{"id":647702,"date":"2026-03-08T20:30:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T20:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/647702\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T20:30:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T20:30:30","slug":"alex-morales-super-grateful-for-chance-with-orlando-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/647702\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Morales ‘super grateful’ for chance with Orlando Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Similar to the rest of his teammates, Alex Morales<\/a> was returning to practice following the NBA All-Star break<\/a> late last month.<\/p>\n

What he didn\u2019t know was the fact that he was in for a surprise of a lifetime.<\/p>\n

Osceola Magic<\/a> general manager Kevin Tiller and others in the G League<\/a> organization informed him he had earned a two-way contract with the Orlando Magic<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Morales couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really had no idea,\u201d he said recently about signing a two-way contract with Orlando on Feb. 17<\/a>. \u201cIt was just a surreal moment. I really didn\u2019t know how to process it. You know, you work so hard for so many years to get the opportunity and then you finally get it. It just feels unreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

After wrapping up his college career at Wagner, the New Jersey native had spent the past four years in the G League with Osceola.<\/p>\n

While he had signed multiple Exhibit 10 contracts over the years to spend time in training camp with Orlando, he was still waiting for a legitimate chance in the NBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It finally came in February and, although he didn\u2019t play, he was active for the first time in an NBA regular season game last Thursday against the Mavericks<\/a> at Kia Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super grateful,\u201d Morales said. \u201cThis is what you work for. I\u2019m super appreciative for the opportunity and I\u2019m trusting in it. So, I\u2019m going to continue to work hard for this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those who know Morales best in Osceola, including Magic two-way center Colin Castleton<\/a>, are proud of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d Castleton told the Orlando Sentinel recently. \u201cI know the history and the background he has with (Osceola) being the only G League team he\u2019s been able to ride out with and just helped them with a lot of wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo finally get the opportunity at the next level is great to see, especially with all of the work he puts in just day-in and day-out,\u201d Castleton added.<\/p>\n

While Orlando fans might not be as familiar with Morales\u2019 game for Osceola, he\u2019s known to do a little bit of everything for the G League team that\u2019s coached by Dylan Murphy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Morales has averaged 17.9 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.3 steals during 34.8 minutes per night across 25 regular season G League games this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy superpower probably is just to fit in with whatever the team needs,\u201d Morales said. \u201cJust to be able to do multiple things on a nightly basis, to fill in the gap wherever is needed. Whenever I get an opportunity to do that here, up top, then I\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his impact for Osceola goes beyond the court, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s about all of the right things,\u201d Castleton said about Morales. \u201cWhen I got to Osceola last year, he helped me adjust quickly and then all the way down to now I\u2019m with the Magic on my two-way. So, we\u2019ve been helping each other out with little stuff and we\u2019re both leaders of that team.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s able to just be a great teammate and a great leader, and a lot of guys feed off of that in Osceola,\u201d Castleton added.<\/p>\n

On two-way contracts with Orlando, Morales and Castleton will go between the NBA and G League, but they\u2019re limited to 50 NBA games.<\/p>\n

Two-way contracts allow teams to carry three extra players in addition to the 15 on their regular-season roster, but they\u2019re not eligible for the NBA playoffs. Jamal Cain<\/a> is Orlando\u2019s third two-way player.<\/p>\n

Osceola, which hosted the Maine Celtics on Sunday, sat atop the Eastern Conference standings entering the day. Osceola fell short of a G League championship last season when it fell at home to the Stockton Kings, but the team feels confident it can make another deep postseason run.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just a good team, overall,\u201d Castleton said. \u201cMurphy does a good job leading us, giving us good game plans. And then I think we just go out there and play really hard. That\u2019s like our M.O. on defense, just pressure the ball, rebound the ball, protect the rim.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just an all-around talented team and Murphy does a good job of helping us put us in good spots,\u201d Castleton added.<\/p>\n

Morales wants to help both Orlando and Osceola achieve their goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe grind in the G League is definitely a fun, hard grind,\u201d he said. \u201cLeading up to this moment, everything you go through in the G League and everything I\u2019ve been through in my life has kind of just set me up for the opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking forward, whatever God has planned for me, that\u2019s what that\u2019s going to be,\u201d he added. \u201cSo, (I\u2019m) just going and being me, and whatever comes from that, comes from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That mindset hasn\u2019t slowed him down yet.<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic vs. Cavaliers<\/p>\n

When: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Kia Center<\/p>\n

TV:\u00a0FanDuel Sports Network Florida, ESPN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Similar to the rest of his teammates, Alex Morales was returning to practice following the NBA All-Star break…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,165,48,6,47,76,3883,1412,80939,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-647702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-magic","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-magic","14":"tag-orlandomagic","15":"tag-social","16":"tag-social-sports","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116195454170476389","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}