Orlando Magic Make Roster Move Involving Recent First-Round Pick On Thursday
The Orlando Magic currently own a 14-24 record, the third-worst in the Eastern Conference.
However, they are a young, rebuilding team that is looking to get all of their core pieces healthy in order to begin taking steps forward as a franchise.
There is no doubt that the Magic have a lot of potential and young talent on their roster and their backcourt is filled with these types of players, as they have Cole Anthony, Markelle Fultz, Jalen Suggs, Franz Wagner and Gary Harris.
Another player in their backcourt with potential is R.J. Hampton, who was drafted 24th overall in 2020. Traded to the Magic in the midst of the 2020-21 season, Hampton has shown flashes of what he can do in Orlando, but the team has preferred to go with other options such as Anthony, Suggs and Fultz over him.
As a result, the team has continued to work with Hampton on his game and on Thursday, they decided to assign R.J. Hampton to the Lakeland Magic in the NBA G League.
According to Khobi Price of the Orlando Sentinel, Hampton requested the temporary assignment so he could get more playing time, something he also did earlier this season.
In 115 career games with the Magic, Hampton has averaged 8.1 points and 2.3 assists per game while shooting 40.8 percent from the floor. This season though, Hampton has played in a total of 25 games, averaging 6.0 points per game on 43.9 percent shooting from the floor.
It will be interesting to see how the Magic continue to construct their roster, especially since they have a surplus of young talent in their backcourt.
This is not necessarily a bad problem to have, but at some point, someone is going to get frustrated that they are not seeing a ton of minutes and they may want a change of scenery.
As of right now with Hampton falling out of the rotation, this could very likely be the case for him, but we will wait and see if Orlando makes any moves ahead of February’s trade deadline.
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