The Magic Are Running Out of Excuses...

The magic are running out of excuses. We spent the off season talking about the new coaching staff, the lack of changes to the roster, clearly defined roles, and how this team is finally positioned to take that next step. But at some point, all of that has to turn into results. And after hearing what these players had to say, it feels like the time for potential is starting to run out. What's good with the issue big on Eric, we welcome into magic digest, man. The time for excuses is over. And honestly, there is no excuse for you to not be a subscriber to this channel. If you love magic basketball. In fact, I have a question for you. I want you to, while we go down here and try to get this going, I want you to let me know who will be the first big off the bench. Uh, most people feel like this easily goes to Nikola Vujovic, but some people may feel like he may be past this time. So let me know down below in the comments. Let's drop a G for Goga or V for Vujovic. 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If you're interested in trying out Calshi, use the link in the description and pin comment and code digest NBA to get $55 added to your account instantly when you trade your first 25, big thanks to our good friends over at Calshi again, tap in and get involved. Now, again, we've talked about the coaching change. We've talked about their whole lack of roster moves by this front office, other than bringing in Nicola Vucevic and we've talked about how a lot of this will be on the players to showcase their own personal growth and how they've grown together as a team. This team is other than some minor training camp injuries is going into the season with the majority of his players at health, other than the rookie who wasn't expected to get much playing time and Jonathan Isaac. So honestly, it's on this team right now. The expectations were super high before you failed those expectations. There are really no expectations now, especially with a loaded East, but this team isn't getting any cheaper and is not getting any younger. So if they don't get it done this year, they're going to be a lot of eyes that are like, Hey, something's got to give. And in fact, the players themselves are acknowledging what their expectations are and how they feel they should be going into this year. If you take a look at this article, I found, um, very interesting by Andrew Chirico over at Yahoo sports. When asked, when asked, when Franz Wagner was asked about it in his media day quotes and subs, you know, following interviews, he had this to say, Wagner said the frustration from the past two seasons has reinforced how difficult it is to win in the NBA. With the league becoming increasingly competitive, he believes everyone within the organ organization needs to approach each opportunity with the same level of urgency. And that's true. There is no more time left. No one is going to give you the, their young past or you, or any of the passes that people have given you before. Those are out the window. You got to get it done and you got to get it done. Now he goes on to say coming into this year, just realizing that we have a great team and great talent on this roster. And I think we got the right people around the team to reach our goals. When you have the opportunity, it's important to realize it and take advantage of it. And that's the truth right now. You have to take advantage of the fact that you're coming into training camp with continuity. And even though you're, you're implementing a new scene scheme and system with a head coach, those players on the court, this is just another year that they have together to bond. They spent a lot of time in the off season with each other and really looks like they're dedicating themselves to getting better, but if it doesn't show on the court, something's got to give. Now, one of the biggest places that the magic have had issues with is with playmaking and shooting with a guard tandem of Jalen Suggs and Desmond Bain, nobody really puts them on the level. When we talk about the best two guard options for team in the league, but I found this article that was pretty interested when you actually break it down and take a look at it, this is from Josh Cohen over at NBA.com. And he lays it out like this, that this duo is better than advertised. Bain and Jalen Suggs were on the court together for 1,227 minutes last season. And in that time, the magic outscored their opponents by 176 points, the most by any Orlando two-man lineup. The team's defensive rating with both them on the court was 107.0 and their offensive rating was 113.7. When NBA spectators talk about the league's best backcourt tangles of today, you hear a lot about Luka Doncic, Austin Reeves in LA, Harden and Donovan Mitchell in Cleveland, Maxie and Vijay Edgecombe in Philly, De'Aaron Fox, Stefan Kassler, Dylan Harper in San Antonio, and Ant in Lomelo ball in Minnesota, but perhaps Bain and Suggs deserve more acknowledgement in this conversation based on how they performed last season. Now, this is the problem. This is hands down the problem. It is not so much that they are not talented. I don't think anybody looks at Desmond Bain or anybody looks at Jalen Suggs and says they are not talented. It's just, do they have the ability to put it together at the same time? Stay healthy. You know, last year, Desmond Bain was an Ironman, 82 games, but Jalen Suggs continues to be in and out of the rotation. You know, due to injuries, you know, when he's healthy, he's out there playing, still a little bit uncontrolled. I still don't think he has the primary playmaker badge. If you want, you know, where that's his natural position. I feel like he can play point guard and he's done the best job of anybody on this magic roster at playing the point guard, but I don't know if he's necessarily a natural point PG. So I give him all the props, but at some point we have to see the results. They got to go out there and put it together at the same time with the rest of these guys. And then let's go ahead and talk about Vooch. He is coming in and we already did an episode where I spoke about him as a vet and what he is bringing to this table, but he spoke about his role and what's important for him. Now he's one of Orlando's highest scoring players due to his time here previously, and it looks like he's able to approach the, uh, place on the record list for point scored by Nick Anderson, but he wanted everybody to know that wasn't important to him this season. So he goes on to say, yeah, obviously I have spoken with coach Sweeney about what my role is here and how he sees me. And so that, that is definitely something we talked about before I even signed. So I knew what to expect coming here. So for that question I asked you, it sounds like he's looking to be that second guy off the bench for the bigs. And he came here willingly expecting to play that role. Looks like it was spoken to him with coach Sweeney and how they set this up, but he's got to go out there and do it. He's got to go out there and be able to show that a year 16 after, you know, playing a lot of basketball, that he can be the guy that the magic need off the bench, he goes on to say, I think most importantly for me is that we have good team success and that we are able to win. That's what I'm focused on. And that's what you want to hear. You want to hear that these guys are focused on winning, focused on achieving a team goal and a team victory of taking it to the next level. They all are still for the majority of the team is still young. Personal accolades will come, but the best way to achieve personal accolades is winning. Let's just keep that in mind. It's your big on Eric. You let me know what you think down below. Is it time? Is it, do you still give the magic pass? If we get to, you know, the all-star break and they're looking like a middling team, or is it time to shake things up? You let me know down below in the comments, I'm going to get out of here. It's your big on Eric back again with magic digest.