Orlando at Oklahoma City
Time: 7 PM CT (NBA LP)
Spread: OKC -10
Total: 218.5
Odds c/o 5dimes
The Orlando Magic may be tanking, but they always seem to give a fight to Russell Westbrook and the OKC Thunder. The Thunder are heavy 10-point favorites at home, and Orlando is just 7-24 on the road this season.
Even so, expect the Magic to somehow cover the spread against a much better OKC team, simply because Orlando’s precedent is to push it to nail-biters with the Thunder. The game will air at 7 PM (CT) on NBA League Pass.
ORL notes:
Former Orlando Magic point guard Elfrid Payton had largely disappointed, albeit with some bright flashes, in his tenure with Orlando, but one must wonder how the Suns were able to finagle a still-promising young guard for a second-round pick. In his stead, the Magic will start D.J. Augustin, as it searches for some continuity in the second half of yet another poor season. This will mark the sixth-straight season of playoff-less basketball for Orlando, and beyond Payton’s departure, Magic fans also have to stomach the fact another player from the rebuild (Victor Oladipo) is now an All-Star for the Indiana Pacers.
Tobias Harris was recently dealt again after Orlando swapped him to Detroit, but he was used in obtaining NBA All-Star Blake Griffin. And so, from Orlando’s talented trio of Payton, Oladipo, and Harris, the returns in total have equated to a half-season rental of Serge Ibaka, a second-round pick, and two players which were cut from the roster (Ersan Ilyasova and Brandon Jennings). The Magic, meanwhile, have only that second round pick and Terrence Ross to show from a starting lineup that had posted a 19-13 record before a disastrous January which led to the Harris deal.
Gone also from that team is its head coach Scott Skiles, who led Orlando to 35-wins that season only to ultimately just retire mid-contract and the end of the season. From this, current head coach Frank Vogel leads a rather mosh-mashed amalgam of a talentless roster that should have no problem descending to the cellar of the East, especially since Orlando only is a half-game ahead of the woeful Hawks for that dubious distinction as of today.
Orlando is “Pure Tragic,” and ineptitude from both former GM Rob Hennigan and what looks to be worse mistakes still from John Hammond, are entirely to blame. The instability of the Magic organization is something that could maybe have been sensed from the ugly circumstances surrounding the “Dwightmare,” but few thought his exit would lead to over a half-decade of NBA purgatory.
The 2018 NBA Draft should hold some promise for Orlando, but little on its current roster offers that same token. Perhaps 2017 No. 6 overall pick Jonathan Isaac will pan out, but he has spent the majority of this season injured after a strong showing in the Orlando summer league. Jonathon Simmons has panned out nicely, and Mario Hezonja is recently showing some signs, but Hezonja is a free agent at season’s end, and many feel he is unlikely to return.
Doing the math, it is possible that Isaac is the only lottery pick outside of star forward Aaron Gordon who is with the team next season. Gordon is probably the only player on Orlando’s roster with actual trade value, but that makes him even less likely to be dealt. Meanwhile, Orlando will simply try to get the highest return as it holds a fire sale on the veterans it has.
Veterans Nikola Vucevic or Evan Fournier could be the next moved, but neither likely offers the return in trade value that fans would like to assume they do. In short, the Magic are really still at ground zero post-Dwight, despite six long years of trying to improve that status. The Magic will be active this summer, but it’s tough to say what their agenda is outside of re-signing restricted free agent Aaron Gordon.
OKC notes:
OKC is 20-10 at home this season, but it has lost six of its past 10. Still, at 34-27, Oklahoma City is in the No. 7 spot in the Western Conference and it seems their best ball still could be in front of them as a team. The only reason to say that is that there is still so much talent in its main trio of players: Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony.
Carmelo Anthony has adapted now to a tertiary role on the team, with Paul George and Russell Westbrook doing the heavy offensive-lifting. Anthony still averages 17.4 points and six rebounds per game, but he does so in “just” 32.7 minutes a night, while George and Westbrook play 36-plus respectively. Steven Adams is making a strong impact on the interior as one of the most underrated 5-men in the Association, and his 13.9 points and 9.1 rebounds do precious little justice to what an impact he has as the main defensive piece in OKC’s strong defensive attack.
Veteran Andre Roberson provides similar role at the tune of 26.6 minutes of tough defense per game, while Terrence Ferguson has looked promising a rookie in his spot minutes (and 11 starts!). The Thunder quietly have built some depth on its roster, and Raymond Felton still serves as a good spark in the second unit, along with small forward Jerami Grant, who has averaged 7.5 points per game in his 52 appearances this year. Roberson is out for the year, and that is a huge blow to OKC.
The Thunder seem to have just enough firepower and just enough depth to be a top-5 team in the West, but do they have enough to contend with Golden State and Houston?
Thus far, the answer may be “yes.” The Thunder are 4-1 against Golden State, Houston and San Antonio this year, and they seem to save their best games for the heavy-hitters. Losses like the one last time it faced the Lakers, however, are less explicable and somewhat indicative of underlying issues in OKC that revolve mostly around three stars trying to adapt to one another.
Is the best yet to come for the Thunder? No one knows, of course.
