PREVIEW PLAYOFFS NBA – Despite a balanced roster almost identical to last season’s, the Orlando Magic are having a mixed season in many ways. If the eighth place ensures the Florida franchise a participation in the playoffs, it is not a great satisfaction given the low level of play of a majority of the teams in the Eastern Conference.
Magic d’Orlando: mixed results
The Magic’s relatively disappointing record is largely due to a major problem, that of the glaring imbalance between offensive and defensive effectiveness. If most of the Orlando players have good shooting percentages, it is above all by their defensive statistics that they shine. If this can be interpreted as a positive element, it should be put into perspective because if most players stand out more by their defense than by their scoring efficiency, it is because there is a sporting anomaly.
In this way, the Orlando Magic occupy the sixth and fourth place in the ranking of interceptions and blocks made per game. A feat for a team of an average caliber compared to the rest of the NBA. The problem, however, still lies in the offensive conversion of this defensive success: if the talent of excellent defenders like Jonathan Isaac, Markelle Fultz or Nikola Vucevic is not combined with that of pure scorers, a real and effective tactical synergy cannot take shape.
The absence of a superstar
The Orlando Magic roster is undeniably filled with talented players. However, the shadow of a lack of leadership hangs over the Florida franchise. If several players, starting or not, such as Evan Fournier, Nikola Vucevic, Aaron Gordon or Terrence Ross, are able to score 20 or even 25 points per game, we feel a certain irregularity among these players.
Thus, it is clear that the franchise considerably lacks a player on whom it can rely and rely. It is also impossible to designate the franchise player of Orlando, between Fournier, Vucevic and Gordon, the role of leader is shared with difficulty and too little clearly.
Markelle Fultz, the bet of Magic d’Orlando
The arrival of Markelle Fultz in the summer of 2019 represents a bet on the future of the Orlando front office, to potentially compensate for this lack of a superstar. Indeed, the first choice of the 2017 Draft, chosen by the Philadelphia Sixers, had two very complicated first seasons in the NBA.
Since being in Florida, the young leader has played with less pressure and can, in a more ample way than in the past, show the extent of his talent in a team where there is little. competition for the position of leader. If Markelle Fultz is not yet a superstar or a franchise player, his room for improvement, still very large, may one day allow him to aspire to such status.
What ambitions for this end of the season?
At home for this sequel and end of the season at Disney World, the Orlando Magic dreams of a great performance in the playoffs. If the qualification seems already acquired, the seventh place in the standings represents the main objective of the franchise at the end of the regular season. Occupied by Brooklyn Nets, weakened by injuries and Covid-19 cases, seventh place in the standings is largely affordable for the Magic. A single defeat separates the two franchises neck and neck.
What is more, to pass in front of Brooklyn would allow Orlando to face Toronto in the first round, except reversal of situation, and thus to avoid the Bucks of Milwaukee, true rollers of this Eastern Conference. If they face the Raptors again this year, Magic players will likely have a better chance of qualifying than last year given Kawhi Leonard’s departure from the Clippers last summer. However, this opposition, if it takes place, will always be unbalanced and therefore to the disadvantage of Orlando. It seems difficult to envisage, at this stage of the competition, an accession to the second round of the playoffs for the Orlando Magic.
Featured photo credits: Jose Garcia
NBA preview playoffs: the Orlando Magic, an outsider with an unbalanced workforce was last modified: July 24th, 2020 by
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