Opponent Scouting: Orlando Magic. (13-22)
Tonight at 7:00pm EST the Detroit Pistons will be hosting the Orlando magic at the LCA in downtown Detroit. The Pistons are on one day of rest after blowing a comical game against the Clippers while the Magic are on the second night of a back to back after losing to the Lakers last night.
The Them:
If you haven’t been keeping up with the league you may not be aware that the Magic probably don’t suck anymore. They come into tonight with the 23rd ranked offense and 22nd ranked defense which isn’t good but also not awful. The more notable thing is that the Magic have won 8 of their last ten games.
The Magic are led by stud rookie Paolo Banchero who was the top overall pick in the draft this past Summer. Banchero laid a dud last night but he’s averaging nearly 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists per game and doing it with decent efficiency. He’s huge, a smooth athlete, and wickedly skilled. Time will tell where he ends up long-term but he is already solidly in the archetype of an awesome wing scorer. He’s been so good so quickly that it almost seems comical that he wasn’t the consensus top guy in his draft.
Paolo is the headliner but the Magic features a plethora of young talent. Former Michigan star Franz Wagner is an exceptional all-around wing who can score, facilitate and defend. Pistons legend Bol Bol has found his footing and is really becoming a problem. Bol is huge, skilled, and fearless. Franz’s older brother and fellow Michigan star Mo Wagner has found a good role as a floor-spacing center, and Markelle Fultz will never live up to his #1 pick potential but he’s still explosive, smooth, and found a nice home in Orlando. They have a couple of veterans off the bench in Terrance Ross and Gary Harris who are solid veteran wings, Wendell Carter-Junior is a skilled big man on offense and smart defender, Mo Bamba is very tall and shooting threes at a solid clip.
This team is so young that they will almost certainly regress back to being very bad, but the Paolo/Wagner combo on the wing gives them one of the brightest futures in the league even before considering some of the other young talents. Jalen Suggs and Jonathan Isaac are still out and many others have been in and out with injuries. For the moment, they are a fellow rebuilding team that feels miles ahead of Detroit.
Matchups to watch:
Pistons vs. Paolo: Dead horse at this point. Any wing that is too big for Killian to cover effectively is trouble for Detroit and Paolo definitely fits the bill there. He had a good game last time these two met and I would expect a repeat of that.
Magic vs. Energy: Second night of a back to back with travel could give the Pistons a real advantage, especially if they can get out to an early lead.
Stew/Duren vs. Bol Bol: Crazy that we are here but we are here. Both Duren and Stew are physical enough that they should be able to knock Bol around a bit, whether that is enough to actually matter remains to be seen.
Pistons vs. Righting the ship: Last loss was ugly. Following that up with a loss at home to another rebuilding team (even one that is playing well recently) is the type of thing that could start a genuine tail-spin where things get ugly. No one wants that.
Pistons vs. The Shot blockers: The Magic run out a ton of dangerous shot blockers. Bol, Carter, and Bamba are all capable of impacting the game with their length at the hoop. This Pistons team already tends to lean too much on jumpers and not get to the hoop enough so this could become a huge issue.
After the brutality of last game I am not making predictions. Win the game.