Will Orlando be players in 2023 NBA Draft?

[T-Cat]

We have a ton of young talent on this team and it will be pretty difficult to land high in the lottery for next year's draft, unless we get creative with our load management of players!

Unless we see #1 pick Markelle Fultz, I would look to trade him to a contender for picks and young talent. Same goes for Wendell Carter Jr.

We can probably get away with Jonathan Isaac not playing until mid season and have him on minutes restriction like Fultz last season.

Suggs will probably start the year off behind Fultz and Anthony because of off-season surgery.

I really think a player like Scoot Henderson is what we need going forward.

Orlando could really shut down Wagner and Banchero early, in hopes for a Top 2 pick!

[Skybox]

I will be done pretty quickly if it even begins to smell like last year's "plan". I hope UTA enjoys Victor...I want nothing to do with that, unless we magically jump up 10 spots in the draft lottery.

[Last Guardian]

Magic will not blatantly tank this season like they did last...I think. But they will lose more then they win being as young as they are. I'm expected a pick 5-10 range.

[fendilim]

We will, we have two 1st round picks next year.

[JBSouthpaw]

We have a ton of young talent on this team and it will be pretty difficult to land high in the lottery for next year's draft, unless we get creative with our load management of players!

Unless we see #1 pick Markelle Fultz, I would look to trade him to a contender for picks and young talent. Same goes for Wendell Carter Jr.

We can probably get away with Jonathan Isaac not playing until mid season and have him on minutes restriction like Fultz last season.

Suggs will probably start the year off behind Fultz and Anthony because of off-season surgery.

I really think a player like Scoot Henderson is what we need going forward.

Orlando could really shut down Wagner and Banchero early, in hopes for a Top 2 pick!

no F'ing way they shut Wags and Banchero down.
This Org needs to start building back fandom.
No way should they trade WCJ unless it's a stupid haul.
we'll have 2 picks in the 1st round this year.
More improvement in wins will come from current players, not reshuffling the deck constantly.

[Skybox]

We have a ton of young talent on this team and it will be pretty difficult to land high in the lottery for next year's draft, unless we get creative with our load management of players!

Unless we see #1 pick Markelle Fultz, I would look to trade him to a contender for picks and young talent. Same goes for Wendell Carter Jr.

We can probably get away with Jonathan Isaac not playing until mid season and have him on minutes restriction like Fultz last season.

Suggs will probably start the year off behind Fultz and Anthony because of off-season surgery.

I really think a player like Scoot Henderson is what we need going forward.

Orlando could really shut down Wagner and Banchero early, in hopes for a Top 2 pick!

no F'ing way they shut Wags and Banchero down.
This Org needs to start building back fandom.
No way should they trade WCJ unless it's a stupid haul.
we'll have 2 picks in the 1st round this year.
More improvement in wins will come from current players, not reshuffling the deck constantly.

The vibe I get from Banchero is that he would be furious and maybe even publicly demand a trade if they try that crap...That's the kind of guy I HOPE he is.

[T-Cat]

We have a ton of young talent on this team and it will be pretty difficult to land high in the lottery for next year's draft, unless we get creative with our load management of players!

Unless we see #1 pick Markelle Fultz, I would look to trade him to a contender for picks and young talent. Same goes for Wendell Carter Jr.

We can probably get away with Jonathan Isaac not playing until mid season and have him on minutes restriction like Fultz last season.

Suggs will probably start the year off behind Fultz and Anthony because of off-season surgery.

I really think a player like Scoot Henderson is what we need going forward.

Orlando could really shut down Wagner and Banchero early, in hopes for a Top 2 pick!

no F'ing way they shut Wags and Banchero down.
This Org needs to start building back fandom.
No way should they trade WCJ unless it's a stupid haul.
we'll have 2 picks in the 1st round this year.
More improvement in wins will come from current players, not reshuffling the deck constantly.

The vibe I get from Banchero is that he would be furious and maybe even publicly demand a trade if they try that crap...That's the kind of guy I HOPE he is.

The franchise will do what's best for the franchise as a whole! You see how they shut Banchero down after 2 summer league games, that will be the theme if players either get hurt or team is not bringing enough wins!

[anothermagicfan]

If we are major players in the 2023 draft because of injuries and another tank season resulting I will cry myself to sleep so much next season.

But seriously we are going to be players in the draft because we have Chicago's pick and they're going to suck. I hope lol.

[RookieStar]

Players as in top 3 worst team? Nope

Players as in 1 pick will probably be lotto and the other teens to mid-twenties? Yes

[SOUL]

If we are major players in the 2023 draft because of injuries and another tank season resulting I will cry myself to sleep so much next season.

But seriously we are going to be players in the draft because we have Chicago's pick and they're going to suck. I hope lol.

I think people will be in for an awakening if they think this team is ready for the playoffs, but I think an injury free year will have them frisky and competitive, albeit still young and kinda bad. Our pick is not going to be behind a team with LaVine, DeRozan, Vuc, etc. Even though I do hope Bulls are just play in sort of guys.

[cedric76]

We will not tank, we ll make the play in and will end up with 2 picks in the 10 to 18 range, this should be enough to trade up and get a solid sg

[JBSouthpaw]

If we are major players in the 2023 draft because of injuries and another tank season resulting I will cry myself to sleep so much next season.

But seriously we are going to be players in the draft because we have Chicago's pick and they're going to suck. I hope lol.

It's top 4 protected, so it won't be that type of pick,
actually I think Chi will be quite good with Ball back.

[VFX]

Of course. Orlando will be in the lottery in some fashion even if it isn't top 3-5.

[anothermagicfan]

If we are major players in the 2023 draft because of injuries and another tank season resulting I will cry myself to sleep so much next season.

But seriously we are going to be players in the draft because we have Chicago's pick and they're going to suck. I hope lol.

It's top 4 protected, so it won't be that type of pick,
actually I think Chi will be quite good with Ball back.

Yeah I can see Chicago being pretty solid but then again they have some guys with a decent amount of injury troubles as well and a few of them are getting up there in age so who knows.

[Magic#1]

We're not trading WCJ. Suggs will likely be starting at one of the guard spots. But Bamba, Harris and Ross could go to the highest bidder anytime. I expect us to be improved and more competitive, but realistically we're still a bottom 3-5 team in the east. We might be able to get to 35ish wins, but we're still the worst team in the division unless Washington really implodes or Beal gets significantly hurt. Realistically, I see us somewhere in the 6-8 range going into lottery night. So, yes, we will have a decent chance to get into the top four.

[axl_c_cool]

Imagine we end up with #1 and #5

Jokes aside we'll win about 10 more games and hopefully get 2 top 10 picks. We are way way too young to win more than 30. If Isaac isn't back we are really lacking veterans

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[Ducklett]

Did we draft Luka Doncic and I missed it? How do you guys think we are making the playoffs LOL.

[anothermagicfan]

If we are major players in the 2023 draft because of injuries and another tank season resulting I will cry myself to sleep so much next season.

But seriously we are going to be players in the draft because we have Chicago's pick and they're going to suck. I hope lol.

I think people will be in for an awakening if they think this team is ready for the playoffs, but I think an injury free year will have them frisky and competitive, albeit still young and kinda bad. Our pick is not going to be behind a team with LaVine, DeRozan, Vuc, etc. Even though I do hope Bulls are just play in sort of guys.

So let's talk about this team from last year and what reasonable expectations are for this year.

22 wins last year. Ugly
I counted 14 games lost by 5 points or less.
With marginal improvements say defending a little better and scoring a little better increasing the wins by 14 doesn't sound crazy to me.

That would be 36 wins.

Higher than some estimate.

Let's remember we tried really hard to lose.
Look at the minutes played
Franz-2429
Cole-2059
WCJ-1852
Bamba-1824
Chuma-1749
Harris-1730
Ross-1448
RJ-1402
Suggs-1307
Mo W.-960
ROLO-612
Fultz-360
JI-0

Then there's this list
Ignas Brazdeikis-536
Admiral-469
Tim Frazier-200
Michal Mulder-195
Hassan Gravett-171
Cannady-145
Freddie Gillespie-119
Jeff Dowtin-77
Aleem Ford-74
BJ Johnson-64

So broken down it looks like this

G league players-2050 minutes or 10.3%
Rookies-3736 minutes or 18.8%
2nd year players-3461 minutes or 17.5%

G leaguers, rookies and 2nd year players accounted for 46.6% of all magic minutes played last year.

I'm not saying we're going to be like the warriors and go from the bottom to the top but there's no reason to think we can't contend for wins most nights and at least be shooting for a 42 win season or better

[RookieStar]

Web/Scoot/Dariq...

Then you got thoae Jabari/Ja/Barnes aka guys in the 5-12 range who surprisingly plays real good and jumps their spot.

If our pick is in the 5-8 range that's good enough to be players in the draft.

Our CHI is 1-14 protected right? We can get quality wings there

[SOUL]

If we are major players in the 2023 draft because of injuries and another tank season resulting I will cry myself to sleep so much next season.

But seriously we are going to be players in the draft because we have Chicago's pick and they're going to suck. I hope lol.

I think people will be in for an awakening if they think this team is ready for the playoffs, but I think an injury free year will have them frisky and competitive, albeit still young and kinda bad. Our pick is not going to be behind a team with LaVine, DeRozan, Vuc, etc. Even though I do hope Bulls are just play in sort of guys.

So let's talk about this team from last year and what reasonable expectations are for this year.

22 wins last year. Ugly
I counted 14 games lost by 5 points or less.
With marginal improvements say defending a little better and scoring a little better increasing the wins by 14 doesn't sound crazy to me.

That would be 36 wins.

Higher than some estimate.

Let's remember we tried really hard to lose.
Look at the minutes played
Franz-2429
Cole-2059
WCJ-1852
Bamba-1824
Chuma-1749
Harris-1730
Ross-1448
RJ-1402
Suggs-1307
Mo W.-960
ROLO-612
Fultz-360
JI-0

Then there's this list
Ignas Brazdeikis-536
Admiral-469
Tim Frazier-200
Michal Mulder-195
Hassan Gravett-171
Cannady-145
Freddie Gillespie-119
Jeff Dowtin-77
Aleem Ford-74
BJ Johnson-64

So broken down it looks like this

G league players-2050 minutes or 10.3%
Rookies-3736 minutes or 18.8%
2nd year players-3461 minutes or 17.5%

G leaguers, rookies and 2nd year players accounted for 46.6% of all magic minutes played last year.

I'm not saying we're going to be like the warriors and go from the bottom to the top but there's no reason to think we can't contend for wins most nights and at least be shooting for a 42 win season or better

The issue with this logic is that every other team is making changes too and trying to get better. Like I said, I think a healthy JI/Fultz will be a great addition, as well as guys like Franz/Suggs improving and other guys like WCJ staying steady, but Paolo is going to be featured heavily and he is still a rookie. Even the top rookies don't provide much impact in terms of advanced stats but obviously going forward he will be a huge guy for us.

Also 14 games by 5 or less doesn't mean we'd flip all 14 of those - there's still a lot you'd lose.

Again, I think we will be competitive, better than last year, especially on the injury front.. we may be surprisingly frisky but still the 3rd youngest team in the league. Toronto was thought to be bad last year but even they had guys like Siakam, OG, FVV, Trent and we're counting on WCJ, Fultz, Isaac being completely cleared and a lot of young guys to be good. There will be more growing pains.

It also doesn't help that a lot of bad/tanking teams will be in west (OKC, Spurs, Jazz, Hou and I don't think outside of the Pacers and potentially Detroit (who is in a similar situation) but there will be no easy games against teams we'll see 3-4 times a year.

But we'll see. I can see a path to being way better than expected but it's not as easy as some think.