This Made One Thing Clear About the Magic...

This made one thing clear about the Magic. Orlando still has some work to do, but there's plenty to like. Cleveland tested them, and a few young guys stepped up, but Tuesday brings another shot at the same team. What should we take from this loss, and what needs to change? We'll break all this down and more on this episode of Magic Digest. What's good with it? It's your big uncle Eric, back in the building. I hope you had a good weekend. I had a good weekend, man. getting ready closer watching this you know preseason basketball and got to see the Magic play on Sunday got some takeaways it's a preseason game they're second so we're not going to get super in the weeds on a lot of things but there's some things that i definitely noticed and i want to point out now one of the things that i did notice was this comment on a previous video where I talked about the roles that Paolo and Franz will be playing. And we mentioned how there's a lot of people, especially the outside media that are looking at this team and judging them this year based off the previous year. And this comment right here, basically let us know what to be looking for. Shout out to 333 Louis, 333 underscore Louis nine. Shout out to you, man. I appreciate it. He had this to say, this is going to be an interesting year. Sweeney, Paolo, and Franz have to figure out who's going to lead the charge this year for sure. Franz could definitely have a breakout year if Paolo takes the sacrifice to test the waters, but I don't know if it'll happen. Paolo is still him though, regardless. And it made me think about where this team will land in their total wins. As we can see, the market for them has it around 45 wins. And that market is brought to you by our good friends over on Kalshi. On Kalshi, you're trading directly against other users not the house like traditional sports books you're buying yes or no contracts on the outcome of events across sports politics or even the weather for example if you believe that the Magic hit up that 45 and get to 50 plus wins and you put your 25 on that you get a max payout of 107.72 but that's only if you get involved if you're interested to try. Now, Kalshi, use the link in the description and pinned comment and code DigestNBA to get $55 added to your account instantly when you trade your first 25. Big thanks to our friends over on Kalshi. Now, honestly, this is going to be a quick recap because Cleveland comes through, gets the W against the Magic. And overall, when we look at the overall game, it was almost a tale of two halves. We had that first half where the Magic were looking pretty outclassed from the jump. Then we had the third quarter when they kind of fought back in. Cleveland with the 119-105 victory. Big shots out to Tristan Da Silva, 17 points to lead all scores. Him and Jace played the most minutes and honestly that goes back to the missing rotation who did not play Desmond Bain he just had a scheduled rest they didn't say it was for illness it was just like it's preseason let's give him a rest Jalen Suggs still out with the illness we haven't heard an update about that and if he'll be back for the game tomorrow same thing about Anthony Black we haven't heard any updates even though we did get that he was back um at full practice he did not play in the game on sunday and we haven't got word yet if he will play on tuesday but we will keep you guys uh in notice and this was Sean Sweeney's first test on the road and we look at how things turned around it really was that halftime lead cleveland built it up now orlando did fight fight back to tie it But again, Cleveland took control in the end against the scrubs, not the scrubs, my apology, the bench unit and those guys. Sorry, that's just me thinking about back in the day how you would describe some of these guys. And that was totally disrespectful, my bad. Now, one thing I did want to actually look at and not to be down, but I did want to take a look at Paolo's struggles against Cleveland. And it looked like so far in these two games, he has looked way more athletic. He has looked like he's had way more drive. I've liked that. Those are the positive things I've seen about him. More drive, more attacking. He's getting to the basket. And, you know, he was a guy that got to the basket a whole lot last year. And this looks like he still has that same aggression. He still has that same attack. But he's not hitting baskets. Going one of 10. good thing the only saving grace is that he went seven to ten from the free throw line so we got to figure out exactly what's going on he did add seven rebounds which is good to see so i'm definitely you know these this is only in 17 minutes this is preseason small sample size i'm not getting on them i'm just wanting to you know keep your peepers out on that to see exactly what happens because it really is about how this team comes together and we haven't seen you know the preseason this year is already starting to look like moments last year when we didn't see the main core on the floor but one of the things that we are seeing is the development of the role players and again before we get into that i did want to get into another comment that you know and i appreciate you guys leaving comments, man. I appreciate you down below anytime that you can leave me your thoughts. I love it. I love reading it. I love going back and forth with you guys. And sometimes you may end up on an episode and this is just more affirmation that we have a new coach. It's a new year. We need to hold our horses and let things mature. In fact, I'm not really making any bold predictions or statements until we're about 15 games in. I think that's where you kind of get that overall baseline of how your team is performing. But I want to do give a shout out to this comment from FredTheJig9458. He says, hold your horses. We just got a new head coach, new scheme and et cetera. Why would we judge Paolo and Franz based off our past coach who we know couldn't create offense at all? And again, I do think, like I said, We got to give this whole thing time to coalesce, you know, and one thing that I have been seeing with the focus on the offense is role players looking like they're ready to step up. Big shout out to Tristan Da Silva. He once again led the team in scoring two preseason games in a row. I think he's playing the most minutes and he looks like he's going to be that first guy off the bench. It's either going to be him or AB, but I can see Tristan Da Silva a lot of times being the first guy off the bench because it seems like he has really dialed in on what his role is, is to shoot the ball. He's getting them up. He went six of 14, four of 11 from the three-point line. But I want to see that. I want to see him continue to really put pressure on the defense from the three-point line. And another big shout out to Noah Penda. He did come in, get a little bit of time on the floor. He actually played 22 minutes, eight points, five rebounds, five assists. He's a connector. He looks like he's going to be the off the bench connector, the guy who just keeps it moving, doing anything that the team needs, almost a Draymond like. If he can hit the three as well, he went two for four from the three point line. He's just got to be able to give this team anything do whatever it is play defense grab rebounds move the ball and hit the shot so big shouts out to him also Jamal came and he comes in he's looking like he's really trying to take that next step and get solid minutes in the rotation 18 minutes only 11 points but he was a plus 10 part of that unit that helped the magic get back into the game and really really fight back. Now, we're going to just hold our horses as we prepare for the magic to go, come home, play this Cleveland team. But I would like to ask you before we get out of here, what do you think? If you're still watching this, shout out to you, but drop in the comments, what matters the most for the Tuesday rematch against the Cavs? Is it A, do you want a cleaner offense? B, do you want stronger perimeter defense? Do you want to see him get it out there? Or C, you want to have a repeatable bench production? You want to see these guys in the role, keep developing, and come out with that same energy? Drop an A, B, or C in the comments. Also, while you're down there, make sure you go ahead and like, share, and subscribe, man. The majority of these videos are watched by non-subscribers. If you hit that subscribe, you could be first in line when we do new things, get your your comments posted when we do lives we're gonna be doing some watch alongs and some after game live streams so man get involved with your boy it's your big gunk eric i'm gonna get out of here until next time with magic digest