Trivia....name all the players drafted by the Orlando Magic since 1994 that have become all stars and that never played a minute in the NBA. There is one of each.
Thanks for helping to illustrate the point how unlikely it is that these scrubs we took in the draft this year will amount to squat.
Like I said, we swapped out Bass with Amir and added some depth to the Red Claws. Unless we get some major progress from the mediocre youth, or pull off a miracle trade, I see this is a lotto squad. Lots of teams behind us have made progress. Is that to say that every... single... team... will improve? No, of course not. But Boston made the playoffs with a losing record. I'm skeptical it happens again.
We were 20-9 after the all-star break (once we came back from the west coast trip) and had the 2nd best record in the East (after Cleveland). We did get swept by the Cavs, but the games were close (loses were in single digits in 3 out of the 4 games. They also had a healthy Irving and Love (he was injured in the 1Q of game 4).
If you analyze our team we could get significant improvement from the following players based on either age, injury, or familiarity with the team.
StartersPF- Sullinger (contract year, said to be working on his conditioning all summer)
SF- Crowder (played better and better with the C's and I expect his growth to continue)
C- Johnson (simply an upgrade over Bass)
PG- Smart (healthy ankle, should be heavily improved in his second year)
SG- Bradley (has made steady strides each summer, hoping it continues with better playmaking ability)
Rotation guysOlynyk (he is as is confidence goes, wouldn't be surprised to see him take a major step in year 3)
Zeller (don't expect much improvement from the end of the last year to this season)
Thomas (see above)
Turner (see above)
Young (should see a major improvement in his game, along with Smart, one of the largest growths on the team)