The Close Up – Future Plans for the Orlando Magic with Philip Rossman-Reich

The Close Up – Future Plans for the Orlando Magic with Philip Rossman-Reich

[Music] [Music] all right all right all right welcome back to another episode of the close-up a part of the Orlando Magic HQ Network I’m your host Stephen Cameron and today we have a really fun episode we have Philip Rosman Wright of Orlando Magic daily and lock on Magic joining us we just have a good conversation about the offseason in general um kind of taking lessons that we learned from the regular season and postseason and how that is going to potentially affect how the magic operate this offseason going into the draft trade season free agency um and even making decisions on the current roster so um it’s a good episode I really enjoyed the conversation with Philip he is more tapped into this team than just about anyone so I I you know encourage all of you to give it a full listen all the way to the very end and if you’re not already following Philip go ahead and check out him and his work he does phenomenal stuff before we get into the episode um I just want to remind everyone that this episode is brought to you by bet online bet online is your number one source for the NBA finals and Stanley Cup finals this season every stat every matchup every live odds and spreads while the games are being played when the game’s over head over to our online casino and get in on the game of blackjack or poker or unwind with over with one of our 150 slot machine games holy crap they have 1 15, 150 different slot machine games that’s crazy um head to the website today or get in on the action use promo code believe that’s blav believe for your 50% welcome bonus on your first deposit bet online the game starts here um and promo code is believe we are part of the believe podcast Network so check check them out um yeah really not too much to say we’re doing uh episodes every other week me uh my my episodes are opposite weeks of Al and anon’s um you know they’re their Orlando Magic HQ Flagship episode so we’re kind of bouncing around that it will be weeks where we we do more where we’re both releasing but you know the kind of offseason Cadence for now is every other week except when things get really highy like you know draft and trades and stuff like that um we have a good draft episode coming up for you in a couple of weeks I have a really good friend join the show who is a uh draft expert and you know works in the draft industry um so that’ll be a lot of fun so stay tuned for that and then also stay tuned to our guys um Stanley and Bryce and skinny they have been doing some live um live I don’t know if they’re episodes or segments on pleacher report so um go to our go to our Twitter page or Instagram and you can find out the schedule they have I think two more they just did a live show yesterday they’re going to have a couple more coming up in the next few days and weeks so check that out um until then enjoy the conversation with Bill brossman Reich appreciate it all right everyone like I said I got Philip Marson Reich of Orlando Magic daily locked on magic on the show today Philip thanks for joining us how you doing man I I am doing good we’re getting ready for the NBA Finals countdown to the NBA draft is on it’s almost time to talk about almost time for magic to do things again it it is it’s our time is coming our time is coming uh I’ve been enjoying the playoff basketball like crazy though it’s been been a lot of fun watching the series I was pretty locked on to the lot of the West Coast series how have you been enjoying the playoffs up into this point uh I I have been I mean it’s playoff basketball you can’t you can’t complain complain about it you know knowing how close the magic were to experiencing a little bit of a deeper run in the playoffs like it it gives you a little bit of withdrawals like I was I was listening to music yesterday and Bob Marley came on my Shuffle and I was just like oh I miss Magic season so bad right now yeah yeah well and it’s it’s also funny too because like the last week and a half we’ve kind of just been in this like well there’s no basketball whatsoever we’re just kind of in this holding period until Thursday and Magic yeah we do we do not my thing but but you know if if you want basketball there is that there is that um magic fans we’re recording this on June 5th um Wednesday uh this episode will be coming out on Friday um so if anything crazy happens between now and and tomorrow it won’t be magic related so you’re not missing anything um Philip I’m excited to have a conversation about the Orlando Magic off season um it’s going to be fun uh Magic fans this isn’t like some detailed outline with very specifics we have some topics we’re going to hit on um but it’s just going to be a really fun organic chill conversation um philli before we get into like major off season I just want to Circle back to last season right the you know the the regular season um what was one of your bigger takeaways um about the team and its functionality regard regarding to the regular season that you think will impact offseason going into next year yeah as far as just the regular season I think the magic creating this very established defensive identity um that that’s the bread and butter like at the end of the day like I say this all the time the regular season is about what can you do every single day without fail you got 82 games you know you have a random Tuesday in January what are you going to be able to rely on that’s your identity that’s who you are and that’s that’s what you have to carry forward with you uh through the entire season so for the magic you know they were good defensively in 2023 they were I think sixth in the league in defensive rating after December 2nd or after December 1st when they the after the five and2 start essentially um they they established that they could be a pretty good defensive team they came out this year and they were top five in defense pretty much every day of the Season uh and they finished third to to be to be this young and to finish number three in defensive rating without all the Hallmarks of a good defensive team like they don’t have that great room protecting big you know poo banero is a star greatly improved as a Defender but not an excellent Defender they they they feel like they should have hols in a bunch of places defensively but they sold out and committed to who they are and to what their identity was and to see that really establish itself that’s that’s what this magic program is now and and everything that they layer on top of this team starts with that foundation and and the magic have to ensure they nurture that and and keep that I I agree you know this Magic roster ended the regular season fifth in the East um you know they had a pretty solid season up you know all all the way across there were some Downs there were some ups but you know they played pretty consistently this year but what made them play that was their defense they obviously did not finish fifth in the East because of their offense um and you know it’s it’s cool to see such a young team start to form that identity uh nicely and have success in it early in my opinion and you know it it was nice to just like finally like have have the proof of concept be solidified ifed right you know like you mentioned we saw bits of it the year prior but now it’s kind of like it’s solidified it’s it’s it’s real and it’s likely not going anywhere unless major things happen to this to this to this roster which um we’ll get to in a little bit I want to ask that same question now but specific to the playoffs right so because you know there’s regular season basketball then there’s playoffs basketball and there’s two different things you play regular season a certain way so you can get to the playoffs um and hopefully have success so when you are thinking back you know it’s been it’s been a little while now when you’re thinking back at the seven game series The Magic played versus the Cavaliers um you know what is one of the bigger takeaways and it’s probably w a lot of us know but but maybe not maybe I’ll say something different what’s a what’s a big what’s a one one of the takeaways you have from that series that you are thinking about this offseason that you think might impact how the front office and the coaching staff move going into next season I mean I I think first place to start is to continue the last answer and say the Magic’s defense stood up like like again there there were a lot of things they’re like okay this is a nice regular season defense you got to be prepared for their physicality for their intensity that’s tough to do when you have a day off uh when you have only a day off between games you’re coming in on a back toback or or whatever the case may be to do what the magic did defensively for the whole seven games and yeah doin Mitchell had really good game six and seven but they pretty much shut everyone else down they they made those those those games a slog and Cleveland likes slogs too but the magic made that that series a rock fight that that defense stood tall in the playoffs I think again is a is a big Testament um the biggest thing though that I took away from the playoffs is that Palo ban Caro is a lot better than I think a lot of us thought he was I know us magic fans are trying to defend and Pitch poo benero to the National world and say this guy’s really good and he’s really good the playoffs showed Oh this guy’s like that really good like he’s not just oh this is a nice young player who has the ball in his hands a lot and is scoring it’s like oh this is a guy that you can throw double and triple teams at him and he’s still gonna find ways to make something happen and and a lot of the mistakes that he made in the playoffs and a lot of them were turnover-based a lot of that’s an experience first and foremost and a lot of that is like okay this is clearly what the magic have to fix now is how do we make his job easier how do we how do we just make life easier for Paulo because if he is going to step up on the stage the way that he did uh and you know he had what 20 points per game in every game except for game four you know 30 38 points in game seven including 24 in the first half like big G big shots in game five big shots in game you know the BET big and one in game six yeah um you know carry the team through game five like like like without doubt if he’s going to be that kind of a player the the the question for the magic is how do we just make his job easier how do we get him more spot up three-pointers which he is very capable of hitting like he has to create so much himself and you don’t want to completely take him away from that but you want to make his life easier get him the ball in the dunker spot get him a spot up three get him a get him a ball on a cut instead of having him have to just create off the dribble um and it just feels like coming out of the playoffs it’s like okay this this guy is the real deal like this is a guy can build at least a championship contending roster round you know who knows where he’s going to ultimately rank among the best players in the league and that’s probably you know at at the end of the day if you want to win a championship you got to have one of the maybe five or six best players in the league um who knows where pow is gonna end up on that list but he’s clearly good enough at this juncture of his career to say we’ve got to do everything in our power to accentuate what makes him great and find a way to make his life easier you know talk about you know I talked about for forever that before Paulo the last Wing player the last non- Center to average 20 points per game with Steve Francis back in 2005 Pao B Caro’s done that now we’re got to talk about okay how do we get Pao to 25 points per game easy how do we get him to 30 because it’s not GNA take very much because he’s gonna create all those shots if we could get someone to create an extra three for him an extra two point two- pointer for him that’s five extra points right there there he’s at what 22 that’s a 20 that gets you at 27 really easily it’s not going to take very much to really make Pao a dominant score it’s G to take some guys making his life a little bit easier when you think about making Paula’s life easier offensively and you know I think I have it right here the magic ended the year um 22nd in the league and offensive rating worst worst among all teams that made the play made the post that’s that’s that’s the thing that matters to me it’s it’s not good so when you think about like the magic needing to improve the offense and needing to improve you know allowing to optimize Paulo um you know even more with with getting him a couple more looks and things like that how do you think the front office can do that successfully while not losing the defensive identity that they have built and established because it it it’s a hard balance to to achieve right and they could get themselves up to the 15th best team in offense but also that could potentially decrease their defensive identity and capability so how what’s like the balance there in your perspective of of team building Shoring up that offensive hole that we have right now to to kind of even things out without sacrificing too much on the on the defensive side you know some some of it starts with how much Faith do you have in the culture that you built I know Jeff welman hates hates like the word culture and hates kind of constantly having to say like oh what’s what’s a what is a good culture anyway I know doesn’t like that but I do think it’s really important to ask you know what kind of culture have the magic build is this a group that can take in a player who maybe isn’t known for their defense and say hey we hold each other accountable you’ve got to play defense in this way you know it’s it’s it’s a faith in Jamal Mosley to be able to create a scheme that will uh cover for any defensive deficiencies or kind of build you know that be able to kind of build that defense out around like you know you got to start over every year like you know you know you just can’t assume you’re going to be that great defensively again but clearly the magic have kind of built themselves okay this is who we are this is what we do to be successful this is our process and that’s going to be the test for this young team is as they integrate new players can they integrate new players into that process I I also feel like it’s important to note that the magic don’t have to do I think a whole lot to get better offensively I know them being 22nd in offensive rating sounds like and and like I said the worst offensive the worst team by offensive rating that made the postseason I know that sounds like it’s a long way away and the magic haven’t had a team outside the bottom 10 in offensive rating since Dwight um it’s not going to take very much because like let’s say Paulo gets better you know Jaylen Suggs will get better um fron Vagner bounces back from shooting sub30 from three back to 35% from three that’s going to add you another point point you know another three three and a half so that’s you know Five Points right there the biggest thing for you know the biggest thing for me is reducing turnovers the magic I think were 28th or 27th in the league in turnover rate they they had a 15% turnover rate they have to turn the ball over less and value possessions more because that’s not only going to set their defense up better it’s scary their defense could be a lot better because when their defense is set they were just impossible to score against teams to run against them to try and catch them before that defense could get set um reducing notes turnovers will go a long way to just making the offense better so it it to me reforming the offense isn’t about dramatic changes it isn’t about doing you know you know we got to go get a Paul George or a Trey young to just generate offense the shots are all there they got to get the three-point volume up the shots are all there it’s about being more efficient and effective and a lot of that comes with experience so I think that the magic they got to spend we’ll get to that I’m sure they got to they got to add you know like as Paulo said kind of a table setter to lineup someone that can manage the team do do a little playmaking do spread the floor a little bit as a shooter they got to add that piece of the puzzle but they’re not very far I think from being a com you know maybe not I’m not saying they’re gonna be an overwhelmingly great offense but a competent offense yeah and you know I tend to agree with that um a little bit of shooting and some more ball handling will go a long way for this team um you know people might first think well you’re talking about ball handling limiting turnovers they had someone like that in Markel fols like why didn’t that work and that’s we know why that didn’t work he couldn’t space the floor and he couldn’t stay on the floor he was injured most of the season um there needs to be a a player that can optimize you know setting the table but also being able to space the floor and like that’s that’s I just want to address because I know there’s going to be a couple listeners that are going to throw that example out there um you know as well we had that why didn’t Why didn’t it work it’s tough balance like it is mar like Markel fults in theory is a lot of what the magic need but like you did and and I love I think Markel does a great job taking what the defense gives him you know understanding his own weaknesses limitations but that lack of shooting hurts like to be a good offense you can’t be a team with the Magic’s shot profile like the magic are a bad three you know the magic were at least for the whole season a bad three-point shooting team and that’s okay they understood that they didn’t take a lot of Threes they understood that that wasn’t their game they were 29th in the league I think in attempts this year but it’s really hard to be a low volume and low percentage team in this league they were shot 34% from three I think they were 26 in the league Jeff Wellman will quickly point out that the magic were 14th in the league after January 1 that’s a little bit more than half the season but they’re still such a low volume three-point shooting team that it I think it got to the point even that the that teams were like the magic aren’t going to shoot enough threes to make us pay we can even leave their good Shooters open or we we don’t need to be so concerned about their good Shooters because their good Shooters aren’t going to hurt us enough and so the magic you know when you look at marel folz markl FS took fewer than 23s this year um you got to have at least the nominal threat and now that’s the problem and and you know like just just to add on to your point like our highest three-point shooter at volume was Jaylen Suggs at 5.1 attempts per game Gary Harris I think is like closer to like three to four attempts I think it’s closer to four attempts per game it’s not much most teams have multiple players that are taking six plus threes per game right you know five six a lot of teams have at least one person shooting around eight eight or nine so it’s it’s you we’re just not there and I think this is like a perfect opportunity like you’re segueing it right up right so my next my next thought my next topic I want to discuss is you know the magic have multiple things they’re going to have to do this summer they’re going to have to evaluate their current roster with which players are going to have their options picked up or they’re going you know the non- guaranteed deals like they have to evaluate those types of players the Joe Engles the mo Vagner um chumo KK is a restricted free agent um you know they have to decide their current roster they have to figure out what free agents are going to go after they have to figure out the draft um and then potentially any trades right so there’s like kind of like four steps for this front office knowing this magic like the data that we picked up in the playoffs and the regular season and just you know what we’ve just been talking about for the last 16 minutes how do you think the front office is going to operate you know Step One is the draft in a couple of weeks and therefore afterwards you know the the the continuation of the offseason moves like what do you think their mindset is right now you know the thing we know about this magic front office is they’re going to be very measurable um you know I think that continuity is something that’s really valuable to this team and so especially after such a successful season like you know we can be just be disappointed like please be disappointed in game seven game seven was frust tring was disappointing ABS but this was a this was a successful season the magic accomplished a lot this season they’re not going to do some dramatic change like we can all sense that the magic are going to be looking for a starter caliber player they have the money to go out and get one um in free agency And Trades wherever they they’re going to be searching for a starter um but I still get the sense that the magic want to keep as much of this team intact as possible like are they going to lose sleep that chumo KK’s gone no these are draft pick to replace him you know we’ve talked about Marquel fultz it wouldn’t completely surprise me if the magic would like to bring Marquel fultz back but not at the $13 million and as the backup point guard that might be a little tricky I think that magic would love for Anthony black to graduate into what Marco folz did for the team last year and who knows if folz wants to accept that role he might be wanting to go chase a bigger contract or more a longer contract with another team yeah yeah exactly and again this you know there’s a lot of timing stuff that has to go into this for for salary cap purposes but um you know the the magic the magic aren’t aren’t going to just make change or just you know they have money like they have anywhere between 30 and $50 million of cap room roughly this summer they’re not just going to throw that money around because we have it you know they’re not going after bismack bomo because they have the money to go after bismack bomo I know a lot of people are so traumatized by that um that’s not that’s not how this front office operates they’re going to be intentional and they’re going to be purposeful with what they do they know what you know hopefully by now they know what this team needs they have their list of targets at this point of the summer they probably they probably know who they actually have a chance at let’s not be be naive about it um they they’re going to know exactly what they’re what they can do and and they’ll know exactly what they need to do with the players on their roster um and and how they want to handle those options and those guarantees as they come up it’s it’s going to be an interesting summer because the magic have been involved in multiple multi mle rumors recently with with you know people like Trey young Paul George yeah any you know and it’s there there’s likely not a lot of like you know it’s just rumors because the magic have c space they’re they are a team that is expecting to to improve their roster and they’re a young team that’s attractive to to to be joining right so there’s a lot of reasons for them to be connected to rumors um and you know the front office doesn’t leak anything but at the same point they talk to people who leak stuff right so like and they’re talking they’re making a lot of phone calls they’re they’re they’re going to be an active front office as they should be and are so like I’m not saying go believe every rumor you hear but but there are rumors there’s rumors for a reason because the front office is having probably a lot of conversations so you know we have the first the first Domino is about to fall this the where things could get wild because draft could you know it’s not just about class people draft nights you know they make a lot of a lot of big trades happen during draft like what do you think what do you how are you approaching this draft in this draft night right now like just mentally you as a as a media like I know you’re covering the draft but what else are you mentally preparing for for Draft Day yeah you you know as far as as far as the draft goes I I I think you have to enter the draft assuming you’re going to make the pick um you know you have to be prepared to make the pick um looking at the Magic’s roster looking at the the available spots the rotation the magic don’t need another rookie and it’s not that you know there aren’t quality players out there but I think the magic would be a team that is very open to trading their pick and so I view everything that’s going to happen before July 1 July 1 when is free agency opens like late June 30th but July 1st is the new calendar year uh the new NBA calendar year before July first everything that we get is a clue so draft night is a clue of what the magic are going to do um if you know they trade the pick they draft whoever they draft the player they draft position they draft you know the quality of the player they draft if they’re drafting like a veteran like uh Tristan D Silva or Baylor shyman that’s like okay that’s a player that’s going to come in and contribute immediately if they’re drafting a a freshman like kashan kashan Mar kashon George or um you know whoever whoever else there who kle wear like that’s more of a development project that might be someone that’s that’s going to get a gap here in the G League um you know these are the you know these things are going to pop up and then you have June 29th is the deadline to pick up Mo vogner’s team option to pick up Joe Engles team option what are the magic doing with them what does that mean how much cap room does that free up is the bigger question um it it’s all a preview of what the team is ultimately going to do um even if a deal is agreed to and discussed on draft night there’s a good chance that that’s not going to become official until after the new calendar year when the magic have the half Capal so everything’s going to kind of be sitting in stasis for a little while so when we get to draft night that’s what June that’s two two weeks so or three weeks June 26th when we get to the end of the first round I think we’ll have a clear idea of like okay this is what the magic are thinking or this is what the magic need more of now that they’re now that they’re they’ve begun this draft exercise now that they begun adding players to the roster so you know I I think you got to be open to every opportunity that’s out there you got to be exploring every opportunity that’s out there but when you get to the draft you got to go into the draft assuming you’re making the pick and assuming you’re picking where you want to pick um you got to have your targets you got to have the players you like you got to attack and find and and make sure you get the players you like um if you’re you know depending on what the cost is and what you’re willing to give up but um but you got to go into the draft assuming you’re making the pick yeah that makes sense um and you know yeah you have to be ready for it I have not done my draft homework yet you and I were talking about this before we started recording so magic fans don’t listen to me on anything draft related yet I actually have a draft special with one of our good friends uh Richard stamman of Mavs draft um coming on the show yeah he’s gonna be great and I’m starting to actually do some more research on man I’m just not enough feeling confident to like talk about it on yeah on air yet um but yeah it’s going to be interesting because it’s like you know they could draft something and then that’s going to put all the hype on free agency or all of a sudden you know there’s a massive trade and we have some unexpected name or a name that is expected on the magic to to make to prepare to prepare fans for this expect some expect a big deal you know expect you know a big deal either a trade or a free agent expect something big to happen we all know and you can look at the starting L and and and say you know you got jayen Suggs you got Pao you got bronze and you got wend Carter right now as of now yeah um expect at least to fill that Gary Harris spot you know I I like Gary Harris I wouldn’t be surprised if the magic bring him back but you’re not bringing a starter yeah as a starter um and so honestly like I said like all this stuff gives you a clue of what the magic are going to do it should also give you a clue of how they view different players on the roster because you know at this point Paulo and fron are the two pillars you know we don’t you know this to me this as much as exciting as all this free agency stuff is I think the main goal of this summer is to try and get an extension for for fron and Jaylen Suggs done today whether you’re announcing it whether they’re actually signing it now um I there’s a reason maybe to wait but um but but frons and Jaylen Suggs are probably your two big pieces of the puzzle that you want to get done this summer this summer for your long term and and whatever they’re going to make you know Jaylen Suggs could be a 25 2627 million a year player don’t be surprised by that fron vogner his max I think is 30 8 million $39 million don’t be surprised by that um you know I I don’t know if he’s going to get the max or not I think there’ll be some wiggle room there would surprise me if fron doesn’t get done because fron is G say I am worth or France’s agent will say I am worth the max the match say okay go prove it and then if you know we get to the end of the year we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll talk again um this is you know so when I look at when I look at things like look at especially at Jaylen Suggs the place where I was disappointed with jayen Suggs in during the offs especially was he does not seem to be developing into at least a pseudo point guard um I don’t think that’s where he’s at in this stage of his career and some of it might be okay had he was injured his first two years he was just kind of playing his role and doing doing what the magic needed him there needed from him there if the magic are hunting if the magic draft another point guard if the magic go out and acquire another point guard that probably is a hint that oh we don’t think jayen Suggs is a point guard or we don’t think jayen Suggs is a a primary ball handler we just want to be kind of a three andd a super 3 andd um that’s going to be kind of really the big clue is you know this summer The Magic are kind of setting the table for the next four years of the kind of team they’re going to have the kind of team they’re going to be uh and the test pieces that they have on their board for future trades down the line like they’re winning windows open they’re clearly they’re clearly capable of winning now this summer is about setting that table and defining roles for the next four years the player they trade for or sign will likely be the first player in a very long time that gets a three to fouryear contract or is already on that contract and expected to be here we’ve had a lot of you know outside of kind of like the core guys that have established themselves like you know the outside of Jonathan Isaac and Markel fults like most of the free agents have been on like one to twoe deals with a lot of Team options on that second year so I’m expecting that not to be how they spend their money this summer I guess they could if a lot of their main targets strike out and like Kick the Can one more year down the road and then like you kind of have to spend it next summer but it’s G to be tough probably not yeah and so that’s kind of what I’m what I how I’m thinking about it and you’re right you know like they they have to like we had Keith Smith on um a couple weeks ago on my last episode to talk specific about like cap and all that stuff and and you know he kind of mentioned like we have a very small window between now and kind of next offseason to really use this money properly to build out this roster for the next you know four years um you know as far as your core main pillared you know players and granted if something doesn’t work out you can you can trade bad contracts it’s not never fun but if it if a fit isn’t perfect you cont everyone’s movable but um you know you hope and the magic to their credit and the magic to their credit have all the draft capital in the world to spend like they they are they are very well positioned to to push in chips when they’re ready so it’s going to be it’s going to be interesting I’m I’m looking forward to seeing you know kind of obviously the first Domino how does draft Knight work out for us draft Knights work out for us because then that lets us know okay you know if they make a big swing at draft then it kind of lets us know how they’re going to go about free agency kind of fill in the gaps on smaller players if they don’t make a big swing at draft you know with the trade then you know they’re probably going to try and make those moves in the free agency and and we’re getting closer we’re just weeks away now which is really fun so um cool so we’re we’re GNA slowly wrap up our time here listeners you know we’re we’re trying to keep these episodes a little bit shorter um we got a couple of listener questions and um yeah I was in a I’m in a somehow got added into a group magic group chat that’s got like 200 something people in it it’s kind of obnoxious and wild um but and I’m not super active in there every now and then I’ll chime in with just like a reply on like someone who’s like maybe saying some incorrect information on of you know whatever but I I I took an opportunity to say I’m recording with Philip today if you have any questions let me know and there was a couple of them that stuck out um this one in particular uh my good friend Joey um had hit hit me up and said the the Jazz today just announced their rebranded do you expect the magic to do a rebranding in the in the foreseeable future uh so I believe it was after last season or two seasons ago um Alex Martins publicly said that it is something the magic are considering like a refresh to the logo refresh to the Jersey set you know the magic have essentially had the same jerseys now since 2009 uh since the 2009 season um so I do anticipate that there will be some type of brand refresh um we’re obviously I think where we’ kind of moved into this new era of like Jersey marks and word marks um a lot more kind of circular logos and I think that I’ve always believe that’s kind of an anticipation of jerseys moving to uh sponsors across the chest and on the patch instead I’ve kind of suspected like oh they’re starting to like compress the logos down into something so I I do I don’t think we’ll ever see a dramatic change to logo I I would always advocate for go back to as much of the original word marking as you can love this love having the star as an a I I just think that gives the gives the the word marking a little bit of character um everyone’s obviously in love with the original stuff original logo and stuff but I think we’ll always just kind of go the mdle minimalist route because like how do you represent magic visually in the basketball I I think the streaking the streaking basketball is always GNA kind of be the the the the visual language yeah as far as the jerseys I I do think a jersey remake is is is in the offing um I think that I I will say this I’ve had this discussion with some people recently too um the magic have always been a little adventurous with their City jerseys and I’ve always appreciated that like I haven’t loved every single Magic City Jersey sure yeah they’ve pushed some limits there a little bit but but they’ they’ve been willing to try new things like I like I did I love the space jerseys the space Jersey I like the first space Jersey a lot like the SP like the first space Jersey I was very skeptical when I saw the prince of and then I saw in person I was like okay like it it looks it looks fine it’s not egregious they tried something different tried something new I’m always going to respect teams that that are that take a little bit of a risk with these things they’re they’re only here for a year you just deal with them uh I I I love the orange concept I didn’t think it was executed as well as I would have liked but I love the idea of trying that different thing I would have loved to see that orange throwback faux throwback jersey in blue instead of orange yeah cool the Kingdom on the rise jerseys the last two years have been really successful I think um it would not completely surprise me I don’t think the magic should do this but making that kind of their permanent W Mark or their permanent um Jersey I don’t think would have would be absolutely crazy I don’t love that idea I want to be clear on that um but people seem to like those jerseys too I’m I’m anticipating that they’ll do a white version of the Jersey this year after the black and blue version the last two years but those jerseys have been really popular the problem is like the Magic’s first jerseys were perfect the second jerseys were pretty good too and and since then they haven’t been able to replicate that in any way and so um you know you can’t go back to the original design completely um that’s the challenge um and so it’s just like okay how do you change things up you know going back to as close to the original word marking as you can I think as the start and from there you can build everything yeah and and you know I as you were beginning your response to that question I don’t know if this will I’m going to start a small conspiracy theory we did just get you know the magic did just get approved um a good amount of money for some remodeling and refreshing of uh Kia Center uh this past year so maybe they’ll use that opportunity to to update some logos and some some plac probably not but maybe the the Kia Center money that they got from the county is to General upkeep like if you’ve been to the Kia Center lately General upit some logos because they going to the ribbon so no this is just for the arena so like the ribbon around the Spire is like very pixelated like they gota they gota up they gota they gota upgrade they gotta I think they’re doing a new I think they’re doing a new scoreboard too yeah I don’t know if they got to do Jumbotron that would be awesome because like all the jumbotrons are now horizontal instead of vertical I love our Jumbotron it’s Unique it’s different but like it’s yeah it’s it’s it it it worked for 10 years ago when the arena was built now it’s now it’s a new new era but I will say this the magic have changed their jerseys for each player that defined their history so Shaq had his jersey yeah TR Penny and team you know they changed the jerseys for Penny but Penny and T-Mac had that Jersey T-Mac had a jersey they dumped those quickly Dwight had a jersey we’re we’re they’re still wearing Dwight’s Jersey Paulo is that dude Paulo is a player that will define an era of Magic Basketball he’s going to get a jersey and there’s going be he’ll have a jersey that will Define his tenure with the team it’ll be probably the next couple years I imagine be some refresh like people don’t understand like there are a lot of rules when it comes to jerseys and there are there’s a lot of regulations and it takes years to develop thesee it takes years to get approvals because you know the NBA has to create inventory they have you know they have to sell they have to sell and Market it probably don’t want every one changing their jerseys every year um you know like the Utah Jazz thing that came out uh today as we’re reporting this the Jazz are introducing two of the that Jersey set this year and two of them next year and it’s because they’re still required by league rules to wear their ugly jerseys for however many years they have to wear them and they can you know fudge around with the third Jersey and the and the city city Jersey obviously um that’s that that’s kind of what you’re working around here so totally Alex Martin said a few years ago that that a brand ident new brand identity has been under discussion that’s you know that means there’s still a twoyear Runway so you know I don’t think it’ll be this year obviously but it wouldn’t surprise me if next year we’re looking at a new a new magic Jersey um yeah that’d be great I I would love that as my as well um okay so one last question I probably should have flipped him because this one’s a little bit more serious and back to like team building and culture and stuff like that um and you know outside of uh the the more fun thinking of rebranding Hank DET tank on Twitter asks are there any plans to change up the coaching staff around Mo are we bringing back the same staff and then I’m just going to to tweak that a little bit last year right before training camp we lost Nate uh tiits um yeah and you know he was kind of like the number two guy on the team you know the offensive kind of coordinator type person um and they didn’t in fact fill that position uh they just kind of left the the places as as the same so I’m going to like kind of answer part of this and then I will let you answer the rest I don’t think the coaching staff is going to change at all unless someone gets a better position from another team elsewhere I think if I’m understanding things things work out really damn well they probably going to not try and change that what I might lean on you to answer is what’s up with the Nate Tibbits role and the lead assistant role do you think that is going to stay as is or do you think they bring in another person to kind of fill out that position again and you know expand the the coaching staff’s capabilities there yeah I think that’s a good question um I I I don’t have a feel for what the team is going to do I would say this kind of like we talked about earlier continuity is a big deal for this team and that’s not just continuity with the players that’s continuity with the coaching staff everybody on the team knows what each coach is going to expect of them and what each coach is going to bring to the table with them and that matters to and the coaches know how to work really really well together um it would not surprise me if the magic go external and bring in another assistant coach to kind of be that offensive coordinator to to kind of fill in a gap that they don’t have it would not surprise me if the magic hire internally to fill that spot you know uh Randy Gregory is a very wellth thought of development coach kind of back you know back a bench coach for this team really good relationship with all with almost every player on the team I would say honestly you know there’s you know John Calipari kind of jumped the gun and congratulated on and getting an ass coaching job I remember seeing that I remember you know texting some magic people saying hey is this is this official and they’re like no Coach Cal just talked a little bit out of turn like everyone’s kind of filling in different responsibilities and kind of filling in that Gap and obviously worked for the magic um but there all it was a team effort to fill in what they what they lost in Nate tibits obviously um it would not surprise me if if something like that happens where they just promote inter internally and and move some people up the bench or change some titles or you know titles are about money like pay some guys a little bit more that’s that’s ultimately what it comes down to um but it wouldn’t surprise me if they go external and bring in one new assistant coach to kind of help coordinate the offense a little like I said I don’t think the offense is necessarily broken um it needs better personnel and it probably needs just a team to grow up a little bit and be a little bit more organized um to to reach its full potential so I don’t know if the magic will have some dramatic change on the coaching staff that do I expect like JB biera to be hanging around during training camp yeah I do actually I do expect I do expect that him him and Moser are really good friends um uh although I think that’ll be a little awkward for everybody um uh but you know that that happens all the time coaches visit each other during training camp when they’re not working so it’s it you know we’ll you know Monty matthysse who is an assistant coach under Frank vogle is now a scout for the magic he’s hanging around he’s hanging around the facility too he was with that he was in Dallas with Jamal Mosley I believe um you know he was in Dallas with Rick carow he’s he was an offensive coach would would it surprise me if he gets said hey you’re working for us as a scout you know you want to be an assistant Co assistant coach again that would not Shock me at all either so you know there’s there’s a lot of internal options as much as there are external options yeah it’s just interesting about that topic because you know Nate got his you know big deal with the WNBA and like no one really said anything about it it was like cool we thank you for your time good luck and then it was it like the magic filled in like they like you know give credit to the magic like that was a that was a tough spot that was a week before the season started like it like it was that that was really really tough I’m sure it was really really tough for for Coach tibits um totally they adjusted well and and and obviously something works so you know you don’t want to you know you don’t want to Tinker too much but you know yeah totally if you know you don’t want to overload people either yeah absolutely well philli um this is a good place to kind of wrap up our conversation I really appreciate it it’s been a little bit since we’ve chatted you know it’s been a couple of months um you’re of the regular guests that I connect with multiple times a season and so it’s it’s nice to connect for the first time of the off season I imagine you and I will connect later on in the offseason for an episode at some point um you know as always go ahead and lay out the red carpet if people don’t know where where to find your work with they’re sleeping under a rock but if they you know go ahead and let people know where they where they can find everything that you’re up to yeah yeah the best place to find my work is of course at Orlando Magic daily that’s that’s where that’s where I write um you can also find my podcast daily podcast still going 5 days we go five days a week until the end of July like so I will be I will be still pumping out pumping out daily magic content at lockon Magic you can find that wherever you download podcasts as well as on YouTube just search for locked on Magic and if you need even more magic content I have a patreon page I’m currently working through player evaluations from the season on my patreon page the Orlando Magic Hub that’s patreon.com orlandomagic Hub and as always thank you uh for all your support um I’m a subscriber to his patreon it’s amazing you guys should just tap in for sure um all right fans thank you for listening listening to another episode of the closeup a part of the Orlando Magic HQ uh Network group brand I don’t know that last we are but conglomerate um philli thanks again for joining me uh we will talk soon and uh yeah let’s go magic [Music]

The conversation with Philip covers the Orlando Magic’s performance in the regular season and playoffs, the team’s defensive identity, offensive challenges, and the upcoming off-season.

It also delves into the front office’s approach to the draft, free agency, and potential roster changes. The conversation covers a range of topics related to the Orlando Magic, including player development, team building, free agency, rebranding, and coaching staff changes. The discussion also covers the potential future of the team, the Draft, and the Magic’s plans for the upcoming season.

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