Are The Orlando Magic FRAUDS or CONTENDERS?

Are The Orlando Magic FRAUDS or CONTENDERS?

The Orlando Magic have been off to a hot start this year as star player Paulo banero leads the way to a 19 and 12 start while Pao hasn’t quite taken the leap stat-wise that many thought he would for his second year in the league he’s still averaging slightly better

Stats than last year and most importantly is getting these stats in wins not only Paulo but the rest of the team as well have really elevated their level of play bronze Vagner has improved so much that he’s looking like just as much of a star as Paulo currently and

While the team has been without starting center Wendell Carter Jr until recently he’s playing his way back into shape from injury and will undoubtedly bring the magic that much closer to being a real threat the magic has really gone from a squad that looked like a bunch of

Rag tag Misfits to a legit upand Comer so fast and it’s super exciting this has been a surprise to many considering that most had little faith in the magic to turn their franchise around so quickly the franchise had been in the deepest depths of despair for basically an

Entire decade up to this point for the most part being stuck in mediocrity limbo we feel this rapid rise is deserving of telling the story of the Modern Magic a team story that should be an inspiration to any Pistons or Hornets fan out there that has no hope for their

Franchise from 2012 to 2021 the Orlando Magic found themselves trapped in a protracted period of basketball mediocrity marked by a series of missteps lackluster performances and a constant struggle to regain their former glory the journey began in 2012 when the magic still reeling from the departure of franchise Cornerstone Dwight Howard

Embarked on a daunting rebuilding process the promising talents that did emerge often failed to reach their full potential some of the notable draft blunders during this period included drafting Mario honia fifth overall ahead of players like Devin Booker and Miles Turner in 2015 as well as selecting Mo

Bomba sixth overall in the Stacked 2018 draft one ahead of the their current starting center Wendell Carter Jr also ahead of players like sheay gilis Alexander and male Bridges the thing is the Magic’s drafts weren’t all bad but this is where their poor trading started to get them in trouble despite drafting

Victor Oladipo in 2013 they sent him away in 2016 to OKC for Ser Ibaka in a misguided attempt to bolster their front Court oh yeah and they also sent sabonis in the package you know possibly a top five Center in the league right now Ibaka didn’t stay long either as he was

Soon shipped off to the Raptors in exchange for Terrence Ross These are only a few examples of trade and draft blunders but trust me there is a lot of them to be found in this era coaching changes only added to the team’s instability as the magic struggled to

Find a decent leader who could guide them out of the Abyss in this stretch the magic went through seven different coaches which means it’s almost certain that the lack of continuity and a Clear Vision hindered Player Development for some of those high draft picks that ended up failing as as well as team

Cohesion in general for a lot of those years as losses and mediocre Seasons piled up the once proud franchise found itself in the depths of the Eastern Conference standings more often than not far removed from the playoff contention that was once their Norm during the stretch from 2012 to 2021 the magic only

Made the playoffs twice and got 4-1 both times in the first round the thing is that the magic barely had anything to show for all of this losing by the end of this period all of the good players had been traded away and most of their draft picks didn’t develop how they

Hoped luckily during the Magic’s lowest point the hero they needed arrived with the first pick of the 2022 draft the magic selected Paulo banero and he did not disappoint Paulo had one of the best rookie seasons of the modern era and really played with the physicality and

Basketball IQ of someone who had been in the league for a while Paulo managed to average a solid 20 points per game and managed to earn 34 wins alongside fellow up in Comer France Vagner more than enough to give magic fans a bit of hope that the future would be bright this

Year though I don’t think even the most Die Hard of magic fans could have predicted this one coming off last season the magic were seen in a similar light to the OKC Thunder progression over the last few years clearly building towards something but the vision wasn’t quite complete however with the Thunder

You could see progression season over season slowly moving up to standings as they would add pieces throughout the draft but when they finally broke through this season and became a legitimate threat it kind of made more sense but the magic have kind of fast-tracked that trajectory as going

Into this season they started out being exactly 500 after 10 games looking like the team many people expected them to be but after that 10th game they came together in a way that most people didn’t really see coming as they went on after that to complete a nine game

Winning streak where they faced serious contenders like the Celtics and the nuggets and it was about at this time when casual fans started to add the magic to their league pass rotations and instantly noticed that this wasn’t some fluke like the Utah Jazz last year there is legitimate pieces to this Orlando

Magic team as everyone is starting to become more familiar with fron Wagner and Paulo banero who both had amazing performances at the fever World Cup before the season even started with fron and his brother helping lead team Germany to the win and pallo gaining some real experience from the tournament

Under coach Steve Kerr who had nothing but glowing Praises for the young forward one of those Praises was actually P’s underestimated potential to possibly move into his Center position as he continues to grow in this league but there’s more players than just Pao and frons that make this team successful

Like Jaylen Suggs finding his role perfectly and Cole Anthony being the most irrationally confident six-man in the entire league and also players like Goot Bazi who’s become a very underrated Defender giving flashes of that 90s age basketball that old heads love to Rave about being a great rim protector for

The team while also being a very dangerous pick and roll threat especially with a a lot of the clever ways Orlando has been able to utilize their offense this year having Bazi show up in impressive ways across the game as he’s one of only four players this year

To have a game where he’s gotten five or more points rebounds assists and blocks joining players like Anthony Davis Joel embiid and Scotty Barnes which is a pretty good list of names to be next to but the improvements that pazi has made this year really highlight the overall

Success that the team has found as despite the fact that the Orlando Magic have one of the lowest team assists average per game in the entire league this really doesn’t paint the picture of how they’ve been able to have one of the most successful ball moving teams as

They’ve been able to find different ways to attack the paint and break down the defense which has led to some really fun basketball in a league that’s taken over by the three-point line but this move away from the line isn’t really some new creative thing that the team is trying

To do to break away from the mold it’s actually kind of something at a necessity see for all the good that we’ve mentioned about the magic so far there’s actually equal parts bad as a team currently does have the worst three-point percentage in the entire league they did bring in Joe angles to

Help balance out the threes but there’s only so much a 36-year-old shooter is going to bring to your team especially when on the other end you have fron the player taking the most three attempts for the magic averaging 29% from three while also taking five attempts a game

But given Fran’s age as well as his free throw and field goal percentages this is something he should be able to improve on as for the rest of the team that’s still up in the air as it’s starting to become a glaring issue for the team and something their opponents have been able

To pick apart and attack part of the reason that they’ve actually been starting to struggle now that we’re almost Midway through the season as they’ve all but given up on even attempting the three-point shot as they’re also dead last and attempts per game and they’re way down they’re at

29.8 attempts per game which is pretty wild when you compare them to Memphis who has the second worst three-point percentage this season but has the eighth highest attempts a game with all that being said it should be mentioned though that this Orlando Magic team is still very young with the team only

Being an average age of 24 so there’s still a ton of growing that they’ll be able to do together with more experience and just the fact that they’ve been able to show this much maturity this early on should put magic fans at ease if you

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