Do you believe in Magic?

The rebuilding Orlando Magic come into the season owning their First Round Pick, I think that is important to establish because of their current roster construction. With Kyrie Irviing set to miss the first half of the season at minimum with a torn ACL, they’ll look to Reed Shepard to run that team/offense. I think it’ll be good to see what Reed can do with the bulk of the usage and high minutes early on, you can then figure out what you want to do moving forward in next year's draft. I think they’ll be sellers at the trade deadline but they have some very interesting pieces at their disposal to get back future assets. Starting with Naz Reid, he’s on one of the best contracts in the league I’d say. Versatile player who can cover both Center and Power Forward for you while also scoring in bunches. On a Twenty-two ish million dollars a year contract, I think he is someone that playoff teams can look at as someone who can help them get over the hill in pursuing a championship. But if they don’t go that way, I do think that the Magic should involve him as much as possible in the offense, I think specifically, run him and reed a lot in the Pick and Roll and/or Pick and Pop. I also don’t think there’s many 4’s that can stay in front of him. Also a guy like Keldon Johnson, who can play Small Forward, Power Forward and Shooting Guard, versatility in this league is a luxury, and just like Naz Reid, I think he’s a guy that playoff teams can really use down the stretch if the Magic chose or felt like they needed to go down that road come trade deadline. PJ Washington is another guy I’m looking at (are you seeing a trend here?) that can be moved near the deadline, think he is a great role player that a contending team could/would move for if the opportunity presented itself. But the real guy he should shop aggressively is Kyrie Irving, they can either do that now before he’s back or wait until he’s got a few games under his belt so he can “prove” that he is still Kyrie Irving. He is on such a moveable contract for a guy of his level, I think that’s a guy he can get GREAT value for and really set himself up for a QUICK rebuild. Especially with the way this rookie class is looking, if they do this correctly, they can go back to competing right away if they hit on one of the top guys. 

My expectation for their season is not as doom and gloom as I probably portrayed in the first paragraph because they’re a deep team when healthy. If they can hover around .500 until Kyrie is back, they can definitely make a playoff push. I’m just not sure that a 5-8 seed with an aging Superstar coming off of an ACL is what the Magic would look to do moving forward. They’ve got their pick this year and next year they don’t. I do not think there is any time like the present for them if they are ready to hit the reset button and capitalize on an opportunity with Kyrie out. I don’t think they should gut the team completely, I just think that this is a good opportunity to cash in on Kyrie Irving, and one of their forwards in Naz Reid or PJ Washington. This way they can really focus on getting their younger guys opportunities. Reed Shepard, Kyle Filipowski, Peyton Watson, and hopefully Nikola Topic can make a full recovery and get back on the court. Team can use this season as an “let’s see what the rookies have” and go from there.

I think the Orlando Magic are a solid team, realistically, they’re probably a Superstar away next to Kyrie to really contending for a championship but I just don’t see a pathway for them to get to that with the pieces that they have, that’s why I lean with them retooling/rebuilding this offseason and moving on from Kyrie Iriving. If they take the route of not shipping Kyrie and just going for it, I can see them being anywhere from a 37 to 43 win team with Kyrie being out for half the year. If they blow it up and they rebuild for the year, I don’t see them winning more than 33 games which would bode well for them with what they’d be trying to accomplish. I think healthy, they can give teams a lot of trouble, they have versatility and length on their front line and have one of the most skilled players ever in Kyrie Irving.