Orlando Magic Backcourt Depth Brings Questions Going into Season
With a load of young talented guards in their rotation, Las Vegas Summer League gave the Orlando Magic a better look at its future backcourt pieces.
While Jalen Suggs, Cole Anthony and Markelle Fultz appear to have large roles at season's start, other young pieces used Summer League as an opportunity to solidify a place on the roster.
No. 32 pick Caleb Houstan had his best game in the opening matchup against the Houston Rockets. Houstan scored 20 points, while knocking down five three pointers and pulling down six rebounds in the win.
However, the one-and-done prospect from Michigan proceeded to go 2-19 from distance over his final three games, posting 8.5 points on 32.5 percent shooting from the field and 25 percent from three.
“[Houstan’s] physical profile, his size is impressive,” The Dunc’d On Podcast said. “He doesn’t really dip his jumper a lot either, he’s not really a movement shooter yet either.”
“You see the potential, but obviously his inability to keep it going after that first game indicates why he fell into the second round.”
Third-year guard R.J. Hampton also used the summer competition as a way to prove the doubters wrong after a rocky start to his NBA career.
Hampton opted for an unconventional route before declaring for the draft, playing for the New Zealand Breakers of the NBL before being selected No. 24 overall in 2020.
The third-year guard simply did not dominate the way experienced players typically do against in the Las Vegas environment, often struggling against first and second year players.
“[Hampton] had a really rough performance in that Houston game,” Dunc’d On said. “The big appeal in theory of Hampton was going to be his explosiveness off the dribble but he really wasn’t able to get by guys.”
“[Hampton] had a number of plays where he would try to attack off the dribble and just couldn’t beat his man, they had him playing as the point guard…but just a poor decision maker, some awful decisions trying for mid-rangers, he had multiple air-balls on bad jumpers.”
While Summer League performances, good or bad, should only be taken with a grain of salt, the Magic front office will have plenty of decisions to be made before the regular season tips off in a couple of months.
