Rim protection may be something the Magic search for in the offseason, Josh Robbins and Seth Partnow write in a piece for The Athletic. Partnow, who previously served as the director of basketball research for the Bucks, believes Mohamed Bamba has the potential to be the defensive centerpiece for Orlando, but the former top-10 pick simply hasn’t put it all together through the first two years in the league. Having said that, Partnow would ultimately give Bamba more time in the hope that he can reach his potential.
Partnow also breaks down the definition of “rim protection,” lamenting that we all have the same broad definition: a player near the rim protects it. Yet, when diving into the stats, there are many assumptions and decisions evaluators have to make. Partnow explained that when he was in Milwaukee, he couldn’t find a metric that truly encapsulated rim protection even though there are stats that can help to narrow down the field of who’s good and who’s bad at it.
The whole article is really a fascinating look into how some front offices evaluate and it’s worth a read. Here’s more from that piece as well as notes from Orlando:
- Khem Birch‘s natural position may be center, but the Magic have utilized him differently during the 2019/20 campaign, Robbins explains in that same piece for The Athletic. Birch split time between power forward and center, as injuries to Nikola Vucevic and Jonathan Isaac forced the team to play him at both spots. Coach Steve Clifford realized that Birch is not well equipped to play the four and that’s something to consider when looking ahead to Orlando’s offseason and the potential logjam at the center position between Vucevic, Birch and Bamba.
- The Magic are focusing on conditioning as they await the restart of the season, Roy Parry of the Orlando Sentinel writes. Orlando is one of 22 teams invited to the resumption of the 2019/20 season at Disney World.
- Clifford believes his team could have an advantage when play resumes. “Hopefully we can get ready quicker, be one of the teams that has a great readiness to start after whatever period of time they give us to practice and play well and make some noise, and again, play meaningful games, which is what we all want to do,” Clifford said (via Parry’s piece).
I like Magic players
Trade idea
Magic get Poole。Paschall, Warriors 2022 first pick
Warriors get Bamba
Magic say no.
Where is Yinka Dare?
When Bamba came out of college. I saw the one thing he was ready to do. Was be a rim protector. So this is a bad sign. Think about this draft. Bamba another example of 19 yr olds. Coming into NBA and discovering. It will take 3-4 yrs to make impact. It happens more than not. This yrs top 10 players. At least 7 are 1yr players. it’s a crap shoot if you don’t know what you are doing.
Bamba made some solid improvements this year.
Last year he was physically too raw and his bbIQ was not ready for rotation minutes. Right before his injury in late January he had started to show glimpses of a game changing defender who could hit some 3’s.
Unfortunately, that injury kept him off the court the entire summer, which of course is key period for player development.
Despite that, his defensive bbIQ has clearly improved and his 3PT shot has been solid and was trending up (.444 after the A-S break).
He’ll need another year to improve his overall offensive IQ as that end is still moving too fast for him.
Magic has Isaac, don’t need Bamba
Warriors can give Magic 2021 unprotected pick
why on earth would the warriors do that??
Isaac is not ready. He’s not a Center. And every team needs their #1 picks to do well. Specially lottery picks. Dude Warriors don’t need to trade for projects. U understand they are a Vet team. A Vet team that wants three more rings. They are going for it next yr. Only
Moves they make are to win a championship.
Magic should trade Vucevic who is the epitome of a guy who puts up big numbers on a bad team. Just look at his efforts in the playoffs. He’s not worth taking up much of the cap. Bamba is still on his rookie deal. Might as well give him first dibs on starting 5 spot. Isaac and Bamba should be their future. Gordon is another player who’s putting up okay numbers where he is but isn’t worth the big contract
Bamba is more than just a tall rim protector magic just don’t use young players well.
He’s got good feet and can move well and can shoot the ball well.
I think he’s a solid young guy on any other team
Magic havent got the best out of Issac or Gordan. They let Payton leave for nothing. They traded away Oladipo then he turned good. They traded away Saric.. They selected Hezonja at 5th and traded him away.. They drafted Sabonis then traded him away and now he’s become good
Ofcourse they haven’t done anything with Bamba cause they suck with young talent.
The one pod thing they did was help Fultz but I personally think he could have gone to any team other than a big city team to re find the confidence in himself and become decent. Magic were just the team that traded for him.
Nah. The Magic fired that front office 2 years ago.
It was the old regime (Rob Hennigan) that had no clue and was one that made awful Oladipo/Sabonis + Harris trade.
In one year, the new FO entirely changed culture and Magic made playoffs for 1st time in 7 years. They did this by getting rid of baggage/poor chemistry guys like Payton and Hezonja and added/drafted tough team oriented players.
Its no secret that they’ve been shopping Aaron Gordon, who was the old regime’s pick. AG’s development issues have come from his insistence that he’s an on-ball ISO type wing. Since day one, he’s publicly stated that he sees himself as a primary scoring type ball handler instead of the role everyone else can see he should be in. The new Magic FO have had to walk that tightrope…but not for long.
Big reason he hasn’t been moved is because Jonathan Isaac has been injured, a lot. The new FO’s first pick (JI) suffered a season ending injury early in November of his rookie season. This season he suffered a season ending injury on Jan 1st.
Isaac IS being used correctly…in fact, last year (essentially his rookie yr) he was major factor for Magic’s top tier defense and playoff appearance…and this year before injury, he was in DPOY conversation and had made considerable offensive improvement.
Bamba is also developing nicely…he just suffered a season ending injury early in his rookie season that also kept him out all summer. This season he’s been solid and was key part of 2nd unit which propelled Magic’s surge that got disrupted when season got closed down.
He IS a solid young guy on Magic.
He just suffered a season ending injury in late January of his rookie season…which also kept him off the court all summer.
This year he’s made solid improvement and was playing well when Covid shut league down.
I liked Bamba coming out. But has regressed it seems. Isaac is a talented player. But it will be yr 4 for Issac next yr. My point about drafting 19 yr olds. My team Knicks have DSJ,Nttilikina, Knox all 18-19 yr olds. Who are still finding their way. This is a major reason why I want Halliburton. He is very mature player. Very efficient makes no mistakes. We don’t need another project.
Quite the contrary…Bamba has made some nice improvements this year and was playing well when Covid shut down season. This despite suffering season ending injury last yr (his rookie yr) which kept him off court all summer (crucial development period).
This is JI’s 3d year and he has suffered early season ending injuries in 2 of those years. Last year, his only healthy year, he anchored top 8 defense (top 3 from Jan on) and was key to Magic’s playoff appearance.
In the link, the writers recommended more Bamba PT. I think that’s what HR’s Crouse meant by saying the Magic wanted more rim protection– more Bamba & less Vucevic– not acquiring another center.
However the Magic ranked 27th in offense and 3rd in defense per Bas.Ref., and Vucevic offers much more offense, so I cannot agree. They still need more shooting, especially if Vucevic gets less PT. Which, he should not.
Khem Birch should have gotten out of there, he also is not a forward. He got a 2/6 last summer and has little chance of improving his value.
I agree with more time for Bamba, but Vuc will need to start for rest of this season and most of next year.
Bamba’s offensive bbIQ is still not ready for big minutes vs starter level units.
Magic’s offensive struggles were tied to a lot of injuries + several good offensive players having career low shooting seasons.
In late January, their offense started to turn around and they were the #1 offense post All-Star break.
Vuc got healthy, Ross and DJ finally started making shots + by that point Fultz had acclimated. His mid range game was $ and that boosted his aggressiveness. He started pushing pace which just made everything flow. At that faster pace, Fournier who was already having a good year got even more effective. In the last 15g before Covid hit he was putting up 19.8 PPG on 65.3 TS% + 44.4 3P% on 7.5 3PAg.
Would love to see Riley work a trade deal for Gordon. He would be an excellent fit on this Heat team. Heck, I’d do the deal on June 22nd when the window opens.
Heat: Gordon, 2020 2nd.
Magic: Nunn, Olynik, 2020 1st round pick.
Magic get a future backcourt and Olynik can play 4/5. With 2-1st they can they can go get a high quality SF.
They’ll get better fitting offers than that this summer.