Are They Good? Orlando Magic: Players, Coaches and Front Office #orlandomagic #nba

Are They Good? Orlando Magic: Players, Coaches and Front Office #orlandomagic #nba

The Orlando Magic have had a good start to the year to say the least that is despite the universe seemingly trying to derail them as a young small Market team that’s hungry for Success they’ve been largely ignored by the NBA with just a handful of televised games that along

With no one outside of magic dedicated podcast really talking about them and a laundry list of injury issues they kind of tend to fly under the radar this young team has been likened to the Thunder just not as far ahead as schedule they seem to be missing that superstar that brings everything

Together or at least that’s what the general consensus wants you to think all of this being said they have managed to claw their way into the playoff conversation consistently this year usually sitting around the 4 to six seed all of this is done on the back of a strong defense defensive effort helmed

By Paulo Panero Jaylen Suggs and Goa Paz along with Anthony black the rookie stepping up so all of this begs the question are the Orlando Magic good are they playoff good and if they are where do they fit in the East [Applause] the magic are fascinating to me they’re like the anti- Pacers they’re all defense and no offense well okay in terms of points and shooting efficiency the magic are in the bottom half of the league so that’s not like the worst thing ever but at least

At the time of writing the magic do sit in the fourth spot on the highest rank defensive teams in the league all of this is in the context of how many injuries the magic have had this year and well it just makes it all that much

More impressive we’ve seen a lot of key guys go down for extended periods of time like Marquel folz Wendell Carter Jr Gary Harris and France vogner then of course Jonathan Isaac Joe Eng Les and Cole Anthony have missed time all these injuries have led to people like GoGo patan Jaylen Suggs

Anthony black and Paulo banero to step up with Paulo even taking his first few steps towards all stardom and what makes all of this even more impressive is that with some of these injuries the magic have managed to pull out of impressive winds over the Bucks Pacers nuggets

Celtics and caves now of course they’ve traded a few in some of those series but regardless those are solid good quality wins all that being said though they do tend to have some tough times with their in state rival the Miami Heat but of course to be fair they’re not alone in

That so let’s dive into the normal starters to help paint a picture of what this team considers its normal coming in at point guard normally is number 20 Marquel fultz the number one overall draft pick from 2017 going to the Philadelphia 76ers now obviously marel is no longer

With the 76 and he’s had a rocky NBA career ladened with injuries it’s a very interesting story that you can find other videos here on YouTube talking about but it’s safe to say his time with the magic has been special and generally it seems like he has found a home in

Orlando he’s still not what you’d expect from a number one draft pick though sure he’s a solid ball handler he can run an offense well he can pull off some pretty intricate passes but he’s only only a middling at Best But like barely passable shooter he’s been shooting

Around the 50% mark from the field this year but fell to only 20% from three down from last year’s 31% now next to markl is the shooting guard rle going to number four Jaylen Suggs one of the main dudes that’s been holding it down this year during this difficult inter relat

Stretch will he’s not known as a shooter yearo year he has gotten better bringing his field goal percentage up to just over 44% and his three rate to 38% this year on four attempts at game although his strongest point is his defense don’t get it twisted he is part

Of the defensive wall that is Paul googa and himself and those three along with help from Anthony black and a few others have managed to hold off some pretty difficult teams this year when most of the Rost was out next we have number 22 France Vagner and well him and his brother did

Compete in FBA this year fron was injured for portions of that and has had injury issues this year Well Mo has not had these issues he also plays significantly fewer minutes so take that as you will people were a little concerned that fron has maybe regressed a little bit

This year that maybe feea hurt him falling from 36% from three last year to just 31% this year now of course injuries have happened and The Season’s not over so there is time for that to balance out but there is still concern considering France was one of the better three-point Shooters on the

Team that being said his rebounds and assists have gone up a little bit so it’s not all bad now on to the guy you’ve been waiting for drum roll please the big star of the Orlando Magic Goa baz okay now I’m just kidding sorry magic fans I know you’re probably upset

Now it’s of course Rookie of the Year and number one pick from 2022 number five Paulo benero Paulo has been challenged this year really stepping into that leadership role being the star on this team and getting them through this really challenging portion of the Year all these injury issues hitting the

Roster some really tough games but still still holding down a winning season he’s putting in on average 35 minutes a night and he seems to be adjusting to it just fine he’s playing and hasn’t had any real major injury issues and doesn’t look Gass in fourth quarters yeah I mean during this time

The magic fell from fourth seed in the East to well just the play in and they’re still kind of in that contention but it’s it’s kind of hard to say if they can really climb back up to the fourth seat being currently in eighth seat but that being said he’s kept the

Team in kind of the playoff conversation and has increased almost every counting stat from last year which mind you was his rookie of the year’s season so needless to say he has made some waves in the media all this on top of an Allstar appearance is well pretty

Special lastly the final part of the starting lineup is a little confusing cuz it’s either Goa Paz who was filling in for Windell Carter Jr before he got hurt or it’s wind Carter Jr who has kind of taken the spot back post injury but are roughly around the same number of

Starts so who knows really how this goes probably moving forward it’s still Windell Carter Jr but we we’ll go with Goa batas cuz he’s kind of been the bigger name this year so number 35 Goa Paz plays center winwin Doug Harter Jr is not available and Goa is kind of the

Conversation of this year cuz he shocked a ton of people he only had one start last year and played only 17 games last year so to start this mini and perform to such a level people just didn’t expect it they’re like oh well this is

This is a rough stretch for us but he really stepped up he improved pretty much every base and Counting stat you can and well he’s kind of fighting Windell Carter Jr back and forth for the starting role and hasn’t really gotten back to that it’s still incredibly

Impressive that he was able to along with Paulo and Jaylen Suggs hold the ship steady well these injuries were occurring now with all these injuries the starting lineup and the bench have gotten really blurred um because so many people have missed so much time that like the number of starts are kind of

Comparable so I’ll try to make note of when someone has had quite a few starts but moving on to the bench probably the most other surprising guy would be rookie number zero Anthony black who has started 29 games this season so far as a rookie he’s come in and done a pretty

Good job he’s done what a lot of people expected him to and been a big defensive guy he works within a good team defense now now mot is still kind of working its way into the NBA but he could be kind of the future guard of this Orlando Magic

Team which is saying something as a rookie cuz this team has quite a few guards who are quite notable we’ll talk about colle Anthony later but we’ve already talked about marel folz a number one draft pick who of course is not exactly what you’d expect and Jaylen

Suggs so needless to say he’s done a good job with the minutes he’s been given now the other rookie we haven’t really seen all that much this year is jet Howard because he’s been getting run with the g-league affiliate and doing a phenomenal job so fingers crossed we see

Him a little bit more down the stretch this year now on to the man I mentioned earlier Cole Anthony and from what I gather my purely Vibes based observation him and mo Vagner are kind of like the hearts of this team or just the the vibe

Machines if you will on and off the court so so these guys outside of their play are really important to the fabric of this team and Cole may be a small guard he’s only 6’2 but he’s got a really really good handle and he’s quick and we can’t forget about number

21 mait Vagner the brother of France Vagner that I’ve mentioned a couple of different times already in this video he’s been in the league since the 1819 season has played for a few different teams notably the the Lakers the Wizards and the Celtics before landing in Orlando as the backup center marit

Actually has gotten quite a bit of run this year because well Goa still needed a backup when Wendell Carter Jr was out and now he’s kind of cemented his place in kind of a regular rotation he has had some injury issues like pretty much everyone else on this team in the past

But he has pretty consistently played throughout the season and increased his shooting capability from both the floor and to an extent from three now we also have Jonathan Isaac who has struggled to be healthy his entire career since being drafted sixth back in 2017 by the magic he’s only

Played one season with more than 35 or 34 games which oddly enough that season was 75 games back in the 1819 season so it seems kind of feast or famine when you’re looking at uh uh Jonathan Isaac here and that brings us to Gary Harris a guard that’s known for his three-point

Shot and one that has fallen this year probably due to injury there’s hope that he’ll get back over the 40% mark on four temps a game relatively soon also down with injuries this year would be starting center Windell Carter Jr who I mentioned earlier and well he

Does have a history of short Seasons playing a Max of 62 games back in the 2122 season he has done some impressive stuff on his comeback this year he can shoot the three fairly consistently and he’s done some we’ll say pretty solid looking blocks the next name on the list would

Be that of Joe Les who has also been out with injuries this year as I said a lot of injuries on this team but not as long as some of those other injuries Joe’s provided some veteran presents for this relatively Young team and he’s a pretty good catch and shoot three-point shooter

Off the Bench averaging 42% from three on nearly three attemps a game next we have Caleb Houston a second-year guy currently shooting 37% from three rounding out the semi-regular rotation be chuma okk and 2A contract guy Trevin Queen the magic have also two other two-way contracts with cavon

Harris and Admiral shaffield however we haven’t really seen a lot of them this season so without injuries this team is actually pretty solid however Paulo and fron aside there’s not a lot of guys that get a lot of star recognition even with googa Anthony black and Jaylen sug stepping up the

Team has been in a really tight race in kind of the middle of the East now on to the coaching staff led by that of Jamal Mosley a real player coach or rather a player that turned Co coach after a career playing abroad Mosley would come

Back to the states to work his way through the coaching structure of teams such as the Denver Nuggets Cleveland Cavaliers and Dallas Mavericks before landing the head coaching gig with the magic all of this and he’s just 45 years old so with a younger team like this you

Often see him interacting with players in a much more friendly near peer role almost than you see some of the older more tenur coaches on other teams would and kind of a weird call back to the Thunder episode where I talked about Mark digal having really interesting

Insightful things to say like the whole artists versus scientists thing when breaking down players that kind of applies to Jamal Mosley as well I mean listening to him speaking post games he’s what I would call an artist he’s much more about the technical side of looking at an individual in their

Play versus an overall conceptual View and kind of like a strategic approach one of the lines that coach Mo likes to use is this team is done by committee really emphasizing that the players are leading the team he’s just kind of guiding them as needed it all

Goes back to being a player’s coach he trusts his team and well they trust him now on to the organization in its president Jeff welman welman would take the Reigns back in 2017 looking to write the ship after half a decade of playoff misses this process would start with

Drafting Jonathan Isaac who despite his injury history has stayed on the roster we’d also see Marquel folz come through via trade in 2019 and 2021 be the most drastic year as we see Nicole ausich Evan fornier and Aaron Gordon get traded this would help bring in some picks along with Gary Harris Willer

Carter Jr among other players we’d also see France vogner and Jaylen Suggs join the the crew in that year’s draft that brings us to 2022 and the number one overall pick that the Orlando Magic used to select Paulo benero out of Duke well paollo would win the Rookie of the we

Year award in 2022 the team would miss the playoffs finishing 34 and 48 well the front office hasn’t made any big trades in the recent years and didn’t do anything at this trade deadline it is interesting to see and kind of guess what the magic will intend to

Do with marel fultz especially now that Anthony blank has started and been successful with this current team so with the front office looking towards the future a players coach and a lot of young Talent where does this version of The Magic fall well of course this team in particular it’s primarily based around

Injuries but if Pao jayen SU and Goa can shoulder the load this team has a really good chance to stay in the play and if not break the playoffs if either Anthony black or jet Howard make a lot of progress in the rest of the season or Marquel folz Fran

Vogner Jonathan Isaac and when Carter can fully recover and stay that way this team could make a solid run into the playoffs either through the play in or actually making it into the playoffs so are they good well yes will they be good in the future

Also yes but where do they fit in the East with this core and being relatively young well who knows but if all holds well and no major injuries fingers crossed derail them they could potentially get back to like the you know 7 sixish area but anything can happen and post

Most trade deadline even more so so I’ll leave you with this this team being run by committee is an entirely different approach to what we see on the star Laden teams and interviews Paulo has talked about the difficulties of stepping into that leadership role and being vocal cuz that’s not really his Natural

State but he has made big splashes this year and could be one of the future perennial All Stars we talk about for the next decade

The Orlando Magic may not get a lot of national attention on ESPN, TNT or whatever sports broadcast you prefer, but they’ve proven themselves so far this year. Fighting their way into the play off conversation with wins over teams like the Celtics, Knicks, Bucks, Pacers and the Cavs, this young team is in position to shock everyone potentially.

But can youthful engergy and a team 1st attitude get them over the hump and into a deep play off run? With teams like Jalen Brunson’s New York Knicks, Donovan Mitchell’s Cleveland Cavliers, Tyrese Halliburton’s Indiana Pacers, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwakee Bucks and the potentiall Joel Embiid less Philly 76ers stadning in the way, the Magic are in for a tough ride.

Can Rookie of the Year Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs, Markelle Fultz, Johnathan Issac, Wendell Carter Jr and rookie Anthony Black push this team over the top? With recent attention from JJ Redick, Paolo and Franz are slowly becoming household names and lead this young Magic team. While fans are skeptical with the front office for making no trades this NBA trade deadline, there’s still hope this team can either jump the Play In Tournement or power through it for the 1st playoff apperance in a long time.

Can Paolo and Franz reach the heights of Shaq, a former Magic player? With Shaquille O’Neal’s jersey being retired in Orlando, there’s a lot of buzz around the city and this team.