MULTIPLE Magic Updates - This has Huge...

Did the magic quietly solve one of last year's biggest issues with their only real new addition to the roster? Orlando has been one of the least active teams during the offseason, but will bringing back a respective vet be enough? We'll discuss all that and more on this edition of Magic Digest. What's good? It's your big Uncle Eric back in the building. Man, I had to take a little bit of time, get my mind right. Honestly, right now, there's not a lot going on for the Magic. You know, this has been, you know, one of the front offices in this wild offseason that really hasn't done a lot. And I don't want to keep hammering home the same old things over and over again. So we will use the offseason to kind of just recap some of the things and kind of dive deeper into some of these theories. But one thing I do want to do is talk about our good folks over at Otis Edge. Look, emotion loses and data wins. That's why we use Otis Edge Analytics where passion meets data. 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We're going to get into a few things here today, but there's some news that I didn't touch on that I wanted to go ahead and bring up. Some things that happened, some minor stuff, but we'll go ahead and get into it right now. First and foremost, I want to give a big shout out to David Still. Longtime play-by-play voice of the Orlando Magic is retiring after 37 seasons, both on television and radio. You know, there'll be, I think, what is his name? Dante. I don't want to mess it up, but I know that he was like the sideline reporter for Magic. If you ever watched the Magic games locally here, and I think he'll be taking over the play-by-play announcement for David. I know last year he took over a few games when David was missing. So man, 37 years, basically my entire existence as a Magic fan, it's been the voice of David Still. Whenever I'm in and out of different areas and I'm back here where I can watch the games locally, not just on streaming, it's always interesting to hear his voice. So definitely give a big, big shout out to Mr. David Still. You just are the Magic. At some point you just become a part of this legacy, a part of what this whole team has meant to the city. So we definitely appreciate you and we wish you the best in your retirement. Also, I want to, you know, give a little bit of a quick nod to one Jet Howard. You know, he was a drafted rookie here. Three and D guy was brought in to kind of be what the Magic proverbially need on the wing. Somebody who can hit the open three and play defense. He never quite rounded out to shape with this Orlando Magic team. There were flashes here and there game or two where he actually looked like he was reaching up to the potential, but overall just behind the wings that we have, he just never really got his foot in the door consistently. So he has signed a two-way contract with the Dallas Mavericks. You know, they got some interesting things building over there. Hopefully he can get some play time behind their wings and, you know, go on to show what he's capable of, you know, just because somebody doesn't work out here. That doesn't mean we wish the worst for a man. We want to send him, you know, best of luck going forward and hopefully that he has a good career going forward. But back here at home, I want to talk about one Nikola Vujovic and I apologize if I mess his name up. I probably going to say it 13 times different over this podcast. So I'll be honest. I'll be honest. I wasn't always the biggest Vuj fan. I know how revered he is by Orlando fans, but as far as being that type of center with the team that they had before, I think he was very good and you could see the numbers. You could always see the numbers. You could see that he was an offensive beast, especially once he really developed the three-point shot. I think you have to have the right roster to maximize someone like that, especially when they're in their prime and they're looking to be, you know, your main guy. And I don't think the magic ever put the right roster around them. They had a bunch of, you know, guys, but I just don't know if they ever had the right roster around boots when he was in his prime goes to Chicago plays for them plays well for some years, you know, kind of doing the same thing, you know, where he's playing. Well, the team never really goes anywhere, but he gets his numbers last year. He got traded to Boston much older coming in as a vet. The magic pick them up with really their only move so far this offseason other than the Jonathan Isaac wave and then bring resign so that they could, you know, resign Javon Carter. But what does Vooch do for this team? What is his role on this team? Because I've seen a lot of guys conflicted, you know, a lot of people are thinking about him in his heyday in his prime. Is it going to come in and be the starting center? And I'm like, no, no, just go ahead and get that out of your, your thought process for now. He's going to come in and play backup roles. Why is he possibly so valuable to this team right now? Well, let's take a look at some of the issues that the magic had last year. We all know it was on the office as a team. The magic were one of the worst three point shooting teams last season. They made just 34.4% of their looks from beyond the arc, which ranked 26 in the NBA. Only the trailblazers Mavericks nets and Kings struggled more from shooting from distance in the league this past season. And that's just been really the bane of the magic's existence. You know, shout out to Desmond Bane, but we just have never been able to get consistent shooting from multiple guys where you have, you know, we'll get a game every now and then we'll, Bane will go off or, you know, subs will go off or maybe Tristan, the silver comes in and knocks three or four of them down, but we don't get high percentage games where up and down the roster guys are spacing the floor out and hitting the open three point look. And that's something that coming off the bench, we're hoping can be provided by Nikola Vucic. If we take a look at his shooting last year, this is from Jeremy Brenner at Sports Illustrated. Both pieces of this article were Vucic split backup duties with Batista this season, but when he is on the floor, it will give Orlando another strong shooter on the perimeter. Vucic shot just under 37% from beyond the arc is 64 games last season with the bulls and the Celtics proven to be a strong shooter from distance. And honestly, that's what you want. You want to have this guy coming here and almost be like a Brooke Lopez where you're providing some good rebounding. And even though you're not a defensive Marvel, you're not one of the defensive rim protecting big. You should be able to space the floor, especially when playing on the bench, you know, giving guys like Tristan, the silver Jamal Kane, you know, more space to operate as far as kicking drives, depending on who's takes up the minutes primarily at lead guard. If it still sucks, that means we'll probably have a lot of Anthony black with that second unit and somebody like Vucic who can kind of space out of the lane and give him more space to operate is nothing but a good thing. It's really a win. You get them on a vet minimum. So you're not spending anything, especially with a team that is pretty much tapped out. Financially, you really didn't have to give up anything other than a roster spot to bring him in. And if he is at his worst, just a corner three point maker, like if that's really all he brings you splitting minutes at the backup, big position, then you got to take that as a win. That's not something to magic. I've had here, you know, in a while. So definitely excited about the potential for Vucic to come in here and open up the floor, give some space in and hit some shots when we get some of these other guys creating. But I would love to know what you think down below in the comments. I know there was a lot of good energy, good feelings when we were talking about bringing, when we brought back Vucic, but really, how do you feel about him affecting this upcoming season? Let me know. Also, I need, if you're going to be playing prize picks, I need you to know about Flex on them Fridays. You know, Flex Friday is back in full swing. Boost your end of the week by using your Flex Friday payout boost to get a 40% higher payout every Friday. That's right. When you play $5, you get 50 instantly using the code digest down below from our good friends over at prize picks. It does a lot to help the channel. I'm going to get up out of here. It's your big Eric till next time on magic digest.