Tyus Jones Signs with the Orlando Magic Reaction with Malik Grady

Tyus Jones Signs with the Orlando Magic Reaction with Malik Grady

Closer. Closer. Closer. Closer. Closer. All right. All right. All right. Welcome to another episode of The Closeup. I’m your host, Stephen Cameron, a part of the Orlando Magic HQ network. Today we got a fun show. We kind of get down and talk about a lot of different aspects of the off seasonason, but particularly we get down on talking about Taius Jones signing with the Orlando Magic in free agency. Um, we discuss what is expected with the rest of the roster in free agency. We discuss the addition of God Sham God. The coaching staff has finally been improved. We’re very, very excited about all of those things. my good friend Malik Brady. If you’ve been a longtime listener of this show, you you will know Malik. He was my old co-host about like three years ago. Um good good friend of mine, really good basketball mind and just a fun guy to talk basketball with. Um we have a really nice conversation talking about the offseason so far. Um and I can’t wait for y’all to listen to it. We’re releasing this in two episodes. This first episode is all about the addition of Taius Jones. The second episode that will be released just shortly after the first episode will is all about how the rest of the offseason will potentially operate and the addition of God’s sham God. So make sure to tune in to both episodes. Um like and subscribe to the show, please. If you’re not watching or if you’re not subscribed to Orlando Magic HQ, click the subscribe button. Particularly you guys on YouTube. If you’re on podcast platforms, please re reate and review us. If you can take two minutes, we’d really appreciate it. Helps us a lot in the algorithms and um we just want to keep growing and reaching more people. Also, link is in the description, but check out our Patreon program. We got some really cool stuff going on over there. We’ve been releasing some new content for you guys recently. Um and we’re going to be doing a giveaway just for the Patreons pretty soon. So, check that out. And uh that’s about it. I’m not gonna I’m not gonna hold off you guys listening to this conversation much longer. Um, shout out Malik Brady and let’s go Magic. Enjoy. All right, everyone. Like I said, we got my friend Malik Grady on the show. Um, if you haven’t heard of Malik, I’m disappointed because he is magic Twitter OG. My old co-host from my uh original show, The Close-up Magic. We had a good like year and a half run together as co-hosts together on that show for a segment. Um, and uh, just overall a good friend of mine, diehard Magic fan, Malik Grady, what’s going on, man? Thank you for joining the show tonight. How are you?
Yeah, man. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you in this setting. Obviously, we talk
pretty much every day about the magic in some fashion, but to do it kind of officially where we’re talking to the masses as well is always a treat. So, I appreciate it, man. Yeah, it’s fun. It’s fun. Um, you know, you and I often talk a lot, not even necessarily about the magic. So, sometimes it’s nice to like have a conversation that’s not like textbased back and forth about what’s going on and our thoughts and opinions. I feel like it uh
always allows for some fun conversation. And right now, we’re in a really cool phase right now. Um, we’re recording this July 3rd, pretty much like almost July 4th. We’re recording it so late at night. and the Magic have been in free agency just like the rest of the NBA for about four or five days now. Uh sorry, three three four days now. And it’s been a lot of fun. We’ve seen a lot of crazy movement. Um seen players get traded. We’ve seen players get like pick like Miles Turner left the Pacers and went to the Bucks. Um uh uh uh Brook Lopez is playing for the Clippers now. Um the Lakers didn’t retain uh what was that wing player that we were all what am I uh went to the Mavs Florida. Yeah. So it’s like no he went to the Rockets. Um so it’s just been uh it’s just been a wild wild free agency. Before we dive into the Magic free agency, what have you thought in general so far of this off season with some of the transactions, the trades, the free agencies we’ve seen? What what what is your mind taking in on all this? Well, it really just feels like, you know, people are are taking their shots and seeing an opportunity. Uh, kind of weird in the West because OKC was so dominant for them them to kind of gear up, but Houston is actually going forward and even Denver’s trying to make their their moves and stuff. And in the East because of all the Achilles injuries, everybody’s like, “It’s time.”
Yep.
It’s including the Magic of course, you know, getting bane, all that kind of stuff. So, you see Atlanta making moves. you see even Milwaukee making their moves. So that I think that’s what I’m seeing is that everyone’s like we can do this. We can at least get to the finals. We can get to the semi semi-finals and and do some things with everybody hurt and things in flux and it’s fun but free agency went so quickly because of it because got people were ready. They had all their things done and it’s like wait we’re three days in and now we’re chilling. Okay, I guess so. It it’s been fun man. Um, I think the last couple of years we’ve seen, um, a little bit of a different type of start to free agency where we’re used to this just like really hot start, things coming in before free agency even starts. And now it seems like actually it might be a couple hours before we hear something kind of big with free agency.
Yeah. because it seems like they’ve actually tightened down a little bit on tampering to an extent or at least how it’s publicly talked about to where deals are not actually being signed and agreed on until the actual day compared to what we were used to a couple years ago where it was like we would be getting notifications two or three hours. You know, so and so was agreeing to a 4year $80 million contract and it’s like wait free agency hasn’t even started for four more hours. What are we doing here? you know. Um, so I think it’s still getting some people adjusted to the kind of new rhythm of free agency, but I’ve been I’ve been enjoying it. I think it’s fun. Um, kind of builds that anticipation knowing that it’s not necessarily going to happen before free agency even starts, which is kind of cool, you know, and this summer has been really interesting because like obviously we heard the exit interviews with Jeff Welman that they’re going to be more aggressive and like we you were just talking about we got Desmond Bane. Um they’re trying to address, you know, uh the roster in ways with the draft too, drafting a guard that can shoot like Jayce uh Richardson and uh you know, long defensive wing player that’s kind of a Swiss Army knife has some offensive tools to him as well. And uh Noah Panda aka Panda Man aka Designer Panda. That’s the song I play every time I think about him. Um, but you know, now now we’re at free agency and um, going into free agency, I’m just going to recap and then then then I’ll let you run. Dude, they released they did not pick up the team options for Movitz Vagner and uh, Caleb Houston to to get the Magic to reduce salary as well as to um, uh, just open up roster spots. Right. So, they went into free agency with um 12 guaranteed roster spots so far. Uh which gave them three open roster spots. Um and within the first handful of hours or the first day, they signed Tyus Jones to a one-year $7 million contract, the Magic’s legit real only point guard on the roster, which I’m really excited about. Um, it took me a while to come to uh the Taius Jones train, but before we get into kind of like those feelings, how are you feeling about the signing of Taius Jones to a one-year $7 million contract? Well, it’s it’s just one more thing where do I know this Jeff Welman? Like this summer’s Jeff Welman is different. He’s moving differently. He’s moving more muscularly, like making aggressive moves. This one wasn’t so much aggressive, but they did go into the MLE. They are right up against the first apron. This was a guy that they’ve been chasing for a while. He does fit um what Paulo’s been saying he wanted with that that table setter. Whereas in the past, Welman was like, well, we kind of want these other guys that are combo guards and can do this and do that and hey, Paulo and Fron, we don’t want to take the ball out of their out of their hands. And now it’s like, okay, let’s just get a point guard. this guy that we’re gonna get. Maybe he’s and he’s small. He doesn’t defend because he’s small and he’s he’s not not long. So once again, you’re doing things outside of the ordinary. And it’s exhilarating, frankly, just to see all these different things, even the cuts, because I thought, hey, maybe we’ll keep this guy, maybe we’ll keep that guy, not cut them. But they declined all the options in the end to give full flexibility. Now, they haven’t done anything with it yet. They haven’t made these crazy moves, but they’ve done these things to give you yourself all the options, which has not been Welman. And even so, it’s just one more domino and it’s like it’s a new Welman. I like this guy. I wish I’d seen him before, but better late than never. This is awesome. Yeah. And you know, I look back at the last deadline and I’m like, huh, if you would have traded away one of our picks, a firstrounder, would we have been able to make the Desmond Bane trade? Maybe not. And I’m like kind of thankful that we’re in the spot that we are. And like it makes me kind of not necessarily say he shouldn’t have done something, but I’m glad he didn’t do something super shortsighted that would have reduced an ability to make a move like we did this summer. And you’re right, like it’s been a lot of fun seeing this new Jeff Welman. It’s really nice. Um to Taius Jones specifically, I it took me a while to come around to him. I I’ve just not been a Taius guy for quite a few years. I am not one that tends to like short guards that can’t defend and he despite how good of an offensive player he is, I just I just I have learned to adapt the positional size mindset um with you know as I’ve kind of evolved as a you know NBA observer and um I just I just you see it all the time in the playoffs. you know, there are obviously outliers. You know, um Patrick Beverly is like not a defensive liability and stuff like that, but there’s there’s there are obviously outliers of of good small defenders, but for the most part, they all eventually get picked on at some point and might just be regular season guys. And so, it took me a while. But I think what came about me to start to be okay with Taius was when I actually started looking at like, okay, I really don’t want like Nquille Alexander Walker. He would help, but I didn’t think that was the best resource of our best best way to use our money and I also didn’t think it was the best way to address holes on the team despite it helping the team. So, I was leaning all in on like I want a high volume scorer or I want a point guard. Like fix one of those two holes because I still don’t think the bench would have had enough scoring. They didn’t kind of like lean heavier into that. So, fix one thing or the other. And then I was like, well, I kind of want a point guard cuz we we have people that we can probably get to score. And I don’t know, it just took me this long journey to kind of come to the conclusion I want a point guard. And then I went down this like big rabbit hole of, okay, what point guards are actually available and which ones are realistic. I actually think Tyus is the the person that makes the most sense and the is the most realistic. And it happened. I went through you saw this whole emotional journey I went on where I was like three weeks ago I was like, “F Taius Jones, I don’t want him.” Then it was like two weeks I was like kind of really want a point guard. And it was like a week and a half ago I was like I think I’m on the Tus Jones train. Well, and really it’s it’s been longer than that because obviously we’ve been talking about Tus Jones for some time. So this journey of he’s you know he’s I haven’t liked him for years. Let’s just say that.
Exactly. Here’s what I think the difference is for you and for you know people that were skeptical of that kind of thing. It’s a totally different proposition. Yeah. when the starting five or at least the starting four plus plus one look so good when Taius is a backup and a one-year backup and a cheap one-year backup because a couple couple years ago we were talking about him, you know,
it’s like a starter big money or being a starter and it’s like I don’t want that. But he’s a back like he he’s coming here and he’s total backup and he’s making a little more than we expected. But it’s not like it’s there for 2 years. It’s one year and then we we see what happens. And it it feels totally different when somebody is a luxury rather than a necessity. You know what I’m saying? This is the missing piece. No, no.
Desmond Bane is missing piece and we mortgage to the house for him. You we’re using the change we got in our furniture and we cool. Let’s go. So, it’s a totally different field. Yeah,
it it really is. And you’re right. You know, it’s like there he’s a backup point guard that can start if need or close game because he has a couple years as a primary starter um in those roles, you know, last year with the Suns, the year before that with the Wizards. um he’s got that ability to and he’s learned and grown there, but he’s probably not really meant to be like the starter is probably not his best position, right? But he can and could close and is nice uh injury protection there to an extent if if you know Suggs or Bane goes down for a little while that can throw him in. What I like is he is a person that not only can like playm make and I’d love to hear your your thoughts on him as a playmaker in a little bit, but he’s someone that continues to double down on trying to address the shooting problems that this team has. He is a career uh 37% three-point shooter, but the last two seasons um he shot 41% from three on like respectable volume. He hasn’t really been a high volume shooter for the LA until like the LA not even I’m going to call him a midvol shooter the last three seasons he he mostly shot pretty low volume his first like seven seasons. The last three he’s been around four four attempts per game. Um which you know if you average the last three together which is pretty nice. Um but at good efficiency 37% 41% 41% uh those last three years which is pretty cool. And you know a lot of that is catch and shoot. I think his catch and shoot numbers is like 42 or 45% somewhere in that range off catch and shoot threes. Most of his threes are off kickouts, which is cool. It’s not necessarily pull-ups. It’s someone driving else kicking out to him. Um, I find that just another way to continue to double down on this team trying to correct their shooting issues from years prior. Um, I’d love to hear your thoughts about how he’s going to fit with this team, his play style, his playmaking, and just what he can bring. Well, what you said about shooting, you know, it’s right on the money. However, um, I also think that the last couple additions the Magic have made have not just been shooters. It’s not like we’re just bringing in, you know, the these gunners. We’ve brought in, even going back to Tristan Dilva, we’ve brought in guys that can handle some, can shoot some, can pass some, can process some, are guys that are known to have good feel. Like when people talk about them, oh no, this guy, he’s a a second set of eyes on the on the court for the coach, yada yada, in Tristan Dilva, in Desmond Bane, and right now in Taius Jones because he’s a great shooter, but he’s also doesn’t turn the ball over. In fact, one of the criticisms teams have for him, they’re like
doesn’t take enough risks. He he will not get turnovers because, oh, nope, I don’t want to turn over,
which to us is a breath of fresh air. We have guys like Cole Anthony is like, I can make that pass. I can do it. And he’s just throwing and it’s for the good reason. It’s not He’s not never does it maliciously. He really thinks I can make that pass and I want to win and all those things. but to have someone who’s like bring it back out. Like we’ve never had guys enough guys that have that kind of cerebral nature to them. So to add that in addition to the shooting is what I like. And and actually when we talk about the draft picks, you kind of saw the same thing where you’re adding basketball players. It’s not just shooters because we we have a friend of our ours that it’s kind of done some coaching and all that we talked to a lot and he’s like it’s not just shooters because you can get shooters and you can still clank things. You need guys that can do other things as well and a pure point guard does that, but also somebody who doesn’t turn the ball over and thinks the game in a different way. And that’s what I like with these last few additions. Again, I don’t recognize this Welman. I don’t know who it is, but I love him.
Yeah. I mean, we finally have a guy that is not best as a secondary playmaker. Like, he can really function as a primary ball handler with a very low turnover rate. You know, last year he averaged 5.3 assists per game with 1.1 turnovers per game. Uh the year before that he averaged 7.3 assists per game with one turnover per game. No points, just one turnover. Um the year before that he averaged five assists per game with.9 turnovers per game. He has great assist to turnover ratios, which is something that is really important for this young team. Um, you know, they’ve gotten a little bit older in some ways, but uh they’re still a very young team and they had some turnover issues last year. You know, part of that is because of injuries and guys not really being able to like learn to gel together. But part of that is also they didn’t have a point guard on the team last year and now they finally do. they finally have a guy that they can, you know, either in the first units or I mean in the second unit or staggered in ways with the first unit um or players within the starting five, you can use him in multiple different lineup ways to kind of settle things down. Um he’s not just injury insurance, he’s playmaking insurance. He’s a guy that, you know, if he’s being staggered with with Paulo or F in the second unit, they can play offball and just go like get to their spot in the post. Taius can feed it to them and they can take advantage of a mismatch or, you know, Taius can like we could see a lot more lob opportunities and rim um, you know, above the rim opportunities with our centers with actually having a point guard guard that’s like can kind of visualize those types of plays more often. Um, dude, we might be able to run a fast break. Like
I was about to get to that.
Come on. We could like we can actually move up a little bit in pace here. like, yeah,
it’s going to be nice
cuz cuz really there’s there’s two things that that kind of come to mind as I was thinking about that is that um when you go to the turnover thing and when you go to transition is that there were so many times if the Magic would have just gotten a shot off every time just get a shot even even a crappy shot because we’re a pretty good rebounding team be better than what we did which is often live ball turnovers not just turnovers but turnovers like would you like the ball go that way you kind kind of thing where you mentioned those um years where he had great turn, you know, turnover numbers. He’s had five out of his 10 seasons where he’s had under 10% turnover percentage and then the other ones he has one he had 10.0% and one he had 10.8%.
So most time he’s under which is just outrageous turnover percent. Last year he actually slipped a little bit to 11.4 which for us would have been phenomenal but for him he’s like dang it man I got to get back in the gym. What am I doing? you know, but to have someone who can run the break, you get the ball to him with the second unit and you can mix and match. We talked about it, you know, privately where we can have lineups with these maybe the top four guards who we think are going to be there where one of them is a defensive bigger guy and one of them is is the smaller shortarm guy who’s the shooter and kind of mix and match those guys and be able to to do some things that you couldn’t do in years past because when you mix and match it was like, “Oh, we got two guys that kind of can’t shoot.” Okay. Oh, we got two dribblers, but there’s no one who can both of them want to turn the ball over. Dang. Oh, they both think they’re point guards. You know, that kind of thing. So, you have stuff that on paper at least fits even before you get to some guys that we think might have some upside to grow even further. So, it’s it’s once again, it’s exciting. One thing that I like about Taius Jones is, you know, we kind of talked about this earlier where he gets a lot of his three-point attempts from kickouts from other players, and he’s going to naturally be playing next to Anthony Black often. Um, he kind of has to because Taius can’t defend. He’s awful at it. So, let’s He’s got to play next to some guys with some size that can like, you know, cover some of his weaknesses there. But also, like I am not one that just wants to pigeon hole Anthony Black to like a secondary playmaker wing just yet. Like, I still want him to get on ball reps and and um you know, development as a ball handler and decision maker. And so I’m looking forward to seeing what sort of dynamic Taius and him have together where, you know, how much can we still expect Anthony Black to have the ball in his hands and run a pick and roll and drive and kick to the basket out to Tyus to make a 40% three. But also like, okay, Anthony Black, you have another point guard on the in your unit now. How are you going to evolve as well as an offball player and a shooter? You know, a catch andoot shooter. like he’s a decent catch and shoot shooter from three to an extent. I mean, he had, let me say decent, I mean, he’s had some decent moments, right? Last year was a bit of a struggle compared to his first year. Um, super low volume. I don’t know if he’s ever going to be a shooter, but like, can you improve there? Um, and I think we’re going to see a lot of that this year. And also just like, wow, Anthony Black’s never had a true point guard on the team to learn from. I mean, outside like Cory Joseph, and I’m sure he learned from him. I don’t want to disrespect Cory Joseph, like he did his part very well last year. Um, and more than we ever expected him to do and um, yeah.
Yeah, he absolutely helped. But like I’m like playing partners, you know, expected for, you know, a full season, like it’ll be cool to see how they can evolve and grow within each other and the type of dynamics they will play because they’re naturally going to be playing partners next to each other. Yeah. And hopefully, you know, they can all stay healthy enough to kind of build some things because we want to see stuff where maybe something starts wonky, but over time they get better as like, “Oh, this started off crappy, but 3 weeks later we’re balling. We’re rolling and stuff.” And um I when when you mentioned those guys need to stay together a lot. I definitely agree that’s going to be our best balance of, you know, talent and divas, that kind of thing. However, I’m looking forward to seeing us steal two or three minutes here and there with Bane and Tyus together, who’ve played together for extended years at Memphis, because I want to see teams go, “Oh, we can attack them defensively,
but that offensive um grouping, I bet they can beat the brakes off teams like, oh, you might score a point or two, but with Bane and Tyus together with that how their playmaking has has has grown and how both play off each other, how they’re both good shooters, how both can do closeouts. I think you might put them out there and people you might be able to give up a few more points, but you’re going to score so many much more. Totally.
Because there’s so many shooters and stuff, especially if you have Fron getting shot back or Tristan Deil who I think is going to be a great shooter as he was all four years or even five years in college. I think you’re going to have more shooting options around those guys. We’re gonna finally have those four and five out things where it’s not one of the out guys is Jonathan Isaac. God bless his soul, but he’s not a guy that shoots, you know, we can have guys that actually can nail those things. So, I’m looking forward to like Welman has said, the new Welman, hey, we’re going to trade some defense for offense. So, go ahead. Let’s have Demond band together. And if you think you can exploit our defense before they nail you with literally the maybe the second best shooter in the NBA and Tyus who nails everything and doesn’t turn the ball over, be my guest. Absolutely. It’s going to be so fun to see how this offense develops. All right, that’s going to wrap up part one with Malik Grady. Um we’ll be releasing part two shortly.

In this episode, Stephen Cameron and Malik Grady discuss the recent developments in the NBA offseason, focusing on the Orlando Magic’s free agency moves, including the signing of Tyus Jones and the implications for the team’s roster.

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