Opponent Scouting: Orlando Magic

Programming Notes:

Welcome to a new season. The slow down in content the past few weeks was purposeful to do some other stuff and spend time with Mrs. Truck before the season started.

So for anyone who is new here. There will be a “Opponent Scouting” before each game that effectively is just a game preview where I will highlight aspects to watch. After each game will then be “Game Recap/Notes” which is a player by player review of how the game went. As always, the things I say should not be taken as gospel or always correct, simply a starting point of conversation. Remember, I’m just an asshole on the internet with an opinion just like you. Anyways, onto the post. As far as posts that are not game by game, my intention is to write a bigger piece at least every couple of weeks.

Will there be any paid content?

I don’t really think so. At the end of the day, I do this for the engagement with ya’ll and there are like 8 paying subscribers. Maybe I’ll do 1 or 2 things for paid subscribers just as some sort of a thank you but not planning on more than that. If by some chance of luck we ended up with a number of subscribers that I can consider making this something other than just a hobby I would revisit this but that’s not something I’m going to worry about for now.

Will there be podcasts?

Yes. The plan is to at least be in line with longer-form stuff at least once every couple of weeks. My main holdup with doing them more regularly is that I’m on my own for now and I’m not sure of my ability to produce worthwhile podcasts with a ton of regularity as a solo show.

Anyways

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Tonight the Pistons will host the Orlando Magic for their season and home opener. It will be the season opener for both teams. Tipoff is 7:00pm EST.

The Them:

The Orlando Magic are coming off a 22-60 finish and ended up with the first overall pick with which they selected Duke star, Paolo Banchero. They now figure to be a team in a similar situation as the Pistons where they have talent and what seems to be a budding young core but are also so young that they will almost certainly be very bad. The Magic will be missing: Markelle Fultz, Gary Harris, Jonathan Isaac, and Moe Wagner. For the Pistons, Nerlens Noel, Marvin Bagley, and Alec Burks are out.

Matchups to watch:

• Cade Cunningham vs. passiveness: This will probably not last as a real issue but Cade seemed highly passive in the preseason in terms of how involved he was with the offense. It would be nice to see him get heavily involved right away to squash any concerns.

• Pistons vs defensive mistakes: This will be a trend all season but given how young the Pistons are, this is likely to be an Achilles heel for the Pistons. If they are going to be anything other than awful this season they need to figure out how to stay in sync defensively. This will be especially challenging given that the Magic have bigs who can shoot which will make it harder for Stewart to cover up for perimeter mistakes.

• Pistons vs. Paolo: It was just preseason but it seems that Paolo arrives in the NBA as a dangerous isolation scorer. With the departure of Jerami Grant the Pistons don’t really have anyone who seems likely to be any sort of wing-stopper this season. He will also likely be looking for a big game in his career opener.

• Pistons vs. What the rotation will be: Not really a matchup but whatever. We saw a few different variations in the preseason, and the Pistons’ injuries take some decisions about the season out of Casey’s hands for now (for instance, when Noel gets healthy will he push Duren or Stew to the bench?) but it’s still something I’m highly intrigued to see.

• Jaden Ivey vs. Finding the balance: Ivey no doubt will want to make some sort of a statement to open up his career, but he can’t overdo it. He showed good promise in the preseason but a game where he was aggressive but not trying too hard would be great to see.

• Saddiq vs. Getting up on the good foot: Bey shot like straight booty for a long time at the start of last season, it would be immensely positive if he could come out hot tonight.

• Pistons bench vs. Scoring: Assuming the rotation looks something like it did in most of the preseason games, scoring may be a real chore for the bench mob. Casey can help alleviate this by staggering rotations some, but there’s only so much he can do there. Someone needs to step up. Speaking of which.

• Killian vs. Now or never: This is a huge season for Hayes. Show us what you’ve got young man.

• Good vibes: This may possibly be the only non-Thunder game that the Pistons are favored in all season. It’d just be nice to win one.

So in conclusion…

Run for the hills if:

• Magic cutters and shooters are running free while Pistons defenders gesutre angrily to each other about who’s man that was.

• Jaden Ivey commits 10 turnovers in the first half.

• Paolo is punking whoever the Pistons toss at him.

Wink knowingly at your friends if:

• Isaiah Stewart hits a couple of threes in the first quarter.

• Cade Cunningham is slicing and dicing.

• Bey is having flashbacks to the 50 burger he put up on the Magic last year.

Opportunities for me to look stupid:

• Cade is aggressive out of the gate.

• The Pistons struggle immensely on the defensive end.

• Paolo scores many points.

• The Pistons ride big games by Cade and Ivey to a close victory.

• Pistons 115 - Magic 110.

What do you think? Will Cade come out shooting? Can they contain Banchero?