Will Orlando Magic’s Unorthodox Offseason Moves BACKFIRE?

Will Orlando Magic’s Unorthodox Offseason Moves BACKFIRE?

It’s just summer leak. It’s just summer leak. It’s just summer league. But do the Magic still have a point guard problem? Today on Locked on Magic, you are Locked on Magic. Your daily Orlando Magic podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. And you are indeed locked on Magic. Today is July 13th. It will be July 14th, 2025. My name is Philip Rossman. I’m the senior writer over at Orlando Magicaily.com. Credentialed member of the Orlando Magic media since the 2012 season. On today’s episode of Lockdown Magic, the Orlando Magic fall to the Toronto Raptors in their second summer league game. Plenty of good things to talk about and we’re going to talk about all of them, but the big story was the Raptors ball pressure. Why the summer league team is kind of like the regular team in that they don’t really have a point guard. Why that is still the big issue facing the Orlando Magic. We’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment. But first, we want to thank you again for making Lockdown Magic your first listen every day. Whether you listen to us first thing in the morning, whether you listen to us right when we upload, whether you listen to us wherever you find us, we truly appreciate you making Lockdown Magic part of your day every day. We truly appreciate all of our everydayers who make Lockdown Magic part of their day. Five days a week. We’re still going five days a week strong all the way until the end of summer league for sure and probably till the end of the month. So, plenty of Lockdown Magic coming your way before we take a little bit of a break for a couple months uh and scale back to get ready for what should be a very fun 2026 season. It’s all part of Lock on Podcast Network, your team every day. Today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $150 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. The Orlando Magic have a philosophy. They have a way that they play. They have the sting that they feel makes them unique. And and look, we are talking championships now. We are talking about being deeper into the playoffs and being a legitimate title contender. And to do that, you have to do something that is so unique, so elite that other teams have to plan for it or that other teams frankly don’t have a way to plan for it. And so the magic, their overall strategy, their overall idea is that we can attack you from any position. Our best playmakers are 610 forwards who play like guards, but have the strength of forwards. Our guards are not traditional point guards. You have to cover them and you have to be able to cover everyone because they do everything. Anthony Parker said this on the on the broadcast of Sunday’s game and and it’s been something that Jeff Welman’s repeated. The goal for the Magic this off season was to collect skill and IQ. They wanted players smart enough to know what to do with the ball and have the skill to do things with the ball that are not typical for players of their position. That is the Magic’s identity. That is who the Magic are and that is what the Magic believe will lead them to success. This is the heart of the matter. And so when we all looked at the Magic roster and said, “Oh, a point guard matters.” Look, even Corey Joseph love Corey to death. Even Corey Joseph made this offense functional because a point guard matters. The Magic said, “No, that’s not the case. We’re going to go get Desmond Bane, one of the best three-point shooters in the league and and an elite player and someone who can add five assists per game, and build our roster around that. I’ve joked about this. I’ve said this on like several radio appearances and podcast appearances. The Magic decided to moneyball the point guard position. They don’t need a point guard. They can create one in the aggregate. And frankly, this is the theory of the case. This is the theory of the Magic’s whole rebuild. If this theory is wrong at this point, the Magic have to do some major shifting, some major changes. They are full in committed to this identity of playing without a point guard that Paulo Fron and Bane can each average around five assists per game and recreate what you might get from a point guard. But even then, what you get from a point guard is a little bit more intangible than that. Yes, Desmond Bane can rip the ball down and go. Jaylen Suggs can rip the ball down and go. Paulo can go. Fron can go. Any one of those players could initiate the offense. And that is an that is an advantage. That is not a bad thing. But there is a level of organization, a level of understanding, a level of calm, a level of poise that comes with a traditional point guard. And what the Magic are going to have to prove and a key to the Magic’s ultimate success this season is whether they are able to to to have that with the players that they have. This is how the Magic have built themselves everywhere. When you look at this Magic summer league roster, yeah, Jace Richardson is the point guard, but Ethan Thompson’s been handling the ball a lot. Noah Penda handled the ball a lot. We’ll talk about him in a minute. Um, Alandis Williams, uh, Jaylen Crutcher, these are not natural point guards. They don’t play point guard anywhere else but with the magic where everybody is tasked to do everything. And so with that in mind, understanding it is just summer league. These are young players for the most part. Sunday’s game was a red flag. Sunday’s game deserves to be dissected and thought about of, huh, maybe this skill, this position, this like hard P position that the Magic Cav de delegated or pushed to the side. Maybe it does mean something. Now look, again, this is a weighty question. Like the the the thing I just spoke for the last seven minutes about that is a real question. That is a question. We would have addressed this. We would have thought about this during the dead times of the offseason. It is the big question facing this Magic team whether their idea of how to build a point guard and an organizer can actually function at the highest levels. The Thunder have Shay Gildus Alexander. They have an Alex Caruso. They Indiana has a Tyresese Hallebert. New York has Jaylen Brunson. Minnesota has Mike Connley. Golden State has Steph Curry. Denver has Jamal Murray. Cleveland has Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell. Boston has Derek White. a point guard matters. That experience matters. And so, yes, this is summer league. The Raptors are playing a frenetic ball pressure style that I think is intentionally over the top. They don’t care how many fouls they draw or they commit. They don’t care because the idea for them right now is to build a culture of defense, of intensity. It’s no different than how the Magic were two years ago. So, I’m saying all this not to read and then warning you not to read too much into summer league stats, but by the same token, the Magic committed 29 turnovers leading to 44 Toronto points. Noah Penda, who we’ll talk about here in a minute, had five turnovers. Tristan D Silva had six. Off the bench, Jaylen Crutcher, essentially the Magic’s backup point guard, had three. Alandis Williams, another kind of lead guard type, had three. Jace Richardson only had one. I’m gonna give him that credit. He was he was really good as a kind of guy settling the team down. Scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half. Helped the Magic get back into the game. helped the Magic kind of settle down, make big shots, make big plays. And the Magic’s biggest problem on the final possession of the game was they couldn’t get him the ball. They were too disorganized. They were too kind of going for it, just all out of sorts. They couldn’t get the ball to the guy that was getting them in the right spots, making the right plays, and really on to. So, for those of us who were eager to see Jayce Richardson take on more point guard roles, he only had he had four assists against against one turnover. He started to show that. But Jace was also a rookie who got really bothered by Jamal Shed and his aggressive defense who at times could not get himself involved, could not break free from the physicality of this team and at times did not look like that calming force. It’s summer league. Everyone’s out of sorts. Everyone’s all over the place. Everybody’s crazy. And in that summer league setting, especially having someone who can calm your team down, slow the game down, and get a good shot, that means everything. And so that is a credit to Jay Richardson that he did that throughout the second half. But the Magic could not find that consistently throughout the game. Toronto’s defensive pressure was the story of the game. And look, the Magic got their turnovers back, too. They had they forced 22 as well. that that defensive pressure was the story of the game and the Magic handled it inconsistently. Will that be the case in the regular season? It’ll be different. Like Paulo’s Palo, Fron is Fron, you know, we’ll see. But more teams are playing pressure defense. More teams are trying to pick up tempo as a way to condense space. more teams are sitting in passing lanes and doubling more to create bad passes and relying on rotations. What the Raptors did isn’t going to be so different from what a lot of teams will try to do to the Magic to make them uncomfortable. And that’s why having a point guard kind of matters. We’ll see if it does in October. That’s not the only takeaway from this game. A big showing from Noah Pendo. We’re going to give him some flowers as he makes his mark in the second summer league game. We’ll get to that coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to you by our friends over at Hungry Route. Let’s be honest, meal planning and grocery shopping can be overwhelming. Between busy schedules, picky eaters, and trying to eat healthy, it’s a lot. That’s why I love Hungry Root. They take the stress out of planning by filling your cart for you with personalized groceries and meal options based on what you like and need. Hunger uses their smart cart TM technology to recommend groceries, recipes, and even supplements tailored to your preferences. Whether you’re dairy free, gluten-free, focused on gut health, or just trying to eat better, Hungry Root has got you covered. I’m someone that does like to go shopping. I like to cook for myself, but I don’t always pick the best things from the grocery store. So, having Hungry Root be able to pick healthy snacks for me, healthy foods for me, it’s really helping me in my weight loss weight loss journey as I try to get myself into game shape for the start of the season. Take advantage of this exclusive offer for a limited time. Get 40% off your first box, plus a free item in every box for life. Go to hungry.com/lockdon NBA and use code lockdown NBA. That’s hungryroot.comnba. Code locked on NBA to get 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life. I don’t want to be doom and gloom. Like it’s summer league. Like we’re trying to draw some things and and that comparison that I made in the first segment, it’s something I saw. It’s something I thought about as I was watching the game. But of course, like we know there are a lot better players on the Magic’s regular roster. The Magic aren’t going to be worrying so much about that. But it is again it is a it is a concern for the rest of the season. This was largely a positive game for the Magic once again. Like we could argue with some lateg game execution. We’ll go through the box score talk a little bit more about what happened in the game itself uh toward the toward the end of the show. Um but this was this was the Noah Penda coming out party. Penda showed some nice things in the first game, but he was the first to say after the game that he did not play up to a standard. He did not think he played uh particularly well in that game. And so he I I he definitely came out eager to set the record straight. It’s not the right right phrasing, but essentially make good on that effort. make good on an effort that he didn’t feel was to his level or or at the level that that he wanted it to be. This was no append chance to make his mark to be the player that he knows he can be to show us the player that he can be. And look, no appenda is still very very rough around the edges. I I I I I want as exciting and as interesting as he is as a player, he’s got a lot of work to do. Things still feel a little slow. I think I think he’s very comfortable playing at his pace and forcing everyone to play at his pace, which is a very good sign, but there are still things he has to get better at. Just be a little bit more fluid and and and all that stuff. But that’s what you expect from a player like him and and and from all that. Let’s just go through the numbers then. In 30 minutes, Penda finished with nine points, 14 rebounds, four for nine shooting. Made his first three. He was one for three from three, two assists, three steals, a block. He did have five turnovers, and he was plus 19 in the game. Plus 19 was the highest plus minus of any player in this game, either team. Noah Penda had a major impact on this game that went beyond nine points. to that point guard question that I that I mentioned earlier. One of the ways the Magic decreased pressure from the guards was they had Noah Penda bring the ball up and the Raptors put they couldn’t put Colin Murray Boils on him because they were more concerned about Tristan Dilva and Colin Murray Boils wasn’t big enough to handle Noah Penda because again you just watch these games Penda is just big. He’s just a big dude. He’s a bigger dude than a lot of the guys on the floor. Um he he was guarded a lot of times by Jonathan Mo. Again, NBA level guy, guy who played for the Raptors main roster last year. And while I wouldn’t say like he was aggressively attacking him or just dominating that that position, he was able to get the Magic into their offense and get them organized. Now, having said that, yes, he did have five turnovers. He was sped up at times. The Raptors were doubling and trapping him and and I think his passing there are signs that he will be an excellent passer. I want to mention that like there are a lot of signs he will be an excellent passer, but he’s got to learn those reads and he’s got to learn to make those passes. Um it it’s not all there yet. Again, it’s I think Penda is go is a little is a project like he’s gonna play he’ll play a little bit. He’ll make an impact and like like say let’s say one out of one of every other game he will make an impact. Other times he’ll look like a rookie and look lost. Um, but he’s someone that defends really really well. I was really impressed with this defense. He had a really good block in this game. He had a really good dunk in this game. Uh, he just he just does a lot of things that seem to make sense. And he’s big when he’s on balance. He knows how to use his body. He knows how to get to a spot. Get to a spot. He’s just got to he’s got to get some more touch. He had he had a nice hook shot in this game. He just felt like he was all over the place in a good way. like he was just had his hands in several facets of the game and that’s what the Magic want to see. That’s why they drafted him. That’s why they think he can be an impact player for this group. I I have been I was probably more eager to see Noah Penda play of any player in this Magic Summer League team just because like you know I’ve watched some tape on him but it really didn’t feel like we had a good sense of who he was and what he could do and who he could be. Um you know again just just we all knew he was super raw and so it’s just like okay how far along is he like how raw are we talking about? How much development is there going to need to be? and Penda showed pretty has shown pretty quickly here in these summer league games that he’s much further along than people think that he can indeed make a pretty big impact that he can indeed do things right now on the court and certainly in these summer league games again like I say this all the time like summer league doesn’t tell you who can play. It tells you who can’t. No Appenda can play at this level. He doesn’t look lost. He doesn’t look overwhelmed. He, you know, maybe he’s still trying to find his place, but to me, he was the M until Jayce Richardson went on his terror at the end of the fourth quarter. Noah Penda was the MVP for the Magic. He was the calming presence. And look, he’s still going to get over his ski sometimes. That was the case in the first quarter in Thursday’s game. That was the case in the fourth quarter in this game and and it cost a magic game in the end. He made a couple big mistakes, a huge turnover, got the got got the his the chair pulled from him. Um ended up hurting his elbow on that play, which is not cool and a little bit scary, but play Yeah, look, he played through it. He still tried to do something. He’s he got a rebound on a free throw while he was holding his elbow um and and not in good shape. Um he he you could you this is the way I would describe it. You could feel his impact. You could feel him on the floor. Um you know sometimes when you’re watching these summer league games and again like stats are important. They tell us something. They don’t tell us everything in these games. If you watch this game without even thinking about the stats and just watch a couple possessions you’d be like that 93 guy is doing a lot of things. a you notice him because he’s a big dude. But he’s doing a lot of things. Um the rebounding was was killer. Like he was he was dominant on the glass. He was everywhere on that front. He was poking the ball away. That’s going to get him on the floor and that’s that’s going to that’s exactly what the Magic want to see from him. Everything else they can develop. But he’s shown you honestly like we’ll get to this, but I don’t think the three roster guys need to play anymore. I think we’ve seen what we need to see from them. Um, and that’s a good thing. Like I don’t I won’t I won’t mind if they play Tuesday. I I don’t think that would be a bad thing, but we’ve seen what we need to see. And all three of those guys have delivered for the Magic so far. Let’s talk about Jace Richardson’s game. Let’s talk about Tristan Silva’s game. Let’s talk about why the Magic may have found a two-way player. We’ll get to all that coming up here in just a moment. But first, today’s episode of Lockdown Magic is brought to our friends over at FanDuel. Summer sports are in full swing. 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Talk about the key players in this game as the Orlando Magic fall to the Toronto Raptors 89 to 86 in their second summer league game. They are 0 and2 but have lost both games by three points. Um, ultimately like this game was weird. Um, I I describe this game as very very summer league. This game summer leagued as hard as a game could. 29 turnovers for the Magic, 22 turnovers for the Raptors. Toronto took 43 free throws. Um, Tristan Dilva had six fouls. Ethan Thompson had six fouls. Scal Leiscier had six fouls. Alandis Williams had five fouls. Colin Murray Boils for the Raptors in his summer league debut, eight points for him. He had eight fouls. Um, Jacobe Walter and Jamal and Jamal Shed had five fouls. Again, like I mentioned, Chucky Heepburn had four. Like I mentioned, the Raptors were playing so aggressive on defense. And honestly, I think their coaches probably told them, “Don’t worry about fouling. You get 10 in these games. We just want to instill an aggressive mindset.” And again, I don’t mind that. Like, I I thought they were allowed to be a little handsy early in the game, but I don’t mind that. like let’s let’s let’s teach these kids to be tough. And so from that perspective, I would say the biggest win then was Jace Richardson. Jace Richardson finished with 19 points, five for 10 shooting, eight for nine from the foul line, one for three from three, four assists, one turnover, and two blocks. Um Jace Jace was really good. And look, he scored 17 of his 19 in the in the second half. He really struggled early on with the physicality, with the pressure, and that had him receding to the background, but he found a way to make an impact. And it happened very, very slowly, but once it happened, he took over the game at the end and nearly got the Magic back. Nearly it got the Magic back into the game. They were down like eight, nine, eight, nine points in the fourth quarter. Got the Magic back in the game, tied the game, and seemingly made every big play. I honestly wanted to see him get the last shot. I don’t mind Tristan Dilva getting it. The play wasn’t really well executed. Um, but I really, really like the way that Jace played in this game. Um, Jace showed us, look, he showed us that look, he’s still going to need some time. He’s still making some mistakes. He’s still, you know, his size, I would say honestly, through two games, his size is a bigger factor on offense than it is on defense. Um, he is going to compete. Um, defensively, he is going to compete. Um, you know, again, I I don’t think Toronto like picked on him or anything, but anytime he was involved defensively, like he was he was getting into it. Uh, and so I love that he’ll get into it. His his his wingspan helps him a ton on defense. Like he’ll I think he’ll be okay on defense. Will he be great defender? Probably not, but he’ll be okay. Offensively, I think, is where his size gets him in trouble. Um, he can get stuck kind of the same way that Cole Anthony would sometimes get stuck on drives. But when Jayce has a clear shot at the basket and is able to get downhill and kind of build build some momentum, he is so crafty with how he gets a shot off. Um he’s he’s so good at those angles. He’s not afraid to take contact. He’s not afraid to take a hit. I I am really impressed with this kid. And look, it’s just at this point it’s just about confidence and belief and and feeling that rhythm. Once he saw a couple go down in the fourth quarter, it it was game over. And he really played well. um he really kind of he kept the magic in this game and and I think there’s a lot to say and a lot to like about the way that he played in this game. Again, he he really kept the magic in this one and and I think Magic fans should be very very excited about what he can be about what he can deliver and bring to this team and how much he can still grow and there’s still a lot of areas that he’ll need to improve and and learn how to work around things. But Jace Richardson has delivered everything Magic fans could have hoped for through two games. I think a lot of what he’s doing is translatable. he’ll be better when he’s with better players and he doesn’t have to do all the things that he’s doing. But he was really, really solid in this one. So too was Tristan Dilva, although Tristan slowed down as the game went on. He finished with 18 points. He was six for 13 from the floor. Three for seven from three. He made his first three threes. They were all in the first quarter. Um five rebounds, six fouls, six turnovers, like I mentioned, two steals, and a block. Um Tristan Dilva looked really really comfortable and good in the first half and the first quarter especially. Um you know we’re we’re at the point where like we know what we’re getting from Tristan D Silva. And so he look I could he used another game? Sure. I wouldn’t hate it. I wouldn’t hate it if any of these three guys played um if Jace Tristan or Noah played in Tuesday’s game. I would say that’s their last game. They don’t need much more. Through the first half I was like Tristan doesn’t need to be out there. like we we know what we’re getting from him. Orlando wants him to be more aggressive, wants him to attack more off the dribble. And look, he’s making mistakes. That just may not be his game. That may not be who he is. I don’t think that’s his personality. I don’t think he has the idea of like, I need to take over this game or I need to be the one to take that last shot. You know, he took the last shot. I’m glad he took it. It was a rush shot. He had more time on the clock than I think he thought. It wasn’t a particularly well executed screen to spring him free. Um there’s a screen to the corner uh corner for the game for the game tying three and and Tristan missed the shot. It was a little bit of a fade fade away. Um I thought Jace was open. They should have gotten it to Jace and had him attack, but uh but you know honestly like that’s what summer league is for for him. Summer League is for him to make these mistakes. He was excellent on the threes that he took in the first quarter. He’ll probably be hit or miss on threes. um just you hope he’s better than he was last year on those threes because we know that he can make a bunch of threes and and and and attack off off closeouts and and he’s still really good at those things. And so uh there are there are things to like and look I think Tristan played fine um a little you know the things that he struggled with are things that the Magic aren’t going to ask him to do in October. So the things they’re asking him to do now and he’s struggling with them a little bit but um overall still a solid effort from him. the rest of the roster. Again, I’ve kind of warned you that this isn’t the cleanest roster, but I want to mention Wendell Moore Jr. 22 points, nine for 13 shooting, two for three from three, six rebounds. Really, really strong game for Wendell Moore. He played okay in Thursday’s game. Played really, really well. The three-point shooting was really big in this game. Um, he screams to me that he he’s he could be an Oyola guy. He screams to me that he’s a two-way guy, too. Um he’s he’s just been he’s been knocking on the door. He’s played with the Pistons for the last few years. I I believe with the Pistons the last few years. I can uh stall and double check that real fast. Um but he’s been in the NBA a little bit. Um he’s been in the NBA just a little bit. He’s played three seasons now. Uh played with Minnesota’s first two seasons with with Detroit and Charlotte last year. Has 90 games of NBA experience under his belt. Um played 20 games with the Pistons last year. uh career 25% three-point shooter. Again, hasn’t had the opportunity to shoot a lot of threes, so I don’t think that number is necessarily accurate. And look, he shot threes pretty well in these two games and certainly shot shot him well in this game last year in the GLeague, if I can get these stats pulled up. Uh he was uh not in the G- League last year, did not play in the G- League at all last year as a roster player, but two seasons with the Iowa Wolves, the the Wolves uh affiliate, not a great three-point shooter. So, he’s someone that is very much a two-way type player. He’s been in the NBA. He’s been on the fringes of some rosters. He played really well in this game, I think, with another solid game and and and hopefully he’s played well in practices and and and he’s on the radar. Wendo Moore feels like a guy that should get a two-way contract somewhere like he’s he’s good enough to do that. Thought he played really really well in this game and and obviously this the production suggests that as well. This was not a good game for Ethan Thompson. I had a few people text me like, “Why are the Magic dealing with Ethan Thompson?” And I was like, look, he didn’t have a great game today. Played really well on Thursday. Um, there’s some things I didn’t like about the way he played Thursday, but not a good game for him. Two points, 0 for six from the floor, 0 for five from three. Three-point shots picked for him. He’s come a long way on that. He’s gotten a lot better. Just not a good night for him there. Um, Scalabcier did not follow up his strong game on Thursday with another good game. No points, 0 for four shooting, six fouls, you know, just he was active, but Magic were fouling a lot. It’s just that kind of a game. Um, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about Kyler Kelly. Just Kyler Kelly, the starting center for this Magic Summer League team. One of the worst games that I think I’ve seen. Just every time he touched the ball, felt like he made a mistake. Only two points, only three rebounds, five turnovers. Just not just so many mistakes. Just just did not feel like he could do anything good. Couldn’t rebound particularly well. I I I want him to do well. Like I’m not here to to say to to I’m not here to try and ruin anyone’s career or anything and and this is just maybe not a good sample of what he’s done. Not been impressed with him over the last two games. And he’s obviously been starting in an important spot. The Magic ended up going with Wendo Moore with Wendo Moore in the closing lineup with no appenda playing center which is interesting in and of itself. Um but that’s the situation that we’re in. Um give credit to Lis Williams. He was four for four from three for his 14 points. Interesting player there as well. So, we’ll see uh what the Magic ultimately do. And again, there’s still more summer league games to come. We’re going to learn. We’re going to get to see some of these guys play a more prominent role toward the end of the summer league. The Magic have a back-to-back, a Tuesday, Wednesday backtoback. I would expect the Magic Magic to play their main guys in one of those two games. It’s Nets Thunder if I’m not mistaken. And then they’ll have a game added at the end of the schedule next week. So, we will see what they m how the Magic end up playing this. They typically only play their main guys two or three games um in summer league. So I think we’re we’re coming up on the India. We probably got one more game with Jace, Noah, and Tristan for sure. The Orlando Magic fall to the Toronto Raptors 89 to 86 again. Back in action Tuesday uh against I don’t have the summer league schedule memorized because it’s summer league against the Oklahoma City Thunder. So they’ll play the Thunder on Tuesday, the Nets on Wednesday. But that’s going to do it for me today. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Lockdown Magic. You could of course find me on Twitter, phipr_omd and on blue sky, phiprr. You can subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcast. You’re tuned in play Spotify odyssey and all the fun you download podcast to your podcast enabled listening device. You can also find us on YouTube. Subscribe there at Locked Onmagic. Just search for Locked on Magic on YouTube. We are over 4,500 subscribers. The goal is to get to 5,000 before the start of the season. Thank you all for joining this magical journey. For the latest on the Orlando Magic, be sure to check out Orlando Magicaily.com. You can find us on Twitter, omagic Daily. And for even more Orlando Magic content, be sure to check out my Patreon page, Orlando Magic Hub, at patreon.com/orlandomagichub. As always, thank you for your support. Now that you’re done listening to Lockdown Magic, making it your first listen, make your second listen, the Lockdown NBA podcast, where there is no offseason. Doug, Matt, and Hayes keep you up to date on contract negotiations, rumors, and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan. Find Locked on NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast. It’s all part of Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. That’s going to do it for me today, though. I want to thank you all again for listening to today’s episode of Lockdown Magic. We’ll be back tomorrow on Locked On Magic. Haven’t really decided what we’re going to talk about yet. We’ll find something to talk about. There’ll be some more summer league stuff to talk about. Uh I’ll have the Palo mid-range stuff that I wrote could be something to talk about as well. We’ll find something. It’s it’s it’s getting to be that time of year. But we will see you all tomorrow for another episode of Lockdown Magic. Until then for Orlando Magic Daily and Lockdown Magic. This has been Philip Rossman Reich. We’ll see you all again. Well, this is Philip Rossman. We’ll see you all again next time for another episode of Locked Dog Magic.

The Orlando Magic again opted to go into the offseason without a traditional point guard. Will this strategy pay off?

The team certainly has plenty of skilled players who can fill in statistically for a point guard. But the Magic still need someone who can calm the team down and set them up in critical moments. Outside of Tyus Jones, that is not clearly on the roster and not in the starting lineup.

It is just Summer League. But the Summer Magic’s problems dealing with the Toronto Raptors’ ball pressure hints that this may be a bigger problem than anyone thinks. It could determine whether the Magic meet their lofty expectations.

0:00 Intro: Magic’s point guard problem persists
5:16 Noah Penda’s impressive summer league performance
13:02 Analyzing Penda’s impact beyond the box score
18:39 Jase Richardson’s strong second half showing
24:20 Tristan da Silva’s mixed performance and development
28:54 Wendell Moore Jr. emerges as potential two-way player

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