that even though the talent is there, the understanding is if the team doesn’t play hard and stick to their principles that they could potentially slide. Steve Clifford has constantly stressed the importance of taking care of the ball, however, during preseason the team struggled mightily in that regard. Throughout his career Steve Clifford coached teams took care of the ball, they seldom if ever beat themselves, and effort/energy was a point of emphasis each night. Sure, the team struggled with some injuries and the games were mere exhibition matches, but the team did not look like the stereotypical Coach Clifford teams of years gone by. With that being said, there is optimism to be had. The play was sloppy, absolutely, but how much of that was due to injury? How much of that was due to a completely new bench rotation? How much of it was due to the fact that most professional athletes don’t give a shit about exhibition play? In all likelihood, things will sharpen up, but as stated in the previous paragraph, the error for margin is slim with this team. If they want to match (or exceed) last year’s performance, these guys are going to have to come together and nip these mistakes in the bud.

Terrance Ross: 6th Man of the Year?

Let me reiterate this: ITS ONLY PRESEASON. But Terrance Ross looks damn good thus far. Is there a better bad shot maker in the NBA? I doubt it. But The Human Torch also takes good shots (and makes them obviously), but recently he has been putting the ball on the floor a bit more. Early in the offseason, Terrance Ross said that Steve Clifford wanted him to operate as a pick n roll ball handler more and that’s exactly what happened during the preseason. The sample size is small and I’m not trying to dive deep into analytics for exhibition games, but the results were promising. Last season, Ross averaged 2.3apg per 36, in a 5 game preseason sample those assist numbers jumped slightly to 2.7apg. A more prominent stat would be FTA, last season T-Ross averaged 2.4 FTA per 36, whereas during this year’s preseason that number jumped to 3.9 FTA per game. Although the percentages were down, The Human Torch still managed a very respectable 14.2/2/1.4 in the preseason, if you translate those numbers to per 36 that story becomes A LOT more promising (27.5/3.9/2.7). Obviously I’m not saying Terrance Ross is going to average 27ppg this season, but even if he only marginally improves on his performance from last year, I think it goes without question that he should be considered the front runner for 6th Man of The Year.