The Wendell Carter question requires some more patience but the standings won’t wait

The Wendell Carter question requires some more patience but the standings won’t wait

Everyone is sticking it everyone is at least marginally talking about it what are the magic gonna do about wend Del Carter and when is he gonna get right we’ll dive into some of the early numbers and reset that story plus it’s time for a standings check and look at

The stats in December we’ll get to that on today’s episode of Locked on mat you are locked on Magic your daily Orlando Magic podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day and you are indeed locked on Magic today is is December 29th 2023 my name is Philip Rossman I’m the expert and site editor over at orlandomagic.com follow me on Twitter Philip rrd on today’s episode of lock on Magic we’re g to talk a little bit more we

Talked a little bit about it yesterday I want to reset those numbers we’re to talk more about Wendel Carter’s issues since coming back why patience is still the word but why maybe there should be a little bit of a shorter leash we’ll get to that coming up here in J plus we’ll

Do standing check and take a look at the stats for the Magic in December try to figure out what is going on with this team we get all that coming up here in just moment but first we want to thank you again for making lockdown magic part

Of your day every day no matter when you listen to us whether it’s first in the morning whether it’s right when we upload we truly appreciate you making lockdown magic part of your day every day remember this’s a great lockdown podcast covering every single team in

The NBA to search for lock down and the team you’re looking for the lockdown podcast Network it’s your team every day today’s episode of lockdown magic is brought to you by prize picks the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports go to prize.com lockon

NBA and use code all lowercase lockon NBA for a first deposit match of up to $100 don’t forget the Orlando match take on the New York Knicks tonight at 7 eastern time the final home game of the 2023 calendar year the magic looking for

Their first win at the Kia Center or I I mean they’ve won plenty of times in the building but since it was named the Kia Center and you can catch every every play of the Orlando Magic’s home broadcast home or way on the Sirius XM

App go to this sxm app and search for Orlando Magic today okay we talked about this yesterday I had some numbers I hadn’t quite updated them over the last two games um but it’s something that I get asked about a lot it’s something I see talked about a lot in Magic chat rooms

And Magic circles and and the magic people that I talk with uh you know my cousin for text texted me and said hey I’m trying to defend wend Carter you got any numbers to help me and and I said you know I have some but the overall

Picture is not good and and so I want to spend I want to give it big you know we talked about at the end of the episode yesterday I do want to give it proper due because it is a big issue for the Orlando Magic it is not the issue for

The team I I want you make that clear um we’ll talk about some of the issues for the team uh coming up here at toward the end of the episode because the issue for the magic is not something that a wendo Carter Goa baz switch is gonna fix yes

All the numbers do say that the magic are better with Goa baz on the floor if the magic had to win a game tomorrow I would tell you start goab batad if the if the M you know magic have to win a game tomorrow obviously

But um if the magic were in a must-win situation if they were in a playoff series I don’t know if I would have wend Carter even out there right now um at this juncture yes Goa baz is a better uh or is playing better is is someone more

Consistent more reliable in the short term but as I’ve often explained to people the reason why Wendell Carter is in now is because it’s not about today as much as the magic need to win and the magic do need to win we’ll get to that

In a minute as much as the magic need to win they’re also playing for April they’re ALS Al thinking about what’s going to help us win the games matter a little bit more and and it’s not regular season games mattering a little bit more it’s the playin tournament it’s the

Playoffs who’s the player that’s gonna help us win those games and at the end of the day the wend Carter of the magic had last year that averaged 16 almost 16 points per game averag eight rebounds per game that shot 53% floor was a 35 36% three-point shooter that Wendell

Carter that player helps the magic a ton because he’s not just a great offensive player he is an excellent Defender and that’s what the magic are banking on the magic are not going to change their starting lineup wendor Carter has played five games since coming back it’s been a week since he

Was back from the injury from a 20 game absence for more than a month out it was going to take a little while for him to be healthy again for him to play at a level that we could say okay he is fully healthy for every great play

That he has and he’s had some good plays he had some two very nice blocks in Thursday’s game I did not think he played particularly poorly on Wednesday against Philadelphia um I thought that he did some good things but obviously it’s not enough and both it’s a both a

Problem and insurance that the magic aren’t playing in his full compliment in minutes they don’t trust him enough to play his full 30 minutes per game he’s averaging around 15 16 17 18 he played 21 I think on Wednesday he’s not playing his full compliment of minutes yet and

That honestly it’s a statement that yes Goa baz has been very very good and remains very very good but it’s a statement that yes they don’t quite trust Carter yet he hasn’t quite built up the stamina he hasn’t quite built up what the magic need to see from him to be

Successful but here’s the deal here’s the deal um the magic still gets some value from W Carter so let’s run through the stats let’s just run through the numbers here the counting numbers since returning last week are not strong 5.2 points per game 5.2 rebounds per game 21 minutes

Per game again he’s usually he’s usually around 30 he’s not making plays right now that’s okay it’s not great but he’s not making plays right now overall shooting 10 for 23 from the floor and just two of nine from Deep the counting stats are bad but look the magic of

Survived with goou baz as a center goaz is not much of an offensive player either you bump wend Carter’s minutes up to 21 he’s going to get up at least another basket they’re averaging about the same from a raw numbers perspective last year he averaged 15.2 points per

Game 8.7 rebounds game shot 52 and a half% from floor 35.6% from that’s that’s the wend Carter we want to see in the past five games though the magic have a net rating of minus 15.8 points per 100 possessions with Carter on the floor that includes a frustrating 100.4

Points for 100 possessions now again I want to repeat this because you know when baz’s on the floor it’s not it’s better it’s not a whole lot better it’s like 105 106 a the sample size is too small to say anything and B A Carter bad

Flip isn’t what’s gonna fix this team if the magic want their offense to operate better they’re going to need Anthony black to have games like he had Tuesday night in Washington they’re gonna need France vager to make history they’re gonna need poo to continue being efficient as a scorer which which his

Scoring his scoring hasn’t dropped off but his efficiency dropped off a ton it’s worth pointing out then that the Magic’s starting group with Jaylen Suggs and wend Carter so jayen Suggs Anthony black wend Carter fron vogner poo banero has a net rating of plus 16.2 points per one possessions in 39 minutes together

Since Carter returned it’s a 1094 offensive rating not great and a 932 defensive rating that is good flip out Jaylen Suggs who was hurt for some of those games for Gary Harris and it’s bad minus 51.2 points per sessions 80.4 offensive rating 27 minutes together small small sample sizes do not take any

Of this as like gospel say it’s like ah you see I’m not going to take it as gospel I’m telling you not to take it as gospel but I will tell you that it is a sign that okay there might be something that works if we let it continue so

There there are positive signs there I I I think that has to be stressed that there are good things that Carter’s doing but no one can deny whether it’s by the eye test or by the numbers that he isn’t the wend Carter we expected or or the wend Carter the magic

Need in the first five games of the Season at least he was defending at an exceptionally high level opponent shot 13 for 30 at The Rim according to data from second Spectrum uh with with Carter defending the rim that was the first five game of season and the five games since he came

Back they’re shooting 14 of 19 that’s the kind of stuff that has to change further opponents are shooting 54% against Carter as the closest Defender which is two percentage points better than expected obviously before um before the injury it was different it’s worth noting then I and

We have to point this out it is worth noting then that in the same time period the magic have a plus point6 net rating with baz on the floor including a 11 15.9 defensive rating which isn’t great but batad is largely playing at the end of halves we have to take context into

Consideration and again the sample sizes are simply too small to make conclusions so what can we conclude we’re not going to make conclusions but we’re going to make some conclusions first the magic have to give wend Carter contined time to get healthy he clearly looks a bit uncomfortable he’s not as

Aggressive or or assertive as he needs to be perhaps on both ends of the floor that part just has to come and it’s been a struggle and I think even Wendell would admit that it’s taken maybe a little bit longer for him to get into

The swing of things or be the kind of player he knows the magic need him to be the only way he’s going to get there the only way he’s going to get the conditioning the only way he’s going to get the Rhythm that he needs is if he plays The Only Solution right

Now is to play him and continue to hope and continue to put him in positions to be better if there’s one thing the magic babbe are struggling with right now is putting their players in positions to be successful you know there’s a lot of there’s not a lot of structure to the

Offense which is both a good and a bad thing in my opinion um they have guys running point that aren’t natural point guards and Pao vano and fron voger and to some extent Jaylen Sugg and some extent Anthony black they’ve got to work a little bit harder to make everyone comfortable and

And I think that is part of what’s Happening Here For The Magic and we’ll get to some of those numbers here in a bit they have to be patient the question is how patient can they be because the reality is this is time the magic have

To spend and it’s December it’s okay to spend that time and Carter is not going to get better necessarily sitting and waiting for his hand to fully heal it’s healed it’s ready to play the magic clearly believe they need him because as good as Goa pataz been and again if I

Had a game to win tomorrow if I had a must-win game tomorrow I’m playing B more I right now Goku bad is a better player than wend Carter we know that is not the case when they’re at their best but that’s the case right now and the reality is the standings are getting

Tighter and as we head to the new year I think it’s time to do our first standings check of the Season we’re going to talk about that coming up here in just a moment but first it’s time for quick work from our friend over at prize pick

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National shows covering every league go to locked on sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247 streaming Channel today okay uh I am probably breaking some rule that I don’t really want to break right now um we’re gonna do a

Standings check I was in the back in the media room at the Kia Center on Wednesday the magic had just lost to the Sixers you know I’m writing my article I’m watching you know Twitter as usual everyone’s talking about the Knicks Thunder game and honestly I had the itch

To say like be kind of nice that the Thunder won this game you know kind of erase that the Cavs beat the Mavericks we’re already doing a little bit of standings watching admit it you’re doing it too it’s okay it’s not the end of the world we’re new to this it’s it’s fine

Honestly before we dive into the standings because things have changed in the standings quite a bit um the magic get fallen back to the pack a little bit and so now we find ourselves in a tight playoff race including a tight playoff race to avoid the play in tournament at

This point avoiding the play in tournament is one of the most important things that can happen because Indiana might be the eight seed and sure I’d love to see Indiana Orlando here in Orlando for a big play you know for a big playoff like at game we saw that on

Black Friday against the Celtics a play in Tournament game here at Orlando would be wild and I’d love to see that I’d also love not to see that and just make the make the D playoffs because that’s more important than anything else I don’t necessarily trust this magic team

In a single elimination game uh even at even if they have two games at home now I trust this team at home a lot the Kia Center’s rocking but yeah you don’t want to put yourself in that situation where you know you have two games to win one

You know B facing Boston’s fine facing Milwaukee’s fine whatever it’s whatever um but we are in the midst of a playoff race and we have to acknowledge that at this point of the Season we’re not even halfway through the year it’s still more about you than anyone else um so I’m

Gonna give you the standings we’re going to talk a little bit about where the magics stand in the Eastern Conference pecking order but keep in mind at this stage it is still about your team you’re not worried about standings watching you still control your own destiny because

There are still what we’re 30 games in the season there’s still 52 games to play that’s plenty of time to make your own destiny and at the end of the day that’s you know the magic set themselves up well um the magic set themselves up to have this bad stretch so here’s the

Standings right now in the Eastern Conference Boston after their win over the Detroit Pistons are 24- six Milwaukee’s at 23 and8 and second Philadelphia’s at 21- n those three teams have really separated themselves from everyone else the rest of the east standings though four five six and seven

This is the group that we’re going to be in four five six and seven is the game Miami’s fourth at 18 and 12 they own the tiebreaker of Orlando Orlando’s fifth at 18- 12 Cleveland is now sixth at 18 and 13 despite their injuries and maybe they’ll fall back to the pack maybe

They’ll they’ll come off this kind of little high that they’re on New York whom the magic play on Friday is 17 13 and Indiana is in the mix still at in e at 16 and 14 essentially the magic ad are tied for fourth in Eastern Conference at the

Moment plenty of games still against Miami don’t worry about that they’re half game ahead of Cleveland for six they’re a game ahead of New York in SE in seventh so their game their game a game separates them from from going to the playing tournament and they’re two

Games ahead of the Pacers for eighth two games separates fourth and eighth in the Eastern Conference right now that’s not unusual that’s what happens here’s the trick though of the teams in the top six of the Eastern Conference the Orlando Magic are the only team with a sub 500

Record at the moment they’re four- six in their last 10 every other team is is above 500 the Knicks are five and five in their last 10 Indiana’s four- six in their last 10 New York was kind of up there with with us this is kind of what

Happens we’re just going through a little bit of L right now here’s the part that concerns me about the standings though the Orlando Magic this year are 10 and three against teams with records below 500 that’s two losses to the Brooklyn Nets Who are 15- 16 and of

Course a loss to the Atlanta Hawks at 12 and 18 10 and three is pretty good um you know Boston’s nine- one against those teams Philadelphia is 14- one against those teams you got to be able to take care of your business against teams that are below 500 and and the

Magic have largely done that they are 8- n however against teams with records above 500 Philadelphia was only s-8 was a big win for Philadelphia to beat Orlando Miami is only five and eight one of their wins over Orlando Cleveland is nine and 12 one of those wins against

Orlando so you don’t see you know only the elite teams are above 500 against teams with records better than 500 so what the magic have to do and and they’re not going to get a lot of opportunities to do this Friday’s game it’s not a must win but that’s a g

That’s a game when the magic have to make sure they’re right because a you know they won two after their 4 game Ming streak so you know they they won that then they lost on on Wednesday in a game that frankly felt like they should have won with all the absences

Philadelphia had um tough back toback so you know again there’s there’s a lot of factors working against Orlando there too Friday’s game is a is a must wi not only to end this two game home losing streak and regain some confidence at home regain some good feeling you know

Get back to five and five in their last 10 games kind of reassert where they are in the standings it’s important to because we’re going out west and the Western Conference road trip coming up this week is not easy um it may look Easy by some of the teams with records

But it’s not easy we’re at Phoenix on Sunday they’re 15 and 15 I know they’re going through a lot of stuff but Bradley Beal is due back pretty soon that’s a different team when they have all three of their guys Devon Booker and Kevin are still Devon Booker and Kevin Durant

You’re not going to sleep on them um you get golden state who’s also 15 and 15 and Chase Center is a tough place to play you go to Sacramento who’s 17 and 12 and Denver who’s 23 and 10 the bottom line for the magic is this you know

They’re looking at a two and two road trip right now with the schedule of the magic at faced and and everything else Orlando’s trying to hold the ship steady and the reality is when you’re just holding the ship steady when you’re going five and five you’re going to lose some ground you’re

Just kind of biting your time until you can make a little push again you know it’s it’s if you watch Formula 1 you’re the magic have to manage their tires right now um if you’re a golfer like this is this is I think I’ve used this

Analogy a ton the magic got to grind out some pars right now they gotta find some WIS where they can find some wins they’re gonna right now they’re gonna shank some some balls into the woods they got to rescue themselves and just get a par you don’t need birdies you

Don’t need Eagles don’t go pin huntting put the ball in the middle of the green make your make your two Putt and go to the next hole that’s kind of where the magic are right now with this schedule and it’s gonna lighten up mid to late January it’s going to lighten up heading

To the all-star break everyone knew that this was going to be the case but Orlando’s in the haunt and Orlando’s in the fight and they just got to find a way to keep their head above water until they can pick up some momentum again some of that’s going to come when wend

Carter’s healthy again some of that’s going to come when Mark Holtz is healthy again a lot of that’s going to come when Jo Wiles is healthy again um and Jonathan Isaac in for defense there’s just a lot of work this team still has

To do to be a great team look we spent a good chunk of November sitting at second or third in the Eastern Conference we all felt great feeling we were an elite team but we all knew that that was going to be shortlived now we’re getting our come

Upins and now we’re trying to figure out how does this team manage to keep winning stay in the hunt and make their push at the end of the season when you should be playing your best basketball anyway Friday is a big check of that and so I want to close Today’s Show by

Talking a little bit about how the magic what the magic look like when they’re keeping their head above water and where they need to improve we’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment but first it’s time for quick word from our friends over at FanDuel uh

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Going on with the magic is a teams are starting to figure them out a little bit um you know teams are figuring out their defense a little bit um they’re going through a pretty prolonged shooting slump and and this is a young team learning how to win learning how to play

With confidence they haven’t you know they’re not playing a lot of bad teams right now so they’re strug you know they’re struggling to play against teams that know what they’re doing I mean no better contrast than that they scor 70 points in the paint against an awful

Wizards team and they score 40 in the paint against a Sixers team that yes didn’t have Joel embiid but they know what they’re doing this magic team is still figuring out what they’re doing and so I think what we’re seeing in December especially I want to go over

The December numbers here in a minute um what we’re seeing is a team that is figuring this world out um you’re going to hear me say this a lot as we get closer and closer to the trade deadline especially a lot of the season is figuring this stuff out um you know that

There’s no trade that’s imminent their magic aren’t making a trade tomorrow if they make a trade they’ll make it at the deadline but a lot of this season they knew was going to be these growing pants in fact a lot of this season is that growing pain the point of what they’re

Trying to accomplish this season is to make these mistakes and fail at them or or learn how to react to them in real time and still find success um you know so much of what Jamal Mosley’s talked with us about in the media is learning experiences is

Taking a you know making a mistake and learning from it immediately you know not like saying okay we we’re going to look back at the tape and learn from this so that you know yes you’re doing that too but it’s understanding how to adjust in game at a high level and and

And that is something this magic team is still figuring out and and honestly like it’s not that they’re catching anyone by surprise they took advantage of soft spots in the schedule they did exactly what they’re supposed to do they had a six-game home they won all six games

That’s what you’re supposed to do they go on the road they face bad teams they beat them that’s what you’re supposed to do and so now what the manager were trying to figure out is okay how how do we measure up against the best teams in our conference how do we measure up

Against the Boston the philadelphias the Miami how do we measure up against them and how do we make sure that we play our game how do we even Define what Magic Basketball is and win these basketball games that is that is the the the problem to solve

This year and again it’s not that failure is okay failure is not okay um but it’s okay if you learn from it and learn from it quickly you don’t want mistakes to linger and that’s kind of the roadblock we’ve hit here in December just looking at the numbers in December

This is just December the Orlando Magic are actually 22nd in the league in net rating at minus three and a half points for 100 of possessions now there have been some blowouts in there but overall in December they’re five- seven they are having a sub 500 December they have to

Win both their final two games it’s New York on Friday and Phoenix on Sunday to get to 500 for the month you would not have thought that in November that’s not that’s not kind of what we were expecting that’s not kind of what we thought would be developing in this team

Now you look at the teams uh in the bottom 10 in net rating this is just the bottom 10 in net rating there’s only three teams that have like decent records or four teams actually now that I’m looking at it um no three teams I’ll say three teams uh the magic are minus

Three and a half points per one possessions at five and seven Utah Jazz are minus 4.8 points per one possessions they’re seven- six so they’re winning games despite bad stats and then you have the Memphis Grizzlies at minus 4.8 at six and seven and again obviously John Morant came back for them uh

Orlando has been dealing with injuries and that certainly hurts them but you look at the markers that tell you whether the magic are playing well and there’s been some slippage for example in December so just December the magic are giving up 115.2 points per 100 sessions that is 11th in

The league now what’s important here is for the magic to be a playoff team to be the caliber of team that we think they can be they have to be an elite defense and the defense has seen the most significant slipping um again wend Carter’s only been backed for a month

And so the reason why I think it’s okay to keep investing and waiting on wend Carter is because yes like I said if you’re trying to win a game if there’s a must-win game tomorrow if the magic had an inseason Tournament game tomorrow I’d say Wendell sits out play goab batata he

Is better today than than than Wendell Carter but you look at the numbers that’s not exactly um that’s not you know Goa baz’s numbers aren’t exactly telling us that the that he’s fixing the defense that he’s playing great defense and he is he is playing good defense but um there’s

Issues elsewhere um you know I think pal ban Carrol has been a little bit less engaged defensively Jaylen Suggs has been in and out of lineup Jonathan Isaac’s been in and out of the lineup obviously offensively Joe Engles has been in and out of the lineup um the

Magic are missing some really key players that just make everyone else’s job easier um the magic starting lineup has been losing its luster for a little while now ever really since the last week in November after Thanksgiving that starting group you know used to be the

Top you you know the match used to be the best first quarter team in the League now they’re kind of in the middle if if that they’ve fallen off a ton and the starting group especially is not is struggling in its minutes um and so you

See these things and you’re like okay a our team’s taking the magic more seriously I do think that is the case I do think teams are taking the magic a little bit more seriously uh you look at you know the athletic put out that article saying the magic are the worst

Shooting team in the league Orlando is 25th in the league in December an effective field goal percentage of 52.3% their true shooting percentage is at 56.4% which is uh 23rd in the lead the magic aren’t making shots right now and at some point we’re all humid you miss enough shots especially missing enough

Open shots and you’re gonna you’re gonna uh give up a little bit on defense you’re going to pull some slack on defense the good news is and and this is worth writing about the Magic’s turnovers have come down a little bit only 13.2% turnover rate that’s 15th in

The league that’s that’s their their turnovers are not the issue but again you look at some other markers their 10th in the league in defensive rebound rate their uh offensive rebounding was a huge factor for them early in the season they 2 first in the league in offensive

Rebound rate again something Goa baz is very good at but Mo Vagner is getting fewer offensive rebounds goab baz is getting fewer offensive rebounds you know you could say maybe wend Carter is getting fewer but um this was a huge Factor during the whole during the win streak was the magic we’re getting

Rebounds we’re getting offensive rebounds so again Orlando’s struggle and then maybe there’s just some bad three-point luck involved there too you know Cleveland hit a bunch of Threes Brooklyn hit a bunch of Threes Miami hit a bunch of Threes um Orlando’s biggest struggles are still the same though they

Have to play Elite defense which they haven’t been this month they have to make up for their lack of three-point shooting by winning the free throw battle by winning the paint by getting offensive rebounds and right now they’re not getting offensive rebounds at this point we understand what the Magic’s

Formula for victory is it’s you know when the paint win the game said that yeah said that on yesterday’s podcast after the loss of the Sixers it’s win the free throw battle they need to be up around 26 27 28 free throws per game um

30 is 30 is even better they need to average they need to score 55 plus points in the paint if they’re closer to 60 even better um they need to they need to win the free throw battle they need to defend well um you know again maybe

They give up a few threes here in there but reducing turnovers getting setting up their half court defense that’s kind of been the stuff that’s slipped and again you don’t have a lot of time to work on it you know we’re coming off a game where the magr back to back and

They look like it they look like they were just their thought their thought processes were just a step off um we know what this team is capable of doing we’ve obviously raised our expectations for what they can do now it’s just about executing it every day and we’re in the

Dog days of the year it’s it’s finding that motivation and finding that consistency it’s it’s finding it um and the magic just kind of have to find it right now they’ve lost it they need to find it um there there’s there’s no other way to say it because there’s been

Considerable considerable slipping that has hurt this team and cost them games and they’re doing a good job five and seven is pretty solid um considering their schedule considering the things they’ve gone through they’re not out of the race like I said they’re in the race

Still as long as we don’t have a two and 12 month like they did in January 2015 I think it was 2015 um they’ll be fine we’re we’re almost at that that 19 and 13 that makes me very scared if the magic split these next two games which I

Suspect they will um 19 and 13 is the same record they had the Scott Skyles here so I’m I’m a little scared not gonna lie um we’ve been through this but I don’t think this team’s gonna do that I think this team will continue to keep its head above water yeah they might

Slip in the standings that might finish sixth instead of in that four five series but we know as long as they get themselves to the all-star break they’re playing with conference the all the the schedule after the All-Star break is going to give them the opportunity to

Make up some ground um right now they just got to find wins and they got to find themselves in the process and that’s that’s really the big key uh for the rest of this month and heading into January which will also be a very difficult month for this team I want to

Thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Locked on Magic you course find me on Twitter Philip romd subscribe to the podcast and apple podcast at you’re tun in him Google spoy Odyssey and all pH podcast to your podcast enable listen device for lat on

The Orlando Magic be sure to check out Orlando Magic da.com you can follow us on Twitter at Magic daily and also be sure to check out my patreon page Orlando magichub at patreon.com orlandomagic HUB I truly uh give you some extra articles some extra Insight some video some video playbooks as well

Um definitely uh definitely something to check out and and I truly appreciate all of your support gonna have a fun fun January I have a big announcement and some fun stuff coming for you and January and hopefully uh some more fun stuff in the great beyond after the first month of

2024 don’t forget to check out the lockon podcast Network’s 247 streaming Channel on YouTube you can get the top sports stories of the day with the local Experts of locked on plus our national shows covering every leek go to lockon sports today on YouTube and subscribe to the first ever National Sports 247

Streaming Channel today that’s going to do it for me though I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of lockdown magic we’ll be back tomorrow we got two more episodes in 2023 one might be straddling the line decided I may go live on New Year’s Eve

We’ll see um but we got at least one more episode in 2023 we’ll chat about the Magics game against New York Knicks tomorrow so until then for Orlando Magic daily lock on Magic this has been Philip Ross mik we’ll see you again next time for another episode of lockon magic

We are a week since Wendell Carter returned to the lineup. And the Orlando Magic are 2-3 since his return and Carter has looked. . . rough. While the Magic are starting to sink in the standings, they are still trying to build for April and their eventual playoff series. That is why they still need patience with Carter despite how much he and the team have struggled with him in.

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