The Orlando Magic also have a sliver of optimism about a recent victory. But reporter Josh Robbins cautions the team — and its fans.
Magic victory generates hope, but remember it’s just summer
LAS VEGAS — The Orlando Magic reached “peak hype” here Sunday night.
Their 86-56 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies featured an avalanche of highlight-reel plays. But more than anything else, the team’s performance generated a heightened optimism that it has rarely earned over the last six years.
Even for a summer-league exhibition, the Magic’s performance on defense was impressive. They held the Grizzlies to 26 percent shooting. It wasn’t just that Memphis couldn’t make a basket. It was that Orlando disrupted Memphis from the opening tip.
A play early in the first quarter exemplified Orlando’s approach. Memphis rookie Jaren Jackson Jr. barreled down the center of the lane, but Mo Bamba and Jonathan Isaac converged on Jackson. When Jackson elevated to toss a lob toward the hoop, Bamba and Isaac jumped off the floor, their long arms outstretched toward the ceiling, and batted the ball away simultaneously.
“We wanted to have a hit-first mentality tonight,” said Pat Delany, the Magic’s summer league head coach. They succeeded. So what does it all really mean? Let’s explore that question with these five takeaways.
1. Summer league games are not actual games. They’re exhibitions,
and they should be regarded as such. The quality of competition, the focus on gameplanning and the pressure in a July exhibition cannot compare to a regular-season game.
Slow your roll if you think the Magic will make the playoffs based on what you saw during their matchup against the Grizzlies.
2. That said, coaches and team officials should have expectations for these exhibitions, especially for their most talented players.
The Magic should expect Isaac and swingman Wes Iwundu, both entering their second NBA seasons, to assert themselves. Secondyear players should overshadow, or at least look much more self-assured, than their first-year opponents.
Isaac is playing more confidently than he did during last year’s summer league in Orlando or during his rookie season. He displays his increased assertiveness in every area of his game, from his eagerness to take pull-up jumpers to his hounding of ball-handlers to his attempts to alter shots.
One of the biggest criticisms I had of Isaac during his one-and-done year at Florida State and during his rookie NBA season was that he tended to blend in. Oh, sure, he distinguished himself on defense by virtue of his agility, length and smarts. But he rarely looked overwhelming. At some point, teams need to see a top-six draft pick attempt to impose his will.
Isaac has done that in Orlando’s opening two exhibitions here in Vegas.
Early in the first quarter Sunday night, he stole the ball from rookie Javon Carter inside the Magic’s defensive end, collected the ball and dribbled upcourt for an emphatic dunk.
Isaac also blocked five shots.
From the Magic’s perspective, that’s a welcome sign.
Isaac needs to keep it up. Aggressiveness can generate momentum all by itself, and Isaac could carry any newfound momentum into his late-July and August offseason workouts.
Can fans expect Isaac to dominate like that against much-improved competition during the regular season? No.
But ask yourself this: How would you gauge Isaac’s potential if he had blended in during Orlando’s first two exhibitions?
3. The threat of Mo Bamba in the roll game must make the Magic salivate.
Bamba showed extreme potential Sunday night as a roll man.
That’s an element Orlando has lacked for years. Nikola Vucevic tends to pick-and-pop rather than barrel toward the hoop after he sets a screen. Bismack Biyombo liked to roll to the hoop, but Biyombo’s hands were so unreliable that his value as a roller was nowhere near as significant as it should have been.
Bamba appears to have superb hand-eye coordination for a 7-foot-1 center, and he showed it Sunday when he slammed a reverse dunk off a lob from Braian Angola-Rodas.
Bamba has made two of his four 3-point attempts here in Vegas, including a wide-open shot from the right corner Sunday. His smooth shooting stroke bodes well for the Magic. But it’s especially important to note that he can also keep opponents honest as a target rolling to the basket.
4. Point guard Troy Caupain may deserve a two-way contract, if not from the Magic, then from another team.
A 22-year-old who played last season for the Magic’s G-League affiliate in Lakeland, Caupain has been impressive in summer league so far.
He followed his 20-point, two-assist performance in the opener against the Nets with a 10-point, seven-rebound, five-assist, zeroturnover night against Memphis.
He also brought some physicality on the defensive end.
Magic coach Steve Clifford values tough, big, physical point guards who avoid turnovers.
5. The Magic faced a much tougher test when they played the Phoenix Suns Monday night.
The Suns’ roster is talented and includes No. 1 overall pick Deandre Ayton, 10th pick Mikal Bridges and former lottery picks Dragan Bender and Josh Jackson.
The Magic also should feel fatigued.
How will their young players, particularly Bamba, respond on the second night of a back-to-back? Note that the Grizzlies were playing their second game in two nights when the Magic steamrolled them.
“It will be difficult, for sure,” Delany said. “We’ve got a team in Phoenix who’s played two very good games here, has got a very good roster and obviously got some rest [Sunday]. So we’ll have our hands full. We’ll regroup.”
“We’ve got a team in Phoenix who’s played two very good games here, has got a very good roster and obviously got some rest [Sunday]. So we’ll have our hands full. We’ll regroup.” Magic summer league coach Pat Delany on facing the Suns Monday night
jrobbins@ orlandosentinel.com Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/ magicblog and follow him on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins