- Josh Robbins of The Athletic examines what the Magic would consider a successful start of the season to be. Orlando is entering a rebuild year, sporting a young core that includes Markelle Fultz, Jalen Suggs, Jonathan Isaac and Wendell Carter Jr.
The 2021/22 NBA regular season will get underway in less than a month, so it’s time to start getting serious about predictions for the upcoming campaign and to resume an annual Hoops Rumors tradition.
With the help of the lines from a handful of sports betting sites, including Bovada and BetOnline, we’re running through the predicted win totals for each of the NBA’s 30 teams, by division. In a series of team-by-team polls, you’ll get the chance to weigh in on whether you think those forecasts are too optimistic or too pessimistic.
In 2020/21, our voters went 17-13 on their over/under picks. Can you top that in ’21/22?
As a reminder, the NBA played a 72-game schedule in 2020/21, so a team that won 41 games last year finished with a 41-31 record. This year, a club that wins 41 games would be a .500 team (41-41). For added clarity, we’ve noted the record that each team would have to achieve to finish “over” its projected win total.
We’ll turn today to the Southeast division…
Miami Heat
- 2020/21 record: 40-32
- Over/under for 2021/22: 48.5 wins (49-33)
- Major offseason moves:
Atlanta Hawks
- 2020/21 record: 41-31
- Over/under for 2021/22: 47.5 wins (48-34)
- Major offseason moves:
- Added: Delon Wright, Gorgui Dieng, Jalen Johnson
- Lost: Tony Snell, Kris Dunn, Bruno Fernando, Brandon Goodwin
Charlotte Hornets
- 2020/21 record: 33-39
- Over/under for 2021/22: 38.5 wins (39-43)
- Major offseason moves:
Washington Wizards
- 2020/21 record: 34-38
- Over/under for 2021/22: 34.5 wins (35-47)
- Major offseason moves:
Orlando Magic
- 2020/21 record: 21-51
- Over/under for 2021/22: 22.5 wins (23-59)
- Major offseason moves:
- Added: Jalen Suggs, Franz Wagner, Robin Lopez, E’Twaun Moore
- Lost: Otto Porter, James Ennis, Dwayne Bacon, Chasson Randle
Previous voting results:
- Brooklyn Nets (55.5 wins): Over (63.2%)
- Philadelphia 76ers (51.5 wins): Under (70.0%)
- Boston Celtics (46.5 wins): Over (58.1%)
- New York Knicks (42.5 wins): Over (65.1%)
- Toronto Raptors (36.5 wins): Under (50.6%)
- Milwaukee Bucks (54.5 wins): Over (63.7%)
- Indiana Pacers (42.5 wins): Under (58.2%)
- Chicago Bulls (42.5 wins): Over (68.3%)
- Cleveland Cavaliers (26.5 wins): Under (50.5%)
- Detroit Pistons (25.5 wins): Under (52.6%)
- Utah Jazz (52.5 wins): Over (61.7%)
- Denver Nuggets (48.5 wins): Over (69.3%)
- Portland Trail Blazers (44.5 wins): Over (53.0%)
- Minnesota Timberwolves (34.5 wins): Under (57.1%)
- Oklahoma City Thunder (23.5 wins): Under (65.0%)
- Los Angeles Lakers (52.5 wins): Over (58.2%)
- Phoenix Suns (51.5 wins): Over (58.6%)
- Golden State Warriors (48.5 wins): Over (50.3%)
- Los Angeles Clippers (43.5 wins): Over (51.2%)
- Sacramento Kings (36.5 wins): Under (66.0%)
The Magic have finalized a deal with free agent forward Admiral Schofield, according to an official team press release.
Orlando currently has 15 guaranteed rosters, so the addition of Schofield appears most likely to be an Exhibit 10 training camp deal, though official terms of the contract have not been revealed. Schofield is the 20th player on the Magic’s 2021/22 roster ahead of the September 28 start of the team’s training camp.
This is not the first time Orlando has been interested in adding Schofield. Near the end of the 2021 season, with the Magic firmly ensconced in a full-on tank, chatter emerged about Schofield potentially getting a look with the club via a hardship exception. The Magic later moved on from the deal as a result of “inconsistencies” in Schofield’s COVID-19 testing, but clearly the team’s interest hasn’t waned.
Schofield could be competing for the Magic’s available two-way player slot. The undersized (6’5″) power forward out of Tennessee was originally drafted with the No. 42 pick in 2019 by the Sixers, before being sent to the Wizards in a draft-night trade. Schofield enjoyed a decorated NCAA run. He was named to the All-SEC First Team and the All-SEC Second Team during his four-year collegiate tenure.
Across 33 career NBA appearances (all during his rookie 2019/20 season), the 23-year-old Schofield holds averages of 3.0 PPG and 1.4 RPG in 11.2 MPG.
Schofield has also suited up for the NBAGL affiliates of both the Wizards and Hornets, the Capital City Go-Go and the Greensboro Swarm, respectively. In 47 G League contests, Schofield holds averages of 14.2 PPG, 5.5 RPG and 2.1 APG across 29.5 MPG.
Most recently, Schofield played for the Hawks’ 2021 Summer League roster.
- The Magic‘s deal with guard E’Twaun Moore is a one-year, fully guaranteed contract at the veteran’s minimum, Keith Smith of Spotrac tweets.
- Robin Lopez, signed to add depth in the middle for the rebuilding Magic, compares himself to a bullpen specialist in baseball, Josh Cohen of the team’s website writes. “You know the relief pitcher, they’re always a little rotund,” Lopez said with a grin. “They’re not playing every night necessarily, but they are going in there making an impact when the team needs them.” Lopez signed a one-year, $5MM deal with Orlando.
- The Magic will be evaluating their long-term plans at center over the next 12 months, according to Josh Robbins of The Athletic. The franchise is unlikely to make long-term commitments to both Wendell Carter Jr. and Mohamed Bamba. They are eligible for rookie scale extensions this offseason. If Carter isn’t signed to an extension, he will still have every opportunity to prove himself in the season ahead and perhaps show that his ceiling is higher than many scouts believe he can reach, Robbins adds.
SEPTEMBER 9: The Magic have officially signed Moore, the team announced today in a press release.
SEPTEMBER 8: The Magic have agreed to a one-year, $2.6MM contract with guard E’Twaun Moore, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
It’s a veteran’s minimum contract for a player with Moore’s experience. He began his NBA career during the 2011/12 season.
Moore appeared in 27 games with the Suns on a one-year contract last season, including one start. He averaged 4.9 PPG and 1.5 APG in 14.4 MPG but struggled with his 3-point shot (31.4%). He also saw action in seven of Phoenix’s postseason games, averaging 2.4 PPG in 6.6 MPG.
This will be Moore’s second stint with the Magic. He appeared in 154 games with Orlando during his second and third seasons in the league.
Moore’s NBA career has also included stops in Boston, Chicago and New Orleans. He’s appeared in 598 regular-season games, averaging 7.9 PPG and 1.8 APG in 21.o MPG while making 38.8% of his 3-point attempts.
Orlando already had 17 players on its official roster, including 14 with guaranteed deals. Adding Moore makes it less likely that those without guaranteed deals will have a spot on the opening-night roster.
The Trail Blazers have 13 players with guaranteed contracts on their roster and have added Dennis Smith Jr. and Marquese Chriss on non-guaranteed deals to vie for one of the team’s open roster spots. However, that competition may end up including more veterans than just Smith and Chriss.
According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Trail Blazers are eyeing other free agent forwards as possible training camp invitees. Michael Beasley, who played for Portland’ Summer League team, is one possibility. The club is also eyeing veteran stretch four Patrick Patterson, says Scotto.
The Blazers still only have 16 players under contract, which means there are four more spots available on their 20-man offseason roster.
As we wait to see how Portland fills those openings, here are a few more items of interest from Scotto:
- Having previously identified the Bulls as one team interested in free agent wing James Ennis, Scotto adds a few more clubs to that list, suggesting that Ennis has also drawn interest from the Trail Blazers, Lakers, and Magic. Ennis, who has spent most of the last two seasons in Orlando, knocked down 43.3% of his three-point attempts in 2020/21.
- Another player who has received interest from the Trail Blazers is big man Isaiah Hartenstein, according to Scotto, who says the Clippers have kicked the tires on the former Cav as well. As I detailed on Tuesday, Hartenstein is the only player who is still a free agent after declining an option earlier this summer.
- Before he signed with Chicago, Alize Johnson generated interest from a handful of other teams, including the Clippers, Suns, and Knicks, per Scotto. If the Clippers had wanted Johnson badly enough, they could’ve claimed him off waivers using one of their trade exceptions, which wasn’t an option for Phoenix or New York.
The Magic have signed three free agents, announcing in a press release that guard Jeff Dowtin, guard Hassani Gravett, and center Jon Teske have been added to the team’s offseason roster.
All three players have signed non-guaranteed deals with Orlando in the past and then suited up for the team’s G League affiliate, the Lakeland Magic. While Gravett played for Lakeland in 2019/20, Dowtin and Teske were part of the squad that won the G League championship in the 2021 bubble earlier this year. All three also played for Orlando’s Summer League team last month.
Dowtin, who went undrafted out of Rhode Island in 2020, averaged 6.5 PPG and 2.5 APG in 15 games (19.7 MPG) for Lakeland last season. Teske, who played his college ball at Michigan before going undrafted a year ago, started 12 of 15 games for Lakeland, recording 6.7 PPG and 3.4 RPG in 19.8 minutes per contest.
Gravett, undrafted out of South Carolina in 2019, spent one season with Lakeland before playing for MZT Skopje overseas in 2020/21. He won a Macedonian League championship with the club.
It’s unlikely that any of the Magic’s three new additions will have a serious chance to compete for a spot on the regular season roster. I expect all three will end up in the G League again this year, with their Exhibit 10 deals giving them the chance to earn bonuses of up to $50K.
Magic forward Jonathan Isaac, who missed the entire 2020/21 season while recovering from a torn left ACL, remains unsure of the exact timetable for his return to action this fall, writes Chris Hays of The Orlando Sentinel.
As Hays details, Isaac addressed his recovery briefly during a community event in Orlando on Sunday. The former lottery pick confirmed he’s getting closer to returning to action, but wasn’t ready to guarantee he’ll be in the lineup for the Magic’s regular season opener on October 20.
“We’ll see. That’s all I can say about that is: we’ll see,” Isaac said when asked if he’d play on opening night. “I’m on the court. I’m weaning out of the brace. I’m jumping. I’m finishing around the basket and such. I’m easing my way. … I’m getting there.”
Although Isaac’s injury technically occurred during the 2019/20 regular season, he hasn’t had as long to recover as he would during a typical NBA year due to the league’s compressed schedule since the coronavirus stoppage. He tore his ACL last August during the 2020 summer restart at Walt Disney World.
Even if Isaac is cleared for action prior to opening night, the Magic figure to proceed with caution. The 23-year-old forward, who has displayed All-Defense talent early in his career, is a key part of the club’s future, having been locked up through the 2024/25 season with a four-year extension last December.
Orlando is also in full-fledged rebuilding mode and likely won’t be in the mix for a playoff spot this season, so there’s no reason to bring back Isaac until the team is certain he’s back to 100%. However, for his part, the former Florida State standout is feeling optimistic about his ability to return to the court soon.
“I feel good. My knee is doing great. I’m making strides, I’m getting stronger and I’m just taking it one day at a time,” Isaac said on Sunday, per Hays.
- If everyone on the Magic‘s roster is fully healthy to start the 2021/22 season, Josh Robbins of The Athletic thinks Gary Harris and Jonathan Isaac would be the only two players assured of a spot in the starting lineup. Robbins views Wendell Carter as the most likely starter at center, with Markelle Fultz and Jalen Suggs in the mix for the point guard spot. Both Fultz and Suggs could theoretically start if Orlando is comfortable with a three-guard lineup, Robbins notes.
- The Magic are retaining Bruce Kreutzer and Dylan Murphy to be part of Jamahl Mosley‘s new coaching staff, reports Robbins (Twitter links). Both Kreutzer and Murphy served under Steve Clifford for the last three seasons in Orlando.