Orlando at Milwaukee
Time: 7 PM CT (NBA LP)
Spread: MIL -10.5
Total: 220.5
Odds c/o 5dimes
For a team that started 8-4 this season, the Orlando Magic certainly could not be in a more pathetic place than it is. Having won just 4 of its past 29 games since that hot start, Orlando sits second-to-last in the Eastern Conference as it travels to face the 21-18 Milwaukee Bucks.
Milwaukee is heavy 10.5-point favorites in the game, and is 13-7 at home this season. The game will air at 7 PM (CT) on NBA League Pass and the over/under is set at 220.5 points according to NBA oddsmakers at bookmaker 5dimes.
Orlando Notes:
To be sure, little has gone right for the Orlando Magic. While the team barely has sufficient talent to compete intact, various injuries have run through the roster leaving an untalented roster only worse, short-handed. Every starter has missed time. Beyond that, Orlando hardly has the quality and depth to sustain these injuries, evidenced by the team having lost nine of its past 10 overall. Orlando has been pretty horrible on the road too, where it is just 5-17 this season. Milwaukee is hardly an easy venue to play in, and the Bucks fans should play their role in decimating the Magic as Orlando looks to gain some semblance of the brilliance it displayed in the season’s first two-weeks.
In terms of player development, the Magic do have at least two success stories, but both are somewhat moderate. Aaron Gordon has broken through to resemble something of a star player, and after struggling with his outside shot his first two seasons in the league, he appears to have really found his stroke. Gordon is connecting on 38 percent of his three-point looks and averaging 5.8 threes attempted per game. The outside shot has made him more difficult to defend, and Gordon leads the team in scoring at 19.2 points per game, to go along with 8.1 boards per night and a pair of assists. He has also made his presence known on the defensive end in creating turnovers, as Gordon tallies 1.67 blocks/steals per game while playing strong man-to-man defense.
The other positive sign for the Magic has been the play of free-agent acquisition Jonathon Simmons. A former San Antonio Spur, Simmons has blended well off the bench, and he has started just over half (21) of the games Orlando has played. He is versatile and plays well on both ends of the court, though his chase down blocks seem to be coming with far greater infrequency than before. Simmons is averaging 14.0 points and 3.8 rebounds in 28 minutes a night, and with grooming he could become the type of Sixth Man Orlando would covet, when the team is good enough that having a major bench player even matters. For now, the losses continue to pile up, and one must wonder if the days of both Evan Fournier and Nikola Vucevic in pinstripes are numbered.
Both offer reasonable value to other teams and are on affordable contracts. Both shoot the ball well, and the Magic could reasonably obtain picks or young players in a continuous youth movement that has done little to benefit the organization over the past six-years. Orlando has not had a winning record since it dealt Dwight Howard six-years ago, and the team is still really waiting to have a major hit in the NBA draft lottery. While ostensibly Victor Oladipo was just that, he disappointed during his tenure in Orlando.
Alas, it is still a team without a true star, though Gordon superficially covers most of the checkboxes in such a player’s traits. Consistency may be the one box unchecked for Gordon, but it is tough to assign all of that blame to him individually with a discordant offense and inadequate point guard like Elfrid Payton, who has his own issues with consistency, obviously.
Bucks Notes:
Milwaukee, meanwhile, provides more of a case-study in GM management gone right. Coincidentally, the Magic hired its GM John Hammond to take over the struggling franchise, but what Hammond left behind him endures as a tough team, one with the defensive acumen and talent to possibly make waves in the 2018 NBA Playoffs. Paramount of those reasons is the play of one Giannis Antetokounmpo, but the Bucks have surrounded the Greek Freak with plenty of shooting and playmaking, not even to mention the (clutch) acquisition of Eric Bledsoe, who cost the Bucks just a misfitting Greg Monroe to obtain.
Milwaukee has the defensive talent to be feared in the East, but many still decry star player Giannis’ inadequacies with the three ball. Simply, when a player does everything as well as Antetokounmpo goes, such nit-picking seems absurd. He shoots just 27 percent from behind the arc, but the Bucks have the shooters around him to make this a virtual non-issue.
Certainly, one will see tonight that the Bucks have the continuity and balance to dispose of a struggling Magic team with minimal effort on its homecourt.
