How the Orlando MAGIC have established a clear IDENTITY | Devine Intervention | Yahoo Sports
Uh Team sort of I’m wondering if we’re going to wind up like kind of copying pasting that that bit for the next one but it’s team in a very similar set of circumstances which is a lot of s sounds that I said quickly um where you got a
Team that has sort of developed an identity established who it wants to be it starts on the defensive end and it starts with a lot of young Talent say something nice to me about the Orlando Magic yeah I kind of think Jamal Mosley should win coach of the year like to
Have whatever they are like I think they’re like the fourth youngest team and the fourth best defense or something along those lines I don’t remember the exact numbers I haven’t checked in the last week or so but that’s incredible especially when you consider that guys like you know Pao and
France coming into the league weren’t necessarily thought of as like Elite kind of Defenders um you know when they got Wendel Carter and uh Mo bagner as their centers who aren’t necessarily traditional like rim protector types but the way that they defend on a string the
Way that they are able to cut off drives is it’s really really impressive the the way that they’re sort of systematized on defense and the way they execute within what Mosley wants them to do is really impressive they lost guys for significant stretches of the season they basically haven’t had any guards other
Than Jaylen sugs healthy for the entire year and I mean like sugs is up there with with amen Thompson for me in terms of my favorite guys to watch like it’s like a guy built picture perfect for me to love watching him yeah it’s just I I
I I find a lot of really things nice about the magic well who needs guards I mean the whole the the the entire premise of the Orlando Magic is like what if we build the whole plane out of huge long guys that can do a little bit
Of everything and then the guards are kind of like yeah if they come along great but like we’re mostly just going to be gigantic and they’ve over the last couple years they’ve decided this is a real interesting wrinkle for the magic over the last 15 or so years what if
Those guys could score what if those guys could do stuff with the ball in their hands and that’s like a really interesting wrinkle they’ve added I think to me and you know I know it’s a little bit of a it’s becoming an easy talking point but uh I love easy talking
Points because I talk and sometimes I have a hard time with it um the fact that they’ve learned how to really leverage Pao Banko’s passing like his scoring to open things up for passing and I’m thinking specifically of the way he works out of the post like he
Understands now like if you get a mismatch there if they’re able to work you know getting him off a cross screen and he’s able to set up on the Block he’s good enough that he’s just he can overpower guys to get to the basket he can you know turn around face up and
Shoot over the top and he knows now like he’s been good enough at that for a year and a half almost two years that teams are starting to show more help at him and throw more doubles at him when he gets there in part because they don’t
Believe as we mentioned like the guards you know the the shooting around him like all right make those guys beat us well he’s doing that he’s making those reads earlier he’s making the feeds more you and you’ve got more of those guards and those wings like moving around the
Arc understanding if we get into a good spot he will find us he’s averaging six assists a game since January 1st like that is that is a level up significantly over where he was last year when he was the Rookie of the Year and if the if you
Have that guy who’s creating an advantage and then spraying it out and sharing it some of those looks are a little bit easier when you’re catching them in rhythm you’re catching them with you know a little bit more space before the closeout Defender and that’s where you know Jaylen uh Jaylen Suggs making
The advancements that he’s made as a three-point shooter you know Cole Anthony is a guy that can catch and shoot a lot more you know even France being able to catch but then also beat a close out get downhill like there are just more ways for you to win when
You’ve already got the advantage created and now you’re looking at how do you extend it and to me that’s just such a it is indicative as you said of Jamal mosy the great job he’s done on the coaching not just on the defensive end but also don’t tell me so much about
What these guys can’t do let me see what I can make out of what they what we do have and what they can do and it does feel a little bit like he’s getting the most out of them on the the offense has not been Elite obviously that’s been
That’s going to be their big concern but even on that end they’re they’re sort of trending up that way more recently I think they’re above average on offensive efficiency since the All-Star break I think like 10th in the half court they’re generating more Corner threes like they’re figuring out answers to the
Ways teams guard them and then I mean whether that holds up in a playoff series I don’t know but if you would have told me you know beginning of last season or Midway through last season we’re going to be finding out pretty soon what the magic do in a playoff
Series I would thought you were nuts so to get here this early feels like a real big win organizationally definitely and I’m glad you brought up palo’s passing that’s it’s coincidentally something I’m putting in my three things I noticed on the testor right we’re noticing because
Yeah um I think he had like the best passing game of his career against New Orleans last week and specifically the kind of stuff you mentioned like passing out of a double from the post one time in each half he got that and he just whipped a one-handed pass across the
Court over the top of two helpers to a guy who was getting like a hammer screen in the corner and you know Gary Harris made it and I think either or Gary Harris missed it and Jaylen sugs made it in the the second half but both of them
Were just like incredible passes and then a few of them like on pocket passes to Wendell Carter or the pick and roll or finding guys like you know jump passes are good now thanks to uh sh out tobert yep that’s right yeah um and and
And he made a few of those in that game as well like I remember before the All-Star break I was like I kind of think France has outplayed Pao to this point in the season and I think since then like since maybe like a week or two before the
All-Star break P has taken it to a completely different level and he did have that one stretch like where France is out early in the year and he was posting ridiculous numbers for a week and a half but then as the the absence went on and as like Carter was out and
You know folz was out and like I don’t know how many guys they’ve had out different times this year but it sort of seemed like he sort of crumbled under the weight of having to do everything for a couple weeks and I kind of think it helped them like so much of the
Discourse about the magic has been how they need more Playmakers and they need you know like a real point guard asking Palo and fron to do so much creating has sort of helped them level up their creating and you brought up they’ve always had these you know big long
Athletic guys and it’s just none of them have been able to create like the the guys that are in the front office there Jeff Hammond and John welman or John Hammond and Jeff welman have both come from organizations where they really valued big long athletic guys in the
Bucks and the Raptors the Raptors tried to build a similar sort of Team where it was all big long athletic guys but the big issue with them since kawhai left was they didn’t have anybody to create advantages for anybody else so they couldn’t score in the half court and now
Like the magic are building that sort of team and they have two guys that can create those sort of advantages like they’re not Elite level creators yet necessarily but they’re on their way to getting there and that’s like it’s it’s really impressive for them it’s really impressive for the coaching and it’s
Really impressive to be able to get what they’re able to get out of the talent they have on hand given that they do have deficiencies absolutely and it’s it we’ll move off of it in a second but I just love that idea of if you so someone
Gives you a toolbox or you like you know you find one uh in the apartment as you move into it and it’s like well all there is in here is a hammer like and you can be like well it sucks to not have a screwdriver and a wrench or you
Can be like I’m gonna use this fraking hammer and what the magic do is they use the freaking Hammer they’re like we’re gonna take like 45% of our shots at the basket we like Paulo is a guy who’s gonna draw fowls we’re going to use that
Like you know him and fron is hammering the paint to get to the line this is what we’re going to build and maybe it’s not going to be enough to win several playoff series because we’re going to need a little bit more shooting we’re going to need a little bit more
Creativity or whatever but like turns out you can get an awful long way just hammering stuff like you can you can fix a lot of stuff and you can break a lot of stuff with just the hammer so like that shouts out to the magic for finding
A way to look at a at a toolbox that only had one thing in it or what seemed like it only had one thing in it and you know get to fighting for homecourt Advantage in the first round of the playoffs freaking crazy but I I I’m very
Fascinated to see where they’re going to how they’re going to you know net out in a postseason series because I think they’re going to take a pound of flesh out of whoever they play I don’t know if that’s going to be enough for them to you know advance but I think they’re
Going to get to learn a lot about themselves and how teams are going to defend them whether they’ve got enough juice to be able to beat it uh and you know we’ll go from there
Yahoo Sports NBA writer Dan Devine and Jared Dubin from CBS Sports discuss the Orlando Magic’s identity and their different brand of basketball.
Watch the full conversation here ► https://youtu.be/IybjwBJ-wqA
Be sure to subscribe to “Devine Intervention” – part of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast – on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen ► https://link.chtbl.com/OcO9CkJO
Thanks for watching! Subscribe to the Yahoo Sports channel here ► http://bit.ly/YSportsYT
Follow us everywhere!
Our Site ► http://www.yahoosports.com
Instagram ► http://www.instagram.com/yahoosports
TikTok ► https://www.tiktok.com/@yahoosports?lang=en
Snapchat ► https://www.snapchat.com/add/yahoosports
Twitter ► http://www.twitter.com/yahoosports
Facebook ► http://www.facebook.com/yahoosports
#orlandomagic #nba
