- The Magic, armed with a new and experienced head coach in Steve Clifford, are turning their focus to the draft and free agency, analyzes Bobby Marks of ESPN. Most importantly, the team must decide what its plan is with the impending restricted free agency of forward Aaron Gordon. Marks opines that the Magic should sign Gordon as a future tradeable asset, if nothing else.
- While Kentucky’s Kevin Knox was the headliner, Rob Gray (Houston), Kevin Hervey (UT-Arlington), Alize Johnson (Missouri State), Theo Pinson (UNC), and Landry Shamet (Wichita State) also worked out for the Magic today, according to Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel.
Potential lottery pick Kevin Knox worked out for the Magic today and confirmed that Orlando isn’t the only Eastern lottery team he’s auditioning for in the weeks leading up to the draft. According to Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link), Knox worked out last week for the Cavaliers, and will visit the Knicks over the weekend. He’ll also earn a look from the Bulls next Tuesday.
The four teams working out Knox have picks ranging from Nos. 6 to 9, which is probably the high end of the former Kentucky Wildcat’s range. Knox ranks 15th on Jonathan Givony’s big board at ESPN.com, and while he has boosted his stock leading up to the draft, he isn’t a lock to be drafted in the lottery.
Knox could eventually add more workouts to his pre-draft schedule, but if he doesn’t, interested teams will get an opportunity to see him at his upcoming pro day, which is expected take place prior to his Knicks workout, per Robbins. The Hornets, who hold the No. 11 pick, are among the teams likely to attend that pro day, tweets Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer.
A 6’9″ forward, Knox enjoyed a productive 2017/18 season at Kentucky, averaging 15.6 PPG and 5.4 RPG. His efficiency was somewhat lacking (.445 FG%), but that can be attributed – at least in part – to playing out of position, as Givony notes.
Magic center Nikola Vucevic is happy in Orlando and can see a long-term future with the franchise, as he told Alex Kennedy of Hoops Hype. Vucevic has one year and $12.75MM remaining on his contract, then becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer. Vucevic would like to see progress from the team next season but has faith that it’s headed in the right direction.
“I believe we aren’t too far away and we can compete very soon,” he said. “When you win in this league, that’s the best feeling. So that’s what is most important to me. I do believe we can get there, though.”
There’s more nuggets from Kennedy’s interview with Vucevic:
- The 7-footer is focused on expanding his 3-point game in a league that increasingly demands that big men stretch the floor. Vucevic didn’t venture out much to the 3-point line until last season, when he averaged 3.6 attempts per game and connected on 31.4% of them. “This is something that I’ve wanted to add to my game to help our team get better, so I think that’s going to be the biggest thing for me this summer. I’ll continue to focus on that. I’ll also be playing with my national team, and I’ll continue to work on that while I’m with them.”
- Vucevic had dinner with new coach Steve Clifford and was very impressed by the ex-Hornets head man. “You can tell he knows the game really well. He’s really creative. He’s going to do a really good job of putting our guys in positions to be successful and making us better. Everything we talked about throughout our conversation was very positive.”
- Forward Aaron Gordon‘s steady improvement was a product of hard work, rather than simply his athleticism, according to Vucevic. “He works as hard as any guy on our team – if not harder. He’s always showing up early and staying late. … Some people may think he’s just a freak athlete, but they don’t realize how much work he has put in to improve the way he has year after year, especially this past season.”
- New Magic coach Steve Clifford is bringing in two of his former Hornets assistants in Pat Delany and Steve Hetzel, Marc Stein of the New York Times tweets. Both worked under Clifford the past four seasons. New Knicks coach David Fizdale was interested in bringing on Delany to his staff, Stein adds.
- UCF forward A.J. Davis, the son of former NBA big man Antonio Davis, will audition for the Bulls, Pacers, and Magic, a league source tells Michael Scotto of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Duke center Wendell Carter Jr. has workouts on tap with six lottery teams in this year’s draft, he told reporters today. Carter, whose first workout of the pre-draft process took place today with the Bulls, also has auditions lined up with the Mavericks, Grizzlies, Magic, Knicks, and Cavaliers, per Nick Friedell of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
It’s not clear if Carter will ultimately add more workouts to his schedule after completing those six sessions, but the teams he named today present a pretty clear picture of when he can expect to be drafted. Each club on his list holds a top-10 selection, ranging from No. 4 (Memphis) to No. 9 (New York). Ian Begley of ESPN.com tweets that several people in the Knicks’ front office are “enamored” with Carter.
In his latest mock draft, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony has Carter coming off the board at No. 7 to the Bulls. For his part, the young center said today he has heard he could be drafted anywhere from No. 3 to No. 12, Friedell notes.
A freshman for the Blue Devils last season, Carter averaged an impressive 13.5 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 2.1 BPG, and 2.0 APG in just 26.9 minutes per contest. He also recorded a solid .561/.413/.738 shooting line in his first and only year at Duke.
11:29am: In addition to Young, Kevin Knox and Anfernee Simons will also work out for the Magic this week, tweets Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders.
9:54am: Oklahoma guard Trae Young has a private workout scheduled this week with the Magic, according to Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.com. Zagora, who previously reported that Young will work out privately for the Knicks, writes that the nation’s leading scorer will fly to Orlando following his time in New York.
The Magic currently hold the No. 6 pick in the NBA draft, making Young a viable target for the club. Outside of perhaps power forward, Orlando isn’t loaded with talent at any position, so the team isn’t a lock to target a point guard, but that spot figures to be an area of focus this offseason. The Magic traded away former first-rounder Elfrid Payton at this year’s deadline, and currently have D.J. Augustin and Shelvin Mack atop their depth chart.
In his most recent mock draft, ESPN’s Jonathan Givony has Young going to the Magic at No. 6, writing that the youngster’s “offensive profile is tailor-made for today’s NBA.”
Young, a 6’2″ guard, led the NCAA with 27.4 PPG in 2017/18, en route to a first-team All-American season. He also ranked first in APG (8.7), and chipped in 3.9 RPG and 1.7 SPG.
Magic swingman Terrence Ross suggested in a comment on Instagram that he intends to be in attendance for Young’s workout with the team this week.
Canada Basketball has announced its preliminary 18-man roster of players who have been invited to participate in training camp and exhibition play ahead of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers next month, reports Josh Lewenberg of The Sports Network.
Among the 18 named individuals, eight played in the NBA last season – Khem Birch (Magic), Chris Boucher (Warriors), Dillon Brooks (Grizzlies), Cory Joseph (Pacers), Jamal Murray (Nuggets), Kelly Olynyk (Heat), Dwight Powell (Mavericks), and Tristan Thompson (Cavaliers).
The preliminary roster also includes former No. 1 overall pick Anthony Bennett, as well as three other G League players – Aaron Best, Olivier Hanlan, and Kaza Kajami-Keane.
The remaining six players are former first-round pick of the Magic, Andrew Nicholson, former college standouts’ Iowa State’s Melvin Ejim, Baylor’s Brady Heslip, and Gonzaga’s Kevin Pangos, as well as brothers Phil Scrubb and Tommy Scrubb.
As also highlighted by Lewenberg, notable absences include Trey Lyles (Nuggets), Nik Stauskas (Nets), and most glaringly, Andrew Wiggins (Timberwolves). Per Lewenberg, multiple sources indicated that one factor in Wiggins’ decision to decline Canada Basketball’s invitation is his strained relationship with national team head coach Jay Triano, who left Wiggins on the bench during the final moments of a qualifying game for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The Magic officially decided on their new head coach this week, announcing the hiring of former Hornets coach Steve Clifford on Wednesday. Clifford reportedly agreed to a four-year contract to become Frank Vogel‘s replacement in Orlando.
As Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel details, president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman and general manager John Hammond – who interviewed Clifford for the Bucks’ job in Milwaukee back in 2013 – met with him twice this time around. The first of those meetings happened on May 16, with the second taking place on May 24. Weltman and Hammond liked what they heard in those sessions, and their deal with Clifford reflects that — the final year isn’t a team option, sources tell Robbins.
“I’m not betting on something that I don’t know,” Weltman said on Wednesday. “Steve Clifford has proven himself to be an elite-level NBA coach in addition to having great personal skills, player-development abilities [and] all the organizational bullet points that we had hoped to address.”
Here’s more on the Magic’s new coach and the search that led the team to him:
- Despite being rumored to have significant interest in Raptors 905 head coach Jerry Stackhouse, the Magic never interviewed Stackhouse, sources tell Robbins.
- University of Houston coach Kelvin Sampson, cited as a Magic candidate, confirmed that he met with the club “multiple times,” as Mark Berman of FOX 26 Houston relays. However, Sampson said that he’ll remain at his current job with the University of Houston.
- Before hiring Clifford, the Magic made plays for “some big fish in the collegiate ranks,” according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). One of those targets was presumably Tom Izzo, as the Michigan State head coach was linked to Orlando last week.
- One possible factor in the Magic’s decision to hire Clifford? His impressive work in games against Orlando. As Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer notes, Clifford’s Hornets had defeated the Magic 11 times in a row prior to his ouster in Charlotte.