Orlando Magic Breakdown: How the Magic Are Rising

Orlando Magic Breakdown: How the Magic Are Rising

What’s up, Magic fans? Welcome back to another episode of the Orlando Magic HQ podcast brought to you by Believe. I’m your host Anthony. Oh, called out for two times this week. So, uh, my man Stephen from the Closeup is here filling in. Stephen, what’s up, my man? How you feeling? How you doing? Happy Thanksgiving. Doing great, man. Happy Thanksgiving to you. I’m chilling, man. Kind of wrapped up work for the week. We’re recording this Wednesday, November 26 in the afternoon. Just wrapped up my work. Had a little bit of highlights on from the 76ers game last night, which is exciting. and I’m ready to eat some turkey, have some drinks, just kick back, watch a little football this week. Man, it’s going to be good. How about you? How are you? What you got going on for Thanksgiving? We’re spending some time with the in-laws. Typically, my Thanksgiving, I’m sure a lot of people have the same type of event, but typically we spend it in two different places. Um, kind of splitting time with family. This year, we decided we’re just going to do it all together. So, we’re going to be at one spot, one place, and uh yeah, man. just just waiting and looking forward to the good times as a family being grateful for this year and thankful for all the things that is coming up ahead and perfect timing man because the Magic have been playing good basketball and there’s a lot to be thankful for. So real quick in today’s episode since Al isn’t a part of this episode the agenda goes out the window and your typical Anthony Steven fashion man we’re going to talk about hot topics. We’re going to just go back and forth man keep it very casual. But before we get into it, just a quick word from our sponsors, Underdog. It’s that time of the year again. The NFL is rolling. The NBA is back and our friends over at Underdog have you covered for all the action. If you’re new to Underdog, now is a perfect time to check it out. 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What’s that one thing that you would hang your hang your head on and say that you’re grateful for? I’m thankful that the Magic figured it out after the first five games when it looked like they were the worst team in the league. You know, they’re 11 and eight. They’re playing very high level basketball. The offense is not in the gutter. It’s a top 10 offense at the moment. And it’s nice to just have like good players on the team. Desmond Bane is refreshing. Anthony Black is crushing it right now. Uh careerhigh last night versus the uh 76 was 31 points, which I’m sure we’ll talk to later. I’m just thankful to have a Magic team that I’m not like super frustrated about at the moment. That is that is my thankfulness when it comes to the Orlando Magic. How about you? So, I am I am thankful to God and not just the God in the sky, but also the God in the court. I am thankful for God, Sham God, because a common denominator right now, his position as a player development coach, you’re you’re starting to see the impacts of it, right? We’re starting to see huge improvements from Anthony Black. We’re starting to see huge improvements from Tristan Dilva, who’s been crazy consistent for us. And now we’re starting to see some of that development happen with Jet Howard. So when we talk about like some of the changes that happened, the same conversation if we were having this like a few weeks back, I was ready to hit the eject button. Like let’s let’s go back to slowing it down. Let’s go back to playing half court offense. I I did not like our fast pace. And obviously it’s because we were losing. And you know, kudos to Coach Mo for sticking with it, not adjusting and kind of just working through the kinks. But man, I I’m super grateful for the transition that this team has done and finally figuring it out. We’re back to having a really solid defensive team and the younger guys are starting to really really get it together. Anthony Black yesterday was it is it is wild to me how much he’s improved from, you know, the first couple seasons. He’s a completely different player. He’s obviously a big big component to this team and if he can continue to keep taking a step forward, if somehow in the future this becomes something to where he can really hold down the four from a starting perspective, I have always liked the idea of being able to have, you know, when we talk about our strengths of having 610, two 610 forwards, another 610 big man, and then you put that with a 67 point guard, it’s just it’s just dangerous, man. and he’s he’s playing out of his mind right now. It’s it’s interesting you bring up Sham God because like I’ve been doing my best this year to watch a lot more film. Like after the game’s played, go back and watch specific plays, specific players again. I won’t necessarily watch like the whole games over again, but I’ll watch segments of them or I’ll like go in and like you can go into NBA stats and like watch all of someone’s assists or something like that, right? And one thing I’ve really noticed is a lot of our guards have gotten so much better with their speed control and how they navigate around defenders when they’re driving to the basket. Anthony Black showed a little bit of it last night. Jed Howard has shown a little bit of it. Um it’s just been really fun to see. And like Anthony Black particularly like his finishing at the rim has gotten so much better. I don’t have the percentage off the top of my head right now, but it’s drastically improved from years past. He’s gotten very more very much more efficient in that area. Then when you look at how he’s kind of doing that, like how he’s navigating around defenders, how he is kind of shifting his speed faster and slower in certain segments within his drive to get to where he wants to go. It’s just been really impressive and like that seems to be a direct connection to Shamgod being added to the staff. So I I fully agree with you on that one, man. Like that’s been really cool to see. And like even Jet Howard, he’s like, you know, I think some of us saw it that he had the potential out of college to do a little bit more than just shoot. And he has like we saw that during the uh during the Celtics game where he was able to not just do catch and shoot threes, but he’s got some nice step backs to him. He’s been able to Okay, he’s attacking closeouts more. If he doesn’t have the cleanest three, he’s going to step in possibly and take a take a mid-range, too. Um, and that’s just been really fun development to see. I think him being added to the staff has just been huge for some of our guards to continue to grow. Any even guys like Desmond Bane to bring their influence on some of these younger guards, I’m sure has had a factor, too. But man, I just want to say like fully agree with you on that. That’s that’s a great thing to be thankful for and I I’m going to be saying my prayers tomorrow at Thanksgiving table and including God Sham God in my prayers. Yeah. I mean, just just to kind of touch base on, you know, the the Celtics game that we just have, like this was this was a game that, you know, you’re you’re without Wendell Carter, you’re without Goa, you’re without, you know, Jaylen Suggs last minute scratch off of Goa. So, you have, you know, Orlando in the game. And it’s it’s just you kind of feel defeated even going into that matchup. And it’s already against a team that, you know, we obviously have a history with. We don’t like them, they don’t like us. There’s always a little tension with the team as well and a home to road back to back is never ideal. Right. Right. So, you’re already going into it knowing that it it’s going to be a rough game. I mean, you know, even the messages that we had beforehand, it it was around the segment of, man, this game might be rough. Hopefully, it’s not too rough. And it did look that way and it looked like it was edging towards that path. And the big debate of that game was obviously Jet Howard went crazy, put the magic on his back, scored in multitude different ways, and Boston just couldn’t find a way to stop him. Like this is Jet Howard. Like we’ve seen, you mentioned it, we’ve seen like the potential of it, but I don’t think that I’ve ever seen him be as aggressive penetrating to the basket as he was typically. And for him, it’s I’m going to take advantage of the time that I have. If I’m only going to be in the game for 5 minutes, if I catch a ball, I’m going to shoot it. Like, I don’t blame him for playing that way. But the way that he was playing was beautiful. The way that Jace was playing was beautiful. What Pendo was doing was amazing. They were all finding ways to kind of dig back into this game and they were able to get it within six. So, my question to you, Stephen, is during that game when we started really crawling crawling back and it turned into a possible like we could steal this one. Celtics, they’re they’re playing Jaylen Brown. They’re playing all all their best capable players. Do you agree with coach Mo deciding to stick with the team that brought the lead, cut the lead down, or do you wish that towards the end he would have made and pivoted that transition and bring in Desmond Bane and bring in France Vagner? You know, I I go back and forth on this because like in one ways it’s really nice to see coach stick with the hot hands and like kind of reward the guys that kind of brought him back, but at the same point when you’re relying on that many young people to close a game on a comeback win, like that’s that’s that’s a tough ask. The other point like the other the other side to this is you’re if you’re going to bring in someone like France back into the game, he had been sitting for a very long time at that point. Like it wasn’t like he had just been out, you know, 5 minutes. He had been sitting for like almost 30 40 minutes of time if you include like game stoppage and in between quarters and stuff like that. So he could have come in extremely cold and might not have really made any difference. So I can kind of see why coach wanted to stick with the younger players that were still warm in rhythm compared to like they were sitting guys early like I got the box score up. you is playing like 35 minutes a game. He played 28, you know. Um Desmond Bane played 29. He’s he’s been there’s been games Desmond Bane has played 40 minutes a game or 39 minutes a game. So these guys have been out for a very long period of time. So that’s a hard decision. I don’t mind the fact that he stayed with the young guys and rewarded them to try and close it out because, you know, when you bring in someone who is cold and hasn’t touched the floor in 40 minutes or so, 30, 40 minutes, you know, not only do you not know if they’re going to be in rhythm or not, but they might just simply be at a higher risk of injury on a on a night of a backto-back where they’ve played four games in six nights, three games in five four nights. like that’s kind of a a you know potential injury risk there and is it really worth to put those types of risks on these players in November when it was already pretty much a loss game from the start? Like I don’t know. I just didn’t I can hear the argument for both sides and there’s part of me depending on what day I what what hour of the day I’m thinking about this on which way I I’ll say but right now like I’m okay that he didn’t bring them in and just let them you know keep riding the hot hands. What about you? I’m so I can see why people wanted that transition. I think for me personally like this game in everybody’s mind was checked off as a loss already. Yeah. Right. So the fact that we were even in that game, we were in that game because of J Howard, because of Jayce, because of Penda. Um I personally am not mad at the fact that we decided to keep it the same because it was working. Like the fact that we force Boston Celtics to keep Jaylen Brown in the game for as long as as towards the end to towards the end of the buzzard, right? Yeah. Goes to show you that, you know, they were worried that they were going to let this game lose and slip and fall out of their hands. But more importantly, man, I I like the confidence that it gave him because even for Jet Howard, like going into the game of Philadelphia, he obviously didn’t play as much as he did against Boston, but you can still see like that that carried over. He was still being aggressive. He still found ways to the basket and he he’s I think for most players you need it’s such a confidence is such a big part of of hooping. We’ve seen that with Desmond Bane ever since he hit that game-winning shot. Totally. He’s been playing a lot. He’s been playing a lot better. So, it’s important for Jay Howard to get that experience. It’s important for Jace Richardson and Penna to get that experience because for them this is meaningful basketball. And this has been the thing that the Magic have been fighting for for so long is to be able to get the experience of meaningful basketball in order for these players to really develop. So yeah, we we didn’t get that specific win. You know, could we have brought in Desmond Bane and France Vagner in a mixture of Jet Howard and maybe Jace Richardson? Sure, we we probably could have did that. But I I enjoyed I surprised myself. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed watching that game because I was yelling at the screen. And I was getting excited for a game that we chocked off as a game that we were going to lose because we’re missing so many bodies. Yeah. No, absolutely. I I agree with that a lot. And you know, I think what it is also going to do is just continue to build trust with the coaches that, you know, we saw last night Jonathan Isaac didn’t didn’t play. He was a late scratch with some back spasms versus the 76ers. And you know, right away they put in Noah. and they probably would have done the same before the Celtics game, but now they’re putting him in with more confidence knowing even more that he can show up for these bigger moments, right? Noah got a little bit of play kind of at the beginning of the season when some things were really like off with this team, but he hasn’t really touched the floor in a very long time until that Celtics game in meaningful minutes. And, you know, he showed up last night during the Philly game and played really, really well. And it’s it’s just going to continue to give the confidence to the coaches where if a player is really not feeling it, they can go to their bench a little bit more confidently and say, “Okay, go Jace. Go fill in for Tus. He’s not bringing it right now. Go Jet. You know, you’ve already been playing a little bit of minutes kind of regularly since uh Paula has been out, but you’ve been doing really well. We’re going to keep you in and keep plugging you in. You’re going to keep getting minutes.” there’s just going to continue to build confidence with the coaching staff with these with with that type of game and even you know during the 76ers when you know Jet Howard played 18 minutes, Noah Penda played 22 minutes like it’s just those are just more confidence buildings not only for the players but for the coaches as well and I think that’s super yeah and I think that’s also a reminder like uh this Magic team has we we’re pretty deep like players can come in and contribute in his limited time that we’ve seen him be implemented into the games. He’s being impactful. He’s scoring and he’s doing it in ways where you I I am I didn’t watch him in college. Um I was excited that we drafted him. Um but the fear has always been obviously his size, his injury. Um and then kind of just the PTSD that we’ve gotten from Cole Anthony. Cole Anthony was a player that came in just as hot and then he just kind of lost it towards the end. But there’s definitely an element of Jace to be excited about. And again, that that experience is just going to be able to, you know, hopefully transition into whatever may happen in the future, right? We we think about players being injured. We think about different opportunities that may come up and that experience is just going to be able to help them away. So, it’s it’s cool to see that he trusted them enough to be able to keep them in the game to have that moment. It was even better for me to see some of that carry over into the following game. Which leads me into Philadelphia. Philadelphia, uh, obviously a huge game with, um, playing, um, implications. Magic, we’ll start off with with the first half. Anthony Black goes absolutely ballistic, pretty much scoring from every possible way from um, you know, defensively, he was getting stops, shooting the three-point ball, penetrating. One of the things I really love about Anthony Black is that he’s looking for moments when he’s driving to the basket. He’s looking to slam it, man. He’s he’s looking to to dunk the ball on people’s heads and he’s doing it way more frequently. Like there was there was one that he missed and then there was another one that he hit and he’s doing it in a way where it is it’s shaking the floor. Like my TV I felt like it was moving after, you know, certain plays that he did. So, and the way that he’s just penetrating to the basket and he’s not just relying on lazy layups, like he’s he’s driving the basketball on defenders and he’s really trying to slam it on people’s heads. So, it it’s nice seeing that from Anthony Black because I I feel like that’s where his athleticism really shines or at least that’s what we need certain elements for us to shine because it it it brings a certain level of swagger and edgginess to the Magic that I feel like we haven’t had in a long time. So my question to you, Stephen, is how impressed were you with his first half? And then when it comes to Anthony Black, what do you feel like we need the most? What’s the most consistency thing that we need from Anthony Black moving forward? Yeah. No, good question. I mean, dude, the first half was insane. Like, it’s just so fun when he is feeling that aggressive and then like not only cuz we’ve seen games with him being aggressive with his drives and getting to the basket. Like the Golden State game is a game that reminds me of that. And just in general, like he’s just been more aggressive with trying to get to the basket and scoring. I think he’s had a dunk every single game so far this year or something like very close to that. Um, and like you mentioned, he is looking to slam it on someone’s face and I just that is fun because you know it’s he’s almost like our most athletic wing at the moment and like it’s kind of fun. It’s kind of fun to see him gain that confidence and then to see him put up 20 points in a single quarter after the night prior or two game, you know, the game prior where Jet Howard also put up 20 points in a single quarter, which like that’s a lot of points to put up in a single quarter. That is a lot. It’s so much that the Orlando Magic PR throw out a tweet, a post about it saying Anthony Black has scored 20 points tonight in Philadelphia in the second quarter. It’s like, you know, it’s that’s that’s pretty awesome. You know, I think what this team needs from him consistently going forward, though, is like two things. One, to stay that aggressive with his mindset of looking to score, right? I want to see him continuing to drive to the basket. I want to see him continuing to cut um looking for lobs. Like some of those lob catches that he does are just so ridiculously fun. Like there was one last night. I think it was a Jaylen Suggs pass to him like almost crosscourt like from the from the halfway point. He’s dunking over like he’s catching it over a defender and just you know putting it in the basket beautifully and like I love that. But I think something that’s super important is he’s got to continue to hit threes, man. Like he is a shaky three-point shooter. This team needs all the three-point shooting they can get. Desmond Bane has been a blessing. Ty Jones has had a couple of games where he’s hit a few, mostly not hit any, but like, you know, the team’s three-point shooting has improved a little bit, but it’s not enough yet. And so, if we can continue to get Anthony Black to have he doesn’t need to be a 40% three-point shooter, I think that’s unrealistic to put that expectation on him. But, if we can get him to be like a a a season around 35 36% from three, like that’d be awesome. Keep giving it to him in the corners. He’s very good at a corner three. So, those are kind of like my two things. staying aggressive offensively and then continuing to shoot confidently from three cuz when he’s shooting confidently from three, they they go in a little bit more regular. Yeah. And and for him, it’s just impacting both sides. Like it’s fun to be able to see him in his mel in his element offensively, but defense he’s been so good also. Like it it’s just been it’s it’s a havoc for everybody. Like you have to deal with Jaylen Suggs, you have to deal with Anthony Black. And Anthony Black like he’s quick laterally, but it’s also his size. Like 67 is no joke. And for him to guard a a smaller guard, it’s it’s rough cuz he he can he can stretch his arms out and he can cover a lot of space. It’s easy for him to like poke balls balls free from from a ball handler and like create those fast break and steal opportunities because of his length, right? You know, he can guard like one through three pretty well. You know, occasionally if he gets stuck on a four, like he he might get bodied a little bit cuz he’s still kind of growing into his size, but like you said, he’s 6’7, you know, like he’s a tall, lanky dude who’s can defend at extremely high level at this rate, dude. Like, how do you not have him on an alldefensive team, you know? It’s dare I say he has been more I will put him up there with Suggs yet I think sometimes Suggs gamles a little too much on defense where Anthony Black doesn’t gamble as much and sometimes that’s like almost a higher value. You need Suggs. He’s a he’s a complete disruptor. I’m not trying to downgrade Suggs. He’s phenomenal but I don’t see Anthony Black making as many like big risky gamble moves on the defensive end as I do with with Jaylen Suggs. And that is like super valuable to both these guards and to this team. Like you need both of those types of players. Yeah. And what’s fun is that you think about what the team will look like in the future in the near future. Like once you start implementing Palo Ben Carroll back into the lineup, Tristan D Silva falls back into the second unit. You know, Mo Vagner, we’re we’re starting to feel like it’s it’s coming soon sooner and sooner before he gets implemented back. So then you’re looking at a second unit of you know Anthony Black, Tristan D Silva, Mo Vagner like that that is that’s a second unit where it it’s it would be scary because if you can sit down France Vagner, Desmond Bane, Paulo Ben Carroll and replace those guys with second unit players who can still impact the game while they’re out. Yeah. It it becomes it becomes a problem because it’s too much to handle for other teams. Especially the way that the Magic play. The Magic play so tough, so rough, and they play in a way where it really like it is starting to get to a point that we’re starting to create that that name as being a player that you have being a team that you have to be ready for. Some people may see it as dirty. Other players may see uh other teams may see it as we’re just a big physical basketball team. Yep. Yeah. They’re going to wear you down. Um, and when you when you bring up that that unit of uh Mo Vagner, Cinda Silva when Paulo comes back into the lineup and he shifts back down to the second unit, Anthony Black, right? Um, a little bit of Jed Howard maybe. Like think about how coach will also likely stagger a France Vagner or Apollo with that group too. Um, and just continue to just have that like that that offensive engine continuing to move forward. I I think we all have questions about this second unit. And there are nights, plenty of nights where we are just begging them to score points because they’ll be at the halftime and the second unit has like six or seven total points and we’re just like, dude, we’re not getting anything. Mo Vagner coming back. You hopefully it doesn’t take him too long to shake off the rust. Hopefully, we see him before the end of the year of 2025 and that second unit should be a lot more forceful when you add back more of the scoring that Tristan Dilva has been giving. Cuz like right now I think the reason why we’re not seeing as many nights of like awesome scoring from the second is because one of their better scorers and Tristan Dil Silva is having to play as a starter cuz Paul has missed seven games, right? And so you know when you kind of balance it all back out a little bit, it’s going to be fun. that that team is getting that unit is getting a lot more confident and this this starting role with Tristan Dilva I mean in general he’s had a phenomenal season but him being as a starter and then going back down that’s just going to continue to boost his confidence on what he’s able to do um you know given any lineup that he’s playing in yeah I mean that he you can already see that the development of him playing with Germany has already helped out he’s already made a leap forward and you know that’s the beauty of being able to have France Paulo and Desmond is that you know you you just mentioned it the staggering you’re always going to be able to have a highlevel starting caliber player with the second unit and that’s that’s something that’s just going to be helpful because it’s going to open up the floor for for everyone. So, and real quick, I just want to jump in about Tristan Dilva real fast. Give a some quick stuff. He’s only playing one more minute per game this year compared to last year. Last year, he averaged 22 minutes per game. This year, he’s averaging 23 minutes per game. He’s jumped up in scoring from seven points a game to 11.5 points per game this year. and he’s shooting the three at he’s taking one more attempt per game. Last year he was at 3.2 attempts per game. This year he’s at 4.7. So almost five attempts per game from three and he’s hitting it at 41%. He’s one of the better three-point shooters on the Magic right now. You know, compared to his rookie season, which was a little bit of a slump. He was a good shooter coming out of college. Believe he was shooting the three out of college around 38 39% like his last two years in college. Last year as a rookie he shot at 33%. this year. He looks like the guy we drafted. Uh with his shot at 41%, which is just phenomenal. His two points, his two-pointers have gotten more efficient, too. Um you know, he’s up to 55% on those compared to his rookie season at 48%. So, and his overall efficiency has gone up from 49% to for uh 58% almost 10 points higher on on his overall efficiency. So, I’m just like I’m just psyched on the development of of Tristan Dilva. He’s just been so good on so many levels, man. Yeah, because he he goes with the flow, man. His his game is so you can implement with any player on the court. Um, and he doesn’t force anything. Everything’s just naturally in the flow of the game. Um, and he can handle the ball, penetrate, he can shoot, he can do everything that you need him to do. And, uh, he’s obviously way more efficient with that Philly game. Obviously, the the big talk of the town is, uh, you know, the Magic Stomping them. 40 41 points that we beat him by. Uh but the big thing happened center court damn near about half um halftime right before the end of the second quarter. Jonathan Isaac um excuse me, not John Carter, Jaylen Suggs. Jaylen Suggs getting ejected because of a square up between Wendo Carter Jr. and Andre Drummond, which is crazy to me because I’ve seen this replay about a thousand times. I don’t know what the referee was looking at because window card didn’t square up one time. Carter is like laughing with uh Drummond just kind of like rolling his fist like he’s getting ready to square. I I’ve at this point I’ve seen the replay about five different angles and obviously you can clear and you this is the part that’s frustrating when they’re reviewing it. You see the referee taking notes. So they’re obviously paying attention to details. They’re taking notes as they’re watching the replays, right? And we’ve saw the replay multiple times. You see Andre Drummond put his hand on Wend’s back not once but twice. And he did it aggressively to the point that it made sense for what any basketball player would have slapped his hand down and then he makes contact like he Andre Drummond swung to the point where he made kind I don’t know how much it didn’t look like it was a a crazy amount of contact but there was some level of contact to his face and then he did this crazy swing of the fist bent down ready and Wendell Carter is just like swing do it swing like and I don’t I don’t know how how Wendell Carter gets teed up for squaring up when his hands were never up. Like that’s that’s what squaring up is. Like I have no idea. Now, one thing that I will say that Jaylen Suggs, like I love the fact that Jaylen, the littlest guy on the court, your your point guard stood up for your center, right? Where he he went in and very late, but he went in and he shoved Andre Drummond and then there are obviously barking at each other and then some other guy from uh the Sixers comes to the left and then Jaylen Suggs obviously escalated way more than he needed to. So, I get why he was ejected. I just don’t get why he was the only one that was. Yeah. And I don’t know, man. So, my I I want I want your thoughts on Jaylen Sucks. I mean, I’m biased. Like, give him a tech. Don’t eject him, you know? Like, I I can understand giving giving a guy a tech the situations where, you know, emotions are high. People are running in to try and protect or, you know, stop a situation or whatever. Like, I can I can understand that. Do I think he should have been ejected? seemed a little unnecessary, but you know, yeah. I mean, like, give him a tea and keep it moving, you know. I don’t know. It seemed unnecessary. What do you think? Yeah. Yeah. J Jaylen Sug was Yeah, he he took it he took it too far. Yeah. I mean, like Yeah. In my opinion, he he took too far. Did he take it too far enough to like get ejected though? I don’t know. I think just tee him up and keep him moving. I think I think the part of the ejection came where it it was just like it should have stopped after the first and it didn’t. He initiated and then he initiated elsewhere. So that that part I get, but so did Andre Drummond. He’s the one that initiated everything. I I Jaylen Suggs getting ejected. Yeah. It’s just Jayen Suggs shouldn’t have been the only one and Jaylen Suggs was was extra. And it was funny seeing the the postgame interview that they were doing on him and the team in the back. You can hear him saying like calling him a hot head and him being crazy because he he was and Jaylen sucks man. It it if you know obviously you pay attention to um his interviews and conversations. He seems like a very chill, zen guy. And I like I like the dog. He plays with a lot of intensity though for sure. Yeah. I can see how that I like I like the fact that he stood up for Wendell Carter. I like the fact that he threw himself in the mix. But yeah, that that anger came out of that. The anger went from zero to a thousand. That probably could have been. Yeah, I pedal backpedal. Give him the two tags. Sorry, sucks. But but the the fact that the Magic still won by 41 is crazy. And I saw a social media post earlier today from a u I guess another fan podcast where they were kind of talking about it from the Sixers perspective and the Sixers fans were pretty much saying like Andre Drummond what are you what are you doing like you’re you’re doing this down 26 and you do all of that kind of ridiculous then lose by 41. So it was it’s cool to see Wendo Carter’s reaction because he seemed unfazed about it. It was also cool to see that the Magic were able to not let up. They didn’t let that moment like change anything at all and they they got the job done and won by 40. Totally. Crazy. Totally. It doesn’t ma it doesn’t matter because I I’ve seen people talk about how well they didn’t have Paul George. It would be different if Joel Embiid wasn’t playing. Like no We We know that, right? But we’re also down a crap ton of players. Like we’re we’re down a handful of players when they in the same situation earlier this year, you know? Yeah, you still you still got Tyrese Maxi. That’s that’s a walking bucket. Like I get it, but it’s NBA basketball, man. Nobody should be losing by 41 points in that a little embarrassing. Sorry, Philadelphia fans. Your team’s embarrassing. Yeah. So, leads me to the next point. Big highlight was some remarks that Trace McGreedy had at the half of that game. And really, the the big question is the Magic have been playing really great basketball. The Magic have found a way to dig themselves out of the hole that we started off with. We’re obviously getting accustomed to this new scheme. Magic are 5-2 without Paulo Banker and we’re averaging about 124 points um uh a game scoring wise. So, how does how does it look once Paulo starts coming back? Because now, unfortunately, the narrative that we’ve been seeing is the Magic are playing better without Paulo. Now, what happens if Paulo comes back and we’re not playing as well? Yeah, that’s I mean it’s it’s a it’s the topic going around right now, right? I think you know there’s a few things, right? Like the Magic are winning without Pallet. Well, the Magic started awful. They lost four games in a row. You know, there was still there was a lot of confusion around this this team where the guys just didn’t understand and didn’t feel comfortable playing the new system that the coaches were trying to implement. And that’s teamwide. That’s not Apollo issue. That is teamwide. It took them about six, seven games to kind of start to figure things out a little bit more confidently on that. Paulo was playing during that point when they started to start when they started to figure things out and move in the right direction. Paulo was a part of that group, right? This is before he went out. You know, leading up to that Knicks game where Paulo got injured, they had already started to win and look good and things looking a lot more connected. Now, I’m not saying that Paulo doesn’t have his flaws. He does have moments where the ball gets a little stuck in his hand where he’s a little too late to to pass and he overdribbles a little bit or he gets himself stuck in a situation where it’s kind of like late in the shot clock and he has to take like a really bad contested like mid-range. But I will also counter those moments are fewer than they were the year prior. The ball is moving a lot more still with him this year. You know, players are shooting extremely well with Paulo kickouts right now where it’s like when Paul is kicking out, I believe players are hitting their shots at like 50 something percent, 50 55% somewhere around there, which is really high for kickout passes from a single individual. Shout out for Josh Cohen for like pointing that stat out when he was on my podcast earlier this week or uh last week, excuse me. And so yeah, like I don’t think I’m worried that it’s going to be a bad thing when he comes back. Like I’m not I’m not on team trade Paulo or the team’s better without Paulo. I am team. You have this 610, you know, cog diesel monster freight train that is elite at finishing in transition that is a mix a mismatch monster and has a very versatile scoring package and is extremely gifted passer. You find ways to make it work with him. Does he need to get better at making quicker passes? Absolutely. Does he need to make sure it doesn’t always get stuck in his hand? Absolutely. But also when the offense does get bogged down, we have seen it during this stretch without him where there’s moments where they are just getting bogged down by the other team offensively. You know, you just want or sorry, defensively, uh, they’re getting bogged down by the other team. You need a guy who can just go out and get his own shot and, you know, will some basketballs to go into the hoop and that is Paula Beno and probably the best person on the team to do that and be able to handle an ISO situation because we don’t have too many players that can do that. And so, is it going to look perfect his first game back when he comes in? No, it’s not. But I think, you know, give him a handful of games, give the whole team a little bit of margin to adjust to having him come back like, and it will improve and look better. Look at any team, any team. Take away one of their top players. The Philadelphia 76ers play differently with Joel Embiid on the floor than they do with him off the floor. The Bucks play differently with Giannis on the floor than they do with him off the floor. The Knicks will play differently with a Brunson on the floor off the floor. Right? You can go down the line of all these teams. They all have to make radical adjustments. It doesn’t mean that the team is better without them. The Hawks the same way. Are the Hawks better without Trey Young even though they have been playing better without him? I don’t believe so. Right. Are these players flawed? Yes, they are not perfect players. But I do think that this Magic team needs Paulo to reach the goals that they need to that they set for themselves this year. And I think, you know, he has improved on some of those weaknesses. He’s not perfect at them yet, but he has. And I think Trace McGrady’s comments are extremely valid. You know, there’s no reason to. And it wasn’t like Tracy was hard. She wasn’t like bagging on them hard. He was just saying like, “Dude, you know, I hope you’re taking notice on how the team’s playing right now because when you come in, this is how you should try and adapt and take advantage of how these guys are playing. like you got these tools, continue to utilize them. But Paulo is having careerhigh in assists and career low in turnovers since his rookie year. So, it’s like, you know, he’s finding the rhythm. He’s finding the passes and he is a very gifted passer at um, you know, dishing the ball out to people. And so, I I think it’ll be fine. I am team Paulo all the way. I’m not saying he’s perfect and doesn’t have flaws on kind of like sometimes stopping ball movement, but I think it’s going to be okay long term. You know, this season was so early before he went out. It’s hard to really know if he was like I mean I saw that he was starting to adjust with the whole team finding the offense and I imagine he would have continued to adjust had he not gone out and to help go on this type of run that they’re on at the moment. Yeah, I think that where people get conflicted is we already had a sample size last year where Paulo went out, France was still holding down the four and we were winning games and then France goes out. Paulo’s the one that’s obviously hooping without France and then the he wasn’t as successful. Um and then here we aren’t playing good. Paulo goes out and it’s just an easy common denominator that we start winning when he’s out of the game where it it’s I agree it could there’s no way that we can prove that we wouldn’t have figured it out with Paulo Bane Carol if you if we didn’t have and this is obviously a completely different scenario but if this was our team and our you know offseason acquisition is adding Paulo Beno to this team we’re thinking championship right so I think that for us we got to be patient with Paulo because it it’s he’s too impactful of a player to where it won’t the team will need an adjustment. I think that he is also a team player and he will adjust. Like he he is he’s never came across to me as somebody that cares more about him than he does his team. He already got the bag. He already got the contract. Right now it’s about winning basketball games. He doesn’t have to worry about stats and all that other stuff. He has to worry about winning basketball games. And I think that what Trace McGrady said, as you said, I don’t see anything wrong with him. Trace McGrady can talk from a specific perspective because he was a franchise leader. He did it for this specific team. And him just highlighting the fact that, you know, Paul, you just can’t slow it down. Like while you’re sitting back, be grateful at the fact that you have like acknowledge the fact that you have a talented team. Kawhi Leonard was just in an interview yesterday talking about that we need more talented players. This team is extremely talented and it’s not we have we have to be able to look at it like I need to trust them as they are already trusting me and I think that Paulo Ben Carol is just going to be just fine. I think that they’re going to figure it out and he’s going to add to it. And it’s not like Tracy was really bashing him all that hard. He just said he needs to continue to keep the ball moving and flowing. It’s not like he was calling him a bad player and like you know like the team needs to trade him or anything like that. It was it he was not it wasn’t I didn’t take it as a negative comment about Paulo. I took it as like, “Hey, man, make sure you’re seeing how your players are playing because like when you come back, this is the type of system you need to continue to play in, you know, and and it and it makes perfect sense.” Yeah. So, I am curious to see how that looks like, but I think that people need to be open to the perspective of, you know, it may it may not look pretty at first. It might take a few games. Some time for him to adjust. Absolutely. Yeah. And we we just got to be patient. I fully agree. Give it give it three to five games for him to kind of like get his feel back. you know, he’s missed seven might, you know, eight, eight or so. I’m hoping we get him back on the next game versus the Pistons in the Cup game on Friday. If not, then I hope it’s likely on that three-game home stand, you know, maybe versus the Bulls on that first game back where where he comes back and and Yeah, man. I’m I’m with you, bro. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to get him back on this court. He’s awesome. Yeah. All right. Jonathan Isaac. Big rumor mill of the day is uh Jake Fischer uh where he came out and said Isaac is expected and Isaac among other players are expected to be available in trade talks. Jonathan Isaac the longest tenur Magic player. What are your thoughts on Ji potentially being on the move? Are you for it? Are you against it? Do you have concerns? Or would you prefer the Magic continue to ride the Jonathan Isaac experience out? I’m fine with it. It It makes sense, man. you know, this team like if Mo Vagner comes back and is looking looking good, um, you know, you can probably get move on from Jonathan Isaac pretty easily while having Goa and No Appenda to kind of fill in for that role. And you kind of don’t know what you might get back for Jonathan Isaac with something else. But something else to consider is like I don’t necessarily think it’s just like, hey, this team needs to move on from Jonathan Isaac. I think it’s bigger than that. I think this team has a ve has a lot of salary on it and they’re in the tax right now. We saw them decline Jet Howard’s fourthyear team option before kind of the season started during the deadline. I think it was in October because they’re trying to get under the tax this year. They and the reason why they’re doing that is they’re trying to push out how soon they hit the repeater tax. If you have if you pay the tax three out of four years, you’re going to hit you’re going to get hit with a repeater tax, which is insane. It goes from like a $1.50 per dollar you’re in the tax that you’re hit with to 250. It almost doubles how much you’re getting taxed. So, the further they can push that out, the more wiggle room they’re going to have as a franchise um to continue operate a little bit more freely with their cash capital um and just make more flexible moves while they try to duck under the second apron. So, I’m, you know, there’s a few ways they can get underneath that tax line. One of that is like, okay, you’re trading Jet and then you’re trading another player on top of them because Jet salary alone is like, I think 80 to 100,000 shy of completely ducking the tax. So, they have to get under it completely. So, it’s like Jet Howard and maybe Taius Jones or Jet Howard and Goa if a team is really interested in Goa or something like that. It’s like one of those types of combos. And then or it’s like you move on from the power forward who plays 15 minutes a night and has kind of had a up and down season. You know, he’s got a really good game like one out of every three games. The other two games are like just kind of fine. He’s not shooting the ball very well. He’s like playing good defense but not elite defense. And he’s owed $15 million a year for the next four years as long as he plays 52 games each year. His contract is got does have some non-G guarantees in him, but it’s not like he is just an expiring team option contract. Like a team would have to sit him multiple games so he doesn’t hit the 52 game threshold for his contract to become non-g guaranteed. So it’s it’s fine. It’s probably time. You know what I’m saying? Like I’m fine with it. We have likely the bodies to be able to back him up, back up that spot in general. Yeah. So, I’ve obviously been extremely vocal about uh Jonathan Isaac in our in our Patreon, and I’m at a point now where I I just there Jonathan Isaac for me has been underwhelming for a long period of time now. A lot of it obviously is due to injuries, but there was a point in time where when we drafted him, he was supposed to be and obviously not to this extreme, but he was supposed to be our Kevin Durant, right? He was within that build. We thought that we were going to get more from him. There was a point in time where we implemented him and with Nicolola Vuchovic which with Aaron Gordon and Evan Fornier we’re going up against Milwaukee in in the um in the bubble like there was there was times where I felt like Jonathan Isaac was the future and there was a lot of hope. Defense was obviously a huge deal and we’re at a point now where we know what we we know what we have with Jonathan Isaac. He is playing underneath his contract and I think that that’s my biggest issue. If Jonathan Isaac had Mo Vagner’s contract, I wouldn’t be so bothered about Jonathan Isaac. Yeah. Not not a big deal. He’s playing above his contract, right? But it’s it’s the fact that Goa is out, Wendell Carter is out, and we’re starting Orlando Robinson. Yeah. Like Jonathan Isaac to me, like your best ability is availability. And if there’s something that’s happening behind the scenes where he’s just not as healthy as we’re being led to believe, it’s just a hard cell for me. And if that’s the case, I’m at a point where I’m ready. I’m ready to move on. The issue is with his contract, you’re you’re not people need to accept the fact that you’re not going to get a return that you expect that you wish that you would get for Jonathan Isaac. And that’s more of an asset management problem on on our end with how we handle Jonathan Isaac. But I’m at a point where I I sent this to our our group chat where if you take a look at Mo Bomba’s stats with Jonathan Isaac’s stats with the same amount of games more or less and obviously there’s more there’s more to basketball than just stats. Statwise, Mo Bomba had better stats than Jonathan Isaac over his period with the Magic. So that’s a problem to me because we take a look at how he’s playing now and still shooting low percentage three-point shots from that corner three that he likes taking. Sure, he has a few defensive moments, but he’s not even playing in the game long enough to really impact it the way that we want him to. So, I don’t know what the hell we would get back for Jonathan Isaac. I don’t know what his value would be, but what we’re paying him now is what we should be paying Mov. And that’s my issue with Jonathan. If this team didn’t have like tax issues and salary issues, I wouldn’t care as much. I’d say like ride it out. He could still have some really valuable playoff moments, which are super key. Like if I’m having to pick between Mo or Noah Penda or uh Jonathan Isaac to like play at a high level in in the playoffs, I’m picking Jonathan Isaac every time right now because Noah is a rookie and this year we’re trying to advance in the playoffs. But, you know, like I this team has like they’ve made it they made it pretty clear that they’re going to try and get under the tax this year. And because of that, you can’t have players that are underperforming their underperforming their their their position on the team. And that is what Jonathan Isaac is doing on most nights, right? I’ll say like one, you know, he’s got, you know, 45% of the games he’s playing really good basketball or really good defense at least. and then the other, you know, 55% of the games he’s not. So, it’s like you can’t really have that. Maybe those maybe not everyone agrees with those percentages. I just kind of threw him out there. Maybe it’s more like 40 60. But it’s like he’s he’s just not if his defense was what it was two years ago and his offense was this bad, I wouldn’t care. I really wouldn’t care. But he’s not doing that. And then the problem is, you know, we have too many other guys that are that are getting paid too much that are actually getting this team, you know, with this tax issue that they have. So, it’s like something’s got to go. And I’m not surprised that people are putting two and two together and having Jonathan Isaac be in the trade rumors. Like, it makes sense. You know, he’s been here the longest. He’s on a contract that’s kind of big still. The team has tax issues. Like, okay, cool. Like, that’s a that’s a box that makes sense to move on from. Yeah. This is year nine for Jonathan Isaac. Like this is this is just what it is. He is who he is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We we know offensively it’s just not going to get there. We’re at a point where he has moments. It’s not even something that’s really consistent for us. And his best offensive trait is is going to be the the putbacks and rebalancing the activity around the glass. And that and that’s just that’s just what it is. We have to ask ourselves is is that $15 million worthy? And and I’m not going to be upset if he’s on this team past the deadline. Like I’m not saying the team has to move on from him, but I’m saying it’s likely that they do. And I’m not going to be upset when they do it, right? I’m not like, “Dude, get this guy off this team.” Like, I think he still has some value here and there for this team. Like again, I think he could be valuable for us with certain matchups in the playoffs, but but like, you know, I’m not going to cry if he gets traded at the, you know, February 6 deadline. I think it’s the sixth, but yeah, you know, I’m not going to be upset either. It makes sense. Yeah. Also not surprised by the rumor at all. It it makes sense for the Magic to shop around. Like if you’re looking at if you’re looking to make any movements and you’re looking for assets contractwise, you already brought up a point about it, but player-wise, there there is value there because he is elite defensively. I just I wonder what another team like how does another team view Jonathan Isaac would be my like I I hope at the end of it isn’t just like a player filler and I don’t know I mean they’re not going to get an amazing return for him. It’s not like like no you know you’re not going to get an amazing return for him and the Magic would have to like you know if you want a positive return the Magic have to add stuff and that’s just not what they’re going to do. They’re probably going to in a sense if they’re trading him they’re probably going to like salary dump him for something. I kind of still think like they might do that at the summer and move on from Jet and Taius this this this deadline and find a guard to kind of fill in for those guys, you know? That’s kind of possibility, but like we’re a little too early to be talking about all that. But yeah, not surprised he’s in the he’s in the rumor mill man. Makes sense for a lot of the reasons you said and I said it like makes a lot of sense for sure. So, and shout out to our Patreons. I’m just going to give them a shout out. We have a pretty awesome Patreon program. We forgot to say this in the intro. If you’re at all interested in joining our Patreon program, it comes with a lot of exclusive content. It comes with a really active Discord. We have a really awesome Discord community and um you know, we do all sorts of different things for you guys, exclusive articles, exclusive videos, even exclusive podcasts just for you all and giveaways. Consider joining. The few dollars that you spend a month to to to support Orlando Magic HQ just goes back to you guys essentially. It allows us to keep putting out these podcasts, keep doing giveaways and fun fan experiences. um you know, consider joining. The link’s in the description below for as little as $5 a month. It helps us tremendously and we think it gives you guys pretty darn good value in return. Um and and and allows you to join a really fun community that’s really active daily on our Discord as well as all the other benefits. So check it out. The links in the description. Yep. Big games coming up. Magic against the Pistons on Friday. um our final inseason well hopefully not our final inseason tournament game but definitely a a huge game against the Pistons who will play against the Celtics and then they got us but they’ve been playing some really good basketball 15-2 then December 1st against the Bulls Spurs will be able to see Victor win Victor and then December 5th against the Heat man Stephen I appreciate you joining filling in for Al hope you and your family have an awesome awesome Thanksgiving and that that’s a wrap from us man appreciate everyone for listening ing and we’ll catch you guys on the next one. Let’s go Magic.

In today’s Orlando Magic HQ podcast, Stephen and Anthony break down the Magic’s surprising surge despite injuries, including how the team has gone toe-to-toe with contenders and why young players like Anthony Black and Jett Howard are stepping up in a major way.

We dive deep into:
• The Orlando Magic’s recent performance and key improvements after the slow start
• Paolo Banchero’s upcoming return — and why reintegrating him matters for the offense
• Anthony Black’s development and what it means for the future backcourt
• Coaching strategy vs. the Celtics and what the Magic learned from that matchup
• Jonathan Isaac trade rumors, salary cap angles, and what the Magic might be thinking
• Bench depth, rotations, and defensive identity
• Why the Magic’s team chemistry is becoming a weapon — and how it should evolve going forward

Follow us on social media to stay up to date on all of the latest Orlando Magic news and updates.

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