Having said that, his appeal to potential trade partners is all tied to his scoring punch, and so far, he hasn't had the oomph to put Glass Joe on the canvas. He is surrounded by players still finding their way in this league, so it's not shocking to see him struggle to find his own place in the offense.

( Still waiting on Jalen Suggs, but that's fine for now.)īecause the Magic are a team in transition, some of Terrence Ross' sagging stats can be forgiven. Orlando has only taken a few steps into the rebuilding waters and already seen encouraging returns from Cole Anthony, Franz Wagner, Mo Bamba and Wendell Carter Jr. Good thing Oklahoma's football coaching search can briefly distract some fans.Įverything must be graded on a curve for the Magic this season, which is why their fans can get legitimately excited about a club winning less than a quarter of its contests. Jeremiah Robinson-Earl is learning it's hard to be human adhesive when there's nothing to glue together. Derrick Favors is waiting for a size-needy contender to come rescue him. Aleksej Pokusevski is transforming from a curiosity to an afterthought. All three-him, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey-are shooting worse than 33 percent from distance.ĭarius Bazley has regressed, and he wasn't exactly dominant to begin with. Just three players average more than nine points per outing, and defensive specialist Lu Dort has the best field-goal percentage of the trio at 43.1. OKC sits dead last on offense and 20th on defense. Throw a dart at the stat sheet, and it'll probably land on a problem area for this team. OKC might be scrappier than expected-Thursday's horrific 73-point defeat notwithstanding-but this season is all about maximizing draft lottery odds in the Sooner State, since the Thunder's own picks look more valuable than any of the many they've collected. Teams like the Thunder effectively break exercises like this, because they work under the assumption that everyone is pursuing on-court success this season.

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